It has been such an incredible last few days that we have gotton to experince. We arrived on Sunday afternoon and was welcomed by some rain, this made the car ride to Suubi house an intresting one. With the wet roads came cars zooming around eachother, driving on the oppoiste side if the road and many gasp as we passed pedestrian we thought were going to get hit. It is safe to say they have their own way if driving that definitely works for them.

Later that night we went to the village where we were indroduced to all the kids. This was a beautuful moment for us as they all came to greet us, ask our names and held our hands. We then played together, sung songs and learnt some dances and others played card games.

Monday was a recovery day for us, we started the day going shopping and scoping out the things we woukd want to buy as well as seeing where the best prices were, out bartering skills were being put to the test. After this we went to a super market and picked up some foods we would give to the families we are going to visit in the slums. This consisted of pocha, rice, sugar, oil and soap. Later that afternoon we went back to the village and played lego with the children. 

Tuesday was jamed packed and got all of us working hard. We spent the day at the village rendering the outside of the houses. The render was made out of sand, mud, molasses and cow manure thst had to get mixed together. This is something none of us will forget any time soon. We ended up rendering 11 houses. We were all exhusted after a day out working in the heat, but the feeling of completeing this and knowing it was helping them was definitely rewarding.

A quick update to let everyone know that team 27 has arrived at Suubi house where we had our first wonderful meal by Juliette and our first quick visit to the village. 

Village of hope update

Hallow to every one, we greet you all in the name of our most high GOD. We would like to thank God for protecting and guiding us always. We are glad to inform you that everything is moving on normally at the Village Of Hope.
All our children are in good shape and in good health. They are all in school and they are progressing very well as we have not registered any serious cases of illnesses so we thank god for that.
We are very glad for being part of the celebrations of the "DAY OF THE AFRICAN CHILD" that was held on the 21st of June 2019 at Jinja. Some of our children represented us through a poem titled "CHILDREN`S RIGHTS IN UGANDA" On that day. We are very happy that our children can move out and represent us in a very good way.
some pics below.

Team UG27

Team 27 will be heading over to visit the Village of Hope this saturday, keep an eye on the blog for updates and please keep us in your prayers.  Damian

Sunday

Another glorious day in Uganda - blue sky, sunshine and awesome people to hang out with.

Church was a great way to begin the week with great worship some fantastic teaching from Pastor Glenn and chatting up with old and new friends.

After church was lunch and a bit of a relax, some of the team checked out the finished mercy ministry house and others slept. Then we heading down to YSU for a farewell celebration. there was a bit of a delay with a bus break down - the team had to walk and Glenn had to wait for help to arrive.

It was awesome to be in the YSU youth centre and seeing it facilitate the purpose for what it was built. Great dancing, fun games, good food and lots of youth. Brooke led us in some great team building games that helped with connections.

It was really nice to walk home at the end of the evening with the VOH girls as we continued to share lives together.

Friday

The team spent the morning in two places - Half went to the Home of Hope where they ran some craft activities with the kids in the green shed!!  It was great to see the kids interact and proudly accomplish some fantastic craftwork. (sorry no photos)

The other half of the team spent the morning with the YSU Mercy Ministry finishing the house for the grandfather and his three grand children. Some mud shenanigans and hard work saw the house completed in the afternoon by the YSU crew.

In the afternoon the team headed for a bit or R&R to the pool - but we decided to take a 100 kids with us - Not so R&R-ish!!  it was a great afternoon of fun and games, some swimming lessons and some ice cream on the way home.

In the evening we had the HopeBuliders Builders join us for dinner at Subbi house - UNO, chicken curry and a Robert K history lesson.

Thursday

An another Epic Day
Today marked the inaugural Village of Hope Games.  A brain child of the older children working together with the social workers Sharron and Kevin and the village coordinator Sam. It was an awesome event which included the traditional sack race and egg and spoon race as well as the less traditional poetry and tongue twisters as well as a cross country run that was held at 6:30am. In between were dance and song competitions, doughnut eating, and apple bobbing. Team Muzungu cam an admirable 3rd out of 6 teams. The teams were combination of houses who were each given a colour - Team Pink - houses 5&6 - were the eventual winners!!  It was such a fun day with a great atmosphere and fierce competition.  One of the best bits about this was that we did not organise any of it and came as participants and only helped by funding the prizes. It created a great vibe in the village in the days leading up to it and the children and mothers were well engaged and excited.

Afterwards team Muzungu recovered by having lunch at Jinja Sailing club and having a boat ride on Lake Victoria and going to the source of the Nile. We finished with a bit of shopping in Jinja and came home for a meal of Nachos made for us by the Box Hill boys - Ablie, Ben, Pete, Phil !!