A weekend in Gulu

Well, we are finally here! After 20 hours of plane rides, 10 hours of layovers and 6 hours of driving we finally made it!!! I am in love with Gulu!!! It brings such joy to my heart to see these kids, who live in so much less then we do in America be so happy! They see a Muzungu (white person) and they have one of two reactions: 1) they run in fear because they think we are ghosts 2) they run up to us and play and play and play! Even though there is a huge language barrier, (they all speak Acholi and only the educated speak a little English) they still seem to be so happy and just want to play. We live in a house that is right outside of a village made of 40-50 mud and clay huts with straw roofs, so we decided that that was the best place to start making friends. As we walked over there the people were super excited to see us, though some only wanted tangible items and very few wanted actual manual labor, which is what we are offering. The ones who could speak English were more then happy to act as translators for us and show us around. There are so many kids. One lady said that a normal family has 4-10 kids (more hands to work). These kids have worked more in the past month then I have in my entire life, they are happy to do it too! I do not think that "no" is in their vocabulary no matter what you ask, they do it, if they understand what you are asking. Tomorrow (Monday) starts our "Children's Program" AKA VBS in the village, we told all the kids where and when to meet so we are hoping for a pretty big turnout! Now a little about how I am doing (because I know anyone reading this will be worried). I am doing fine, I have not been able to sleep well at night but a lot of that may be because it is a new place, with new sounds, and I am sharing a room with someone I do not know very well yet. I tried taking Tylenol PM but it has done absolutely nothing so tonight I am taking some sleeping medicine that Jamie had, so that I will get a good nights rest for the first time in 5 nights. Some things we have planned for this week are:
Monday: VBS with the kids in the morning and play time in the afternoon
Tuesday: VBS with the kids in the morning and a visit to Baby Watoto to work with orphan or neglected babies
Wednesday: VBS with the kids in the morning and play time in the afternoon
Thursday: VBS with the kids in the morning and a possible visit to another ministry in Gulu
Friday: a whole day at an outreach place that councils and cares for the emotional and physical needs of women who were abused by Kony's men then teaches them to make crafts
and art to sell to make a living. While we are there we will be having a workshop with the women and learning how to make lots of fun things

This week is going to be a fun one but tere are a few prayer requests that we have:
- pray that we can communicate the gospel to the children even with the huge language barrier.
- that everyone gets over their jet lag and gets enough rest
- that Jamie pulls through these last few weeks of her pregnancy and that the baby does not come extremely early before they go to Kampala
- that everyone stays happy and healthy, including the boys!

Love,
Mattie