sleepless nights

i thought this concept deserved it's own title...

I have been wrestling with sleep since i arrived i may have had one good night of sleep since i got here. too many sounds, too many thoughts running through my head, too many prayers to pray, to much darkness when the electricity is out.

so i wake up at 4 am, i rationalize that the internet is faster then anyway.

we got batteries for the clock, so now i know what time it is when i wake up and there is no light out.

I finished a third book and am on to the next, a text book, that the students have to read, ugandan missionaries during the civil war twenty years ago.

the whole compound went maze harvesting this week, i stayed back with the little kids.
a student told me about a conversation he had with one of the locals, about harvesting corn by hand

"do you harvest corn where you are from?"
"yeah, but not like this"
"how do you do it then?"
"we have a big tractor and a machine that harvests it for us, just one man operates it"
 "really?"
this was as they were hand picking and shucking bags and bags of corn.

I had to explain a clothes washer to a girl the other day, I told her that you put the clothes in with soap and they come out clean usually.  she wanted me to act out how the machine works, I did the best i could, lots of whirring sounds, she laughed the whole time i did it.

this week i found the baby house, It is almost a mile from my house, which is good, because our diet here is rich in carbohydrates.  i've walked there as much as i can, i met the leader sarah, who immediatly gave me the okay to pretty much come by when i want and take kids for walks, play, hold babies and pointed me to the double stroller.  I hoisted two babies in, buckled them and took little daniels hand, we were off to see the pigs.  as we followed the back path to the pigs i began to doubt my 3 year old guide's directions.  He kept shouting pigs and pointing ahead so i kept pushing, over burned grasses and past ant hills as tall as me.  we arrived to the pigs, who were all sleeping, so lazy :) they were huge and as we peeked over every wall they seemed to be getting biger and bigger, until we saw the last pin, with a big mamma and her four piglets. laying in the dirt, so tiny and pink.  i picked up the two babies one on each hip and walked them to see the baby pigs, they pointed and laughed, and tried to copy my voice when i said "big fat pig" as i bounced them up and down.  daniel was off to see the next ones and every time he would hop and say "pig, pig, pig".

when we left the pigs, and headed back toward the campus, passing a small house standing alone, with pineapples growing in a perfect circle out front, I was caught off guard when i saw a cow on the road meandering toward us, because at first I pointed and said "cow" to the babies with exuberance, until i looked passed her to see a whole heard heading my way. I stood for a second, not really knowing what to do, I had three babies in a double bob stroller and the road was narrow, all i could see was the long horns on the bulls, pointing toward the sky.

Now dont get me wrong, Ive seen all sorts of cows in my day, my grand father is a cattle rancher, i've spent hours in my grandpas barn embracing and naming them, gone out to the field to help with irrigation so the grass would stay green, handed out alfalfa,  but I dont think ive ever, just had cattle walk by me on the road, usually they are behind a fence.  so i panicked slightly, my heart was racing, I shoved the stroller  half way up a little hill on the edge of the path, threw the daniel up on top and stood as still as possible, I was genuinely afraid, these animals were huge, and two bulls stopped to simply stare at me, like they were deciding if they were gonna go easy on me.  little did i know that daniel was about as good a little herder as Robert who introduced himself as he passed with a large stick at the end of the line.  He shook my hand and i think i was shaking, we shared a proper ugandan greeting and i waved him off to follow the cows, but a straggler was behind and daniel ran to it and shewed it ahead and even gave it a little slap in the hip to get it moving like a little professional, i sould have just let him lead the way.

It took me a few moments to recover from that unnecessary anxiety and we walked back to the baby house where i spent the next two hours holding baby joseph, who is so smiley and loved being tickled.  I met all of the Aunties, and kissed little cheeks and patted little tummies and it was time to go because i was on dinner dish duty.  so i walked the back way home through the David family village, where at least four people knew me by name, i was greeted, "Hello Aunt Rachael, how are you?", "I am fine, how are you" i would respond.  when i told them sleep well in Luganda they laughed hard appreciative laughs and told me "well done".

those babies are my new excitement lately, I have to say, as disgusting as it sounds, for me, being spit up on is bliss. I love everything about these babies, and I 'll have to be careful because I wont want to leave them come May.  I have held them all, some are tiny, smaller than they should be, some are so fat they cant walk, little leg rolls and dimpled cheeks, some of them are just right.  most of them are boys, there are two girls, and they are bigger girls actually, maybe 15-18 months. walking and starting to talk.
I tell them "jangu" and give a wave opening and closing my hand, they toddle over for hugs and smile so sweetly!

well...that's all for now, until next time... good early morning from Uganda.

love
rachael