Day 7 – 30 June 2018

Today was a very long day of home visits. We started the day in Musima with a downhill slope and a nice breeze, so we thought the day would be super easy. Boy, were we wrong. A few homes later, we were walking up the steepest hill I’ve ever seen and with rocks that will knock everyone off their feet. It’s always worth it, though. It is so important to visit every child’s home, not only for the sponsors but the parents of the child too. Ugandans love visitors and they will do anything to make them feel “most welcomed”. They love when we visit their homes and want to know more about their struggles. Many of our families have the same two problems: medication and generating income for their families. Luckily, these are two things that we were already planning on fixing in the near future.

I am always blown away by the generosity of the families in our program. Even though they don’t have much, they want to show their appreciation and we leave with eggs, avocados, mangos and sometimes a chicken.

After two huge hills, we decided to take it easy after lunch and we sat down with Patrick, NBS, and Margaret. Patrick is a dear friend of ours and the director of the organization that works to better Musima alongside Project Yesu, St. Emmanuel Community Development Initiative. He currently is caring for 25 children, 8 of them are biological and 17 of them are children he has taken in for many different reasons. So we got an easy 25 children’s case notes down in about 10 minutes. NBS is currently caring for 15 children and 9 of them are sponsored in our program. NBS is the children coordinator for St. Emmanuel. Margaret was also around when we were taking notes on NBS and Patrick, so we decided to get her case notes as well. Her 4 children are also sponsored. 

Before doing a few more home visits, we made Tiffany and Joseph do what we call the “initiation” to the village. We always have people that come to Musima with us make bricks, which is what many people in the village do for work. It’s a mildly difficult and extremely messy task. I would tell you more about it, but I think the photos will suffice. Let’s just say, Tiffany struggled a bit on the first batch.

I wanted to share with you about a sweet girl who really needs our help. If you followed along with our journey last year, you may remember the story of a mom, who refused our medical care and passed away from cancer, leaving behind 9 children. The oldest of these children is Lyaka Safina, she is 16 years old and has stepped up in the role as mother/caretaker of her 8 younger siblings. Three of her brothers have sponsors, and the remaining children are too young for school. Safina stopped going to school when her mother died, she was in Senior 3 which is great, especially for a young girl. We talked with a neighbor who is helping the family, and if we can find a sponsor for Safina, the neighbor will care for the younger children so she can go to school. If sponsoring one of our kids has ever been on your heart, would you consider sponsoring Safina today? It is $32 a month and would change her life.

We just got back from a lovely dinner on Lake Victoria and now it’s time to get some work done and get some rest.

Sula bulungi!