Cornerstone Children's Home

I have recently realized that I haven't really explained where I am living this summer. How inconsiderate of me. I apologize. That being said let me tell you a little bit about CCH. It is a children's home for those who are orphaned, whose parents are mentally ill, or do not have the ability to take care of them. There are, I believe, 57 children here ages 3 - 20. There are some permanent staff members such as Ross Kelly, who is the American father here, Pastor Robert, Pastor Juma, Akira, and Dominic who are all also fathers and help out with the running of CCH. Then there are the three temporary mothers (myself, Emily, and Adella). There are groups that come and go and some stay for shorts periods of a couple weeks, some maybe a couple of years.
Our compound is fairly large. It consists of about 10 tukuls, latrines, a shower, a church/office building, and a new building that is being constructed that is easily the biggest structure in Nimule. It is going to house all of the children along with having a big function room and study rooms. Cornerstone has come a long way since its beginnings when all of the children slept on the floor in the church. Now they have tukuls where they sleep in bunk beds or on matresses on the floor. There is a head boy or girl for each tukul.
The children here go to either the nursery or primary school within the compound or Nile, one of the local secondary schools.
So far, getting to know them has been one of the biggest pleasures of my life. I can't explain how incredible it is to be a mother to 57 children. The relationships that I have with some of them already are going to be with me for the rest of my life.
As for our tukul, it is very large. It has turquoise walls with green, blue, and red hand prints on it. There are two bunk beds and a single bed. We have a tin roof as opposed to the thatch that many others have. It is actually less desirable for many because they let in less air so the tukul is much warmer than some of the others, but we like it just fine. We have a great veranda outside that the kids love to come and sit or play on. Wednesday evening I was in charge of the activity for the younger kids and I did "colors" or coloring. I gave out packages or crayons and coloring pages and they colored for about an hour right outside. Some of them wrote "I love Julie" or "I love Adella" or "I love Alia," which is Emily's African name because many people can't say the name Emily and Alia means a very short woman (Emily is even shorter than I am). They are already calling us Mama before our names or Mother. It's really rewarding.
I can't wait for this weekend because I am in charge of the activity on Saturday. I will be teaching the kids how to play wiffle ball. It's going to be amazing I can already tell.
It is also Adella's birthday so we will be having dinner with Agnes, the director of GEDA (Girl Child Education and Development Association). Adella and Emily both have birthdays while we are here, but are wary of celebrating because many of the children here do not know their birthdays. Most of them just estimate or assume their ages. So it seems selfish to make a big deal out of a birthday here or really anywhere in the world because there are so many people that have never known or celebrated their birthdays. So we will be celebrating privately with good friends and great food. Food is a whole other topic I could talk about, but I haven't the time.

Moli-Andro

It was an incredible day. We drove about an hour and a half over the mountains to a village called Moli-Andro. It's a beautiful place where Paskwale, our agroforestry expert, has a piece of land that he farms. We drove off of the main road down a small dirt road and a couple miles in we stopped where there was a path going off the side of the road through some tall grass. We turned down the path and after driving about half a mile we got to a clearing where there was a small garden. Paskwale's land is big, but there is not much cleared and planted in yet – that's where we will come in handy! He had planted some small beds of umbrella trees, guava, and teak. We jumped right in and got our hands and just about everything else filthy from sitting in the dirt and potting, but it was glorious. The soil is so rich and smells so fresh and there is so much activity going on. You can hear birds and bees in the air and there are spiders, ants, millipedes, centipedes, and all matter of insects on the ground. It's just a wonderful place to be. At times we talked and at others we potted silently. At about 2:30 we stopped for lunch. We had our water bottles, packages of biscuits, and finally jackfruit. Jackfruit is giant – probably about 30 pounds each and is pointy on the outside. Inside the fruit is orange and there are pockets of seeds. We picked out the seeds so that we could plant them and ate the fruit, which was sweet like a mango or passionfruit, but also very sticky and dense. It was delicious. It's incredible how you can just plant seeds from the fruits you eat here and they will grow. You never need to buy packets of any kind of seed.

After eating out jackfruits we walked a little way through the grass to a river. The river had warm, clear water that we washed off in. Again, it was incredible. We waded through the sandy water and just played for a little while. After that, we went back to the planting site and dug up some ground where we planted avocado. We didn't even really have to plant them in the ground. We just set them down and covered them with a bit of dirt and Paskwale said that they would grow!

I have also been getting to know the children very well. I've been spending some time talking with the older kids about their schooling and how Sudan is so different from America. They are all very smart and do well in school. They've been teaching me to play their card games, which are confusing, but I'm getting them slowly. The younger children are always making me laugh and I love spending time making bracelets and talking with them. I'm slowly learning their names and can't wait to get to know them better.

New

Our first few days here have been overwhelmingly amazing. The kids are so wonderful and the staff is very welcoming. We're just now starting to begin our regular schedule. The second term started today so the kids are going back to school and we are beginning our work here. We visited one of our sites today and had introductions with the local government. It was interesting to say the least. However, we got to travel up over the mountains and get an incredible view of the Nile River. The land here is breathtaking. It is so pure and unpolluted. We were sitting on our porch today and we could see the rain falling from the clouds and the sun setting in the distance. It is something that is indescribable unless you can experience it.
I am getting used to the climate, food, language, and arrangements and I am loving every minute of it.
I'm off for now, but I'm sure there will be many stories to come.

Red Chilli

The trip here was Loooooong. I got to Manchester airport and found out that my connecting flight from Detroit to Amsterdam had been cancelled. Crap. At first they said the would not be able to get me out until the 20th. But, God is good, and I was able to get a flight out the same night from Boston direct to Amsterdam. So I had a couple of extra hours in the U.S. and did not have to fly west to fly east. After an 8 hour flight I arrived in Europe and only had a 2 hour layover before I got right back on a plane for Entebbe. Everything went well and our good friend Bernie welcomed us at the airport. We crammed our 16 (yes, 16) bags into the van and headed to Red Chilli, an awesome hostel where we stayed the night. There were some strange night noises, but overall it was a great first night.
Today we drove around Kampala to exchange our money, get some cell minutes, eat, and finally make arrangements to get to Nimule. The greatest part is that we will be taking a private van and Bernie will be escorting us! No awful bus ride!
Right now we are just hanging around here until about 10 pm when we depart for Nimule. I can't wait.
It is difficult to describe just how amazing Africa truly is. It is in the sounds, smells, sights and most of all it is in the people.
See you in Nimule.

Ciao

Thank you all for your support, donations, and prayers. I know that you have all been waiting in anticipation for my first email!
Today I'm headed to Manchester, NH where I will board a plane to Detroit, then another to Amersterdam, then another to Entebbe. Finally, on Tuesday afternoon I will be in Africa. I'm overwhelmingly excited and a little nervous, but overall I can't wait for my trip.
I hope you will all come on this journey with me through my blog and email updates.
Ciao for now.