Introduction

It's been almost a week since I arrived home and I'm still really trying to get my head around it all.  This wasn't a "holiday" so I can't tell you what activities I did and how lovely it was to be in the sun.  I went to try, in my small little way, to help some people who I had never met before and most of whom I will likely never meet again.  I prayed before I went out that I would also benefit from the trip, not wanting to be selfish but hoping that I might be changed for the better by the experience.

I kept a diary while I was there and so I've decided that the best way to tell everyone about my trip is to type it up in this "blog".  I haven't included absolutely everything that I had written down but what I have written gives an account of the week as it happened.  If I'd tried to explain every emotion felt then it would have been even longer, so I've kept to the facts mainly.

I am so grateful to the many people who were praying for me and the team while we were there, and I can tell you that all my prayer requests were met...

• All our travelling went well and safely,
• Ross and Tyler (along with the dogs) were fine at home,
• the English and the Ugandan leaders got along really well and we worked as one team during camp,
• the children had an amazing time at camp and were filled with new experiences and skills and knowledge, both spiritual and practical,
• what little I had to offer was, I think, used by God in His mighty ways.

The days at camp went like this:

6:30am Leaders' Devotions

7am Morning Drills

7:30am Shower time

8am Breakfast

9am Praise & Worship

9:30am Bible Story

10am Bible study session

11am Morning Snack

11:30am Life Skills study session

12:30am Workshops

1:30pm Lunch

2:30pm Another Life Skills study session and/or preparing for evening presentations

4pm Afternoon Snack

4:30pm Games/Swimming

6pm Shower time

7pm Supper

8pm Evening presentations

10pm Lights out

There were 105 children from in and around Kampala (up to 4 hours travelling) who attended the camp and each of them were already being helped by a project running and had been chosen by their peers to be their project's Child Ambassador, one of the rewards for which is attending camp.  There were 28 Ugandan leaders, all of whom were there voluntarily, though some work with the projects that the children came from.  CRANE (Children at Risk Network) is the network in Uganda who organised the camp and who supports and works with these particular projects.  

There are a lot of people doing some really great work in Kampala/Uganda but there is still SO much need!  I know that what I did last week was just a "drop in the ocean" compared to the work going on, but I was privileged to be that "drop" and it was a real honour for me.

It's hard to know what to do with what I've seen, learned and experienced.  I certainly can't forget it all and I actually pray that it continues to be heavy in my heart and prayers.  However, I have come back to the same life I lived before going out: the same 2 story brick house with heating, running water and constant electricity, the same amazing secure job with good pay and the same high standard of living with my own car, too many clothes, enough food each day and a bit of money left over.  How do I put these two stark differences together and move forward?  (By the way, I'm asking a question that I can't answer!)

Am I glad I went?  YES.  Would I do it again?  YES, though I had to wait over 10 years to do this one so know it might be another wait before it happens again.

I think I would like to go to another country and try a different type of work, perhaps something more "hands-on", but the week at camp was a wonderful learning experience for me and I am really glad that I started there.  I used to spend my summers at a Christian camp in the mountains in California and it was a huge part of who I am now, so it was a real blessing to be in "camp mode" again, though the environment and surrounding circumstances were as different as different can be (except the heat and wooden bunk beds!).  I also now have a dream that Ross, Tyler and I will do something similar together at some point in the future.

Thank you for reading this and I'd happily answer any further questions you may have. :)

There are some photos in the posts to follow, but the entire collection of my photos and videos are at:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ynmvrx4cxlq11ma/akd6g9NC3F

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/17rfpzihyrgfe4f/ZGFubpZW91

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vbm8-lg2WX4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7WNoQFBGFY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-0n87D8Zps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eymD9SedkU

Friday 4 January 2013

We met at Heathrow at 4am and checking in and travelling went fine.  One short flight to Amsterdam where we had an hour or so in the airport, one long flight to Kigali, Rwanda, where we had to stay in our seats on the plane for an hour and then a VERY short flight to Entebbe (for those who know where these places are in relation to eachother, yes, we basically flew past Entebbe to get to Kigali and then back again... still unclear on the reason why! :) ).

