Support a School in Africa

I wrote a little about the school in Kyabazaala Village in this post back from August. Pastor Kintu started a school there for the children in the village. They were having to walk too far to get to school and unfortunately, there is a stronghold of witchcraft in this area and the children were being abducted by the witches and used for sacrifices. Since the school has started, the child abduction rate has gone down.

The school is really struggling to survive though. There aren't really any supporters/donors for the school. Often the teachers go without pay for months. Pastor Kintu gave us a bag of stuff handmade in Africa to bring back to sell. All of the proceeds will go directly to the school. Here is a link to the album on facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.610104204912.2083426.79100334&type=1&l=e1f9ffcff2

Some of these could make good Christmas gifts. If you're in Kansas City, Tulsa, or Houston we can hand-deliver the items. Otherwise they can be shipped to you. Please consider supporting this good cause!

Videos from Uganda Part 2

 

I found Taylor in this classroom at Favor of God Primary School playing Simon Says with the kids.

Our tour guide at the Source of the Nile.

We paid a guy to go over Bujagali Falls. You can read more about it here.

We found this little guy making lots of noise outside of the church in Kyabazaala.

AcaciaTree Baby Home in Entebbe

If you know anything about Taylor and I by now, you should know that we both love children. Taylor worked as a summer camp counseling for over 5 years. I've been babysitting and working with kids since about age 10 and I was pretending to be a mom with my live baby dolls, Nicholas and Samuel, since the age of 3. Babies are my favorite...I think Taylor is more of a fan of older kids that he can play and be active with, but he does really well with the babies too. We were so blessed to be around so many children and go to so many children's/baby homes. 

AcaciaTree Baby Home was the perfect final stop before we left Uganda. Robin Hancock actually went on an ORU Missions trip to Uganda several years before I did. She ended up coming back to live in Uganda and has opened a baby's home. She really tries to keep the babies with their families

Sadly, we only got to spend about half a day there, but it was such a joy to be around those little guys. 

At the beginning we were just hanging out with Sophie, John Mark, and Emma. Everybody else headed off to nap.

Little Sophie. She's tiny but strong.

I'm happy to say that Sophie is doing better. She was pretty sick about the week before we went to visit. She is HIV Positive but with the medications she is on (called ARV's) she can live a long life. You can read more about little Sophie here on Robin's blog. She was still not feeling fully well when we were there so she was really cuddly.

Sophie fell asleep like that on Taylor. Then we just had John Mark and Emma awake.

Trying to get John Mark to wave

Emma soon fell asleep

 

Naptime is over! I heard noise so I went back to check on the boys and this is how I found them. :)

The weather was beautiful so we played outside.

teaching Henry how to play hide and seek

Joshua

The two girls in the back are Robin's adopted daughters

Esther is learning early how to balance stuff on her head.

 

 

Moses!

I definitely want to visit these guys again someday!

Final Days in Jinja

Okay, I am going to attempt to get all caught up with the remainder of our trip to Uganda in a few posts. We left off with Amani Baby Cottage in Jinja, Uganda. After Amani, we spent a few more days in Jinja. We went to dinner at Pastor Terry and Debbie Nester's house and met their Ugandan son, Emma (Emmanuel), who happens to be living in South Korea! What a small world. We had no connection with Terry and Debbie before we came to Uganda. We found out about their church- Acacia Community Church through someone at Amani who recommended that we attend there. We met Pastor Terry and he told us about his son, Emma, who had bee studying in South Korea for 3 years, but just so happened to be home in Jinja on a break at the same time we were there!So after a full day at Amani, we went to dinner at their home.

This is a picture with Terry (light blue North Carolina shirt) and Emma (Terry's arms are on him) and a team that was visiting from the Uganda Water Project. I'm telling you- we made so many connections while we were there! We want to stay in contact with all the awesome people we met.

The next day, we went horseback riding along the Nile River. After the ride, we went and packed up at the home we were staying at and headed to Kampala for the night.

 

We spent one night in Kampala at a nice hotel that Pastor Kintu told us about. I don't think foreigners really go there much. I think it's more of a place that Ugandans just know about. But if you're in Kampala, you should definitely stay there. It's called Pacify Hotel and it is only 30,000 Shillings for one night which includes breakfast in the morning. 30,000 Shillings which is about  $11 USD.

The next day we headed to Entebbe- our final stop before leaving.

Amani Baby Cottage

Back when I (Ashley) first came to Uganda in 2005, I wanted so badly to visit Amani Baby Cottage. I wasn't able to go on my first trip, so I said I would just have to come back to Uganda again someday and go there. My dream came true. We spent Sunday afternoon and Monday at Amani Baby Cottage in Jinja.

