Safe and Sound!

The weekend has been awesome, but very eventful!
Saturday was the HIV/AIDS fesitval that we have been planning all summer and it went fairly well. It didn't go exactly how we imagined it, but it all turned out! I won't bore you with the details, but there were many bumps in the road and many stressful headaches, but there were so many incredible moments as well. Our children's choir from Ssanyu school sang their songs that they had prepared and they did AWESOME! I was so proud of them! There were 11 kids in our choir and Ally and I had so much fun taking care of them all day! We had a mad dash to buy them bananas and had a little picnic outside after their performance. It was so adorable because after they would sing, I would run back to the area where they came off stage and they would all just run and cover me with hugs! Such a happy moment! It was just so amazing to think back to where we started with the project. No, it didn't turn out like anything we planned. We had hoped to start it for children with disabilities and that wasn't successful. But through the process, we had stumbled accross some kids who loved to sing, but didn't have a choir at their school so I still consider it to be very successful! Although after meeting with the children with disablities, I keep thinking there must be something that we can do for them, even if it is just to make them smile or feel loved.
We also performed our Mzungu african dance! ha ha . . . . . it was very interesting! We had ginormous skirts with a ton of layers to accentuate hip movements! But we did it and we had the whole audience falling out of their seats from laughter! But it was a lot of fun!
After the festival, we headed out to have a sleepover at Rose and Paul's orphange to say goodbye! It was so great to be out there with those kids again! We had a great time playing volley ball with them, singing, dancing, and after dinner, we introduced them to Smores and they LOVED it! I was passing out marshmellows I couldn't get them out of the package fast enough! We also brought a laptop and watched Aladin with them and read books. It was possibly one of the best days ever!
If anyone is wondering about the terrorist bombing in Kampala, we live about 50 miles away so we were all very safe and took many precautions. We are all safe and very happy to get back to work! All I can say is that being in America and hearing about a terrorist bombing on the other side of the world is very different then being there.
This week, is our eye camp! It has been amazing so far and super busy! We have had tons of people show up and have done hundreds of vision tests, about 60 surgeries, and handed out tons of glasses and medications. I was just thinking today as I was watching the nurses remove the bandages from people's eyes about how it felt being there. Ever since I have come here to Uganda, I have seen so much need everywhere! It is very overwhelming at times! But usually, there isn't a whole lot that we can do in one day. You can help them start projects, but you don't get to see their happiness when their quality of life gets better. With cataract surgeries that is exactly what you get to see! One moment, someone is blind. The next day they remove the bandages and although the eye is sore and swollen, they can see! Or when a school kid tries to read the eye vision chart and can't get passed the second row, but you hand him some eye glasses and he can see!! It has been such an incredible two days so far and I'm so glad we will be able to continue until the beginning of next week!
Pretty much every day, I will just be working and thinking to myself, "how did I get so lucky to come here and have this incredible experience?" Although everything has been so incredible lately, it has been so hard at the same time. I am meeting and spending time with so many amazing people knowing that I only have one more week here before I leave. It's probably going to be one of the hardest things ever, especially because they just look at you and say, "please don't forget us."

