Nursery Update!

 While we were in Jinja for New Year's we stopped by Surjios' wife's orphanage. We got some good inspiration from them; to paint a mural in the baby room! We talked with Pastor Ruth and she gave us the Ok! So we headed to town and bought some paint and supplies.
Holly is our artist out of the bunch so she painted the animals and Sarah and I did a lot of details! We spent the first day painting the grassy hills and sky. Day 2: we painted animals, trees, and other details. Day 3 & 4 We painted extra details in the room.
We wanted to change this space because the 12 children that live at Smile all live in this room and we wanted to give them some fun pictures to look at.  We wanted it to be a place where they can also learn. We added the alphabet within the hills on the wall and the monkey hanging down has dropped his 10 bananas, which will help them to learn how to count to 10 and recognize the numbers. Hopefully it will spark their imagination and make them smile!
We knew this was going to be a blessing to Smile but I was thinking that the kids would like it the most. Right and wrong. I was blown away by the appreciation we received from the staff and how in aw the kids were! They would stand by the doorway and in the windows everyday we painted to look in at what we were doing. So precious! This also made me realize how much the little things we do are such a blessing to them! What an affirmation and confirmation as to why I am here.

I had a sweet moment with my buddy Jose. When it was all finished I brought him into the room and said 'Look at all the animals Jose, what do you think?' He looked at me with big eyes and a HUGE smile on his face. He had never seen ANYTHING like this before! We walked around to each animal making their noises and saying their names. So precious. It brought tears to my eyes.  This made me realize that these kids are missing something (not that growing up in Africa is worse than other parts of the world). But to not have this stimulation for their imagination. It is so hard to explain so I hope you are understanding what I mean. (Maybe you just need to experience it and see what I mean) But they are SO THANKFUL for what we did and the truth is; I think it was more of a blessing for us to do this act of kindness than for them to receive it.

Day 1: Sarah painting the sky

Day 1: Pre painted wall

Day 1: Pre-Painted walls

Finished Main wall!!!

Makeshift map of the world!

Learning the Alphabet in the hills!

Day 3: Dennis helped trace this for us!

Day 4: Finished, Learning numbers with Monkey and a goodnight prayer!

I remember this from my childhood, thanks mom and dad!

Day 4: Finished wall with Mr. Lion

Day 4: Sunshine and children on the hill, this is above the alphabet!