Nor what I had really experienced in my tiny bit of gardening experience.
And Aunt Kim, I do wonder what the nutrients are like in the vegetables. It seems like they would be lacking, but perhaps not!
Well a couple hours after we finished—it rained! And it continued to rain all week! So that’s what it is like to depend on God for food! When you have no hose, all you can do is pray for rain! When we went back to the garden the following week—the beans had sprouted beautifully!
I was amazed that things were growing.
But it has been raining pretty much every day now—we must be in the rainy season!
The next Saturday, we went further down the slope to where we will be planting Irish potatoes. We had to clear out all the bush and cultivate the soil. When I had asked Mama Jane if I could come with them earlier that morning, she was so hesitant. And then when I kept trying to help in the garden, she kept trying to give me the easiest thing to do.
I wanted to be like, "woman, I know I look like a skinny little muzungu who can’t do anything, and yes I can’t do what you can do, but girl give me a hoe and let me go!"
So with enough persistence, that is exactly what I got to do! I think they were all amazed that I could dig the land well, I didn’t mind having dirt all over me, and I didn’t mind not wearing gloves and getting blisters. One of the kids kept trying to take the hoe from me because she thought I must be tired.
Oh how good it was to do some physical activity! (I am totally going to gain weight while I’m here with the massive amount of carbs and starches they are feeding me and very little physical activity)As Ross sings, I believe "it’s good to labor with my hands, it’s therapeutic to my soul in ways that I don’t understand." It was great to work hard!
I did have to go in a little bit before they did, though. I was starting to get sun burnt and being the responsible muzungu that I am, (see, mom!) I went inside.
Physical Affection
There is not much of it here. And there is nothing wrong with that. . . except for I don’t know what to do with that when it comes to these children. For instance, what is one of the first things you think of when you think of what you would want to do with orphan children? Perhaps something like, run up to them and hold them so tight and just hug, hug, hug them? Well realistically, I wasn’t expecting to really want to do that all the time. But I did/do want to hug them bunches when its appropriate, especially when they are hurt, sad, tired, etc.
I do not really ever see Mama Jane embracing them. I mean there is much fun, laughter, great conversation between all of them and Mama, but not much physical affection.
Of course, this IS Uganda.
But still.
So I’m trying to figure out how I, personally, should handle this. I am not a super physically affectionate person anyways, but I know how much children need that. . . It was very hard for me one day when Christine (5 yrs) came inside literally bawling and just stood there while a few of us, including Mama just sat at the table. She finally told Mama that one of the older kids had hit her. Mama simply listened and then disciplined the other child. (of course I was sitting there with no idea what was happening until afterwards)
What I wanted to happen in that scenario is for Christine to run inside to a mother’s arms that will hold her and console her. For Christine to instinctively know "when something hurts me, I run to mama’s arms." Yes, Christine knew to run inside and yes, mama jane righted the wrong that had been done to Christine by disciplining Anita and yes, mama jane told Christine she was sorry.
But my instinct tells me Christine needs more than that.
But maybe I’m wrong.
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