Faith-gelina

Some people collect tiny state-themed silver spoons on their vacations. Other, like Angelina Jolie, collect multi-ethnic toddlers.

Now I see why.

There was no water or power at my hotel on Saturday. After an hour or so of getting repeatedly dressed and undressed, staring at the sputtering tap trying to will water to come out, and weighing the cost in shillings of a bottled-water bath, I decided to give up and go with my friend Donna to an orphanage, St. Jude’s, just outside of Gulu.

We couldn’t play with the older children, since they were doing their Saturday chores, pumping water and laying laundry out to dry. More importantly, they didn’t seem terribly interested in us. The house mothers sat us down near where some screaming two-year-olds were getting their baths and being dressed for the afternoon in hand-me-downs that didn’t always match their gender, as I discovered when I found a little boy in a pink satin Sunday dress.

Soon a tinier-than-most girl crawled out of the nursery onto the front porch, and I decided that perhaps babies might like being picked up better than my childhood cats enjoyed it. Turns out I was right!

Her name is Sophia, and here is what must have been going through her mind:

Yikes! Her eyes! They’re the color of my snot!

Hmm. She hasn’t dropped me yet. Maybe she’s alright.

Okay, since we’re here and I can’t get down, I have a proposition for you.

Yep…that’s more like it…Snzzzzzzzz…