i am feeling excited

I just have to share all the good news surrounding the upcoming trip to St. Mary Kevin’s, the response to the wish list I posted, a major gift to the orphans and the excitement I am feeling about spending December in Uganda!

Exactly two years ago today I returned home from my first trip to Uganda. I decided to go back and see what I wrote that day on my blog. Here it is:

“I haven't been able to get one of the songs the children at St. Mary's sang for me out of my mind. It just keeps rolling around in my head, trying to find a place to rest. I don't know for certain how long that process might take... finding a place to put all that I have seen and done in Uganda, the 'pearl of Africa.' One thing I do know, however, is that I'm going to take these experiences with me wherever I go, and I am going to try to use them in a way that might bring about even more change in me - and perhaps change in others, as well. I feel a responsibility to DO something with all of this.”

In the past two weeks, enough calculators, drawing pads, journals, crayons, t-shirts, stuffed animals, soccer balls, toothbrushes and countless other goodies have been left on my front porch to fill SIX fifty pound duffle bags. College students in Nashville, Los Angeles and Burlington, Vermont are encouraging their friends to participate in collection drives, a woman in New Orleans is organizing a raffle at her store, high school kids in Kansas City are having bake sales to raise money, people in New York and Des Moines and Seattle are combing their closets, drawers and basements to find donations for the orphans.

I am blown away. I never, ever dreamt it would/could be like this.

These children who have so little and who ask for so little are going to have a Christmas they will never forget. And I, who have never even celebrated Christmas, will have a Christmas I will never forget either.

After they open their gifts, which will be served up in a donkey-driven wooden cart, they will, beanie baby or box of crayons in hand, go back to their dormitories where they will, thanks to a major gift from a Change the Truth supporter, fall asleep on brand new mattresses with brand new bed covers.

Can you believe it??

Can you imagine the joy on their beautiful faces as they drift off to sleep that night?

We are going to have so many incredible and memorable experiences in December. I wish all of you could be with us. Instead, we’ll write about them here on the blog and hope that you’ll get a good sense of what we are doing and feeling.

Just a couple of examples of what you can expect to read about, other than our work at the orphanage:

Those of us in the first group will be honored guests at a reception for the introduction of Rosemary and Joseph’s son to his fiancé’s extended family. We will be dressed (thanks to Rosemary) in traditional Ugandan garb. This event will take place in Jinja, the city that is known as the source of the Nile.

We will visit the Jewish community of Abayudayah in Mbale and spend Shabbat with the Ugandan Jews who make this their home.

I have said this before on my blog, but I’ll say it again: I am one lucky woman.

Oh, and here’s a news flash just in from my good friend Anna, who is in Uganda now:

You may recall from earlier posts, when white people are in Uganda, there are shouts of “Muzungu!!” (white person) as they drive or walk by clusters of people. This has now been replaced with “Obama!!”