I had a mixture of nerves and excitement as we made our way there, but I knew that my nerves were simply fear of the unknown and that the Lord, who I do know, would be with me every step of the way so I really didn't need to worry.  I was still wondering at this point what on earth I would actually be able to bring to these children and people I would be meeting, but the reminder I had been given the day before of the child bringing fish and bread to Jesus who then multiplied it many times was encouraging.  I cried once because of a movie I was watching (End of Watch) and once while thinking of Tyler, but I knew Tyler was safe in the hands of both his father and our Heavenly Father... I always pray for the peace of God to be with Tyler, but I prayed a special prayer that he would have peace over the next 10 days.

We were picked up by the owner of the hostel we were staying at and taken there in the dark (11pm by this point).  At first, some of the roads and houses didn't look too far different to ones I've seen in the US, but a few turns later and we were definitely in a different country.  Only the very main roads are paved and the others are bare dirt and full of potholes.  Although it was late, there were still some people out and, even more surprisingly, quite a few with children.

Mosquito nets were already hung over 4 poster beds, we had a nice proper toilet with running water (had been warned it would be cold water all week) and the electricity was working that evening.

Saturday 5 January 2013

We had a late start the next morning and intially were quite happy with the breakfast of pineapple and other fruit but were then asked how we wanted our eggs and were given crepe-like pancakes, sausage, egg and toast.

The owner of the hostel kindly did the next run also and drove us to Taibah International School where camp was being held, just over half way to Kampala.  This gave us our first look at Uganda in daylight...

I was surprised by the stark differences we saw in the view over such a relatively short distance.  Large sturdy block buildings were flanked either side by lean-to's and hung tarps creating further stalls and shops in addition to those in the main building.  Homes made of plastered walls and walled gardens with tended to grass sat right next to shacks made of mis-matched pieces of wood or tin with nothing but dirt for a floor, and the mansion like estates sat on the hills behind both of these.

We were greeted at camp by Noeline, the camp director, and the other Ugandan leaders started arriving soon after. We were issued with brand new mosquito nets... they offered to wash them so that the DEET wasn't so strong but, along with the amount of DEET-filled insect repellent we were spraying on ourselves each day at sunset, we were happy to take the full-strength ones.  We were sleeping in one of the dormitories with several other Ugandan leaders but without any children, so we each got one bunk bed over which we hung our nets after putting both mattresses on the bottom.  We were anxious to see our "flushing-squat" toilets... they weren't so bad. :)

We spent the afternooon with the other leaders, getting ready for the week ahead and getting know each other.

Lunch - boiled rice, baked beans and a chunk of meat (beef?)
Dinner - rice noodles, baked beans, boiled potato, minced beef

Sunday 6 January 2013

The day seemed to start far too early, but then again we were 3 hours ahead of UK time so the 6:30am start was more like 3:30am to our bodies!

We had our first Leaders' Devotions, which I led, and then our first Morning Drills, which is similar to doing Zumba I've been told.  There was a team-building session for the leaders and some setting up and getting ready for the children to arrive.

The children arrived just before lunch and most of them were very quiet and almost "shell-shocked" to begin with, not too surprising since for a lot of them it was their first time being in an environment where they had solid paving under their feet and brick buildings on every side of them.  We helped match name badges to children and assisted those who didn't have their name badge yet.  I also think that being so close to a white person might have been a first for many of them also as they looked at the 4 of us with curiousity.  There was a small young boy who I tried to help and at first I assumed he didn't speak English as he didn't say anything back to me.  When I offered my hand to him he declined but he did follow me to where he needed to go.  However, it didn't take long for the children to settle in and start enjoying themselves and only 2 hours later I saw that same little boy who then ran up to me as soon as he saw me with a huge smile on his face.

