Friday & Saturday

Friday and Saturday have presented some amazing experiences in Uganda for Team 24.

On Friday morning, we went to Welcome Home, a home for abandoned or orphaned children. We toured the facilities (which were amazing and provided the children with great care!) and then broke off into small groups to play and sing with children in varying age groups from 0-6 years. In the 0-1 years, we met some gorgeous little bubs. One baby, Ivan, was 6 days old and his presence in the orphanage was due to his mother passing away in childbirth. Another little boy, Peter, was 4 years old but was in the babies’ space due to brain damage he sustained at birth. His mother had also passed away in childbirth. We met some reluctant 1-2-year olds who cry when they meet new people. But after enough Mzungus had spent time with them, they enjoyed cuddles and times on the swings. The 3-6-year olds on the other hand were stoked to see us, and they loved trampoline time, singing and tickles. We got to see some teaching time with each age group, which is an amazing opportunity they are provided with at such a young age. It was much like Kindergarten sessions at home with singing and story time.

For lunch, we went to Jinja Sailing Club and then went for a boat ride on Lake Victoria to the Source of the Nile. We learned about the history of the shores of Lake Victoria from our guide, as well as the current uses of the land, like the youth prison. Although some of us were unsure about the rickety boat, we made it safely to the Source of the Nile, a very momentous occasion! We then sailed safely back to the sailing club…although we are unsure how long Dale has to live after drinking the lake water 😊 After we made it back, we were surprised with a trip to the house of William (our awesome driver!) to meet his newborn baby. Beautiful little Shelby was born a week or so before our arrival and she was happily passed around the team for cuddles. Then we came home for a dinner with the builders from the YSU site, a team of men we had spent a lot of time with in the past few weeks and who we had built great relationships with!

On Saturday, half of us went off to our White Water Rafting experience on the Nile! It was absolutely awesome! Nicola, Sasha, Nathan, Greg and Debbie were tossed and turned (and overturned!) on various rapids, some of us even daring to go down the biggest grade 5 rapid called the Bad Place where we were instantly flipped over and had to be rescued by guys in kayaks. It was thrilling and we wouldn’t have changed it for anything. We enjoyed bonding on the way back to Subi talking about our lives at home. The rest of the team spent the day cooking special treats and dinner for us all, shopping, working at YSU or re-visiting Welcome Home for another chance to cuddle the little babies. Dale, Nathan and Greg even went off to surprise some little children with a new soccer ball. They were playing in the alley ways with a plastic bag soccer ball they had made, and they were so happy to receive a new soccer ball from the boys after the kids defeated them 4-3 😊

Off to the Zoo tomorrow with the children from the Village of Hope, so we’re all hoping for a good nights sleep after a big day today!