A Big Day

Today was a big day! So many emotions were felt by the entire team and many enriching experiences were had. After eating breakfast together, we walked down to the Village around 8:45am in order to hopefully complete the final home – WOO! Once we arrived, we realized all the tools we needed where locked away and we didn’t have access to them. To pass the time, we decided to tidy up the construction area and begin planning how the day would work.

Once the builders from the Village were able to come save us, they began making an interesting ‘’paste’’ to render the houses with. It looked like a tub of melted chocolate ice cream.. but I probably should mention, it was the complete opposite! Instead, it was a lovely batch of COW POO mixed with ‘’molasses’’. We all got involved and painted the houses with this appetizing mixture ;)

Some of us moved onto laying bricks whilst others interacted with the children in the Village. I was fortunate enough to lay some more bricks and learn some more Lugandan language from Martin, Ivan and ‘’Amazing’’ Grace. Instead of teaching me slowly, they decided for the rest of the day that they wouldn’t speak any more English, and instead, allow me to figure out what they were saying without any help. I felt a bit silly at the start, but it ended up being a fun challenge and made the brick laying go a little faster.

After sharing a simple lunch together, we made the rocky bus ride down to the Home of Hope. I’m not sure anybody knew what to expect and sure enough the reactions from the team showed that. As soon as we entered, we were exposed a confronting scene. We heard many stories of children that had been abandoned at birth and others that had been shut out due to the cultural action against children with disabilities. Whilst we were there, we heard from Edith about how Home of Hope came to be, and how she grew to see children and her own baby boy through the eyes of God.

On the way home, we bypassed the town of Jinja for around an hour and half for some shopping before returning home to relax, share dinner together (frittata), play some ‘Sushi Go’ (Go Pastor Glenn!) and plan some more events for the upcoming week.

All in all, it was an eye opening day filled with many miraculous stories of ways God has moved in this country! We look forward to hearing many more as the week continues.

JUMBO!
Jess