schedules, gifts and Perez

We made it!

Many things are just as we remember them from a year ago; many things have changed. We have seen many of our friends, we have met more. All of the old buildings are standing, new construction is underway. The driving makes you grateful for travelers insurance, our driver has a new van. The roads are dusty, the children are joyful and we are happy to be back in Uganda.

It could not have been a better first day.

How quickly schedules can change. We had a plan for this first week, but 500 children and Uganda life require that you hold your plans loosely. I met with Pastor Stephen and Pastor Gabriel today...we made new plans. They have asked me to speak each Sunday we are here at a different church. I’ve heard one church is over 2000 people. So much for a break from speaking. They have also asked me to speak at least 8 other times in various seminar settings, and I even spoke this evening with very little notice. It’s going to be great!

We met with our Lawyer this afternoon. He is well on his way and quite confident things are going well. He hopes to have us in high court sometime next week.

Much of today was about gifts. We handed out all of the gifts that we brought over from sponsors (almost all), began work on the Christmas card craft, and handed out Christmas gifts to the kids from the school. About the Christmas cards. Ali came up with the idea to have each child send their sponsor a personal Christmas card. Each child puts their fingerprint on the front of the card, transforming it into a reindeer. They glue wiggly eyes and red noses on then draw in antlers. They are going to be great…but 100’s of kids working on a craft…let’s just say we’re having fun.

Perhaps the greatest gift today was seeing Perez again; it’s hard to explain how much we love our little boy. He spent most of the day with one of us, showing us his room, his bunk, his latest art project in school…and we even played a couple tricks on people (its as if he got some of my genes).

We learned today that Perez was born on June 1st, 2002. We also learned that he can flip his eyelid inside out.

At one point in the day a boy ran up to Perez and me with a cup of water. He handed it to Perez, and Perez gratefully gulped down the entire thing. It was very hard to watch, the water was very brown, dirty water. A long ways from Smart Water. But for these boys it would probably be dumb not to drink it…it’s what they have, and they are thankful for a refreshing drink.


Pastor Stephen shared with us today that Perez’s dad was one of the most humble servants of God he has ever known. Israel was his name. Israel served God and worked hard his entire life and never had any money. Pastor Stephen believes that we are a gift from God to both Perez and Israel…a sort of delayed payment for many years of service. And as much as people here are saying how fortunate Perez is to have us, we are the ones who are blessed to know our friends here and to have a little boy like Perez come into our life.
I stepped into a game of soccer today after school with some boys. We play barefoot on dirt and concrete (my feet are a bit torn up). The ball appeared to be a bunch of innertubes or maybe plastic bags wound up and tied and there weren’t goals. But it was impressive to watch (that’s mostly what I was doing) the kids play, handle that “ball” and shoot goals. They are happy to play. They don’t argue. They don’t fight. They just play. And they all got a laugh when I used my head on the ball, only to have a gallon of water and dirt come gushing out. I’m not sure who won…it didn’t matter to anyone, it was good to see the kids having fun.


We need to sleep…so good night and we’ll write again soon. With love, from Uganda.