Safe and Sound!

The weekend has been awesome, but very eventful!
Saturday was the HIV/AIDS fesitval that we have been planning all summer and it went fairly well. It didn't go exactly how we imagined it, but it all turned out! I won't bore you with the details, but there were many bumps in the road and many stressful headaches, but there were so many incredible moments as well. Our children's choir from Ssanyu school sang their songs that they had prepared and they did AWESOME! I was so proud of them! There were 11 kids in our choir and Ally and I had so much fun taking care of them all day! We had a mad dash to buy them bananas and had a little picnic outside after their performance. It was so adorable because after they would sing, I would run back to the area where they came off stage and they would all just run and cover me with hugs! Such a happy moment! It was just so amazing to think back to where we started with the project. No, it didn't turn out like anything we planned. We had hoped to start it for children with disabilities and that wasn't successful. But through the process, we had stumbled accross some kids who loved to sing, but didn't have a choir at their school so I still consider it to be very successful! Although after meeting with the children with disablities, I keep thinking there must be something that we can do for them, even if it is just to make them smile or feel loved.
We also performed our Mzungu african dance! ha ha . . . . . it was very interesting! We had ginormous skirts with a ton of layers to accentuate hip movements! But we did it and we had the whole audience falling out of their seats from laughter! But it was a lot of fun!
After the festival, we headed out to have a sleepover at Rose and Paul's orphange to say goodbye! It was so great to be out there with those kids again! We had a great time playing volley ball with them, singing, dancing, and after dinner, we introduced them to Smores and they LOVED it! I was passing out marshmellows I couldn't get them out of the package fast enough! We also brought a laptop and watched Aladin with them and read books. It was possibly one of the best days ever!
If anyone is wondering about the terrorist bombing in Kampala, we live about 50 miles away so we were all very safe and took many precautions. We are all safe and very happy to get back to work! All I can say is that being in America and hearing about a terrorist bombing on the other side of the world is very different then being there.
This week, is our eye camp! It has been amazing so far and super busy! We have had tons of people show up and have done hundreds of vision tests, about 60 surgeries, and handed out tons of glasses and medications. I was just thinking today as I was watching the nurses remove the bandages from people's eyes about how it felt being there. Ever since I have come here to Uganda, I have seen so much need everywhere! It is very overwhelming at times! But usually, there isn't a whole lot that we can do in one day. You can help them start projects, but you don't get to see their happiness when their quality of life gets better. With cataract surgeries that is exactly what you get to see! One moment, someone is blind. The next day they remove the bandages and although the eye is sore and swollen, they can see! Or when a school kid tries to read the eye vision chart and can't get passed the second row, but you hand him some eye glasses and he can see!! It has been such an incredible two days so far and I'm so glad we will be able to continue until the beginning of next week!
Pretty much every day, I will just be working and thinking to myself, "how did I get so lucky to come here and have this incredible experience?" Although everything has been so incredible lately, it has been so hard at the same time. I am meeting and spending time with so many amazing people knowing that I only have one more week here before I leave. It's probably going to be one of the hardest things ever, especially because they just look at you and say, "please don't forget us."