Hips don't lie

The second day of our sports education program was filled with laughter.  We began the day with an instructional warmup which included jumping jacks, squats, lunges, pushups and sit ups. The students were confused by the warmup, so we assured them that if they did it everyday they would be big and strong like Thomas. Following our warmup we reviewed American football and volleyball for the students who were not there the first day.  After a quick recap and a few practice games we got into teaching kickball.  Everyone got the kicking part down but the rules were another story.  The students didn't realize that you could stop at a base and every kick was either a home run or an out.  After a few at bats we decided to step in and show Ugandans how Americans can play.  First up was Kaitlyn and her first attempt was a giant swing and a miss.  Thomas cracked up and all of the students joined in the laughter,including Kaitlyn. The rest of the day the children seemed to sporadically burst out with excessive laughter and put the current activity on hold for a good laugh! After a long game of kickball we decided to get a workout in.  Today's exercise would be a lesson in traditional Ugandan dance.  A few students brought out a number of bongos and traditional drums.  We each gave it a try and by far Thomas had the best hips. .. ( clearly the writer of this blog is Thomas)! After struggling with some of the moves we decided to show off some traditional American moves.  Kaitlyn chose the shopping cart, Layne showed of the Cupid shuffle, and Thomas brought out the Bernie.  Tis was most definitely a dance lesson that won't be forgotten.

Belly laughing

After the game

Traditional African Dance

Update On Elijah

Baby Elijah barely made it through the night.  Dacia rushed him to the hospital this morning after she was informed he had been up all night vomiting everything he ate.  We picked Auntie Florence and Elijah up on our way to church, and there was no life in that precious little face.  Kaitlyn and Layne feared that we had already lost him, as his eyes were rolled back in his head and no movement was seen.  It was truly a miracle that Dacia made it to the hospital in time for Elijah to receive the treatment that he needed.  He has been hooked up to an IV drip all day and is doing better.  This evening, he took a bottle and kept it down! Elijah will spend the next few days in the hospital. Please keep this little boy in your prayers, he needs them desperately!

Elijah in his hospital bed

Because of You

Today we started our sports education program with the secondary school. The first sport that we introduced was American touch football (simplified). All of the children picked up the game very quickly, but the girls seemed to learn the rules the fastest. We were fortunate enough to have four Nike footballs donated, thanks to Cardinals Sports Center in Lubbock, Texas. During our second session with the group of students, we covered volleyball. Prior to our arrival the children had learned the rules of volleyball so we focused more on skill development before we played a game.

Thomas teaching the rules and techniques to football

The students learning to throw a football for the first time

Kaitlyn teaching the students how to throw a football

Layne demonstrating bumping to the students

Thanks to your collective donations we were able to provide the secondary school with a sports complex consisting of a full size soccer/football field, basketball/volleyball court and a baseball/kickball field. Late last night the bulldozer arrived and today was the first day dozing the fields. The dozer crew works day and night as there are only two dozers in the entire city of Jinja so work must be done quickly.  Your generosity will allow the Arise Africa International Secondary School to host sports tournaments with other schools across the country of Uganda. We wish you could see first hand how excited and thankful the students and staff are for this addition!

The dozer hard a work clearing the fields!

This is one of the dorms that is home to the Arise
Africa female students

The school has experienced tremendous growth since its inception six short months ago. Currently, there are 135 students and next term they expect that number to double. As one can imagine this creates an urgent need for new dormitories and student sponsorships. Without new student housing, many of the children will be forced to sleep on the classroom floors. Arise Africa International is currently supporting all of its current students, but without new sponsorships, some will be forced to return home.

If you’re interested in sponsoring a child for $35 a month, wish to contribute to the dormitories or would like more information on how you can help, please contact Dacia Newton at dacia.newton@gmail.com.

Not Your Average Day at the Fair

Today we experienced our first African fair…with 56 kids and 4 Aunties.  We piled everyone into a 15-passenger van and headed for an hour and a half bumpy drive to Jinja.  As you can imagine, bodies were piled on top of each other and seat belts were not a concern.  What was a concern was the children needing to susu (go to the bathroom).  Dacia told the children that they must wait until we arrived in Jinja, but the Aunties informed us some of the children had already started to susu. Needless to say, we quickly pulled over.  Every child hopped out of the bus and began peeing on the side of the road.  Note: this is normal in Uganda and not seen as unsanitary or illegal.  What a way to start the day!

