I'm a tourist I guess

My little L is starting to consciously differentiate between races these days. She's six now, so it's normal. We can differentiate between Ugandans, Indians and all white males with a beer are Russians. The kids are halfway scared of Russians yet on the other hand, their Grandpa looks like a Russian (as in, he's old, white, male and balding) and they love him, so the white male thing they're still a little confused on :)

We were taking our pack walk the other day and a van full of tourists went by.

Ella: "There's a bunch of people like you!"
Me: "Wow, those are a lot of tourists!"
Ella: "Oh. Are you a tourist?"

Ha ha! Might have to introduce the word "Caucasian" or the kids will get really confused when we're the tourists in Canada next year! We've still to find an appropriate word to describe a half Ugandan, half CAUCASIAN/Tourist person - so far all we've come up with is "like James" whose our little half and half friend :)

We've also started "judging" people by their accents, too, to figure out their nationality :) That's actually pretty fun! We focus more on nationality than race. And if we're stumped, all black people are Ugandans and all white people are tourists :)

What you'd call a person like this I'm really not sure! Flower Child perhaps?

Fashionable Footwear

So, for anyone who doesn’t know us personally, this will probably give you a pretty good reason of why to be glad that you don’t.

For less than $4.50 total, our family was able to go to the market and purchase brand new plastic shoes. Yep, you read that right, plastic shoes. Remember all the hype about Cr*cs and how the non Cr*c wearers would bash the Cr*c wearers and self righteously expound on how utterly stupid plastic shoes made you look? I totally agreed with them – plastic shoes do make you look dumb and frumpy, and come on people – who would pay that kind of money for a plastic shoe? I sure never did – I went for the off brands : ) At the same time though, who cares HOW dumb they make you look, as long as they’re comfortable? And really, a plastic shoe can last FOREVER. Even when your dogs chew off the backs. You can get them wet, you can clean them easily, they float in water and are brightly colored so you don’t lose them in the Lake, they’re easy for even a two year old to get on or off by themselves… Plastic shoes were God’s gift to people. Especially Ugandan people and those of us who live amongst Ugandan people.

Now, before I paint for you a picture of all Ugandans tromping around in stupid looking brightly colored plastic shoes, let me make this clear – they don’t. The middle to upper class would probably die before they stuck their feet in such a stupid looking shoe. Instead they would rather walk MILES (seriously) in high heeled or stiletto (so not kidding!) shoes for the women, or shiny black REALLY pointy toed shoes for the men. And these shoes require POLISH – and lots of it! I doubt most of these people would even put their children in such tacky looking plastic shoes either. The rest of the population, and the Graces who don’t really fit in anywhere, we’re the ones who wear plastic shoes. And if the adults still can’t find it within themselves to wear them, they put them on their kids! Which is why these suckers are so cheap. I bought Frankie’s for $1.00 and Ella and mine for about $1.50. Brand new.

Ugandans are SMART. Not only did they figure out the wisdom and durability of a plastic shoe, but they started making different DESIGNS as well! So now a family like mine can all be wearing plastic shoes but not only in different colors but different designs! Seriously, talk about a different plastic shoe for all occasions. Jeesh!

Ella's style are the cutest, me thinks!

I just got done reading Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall. Lets just say that the book was so well written that it even had ME convinced that I myself was truly born to run too, and in my bare feet! It had quite a lot of interesting information about the sports industry and most notably, the sports shoe industry, and about the human foot and how, quite simply, it was made to run, carry your weight, and not cause a lot of injury to the rest of your body while you were running on it. Duh, I mean, it’s on the bottom of your body and God did put it there. Sports shoe sellers however lead you to believe that you can’t run without an expensive sports shoe, which actually end up causing a ton of running related injuries. By actually running bare foot your body naturally figures out the best way to carry yourself when you run, to avoid pain. Which is why so many bare foot cultures who do a lot of running, don’t have running related injuries. Expensive shoes provide so much cushion and try to help the runner avoid pain, that the runner can then run however they want and end up throwing out their back, knees, tendons, you name it.

So anyways, after reading that, I was ready to confiscate my children’s shoes and make them walk with me bare foot on our daily evening Pack Walks. But instead I compromised by buying us all new, cheap plastic shoes. Now we should be all set to hike Mount Kilimanjaro!

Medical emergency week

This last week was our “medical emergency” week. Well, not really, but for this household where anyone rarely ever gets hurt, it was. Kinda.

