I'm not good!

On my last afternoon at Namwianga, I walked down to the Wasawange village with one of the ACU interns to confirm what I already knew...I'm not good at football (soccer)! Like seriously. You know it's bad when an entire village of African children laugh at you (in unison). They were all standing in a group, and wanted us to head-bump (I don't even know if that's what you call it) the ball to them. Apparently, I'm about as good at that as I am actually playing. My head-bumping skills improved marginally after a few tries. Luckily, they never asked me to legit play. I ended up playing tag instead. I'm decent at that. 

It was a little intimidating how good they were. They had a pretty intense game going.

 The kids were completely fascinated when we pulled out our cameras. Everyone wanted to be in every picture. It's funny because the toddlers at the Haven know to be still and smile when a camera is pointed in their face, but these kids didn't quite get it. They live down the street, and often play football with the kids from Eric's House, but they're worlds away. It was really difficult to get them to stay in one spot while I backed up to get them all in the frame. They wanted to be as close as possible.

I could never get them all looking at the same time!

Thanks, Ashley, for taking this!

There was the one little girl who attached herself to me. She was quiet. I got the impression she got pushed around a lot. And kind of left out. She was so precious. She didn't want to let go of my hand at all. She got to the point where she would cry if the other kids tried to steal my hand from her. She would fuss and brush them away. And I was never able to figure out her name.

Isn't she cute?!

When It was time to leave, we tried to tell the kids that we had to go back. We started walking away, and they followed. All of them. And as we walked through the village, more came, more followed. We tried multiple times to get them to stay behind. They would let us take about five steps, and then they would swarm us again. We got to the main road (and the very edge of their village), and we were still having a hard time getting them to let us go. They asked if we had any "sweeties" (candy), which we didn't...but apparently hair bands are also cool (and fortunately Ashley had a whole pack). Once all the hair bands were passed out, we were able to go on our way. It was a great way to spend my last afternoon! 

They were quite interested in my shoes.

They had some great facial expressions. They'd be great at the Gamma can-can. 

Game Day Burlap & Ribbon Wreath

I got a little crafty last week and made this wreath. My inspiration came from Etsy via Pinterest and retails for $65. I was able to make it for about $25 and had ribbon leftover. Just hit up Hobby Lobby when all the ribbon is 50% off. It was really pretty easy. I think it turned out pretty well, except for the horrid shade of orange and the phrase "hook 'em" which makes me gag a little. The family loves their burnt orange & Longhorns. I do not. will one day have my own, made with crimson & cream...Boomer Sooner! 

Supplies:

• Wire wreath frame 
• Burlap ribbon (I like the wired kind)
• Wide ribbon for hanging
• Accent ribbon of choice 
• Small wooden plaque thing (they come in packs of 2 at Hobby Lobby)
• Wooden football
• Acrylic paint of choice
• Scissors
• Paintbrushes
• Good glue
• Stapler 

Process:

• Weave the burlap ribbon in-and-out of the wreath frame. Don't worry about making it super tight. 
• Cut pieces of accent ribbon and tie them on. As many as you want. There's really no technical way of doing it. 
• For the football, I used a Sharpie to write with and used paint to do the circle things around the edge (kind of hard to see in the pic).
• For the rectangle, I painted it my main color. Then I used white paint for the letters, which have little black paint accents and burnt orange polka dots. I basically just free-handed it.
• I used Gorilla glue to attach the football to the rectangle. 
• I tied a wide white ribbon through the back of the wreath frame, leaving a loop at the top for hanging and a little extra hanging out the bottom.
• I used a normal stapler to attach the sign to the ribbon. 

Ta-da!