There were organised games for the children in the afternoon and over the 1.5 hours of games I realised that these children really were no different to other children... disappointed when their team lost and looking to blame eachother, elated when their team won and rubbing it in the faces of the other team.  At one point, the girls were being led in a game while the boys watched.  Some started to get restless and I joined one of them in doing cartwheels.

For the evening, each dormitory group had been asked to prepare some kind of a presentation.  They ranged from drama sketches to dances and each was about the rights and freedoms of children... we were really impressed with what they'd each come up with in only an hour of preparation and they definitely weren't shy about child advocacy.

Breakfast - 2 slices of bread and a banana
Lunch - Boiled rice, baked beans, Tooke, a chunk of meat (goat?) and some broth
Dinner - Boiled rice, Tooke, chicken (all parts included in the pot!), broth, spinach, purple peanut paste and a chapati.

Monday 7 January 2013

Today seemed long, but I think it was because it was our first full day with the children.  Then again, starting at 6:30am and finishing at 10:30pm with being on-the-go the whole time actually IS a long day for me! :)

Anto led the Leaders' Devotion first thing and Morning Drills was done with the children for the first time.  They actually seemed just as surprised by it as we had been so I'm not sure how wide-spread this concept is in Uganda. I sat with one of the boys' groups for breakfast and proceeded to eat my breakfast different to everyone else at the table... bread and boiled egg became an egg sandwich and soon most of them were having a go at it!  :)

We had a lot of other firsts this day...
Praise & Worship was half an hour and we were led by voices and drums only.  A lot of the children seemed to join in naturally though there were a small number that didn't.  Most of the singing was in Ugandan so we couldn't always tell what was being said, but the faces of those which were worshipping spoke volumes to us.  I was dancing along (well, moving anyway, not sure they would have called it dancing!) straight away but also just enjoyed watching the leaders and children praising God.  There was one song sung in English and it was one which I knew... "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me".  Now that took me back to my own days at bible camp so it was such a blessing to be singing it at this camp!

After Praise & Worship, the children sat down for the Bible Story, which Brenda led on this first day and was about Joshua.  The half hour "presenting" of the story was followed by an hour of completing worksheets based on a key passage of scripture of Joshua's story.  These exercises seemed though they might be boring to us, but they were a good way of really ingraining the scripture into their minds, which was the objective.  We each joined in with one of the groups and it was nice to be able to help in that way.

Morning snack came next (we were actually fed 5 times a day while there!), followed by a further lesson time for the children where they discussed "life skills".  We used this time to get ready for our workshops which followed.  My workshop was making a large banner as a group... this went better than I had been worried it might though I did have to do some further explanation half way through, where I realised that I hadn't explained well enough the first time.  At the end the children and their leaders were very pleased with what they had created.

Lunch followed and I decided that I was going to sit with a different table each meal rather than stay with 1.  I had taken a few photos of the family and so used this to start conversation.  I learned that not all Ugandans are fond of cats and they are thought of by some to be ghosts or demons!  I also decided to clarify, when telling them that my husband is a Police Officer, that he is a nice and good one since I had also previously learned that the Police in Uganda has a reputation of a lot of them being corrupt and demanding bribes.

There was another time of organised games after lunch and the girls were the ones who got to take turns in the swimming pool on this day.  Helping in the pool was another task that we had agreed to take on and the session was quickly renamed "Splash and Bash"... the majority of the children had never been in a swimming pool and so this was a time of excitement mixed with panic that led to limbs flailing in all directions and hands grabbing anything they came close to.  However, the happy faces were wonderful to see.

After dinner there was a "talk show" which was based on the "life skill" lesson that the children had had earlier in the day, Social Etiquette.  One child from each dormitory group was on stage to answer questions put to them about what their lesson and discussions had been about.  I found it a bit difficult to follow and understand everything, but the children were all very enthusiastic and passionate about what was being said!

