Purple Clouds Blog

Goodbye is already beginning...AHHHH!! I can't take it. For real. We made plans last week to have an outing with some of the boys today, so we ran the Wednesday program yesterday so that we could have today open. Yesterday was a normal day in Kisenyi, I was working in my little medical corner in the Community Hall lovin' on the kids, and John Joshua kept saying to me, "I have to tell you something before you go today, I really have something to tell you." I couldn't even imagine what kind of funny business he might be up to, so I told him okay and kept on with the day. As I was getting ready to leave, he grabbed my hand and led me to a corner, took both of my hands in his, and with tears streaming down his face he said, "You are the only mother I have ever had." I had to concentrate really hard to keep myself from melting into a puddle right there on the street. I told him, "I love you like you are mine, kid." - and I meant it. 

So this morning bright and early we went and started gathering boys to get in a matoto (taxi mini van) and head to the amusement park. The plan was to get them some clean shorts and t-shirts, but as usual we were REALLY behind schedule and it was kind of mayhem just to get them in order and out the "door." So, we took off with 10 shoeless, filthy little rugrats for a day of fun :) The second the door closed to the taxi half of them were passed out cold, drool running down their faces...first safe place to rest that they had seen in a really long time. (these are the small reminders of how real the humanity is here) We arrived at the park, somehow we managed to get them past security at the main gate, (definitely not without some looks of fear and slight disgust from the park workers though) and they were off. Lost in a mix of perfectly manicured, uniformed, private students that were there on a field trip, were my 10 filthy little boys, tearing through the crowds like complete maniacs, scaring the crap out of everyone they skated past. Sheesh.

There are 2 water slides at the park, from a distance one of the boys (his name is Brian) saw the pool at the bottom of the slides and TOOK OFF in a full on sprint screaming at his friends to follow. Before I even knew what was going on, all 10 of them are tearing off their mud caked clothes, shoving people out of the way as they ran and jumped full blown cannon balls into the pool. I thought for sure security was coming to man handle us out. A man came up to me and said, "Are those boys yoouurrss??" I said with loving embarrassment, "yep.(big sigh)" I gathered up the dirty pathway of clothes left in their (legitimate) dust, and watched these kids play. With no torn, crazy dirty clothes, and cleaned off from the water of the pool, they looked just like any of the other kids there. For a minute we all forgot what their lives really look like. Brian jumped out of the pool at one point, gave me a soaking wet hug, and said, "Auntie Lindsey, I am really, really happy." It was a beautiful day.

Waiting for the taxi...

Auntie Jessica getting some TLC :)