We arrived at the guesthouse in Jinja and dropped the older kids off for lunch and took 22 kids ages 5-8 to the fair.  The fair was massive and consisted of rides, games, shopping, vendors, wild animals and thousands of people.  While this might sound like a nightmare, the Arise Africa children continued to amaze us with their obedience and respect.  Not one child ever asked for anything, ran off, or strayed from our long line.  The children enjoyed swinging, the bouncing castle and the petting zoo, which consisted of a 20 ft. python, ostrich, crane, lion, jaguar, cheetah and a camel, which Kaitlyn and Layne rode (Thomas claimed to have no interest, but we know he was scared)! After a couple hours of fun, we dropped the younger kids off and picked up the older kids. 

 

The older children were just as obedient and well behaved.  We took them to the Kids Zone, which kept them entertained.  The smiles that the kids possessed brought so much joy to our hearts.  Many of them had never experience life in the city much less a fair.  Dacia funded the entire trip herself, including snacks for the kids and hats which can be seen in the pictures.  Dacia is truly a special person and we have seen her selflessness in so many ways and this is only one of them.  What we thought was going to be an average day at the fair, turned out to be much more.

African Sunday Morning

We are lost for words.  This morning we attended the Arise Africa Secondary School Church service.  As we approached the school, we saw two dormitories, two classroom block, a dining hall and 135 students.  We were surprised to find out that the Secondary School had only been open since January of this year and items such as desks and beds have only been added two months ago.  As you can see, there is a HUGE need for what North Americans think of as simple necessities.

Sunday service

The praise team

As we neared the classroom that housed the service, music filled our ears with the sounds of beautiful voices, clapping hands, bongo drums and praising of the Lord. The students and staff had set up a table for “the guests,” at the front of the room. The service was filled with singing, dancing, skits and a message from two visiting missionaries. The talent and joy that the kids possess filled our hearts with joy. It was a service that we will always remember.

Overlooking Bukeleba

We ended our afternoon with a beautiful hike, with the North Carolina team (from Journey Church) and 10 of the boys from the Primary School. The view was incredible as one side overlooked Lake Victoria and the other overlooked the village of Bukeleba. 

We had to bring Husker nation to Uganda!!

All four of us with Lake Victoria in the background

Introducing our crew in Uganda

Dacia Newton, our host! Dacia has been taking care of us since the moment we have arrived in Uganda. Dacia has been a member of the Arise Africa team for the past four years and is also a family friend of The Reeves Family (Layne).  She has done everything with us, and gone above and beyond to ensure we are enjoying our time here in Africa.

Meet Dacia! ... Note: Kaitlyn's tennis shoes got lost in the missing bag.. yes, our last bag is still missing.

Betty takes care of us. She cooks, cleans and always has a smile on her face when she sees us.

Nelson… aka Don Cheetle, is the operations manager for Arise Africa International. 

Oma is our guard who carries a rather large gun in order to protect us at all hours. Don’t worry, we would be safe without him… but it’s nice to know he is there if we need him.

The Aunties are the women who take care and look after the children at the babies home.

Fun facts about our life here

-       The water is cold, so our showers are short

-       Sometimes the water is brown and just shuts of mid way through a “shower”

-       We don’t have internet in Bukelaba (that is why you are seeing 4 blogs posted at once)!

-       Our electricity is run by a generator at night and in the day solar panels are used to generate electricity....So cloudy days mean no electricity

-       There isn’t a fridge or freezer so our food is bought from Jinja daily

-       We can’t drink the water, or even brush our teeth with it

-       We sleep in bug nets and kill at least 10 while putting it over the bed each night

-       Kaitlyn, Layne and Dacia’s room is 10 by 10 with three beds.  Thomas has the same size room, just with a bigger bed

-       Kaitlyn and Thomas have only gotten sick once on the third night (Lucky for Layne she stayed clear of whatever we ate)

-       Breakfast consists of coffee, tea, delicious passion fruit juice, toast, the best pineapple and sometimes eggs

-       Our favorite foods have been the massive avocado, the freshest pineapple, and Betty’s flavorful beef stew.

