Today was a great day. I woke up with a great energy charge
from yesterday as well a willingness to try out my new view of this wild place
I am in. I began the day by getting some exercise and then headed to breakfast.
Breakfast at the hotel is basically toast, cornflakes, some sort of sausage,
fruit, a bran bar, and a variety of egg dishes. Nothing really out of the
ordinary here. Again… we are staying at a hotel. My friend Rheanna geared me up
to eat goat head soup and so far we haven’t seen any… But I would try it if
given the chance. After breakfast we headed down the street to the Children Of
Grace compound and prepared to drive through a few villages. It began to rain
on us very hard… very quickly. Luckily my camera bag has a rain cover built in
and I had my trusty new single layer jacket to keep me dry. Joseph came to
rescue us but there was something that was so great about being
in the rain that I couldn’t get in the car… So instead I took foot on a running
board and let him zoom me through the rain that way. Actually at one point I
thought to myself… “He is going pretty fast… maybe this wasn’t such a radd
idea…”. But it was… it was…
Driving through the villages was everything I expected. Mud
houses, big pots cooking something over a campfire, plenty of people standing
around. Random animals. Beautiful kids that smile at you, wave, and say goodbye
as you pass them. We were told that we are not going to actually get out of the
cars on this visit. If your thinking to yourself… “Geez, it must be weird to
drive through their home just to look and point a camera at them…”, It was. I
felt very uncomfortable doing it. We had a woman from C.O.G with us in the car
and she was telling me it is ok to take photos in this village and that they
won’t be offended. I kept wondering how I would feel if I was in their
position. We are not animals… this is not a zoo. It was terrible. And remember
the long hard looks I was talking about… multiply that by 10. Some of the woman
that were there would hold out their hands asking for anything. So why didn’t we
get out of the car? Because when you get out of the car and interact with
people here… it creates an expectation that something is going to happen for
them. Kids will swarm you and let you love on them. They follow you. It builds their
hope. This drive was mainly to give us that are new to Uganda a view of where
these kids come from that will be at camp on Friday.
A few people in the car were talking about a girl in one of
the villages that has bright blue eyes… Sure enough… I saw here! She was
stunning! She was standing all alone on a corner as we turned in to the
village. I couldn’t help but give her the biggest smile I could give and tell
her she was beautiful! At this she got very happy, giggled and covered her
face! She began to run by our car while holding my hand and returning smiles
and laughter. In this moment she crushed my heart! What can I do for her?! How can
I help you?! AH!! This is surely a moment I will never forget! The moment a
little girl in a span of ten seconds can steal your heart and make you want to
give her anything you could possibly give!
Seconds later she received words from an elderly woman
working over a fire at which she retreated in to the village… I was too busy
being swept away to get a decent shot of her but I managed to capture only one
piece of video and a blurry photo. Little did I know… Alison in the seat behind
me was able to grab a photo with her iPhone.
After lunch we headed up to the campus where we will be
holding the camp in order to clean up a bit. The dorms are literally a cement
room with about 10 bunks with three layers to each bunk. An American prisoner
has better living conditions than what we are providing to these kids… for a
camp. Unfortunately this is what’s available. More importantly they will be
given 3 meals a day, which is much better than the 1 that they usually get.
The day is over now and we wrapped it up by celebrating a
few birthdays of people we have with us. Unfortunately I will not be able to
sleep tonight. I have 1,001 things on my mind and I am just not tired.
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| The girl with the great blue eyes |
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| Alisons angle |
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| Alison and Risa pumping water for scrubbing |
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| All the guys on the trip |
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| Joseph and Miguel |
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| View from Monkey Hill |
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| Silas |
