A dozen ways to know you are raising your children in Uganda...

::Your 3 year old absolutely refuses to go to sleep without a mosquito net down.

::Your drive to church includes a rehearsal in how to greet in the local tribal language.

::As parents, you compare the safety of everything else your children participate in to a boda-ride. (motorcycle taxi)  As in, “It’s probably no more dangerous than a boda.” Or “that is way more dangerous than riding a boda.”

::Your 7 year old isn't afraid to ask anyone for anything.  Mildly embarrassing when you walk out of a guest house room and find the manager cutting up a jackfruit because your son asked him to. 

::When your family is alone, you often have to remind the kids that they don’t have to speak in a Ugandan accent.

::During circumcision season, you have to tell your 5 year old boy to stop circumcising his carrots at the dinner table.

::Your children argue about whether the name Emma sounds more like a girls’ name or a boys’ name (A common short form of “Emmanuel”). 

:: On the rare occasion that you happen to be some place cold, your three year old freaks out at the idea of wearing socks.

::That same three year old also loses her shoes and no one notices for a couple weeks until it is time to walk out the door to go to Kampala.  (okay, maybe that’s a large family problem…keeping up with more than 20 pairs of shoes is no small feat)  After a frantic search, you give up and take her barefoot to the big city.  You stay there for a few days not worrying about it, but when it is time to go to the very westernized dentist office, you think to yourself, “this girl really needs some shoes” so you buy her a cute pair of Mary Janes.  She loves them and tells everyone (from the lady in the check out line to the receptionist at the dentist's office) how cute they are, but absolutely refuses to walk a single step in them because she hates the way they feel…she just wants to hold them and continue to run barefoot in the warm January sun.

:: Your son hands you his church time art work composed of scary faces upside down on top of flames and says, “Those are all the omuzimu (Luganda for ghosts) going to hell.”

::A boda ride to the clinic and back again makes immunizations worth it in the eyes of your kids.

::Your little ones who can’t remember America want to know, “Are there playgrounds in America?”

So thankful to be able to raise our kids here!  They keep us laughing for sure!