Hi from Elvina (and the rest of the team)!
It's been a busy (and amazingly rewarding) few days. After our last update we headed to the Sanyo Home for Abandoned Babies. We spent three hours taking down the children's laundry, and of course, playing with the kids, all of whom were between the ages of zero and three years old. We had the chance to attend a party for Jovian, a wide-eyed one year-old girl in pink who had just been adopted. She sat in her overjoyed mother's arms as the entire orphanage sang farewell to her. All of us made a friend (or two)--a one year-old named Frank clung to Katelyn, and a curly haired infant named Gladys sat on my lap.
The orginization was run efficiantly, and the women who worked their truly cared for the children. We said our bittersweet goodbyes and headed back to greet the two missing members of our team, Elijah and Dr. Bleattler. They arrived all in one piece and full of stories from their journeys in Dubai, Amsterdam, Bulgaria, Germany, and Turkey.
The next day (Friday the 28th), the team spent some time outlining the strategic plan we will be presenting to King's College staff members next year. The plan will orginize our trip and state why we think a team should return next year. In the afternoon we shared sodas and stories with several Makerere students who are involved in Life Ministries, the Ugandan branch of Campus Crusade for Christ. We enjoyed discussing everything from business to elections to weather to Disney.
That night we got to see the Nderi dance show, a classic African performance that included musicians (with traditional tribal instuments!), singers, and dancers. All of our jaws dropped to the floor at the talent of the dancers--in the grand finale the female dancers balanced six pots (each!) on their heads!
A dancer at Ndere balances five pots while dancing
Saturday we had the opportunity to explore the economics of Uganda. Ted Pantone, an alum of the King's College who is living in Kenya, led a tour through the local businesses that have benefited from loans by microfinance companies. We visited a local paint shop, whose owner claimed that his business had neraly tripled since a low interested loan allowed him to buy better equiptment. We also drove to the outskirts of Kampala to visit a catfish farm. After discussing how low-interest loans had benefited the business, we watched some of the locals feed the fish a bucket of chicken intestines...perhaps the most gross thing any of us had ever seen. :) Finally we visted a small preschool for orphans. The owner was a wonderful Muslim woman who had appealed to an orginization to help her run her project. It was amazing to tour the school, which was comprised of three classrooms, a small garden and a front porch
At the paint shop
Where the chickens are bred
Children at the Orphange
A classroom at the orphanage
That night we drove outside of the city to visit Henry (our contact from Campus Crusade for Christ) and his family. It was incredible to spent time in the home of a welcoming Ugandan family. On Sunday we rested, studied the book of Hebrews, sang some songs, and prepared for our art exchange with Makerere University. That evening we went back to the Bavabuka youth center for the Sunday meeting. It was like nothing we'd ever experienced--the members, a group of young poets, painters, rappers, and designers, spent about three hours just going around in a circle and talking about the things they loved about one another...including us! It was one of the most relaxed, humorous, and community-oriented experiences we have ever had as a team.More to come! We still have a lot of updates about our art exchange with Makerere University, and a good number of photos that we want to share. Please pray that eventually we'll find a computer capable of uploading them. :)Elvina
