Jackie =]

Ok, so here we go. =]

Quick note before i get the actual post down...I don't know how many of you know about Little Jackie. If you don't know about her, i'll fill you in right quick. Jackie is the 4 year old girl that Cari (the woman we worked with while we were there) got custody of. She has AIDS and while we were there she was so tiny. Cari would buy her the smallest size of clothes and it would be huge on her. But since she started her medicine she's grown 5 inches and has gained a lot of weight.
About 3 weeks ago, i learned that Jackie might have Cancer. Honestly, i cried about it. for like the whole day. But it wasn't for sure yet, they were waiting to hear back the results of a few tests.

Well, yesterday Cari emailed me and told me that Jackie does have cancer. but they caught it really early and it hasn't spread to any vital organs. It's in her foot. and she started Chemo 2 days ago. It just makes me so very sad, because this precious little girl has already gone through so much... It just breaks my heart.This is me and Jackie the day before we left.
She really became like a little sister to all of us.
I love her so much, i'm so thankful that Cari has her now, because otherwise she wouldn't be on any medication, for AIDS or for Cancer.
So please pray for her. =]

I'll hopefully post a bigger update later today. This was just pretty urgent. =]
thanks for all of your prayers.

~Katelyn~

Africa Part Two--Days 3 and 4

Ok, so first i have a few more things to add about day one. haha.
Day One::

One of the things i love most about uganda is that, when we would walk down the streets the children would run after us yelling Hi Mzungu! A Mzungu a mzungu! (mzungu means crazy white man. =P) And they really, just wanted to be loved. they'd run after me and just hold my hand. it was so precious. i miss it. in fact i have to have someone call me mzungu at least once a day or i get completely sad... haha.
the second thing i forgot was that on the way to our first school there was this man standing on the side of the road on this little path. He looked at me and so i said "oli otya." (proud of my luganda skills eh? it means how are you?) he said "Jinndi. How are you?" (i'm fine) I said ":i'm fine." he said "it's a beautiful day outside." i nodded and said "yes. it is!" then he told me i had to come meet his mother. well, by this time my group was pretty far ahead of me... except for nookie and i think chris...who had stopped with me. i said i had to catch up to my group, but he insisted that i meet his mother. so i did. and she was very nice. He told me "thank my mother for raising me so nice" so i said "thank you for raising him so nice...?" I told him that i had to go catch up with my group but that it was very nice to meet him. Then i ran off. as I was running I had this horrible thought that i had just gotten engaged or something. (after all, i met his mother...) i just didn't really wanna have to call my parents and be like...sorry i'm not coming home, i got accidently engaged. haha. But Cari told me that she didn't think it meant anything.
Ok, the end. =]


Africa Day Three::
Monday::

