Leaving

We are now in Kampala after a long car ride in a jam-packed car. We were even stopped by the police for "overloading" (I don't know if they missed the taxis going past that carried twice their capacity or what). But we ended up bribing him with about 20,000 shillings (about $10 American dollars), and ended up not getting penalized. Oh Uganda. We did prison ministry in Kampala at a prison where there are more than 6,000 prisoners! We only shared with a small number of the women there, and it went well. In the afternoon, we had pizza (the closest we're going to come to American pizza at least!) and went into the biggest supermarket I have seen in 2 months. Kind of overwhelming, but I was pretty excited to find some pringles and gummy bears :)


eating our "American" pizza

Our last day at Smile was really good. I started to give away pictures from my photo album that I had brought along, and let me tell you, absolute craziness! I wrote a little message on the back of the picture and signed it... suddenly about 50 kids were stampeding the clinic and they all wanted a picture and for me to sign it. Never before have I felt so famous! The kids ended up just stealing most of my pictures... not sure if that was the best idea.

However, it WAS the best idea to have a water fight. Our entire time in Uganda, we have been saving up our water bottles. We made them into squirt guns by poking holes on the top, and then we handed them out to all of the kids. We had so much fun. The kids has so much fun. It was wonderful. The only downside was that we were completely outnumbered, so all the muzungus got pretty soaked :)


Like I said... outnumbered.

 

All too soon, the kids had to leave. The kids all had different reactions to us leaving. Some were sad and cried. Some were angry and didn't want to talk to us. Some were indifferent. But I just hate that I was only here to love on these kids for such a short time and then I had to leave. And I hate that I have disappointeed them because of that fact.



Aren't these boys adorable??

 All the workers at Smile had a little goodbye ceremony for us after the kids left. Some of the widows who I taught the past couple months came as well. They all gave speeches and we all gave speeches. There were a lot of tears, hugs, and gifts. Each worker gave us a piece of jewelry that they had made or bought for us. So incredibly sweet.  

It was so hard walking out of the gates of Smile, not knowing when I will enter through them again. Already, I long to hold Alupot, dance with Ocheng, wink at Peter, laugh with Roberto, hold Boy Peter's hand, kiss Ben on the cheek, and hug sweet Fate. And my heart breaks at the thought of not being able to do any of those things again.

I do know that I will hold these precious kids in my heart for all of my life. And I will never forget the incredible people of Uganda and the love that they have shown towards me.

Mungu akubariki (God bless!)