Thursday 24 September: We started our day very early and set out at 5.20am for an early morning hike up Monkey Mountain to see the sunrise. We didn't spot any monkeys, but arrived in time to see a stellar sunrise over Lake Victoria, and enjoyed some worship music and some Psalms on the side of the hill. 

We arrived back at Subbi House for a brekky of scrambled eggs and freshly baked bread, courtesy of Juliet. We then headed out for work at the Village of Hope, where we worked on the roof, banged a lot more nails into shape, and finished nailing mesh to the outside walls of the home. 

We then headed back to Subbi house for some downtime and lunch before heading up to Hope Community High School. At the high school, we met with the teachers, before heading into a classroom of about 150 students (with one teacher!) who are sitting their final school exams in 12 days. We each introduced ourselves and shared some words of encouragement with the kids, before praying for them and their exams. 

After that, we headed off to play against the boys' volleyball team. We didn't get a win, but it was good fun. We then took on the senior 1 boys' soccer team, 14 and 15 years old. HCHS took a win over the Mzungus 4-3. 

We were a very sweaty, tired and well-exercised bunch heading back to Subbi House that evening. We enjoyed another delicious dinner from Juliet, a quick game of Uno, and then headed off for a well-earned rest.

Friday 25 September: We were afforded a little more of a sleep-in compared to yesterday, which was well needed as we had another big day ahead of us. We started our morning with a breakfast of crepes before our second visit to Home of Hope. This time blessing the children with streamers, bubbles, balloons, and games. 

We were also very blessed to be able to join in feeding the children their breakfast. We then further travelled on to visit the adult residence of Home of Hope where we were able to meet the residents, learn how to make soap - bubblegum scented - and see the other incredible crafts and sources of income including bracelet making and sewing doormats.

A few of the gents also attended Village of Hope to continue construction, which was a fruitful morning.

In the afternoon, we all headed back to Village of Hope to join the children as they finished the week of school and the older students returned from their week of boarding school.

It was a fun afternoon filled with plenty of sports games, heaps of creativity with everyone designing their own bracelet from hundreds of bead choices, and to top off the evening we had a disco with plenty of awesome music and glow sticks.

That's it for another big day with yet another big Saturday to come so without further ado, it is time to hang up the boots for another successful day! See you tomorrow.

Dan & Rach

 It has been a jam packed couple of days in Jinja, Uganda for Team 32! Here is a recap;

Sunday: We attended a church service at Abundant Life Church. It was amazing to see people worshipping the Lord and getting around the Word. In the afternoon, we held a sports carnival for the children at the Village of Hope. We had the kids split into 4 groups and each team had a different colour headband, team chant and team name. The highlight of the afternoon was our tower building competition, each team tried to build the tallest tower out of sticks. Red team thought they had the win with some massive branches but yellow team had them beat with an even taller tower. We ended the sporting afternoon with some sodas, snacks and music with the kids which was so much fun. 

Monday: We began our day at the house we are renovating during our stay. Some of us were bending U nails into a useable shape. Some were nailing mesh on the outside of the house ready for rendering. Some were inside battening the ceiling. A very busy day on the job site for all. After an early knock off at 12 we headed to the slums. It was a very confronting but necessary visit. We split up into small groups and visited some people living there. Each home we visited received a parcel of some essentials and prayer. It was a very emotional day. It was good to see where some of the Village of Hope children have come from. 

Tuesday: The boys started their day back at the house. The team working inside the house moved onto the ceilings in other rooms and the others continued to nail mesh to the outside of the house. The girls on our team spent some time with the Village mothers. We brought out beads and loom bands for some bracelet making time. It was amazing to spend some more time with the mothers and get to know them better. Even the 2 year old twins who have been scared of us were happily engaging in the activity. We then joined the boys on the job site, continuing to hammer the U shaped nails. In the afternoon, we went to the Home of Hope. The welcome was incredible with the staff greeting us with music and dancing. A highlight was Nathan saying he loved to sing in his introduction and the staff putting him on the spot and asking him to serenade the group. We had a tour of the facilities and met with the children who stay there. This was a beautiful visit, seeing the care and love put into the therapies and care of the children there. I particularly enjoyed seeing the therapy spaces and hearing of all the ways they help different children based on their needs. We also visited the new church building and are planning to attend a service there on Sunday which the team is looking forward too. We then went out for dinner as a team. It was great food and good to chat about our trip so far together. 

