Traffic, celebrating, and goodbyes..

 Today, which I wish I got a picture..I saw 3 men and a goat on a "boda boda" (motorcycle). The goat was riding on the back with his legs tied with rope. I asked Francis where is the goat going? He replies, "Oh, to be slaughtered." Wish I had not asked..Poor goat! Having to weave in and out of traffic in Kampala on a boda boda is not a good way to go out I promise! The drivers are now required to wear helmets, but no one else is...so women, children, women breastfeeding babies, goats, pigs...anything goes. Literally! Also, if you are even a bit bothered by public breastfeeding, don't come to Africa. We had to go to a medical office today to pick up a form and literally there are women sitting everywhere just hanging out with babies breastfeeding...one crossed the street, hanging out topless breastfeeding...no one seems to even notice.
We went to the Acadia mall today, which was very nice. Nice coffee shops, etc...Francis over coffee told us all about their children's culture. I notice everywhere the children here are just so well behaved! It's absolutely crazy to me how they listen so well. I had to know all the secrets. The secret is there is no secret. Consistent discipline. We all know it, but the level to which they enforce it made me feel like the world's biggest parent failure. His 8 and 11 year old boy and girl both wash their own clothes, wash dishes, must be up by 7 am on weekends and 5 am during the week for school, mop, anything and everything it takes to run a household, they do. If they don't do it, there is a consequence. And no they don't beat their children. They just strongly stick with consequences that we as American families sometimes feel are too strict. The truth is, they need this. They need structure, discipline, and consequences. I THOUGHT I was doing ok with this...but nooooo I learned a lot today. A whole lot. Things I know, but needed to hear. Then Francis gave us an entire sex-ed lesson in Ugandan culture...and well, let's just say it was shocking. I don't want this blog to get too graphic so let's just leave that one alone:)
Ellie has been great today...she just goes where we go...tags along and smiles most of the time. What a different girl than last Friday. She is picking up on sign language very well already, waves and says Bye Bye, she calls John "Da" all the time now. She has become very attached to me.... she won't let him hold her much when I am around without getting very distressed looking. But when it comes time to play, she loves him! Today, I tried to lay her down to take a nap and for the first time she whined and even started crying a little. Oh, now we see a normal 2 year old! In a weird way, I am glad to see she is changing...this means she is attaching so well. But I laid down beside her and rubbed her head and then got up while she was still awake and just walked out and she was fine...she went to sleep in 2 minutes.
Then we went downstairs to play some more and I saw the same familiar girls I have seen for a few nights on the playground. Turns out it was one (Engrid) of their birthdays. So, I asked what she had planned tonight? She said nothing . I asked if she had ever had a cake for her birthday and she said no.

So, John, Ellie, and I plus Engrid and her 2 friends , went to the restaurant and had cake, sprites, and ice-cream with chocolate syrup! She ran off and came back with a beautiful red dress on that her mom found in the laundry of the hotel (her mom is a laundry worker at our hotel). She came back, and we sang happy birthday and made her night very special! Such a beauty Engrid is! I promised her that tomorrow, I would come to their school to read to her class and she is so excited!!
Daddy had to leave right after our little celebration, and Ellie cried for the first time when it was time to go to bed...I think it was a combination of knowing John was leaving and also getting attached to me, plus she was SO tired from a long day. But she didn't cry long, maybe 5 minutes or so, and she was OUT! Wonderful day...I really am loving Uganda:)