Gulu

This past weekend, about 7 of us headed up to Northern Uganda to visit Gulu. Gulu is one of the main areas that was affected by the war in Uganda involving the Lord's Resistance Army. It was such an incredible experience! Instead of giving you all the details, I am going to just write the story that was told to us by a guy we met named James. He was asked to write his story, but they had him do it under a different name for safety reasons. So here it is:
"My name is Kilambus Charles. I come from Gulu district, which is found in northern Uganda. This district has been affected by the continuing civil war that has made great impact on the people living in the region.
"I was abducted by rebels together with my wife in the middle of 2003 and stayed with them for 3 months.
"It was around 9:00 p.m. and I was asleep in my room. Suddenly we were surrounded by rebels and I heard a kick at the door and was ordered to open it. Two rebels forced their way inside my room and tied my arms behind my back using my shirt. They looted my clothes, mobile phone, camera, bed sheet and many other things including the original of my exam certificate. They ordered my wife to carry all those properties and bring them out while the other rebels were busy looting properties from my mother's and brother's house.
"They took us to join about 70 other people who had been rounded up. I was tied around the waist with one person and they put my wife close to me and ordered me to take care of her. If she escaped, I would be killed.
"They too k us to the next village and put us there while other rebels went back to collect food that was given to us and carried it with them.
"We walked a distance of 50 kilometers that night without resting and carrying bean seeds of 75 kg. THose who were unable to carry such weight were killed.
"On our way, two of the former rebels whose feet were swollen and the skin was peeling off were killed and they told us that the same thing may happen to any one who could not walk.
"We were going towards Sudan straight away. We walked for four days without eating anything and with the heavy load. I got tired and my feet started to swell and peel off as a result of walking a long distance. I was weak already. Life was terrible.
"The rebel commander ordered that we had to increase the speed of walking because the Ugandan army, UPDF, was following us. But I couldn't walk. So I was beaten seriously and they ordered me to run quickly if I didn't want to be killed. SO I had to do it.
"During the process of beating, I was given dislocation in the bone and seriously injured in my body.
"When we entered in the campe, we were welcomed by other rebels. In the morning the rebel commander ordered us in line. They started selecting young girls who were 10 to 15 years old to be the rebel's wives, which is a violation of children's rights and at the same time is child abuse. Thos who were not beautiful or had problems in their legs or body so that they could not manage what ever was needed, must be killed and they did it.
"Now, with those serious killings we found it normal. Staying with them, I started learning from them how the rebels behave compared to home. But there was no way I could escape.
"Once day around 10:00 am we were attacked by an army helicopter gunship. We continued moving and taking cover in the tall grass and under trees.
"The rebel commander ordered killed people who were dressed in white and red since those colors would eaisily be seen by the soldiers in the helicopter. Two of the abducted girls were killed there and then. I had on white shorts and a green t-shirt. I feared I was the next person to be killed. But I was ordered to remove the shorts and remain half naked. I had to walk like that in the tall grass until we arrested some civilians who had a good pair of trousers.
"This is how I escaped from the rebels: One day I was chosen to be among the 150 people to participate in a battle with army soldiers. When we met with those soldiers and the battle was terrible, I was among the 30 abduted who luckily narrowly escaped death."

James was one of the very lucky ones. Most of the people who were abducted were children because then the LRA could brain wash them into thinking they were the good guys and that their families at home were all dead. We met another man when we were in Gulu named John. He also was kidknapped into the LRA, but he was only 12 when it happened. They told him that his family was all dead and that there was no point in returning. So he stayed with the LRA for 9 years and worked very closely with the leader Jospeh Koney. He ended up getting shot in the leg and because he had been such a good soldier they let him go home instead of being killed. He was very lucky. But because he had been in the rebel army all that time, the whole community looks at him as an enemy now. It is so sad.

It was a great experience going up to Gulu and learning more about Ugandan history. It is just incredible that it was only a few years ago this was still going on.

On a happier note, this Saturday is the Youth Megafestival! We have been so excited getting ready for it! Our little choir however, didn't exactly go as planned. It was frustrating because once the parents realized that we weren't providing free medical treatment, they stopped bringing their children. But there is a group of kids at a nearby school that love it when we come and sing with them, so we worked with Sandra and she taught them a song in Luganda to perform. It is so adorable! I will have to post a video of it once I get home. We also taught them "You are My Sunshine" in English and Sandra translated it into Luganda and they love singing it. SOmetimes you will just be walking around and hear some kids singing it! Also, TYOM is teaching us a traditional dance to perform at the festival. It was funny because they taught us the footwork which was very manageable, but then they through in all this hip shaking which made things to much harder! ha ha but we are ge tting it! And once we get our "dancing skin" on, I'm sure we will really be able to shake it!

Being at a tourist attraction while being a tourist attraction. . . .