I think there are currently almost 2 or 3 times many boys as girls at Amani. Also, their numbers are low (35 children) because they have some success with a child sponsorship that allows the children to return to their families that couldn't otherwise support them. They like to reunite children with their families. Sometimes that is not possible due to death or mental illness, etc. So sometimes the children get adopted, mostly by families in the States.


Snack time for the boys



It's pretty obvious why he doesn't wear clothes at snack time

Hanging out with all the girls

This is Grace. She seems like such a sweetie, right? NOT! She CAN be sweet, but she is one of the most ornery children I have ever met. She pretty much does the opposite of whatever you tell her to do; and laughs while she's doing it. She's still cute though!

And now it's time for the babies of Amani! There are currently only 5 under 9 months. They stay in a different area from all the other children.


Dorothy




Simon- such a happy baby!




This was a great moment. Taylor went to pick the baby up but there was something in the seat that he said looked like spinach artichoke dip. After touching it he quickly realized it was poop that had leaked out the side of the diaper. Way to go, Precious.



"You have no chin!"



Jennifer- she always had a really cute angry/inquisitve look.



This is Enoch. How old do you think he is?  2 months? 3 months? Try 8 months!

I fell in love with Baby Enoch. He came to Amani 2 months ago when he was only 6 months weighing about 1.5 Kilos (about 3.3 pounds). They thought he was going to die. His father died of HIV and his mother was also HIV positive. He has an older sister that is also HIV positive, but he is negative. Someone told his mother that he could get HIV through her breastmilk so she stopped nursing but she didn't have money to buy milk for him. So she would go out and collect field greens, boil them, and give him the water which other mothers in similar situations also do. That's the only reason he stayed alive as long as he did but also the reason why he was as small as he was. During the 2 months he's been at Amani, he has gained several kilos and now weighs 5.2 K (almost 12 pounds). I just love that little guy! And all the other ones too!



My buddy Enoch




Jennifer giving one of her angry/inquisitive looks.

Baby Homes go through  A LOT of laundry. No washing machines and no dryers....think about those days where it rains a few days in a row. They get really backed up!




Dress up time

 

Mary; a twin to Martha (not pictured)

Here's Grace again, all happy



Esther- she was such a sweetie



Ahhh...here's Grace in one of her finer moments

The girls' room



One last picture of Jennifer


And lastly, a video of Emily singing "Aleluia, Amen" in the background. At the very beginning of the video, you can hear Grace screaming.

Church/Ekisa in Jinja

After returning from Sipi Falls, we spent a few days in Jinja. On Sunday we went to Acacia Community Church. A lot of the local missionaries go there. It was a good service and wonderful morning outdoors. The afternoon was very rainy though. We have been absolutely amazed by the weather here. It's been in the 70's and 80's all of our trip. I don't think it has been in the 90's. And there hasn't been any humidity! It's going to be vastly different when we get back to Korea. We better start getting ready!



Sunday morning service at Acacia Community Church


Saturday afternoon when we returned from Sipi Falls we went to Ekisa in Jinja. Ekisa is a wonderful children's home for children with disabilities. There are lots of staff and helpers at this home, and less than 20 children. It was heartbreaking to hear some of the stories.  Some of the children came from backgrounds where the parents said "I don't want a child that looks like that." America has come a long way in accepting people with different disabilities but the same can't be said for the rest of the world. We've noticed in Uganda, and also Korea, and other countries we've been to that we haven't seen too many people with disabilities. We know they are there, but there are social stigmas attached so these individuals aren't always seen in society. America is definitely not perfect, but it has come a far ways.

 There were 2 little ones in particular that just broke my heart. I didn't really get a picture of them. The whole time they were there, they were crying in pain. They both have Cerebral Palsy. Tasha especially was in a lot of pain, even though she is on pain meds. Keep them in your prayers. Their names are Tasha and Daniel.

This is Jane. She's the newest to Ekisa- she came about 2 weeks ago and is really afraid of people, especially Mzungus (White people). They said she had hearing loss, but nothing actually seems to be wrong. She always looks really sad though, which makes you sad to see her looking that way. :(



Rachel



She had Polio when she was younger so she cannot currently walk, but she's got a really fast crawl!

Walter

Sipi Falls

We spent a few days celebrating our anniversary (early) at Lacam Lodge in Sipi Falls.

Our banda that we stayed in

One of the falls right by the lodge

If you look closely you can see a rainbow at the bottom.

Hiking through a cabbage patch

We greeted these people in their local language (the only phrase we knew was hello) and it's amazing how they opened up to us. Normally, people here don't like you to take their photo, but they actually told us to come stand by them and take a picture. I learned a good lesson that day.

Taylor and our guide from the lodge, Thomas

This little girl was so cute in her tattered dress

This was our transportation down the mountain. 1 hour on a motorcycle. I had my eyes closed some of the time.

One last view of the biggest waterfall