Maggie 9th birthday!!!!

Hello Everyone,

Today we celebrated Maggie's 9th birthday, and she also got to stay home from school today. Unfortunately it wasn't because of her birthday, but because she needed more shots. I mentioned yesterday that she went to the clinic. She is doing fine, but does have malaria. She needs more shots tomorrow, then I think she is back to school for friday. We celebrated with singing happy birthday, opening her present, and of course a wonderful birthday cake. She is such a beautiful girl. Her smile can melt the hardest heart. She really enjoyed her special time today, and also enjoyed cutting (and eating) her birthday cake. Glad we were here to see it.

Speaking of cakes......this morning Auntie Cassie and I did have our pancakes at Cafe Larem. They were wonderful, as were the lattes. Of course they weren't as good as Irma's, and the syrup was only 2 percent real, and nothing like the good stuff from buckton; but it was still good. We found a jewelry store that the coffee shops supports, and checked it out. It was really nice, and suprised that we had never seen it before. We really went because Auntie Cassie was looking for something specific, but I did pick up a few things. One particular thing was pink, as as long as the person for who it is for actually runs the gmr in June, I'm sure she will enjoy it ;). No pressure kiddo.

After a few trips to town and back (my stomach was off today so I needed to make a few pitstops), Auntie Cassie and I decided to rent a boda, and just go on a few hour tour around Gulu. It turned out to be a great idea. We went to Pece Stadium, Lacor hospital, the Gulu airport, and then a rock quarry. The hospital was really nice, and the buildings we past on the way there were nice too. There was a lot of catholic schools, and a HUGE catholic church. Hard to believe since to get there we drove down what looked like a cow path that people had to step off to get out of the way of the boda. Many of the wards don't have beds, and the maternity ward had dozens of women sitting or laying on what seemed to be like a porch. The most impacting part was the children's ward. Patients are not served food by the hospital, so parents or loved ones bring them meals three times a day. Parents we scattered on the floors while there children lay in beds, and some with tubes, and IV's sticking out of them. It reminded me of the children's hospital I went to in the Dominican Republic ten years ago. I don't know how someone could see that and not be moved at a real deep level. The rock quarry was another very moving site. The quarry was quite large, and there were no machinery except for a few trucks being loaded by hand with the gravel. There were a few men breaking the rock out of the ground just small enough for one man to handle. Then those rocks are thrown into piles and distributed among what seemed to be over fifty women who would break those rocks into smaller ones. Then smaller ones, and repeat the process until the big rocks were broken into gravel. A group of men sat playing cards near the entrance waiting for the truck to come back to be loaded. It made me want to grab a sledge hammer and smash there "card table" into a million pieces.

We have it so good in the west. I cannot fully describe how the trip today........and this trip in general have made me feel. Some of it cannot be described, only experienced. I just hope that I don't ever forget what I saw today, and remember to be thankful for what I have.

Love and miss you all,

Joe