Tuesday the excitement began by getting a call at work from Sarah, saying that I should come home because Frankie had fallen off a tire and hurt his arm. It is highly unusual to get a call from Sarah in the first place (usually if I do get a call its with a questions like, “should I cook these beans?” or, “Where is Ella’s swimsuit?”) and highly unusual for Frankie to not stop crying when he’s been hurt. Yes, this is the child who could whine and cry all day if he wanted but when it comes to actual physical injuries, they don’t seem to faze him . So, I was concerned!

I rushed home to a red eyed Frankie who was needing some serious snuggling and “mom time”. I called my friend, who’s a nurse, to see if I should take him in or not and she had me do some “experiments” with his arms and neck, to see if maybe he’d broken a color bone or something. So I poked and prodded and had him do some crazy things with his arms and the end story was, he was sore but nothing appeared to be broken. Nothing a little pain reliever and sympathy from his old lady wouldn’t fix : ).

So, while all this was happening Ella was flitting in and out of the house. Soon I heard a nervous, “Mom?!” from the front porch and the hair on the back of my mom neck stood up. Now, usually I ignore my kids but I knew something was up. Poked my head out the door to find Ella standing in a puddle of blood. Serious! It was splattering everywhere and my very primal dog Pack was even waking up, their noses twitching! Ella had snuck inside, stolen a RAZOR BLADE from the bathroom and proceeded to slice the tip of her finger almost off, while trying to chop a leaf. I knew head wounds were supposed to bleed a lot, but fingers? Good grief!

That was a huge, bloody mess, which fortunately Sarah hadn’t left yet so quickly cleaned up before the dogs got a taste for Ella’s blood ;) I proceeded to wrap the kids finger in a wet washcloth to stop the bleeding and was amazed at the amount of blood that was pouring out of my child. Blood doesn’t bother me too badly, and I used it as an excellent “teaching” and “lecturing” moment. You see, we have had a this conversation before about razors. Hopefully now she will have learned her lesson?

The next evening, because apparently I hadn’t had enough medical drama that week, I decided to neuter the puppy, little Bill. He is growing FAST and the smaller the little balls are when you band them, the lest painful they are. Bill’s the third pup I’ve done this year and holy cow!! Never had we seen such a more dramatic pup! HE cried NON STOP for one very long hour, and was scooching around on his belly. We took our Pack Walk, which he did fine on, then when we got back home he crashed. Zonked. The rest of the Pack had their dinner and baby Bill never stirred. I brought him inside where he slept in a coma like state for two hours, then he was up and hungry again. The next morning he was up wrestling with Ranger and by Friday he was eating like a horse again : ) I’m glad that I didn’t wait until he was any bigger!

So, I’m thanking the Lord that Frankie’s injuries weren’t any worse and praying that hopefully Ella has learned her lesson about razors and OBEYING MOM when I tell her something. It’s only the Lord’s protection that keeps my kids as injury free as they are, as they’re pretty darned active. And I’m not the most safety conscience parent. I’m also glad that my entire Pack is spayed and neutered now : )

Pictures from the week

Here's some random pictures from the last week or so. Mostly, um, of my dogs, although I did try to stick a few of the kids in there!


This was going on over our wall last weekend. They were boiling up big barrels of tar to lay on the road that's up from our house. Think chopping wood all night to keep the fires going, think barking dogs at all the commotion and worse of all, think SMELL! Smelled just like a traffic jam. Nauseating!

Filling the barrels up with tar to cook. Right on the otherside of our wall :)

Hmmm, a fire truck? That didn't exactly inspire my confidence until we saw that they were using it to pour water on the road.

This is Bill laughing at a good joke :)

Brothers sleeping. Bill is HUGE and eats almost three times as much as the other dogs!

The Pack Pups

Okay, NOT a great shot of Ranger, who looks like a clown, but a good shot of Bill's ridge!

Baby of the family :)

Tug-o-war with the Wubba. Strangly, at about 10 months old, Madea has actually started fetching toys when I throw them! Before neither pup had any interest in toys, which was a bummer since I find it therapeutic to throw toys to dogs ( I am a very, VERY simple person).

Our chums who live in Karamoja, brought us this Karamajong spear for our guards. Sort of fun to play with too, you know?

So, this picture sort of demonstrates what happens when you keep a woman cooped up in a walled compound in the company of only two children and a pack of dogs. She's harmless, for the most part, but yeah, there is a reason why she's not let out much! Plans are to get her a haircut and clothes that fit soon. And no, she didn't kill the puppy.

Little Billy Long Tongue :) I love getting pictures the dogs in various stages of a yawn!

Frankie hunts grasshoppers and dragonflies ALL THE TIME.

