Monday Meeting Details- May 25

drawing on paper in L's office
I am happy right now
I feel much better now that my stinky diaper is gone-- oh, there is a little air up my shorts
Me and Mommy -- we love each other
View of Kampala from the 4th floor of Mr. O's office

Details about the meeting on Monday. May 25th
So to start out this story let me reference it by saying nothing is done like it is here in America. The phrase,” I will be back shortly”, doesn’t necessarily mean that.
As I said, it took us some time to get into Kampala, we, in the nick of time met the lady to register the paperwork we headed to L.’s office
(our attorney) to meet with him.
We pulled up to the court house and very quickly, John told me to get out and bring the baby, and that Maggie and the kids needed to stay in the car. So dummy me just grabbed my purse and I happened to have Isaiah’s sippy cup in my hand when we got out. I knew the driver from my last trip so I trusted him with Maggie. We went to L.'s office and he was not there. John got hold of him on the phone and he sent someone to open his office for us. We waited on him a while. (If all this sounds boring it was) Of course, Isaiah was not wanting to sit still so I let him move around a bit. Finally, L. came and he filled me in on what might take place over the next couple of weeks and how the case for Isaiah looks cut and dry and we should have a passport for him in a few days. The other two, “Well we have a deadlock on that case but I think we can try to figure out a way.”
I told him that I knew he was a busy man and I appreciated his help but that we thought we would take this and work on it ourselves. “Oh, no, you can’t do it yourselves. Let me help you do something this afternoon. I will contact someone for you and help you.”
Ok, we agreed. Then he gave John some papers, told him to go with his assistant and he was going to a meeting and I could stay in his office while this got done. I thought this would take maybe 30 minutes – 1 hour. NOT!!! Four and half hours passed until they showed again! Remember, I did not have a diaper bag.
L. had given Isaiah a pen and paper and so we wrote a while. We played a while, we explored the garbage can contents. I read the paper- (BTW which was very interesting. The headline was "Man forces wife to breastfeed puppies." Ok, I'll tell you the story because I know you are dying to know. A man got married to a woman a few years ago. He gave his two cows for her dowry. His occupation was a hunter and he needed some hunting dogs. His wife had a new baby and so he go the idea that she could breast feed the puppies as well. His reasoning was that it was her fault he didn't have his cows to produce milk for them so this was her duty. Her baby ended up dying and she had the police arrest him. Three years later she had another baby and he has the same symptoms as her one that died. They think it is rabies, (probably is not but they didn't ask my opinion. ) The story ended saying that the lady loves her husband and hopes that he will one day take her back.) Sorry for that rabbit trail. I let him walk down the hallway a while, he scooted around a while. Checked out the other people’s offices down the hall, ran down the hall some. I pulled out everything in my purse that I thought would occupy him. We made paper airplanes from the paper and flew them around the room. I had a sucker, but then that was a bad idea, because he got sticky all over him! Sippy cup juice ran out as well. The family court judge in the next room sent one of his aides over to make sure we were ok and if we needed anything. During this whole time, I was so sleepy, I could hardly stand it.
Isaiah then started getting cranky, so I put him up on the couch and said, “Go to Sleep”.
Amazingly, he laid down, put his thumb in his mouth and went to sleep. Bad part is, he had a stinky while he was sleeping! Heat+ poopy diaper= smell that is really not good. When John and the assistant got back, we had to wait on L. some more. When L. got back, he took us over across the road to Mr. O’s office. By this time, Isaiah woke up and he did not like his dirty diaper. What to do??? I occupied him walking up and down the hall while John and L. met with a lady in Mr. O’s office. John headed back to the van to get papers and so I told him to grab the diaper bag. He forgot. By this time, Isaiah, was getting pretty ripe and so I had to act. “Ok, Melissa, you have lived in Africa long enough, Improvise. Think. “ So, I did. I had seen a bathroom at the end of the hall so I took Isaiah in to the tiny cubby and took his shorts off, laid them down for his head, took his diaper off, wiped him with toilet paper, dug in my purse and found the hand sanitizer, wiped his bottom down with it using a dried up wipe I had wrapped my eyeglasses in and set him up on the toilet, hoping he’d pee. He did, and slipped his shorts back on praying that we would not have an accident while he was diaperless. Mission accomplished!
He was much happier and so was I. After sometime, the letter was written and we were on our way.
Now remember, Maggie was in the van this whole time with Allenni and Andrew. I arrived to the van to find her pretty tired and the kids had created a mess. Thankfully, they had saved us some food from the lunch Brenda packed. Over all, Isaiah did well from not having had eaten during the long wait. Thankfully, I had fed him a pancake right before we got out of the van. I am pretty proud of how well Maggie handled Allenni who thought she would give Maggie a run for her money. Haha! I think Allenni has met her match.!
So after all that, we finally made it home somewhere around 5pm, exhausted.