-       We eat on an outdoor patio with an incredible view that looks over Lake Victoria

-       The sun sets around 7:30 each night, so we play lots of card games at night… and it gets very competitive, especially with the three of us!

Layne & Kait plus 58… & Thomas

In the morning of our third day, we completed a medical assessment at the babies home. Layne and Kaitlyn (Kait) helped the kids do arts and crafts and take pictures for sponsors, whole Thomas took vitals of each child.  Many orphans has distended bellies as a result of malnutrition. Common conditions included malaria, HIV, and bacterial infection.  After consulting with the compound nurse, we found our that many individuals in Uganda throughout the year are diagnosed with other conditions such as diarrhea, hypertension, cancer, tonsillitis, and anemia. Even though we are only in our third day, our vocabulary has drastically improved. The locals speak a dialect of Lugandan called Soga. We now know basic greetings and commands, don’t ask us to spell any words though, and the locals seem humored when we attempt to speak their language.

Kaitlyn has already formed a special bond with one of the resident orphans named, Hope. She hardly smiles, laughs, and doesn’t talk to anyone according to the Arise Africa staff.  She lacks emotion, but constantly longs for physical affection. Hope clung to Kaitlyn all morning as we left for lunch, and said goodbye to the children, Hope began crying and reaching out for Kaitlyn. It was an incredibly touching moment that didn’t leave a dry eye, especially for the two.

Layne encountered a different scenario and found herself correcting a physical situation with another orphan.  Agnes, sever-years old, is a youngster who chooses to act through violence to gain attention. She spent most of the morning slapping, pinching, and hitting Layne and other children.  After countless efforts to stop this behavior, Layne then restrained her with a hug, and Agnes began crying and held on tight to Layne, not letting go.  We wish we could say that all the children receive adequate love and attention; however, there are so many of them to care for, and only so many incredible aunties (“care givers”). Many of these children have seen the most traumatic and unimaginable situations in their short life, which causes a few of them, like Agnes to lash out, while others, like Hope remain distant.

Thomas was dealing with a little different situation. The orphans seemed to be infatuated with his calves. Everywhere he goes there seem to be hands on his legs accompanied by laughter. Just looks at our pictures…. You will see what we mean. As Thomas was completing the physicals for each child, he notices how well behaved the children were during their time in the clinic.

We look forward to working with the secondary school in the coming days in Bukaleba and teaching them new sports!

Thanks for reading.

Medical check-ups

They love them...

Kaitlyn's right hand girl, Hope!

Kaitlyn & Hope

Agnes breaks down with love

Note the picture.

These are the days of Elijah

Wow. Words cannot express all the things we have seen, encountered and been a part of since arriving in Uganda.  Currently, we are in Bukeleba, a small village an hour south of Jinja, the locals call it “the bush.”  We were welcomed with waves, smiling faces, and children screaming, “Jambo” (hello).  Bukeleba sits on beautiful Lake Victoria where Arise Africa International houses their guesthouse, Babies Home (orphanage), Primary and Secondary School. 

After we unloaded our large amount of luggage, minus one bag that was lost, we headed directly to the Primary School where the kids were playing.  As soon as our feet touched the red dirt, children surrounded us clinging to every limb of our bodies, some even yelled, “Mazungo” (white person).  After playing with the kids, we had our first meal consisting of chicken, rice, pineapple, vegetables and watermelon.  It was delicious.  The scenery couldn’t have been better, except for the bat that was circling our heads.  Kaitlyn was terrified. J We enjoyed a much-needed night’s rest and we were thankful that no rats were spotted. 

