Highlights from the week ;)

Hey friends!  It has been a good week here at Cornerstone.  Here are some of the challenging, fun and interesting stories from this week:

o   Last Sunday, I was teaching the children’s class at church and we were looking at the Battle of Jericho and the wall falling down.  Two things happened during the class: I had the kids doing tower-building competitions with plastic communion cups and my interpreter left to go and teach the youngest children (babies-age 3).  I was left with 60 kids, 184 cups, and 45 minutes to teach a skill I soon realized nobody had ever learned (except for me).  Note for next time: first show how to stack cups to build a tower, and try to find a smooth surface (our floor is made of chipped cement, and so most of the towers that the kids were able to make fell over after a few seconds).  Well, one lesson learned…

o   Moses is scared of other white people: On Tuesday, Pastor Rogers, my mom and I took Moses to see a physiotherapist in Mbale.  We got to ride in a car for the 30-minute drive and all of that was very exciting for him.  However, upon reaching the doctor’s office, Moses saw his doctor for the first time and started screaming.  He didn’t calm down until after I took him outside, and even when we came back in, he cried every time she even tried to touch him.  I never knew bazungu (white people) were so scary!

o   A while back I had written about trying to teach the kids about being good sports when playing games.  I have continued to remind them not to have a “bad attitude” but have been wondering if they really picked up on the message.  But this week I have decided: They were really listening!  I went in to say goodnight and pray for one of the rooms of boys on Thursday and I chose to start with Dovico.  As I sat down next to him on the bed, I heard Johnson say, “But Tr. Abby, you always start with Dovico!” (a fact which I can definitively say, is not true, but that’s beside the point).    Ronald, the oldest boy in the room, immediately looked at Johnson and said, “Johnson, stop!  You’re doing ‘bad attitude!’”  They really got the lesson.  Victory is sweet.

Well, there’s a bit of my life this week.  Thank you for the thoughts, prayers, financial support- I appreciate what all of you do so that these kids continue to have a great home and I get to be here with them.  And as always, I would love to hear from you!

A picture of Moses saying "Hi!"

This week in Budaka

         We are in our fourth week of the school term now at Cornerstone Learning Centre.  Yesterday, my mom and I taught our second computer class at the school.  It's been a great adventure so far.  None of our kids had even touched a computer before, so we got to start with the basics: “This is a computer.  Computers store information, like documents, pictures, videos, calendars, etc.  This is a cursor.  You move the cursor by…” The kids are just eating up everything and have lots of questions.  It’s great to see them learning all this now, so that when they are older, they will have the knowledge to write papers, store pictures, use disk-drives, use email, etc.  Being involved in their learning process is so fun!

         Then tonight, Laurie and I are having Margret and Charity, two of our young girls at the orphanage, come and spend the night at our house.  We have been doing this every Friday for the last two months: taking two kids, making American food for dinner and breakfast, playing card games and watching a movie (“Ice Age”) together.  It’s so much fun to get to have individual time with our kids.  I’m looking forward to tonight, especially because both of these girls have so much personality.  (Margret was trying to tell me something the other day and I said, “What?  I didn’t hear you.”  Margret said, “Teacher Abby, you mean that you don’t understand English??”  She is such a character!).  It should be an interesting sleepover tonight…

         Well, I’m going to go and finish resting on my day off.  Ahh, electricity, cold water, and internet all in the same place.  Gotta love Friday...

         Have a great weekend!  Thanks for the prayers, support, and communication- I love hearing from everyone.

Being at Home

         We have our new kids now- yeah!  Cornerstone Children’s Home now houses 29 children: 16 boys and 13 girls.  The first week was hard for our 6 new children, with several of them crying to go “home” (with whatever relatives or friends they were living with before).  The process of them getting used to their new home was tough on both sides, but we are so excited to have them and they are now happy to be here!

         All of us went to church last Sunday, it being their second day at Cornerstone, and things in Sunday School were going well, or so I thought.  Then one of the other girls, Natasha, said, “Tr. Abby, Doreen urinated all over our mat!”  I looked down to see a large portion of the mat wet, the children scurrying away, and Doreen just looking complacently up at me, obviously now feeling relief.  The fact that her dress, legs and shoes, along with the mat, were soaking wet, didn’t seem to affect her.  Oh, Doreen!  (These newer children had never used a latrine before, and were just used to squatting and peeing wherever they happened to find themselves).

         That was how the first few days were with our new kids, but now that it’s been almost 2 weeks, they are definitely feeling more comfortable.  They weren’t smiling at first, but now they smile all the time, they are learning to speak English, and they are playing with the other children.  Joel, our only new boy, was playing hide-and-seek with me before breakfast today, and busted up laughing every time I found him- what a great thing to see.  Beatrice, whose 5, is trying so hard to learn English, and mimics us each time we do songs or chants or anything.  Our newer children are now feeling at home at Cornerstone!!

         Then there’s Moses, who is already quite at home at Cornerstone.  Moses continues to make great leaps and bounds in development.  He has added “circle,” “Laurie” and “orange” to his spoken vocabulary this week.  Every day he walks a few more steps on his own, and has such a pride in walking on his own.  Aunt Monicah (his “mother” at Cornerstone) and I discovered that without either of us teaching him, he has learned to put on his own sandals, which involves him threading Velcro straps through plastic rings and then pulling the Velcro through.  He can sit and do the whole thing, even if it takes five minutes.  Amazing, especially because he has a short attention span about most activities.

         Love to you all, from myself and the kids.  One of the little girls, Margaret, told us this morning that she prayed for “everyone in America” last night, so consider yourself prayed for.  :)  Thanks for your support of these kids!

-Abby