This past weekend, we packed up and headed out on our Safari. It has been something that we have been looking forward to all summer long. So we drove up to Kampala and stayed the night in a hostile before heading out on a 5 hour bumpy taxi ride to the middle of nowhere! It was an awesome drive though. Along the way, we stopped at Murchison Falls which is an incredible waterfall! It looks like an entire ocean is being poured down a tiny canyon so water is literally exploding everywhere! It's pretty amazing! We were also shocked to see tons of baboons and wart hogs or pumbas as we preferred to call them. The best way I can think to describe what it looked like was you know in lion king when simba goes off with timon and pumba to the junglish area? Well that's exactly what it looked like.
Finally we made it to our Red Chili camp site and settled into our little tents. Before we arrived, they told us that there were going to be wart hogs all over and that, "they think they are domestic, but they really aren't". They were everywhere!!! Kind of like squirrels back home up the canyon. So once we were settled we came back up to the main area to order dinner. Then my family called and so I was so excited to talk with them that I just left my food for awhile. But as I was talking I thought, I can eat and talk at the same time! So I went and sat in this little chair, with my food, talking on the phone when suddenly, my chair fell backwards, I did a summersault over the back, spilled all my food, and managed to keep talking to my mom through it all! I guess you could say it was done with quite the skill! But the whole place was laughing it was rather embarrassing. . .
The next morning we went on our first game drive! It was so so awesome! We saw TONS of giraffes, elephants, deer things, more baboons and wart hogs etc. However we missed seeing lions by a few minutes! Apparently, they were just walking down the road earlier and we just missed them! Then in the afternoon, we went out on a boat to see all the animals coming to the shores of the Nile to drink and get cool. We saw all the same types of animals but we also saw tons of hippos and crocadiles. There was actually one crocadile that was lurking near some hippos and our tour guide said it was probably getting ready to attack.
The next day, we headed over to the rhino sanctuary. There are only 9 hippos still in the wild today and they are all in the rhino sanctuary here in Uganda. I had been super sick the night before so I didn't actually hike to go and see them, but my group said they were able to see a mother rhino and her calf. Once there are 30 rhinos in the sanctuary which will take about 10ish more years, they will be able to release them into Murchison Falls.
Well it was a great weekend and we have another busy week ahead of us! Can't wait!

Success!!

So first off, apparently I am beginning to fit in here a little more than I expected! On Tuesday, I was walking hom and I ran into Pastor Francis. So I stopped to say oliyotia and he said, "O you look black!" ha ha it was a funny moment! I must be getting a little tanner than I thought!
Just like always, this week has been absolutely incredible! I could go on for pages and pages, but I think I will just tell you about the highlight which was our first meeting for the disablity choir and the support group. We hadn't been having the best of luck so in all honesty, I was expected very few people to actually show up. However, I was so suprised to see about 50 disabled adults and children along with their parents there waiting for us! I was so happy to see all our hard work amount to something! We began with Sandra introducing everything to them in Luganda (which is always a little scary because we don't have any idea what she is telling them). Then we spoke to them for a few minutes before inviting all the kids to come and sit in a circle on the grass to begin singing and dancing.
I don't know if I am just getting weaker or the experiences here are continually getting more amazing, but I seem to have more and more break your heart moments and this was definitely one of them. They were the sweetest kids I have ever seen and they were all so excited to sing some songs. When we were thinking of songs for them to perform in the Aids Extravaganza, we thought of many options, but felt like we should have them sing something in their native language. So we had Sandra come up with a few options and we thought it would be fun to have then sing "You are My Sunshine" in Luganda. The plan was that Sandra would come help us teach them. But, the parents began bombarding her with questions so we were on our own. So we tried to teach them it in English, but realized that without any teaching aids it was rather difficult. So we ended up making up actions on the spot. . . . ha ha if anyone knows a good action for "when skies are grey" it would be greatly appreciated! Then we ended up just singing some fun songs with them that involved a lot of actions so that the children who are mute could participate. It was so much fun and when you saw the kids smile it just made everything so worth it!
After we finished we were all just around the church talking and I went over to these 3 little boys about 10 years old who sang at our practice. They were very shy and didn't say much. I decided to try and teach them "Down by the Banks" as a little game. It took awhile for them to catch on to the hand motions and we moved very slow, but it was so rewarding to see how happy they were when we got it down. I ran over and grabbed some members of our team to perform it for and the kids got so excited! I can't wait for them to be able to perform their song in a few weeks! I know that it will be something they don't get the opportunity to do normally and that it will make them so happy! We are having another practice with them today and we have some homeade instruments for them if they would rather! I can't wait!
Our other practice with another group of children was supposed to be yesterday, but unfortunately, no one showed up! But there were a ton of school kids there so we just decided to stay and sing with them anyways and it was a blast!
Things are still going great here! There are hard, frustrating, emotionally draining, and painful moments, but it is all so worth it! A common phrase that is heard numerous times in our house is, "How come our lives our so great?" I'm just so grateful for this experience!