Breakfast - 2 slices of bread and a boiled egg.
Lunch - Boiled rice, Baked beans, Fish (again, every part of a fish was represented on one plate or another... the kitchen staff seemed sympathetic to us white folk and none of us were presented with a head), watermelon
Dinner - Boiled rice, boiled potato, chunks of meat (beef), spinach, chapati

Tuesday 8 January 2013

I led the Leaders' Devotion again today and then, because it was raining, Morning Drills happened inside the Dining Hall.  Nikki led the Bible Story today, teaching about Deborah.  Anto, Brenda and I helped and we acted out the story after she'd read it through once and she had the children be the soldiers.  I played Deborah and at the time when Deborah leads the soldiers in a song of praise I stepped forward to sing a single line "Praise the Lord" to start off the bit of monologue I had... much to my surprise, they knew the song I used the melody of and the leaders and some of the children carried the song on!  I then took the liberty of leading it again after saying the lines I had to say. :)

I underestimated how long it would take me to set up for my workshop so I ended up explaining the resources as I took them out of the suitcase I'd held them in.  We also almost ran out of time at the end, but managed to get everything out of the way before the other children needed to line up for lunch.

There were less boys than girls overall at the camp and it was the boys' turn for swimming today.  Not only were there less of them, but we divided them up into 3 groups instead of 2 and this meant that the swimming session went much smoother and we had more opportunities to do one-to-one "lessons" with them.  We also didn't get kicked or grabbed quite as much!

The evening session was a "Cultural Show" which really was amazing to watch.  The children had been split into groups according to what part of Uganda they were from (well, it was really what side of Kampala they were from) and they said a little bit about that region then performed a song or dance from it.  Okay, so the long-history of women not being considered equal to men was apparent in several of the dances, but they were still amazing to watch!

The 4 of us and 2 other English girls who had been working in Uganda for a year did a cultural presentation for the UK.  We taught them to say "Alright", told them about our weather, food, sports and flag.  Nikki and Brenda sang a song while Anto and I did a bit of Morris dancing and then we all sang "God Save our Queen" for them.

Wednesday 9 January 2013

Nikki led the Leaders' Devotion this morning.  She spoke about looking to God when we are tired and boy were we getting tired.  It started to rain during Morning Drills but we kept going in the light shower, then later had a torrential downpour that lasted for 2 hours!

Anto did the Bible Story, teaching about Nehemiah, and she had the children respond when certain names were said.  I went to the opposite extreme this day with the workshop, being well prepared before the session started but then finishing with 5 minutes to fill at the end!

We had been asked if we would accompany the children and other leaders to the "zoo".  I admit that I negatively thought that I might not enjoy this, worrying that it would not be at standards of animal care and welfare that I think are acceptable.  I couldn't have been more wrong and actually realised this as soon as we arrived and saw the actual name being "Entebbe Animal Education Centre".  We saw zebras, giraffes, warthogs, lions, cheetah, various primates including Chimpanzees.  This was a really nice time of time spent with the children and only while the children played in the playground could any of us be seen not hand-in-hand with a child or two.

The rides to and from the Wildlife Centre were interesting... we traveled in a mini-bus and at first it all seemed in order.  Then, the nice wide aisle which ran the length of the mini-bus was filled with flip-down seats until the entire mini-bus was jam-packed with people. :)

After touring the centre and some time spent in the playground we went outside the centre gates to have bottles of soda (glass bottles!), but we were quickly surrounded with Patas Monkeys which ran loose in and around the centre.  They weren't easily scared but I kept the ones on my side at bay.   Unfortunately most of the leaders were scared of them and one did run in, grab a bottle and run up a tree with it.  There was also a watch laid down on the ground which disappeared and I thought it was likely that monkeys picked that up also.

