Day 3 Uganda team 19

DAY 3:

On a gorgeous Monday morning we woke up with rain beating down for some Chipatis and Rolexs and had a lovely breakfast, but because it was raining we had to eat inside. At 9:00am we left Suubi House and headed for the ‘Home of Hope’ in a packed van. We arrived there and made our way inside while the rain cleared. One of the workers there, Edith told us the story of her son and his disability from Meningitis and that how he had passed away, sadly and that he is now living with God. So this inspired her to start up the ‘Home of Hope’, which is a home for severely disabled children. We walked through the house – this was a surprising, confronting and sad experience seeing all of the kids disabilities. After that, half of us split up to either start building the new kitchen out the back or do some activities with the children. Today for the kitchen, we dug the trench for the foundation and finished the initial layer of bricks. The staff made us a spaghetti meal, which we stopped for then got back into work. We came home tired and exhausted after a long days work. Then we relaxed after our eventful day.                   

Nathan!

Check out the pics below..

One of the prettier team members!!

Hmm, conference first..

The digging begins

Our power digger lady!!

We love a camera..

Doctors dig too!!

That same pretty team member!!!

Uganda team 19 Day 2

Day 2  

Today was the first Sunday of our trip.  We didn’t have our regular rolexes for breakfast because the girls have Sundays off work, which means we had to make our own breakfast, but we had cereal and toast so it wasn’t too hard to make. 

Church started at 10:00 sharp, but we were two minutes late because we were having a lovely walk up the road on a beautiful, sunny morning. Church went for two hours and ten minutes, the first forty-five minutes were songs and dancing and the rest was the talking bit, including the dedication of a baby. And then we had a one-hour sermon on perseverance! 

We then met up with new friends and walked back to Suubi house, to make lunch, which we also had to make our selves. In the afternoon it began to rain, we were going to go to the village for a visit, but we ended up playing a lot of card games. That night, because we the girls weren’t there to cook for us, we decided to go to a restaurant for dinner. The food was very good there, even though we had to wait a while, and we all had a good time together.

Tomorrow we will go to Home of Hope and begin some work and see the kids...

Greetings... Ben!

Dedication of the Baby in church..

Good friends!

Dinner at All Friends!

Loving it!!

Uganda team 19 begins!!

TEAM 19 HITS UGANDA!

After an epic plane trip, we arrived safely at Suubi house after a VERY long and bumpy bus ride from Entebbe after our flight from Dubai. We were very exhausted and crashed into bed straight after about 30 hours of travel and a quick dinner, (beans rice and irish potatoes - yum!)!  This would be the quietest night at Suubi house for the next 3 weeks!!!

A late and slow start to the day was the plan with a luxury 9am breakfast of fresh fruit and rolex (egg and veggie omelette rolled up in chapatti). After morning devotions at Village of Hope, we spent some time playing with the children and meeting the mothers. The boys got into quite a serious soccer match with the children where the kids skill showed them up. We  went back to Suubi house for a lunch of fresh bread rolls and salad, then piled 18 of us into a 12 seater van to explore the town of Jinja. In Jinja we had the opportunity to get some money out, check out some local markets and sample one of Andrew’s favourite cafés. After another squishy ride in a different 12 seater bus (ours broke down!), we returned to have some quiet time before a dinner of good old spaghetti.

Check out a couple of photos of our day below...

Breakfast in the sun on the deck

Praying for the Village and kids

A view of the driveway

My tongue is longer than yours!

We got whipped!!

Our cool new friend!

18 people in one van, Check!!

Home of Hope: part 2
24/6/2015 (By Nicole McGrath)

Yesterday concluded the time that Ken and I have spent at the Home of Hope. It has been our second home for the past 6 weeks, and we look forward to what God has in store for its future!
Here is a summary of what we have been up to, as well as some changes that were made this time around:
Handiwork:
Reorienting the swings, now all the children are able to access them safely!

A therapy shelf and 3 bedroom shelves:

Footplates on the standing frames and wheelchairs, now the children can be in a better position.

Fixing of equipment, and modification of others. A base, some pressure tubing and some angle was added to this bucket seat for Faith, who is 18 years old and has cerebral palsy. Due to limited resources, this is the best seat she can be offered:

  Installing the swing on the verandah. Henry was particularly happy about this one!

Therapy:
Organisation of the new equipment in the therapy room (...well it looked like this
for at least 10 minutes!)

 Individual programs:

 Modelling of group programs:

In consultation with the OT, creation of individual programs to be hung on the wall around the home. Volunteers can now come and be a part of the therapy by reading about each child's goals and some activities that would help in their development. This one I'm particularly excited about, and looking forward to hearing how it goes with the team that comes on Friday!

Education talks to the staff on feeding, spasticity management and manual handling.

Hygiene matters:
We have had Em with us from Australia who is a nurse/midwife. She has been helping out with reinforcing the importance of hygiene for the children's safety and quality of life. She completed
a talk to the staff about hygiene matters, as well as demonstrating a nappy fold which would last a bit longer and prevent leakage.

Em will be continuing on with what we started for another week, as well as the women's health program, 'Wise choices for life' that she has been running with the young ladies at YSU and the youth at the Village of Hope. (To find out more: http://www.wisechoicesforlife.org/)

Please continue to keep Home of Hope in your prayers, and pray for God's protection and strength over Edith, who is doing an amazing job giving a life to these children who would otherwise not have one.
God bless.