So this weekend, a bunch of our team was going to Sipi Falls and although I was very tempted to go back we decided to do something else! I remembered that Wilson had mentioned taking us to some places in Kampala and so we called him up and he was excited to take us exploring! For those of you that don't know, Kampala is the capital of Uganda and although I prefer the smaller areas, I wanted to experience Kampala sometime before I left as well! It was very different that Lugazi that's for sure but still not very much like home! He took us to the National Theater, the Parliament building, and to Garden City which is one of the only Malls in Uganda. It was weird to be in an actual city again! He took us to Garden city for lunch and we were so suprised to see. . . yes a food court! ha ha but it didn't take us long to realize that it was still very different from the average food court. Instead of going up to the place you want to eat and ordering, you sit down and every food place shoves a menu at you and tells you to order! It was so funny because after we ordered we asked Godfrey (another member of TYOM) what he ordered and he said chuckling, "I don't know, I just picked something!"
After lunch, we headed over to the Ugandan zoo! It was the most interesting zoo I have been to because although there were animals that were in a semi-fenced in cage thing there were some that just went freely in and out like these little monkeys! I'm kind of ashamed to admit, but we had some cookies and bananas and so we put them in our hands and the little monkeys would just reach up and grab them! So fun! However the wild life that wasn't so fun to see were these ginormous and I mean GINORMOUS spiders!!! I have never seen spiders like that ever and I hope I never do again! They were everywhere! At one point we were walking under this tree and we looked up to see a huge spider web covered in tons giant spiders. . . . gross! Then we went to the beach of Lake Victoria and it was beautiful!
Although we had an awesome time seeing and experience more of Uganda, my favorite part of the day was riding in the taxi! We were all just talking with Wilson and Godfrey and learning more about them! We had so much fun laughing and talking with them and we even got Godfrey to tell us all about Wilson's secret love life! It's quite interesting because apparently in Uganda it is really bad if you parents know that you are dating anyone unless you are engaged. . . . so everything is a secret! I was talking with Wilson about random things and it came up that he said if he could go anywhere in the world he would go to the USA. Now I hear this all the time and sometimes I get frustrated because all the people here have such idealistic views of the US. They think it is perfect and everyone is happy etc. But he began explaining that it was because of all the help he has recieved from the people there and how he believed that now he could fulfill those dreams that he has. He really wants to continue to expand TYOM and their goal is to get to the point where we have an HIV/AIDS free generation. He said that he just needed to save a lot and mabye someday he could make it! I just began thinking about that and I realized that although it was really expensive to get here and that I worked so hard to get the money, it is near impossible for someone here to raise enough to make that same trip. It was just one of those moments where I wonder how things are fair?
On a lighter note on the way home, I was talking to Godfrey and he is absolutely hilarious! We found out that he loved singing and so he started singing us some of his favorite gospel songs. I love how here in Uganda people are never afraid to sing for you. It isn't even half heartedly. They always do their absolute best and get their whole selves into it! Then he asked us to sing some songs for him and we just had a little musical ride home! It was so fun I was so sad to pull up to our gate and call it a night!
We asked Godfrey if we could come with him to church on Sunday and so he said he would come pick us up in the morning! Now everyone who complains about 9:00 church, just be glad you don't have to go at 6:30 am!! I couldn't believe a church started that early! But sure enough we showed up and there were people there singing their hearts out! It was an awesome experience to be there with them!
There's the weekend in a nutshell! This past week I have just been thinking about some things that I have learned so far being here and learning from the friends we have made. There have been three things that really stood out to me.
1. You don't need alot to make a big difference. When Wilson started TYOM he didn't have any money. He just realized that their was a problem in that many teenagers were getting HIV/AIDS and so he decided to do something about it. He had no money, just a desire to make a difference! Now he is still in college with no job but his organization has grown and they even have an office now. They have reached out to thousands of kids throughout Uganda and have definitely made an impact on their lives. If he can do that, it just makes me wonder what we can do with all the resources we have?
2. Being idealistic is not always a bad thing. Many times we will be working with people in the community or partner organizations and they will tell us their ideas for the future or ways they would like us to assist them. They sometimes set aside different problems that could happen and just see all the potential benefits that could happen. Unfortunately, I am sometimes that person who sees all the potential wrong things that could happen. But I started thinking, where would we be in the world if it wasn't for people who put aside all the bad things that could happen and saw how much good could come? Those are the people that really make a difference. So I have decided to try and shift my mind set a bit.
3. It's ok to live off of faith. I have seen this so much here! You will talk with people and they will say, "This is what I am going to do, I'm just waiting for God to help me!" I know I mentioned already about the story of the Ssanyou school, but that school along with many others and TYOM all began that way and have successful that way as well!

