"Meet" 4 More Kids

It was finally back to being a normal week! I was very proud of myself, as I made several new activities for the kids based off ideas I found on Pinterest!!!

Pinterest Ideas

Clothes pin letters

Clothes pin colors

Oh and if you missed the picture on Facebook - a termite made it into one of my packs of clothes pins... those ones are currently in the freezer!

Now onto meeting some more kids which is truly what you came for!
Meet Moses

Moses

So Moses.... Moses is 16 and VERY TALKATIVE (my family who is laughing right now be quiet) AND VERY FORGETFUL! Moses comes from a family where both his mom and his dad are mentally disabled. He has largely been brought up by his family, and has sponsors from America that pay for him to go to school. Completely unrelated to his mental disability, Moses has lost some nerve control to his left foot and has what we call in PT world - drop foot. Moses comes to me twice a week to work on strengthening his leg, and he just received a brace this week to help control his drop foot as he will never get that nerve control back. He also just received a brace donated by Midwest Orthotic to help control his foot.

Moses and I have had a few interesting conversations this week, some of which make me laugh hysterically and some of which make me very frustrated. His shoes that he brought back to the school are not large enough to accommodate for the size of the brace, so I told him he could work for me once a week cleaning my veranda and then when he earned enough money we would go buy him new shoes... This is apparently a VERY hard concept for Moses and he has asked me at least 3 times a day every day since we first had this conversation about when I AM buying him new shoes. He also told me this week that America is in Homa, Uganda (about a 5 hour drive). I told him America was at least a 2 day journey by airplane.... He proceeded to tell me about how his sponsors were going to take him to America, but he wasn't going to ride an airplane, he was going to ride his bike! He also told me this week how he lost a brother in 1994 and they just buried him in December...... I later found out he died in December 2012 and was buried in December 2012.

Shimri

Shimri - sorry I think this picture was on last weeks blog too

So I am cheating you already have seen numerous pictures of Shimri, but I had to share this story from this week. Last term I was washing my dishes (remember my kitchen is outside) on a rainy day when Shimri and Cyrus came to investigate what I was doing. Apparently, I had added too much soap... so I kept giving them handfuls of bubbles that they blew everywhere. Well, last night Shimri came into my kitchen while I was doing my dishes and demonstrated blowing the bubbles out of his hand - so I added a little extra soap to my water for him. When I gave him his handful of bubbles he promptly took it and walked to the dormitory (which I can see from my kitchen). Next thing I know I see him taking large bits of his bubbles!!! I had to then quickly go remind him that we blow our bubbles, not eat them. He did have a very nice bubble beard too :)

Meet Lucky

Me trying to sneak a picture with Lucky

So Lucky HATES to have her photo taken... I am not sure why. I think it is mainly because she just likes to tease me!!! Lucky is quite funny, as I said above she likes to tease me - she acts like she hates coming to therapy AND yet she is in the therapy room ALL THE TIME! The other thing, that is so sweet about Lucky is she always makes sure I get to lunch on time. I always thought it was a teacher that would send for me, and today I found out it is Lucky. (Side Note - I have a hard time judging when to go eat - when I go when the bell rings I sit without any other teachers for a long time - and if I delay Lucky sends for me) Lucky is one of the kids I work with. She needs help with her fine motor skills as she has a very weak right hand.By the way, Lucky and I are "officially friends" because she shared her prized biscuits with me! Oh and she has decided that my Luganda learning is not going so well. She will come sit by me and just start teaching me words! She really is my best Luganda teacher!

Sumaya

Sumaya working on the puzzle

Ok, so you have also "met" Sumaya, as I post pictures of her regularly. However, she is constantly amazing me with what she figures out how to do. She has been moved to a higher group and does not get to spend as much time out of her wheelchair as she would like. So the other day after therapy she decided she wanted to stay on the floor a little longer. I decided to give her a puzzle and tell her to figure out how she could complete it as I had another student to work with. Next thing I know, she is bending over, picking up the puzzle piece with her lips, and using her head to put them in correctly. Like I said, she never ceases to amaze me!

Some other random photos from the week:

I had raw sugar cane for the first time this week - it was VERY good and VERY sweet!

The kids always amaze me with what they find to play with. This is an old grain bag that Emily turned into a costume

Ronald is absolutely thrilled to be able to play with my empty yogurt containers

Every day I am amazed at how good God is. Even in the toughest moments with some of the kids, God always sends one of them to make me smile. This week Clare's session with me got interrupted. (I should not make that sound so abnormal someone comes in almost every 30 seconds!), but anyways Clare wanted my attention back. This girl - who knows very little English - calls out "Jangu (come) my dear, my dear Jangu". How sweet is that! It just makes me go home and smile at the end of the day. I am also learning what it truly means to rely on God. I have to start my day every day in prayer, and I am constantly praying throughout the day for patience, and wisdom with the children. God has been so faithful over the last 5 months! Thank you for your prayers!