A Day Out

We had an exciting day today! We started off with a trip to Jinja’s local orphanage, ‘Welcome Home’. The group was amazed by the facilities at the home, it was bright and open and amplified love and happiness. Both love and happiness were what the team felt when they saw the smiles on each child’s face. We were able to send all of our questions to the direction of the Ugandan Director, Mumma Hope. She helped us understand the ins and outs of how the home works and the dedication adoption takes. This was followed by a small tour of the beautiful house and a play with the gorgeous kids. Even though they were only young their English was immaculate, we even got a song out of them, check it out on our Instagram - hope.buliders -

Lunch was spent at a Jinja favourite, The Keep. We each enjoyed a lovely cold drink and a pizza or wrap.  One team member, Dale, even saving some pizza to give to the homeless and the needy. As we all piled into the bus keen as beans to head to the Source of The Nile. Once arriving we were greeted by our tour guide, James. We all eagerly walked down the many, many stairs and there is was, The Nile. Everyone jumped onto the somewhat questionable boat and we were OFF! James showed us around the start of the river and pointed out some little creatures such as, birds, otters and lizards. After a few jump starts we finally arrived at a small island at the junction between Lake Victoria and The River Nile. After loads of pictures with the official ‘’Source of the River Nile” sign we enjoyed a drink back on the mainland.

A quiet night in was had with a delicious meal of vegetable frittata and a special guest, Robert K. He taught many of us the history of Uganda and Jinja. Explaining the geography of East Africa, politics throughout the country and significant historical events. The chat of tomorrows major soccer rivalry between the Muzungu’s (us) and some of the Village of Hope’s finest athletes, tune in tomorrow to find out the results!  

-Chelsea

Keeping on keeping on....

Team 22 keeps on working hard and are really connecting well with many of the Ugandan people here. We are thankful to God for the people that work here and make the HopeBuilders projects work day in day out. Over the last couple of days we have spent time at the home of hope, building at YSU, having fun in the sun with water jumping castles at the Village of Hope, participating in wise choices for life, spending time with the social work team at the village of hope, experiencing an amazing sunrise over Lake Victoria, being welcomed by an awesome bunch of young people from YSU with dancing laughing and great conversation, watching a movie written, filmed and produced by a crew of HopeBuliders and then last night having dinner with the management team from the Village of Hope.
We thank God for his protection and opening our eyes to so many things while we are here!!!

Another couple of big days...

It has been another couple of big days for team 22. With the team breaking up into two groups - some working at YSU beginning construction of the new residence on the block - with the other half of the group heading off to the Home of Hope to help with the children and staff. In the afternoon we all joined together and went to the Village of Hope where we broke into pairs and joined each household as they prepared supper - it was great to learn some Ugandan cooking skills and spend some quality time with mothers and children.
Today we held a bit of a holiday program at the Village - with story telling, painting, craft, sports and singing - it was a great joy to have such fun with these amazing children. In the afternoon we went to visit the Missasse slum where 80% of the village children come from. Here we were confronted with the harsh reality of people caught in the cycle of poverty - being held captive by oppressive land lords, illness and unemployment. So many experiences that rocked our worlds!!! We finished of the night with a great team dinner and then a debrief back at Subbi House.
It has been very hot here - Uganda is in the grip of a bad drought and people are really suffering here - crops are failing farmers are in trouble and food prices are soring.  Everything is very dry and dusty!! Red Ugandan dust in everything!!!

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

 

 

 

 

New years Day

After a late New Year’s celebration we had a slow start this morning. A walk down the road at 10am took us to the local Church, ‘Abundant life church Wairaka.’ It was awesome to be a part of the worship which was full of life as well as the spontaneous testimonials which ranged from a rescued chicken to a man being beaten for standing up for his beliefs. We made a quick trip home before heading off to the village for a prepared lunch. It was a lovely meal of rice, savory bananas, potatoes, chicken and beef. The rest of the afternoon was spent split between playing soccer, singing and painting nails. A break at Subbi before heading back to the village tonight for a movie.

Zoe