Sweet Ellie has learned to cross her legs like a H dog :)

Bill's famous show quality ridge. I really heart this ridge :)

The sleeping pack, which wouldn't be complete without Bronco snuggled up in the middle of them!

Pack Picnic with friends

A couple Fridays ago I had the bright idea to have a picnic in the Gardens. So I called up my friend, Menda, and a picnic was on! I brought my Pack of six dogs, plus the two kids, and Menda brought seven of her eight kids, plus three adults and three more kids! Yep, you've got it - a PARTY! Or a circus, we weren't quite sure which... I know, what kind of idiot brings six dogs to a picnic where kids sitting on the ground with food are involved. Me :) Bill was a bit all over!

This was baby Bill's FIRST time at the beach!

Lots of dogs and lots of kids splashing around out there!

The adults tried to set up camp a safe distance away from the wet dogs and wet kids. Too bad hose wet things are mobile!

Running down the beach in your swimming cap with a stick and your dogs

Ellie is really fitting into our Pack well. She is such an easy, sweet dog. She doesn't actually drink from the water bottle though ;)

Little Bill played and played, hunted up all sorts of bones and crap, and then crashed. In a hole. With his butt up in the air!

While the children, pups and Bridger frolicked and hunted for bones, us "older" gals chilled by the mat. Sanyu because she didn't have a choice and Ellie...

...because she needed to sunbathe.

The kids swam in the Lake non stop for over an hour after our friends left. The benefit of them wearing swim caps is not only to keep their hair dry but it makes them easier to spot, as well!

The Life Guards

Nothing like bobbing amid the algae!

Dang I'm cold - hand me a cucumber please

On the road home after an afternoon swimming :)

I'm really ready to move to our new house but in the mean time, it sure is nice to live so close to the Lake and Gardens!

Bike Tricks

The following are some bike "tricks" that I took pictures of several weeks ago and forgot to post!

They are so typical of the kids :) Ella has never been much with her motor skills. She's REALLY coordinated on the trampoline and such but coloring nevers been her strong point, writing took her a while to get a handle on and well, she's just not that tricky...

Then there's her little bro, Frankie. He colors like a champ, is starting to write legible letters at 3.5, and has just always had far better motor skills than his sis! These pictures sort of demonstrate the differences in the two kids... ;)

The bike is stationary now, but just wait... ;)

Maybe he'll be a trick rider (on a horse!) when he grows up? His mother has been known to do a bit of trick riding herself, in the past....

Big Sis doesn't want to be outdone!! But wait, is this really a trick?!!! Um, er, seems so...

A safer version of Frankie's stand-on-the-seat trick. This is a squat-on-the-seat trick :)

Oh dear!

I was out on the front porch sewing a button onto Ella’s jeans one afternoon when I heard Frankie start his wailing in their bedroom. Not totally unusual, especially since he’d been whiny and easily brought to tears ever since I’d gotten home. I thought nothing of it and continued my sewing. Then I heard Ella walk out into the living room and smugly say to herself, “Well, he’s not going to bother me again.” Oh dear! A thug!! The extremely ironic thing was that this was the child who had gotten 100% on her Bible test just that morning!! HA!

Some thoughts on international adoption from Uganda

I watch the adoption world swirling around me. It is great that the Western world, especially the U.S, has caught the vision of adoption. Adoption is a WONDERFUL and BEAUTIFUL and BIBLICAL thing and has blessed the lives of my entire family immensely. I only pray that this vision will wake up in the Ugandan church as well.

But I also see some disturbing trends. Like any good thing (money, sex, marriage, you name it) Satan can twist it into something that’s not so great. And I’m seeing that happening too. And it makes me want to run or hide my head in the sand.

I see how very, very good hearted Christians in the U.S have unintentionally begun to aid in the exploitation of Ugandans (not just the children by the way, but entire families) with their compassion and willingness to adopt any little Ugandan that “someone”, be it an orphanage director, social worker, lawyer, or adoption facilitator, puts before them as an adoptable child in need. Not only are the children being exploited but often times their families as well.

A lot of things like this happen simply because of ignorance. If you are planning on adopting from Uganda, please educate yourself first! Don’t take ANYTHING at face value. Really pick apart the files you are given and QUESTION and FOLLOW UP YOURSELF if you have to on your prospective child’s case. I am shocked and sickened at how with only just a few simple PHONE CALLS, Karen has been able to reunify previously “adoptable” children back with their LOVING families. The same is true for this couple of YOUNG girls working in Jinja. These folks aren’t professionals, nor are they old hands at living in the country – they are people just like you and me! And what a beautiful thing it is to see families reunited again! Really, could anything be better? When you encounter road blocks in the adoption process, don’t automatically assume they are “Satan’s attacks.” Maybe they are the Lord’s leading and working instead?

