NicolesLetters.org

Good evening everyone. Due to the only 4 hours of sleep I had last night, this might be quick. Still fighting the time change. Today was a very eventful day. We had a lot of fun things to do at the school all day. I’d like to mention also that many of the pictures posted are awesome shots from Marty (some of mine aren’t so bad either.. wink) . He tried to post on the shutterfly page and there was a problem with the loading of the pictures so I asked him if I could post them here. By the way.. I tried to post many more pics for Day 3 but only half ended up on the site. Will post all pictures in a picture page here at the end of the trip.

Enjoy…

Upon arrival we went inside the church and there was some time spent enjoying the amazing singing of the children. They performed multiple songs for us. It was GREAT! I remembered and was so excited it was one of my favorite times of last year. The kids are great at performing in front of a group of 700 people. I could never do that.

Immediately following we went outside to unveil the fresh water well supported from the fundraiser held on December 29th. Thanks to all of you and your contributions, the children no longer have to worry about wasting precious water. They can now use the water for cooling off in the middle of the day, today I saw a group inbetween class rinsing their heads off because it was so hot.

Pastor Stephen gave a speech about the well and also talked about how they are installing a mechanical pump which will allow the water to pump to many locations so the children will not have to carry heavy buckets of water all around for chores, cooking and washing. Now they can go to multiple locations on-site. Isn’t that GREAT?!!!

After the well, I went in so I could organize the shoes, luckily last night Karen and Janelle helped me sort the shoes in different bags based on sizes. That was a huge benefit today when we had kids rushing inside the small room to get a new pair of shoes. They were so excited! We gave the black shoes to the kids in the school today atleast 40 pairs just today, maybe more. These were given to kids that are attending the school and don’t have proper uniform shoes and their shoes are in bad shape. These kids were so excited, it was as if they couldn’t get their old shoes off soon enough. They were looking around in amazement of all of the shoes wondering which ones they would leave with. We used a piece of paper to see the size of their feet. We would trace their foot and match it to a shoe. Whatever works! Karen was a huge help today, Noreen, Christina and Margret (volunteers from the school) helped to organize the children also to ensure the children had the proper shoes. Tomorrow some of the shoes will be taken into the local village to be shared with the community. This should be very exciting. I hope to go but I have a lot to do for the profiles and you all know what an advocate I am for sponsorship and shoes! Hard to choose. Maybe I can do both.

At the same time I was participating in giving new shoes out…thanks to all of you …. the others were giving out mosquito nets to all of the sponsored children. It’s very exciting that the children get nets, that means about 250 kids got nets today to protect them from the malaria carrying insects!!! What about the others you ask?? Well we have to get them sponsored. It is expensive and it is difficult to get them to each and every person so… they need more sponsors. This is very close to my heart especially since like Mikey passed away the same night I met him last November from malaria.

We returned from lunch and the students and adults help to plant flowers around the school. It was such a great activity. How fun to participate in helping keep the grounds looking good. The children were loving the attention from all of the visitors, they were playing games, walking around and just hanging out getting attention.

Cammie, Janelle and I did sponsorship profiles this afternoon. I know they were both very touched by the experience of learning stories of individual children. I met one girl today with 10 siblings and her father does caual labor meaning that he earns next to nothing. I just can’t believe how precious these children are. It’s so easy to excuse problems and poverty when it’s outta sight outta mind. It’s another thing to sit there and be a witness to desperate people which have little to no means to get ahead in the world and are praying that their child receives a sponsor so they can have a better life. Pastor Stephen often talks about how they need to educate the children, the younger population, as they are the future of Uganda. They can change this country to be a better place with education. Many of the children as we interview them are worried about giving the right answer and pause while collecting their thoughts. They press their lips together, fiddle with their socks, cross their ankles while sitting in a chair that does not allow their feet to touch the ground and swing their legs back and forth. Trying to think of the right thing to say. Will someone pick me? We give them a “sweet” either a jolly rancher or a dum dum sucker. They might crack a smile then but most of the time they are so sad and lacking attention and a sense of purpose. The time when they feel like they have something is when they are in school. Can you imagine not being allowed to attend primary school because your parents couldn’t pay for it? Can you imagine a school administrator sending your child home because you can’t pay for them to learn? I met a child today that is 13 and in 4th grade. What happens is when people can’t pay the children might go to school for one term and then not for another year. Depending on when they can get the money for it. Then kids place in at another year maybe lower..they forget information. The inconsistency of the continual education is what is lacking.

On a lighter note.. Pastor Stephen introduced the children from Gulu today and was talking about how happy the children are being there at the school. He was talking about how these children had never slept on a mattress. Can you believe THAT??? Sounds so hard to believe. Little Scovia sleeping on a mat on the ground. Just breaks my heart. Especially being here with these kids, I just can’t imagine a life like that. Not knowing when you will get your next meal. Living in mud huts in a camp of 10,000 people in the displacement camp. Sorry… this was supposed to be the lighter note…. Here is some great news, when the children from Gulu came down, Pastor Stephen hired a woman that speaks their local dialect to translate for them so they can learn properly. A couple of the older girls from there speak a little English. Very little. Although Scovia can’t speak to me she seems to know I want to spend the time with her. She just appears. She also likes the attention. I was carrying her around today. She beams.
Kyla..Victoria is everywhere, in so many pictures. She is making friends with a bunch of the students on the trip. I see her with them carrying her around and her sitting on their laps. She seems really happy.

Jen… I forgot to tell you.. I know I told you I saw Barbra. She came over to the school with her dad on Tuesday. She was really bummed. I couldn’t get her to crack a smile for a picture. Turns out her grandmother passed away last Thursday and they buried her over the weekend far away in the village. Don’t think I will see her before I leave. Sad for her.

Rod.. I met Ian, he needs a new uniform. Turns out he is the son of the driver, Jerrard. Last year when we were here, he drove us all around town every single day. His wife of 10 years had just had a baby girl two weeks before we arrived in November and the poor guy worked so much. Probably good though to earn extra money. At any rate, Ian is his son and he needs a new uniform. Will get that before I go.

Luis.. I saw Samson, showed him the video he loved it. I think he watched it 5 times I couldn’t get it to post on the computer (don’t want to crash it) so I showed him on the recorder. He was really happy. He got his mosquito net and I gave him a big bag of beef jerkey and some candy. I think I gave him pencils also. Going to get him some new shoes in his size before I go.

Emelie.. I see Joyce everywhere, I gave her a picture of you today and she was sooooo happy!

I caught a glipmse of Juliet Ajulu today in passing, she has Ajulu embroidered on the back hem of her dress. I suppose it makes sense that when they do laundry they have to identify their clothes in some way.

Jane got her net, Tera. She was a happy camper today. No surprise.

Remember the necklaces? Today we met the women that make them. There are a number of women that make these to earn a living. They are all single moms and are just trying to get through the day and earn enough to survive. They are the necklaces with the paper beads..

I think that’s a wrap. No spell check..sorry it’s late. I’m tired.

Nicole