Here are a the first few pictures of my homestay family. They are not glamorous, quite poor actually. The father is a pastor and the mother works at the orphanage founded by the church. They have many children living in their house that are also orphans. They say they just cannot turn anyone away, they are all God's children. I am having a hard time remembering all their names, especially the one with names that are not common to me (i.e. not American names, ones I cannot pronounce or even try to spell).
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The yard. The wooden structure to the left is the kitchen, the cement structure in the middle is the bath house and pit latrine. No running water, when I say bath house, I mean room with a slanted floor and a hole to the outside at the bottom of the slant. We take a bucket of water, a cup, and all of our shower essentials into the room and "bath". It works and I am clean, I even have one of the girls heat water for me so I can have a warm bucket bath!
As you can see from the picture, we have dogs and chickens in the yard. I wish we had grass, when it rains, the dirt get very slick. |
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| The front of the house. There are only three rooms inside, a sitting room in the middle, my bedroom to the right, and the parent's bedroom to the left. The children sleep on the other side of the house that has a different entranceway, it's like a duplex. I'm still not sure how many children they are housing on the other side. New face seem to appear each day, and like I said, I cannot remember most of the names, I feel terrible asking all the time then not understanding what they've just told me! Ugandans are very soft spoken and the children are very shy with me. |
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| Here I am asking one of the girls how to pronounce a word in Rotooro. They all seem to find it funny that I am trying to learn their language. They speak very good English, but I need to pass my language courses so I'm studying. Looks like the potatoes and rice are already adding to my midsection! |
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| Here is Omega (on the left) and Sharon, both nine years old. Omega is their youngest biological child; Sharon is one of the orphans they've taken into their home. They are very sweet and have been a tremendous help getting me settled into their way of life and making me feel welcomed. |
Lots more pictures to come. I must get ready for school now... not that my brain can take in any more information!
I stayed in a home that didn't have running water once, in Greece. It was a beautiful home on a tobacco farm and our hosts were very hospitable. I got used to it OK. As long as the water is clean, that's all you really need. The children are so precious and I find the story and the generous outlook of your host family to be heartwarming. To me, to take a child into your home and love him or her is truly God's work, more than words or money can ever do I love the pictures of the kids! And you look healthy and beautiful as ever - pish-posh to the few extra pounds!
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