Wednesday: Rachel's Birthday!! Again the boys began the day at the job site doing various things. The girls attended the mother's prayer meeting that they hold weekly. We began with worship and I am amazed at how everyone here has a beautiful singing voice and rhythm. We then heard some testimonies and listened to a lovely lady Peace bring the Word. It was a lovely morning praising God for all His done in the lives of the mothers and the women on this team. We then joined the boys until 12. After lunch, a gorgeous blue cake was brought out by Juliet for Rachel's birthday. We sang and enjoyed some cake together to celebrate her birthday! In the afternoon, we went to YSU to view a spectacular fashion show put on by the girls there. It was so great to see the girls confidence grow as the show progressed. After the show, some of the girls showed us how to use their sewing machines. The day ended with some of the team getting a fresh cut at the barber shop up the road! 

That leads us to now... it has been a wonderful time so far and I am excited to see what God has in store for the rest of the trip. 

- Madi 

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Team 32 Has Arrived!!

After a long journey and full African immersive bus trip we arrived at Subbi House ready for the next 2 weeks of adventures in interacting with Uganda HopeBuilders team. The last few days has been a whirl wind of introductions and getting a taste of what is happening in the projects here!  It was great spend time with the children at the Village of Hope and an afternoon at YSU playing volleyball and exploring the lake Victoria fishing village. As always our welcome has been amazing and we look forward to the next two weeks!!        Glenn

 

 

Farewell Uganda..... and ...... finally home

 We were packed an on the (replacement) bus by 10.30 Tuesday morning for the trip to the airport.   We left with plenty of time, as we knew that about 15 minutes before the airport we'd find a KFC.. and there was quite some interest in checking that out.. as well as the well stocked supermarket (especially with lollies for Ben!) In Uganda, there are many interesting/funny/weird business names... caught a pic of one on our way.....  But, it was a relaxing way to begin the journey, which we would discover was needed considering the mayhem at Entebbe airport trying to check in and lines so long, a few of us visibly aged.. waiting....

We settled on board eventually for the trip home... as usual the team was boisterous and lively (which would wane relative to the length of the trip!). Ben was so impressed with the landing in Doha, that he began to clap loudly.. causing half the plane to erupt in applause....( a repeat of that in Perth did not have anywhere near the desired effect - we figure Aussies are less impressed!)

We're home.. and over the next few days we will work through our memories, impressions, and so much more. BUT, we are all deeply convinced that God has not only been with us, He has, but He has blessed us enormously... way, way more that we had imagined, and way more than we blessed others.. We will not be the same........

We want to thank you our blog readers, those who have been praying for us, those who gave generously to support the work, our fantastic team (family) in Uganda, and our church (Connect Christian Church) for being such a great support, and not least, thank God for the opportunity and privilege.

As the sign at the gate of Village of Hope says: 'May all who enter here be a blessing, and may all who leave be blessed'  For us as team 31, we can say amen to that!

 

A day of rest before the journey home..

 A low key day today, to reflect, relax and prepare for the long trip home.

We began together with a great breakfast, then spent the morning debriefing, sharing, swapping stories and praying together.... We're still so full of impressions and it will take time to give them all a place.  We're all convinced that God has revealed Himself through the people and the culture here, and challenged us in many ways... and sharing with each other what that might look like is both vulnerable and encouraging!

For the rest of the day, it was food, walking up to the main road and finding a Ugandan 'salon' where Jordan and Riley got a 'fade' done... and our group were the local 'spectacle' ....  Then a swim when we got back... finishing the evening with a lovely dinner.

It turns out that our bus is not easily repairable, and 3 guys came today and removed the whole engine, in the car park, by hand!!!!  Luckily, Robert, one of our local staff has arranged another bus for us to the airport tomorrow!!

Thanks for following our journey!! Some of us will be back again, and all of us will be encouraging more people to be a part of the work here.....

