Happy Easter!

The two beautiful faces above are Brian and Dorah.














This is a familiar sight – the kids hamming it up for the camera. Pictured here are (L-R): Simon Peter, Ezra, Kato #2, Opio and Sam. (For future reference, between the 2 homes, there are 3 sets of boy twins named Kato and Wasswa – I’m calling them 1, 2, 3 according to age order.)





















And this one of me and my young friends is also a pretty typical scene. Anytime Elizabeth or I sit down for more than a couple of minutes, we soon have kids of various sizes crawling on and around us. We don’t mind!

As I’m writing this on Sunday afternoon, most of you are probably just starting to get up and think about getting ready for Easter Sunday. But here, the children have long been changed out of their church clothes and we have had Sunday dinner and are enjoying a rather lazy Sunday afternoon.

We had a special meal that included chicken – a rare treat for the children – to celebrate the day, but we will continue our festivities on Tuesday and Wednesday, with a special party at each home. This way there is plenty of time for coloring and hunting Easter eggs, good food and lots of fun at both places, and we'll get in on both parties.

In other news, it has been raining! I know I shouldn’t be surprised since it IS the rainy season... It usually just rains for 3 or 4 hours, but while it’s raining, it really pours and finds every window, crack or any other little place where water might come in.

I don’t mind the rain, actually. It started late this year so everyone was relieved when it finally came. Uganda isn’t a place that usually gets dry and crispy, but they were more that way than usual this year. The reason I think I’ve been noticing the rain so much though, is that, while I managed to pack most of what I needed, I’ve been amused by the one small thing I forgot. My rain jacket.

In about 20 trips during the last 5 years, I remembered it on every trip. And yet, here I am in Uganda during the rainy season, and my jacket sits in its handy pouch on the shelf in my coat closet in Colorado.It’s nothing a trip to Kampala won’t solve, but it is funny! In the meantime, I’ve found one more great use for the plastic grocery sacks I always have on trips – a rain cap!

It's also a bit chilly in the mornings and when it rains at this time of year. So I spend quite a lot more time that you might imagine in a sweater. I don’t mind though. If it weren’t quite so humid, the hot days and cool evenings could be Colorado. Plus, this way we get to enjoy a fire every evening while we have dinner and it’s very cozy.

Let me fill you in on a few other things that have been happening.

Driving lessons! As an incentive for good behavior, some of the older children have recently gotten to start learning to drive. The driveway here sort of does a big loop that makes the perfect practice route. There are about 7 or 8 of them so far who have had the opportunity to try, and they’re all doing quite well – and it’s a 5-speed truck, so I think they’re doing pretty well just to be able to reach the clutch. Pictured victorious here are Kato #1 and Topista. In the photo with Kato is Nathaniel Dunigan, director and founder of Aidchild, and now, driving instructor as well!

Photography lessons! One of the boys, Kato #2, has been completely intrigued by my camera ever since I got here. Yesterday afternoon, I asked him if he’d like to learn how to take a picture. He was very excited and between his limited English and my drawing pictures occasionally to help explain, I think he may now be on his way to a love for photography.

Kato holding the camera soon attracted a lot of attention and quite a few of the older boys started asking to take pictures as well. This was fun because they tend not to hang around as much as the little ones. So this started about an hour of taking turns posing for and shooting pictures. The little ones joined in and didn’t even ask to use the camera. They seemed to realize maybe it was just for “big kids”.

The first picture above, I am afraid I don’t remember who took it. The second one was by Mbabazi. He seems to have a near perfect eye for framing a picture, and got the hang of pushing gently to focus and then snapping the picture more quickly than anyone else. What I also love about these is that the children were just arranging themselves. We would tell them “scoot back”or “sit down lower”, but otherwise they got to be in charge of the scene. I thought they did a pretty good job!