The first school we went to was literally just around the corner from our hotel. That was nice, since we really walked everywhere. it was such a small school. They had 3 school rooms and about 30-40 children total. maybe even less. They sang us several songs, but my favorite was Baby Jesus. It was so precious.
One thing that i loved in africa was that everywhere we went, at every single school, a child would pick me out of the crowd. At this school there as a little girl names Sadia and a little girl named Yenzee (probably spelled wrong...) They latched on to me and wouldn't let go, Sadia attached to me more than Yenzee did, but for the first half of our time at that school Yenzee wouldn't let go. Sadia didn't leave my side the whole time we were there. It was so precious. She hugged me at one point and said "my mzungu." I was so in love with that precious little girl. :) When we were leaving the school Sadia got really upset. We had handed out little Dum Dum lollypops and pencils and Sadia was eating her lolllypop and when it was time to leave i knelt down in front of her to give her a hug and said "i have to go now. I'll miss you." and she hugged me tightly and wouldn't let go. I stood up, i was so very close to tears and she held onto my hand. Yenzee came and hugged me goodbye. and Sadia said, "Don't go mzungu!" I said "i have to. i wish i didn't but i have to go" and i started to walk away. i looked back at her and she threw her lollypop on the ground and started crying. Man, that hurt. i was about to cry and Tyler hugged me and i said "i don't think i can take 3 more weeks of this..." it really broke my heart. my heart got broken so many times while i was in Africa. I don't think i'll ever be the same. but that's a good thing, because it's like the song "Hosanna" says "break my heart for what breaks yours everything i am for the kingdoms cause" that's the kind of heartbreak i felt. I walked up to Rodney and said "i can't do this everyday." and i started crying. he said "um, it's a little late for you to decide that..." and i sortof laughed, then he hugged me and Tyler said "no, her heart really gets broken..." and Fondi came and hugged me.
We went to lunch at Cari's school. It was fun. I love the food there. I only had one meal that I didn't like....but that's another story. for another day. :P
After lunch we walked into the middle of the worst part of the slums. The school was called Joy School. It was appropriately named, since everyone there was so very happy even though they had next to nothing. I loved this school. it was one of the only schools we went to twice. They had about 60 kindergarten age students (3-6) their courtyard was so tiny. We barely had any room to do our songs. This one little girl named Vivian latched onto me. She was beautiful. She was so sweet to. She just sat with me. It's funny but the calm children who just wanted to sit and talk or just sit and be with you, always seemed to pick me as their friend. I don't know why, they just did. Which was fine with me, i loved just sitting with them. =] When we were done playing with the children, the guy who ran the school showed us around. The school was so tiny. they had so little room. He showed us the dorm area, where orphans would stay, they would put like, 8 children in a room that's smaller than my bedroom here in America. it was very...heartbreaking.
After Joy school we went to Save the Street Child. It was so fun. They danced for us for like, 2 hours.That's just what they do. They go there and they dance and sing and act and play drums. it was so much fun. There was this one little boy Ivan who was so good, just so natural at dancing. It was amazing. And this little girl, Brenda was SO fabulous! She didn't even have to try to be good at dancing. It just happened. Same for Ivan, it just happened. and he's so wonderful at dancing.
They did this play for us, the story of the play was a little girl, living with her stepmother and stepbrother, the little girl was played by this AMAZING actress named Alice. she was SO good. So the story is, that the stepmother was mean to Alice and told her she had to have the whole house cleaned by the time she got home or Alice would get thrown on the streets. Alice tried to get her stepbrother to help her clean, but he wouldn't, instead he ate the food. So whenthe stepmother got home, she started yelling at Alice, "you stupid girl, you ate all the food and the house is still a mess." and Alice fell on her knees begging and crying, really crying. "please stepmother don't throw me out. don't stepmother."and just sobbing the whole time. After the play was over. She stood up, wiped her eyes and started smiling again, she was just so good.
Then they were singing a song for us, and i honestly don't remember much of the song, it was something like, pray for Africa, God save Africa. but there was this one part that went something like "I want to go to school. I want to have a home. I want a mother and a father to love me." or something along those lines. And Alice just started crying. Big tears rolling down her cheeks. It was heartbreaking (i have a feeling that word is going to show up a lot in this blog...)
We went back to the motel after dark, good thing i had a flashlight.
Ok, side note...it was kindof scary walking at night, because they don't have lights, and so they blend in to the darkness and then they are suddenly at your side... it was just a little unnerving. haha.


Africa Day Four::
Tuesday::

