I wish I could bottle up my excitement and contentment and share it with you because yesterday was such a great day! It was pretty much the perfect way to start out the work of the trip!
First off – the most amazing part – we are likely going to be able to sponsor at least 4 of the original Woolies! For anybody who doesn’t know them, you can look
ck to almost all of the past posts and you will read something about them. To sum it all up, we have known them for almost six years and have been through many ups and downs with them. Originally they were in a small home in Kampala and after a few years we realized their situation wasn’t getting better and there was corruption with the manager so Watoto orphanage (the biggest one in the country) was able to adopt them into the system. For the past three years we have asked about sponsoring them, but they have always been fully sponsored. Unfortunately, when the economy went downhill, Africa suffered more than other places. Donors stopped donations and the costs are much higher here than anywhere else. For example, petrol (gasoline) is at 4100 shillings (about $1.75-$2.00) per liter. I can’t remember the math exactly, but I think that it is for sure over $5 per gallon. So luckily for us, we met with a woman, Emily, who was very helpful. Apparently, they have had to add a sponsor for each child and 4 of the Woolies were not sponsored so the Perko family will be “adopting” a few more – at least we can be more official when we come to bring gifts and spend time with them! It was a total surprise for things to work out. We usually go to the Watoto office expecting to have to explain the entire story of how we know the kids, bring pictures to show we have known them, and prove that we have ties to them. This time, Emily knew exactly who the kids were and was excited to help us. It is possible that some of the new siblings of the kids also do not have sponsors, but we will not know until Friday. I am hoping that most of them are sponsored so we won’t have to leave any of them out. If all goes well, we will have the paperwork filled out before we leave the country!!! What a great start!
Our next stop was Katanga, one of the worst slums we have gone to. There was a woman, JaJa who takes care of almost 20 children. She is 77 and can barely move, but she somehow manages to care for the children and has people who help to pay for food and school fees for most of the kids. Fortunately, a church group has helped her to find another home, but unfortunately for us, we have to find her. Again, we have come to expect the worse. Walking into Katanga, you realize that it is a makeshift community built on piles of garbage. It is smelly and dirty but it is where people live and work every day. Children play in the streets which are usually the same place that garbage and sewage is disposed of. I am not a germo-phobe, but I feel like showering as soon as I leave and I don’t touch anything until I have at least washed my hands. Anyways, it’s not a great place but JaJa and her kids called it home. We were very lucky to find her place right away and then find her neighbor who had her phone number! We left Katanga and later Angella called JaJa. She was excited to hear from us and will send somebody to meet us when we want to go and visit! It was pretty great to know she would be easy to find!
We stopped for a quick lunch at Javas. There used to be just one at a gas station in town. Now there are at least three and one more is being built. It is popular with visitors so I think they do pretty well. I only say this because it is so delicious and is my favorite place. I love the avocado and cheese sandwich! It is so wonderful! I try to eat it as much as possible while I am here!
After lunch, we decided to visit Little Angels. This orphanage is one we have been visiting for about 4 years. The man who runs it, Max, is a local business man who has suffered a lot since the economy has gone down so he is not always able to pay the house mom and food is very limited. There are almost 20 kids and they eat a totally of 4 kilos of rice, 2 kilos of beans, ½ kilo of sugar, and 1 kilo of porridge for breakfast. Even that is sometimes not provided and the kids just eat whatever they can get. They rarely have fruit or vegetables and even more rarely have meat. Usually it is just at Christmas and Easter. I am hoping that we can provide some sort of “feast” for a day or something with them. I think we can probably wait until my mom arrives because I think it would be something she would love to take part in! When we arrived, Angella left us to go to a meeting and the rest of us went in. Judith, the house mother, was out, so it was just the kids. At first they didn’t know what to do with us. They were excited to greet us and then we went inside and sat down. We stared at each other for quite a while before we actually started talking. Once we broke the ice, we took the kids out in the yard and started playing. Eventually, we started a soccer game with a ball made of plastic bags wrapped into a ball, but it was still a ton of fun! I forgot to take a picture to show, but I will try to remember next time. It was great to be able to spend a day with them just hanging out and getting to know all of the personalities that exist in the house. Later, Judith came back and I was able to sit down and talk with her. She was excited that we returned and especially excited that my mom is coming back to see her! She was also super ready to tell me about how she used all the medicine from last time and how she knows what to give the kids and how it works when she uses it! I was so excited to hear that our little project does some good! Even if we can just help one mother at an orphanage learn to better care for the needs of the kids, I will count it as a win! It is sometimes quite frustrating to think of the difference between aid and development and which one is better. Sometimes people ask why on earth we would travel to Africa when we could be helping in the US. While I fully agree and try to help as much as I can back at home, I would say that the excited and smiles that I got from Judith were so worth the trip! It’s amazing what a very small amount of money, some teaching, and a lot of encouragement can do for people, especially here!
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Finally, the rest of the night was just fun! We left Little Angels a little before 7. The BODA BUDDIES have ridden again. Dennis and I have decided to pair up when we ride bodas and we usually have a lot of laughs! This time was no exception! Our driver, Cyrus, was friendly and pretty good, except he occasionally liked to drive on the sidewalk, but we still made it home safely and happily! Afterwards, we went for a quick coffee (we were too full for dinner after our huge lunch at Javas) followed by a local open mic night called Jam Session. One of the best singers was a person that Angella is good friends with so we got to meet him afterwards. I think Dennis was very excited because he sang songs that he really loved.
All in all this was a great day! We had a ton of work done and had fun doing it! We are excited to start another day of exploring and excitement!
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