Team 24 DAY 6
It’s day 7 for us, but we were too exhausted to post
yesterday!
Yesterday was quite a big one and very emotional for us,
hence the lack of post last night. We started in the morning split into two
teams, one group building at YSU and another at the Village of Hope again. The
building is coming along quite quickly (though today was a different story..
more later!) and we’re feeling quite proud of where it’s at. It’s a nice
feeling to know that we’re contributing to something that will still be
standing and making a difference long after we’ve left.
At the Village we had quite a relaxed morning, nail painting
for the big kids and colouring in for the littles! It’s wonderful being able to
spend so much time interacting with the kids and building relationships with
each of them.
After lunch at Suubi we crammed into the little bus and
headed out to Home of Hope. For those that don’t know, Home of Hope is an
incredible place that cares for children with disabilities who have more often
than not been abandoned by their families. These kids suffer a range of disabilities,
from simply being deaf, to high-care conditions like cerebral palsey and
hydrocephalus. For all of us, the visit was confronting. While the children receive
the best possible care at Home of Hope, it’s devastating that their parents
left them and the contrast between the Home and similar institutions in
Australia is massive. We spent a few hours with the kids, learning about their
various conditions from the wonderful staff and interacting the children.
Seeing their smiles brought most of us to tears and showed us that while they
may look and act different, these kids are still people like us.
After our visit to Home of Hope we headed back into Jinja for
a team dinner and despite the bugs flying into our food, we had a wonderful
time as a team. Food was great, drinks were great, conversation was great. The only
let down was the flat tire on the way home! Stranded on the side of a Jinja
highway with a flat tire and no working jack? No worries.
Just kidding, there were many worries. It was late and we
were tired, but luckily the wonderful Ivan came to our rescue and we were back
on the road after 45 minutes. What. An. Adventure.
Home and straight to bed, ready for a massive day today!
TEAM 24 – DAY 7
One week since we left Australia! In some ways, the days
have gone slowly but in others, it’s flown by!
Today we split the team in two again – Meagan, Nicola and Jo
stayed at Suubi house this morning to bake some beautiful cakes and prepare for
our afternoon of Arts and Crafts with the kids at the Villlage!
The rest of the crew went back to YSU to do.. almost
nothing. We got there to find there wasn’t much for us to build this morning!
So we laid a few and moved a few more bricks around to help the builders for a
few hours, then came back to Suubi for lunch.
This afternoon was absolutely nuts. Some would say organised
chaos, others would just say chaos. We
took all sorts of arts and craft activities up to the village for the kids and
spent a few hours making flowers, bookmarks, bracelets and colouring in – the kids
loved it and so did we! We were exhausted by the end of it, but the results
were brilliant and the children continue to surprise us with their talents and discipline.
We’ll let the pictures tell the story!
Dinner time for us soon and then a loooong sleep before another
massive day tomorrow.
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