First days at Mercy Care!

Man, where do I even start....the more I travel the more I realize just how incredible Mercy Care Centre School is. There is nothing like it! The people are beautiful and the atmosphere is awesome.

It was SO good to be able to see everyone again!! Lots of reunion it was awesome. We caught the crazy matatus on the way and they went through a bit of the slum. It's always overwhelming the first day or two even though I've been here twice before. The bus was stuck in traffic in part of the slum and everyone suddenly turned around to the back, so I looked out the back window and saw a woman roughly pushing a man. The man fought back; I thought they were going to have a big fight on the street because a whole crowd started to form. But then the matatu moved on.

One thing I have noticed in Africa is that people can be very violent. All the awful stories of the children involve so much violence. In the slum there is also a lot of violence, and it hit me when I saw that incident.

We got off at the top of the hill and walked down the main street to the slum into the very familiar buildings of Mercy Care where I met Lillian and all the other teachers. Lillian took us through all the classes on the way to the staff room. At every class she stopped and the kids saw us and gasped. Lillian said "You remember who this is?"
"Anni!" they all said. It was awesome to see so many familiar faces and for them to remember me too.

I saw the three buildings that we bought! I'll take pics of them to put on the blog so everyone can see what their money went to.

It was so good to catch up with all the kids, play some soccer, watch the choir etc. Today I handed out all the letters that Phil and Carla wrote (almost 600 of them!). They wrote enough for every child in the school to get one along with a sticker. The kids received them with very big smiles. They remembered the letters Phil and Carla wrote last year and were so touched by them. Everyone is asking me if they are coming on this trip. Also everyone is asking whether Aunty Betsy and Axi are coming too; they looked very disappointed when I said no! People coming to Mercy Care means so much to them.

Me and Kate are quite exhausted and really looking forward to joining up with the American team on Sunday for the next two weeks.

I will start doing some more filming again. Today we brainstormed some ideas for the next two weeks that we could do to help raise more support for the school, so we're excited.

The science labs are almost done being built; looks really cool!
Mercy Care is definitely a ministry that is making a huge impact in the lives of Mathare's children. You can see it; not only in the fact that they are receiving education and food and medical care, but also in the love the teachers have for the children. There is a real calmness at the school; a beautiful atmosphere. The older kids are so gentle with the younger kids, which is something I didn't see much of in Uganda. And all the children are striving hard in class. Even when I went to the preschool classes, they were all soo well behaved and so respectful. It's awesome! So keep up the awesome support because it is so, so worth it. Thanks to everyone who sends emails/comments. It's encouraging and means a lot! Especially being away for 6 weeks now.

We have an early start tomorrow but then the weekend off.

Arrived in Nairobi!

I am now safely in Nairobi after a long 14 hour bus ride. The night before we travelled we were both sick with stomach bugs so that wasn't fun. I'm feeling better but Kate is still feeling sick.

The bus ride was really cool; we passed through some amazingly beautiful countryside in both Kenya and Uganda. It was really great to see and made the ride not drag on as much as the flight here did.

We arrived in Nairobi about 8:30pm into the craaazy traffic and massive crowds and piles of buses, but Patrick was there to meet us at the bus park and took us back to his house where we're staying until Sunday when the American team arrives. Then the rest of the time we'll be staying with the team in a guesthouse.

Tomorrow will be our first day at Mercy Care Centre, I'm so excited to see everyone again! It's always overwhelming seeing the slum even though I've been here twice before, it takes a few days to get over the culture shock and the sights and sounds and smells.

Today we're just taking it easy, getting some rest before the next few weeks ahead.

Beautiful pictures of Gulu

Here are some pictures of the area we were in in Gulu. It was soo beautiful! Again the pictures are much better quality than this; just reduced the size so it doesn't take forever to load.

African adventures

Wow, we had a crazy day today!
We left Gulu and decided to take a de-tour instead of going direct to Kampala; we've come back to Masindi for the afternoon/night to surprise everyone at Masindi Family Spirit Orphanage. We had the BEST surprise reunion! We took motorbikes to the orphanage, and as soon as we came, before we had even got off the motorbike, some kids had run up to us and clung onto us; they were so so excited to see us!

Then we got off and went around the corner and everyone came running; they were so surprised to see us! The beautiful thing was that some of the kids that run up to hug me and not let go were kids that when I first came were very unresponsive. One girl was very shy and intimidated I think. She only came to the orphanage last year; she's 10 years old and HIV positive and her parents have both died from AIDS. She stayed with her uncle who forced her to work in the fields all day every day, from early in the morning until late at night. She grew very weak and sick.

When we left two weeks ago I opened up my arms to hug her but she turned away. Now today when she saw me she ran up and hugged me, it was awesome! Even some girls that hardly talked to me were so responsive today.