"Birungi, you have to kick the ball!"

So I have been thinking that I am turning each of my blog posts into a novel. . so I'm going to limit myself to writing about one fun thing and then one project story for each post.
I am going to tell you about the soccer adventures that we have had here. So The Youth Outreach Mission helped set up a soccer team for some street boys who are orphans. The hope was that by getting them together to play soccer and teaching them a health lesson, they could keep them out of trouble. Their next project is finding them a place to stay. but for now they have a team of about 24 boys between the ages of 8-12 I think. On Thursdays, we attempt to help their team practice by getting some of us together and playing against them. . however, we get our butts kicked each time. Even when we have Wilson, Godfrey, and their two coaches on our team. . we lose! But it is super fun anyways! But many of you probably already know that I am really and I mean REALLY uncoordinated at soccer and since everyone is so good here, they can't really understand what is wrong with me! Hence the reason that Wilson always tells me, "Birungi, you have to KICK the ball" after an attempted kick. That was when I discovered my version of playing soccer is throwing myself at the ball, covering my head and hoping to block it somehow! But we have a good time! Although the people here think it is very strange that girls are playing soccer. . . they give us very strange looks! It's still something I am trying to figure out. If it is just not culturally appropriate for girls to play soccer or if they just don't want to!
This week me and Ally have still been working with coordinating things for the people with disabilities (PWD). We started out just hoping to do the choir thing, but it has expanded and now we are hopeing to create support groups for adults as well as the parents to try and sentitize parents about how to take care of their children with disablities as well as teach business classes and hopefully introduce the Ability Soap project so that they can have some sort of income generating project. It is going to be lots of work, especially after what happened Wednesday. So the pastor at the Lugazi House of Miracles invited us to come back and collect the names of people on Wednesday morning. They had a bunch of doctors and dentists there from Oregon and so there were tons of people from surroudning villages there to recieve treatement! He announced it to them and we ended up with a list of 45 people in that area alone who are interested (we were planning on 8-10) plus we have a whole other group of people who are going to be meeting on Thursday! We have so much work to do! For the most part if you have disablities you are left to fend for yourself in Uganda. They have no way of generating income or friends that can help support them. We are working with the members from the town council and so we are hoping that this project can go someplace! It's just difficult having so much to do and so little time!!
O I know I was only going to write about 2 things, but I have to just mention one more thing. We are planning an eye camp coming up from July 13-15 and we currently have enough funds to screen 1000 people, perform 40 cateract surgeries, and hand out some glasses and eye drops. However, if we had $1000 more dollars, we could double the number! If anyone is interested they can visit the HELP website to participate. Just include Lugazi Eye Camp before you submit!