When we got back to camp it was too late for the children to swim, however we were allowed to go as leaders.  I had the chance to float for almost 10 minutes, much to the amusement of the school's lifeguard who asked me, "Why do you do that?".  I replied that I found it relaxing and recommended floating when the sky was clear at night to watch the stars.  I asked him the next day if he'd tried it and he replied that he had and he had enjoyed it! :)

The evening event was a Fashion Show and the highlight was the "creative" category where everything from leaves to bin liners were used to create outfits!

Breakfast - 2 slices of bread and a banana = Banana sandwich
Lunch - Boiled rice, Tooke, Baked beans, chunk of meat, broth
Dinner - Boiled rice, boiled potato, chunk of meat.

Thursday 10 January 2013

Brenda led the last Leaders' Devotion which was on this morning.  It was then my turn to do the Bible Teaching, which was on Esther.  As usual, I can think of a few things I would do differently if I was doing it again.

The workshop ran the smoothest of any of them... I was just getting the hang of it!  There were 2 things that happened during it that stick in my mind...  One was a girl who was standing still completely not knowing what to do or how to do it once I released the children to start creating.  I led her to the materials table and gave her a handful of foil milk bottle tops and a glue stick.  I then showed her how to glue the lids on and left her to do this all over the banner.  The other was that one young boy had used some of the materials to create a picture that said "Jenny".  He put it on the banner but I confess that I took it off afterwards so I could bring it home with me. :)

In the afternoon, the children had organised water games using a long stretch of black plastic and soapy water to create a "slip and slide" type thing.  It was 27 celsius in the afternoon so I was quite happy when it came time to be in the pool.  The children were allowed in in small groups again and the leaders also split the time in half, taking turns.  Once all the children had finished, the leaders stayed in for a bit longer and there were some good laughs had among the leaders, both Ugandan and English.

The evening activity was a campfire which was pulled off brilliantly and luckily the rain held off.  A marquee tent had been put up a short distance from the fire in order to provide some shelter and some meat was being cooked all evening (I think it ended up taking longer to cook than they'd anticipated).  Some of the Ugandan leaders told stories that were native to their regions and the children were given the opportunity to tell jokes.  Some of the youngest girls (Bears) fell asleep (some on our laps and some on the ground) and were taken to their beds but the other kids kept going well after 11pm!

Friday 11 January 2013

This was the day we left camp.  The Leaders had a meeting in the morning and there were no Morning Drills.  I was really pleased when I saw that the children were each being given a backpack, remembering that some of them arrived with nothing more than a plastic carrier bag with a single change of clothes in it.  They had been given 2 t-shirts each during the week, a mosquito net and a wash bag with toothbrush, toothpaste and soap inside which they were allowed to take home, and there were some other small gifts inside the backpack also.  This was of great comfort to me as I started to think again about the lives that these children lead away from the luxury of camp.

We traveled to Kampala on the large bus with many of the children and were pleased to have a quick tour of the CRANE offices once there.  Then we were taken to Cassia Lodge, which is a hotel on a hill above Lake Victoria boasting beautiful views and good food.  I swam in their pool while the others lounged on chairs and we watched the most beautiful sunset.

We went to our Kampala hotel in the evening and had Hot Chocolate with fresh mango and Jack  Fruit before going to bed (and we had a proper toilet for the first time since last Saturday!)

Saturday 12 January 2013 (and some of Sunday 13th too)

We started early again on this day to avoid traffic on the roads in Kampala.  Mim (an English-Ugandan) and Shida (one of the Ugandan leaders from camp) took us on a sight-seeing tour, hitting all the landmarks over a couple of hours.  We got out of the van twice, once to see "taxi park" and once to walk through the narrow (and muddy) aisles of a second-hand market.  We stopped at a "craft market" that also had a very nice coffee shop, had a cup of proper Ugandan coffee and shopped at both the "fixed-price" craft shops that benefitted the charity which ran them and the coffee shop and also the regular craft market across the road where I had Shida help me with the "bartering".

