Cry Up

My friend Natalie shared with me that a lady at her church used to tell her, in a very thick southern accent, to “cry up, so you won’t ruin your mascara.”  This week has been filled with things winding down, final goodbyes, and moments to “cry up”.

 

Thursday was my very last day at God’s Grace Orphanage.  While I was there I fetched water from the nearby well, changed babies’ diapers, and washed the a million and one cups and plates from the children’s’ breakfast.  Honestly though the main thing that I do when I am at God’s Grace is give the children hugs, hold their hands, or cuddle with them.  There are so few workers there and about 120 children so these kids crave individual affection and love.  They just want to be held.  It was really hard to leave and say goodbye especially to the children I really connected with over the few times I visited there.  I found it challenging leaving Martha, a beautiful little eight year old who I befriended.  It broke my heart to tell her that I am leaving and not sure when or if I would ever come back.  She was very excited to hear that I got a teaching job and that I would be teaching the grade she was in but her little face fell and tears filled her eyes as my bus rolled up and I had to leave.  What do you say? What do you do?  I am not going to give this little girl false hope and empty promises as she has probably heard it all before from the other mzungus that have previously visited.  The best thing that I could say to her (thanks to the advice from Natalie) is that I love her very much, have been so thankful that I got to be her friend and that one day in heaven we’ll see each other again and have a huge party. 

My sweet friend Martha

Last day at God's Grace with Martha and baby Jeremiah

So Watoto church is a cell-based community church in which every church member is a part of a cell, a small group of people that meet once a week to study the Bible, and support one another.  Cell groups also organize seed projects which are events to reach out to the cell’s immediate community.  This Saturday our class joined a group of cells from one region that were putting on a free medical clinic for one of the poorest areas in Kampala.  We helped usher people to the various services including TB testing, HIV testing, pharmacy, malaria treatment, dental, eye clinic, and counseling.   The area that we were in is where my two Living Hope clients live and guess who was there volunteering alongside me throughout the day, Auntie Margaret, one of my clients.  Auntie Margaret is one of the coolest people I have ever met.  I was so happy to see her as my team already went for our very last visit to her place and I stayed home sick that day.  She is a very caring and compassionate person, always giving us tasty treats when we go to her home and asking us to sing and pray for her.  I was pleased to hear her son is now out of prison and I got to meet her thirteen year old daughter who was there getting treated for malaria.    Please pray for her daughter’s recovery from malaria.

This weekend was our grad ceremony at the church services.  There is no way I could have possibly forgot or not believed that I graduated this weekend from Watoto 360 as we had to undergo the grad ceremony six times, one for each church service at Watoto Central.  Over the week we had been practicing a song (More and More by Israel Houghton)  to sing as a special in the church service.  You may not believe me but our class sounded better than the original!  Watoto Church is well known for its quality talent when it comes to music and my classmates can SING like no other.  For the church service, we joined the choir in the worship songs, were commissioned and prayed over by Pastor Julius and our course leaders, and a few of us, including me, shared a personal testimony about how 360 has impacted our lives.  A long tiring day it was but I really enjoyed sharing the experience with all of my classmates of being commissioned to now go and change the world.

 Our class singing our special More and More

 Singing with the choir

 My good friend Danielle kicking a** leading our song

 Mamma Shirley commissioning our class

 Sarah sharing her testimony from 360

 I reread my original application to Watoto 360 that I wrote last August.  I was expecting that as I was reading it, it would be like when you read your middle school journal and you are absolutely repulsed by the self-centeredness and lack of maturity of your fourteen year old self.  I discovered that before I came to 360, I struggled to maintain a regular routine of devotional habits.  Since my time here, I now crave to read my Bible everyday while listening to some Hillsong (If you haven't heard Zion, your life is not complete).  I see the importance in diving in the Word all of the time.  Also in the application, I wrote that I wished I were a more eloquent speaker.  I am not saying that I am now an eloquent speaker by any means but I have been given numerous opportunities of public speaking in class, ministry, and at church to express my opinions, preach, and share something from my life.  It hasn’t been easy!  I thought I was going to die when Pr. Julius asked me to preach at staff devotions and felt really uncomfortable as I did a video interview to promote 360, however I definitely think that I have become more confident and might even now slightly enjoy to speak now.

Some of my housemates and I have been gathering with the children from our neighborhood once a week to play games, sing songs, and get new and creative hairstyles.  From day one up to now, these kids will chase our bus with huge smiles and waving arms as we return home and will hold our hands as we walk to the grocery store.  They captured our hearts and we have been dreading the last day with them and wondering how we were going to say goodbye to them in a way of showing them how much we love them and will truly miss them.  Tonight we will have a little party right outside our gate.  We will blow up balloons, bring out candy and pop (a rare treat for children in a slum) and play until dark.  We also will give each of the children a picture we took of our times playing with them where we wrote N’kwagala nnyo on the back (which means “I love you very much).

 One week today I board a plane to London… AHHHH CRY UP!!!  I don’t want to think about it.

Peace and love