Andrew.

Early Church, packing our bags, ..0ff to our debrief Hotel

Up early today... We wanted to go to Abundant Life church again, but if we were to do that, we needed to go to the 8am service so that we would have time to pack and clean Suubi house before leaving at 1pm.

We enjoyed the worship and loud music and mics, until the power dropped out  .... phew... Then they had to use their voices and, in our opinion anyway. that sounded so much better, they have beautiful voices when they aren't competing with loud music and drums....

After the worship, Andrew preached on Deuteronomy 30, reminding us to remember all God has done, and to choose 'life' by following Him, and not forgetting Him and His goodness to us in our own 'promised' lands.     Before we left, the church wanted to gather around us and pray for us, which was really special!

Heading back to Suubi, we finished packing, cleaning, ate some lovely fresh pancakes made by Juliet, and said goodbye to the community kids around Suubi.  The bus arrived a little after 1 and off we went, watching the landscape as we drove off.  We were making great time to our hotel in Mukono district.. until about 2/3's into the trip the engine started making some loud and strange sounds!!!  We stopped while our driver, Robert & William tried to figure out what was wrong... meanwhile the team saw a lonely Chapatti stand right there and cleaned to young guy out of all his chapattis!!  The issue with the engine remained a mystery, so we limped at 30kph, all the way to our hotel..late... but we made it...!

After getting our rooms, getting settled, we enjoyed a dinner of various dishes (all that were way too much for us!!).  For some reason, the pool at night beckoned to some of the team, so much that the temperature didn't really factor.... so a night swim was enjoyed, as our Ugandan driver and team looked on confused!!!

Tomorrow we will spend some time debriefing together and relaxing, as we prepare to head home on Tuesday....

Andrew..

                             

                              

                                       

 

Swimming, dancing, laughing, speeches and........................goodbye

       Today, we had an amazing breakfast of chapatti, rolex and pineapple when we woke up, which set the day off to a great start! (There was some fried cassava there too, but unfortunately I was too full to try it). An update on Jordan’s baby, our chicken mascot – Henry laid an egg!

      After breakfast, our plan today was to farewell the amazing kids and young people from the Village of Hope, and we were going to start that morning by taking them to the pool. It was an incredible time at the pool. Some of us got to try our hands at being swimming teachers; others got to participate in diving competitions, creating whirlpools, and just sitting on the edge and chatting. A boys-vs-girls game arose of tossing a soccer ball back and forth, and it got very competitive at times. It was a little cold for me to stay in for very long at a time, but everyone had heaps of fun! Afterwards, we piled into the two buses with the kids, and travelled back to the Village of Hope with them. The buses were VERY full (and thus went very, very slowly, especially up the hills), and everyone had a great time singing all the way home. It was super loud, but full of laughter and music.

      We had a bit of a break for a couple of hours after that, and had the usual amazing lunch of fresh bread rolls, coleslaw, and so much fresh fruit and vegetables. A lot of free time followed, so we spent that time in note-writing, singing, phone calls home and just generally chilling. (I personally just took a nap!). Eventually it was time for our farewell at the Village of Hope, so we walked back up the road and greeted the kids there again. We had a gathering in the hall; in between speeches and words of thanks, there were a couple of amazing dance routines the young adults had prepared. We got to do a couple of dances too – the boys gave an impromptu routine (lots of twerking involved!) and the whole team had (somewhat) rehearsed the Cotton-Eye Joe line dance – made all the better by Jordan cracking out the Worm! All of us got to dance the Nutbush, then we broke off into a lot of free dancing. A couple of the young women tried to teach us to dance; turns out, I’m not very good, but it was a lot of fun!!

      Unfortunately, it eventually had to come to an end. We all had to say our goodbyes, and it was very hard. (A bunch of us are thinking we have to come back some time!) It was an incredible and heartwarming evening, and we’re all left feeling very blessed. Dinner was an amazing chicken curry, and we’re having to prepare to leave Suubi house tomorrow. It’s going to be very tough to say goodbye and leave.

As usual, words don't quite paint the full picture, so enjoy the pics.... thers a few today!!

- Heidi