A Place of Peace

Instead of going day-by-day, I’m going to talk about each organization that we worked with while in Uganda in alphabetical order.

First up: Amani Baby Cottage, A Place of Peace.



Laundry at Amani

Amani in Lugandan means “peace” but while I was there, the only place there was peace was in the Baby Room during Naptime.  The rest of the time the air was filled with kids ranging from 2 years old to 5 years old playing, laughing and shouting.

My first experience at Amani was the day we first arrived in Jinja. Shelby, Cate and I went to Amani during their playtime. We went to the baby room first and that’s where we met “Big Papa” or Phillip. Phillip was sitting in a chair like The Godfather watching over his “turf” and waiting for someone to pay attention to him. There was a Mama there who was changing the kids while the others crawled around. One baby crawled over to me and decided to welcome me with drool and a toothless smile. Shelby, Cate and I stayed there until we had to go back to the Guesthouse for dinner.



"Big Papa" or Phillip



The next time I went to Amani was with the rest of the team when we went to Pre-School. Tina is the pre-school teacher and she teaches kids from the age of two years old to five years old. Those kids made me feel the most Southern I have ever felt because there’s a two year old who can enunciate words way better than I can. The kids love pre-school though. The team has so many jokes from the mornings we spent in pre-school. The most famous is when Tina was going over the sounds of the letters in the alphabet and right between B and C she said “Moses go change your pants” and then went right back to the rest of the letters without missing a beat. We did crafts with the kids and we became celebrities when we passed out animal cookies.



Benjs, William and Alima showing off their crafts



Water Break during playtime

Tina gave us a tour and told us the plans she had for when the property became H.E.A.L. Ministries’ new site. During the tour, the girls and ladies ended up in the Baby Room during naptime. We asked if we could hold them and the Mama there told us we could hold the ones who were awake. Eventually though all the babies were awake and being held by someone. I held “Big Papa”, Mercy, who has the biggest smile and personality, and Lacy, a newborn who had just arrived that day. Those babies are lucky to have Amani Baby Cottage as their home.

As part of the luggage we brought was suitecases filled with tolitries inside of purses inside of bags. We gave these to all the Mamas at Amani and they were so happy. The looks on their faces were priceless.

Mamas and their purses

I fell in love with all of the kids at Amani. A few kids, though, have worked their way into my heart.

Innocent is three years old and I had fallen in love with him before I ever went to Uganda. I saw his picture on the website (www.amanibabycottage.org ) and he was in my heart from then on. When I first met Innocent he was more interested in climbing on Brian’s shoulders and causing a bunch of mischief. It’s funny that a boy named Innocent would get into so much mischievous adventures that just leave you laughing at the end of the day. Once during playtime, I took my flip-flops off so I could spin the kids. Next thing I know Innocent is walking around with my flip-flops on and laughing as he tried to run. When I asked him what was he doing he said “Wearing my shoes.” I will never forget his smile or his laugh as he tried to get away from me while wearing my flip-flops.

Innocent and hie heart-capturing smile

Alima is five years old and that is the oldest a kid can get at Amani. Most babies or kids get adopted before they turn five but Alima is different: she’s unadoptable. The reason the precious child is unadoptable is because she has a living relative and therefore, by Ugandan law, can’t be adopted without the signing over of her birthrights. Alima was by my side from the day we first met. She loved to run up to me and say “Auntie, I want to get on your back.” I would pick her up, make her say my name and then I would spin her to my back. I would then hear “Spin.” And so I would spin as fast as I could and then when I stopped she would say “Again.” And I would spin again. All the kids loved to do this but Alima was the most persistent. The last day we were at Amani I told Alima I was leaving and she said “Bye” and walked away. I told the boys I had fallen in love with (Frank, Brian, Jonah, Matthew, Innocent and Elijah) goodbye and then went back to Alima. I told her it was my last day and I asked if she was going to miss me. Alima said “Yeah.” (Side note: the kids favorite word is “Yeah”) I asked if she was lying and she said “Yeah.” I asked if she would give me a hug and she jumped up, threw her arms around me and said “Take me with you.” What do you say to an unadoptable child who has stolen your heart?

Alima in her favorite spot

Amani Baby Cottage is moving and so a couple of the days we were in Uganda we painted the cottages. I began in the Blue room with Cate and Lynley. I did the corners and trim while they rolled the walls. I then started cleaning the spots on the floor.



Cleaning the trim



Ms. Lisa S. was painting pictures and verses on the walls of the rooms. I helped paint the verses for a while then went to help Shelby and Paige paint the Pink room. I painted the corners and the trim. Paige and Shelby were happy to have someone else in the room helping because since the pink room was such a light color it would need a couple coats of paint.



Ms. Lisa S. painting a picture under Lynley's "supervision"

The next time we went to the work site I helped paint the pink room again and then helped paint the Yellow room. My partner in painting the yellow room was Sandra. Sandra is amazing. She is German and lives in Montana when she’s not living at Amani. Sandra also made the team dinner one night and it was amazing. Everything was homemade from fresh ingredients. The morning we left (at 5:00 in the morning) Sandra made us homemade cinnamon rolls and we all were very content as we left Jinja.

Yellow Room painting buddies!

After we finished the yellow room, I went to work once again scrubbing the floor of the blue room. I do not like that blue room. We also worked at the site for half of a day and I was given the job of drawing lines and waves in the bathroom part of each of the three cottages. I drew different size stripes in two of the cottages and different size waves in the other. I then had enough time to paint green on some of the stripes and waves before Tina called “Quittin’ Time” and we went off on another adventure.

Please be in prayer for Amani Baby Cottage as they finish building their new site and begin moving things there. Please also be in prayer for the Mamas, Aunties and Uncles at Amani who dedicate their time to taking care of the kids. And lastly, please pray for the kids at that they find forever homes with families who love them dearly.