I had mentioned the evening before that I'd heard that the bananas known as "Tooke" that we had been eating all week in a cooked and mashed form was also available in a flour and that I would like to buy some if we came across it.  Well, phone calls were made and the location of the office of the Presidential Initiative on Banana Industrial Development (PIBID) was found.  It was a Saturday, so they weren't technically open to the public, but they allowed me in (accompanied by Shida) and after explaining that I wanted to take some Tooke Flour home I was invited into the office of the Project Director!  They're in talks with Sainsbury's to try and get it over here.  Despite not usually selling it on Saturdays, I was allowed to buy some... I haven't used it yet but look forward to making some more Gluten-Free things for Tyler with it and will also be mentioning it to my local Sainsbury's stores!

After this we said Goodbye to Shida and Hello to Eddy, another of the leaders from camp who was going to take us to the project he works at.  We had lunch at a very western cafe called Java's and then headed over to Re-track's Drop-In centre for homeless boys.  The boys range in age from 5 to 15 and either hear about it and come in on their own, or are found on the streets and brought in.  It is completely their choice to be there and for how long they stay, but those that are willing are moved on to a Halfway House where efforts are made to either re-unite them with their family or to find foster families for them.  By US/UK standards, the facilities were less than basic and would probably be deemed unsuitable, but this is the only place for these boys to go, and there they have shelter, food and are kept safe from harm.  They also cook a meal every Friday which sees over 100 children come for food... many of them live in the nearby homes but they don't  get cooked meals at home so they come to the centre for one once a week.

The next project we visited was called Spring Valley and was supposed to be a Boarding School, except that it was school holidays and there were still children there!  These were mostly just not picked up by their parents, perhaps because the school was so much better than what they would have had at home, but the school also had raised a couple of children who had been abandoned and brought to them... one of them at less than 2 years old!  Again, by US/UK standards the conditions were dismal, but for most of the children what they have at the school exceeds what they would have at home.  The lady who runs the school simply wants to help the children, but it's a constant battle of stretching the money and resources as far as it will go.  There is flowing water behind and down one of the sides of the school and they struggle to keep the unclean water out of their premises.  It was inspiring to see her dedication but heartbreaking to see how hard it is for her.  It was good to know that the same network that ran the camp is doing what they are able to help her.

In the evening we went to a worship event at Kampala Baptist Church and it really was a lovely way to end our week.  It was quite modern and western really, but was an uplifting time and it was great singing (when it was in English) and dancing with the Ugandans.  They did one English song which myself and the others in the team knew well and we sang our hearts out... then there was another one in Ugandan but I recognised the tune as a song I knew from years ago and managed to remember the words in English after a while.

We were driven back to Entebbe late that evening, battling traffic even at that late time of night to get out of Kampala, and spent a few hours at the hostel in Entebbe, resting and freshening up (as much as one can freshen up in 27 degree heat) before the owner drove us to the airport at 3am.

Our flight home on Sunday went fine.  We flew to Nairobi, Kenya and spent an hour in the airport there, then flew 7 hours to Amsterdam and had an hour in the airport there before flying home to London.  The "inconvenience" of not having personal TV screens or working headsets for the long leg of the journey was overshadowed by the many "inconveniences" in the everyday lives of the children and people we had met.

I met a young lady on the 2nd leg of the journey who was from Kenya but had gone to college in the US and was still living and working in New York in Investments.  We talked about "fitting in" and yet not feeling "at home", which is how she feels right now in New York and how I felt when I lived in California.  She had a goal of returning to Kenya and we talked about how perhaps God had her doing a mundane job which she didn't enjoy at the moment because he was going to use the experience and knowledge she was gaining to help her family and her people when she returned to Kenya... it was encouraging to hear how much she wants to help children and people in Kenya when she returns.