We went back to the Joy School. This time to spend time with the Primary students (ages 6-13). I was starting to get sick i think. Because i really just didn't feel good at all. I went and sat to the side, in the shade. There was a classroom right behind where i was sitting and the children inside the classroom did not call me mzungu. They called me Whitey. Yes. Whitey. haha. They talked to me a lot. Asking me where i was from. Why my skin was so white (believe it or not, i got asked that quite a bit...haha) I mostly sat the whole time, i just felt extremely sick...not like, gonna vomit sick, just exhausted sick. but somehow the children found me. and i ended up with about 20 children around me, haha
On the way to Cari's (for lunch and to pick up the two people that went to help at Cari's school) our guide took us to this church in the slums. The others danced, and i sat outside the church and talked to some children. I gave them all Salvation bracelets and told them about it. They listened so intently. It was crazy. I remember thinking, children in America would NOT listen for this long. But they did. They just sat and listened to me. Then i went inside the room with one of the little girls and we were dancing, she showed me how to do a few dance moves, and then i showed her some. it was so funny watching her imitate me, and i guess it was funny watching me imitate her, because the other children laughed at me. heehee. =P Then the pastor of the church came out and asked us to stay for a "short service" We agreed (because if we didn't it would be an insult and it would reflect badly on Cari and Annette.) We were sortof worried about Kayla and Shannon since they were at Cari's and didn't have any idea what was going on, or where we were and we didn't have a way to contact them. But we stayed. By this point i was feeling really sick, and very dizzy, because i hadn't eaten since early that morning, and i was just...sick. we sat down and they gave us special chairs at the front of the church...it was...special. I honestly do not remember most of the church. i remember that the little girl that i was dancing with was sitting with me. and she asked me to take her home with me. and then this guy fell on the floor and scared the little girl and she ran away.... and then tehy showed us a ridiculously loud video of this guy healing people. And he was their prophet. I was trying to sleep...i felt so awful. And then their pastor was talking to us, and he kept saying "because of time, i will end soon." or something close to that...but he never ended.... i fell asleep leaning on Josiahs shoulder. He had us stand up to "end" the service, and i literally, leaned against this pole and fell asleep standing up... Clarissa was rubbing my back and i just fell asleep. haha. Then it was *finally* over. We walked outside, and i was SO dizzy. I actually almost fainted. Thank you Jesus that Josiah was still standing next to me, because he caught me as i started falling. He basically carried me back to Cari's house. like, i was walking, but he had his arm around me to hold me up. And Lacey helped me too. We FINALLY got to Cari's and I laid down, Rodney told me that he wasn't going to let me go to the next school. I was really sad, because i wanted to go, i loved going to the schools. And Josiah said that even if his dad said i could go, HE wasn't going to let me go. While i was at Cari's i ate a little then i laid down and Clariss acame and sat next to me. She asked me if i wanted to go to the next school and i just started crying. I said i wanted to go, but i felt so terrible. So i didn't go. Rodney, Lacey, and Shannon went back to the hotel with me (shannon wasn't feeling well either, Lacey wanted to stay with me, and Rodney had some work to do at the hotel) and i went to my room and laid on my bed, Lacey came into my room and rubbed my back and i crashed, i slept until they came home from Save the Street Child.
Also it was Collins 16th birthday.
--The End--

~Love Katelyn

Ps. here's a video of the children singing Baby Jesus. There's some talking before but i don't know how to get rid of it. so just watch it through. it's so precious!! :)

Africa Part One-first 2 days

Hey, I know it's been forever and ever since i last updated... I've been so busy. Also, i've sortof been procrastinating this update, because it's gonne be HUGE....i mean, i'm basically telling all about 3 weeks in africa... It's pretty much intense...
Ok, so this is it...

The Group:


Africa Day One::
Saturday::

