My new home, GSF

Hello friends! I've now been at GSF a week and I love it here.  There are 93 kids and they are all so sweet.  I'm in the process of learning their names, but seeing they all have shaved heads it can be difficult to tell them apart. As I'm trying to learn their names, they are trying to learn mine.  My parents almost named me Rachel and this is the time I wish they had.  The kids have the hardest time pronouncing my name.  I gave up introducing myself as "Meredith" and resorted to "Mer", even that is difficult for them to pronounce and remember.  Thankfully I'll be here plenty of time for them to nail my name down and I theirs.

Here are some highlights of the past week:
*Sarah and I were able to jump into doing morning and evening rounds giving meds, doing dressing changes, and LOTS of teaching.

*I turned 23!  The kids decorated my home with toilet paper and pictures they drew.  That evening all the missionaries got together and had a Mexican potluck.  Later my housemates and I carved green pumpkins.  Overall, it was a great day.  Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday! 
*Having dinner with my housemates.  I live with three other girls and they are all wonderful.  We all mesh really well together. 
*Whenever I go into the toddler house, the kids run to me smiling yelling "visitor visitor"
*Eating fresh pineapple almost every day.  Pineapple here is 50-75 cents.
*Hearing the kids sing in church.  I sometimes don't know if they're singing in English or Luganda, regardless it's beautiful.
*Being able to skype with family and some friends!  Skype rarely works out here, so this was quite a treat.
*Everyone at the orphanage can drink the water straight out of the tap!  This is pretty unheard of in Uganda and for most of Africa. 

Prayer request: ENERGY.  Since  I live at GSF, I'm never really off duty.  This gets very draining. 

Anyway, there will be more to follow.  I just wanted to give a quick update on life thus far. 

mer