I will admit to guilt in this area. I too was a bit naïve and irresponsible in assuming that my children’s cases had been adequately investigated, and took the babies homes word for it that my kids relatives were non traceable. With one child in particular, now I wonder… After our adoptions are legally completed I will fearfully try to look into the one child’s case a bit more and perhaps trace their family if at all possible. I would just be SICK knowing that I put my child through the unnecessary trauma of international adoption if it wasn’t 100% needed, but on the other hand I would LOVE for my child to know more about their roots and where they came from.

Ugandans, educate yourselves! Think twice before you send off a child for international adoption. Do everything you can to keep that kid in Uganda, in a family here. Think past the “wealth” you will be sending this child to and instead think about life as the racial odd ball who has to relearn an entirely new culture and language and lose almost all of their ties with Uganda. Don’t try to make your American friends happy by providing them with a child until you have exhausted all other options for that kid.

I read somewhere where a blogger was so very touched to visit an orphanage and to see the children praying for “forever families in America.” Not only did my heart break, but I got physically nauseous as well. Situations like this make me want to RUN. Completely disassociate from international adoption. Do people really think that a home in the U.S would be better for Ugandan children than a home right here in their own country, where everyone else looks like them, sounds like them, smells like them, and shares a culture with them? Obviously these poor children were directly or indirectly being told that! Adoption is hard enough on kids without the added factor of language and culture change thrown at them! Add race and you’ve handed your kid a LOT to deal with. And really, isn’t life in Uganda just as intrinsically worthy and valuable as life in the United States?

My excitement over Americans adopting from Uganda is waning. I mean, who wouldn’t want to adopt a Ugandan child? I am turning my focus more on domestic adoption here in Uganda and on reunifying children with their families so that adoption is not necessary in the first place. Not to say that I’m throwing the baby out with the bath water – I do still believe that there is a place for international adoption in Uganda. Only the adoptive parent must take the responsibility themselves as to having it done ethically – don’t rely on the orphanage, the lawyer, the high court, the U.S embassy, the probation officer, a social worker, or anyone else to make sure that your child has a legitimate need for you to adopt them. I wish that I had.

So my thoughts on international adoption from Uganda? Do it CAREFULLY. Don’t let your emotions take a hold. Or all the “orphan hype” that is out there. Don’t take anything at face value. Question everyone that you deal with. Have the case reopened if you have to. Try to find out if everything really was done (and done thoroughly!) to try to trace the family. Was the proper follow up really done? If not, then maybe God has chosen YOU to be a part in reuniting this child with their family, even if it’s not yours like you had thought. What could be better for a child than that? If you’re adequately satisfied that EVERYTHING possible has been done to answer these questions yourself, then go for it! It's too easy to adopt a trafficked child.

The All Important Pack Walk

So is it just me or does anyone else think it’s pretty cool when a 3.5 year old can control a lunging Rottweiler who wants to go after some monkeys? Or a 6 year old who can walk two dogs at once, one on each side, down busy roads, past people, chickens, loose barking dogs and goats? This evening each kid had a dog and we walked past a big group of “man boys” (upper teens/lower 20’s) who had a lunging dog on a leash (whose name just happened to be Cesar!!). Let me tell you, my two little Pack Leaders had more control of their dogs than the big group of happy man boys! Our dogs stayed under control and no fights ensued. Which was a good thing because ours would have whipped the other dogs butt… ;)

And that makes me very proud. Proud because my children are out walking their dogs every day. They are learning about not only exercising their dogs and keeping them healthy and happy, but doing the same for themselves. We walk for about 30 to 45 minutes everyday and let me tell you, we’re not dawdling, we’re marching! There is no whining or complaining and if we have to wait for somebody it’s not for long.

I’m proud because the kids are learning about taking responsibility for their animals/property. Obviously I love dogs. I don’t necessarily care if my kids ever love dogs but I do want them to learn to take the absolute best care of whatever they own and to be good stewards of what God has given them.

I’m proud because my kids are practicing being calm and assertive every single day while on our Pack Walk. They are not mean to the dogs, do not jerk on the choker chains or strangle the dogs into submission. But neither do they let the dogs drag them hither and yon, sniff and pee at will, or lunge at people. They’ve learned when to give correction and how to give it. Not bad when the dog you’re controlling is as big as you are and has you out legged!

