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Today, we had a quiet morning which was welcomed by the team who are feeling the effects of heat, long days and challenging emotions. Patrick and Daniel picked us up at 10am for our first stop of the day at Heritage school.
We were greeted by huge smiles, high fives and shy handshakes. We started in the large field under the umbrella tree where the children delighted us with song and dance. Barbara, Heather and myself were taken to a classroom where we spent the next hour with 80 students. Gillian, Carol and Ramona stayed outside with the younger students. (I understand that there are some Ugandan youth who now know the Hokey Pokey).
Following our time at Heritage, we had a wonderful fish lunch prepared by Pastor Michael and then back in the van for care and compassion visits.
We visited 3 families where we delivered mattresses, blankets, soap and food staples including beans, cornmeal and Millet. Enough food to last a month. We met Judith who had been abandoned by her husband and was struggling to feed and clothe her 4 children. She was teaching them how to care for the garden and managed to grow some produce on her small plot of land. Her wish was for her children to attend school. Silvia was next, she also had 4 children and had no help after she divorced from an abusive husband. Helena was our last visit and she was caring for 4 grandchildren. It was difficult for the team, not only to see the depth of poverty they lived in but also feeling that our visit was intrusive. I think that will continue to be a struggle for us and future teams but the women and children were so thankful and I believe encouraged that we cared enough to come to their home. The bubbles, small toys and soccer balls we left for the children brought some joy to their lives.
We ended our day with 38 young women discussing their bodies, menstruation etc. They asked intelligent and insightful questions.
We started off today, with a discussion on resilience, which we felt was better described as strength. We saw first hand how these 3 strong women are caring for their families despite all the challenges. But I also saw the strength and resilience of this team who are all tired but keep rising to the challenges of the day.
