Pictures!

On the left is Hannah, who I talked about in an earlier post, and on the right is Ishimat. Ishimat is 3 years old and starting school for the first time tomorrow. His nickname is monster, he loves to smile like this, and Didas is his brother. You can often find him wearing brightly colored clothes, sometimes with flowers on them. This is somewhat true of all the boys though, because all the children share clothes and they don't seem to care how it looks.

This is Elijah and he's 3 years old. He's a bit of a troublemaker, but he also has the sweetest smile. It's always hard for me to understand what he's saying because he mumbles, yet somehow the other children always understand him. He's still too young for school, so he's one of the 4 little ones that will be home all day with us.

Here's Evan and Bobo... he's 10 years old and was the second child that came to live with Robert in 2006. Evan is trying to become his best friend because he has "the purest heart." He's very curious and always investigating what's going on around him. He also has an incredible smile and a contagious laugh.

Here's Didas teaching our pup, Kovy, how to skateboard. Didas is 7 years old and one of the smartest kids at the house. He's really cute, with eyelashes that go on for miles, and he's very well-behaved. He says he wanted to be a pilot when he grows up, but we think this is only because Viola, one of the older girls, has been saying for years that she wants to be a pilot.

This is where the young kids eat everyday, and in the back left you can see the kitchen where the aunties prepare the food. They also have a fire with charcoal outside where they cook most meals.

A few days ago one of our goats had a baby and he's still learning how to walk.

More Pictures!

Here's the Malayaka House! The front door is on the right side, where you walk into a small room with a table where the children do their homework. On the first floor there's also a laundry room with a washer and dryer and a separate room where all the clothes are kept. On the left side is the garage. Upstairs, the front right side of the house is a big room where the 20 or so youngest kids sleep. The left side above the garage is Robert's bedroom and office. In between, on the back side, are two more bedrooms - one for 10 of the older girls, and one for Hakim, Viola, Jacinta, and Jacinta's babies (Mercy & Diego).

This is the tree house climbing structure that Uncle Leo built a couple months ago.

This is the guest house where I sleep, which is right next to the big house. It has 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, a shower, and a big room that functions as a dining room and library.

This is Evan's pizza from Tuesday night, with peppers and onions.

Pizza nights, crafts, and a new guest...

Hi Everyone,

This was the last week of summer vacation here in Uganda and some exciting things happened…

- On Saturday night, while Fran was staying at a friend’s house in Kampala rather than being our protector at the house, Evan and I were awoken by Alice, the security guard, outside our window. She doesn’t speak too much English and she has a thick accent (and it was 4:25am), so all we heard was “outside the gate.” Since Fran wasn’t home, and we weren’t sure what was outside the gate, Evan grabbed the big stick that Fran gave him and we went out to the gate. There we found Marta, a volunteer from Poland, who had been waiting outside the gate for 30 minutes. Before Robert left for the U.S. (I’ll explain that later) he had told us that Marta would be coming at some point, but she hadn’t booked a flight yet and so we were surprised to see her. But luckily she’s been here before and she had a friend drive her and wait until she was let in, so she was safe, and obviously so were we. She enjoyed telling everyone the story about Evan’s stick the next morning.

- A little more about Marta… she’s really great. She’s 27 years old and recently opened her own orphanage for babies in a different part of Uganda. She’s here for about 6 months and will be travelling to her orphanage in Masindi occasionally. She also has an interesting potential project for us here at the Malayaka House that I’ll talk about once it’s evolved a little more.

- On Monday we had a business meeting with the girls involved in the craft business. We have 3 different distribution plans… (1) we’re going to make some nice displays of jewelry, aprons, and bags in the room where the women sew during the day, and hopefully the volunteers that come through each day will take a look at all the items and buy some for a higher price than locals would; (2) we have some items in a shop called Anna’s Corner and we’ll soon have some at the Lake Victoria Hotel, so that will be a steady monthly paycheck; (3) when volunteers go home to the U.S. or Europe they are welcome to buy any amount that they can afford and then re-sell them at home. The items they make are beautiful and I’ll post some pictures soon in case any of you at home want to purchase something for me to bring back this summer.

- Tuesday was our first pizza night… and it was excellent! The girls worked all day – making cheese, making sauce, making dough, making juice, cutting vegetables, cooking meat, cleaning the outdoor seating area, cleaning dishes – and the outcome was great. They had a candle-lit table and they served the most delicious meal we’d had yet. As a thank you and congratulations, we got some ice cream and enjoyed dessert with all the girls afterwards. Thursday night’s dinner went just as well and, after just two nights, it looks like the Malayaka House won’t have to put any more money into the business and it can run on its own profits.

