Day 6 & 7

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.