Thursday, our first full day, was full of emotion.  The morning was filled with songs, dancing and games at the Babies Home.  During lunch, we witnessed a grandmother who had recently lost her daughter, place a 3-month old baby into the Babies Home.  Elijah was 7lbs 6oz and looked like a malnourished newborn.  Our hearts broke as we saw the pain in the helpless grandmothers eyes as she handed the baby over to Arise Africa Staff.  Thomas assisted with the medical examination where they found that Elijah tested positive for Malaria.  Kaitlyn and Layne split their afternoon and evening caring for him and giving him his first bottle.  Elijah’s grandmother had been feeding him porridge and black tea.  As many North American’s know, this does not have the nutrients needed for a baby’s growth.  The other half of our afternoon was dedicated to distributing one new outfit to each orphan.  The smiles on their faces as they received the new outfit were simply, incredible.

By 8pm we were ready for bed, knowing that our next day was going to be equally draining both physically and emotionally.  Although we don’t have internet at Bukeleba, we are continuing to write daily updates and will post them as soon as we can.  Thanks for following our journey and we ask that you please pray for the health and growth of Elijah as well as the other children.

Meeting with the Queen

(Please read in British accent)

We have officially made it to London, but not without some moments of panic. After arriving in Chicago, we had some last minute travel goods to purchase before our flights. A little tip for those of you who aren't from a populated area; GPS navigation isn't the most reliable in the heart of a big city. Lucky for us, we had "Mr. Navigation" himself, along to guide the team to each destination. After we had all of our travel goods, we had to use the Blue Line train to take us to the airport. Sounds easy enough, except that we were lugging 7, 50-lbs bags and a few carry-ons during the busiest time of the day. After a few looks and impressive high-stepping by the passengers of our train car, we managed to get to the Chicago airport.Our next task was trying to evenly distribute the weight of our bags to get all of our luggage under the weight limit. We were successful and every sports ball, kids toy, chalk, medical supply and much more for the people of Uganda was on the plane. :)

Shortly after we boarded, we were greeted by airport staff and were reminded that we were most defiinitely flying British Air. By the end of the flight, Thomas became an "expert" at the British accent, with a twist of an Australian in there every once in a while. Kaitlyn finally saw, The Hunger Games and Layne got some sleep across two seats. All of us are feeling the jet lag and we are doing our best to stay awake while awaiting our next flight; but we are all going to need a short nap at some point. I'm sure while we wait we will take a look in every shop, eat our last large meal and meet new friends!

Sorry to all of our family and friends for not sending personal messages- using the internet costs $2 for every 5 min so we are sticking to this short blog update while in London.Our next post will be from Africa and we cannot wait! We will make updates as often as we can .

So long from London and sending love back to the US and Canada.

Kaitlyn, Layne & Thomas

And So Our Journey Begins...

We can't believe this day has finally come. It seems like yesterday that the three of us were discussing the possibility of this trip. Today is our first travel day as we head to Chicago via the Megabus. Because of bus availability, Thomas left last night and Kaitlyn and Layne left this evening...and ran into some difficulties.  Because of overwhelming support, in addition to our three large bags and three carryon's, we had two large plastic bins full of donated items.  As the bus drove up, the bus driver walked out and immediately said, "who's bins are those?" The driver noted that bus regulations only allowed one bag per person and the bins were not permitted.  Ours hearts now racing, we tried to persuade the bus driver by telling him the purpose of our trip and the importance of these items. He didn't budge. Panic set in, and we frantically began to brainstorm ways to get the bins to Chicago. Our brainstorming was minimal, we had no options. Time was short, so we began stuffing the items from the bins, into our bags. Shortly after, the bus driver told us that if everyone else's bags were loaded and there was still room for ours, he would take the bins. Kaitlyn and Layne began to pray and watched as the space began to minimize before their eyes.  Passengers on the bus were rooting for us and were willing to help in any way.  After stuffing the bags completely to their limit, we were left with three duffel bags and one plastic bin. Two minutes before departure, the driver allowed us to load our bags! What a relief!! We hustled onto the bus and everyone cheered.  Although this was a stressful start to our exciting journey ahead, we know that God will provide and take care of us! Thank you for your support and prayers. One day until we depart Chicago for London and two days until we arrive in Uganda!! Kaitlyn, Layne & Thomas