Fluffy Bunny: aka The Bad Place

Ok the end of last week was awesome and so was the weekend! Here is another quick update! Beginning with Friday. I began the day by going with Ashley and the Education Committee to go and promote this writing contest that they are doing throughout the Lugazi and Mucono Districts. We went to this all girls school with Wilson and it was quite the experience. It was by far the richest school I have seen since being here in Uganda and they even had an assembly room with a stage! Anyways, we didn't really have to say much because Wilson took the reigns on this one, but we did have to stand up and introduce oureselves. Now apparently it is tradition for the team to announce their African name with their real name and so since I didn't have one, Wilson took the liberty of giving me one! He said he had to think long and hard about it so that it would be a good name. So not going to lie, I was expecting something really meaningful! Some other members on our team have names that mean, "someone important" or "rainbow" etc. ha ha then he said, I got it! Birungi! I found out it means, "good". ha ha so yay I have a Ugandan name! But it was hilarious because all the students bust up laughing when you tell them your name! After we finished, Ashley, Ally, Sandra and I went to a few of the churches that are going to help us find children for the Ability Kids choir. We went and brought them our letters and even though we thought we were prepared, we found out we weren't. We were bombarded with questions we couldn't answer and realized we had a lot of work to do. It was kind of hard to take the news since we were so excited about it, but it was a learning experience. Two of the churches however asked us if we could come and announce the choir in their church meetings. . . . a tad bit out of my comfort zone again, but we agreed. That night, most of our team began preparing to go river rafting down the Nile. I wasn't planning on going until a few weeks later, but at the last minute, I decided to just go!
So we woke up bright and early and the bus came and picked us up! Once we got to our destination, this Australian man named Sunny came on the bus and began briefing us on the adventure. I wasn't really too nervous about it until they began having us fill out liability forms and everything! I also didn't really know much about river rafting before this, but they told us that when classifying rapids it goes from 1-6. 1 being calm water and 6 being if you take a raft down it, you will be severely injured if you even come out at all. But they reassured us that they would just take us up to class 5 rapids. Then we loaded up in our rafts with our helmets and life jackets and we were off! They told us we needed to practice flipping the boat so we would know what to do WHEN it happened out in the rapids. Our guide reassured me that I wouldn't get stuck under the raft if it flipped, but if I did it would be in an air pocket so I could get out just fine! So we flipped and yes I got stuck under and no it was not in an air pocket so I seriously thought I was going to die drowning! So after that experience I became terrified about falling out of the raft which made the rest of my experience a little more scary!
Well luckily all the rapids were amazing ( until the last one, but I'll get to that in a minute)! We went right through them and they were awesome! We didn't flip or anything! The only trouble we ran into was when we were going over a waterfall, we got stuck on a rock and had to bounce off! After each rapid there was about 15 minutes of flat water to just relax and enjoy the incredible scenery! As we neared the final rapid, rumors started coming around of a place in the rapid called The Bad Place. Apparently it is impossible to go through it without flipping so of course that is where my team wanted to go! Our guide knew that I was scared so he was like, I'll change the name to Fluffy Bunny. . . didn't help! So sort of against my will we came face to face with The Bad Place. All I really remember about it was paddling, hearing our guide scream get down and then flying! After that I was just rolling around in the water gasping for air until a kayak came and rescued me! I thought I had a rough time, but after talking with my team I was a lucky one! Many members on my team got sucked down in the water and said they felt their lungs heaving from holding their breathe so long! So moral of the story, I am very glad that I had the experience of getting to know the Nile on a personal level (since I swallowed about half of it) but I don't think I will EVER do it again.
After that some members of our team went bungee jumping and out to dinner, and were going to spend the night in Jinja, but Ashley and I had to head back because we had to visit the churches with Sandra the next day.