We got in late on friday night, which was nice, because i barely suffered from jetlag at all while i was there. We woke up saturday morning and went to a school nearby (about a 5 minute walk.) We painted a room (by we, i mean the boys, the girls played with the children.) even though it was Saturday, the children were still in school. We played games with them, mostly soccer, that's their favorite. And the children loved just sitting with you. There was this one little girl named Angel who carried around her school book and a pencil and just wrote and wrote. It was all gibberish since she was only about 3, but it was absolutely precious!! She sat on my lap for a little while, but then she went to sharpen her pencil (with a razor!) and someone else snagged her to sit on their lap. This other little girl named Lydia crawled onto my lap and sat there telling me all these stories about school. It was so precious. Then she told me she wanted to play with my hair (it was up in a bun) so i took it down and I was suddenly surrounded by about 17 children, all petting my hair. It was hilarious.
We were sitting outside watching the boys play soccer and this little boy came and sat on my lap in front of Lydia. Lydia didn't like that very much. She started to hit the little boy, and they started fighting over sitting on my lap. I was trying to get them to stop fighting but they weren't listening...it was sortof funny, but sortof bad. because i didn't want them to get hurt, but it was silly that they were fighting over sitting on my lap.
before we had gone to the school i had been standing outside our motel and these little children were standing outside the gate. Well, Parker and i started playing games with them (tag mostly) and this one little girl (Fiona) was playing with, like, JUST me. no one else. anyway, we played for a little while, then we went to the school. I loved it because they were so excited that we were there! they would peek in from outside the gate and it was just so stinking adorable. =] Anyway, after we got back from the school the children were still outside waiting for us to come back and play with them. Fiona ran over and grabbed my hand and just hung on. We brought the children inside the courtyard area of our motel and played Duck Duck Goose with them. They loved it. It was my turn to be "it" and i tagged a little boy then ran around (as the game goes) and when i sat down, Fiona ran across the circle to sit with me. it was incredibly cute! We had to go inside to eat and have our share time/group time, so i told Fiona to come back the next day (since it was sunday, we didn't have any schools to go to, so i knew we would be at the motel).



Africa Day Two::
Sunday::

We went to Cari's church today. It was really fun. They sang some good english worship songs, but then they sang a few songs in Luganda, that was my favorite time of the service, was listening to the Luganda songs. The service was also cool, because they had an American preacher and then a Ugandan would translate. I love the way the Luganda language sounds. it's just so beautiful. There was this one little boy who sat with me during church. He was super precious. I gave him some fruit snacks and he made one pack (about 7 snacks) last the WHOLE service, and it was about 3 hours long. (including singing) Then after he and his friend and his friends little sister (she was 2 he was 7) and i were standing outside the church [[insert picture of me with little boys and little girl]] The little boy (I believe his name was Derrick) was holding my hand and he was looking at it, very intently and he looked up at me and said "you are very white" I laughed and said "yes, i know." It was time to leave after that, and Derrick just stood there holding my hand. i said "i have to leave now. i will see you later" but he wouldn't let go. I climbed into the car and sat down and he climbed in after me. i said "you can't come with me. i wish you could, but you can't." he got out of the car and reached into the open window of the car and held my hand. I was really sad when we left. =[
We went the mall for lunch. That was extremely crazy... They had like 7 restraunts and all the waiters came and attacked us with menus (well they didn't really ATTACK us, they just bombarded us) and they kept telling us what we wanted to eat and finally i get to order what i wanted... it was very stressful. haha
Then we went home (to the motel) the children from the day before were standing outside our gate again, they started cheering when our vans pulled into the driveway. I got out and the kids surrounded me and parker and Tyler and Andrea, we told them we were going to go change and went in to change. When we came out we played duck duck goose again, then we were sitting and everyone was doing their own thing. I was sitting with Fiona and this little boy and a bunch of other children We were just sitting Fiona looked at me and this is how our conversation went:

Fiona: What country are you from?
Katelyn: America
Fiona: Oh.
[pause in conversation]
Fiona: I live with my aunt but i do not like it.
Katelyn: Oh. Why not?
Fiona: She beats me.
Katelyn: Oh. I'm sorry [[what do you say to that?!]]
[pause in conversation]
Katelyn: Where are you parents?
Fiona: Far away.
[pause in conversation]
Fiona: Will you take me back to America with you and be my mother?

Katelyn: I wish i could, Fiona. I really wish i couldIt was so heartbreaking. I cried very hard. I would love to one day go back and adopt her someday. She's 9 years old and i really do love her.

That's all for now. through day 2 of Africa. Haha. this is gonna take awhile. :P

Love~Katelyn~

PS. visit my other site: Knitwitsforafrica09.blogspot.com. It's things my sister and i knitted to sell to help raise money for africa and for me adopting my little girl, Evi. =D

PPS. Here's a slideshow i put together! The song is What Now By Steven Curtis Chapman