Team Update

For the first week and a half of our team's visit, they were busy painting the outside of all the TC guesthouses. As boring as it sounds (and probably was most of the time), it was a huge help to Paul. Painting is a big job - just ask the team...the girls had sore arms pretty much every day. But with Paul's busy schedule and a million other things to do, the team's time and willingness to serve was a big weight off his shoulders. (Thanks team!)

This past week we shifted gears and the team was able to experience Uganda from a different perspective.

Mpigi
Peace Portal Alliance Church has a children's home project in Mpigi, which is somewhere between Kampala and Masaka. Jeff and Shannon Dyck are involved with this project and invited us to come with our team and spend time hanging out with the 50 or so children that live there. We stayed for 2 nights in tents inside their church building, and during the day spent time with the kids - soccer, singing, games, crafts, etc. It was not only fun, but also encouraging to see so much joy in those children. One of the highlights was listening to them sing worship songs in their houses at night - uninhibited and full of energy!

*Side note: while in Mpigi Paul came down with the mildest case of malaria EVER. He felt a bit off, we went to the clinic where they gave him some pills, and after that you wouldn't have even known he was sick by looking at him! Thankfully it didn't affect our week away at all.

Jinja
From Mpigi we headed up to Jinja for one night. When we arrived, we took a short boatride at the source of the Nile, and then visited Amani Babies' Cottage where we played with the toddlers for a couple hours. Mainly though, Jinja was a chance to relax and have some fun for a day. For 5 of us, the "fun" part included a day trip of white water rafting down the Nile! I was a wee bit nervous before we began (okay...completely and totally scared out of my mind). Especially hearing the guide say things such as, "When the raft flips..." or, "We're about to head straight down a 14 foot waterfall...backwards." Funny how the person who was the most freaked out (me) was the only one to get flipped out of the raft! For obvious reasons, we couldn't bring our cameras rafting, but just believe me when I say those rapids were HUGE! BUT it turned out to be so much fun. Aside from the 11 crazy sets of rapids we endured, we also enjoyed lunch on an island in the middle of the river, time to jump out and swim, and a delicious bbq waiting for us at the end of the day.

At the source of the Nile!

Amani Babies' Cottage

The starting point

Feeling very proud of ourselves for braving the rafting trip - and surviving.

Kampala

On our way back down to Masaka we spent one night in Kampala so that we could visit Sanyu Babies' Home. The team had brought a bag of donations which we delivered to the home, and then we went on a tour and got to spend time with the babies and children. Some of the stories we heard were heartbreaking. A set of twins was dropped off at Sanyu 2 days ago...they were 10 days old and each weighed about 1 kg. There were countless other stories of babies being abandoned on the side of the road, in garbage dumps or pit latrines, or just left outside the gate of the babies' home, sometimes only hours old with their umbilical chords still attached. Sanyu tries to get all their children adopted into loving families by the time the children turn 3 years old. And I won't lie, I was pretty tempted to take some of those little ones home with me right then and there!

This weekend we're back at TC and looking forward to leading a church service on Sunday, spending some time in Kibaale next week, and then going on a safari! Stay tuned!