I haven't ever been to another denominations church on a Sunday before, but I loved the experience! We first went to Mass at the Cathedral! I imagine that it was very similar to Mass in the USA, but the choir was complete with African drums and everything! It was awesome! Then we went up, gave our announcement and after the meeting headed over to the Lugazi House of Miracles! It was a completely different experience there! We could hear singing and 80's style music booming as we walked there! It was basically a big party in there! And it was interesting because there were actually a group of Bzungu there from Oregon. They were doctors and Dentists hear for the week to treat people in the area! The pastor there was awesome and so willing to help us. He even offered his church as a place for us to practice.
That night the second wave of volunteers came. It was a rather bitter sweet experience because it was so excited to see everyone and have more man power for our projects, but it means that my experience in Uganda is half over! I can't believe how fast time is going! I wish it would slow down! But it did help me realize a little better, that we can't lose steam with our projects. We have so little time here and so much work to do!
Monday I didn't have any set plans in the morning so I tagged a long with a few people who were going to the Ssanyou school because we are wanting to build two classrooms for students with disablities and so Nicole is writing an article to send back to Canada to raise some money. So Pastor Francis and Sister Ssanyou who own the school told us the story of the school. It was such a touching story! They have worked so hard and have had to have faith to make it through their struggles with it. The schools here require students to pay school fees to attend and then additional fees if they want to have food at school. If they can't pay the fees they can't come or can't eat! However, at the Ssanyou school, they only have about half of their students who are able to pay school fees and they give each child porridge every day regardless of wether they pay or not. So needless to say, they are very behind in paying the teachers and other fees. It is amazing though because the teachers don't quite even though they are currently receiving about 30,000 shilling a month (which is about $15) because they know Pastor Francis and Sister Ssanyou are honestly trying their best to provide a good education for the students and pay their fees.
We also talked with a girl named Angel. She is an orphan now and she was telling us all her dreams of the future. How she wants to be a journalist! But she doesn't know if she can continue her education because once she leaves the Ssanyou school, she will be at a school that won't allow her to just not pay school fees. It was such a touching moment and I think all the experiences so far had just built up so I just lost it! Then the rest of our volunteers there lost it too and it was such an emotional experience! It's just sad to think back to all the times I would have rather been any where at school when kids here would do anything to be in school! Then we went out and played with the kids during their break! Then I went to teacher training again, which was awesome! We did all these activities that were hilarious! The teachers are great! Then we headed over to Hope Children's Home and hung out with the kids there for a little while! I love going there! I don't remember if I mentioned this earlier, but there is a kid there named Mark and he is so adorable! He is five and an orphan. If I could, I would honestly adopt him! Anyways, we played games with them and I talked with a girl named Florence. She was telling me her story and how she ended up at Hope. I love it when the kids open up to tell you their story, but it is hard to hear at the same time because they are always sad. But she loves to sing and so she taught me a song in Luganda!
Which brings me to today, Tuesday! This morning we met with some people from the Cathedral who are interested in either joining a support group for people with disabilities or joining our children's choir. A man named Frances came and told us his story. He was orphaned when he was very young and since then his siblings haven't really helped him. We told him about the business classes and income generating projects we have and he seemed excited to learn to support himself. We also met with a lady named Rose who has a some who lost a leg and has severe epilepsy. We were asking her questions and she said her son was so excited to sing! All the hard work we have done finally felt like it was worth it, even though we just met two people!
Sorry this was so long! I'll end now! O and just something funny, everytime I tell people my name is Kate since they can't pronouce katelynn, they kind of laugh. Don't even worry that k-a-t-e in Luganda means "little cow". They told me that suits me. . . whatever that is supposed to mean! ha ha I love it!