- Hakim, who is starting S1 on Monday (the first year of secondary school), got his Primary Leaving Exam results this week. Your score on this exam determines which secondary school you can attend, and Hakim scored in the first division! He was so thrilled and showed everyone his certificate. Uncle Tony took him to Entebbe Senior School to get his uniform and we got him and his friends some ice cream to celebrate. He’ll be going to the same school as Viola now and, just like the primary school, it is one of the best in the country.

- So, as I mentioned above, Robert isn’t at the House right now. He usually goes back home every summer to work, but money was getting tight here so he’s in Houston for a few months coaching tennis. As sad as I was to learn that he would be leaving here, it’s been incredible to see how this place functions without him. I’m eagerly awaiting his return so that we can hang out and I can get to know him better but, until then, I’m enjoying the responsibilities that he passed on to us. The aunties and the older girls take care of nearly everything, and they are unbelievable with the children. The kids do exactly what the aunties say and you can see just how much respect they have for the older girls that have helped to raise them.

So those are the highlights from this week. Keep commenting and emailing friends!

Video

For those of you that want to know more about the Malayaka House, how it got started, and what kind of work it does in the community, here's a 12 minute video that has a lot of good information.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiznU5WdKsg

Pictures!

The slow internet connection makes it hard to upload pictures, and not only does it take a while to do each one, but it also uses a lot of megabytes which means more money.... but here are a couple photos and hopefully I can put 2 or 3 up each week. Eventually I'll put up at least one picture of each kid so you can learn a little about them all.

This is Hannah wearing her new TOMS shoes. She's 3 years old and will be starting nursery in a couple weeks, so she just got her first school uniform. Her nickname is Hannah Banana and it has stuck so well that sometimes the children, aunties, and Robert just call her banana.

This is Jimmy, one of the 6 year old triplets, with the new puppy. Jimmy is awesome. He's well-behaved, really smart, and he has the sweetest smile. He wants to be a doctor when he's older, so anytime a child is sick Robert also brings Jimmy to the doctor because he likes to learn.

Field trips, entrepreneurs, and a puppy

Here are some updates about our activities this week:

- Fran bought a bunch of eggs and gave them to the aunties, so they’ve been cooking us eggs for lunch along with homemade French fries and fresh vegetables… it’s been a nice break from rice & beans everyday.

- Me, Evan, Fran, Denise (our new German housemate), Anna and Kato went out to an Italian restaurant for dinner. The owner is the one who taught one of our girls, Jacinta, how to make mozzarella. The food was good and the restaurant itself was really cool.

- There are many young Germans who teach at a nearby school and come to the house frequently to do a variety of things, so on Wednesday they came and we all walked with the kids to a local playground. This is going to be a weekly Wednesday event once school starts.

- Evan and I have spent a lot of time in the last few days working on the Malayaka House “cooperative of businesses.” As I mentioned in an earlier post, there are a few businesses in the works including jewelry, mozzarella cheese, and a bi-weekly pizza night. We are doing our first pizza night on Tuesday so, in order to properly prepare, Evan and I did some research and learned the basics about making a proper business plan. Yesterday we met with Namatov, Naiga, Jacinta, and Kato and created a draft of their business plan and set goals for where we want to be one month from now and three months from now.

- Today, as a follow up to yesterday’s meeting, Namatov took us to the market where we bought nice plates, glasses, serving plates, and a pitcher for water. We’re going to set up a nice outdoor dining table with candles and the older girls who are serving the food will be dressing up. For the first pizza night (and maybe the first 3 or 4) it will only be me, Evan, Fran, Denise, Anna, and Kato eating. We’re hoping that in 2 weeks the girls will have a good system down and we can invite other friends of the Malayaka House to come in for dinner.

- Yesterday Fran took us to visit another orphanage run by a Ugandan woman named Remy. She started taking children in around the same time that Robert stopped, and all of her 20 children are under the age of 5. She’s been having success with adoption though, so hopefully that continues. We took two of our children with us, Didas (age 7) and Jimmy (age 6), and the boda boda driver let them each have a turn sitting in front of him on the bike (one on the way there and one on the way home). Remy’s place was incredible and her aunties are just as fabulous as ours. Their house is spotless, probably because most of the children are too young to make it dirty. They have a small playground, swingset, and a trampoline, so our children love visiting their friends there. It was nice to see another orphanage home, especially one run by a Ugandan.

- Yesterday Denise went into Kampala, the capital and closest city, with some of the other Germans. They came home with a very tiny, and absolutely filthy, puppy. They found him on the street lying next to his dead brother and decided to save him. Luckily they at least took him to the animal care place in Entebbe and got some shampoo that kills fleas and ticks. The pup is adorable and looks like it’s mostly German shepherd. They named it the German word for flower, but we’ve been calling it Kovy (after a NJ Devils player) and the kids are catching on to our name. Fran is a dog lover, but he’s annoyed that the Germans brought it here to begin with because there’s enough going on with 36 children, 5 dogs, 8 cats, and tons of farm animals. He had the task of training the house’s youngest dog, Lola, last year when he was here and it looks like he’ll be doing it again with this new one.