It almost makes me tear up when I see little Frankie, who has suffered so long from Post Traumatic Stress and feelings of helpless worthlessness, marching confidently along with his little Rottweiler (dog of choice since she’s the slowest ;) or Sanyu or Bridger, past monkey’s and other dogs. You’re not helpless anymore if you can handle dogs who are as big as you are!

So, it is more than just about walking our dogs. Cesar M*llan is right – a Pack Walk is important! But he never mentioned that it was just as important for KIDS as it was for dogs!

There is so much to teach your kid from owning a dog. I don’t know how parents can raise their kids without one! Or, um, five or six…. ;)

And Pack Walks do puppies quite a bit of good too!

4th of July Festivities!

Sadly for me, my favorite two holidays are the 4th of July and Thanksgiving – two distinctly American holidays and well, obviously not really widely celebrated in Uganda!

This year I decided to do something fun and totally different for us! Every year the American Recreation Association holds an annual 4th of July party with fireworks and such, held by the ARA and U.S Embassy. Now, um, that’s not really my crowd, believe it or not, and I don’t really have any chums in Kampala anymore so it’s not something that I’ve ever really been interested in – until now!

I heard that there would be children’s games and fireworks so even though I couldn’t find anyone to go with (Hmmmmm ;)) thought it would be fun to take the kids and let Frankie experience a little bit of 4th of July fun. He’s never been to the States so has nothing to compare it against : ). Also, I thought it would be fun to rub shoulders with some other Americans who weren’t missionaries!

Unfortunately it was visitation day at one of the high schools between here and Kampala so we found ourselves in a MAJOR nasty jam (like, I’ve never seen anything like it in my six years of traveling that road!) but I really wanted to go, the kids really wanted to go, and there was no power at home, so we soldiered on. An hour and forty five minutes later we arrived! Usually the drive only takes 30 to 45 minutes but I thought of all the people who have fought for our liberty and freedom and channeled that into fighting traffic so we succeeded – and I felt very patriotic in the meantime ;)

We arrived an hour late, and thereby missed out on the kids games, but we arrived just in time to see the Police STUFFING a guy into the back of their police truck, underneath the little seat in the middle. Oh boy did the kids have a lot of questions about that! Ella wanted to go and HELP the poor guy but I assured her that he was a bad guy so probably needed to go to jail. I love my little Ugandan – she asks, “Are the Po Po gonna beat him up?!” I didn’t lie to her – just said that I didn’t know!

Each kid did get a free glow stick, we spread our mat in front of the stage, and were entertained by acrobats (cool!), a karate demonstration (not bad), a children’s choir (yawn) and some stuff about American history (yeah!). I was entertained by the American crowd around me and their American sense of humor. Sometimes it is just nice to be surrounded by those from your own culture and there were plenty of mixed race families like ours to make us feel at home and blend in!

Frankie got to eat his first cotton candy and got his face painted. The food was lame – only ONE hotdog or hamburger each (and they were small!) and a soda. And we’d paid a fair bit to get in in the first place! But the fireworks were awesome and the kids REALLY enjoyed themselves, and I had fun, so it was worth it. We ended the experience by the kids peeing in some bushes since we couldn’t find the bathroom. Yes, there are more than financial reasons why Grace and family do not belong to the ARA…

Nah, we don't get out much, which is why the children looked like this almost the entire time!

Cool acrobats!


Three on top of the other

Jumping through the hoop! This was really cool!
The fun crowd

Frankie's first taste of cotton candy! Oh the joy of pure sugar!!

Happily sipping their soda's, after quickly polishing off their tiny hotdogs

A children's choir, full of smiling, dancing, Ugandan children who had just been on a tour to the States. They were raising money to bring awareness for the hardships of the African child. Or something like that.

We stood in line for like, EVER to get Frankie's face painted

We were happy with the results though - a pink (?!) and black tiger!

It was getting dark but this was the Cultural Troup that performed. They were really something...

... and Ella was clearly almost traumatized by this aspect of her Ugandan "roots!"

But then it was time for the FIREWORKS!!! Now I LOVE fireworks!!!

And apperently Frankie LOVES fireworks! His face just lit up!

This is the greatest picture ever! Apperently the fireworks were a bit LOUD for Ella :) And look up my nice clean nose!

Being as Madea didn't get to go (she hates being seen as the obvious "adopted child"), she got to share in the festivities by wearing a glow stick when we got home.

So, this is an event that I think we'll start attending annually when we're in Uganda!