SMILE AFRICA!

(Sorry it took so long to post about Smile, its hard to put this all into words)

Finally!!! The day I’ve been waiting for for 8 months!! As I walked to Smile that morning I was excited, nervous, anxious, curious, let’s just say mixed feelings. I mean really, how do you prepare for something you’ve been waiting for for so long?

Kids in front of Pastor Ruth's Office!

The walk to Smile is about 20 minutes which is a good amount of time to relax on the way and pray about the events of the day. Tororo is a busy place in the morning, bicyclists, bota men all asking ‘Muzungu, you want a ride to Smile?’ It’s funny that they know where we are going. But its easy to figure out. However, there are a fair amount of Muzungus in Tororo as missionaries mostly.

The Kitchen! Where the porridge and rice are made!

Well, we got to smile and there is a wooden gate. We walked into the Smile grounds and about 10 kids came running at me yelling ‘ Muzungu, Muzungu’ they were so excited to see me, smiling, asking my name, holding my hands, hanging on my arms, almost like a jungle gym. We went into the clinic building and put our bags down. We met and greeted all the staff. All the staff are so wonderful and very kind. I’m excited to be working with them and learning from them.

Water Tower towards the back of the property.

I spent the next few hours meeting MANY kids, observing how the day goes with class time, shower/bath time, lunch, and free time. Smile has a nice sized piece of land all fenced in. There is plenty of space for kids to run around, a couple slides, teeter totters, and merry go rounds. They love futbol, soccer!! Smile actually has a team, that plays without shoes or jerseys, and they won their section so they get to travel to Mbali for the next tournament!! That is a big deal! If they win again they get to travel to Kampala!! Keep them in your prayers! We are hoping to go to the game on the 15th!

Mama Grace is always washing clothes from the baby room.

I was only at Smile for about 4 hours. I was exhausted!!! I felt overwhelmed with the number of kids, excited to continue to come to Smile everyday, loved by everyone there, I think there’s a definite plus to getting about a hundred hugs in a day!! Try it! haha. But for real you’ll feel better!

Open field area to play!! The buildings are storage, and toilet.

Smile consists of children infant through upper teens. There is a baby room for the infants, there siblings bring them in the morning and drop them off and pick them up at the end of the day. Kids go to class P1, P2, P3 and the younger ones outside in the shed (under the shelter). The teachers are all great, and have a gift because there are so many in each class its a talent to get them all to listen. Some things I’ve noticed so far is that they LOVE to color (in coloring books), read, learn, listen to books being read, play futbol, play frisbee, talk with us, and just be with us. It’s a great place to be:)

This is the baby room on the far left, middle rooms house boys and girls that stay at smile.

Playground equipment, recently painted blue!!

The small left building is a storage for handy work, the right building are the classrooms, clinic, and women learning room to bead and sew!