I hope all is well at home, and please feel free to email me!

Exciting start to the week...

On Monday morning Evan and I piled into the van with 30 kids and Tonny brought us to Entebbe Junior School. Robert was buying all the school-aged kids new uniforms which, I learned when we arrived, are not cheap. The process of fitting all the children was painfully slow, and not because taking measurements took long. They only thing the woman measured on each kid was the waist to the knee, but then she gathered the 2 shirts, 2 shorts, sweater, and socks that each child needed, and she didn’t move quickly. But the kids were ecstatic to have something new that they could call their own, especially because the clothes at the house are generally shared with everyone. Plus a handful of kids just graduated from nursery last year and this is their first school uniform for starting primary.

After lunch we had some exciting guests visit the house… TOMS SHOES! For those of you who don’t know, TOMS is a shoe company started by a young man who had travelled to Argentina and found that many children didn’t own a single pair of shoes. He eventually started this project where people in the US can buy shoes and for each pair he sells, he donates a pair to a child. The company has exploded in the last few years and he now distributes shoes in many different countries. Here he has partnered with an NGO in Kampala to distribute shoes to Ugandan children. The group that visited us was headed by Abraham, a young Ugandan man who grew up here and then attended USC. He studied film and photography before returning to Uganda and starting a non-profit that focuses on art (check it out HERE). The kids were thrilled to have new shoes and I was so happy to see how the other end of TOMS Shoes works. I have 2 pairs and I was pleased to see that the shoes they distribute are very similar, but more durable. The kids loved that I had the same shoes as them and they’ve since become called ‘ninja shoes.’

So TOMS was the big excitement on Monday, and on Tuesday is was a trip to the dentist. Helen, the dentist, had come to the house last week and looked at each kids’ teeth to determine who needed to have work done. She had decided that Mastula needed a cleaning, Didas and Shakira needed a cavity filled, and Bobo needed 2 teeth pulled, so on Monday we took them to her nearby office. Robert dropped me, Evan, Namatov, and the 4 kids off and we sat with each of them while they had their work done. They were each a little nervous, but very brave. The cleanings and fillings were pretty routine, though it was interesting to compare to my dental experiences. Helen’s entire office is about half the size of each room at my dentist. There is one chair for patients, one desk for her things, one small sink in the corner, and one toaster oven in which she sterilizes her tools. When she does fillings, she puts a small amount of a powdery substance on a piece of glass, then puts a drop of a gel substance on it, and mixes the two together. Oh and the kids don’t get a shot of Novocain before a filling.

The first 3 kids had no problem though. When it was Bobo’s turn, Evan sat in a chair with Bobo in his lap rather than having him lie in the dentist’s chair. Bobo’s about 9 years old and is one of the first kids Robert took in in 2006. He had been excited to go to the dentist, until Helen tried to pull his tooth out without giving him Novacaine. Obviously he yelled and squirmed, and Evan winced, because the tooth she was pulling wasn’t even loose. She quickly realized that wasn’t going to work so then she did give him a shot of Novacaine, but the poor kid was freaked out. He squirmed a bit when the shot went in his gum and then, after they waited for it to take effect, he was a good sport when she pulled the 2 teeth out. I don’t know how he did it, and I don’t know how Evan sat through it with him. Evan told me afterward that when Helen was trying to pull it out she told Bobo not to cry and that he should be strong, so once she turned away to get more tools Evan whispered to him that he could cry if he wanted to and that he knew it hurt. The poor kid looked traumatized the whole drive home. Robert tried to cheer him up by letting him drive home… once we were on the dirt road that the house is on he put Bobo on his lap and let him steer the car. This made him laugh a bit, and it also made everyone else laugh when our gate opened and we turned into the driveway and the other kids saw Bobo driving. Evan went upstairs to the bedroom and read a couple books to Bobo before he took some medicine and slept for a bit. By the end of the day though he was back to being Bobo and ran around playing games all night.

Other events from Tuesday…

- Denise, a 23 year old German, arrived at the house and will be staying 2.5 months. She speaks very little English but the kids already love her and I think she’ll be fun to have around.

- We had noodles for lunch, another welcomed break from rice & beans, though they were still served as well.

- The older girls make food each night after the kids are in bed and tonight it was corn on the cob and cassava. The corn was very different from ours, not nearly as good, but the cassava was delicious.

- Fran taught me how to use the big saw and I made a balance board out of some scrap wood and taught Hakim how to use it.

- I got our mailing address here for those of you who want it… but Anna warned that sometimes it takes 2 weeks, sometimes 6 weeks, and sometimes things don’t arrive at all. But here it is:

Malayaka House

c/o Sarah Regan

P.O. Box 934

Entebbe, Uganda