1More Child

         One of the things that was good about our time at Musana Camps after the Heart of Worship retreat was to see the camp at work with one of its faithful visitors. 1More Child is an organization that takes in street kids off the streets and gives them food and an education. When we were there some of the 6-10 year old kids that the mission takes care of arrived a few days before we left. We had helped set up-my mom cleaning tents and Christina, Stella (our friend) John and I played with the little kids that live there. Malachi and little John were the oldest two around 3 years old and loved to feed the chickens, pretend to kill bears with sticks, and herd make-believe cows. Hannah was also there for a little while and she was easily entertained by looking at the cows and feeding the chickens. Eva was the littlest-about 1 and like walking around with someone holding her hands.  One of the funniest things was when the younger John called to our John ,"Big John, come play!" After all the tents were set up we went back to the house where we were staying and played Dutch Blitz and Uno and Frizball (our own variety of baseball since we don't have a real bat).

        When we came back down for lunch 40 little boys sat at the table eagerly eating their posho and beans. When the first few finished they dashed off fast-trying to get a turn on one of the 4 swings! You never fully appreciate swings until you see them as prized treasures and once-in-a-life-time rides! When we had finished cleaning up the dining hall we went to see if they had started playing games yet. When we arrived they were being split into teams and told to come up with team names and cheers. A few of them we "We go, we go! We go, We go!" and "United, we stand! United, we stand!". Then Uncle Medie gave instructions for the relay race. We went to help hold sticks that they had to put their heads on and then spin around 5 times and run back to their team. We were to count to make sure they went around 5 times. I had to haul back a few of the kids. Since I didn't know any of their language, Karamojong, I had to use the symbol for come that they use here and they seemed to know that which was good!  Then they did a water relay where the had to carry a spoonful of water and place it in the bucket and whoever had the most at the end won! After that we played a game that I had played on my retreat where everyone had flags and you had to pull them off each other to get a person out. Whoever was left won. In the first round I was only considered a threat by Christina, John, and Stella so I stayed in for a long time until there were only about 7 of us left and then one of the leaders got me out. The second round I was chased a little more and got out quite a bit faster. Oh well! We then went down to the lake to watch Stella swim and ran into some very unpleasant, nasty critters. (NOTE: There are none of these at Kasana so don't let it scare you from visiting!) The critters are called safari ants and they come in the hundreds and walk in lines and have sharp claws that if you walk in their way they will start crawling up you and you will feel a tingly, stinging feeling all on your feet! We had a few run-ins with them and had to pick them off of our feet and out of the insides of our shoes. All in all, I can't wait to go back to Musana Camps