We spent the afternoon catching up with everyone, playing with the kids, even teaching them some songs. It was so good to be back! It almost felt like we were coming home :)

Suzan said that after we left everyone was really sad, and all the kids kept asking them "Where are our muzungus?" (muzungus means white people). They were really thankful for us coming and that just shows how powerful love is. When you reach out to others you don't always see immediate results, but you can never under-estimate the power of it.

One of the staff there is sick in hospital; he has HIV/AIDS and has been in hospital a week now. They said he was slowly improving. We decided to go visit him on the way back to town. We came into the hospital and said hello, but he really did not look good. He seriously looked like he didn't have to long to live, which is so so sad. His mum was there looking after him. Here at the hospitals the family are responsible for providing all the food and anything else the patients need. The hospitals don't provide that. So we didn't stay long but we're really hoping and praying he will improve. He didn't look good at all.

This morning we went to Gulu town to catch the bus to Masindi. When we came they put our luggage into the bus and said it would leave in one and a half hours. So we thought we would walk around town a bit, take some pictures and then go back to the bus.

We came back an hour later and the bus had left! With our luggage! The people at the bus park waved at us and shouted, "The bus has left!! Quick, take a boda!" So we quickly hopped on motorbikes thinking oh CRAP! The motorbikes absolutly SPED out of town and down the main road trying to catch up to the bus. That was probably the scariest boda ride I have had; they must have gone about 70kph on a tarmac road with no helmet!

So after ages we still couldn't see the bus, and finally saw it in the distance on a hill. It had stopped. So our motorbike drivers sped even faster, I was like 'come on bus, stay where you are!' We caught up and signalled to the conductors and quickly got on, just in time. Maaaan that was a close call, and also quite a dangerous adventure :P Afterwards we couldn't stop laughing. We couldn't believe the bus had left with all our luggage and not us...especially after they told us it would be an hour and a half until it leaves!

That wasn't the end of our adventures though. The bus ride was also psycho, and then we got off in one town to take a matatu to Masindi town. That was also a psycho ride along dirt road, a few scary moments of 'oh my gosh we're going to tip sideways'. The matatu always tilted on the side I was sitting on, so I did a lot of digging into Kate's shoulders trying to lean the other way. But we survived and are now back in Masindi town! woo...thank uuuu God :)

Last few days

I visited the Invisible Children office today! I had a tour of the office and then got taken to one of their projects called Mend, which is for women who have escaped from the LRA army. They're taught how to make handbags and then these bags are sold online through Invisible Children so it's income generating. Each bag will have the name and story of the woman who made it so it's more personal and will help spread awareness. Their projects are awesome; they are really making a huge difference!

I taught my P5 class of 56 teenagers again today. After English they wanted me to teach them music again. I got some kids to come up and perform songs and dances. Maan they can groove it was hilarious; the class was in hysterics again. Some confident guys came up and fully started singing rap songs and dancing hip hop; I loved it!! Even the P6 students came to the window to watch and laugh. It's crazy and amazing how happy they are and how much fun they love to make, considering everything they have been through. I heard that one third of all highschool students in Northern Uganda are suffering from post-traumatic stress because of the war.

Yesterday we visited St Monicahs which helps girls who were abducted by the LRA, child mothers and also children of prisoners. We just had a quick tour around so didn't get to meet any of the girls, but I only found out once we were there that this was the school where a number of years ago all the girls were abducted one night (the girls who boarded there) by the LRA. The nuns, who were the bravest people I've ever heard of, ran after them and eventually found the LRA leading the girls through the bush. The nuns pleaded for the LRA to let the girls go, and they miraculously let almost all of them go (over 100), except 30. The nun was told she had to choose which girls stayed with the LRA.

The nun broke down into tears and refused; she could not choose. So some of the girls said to her "We'll choose for you," and they volunteered to stay so that their friends could go. It was the most amazing sacrifice and something I just cannot comprehend. After a few years some of these girls escaped the army, but most of them have never been heard of again. They're either dead or are still there.

The school now helps heaps of other girls who have also escaped the army.
It was a pity we couldn't stay longer and meet people but we had to go. We had lunch in town with another guy who was volunteering at St Monicahs and then me and Kate went for a walk to find the World Vision Children of War Rehabilitation Centre. They don't allow visitors but I've heard so much about it and seen it on videos so I wanted to walk past it. We eventually found it and met the guy at the entrance. They only have 4 kids there now. 2 are in hospital and 2 are there at the centre. This is for children who have escaped the LRA. They are rehabilitated there for about 6 weeks and then brought back to their homes. A lot of them are rejected by their own family though because of what they were forced to do in the bush.

There's only a few there because the war is no longer happening in Northern Uganda. But they're still open in case the LRA release the child soldiers, which is what the Invisible Children campaigns are aiming for. There would be thousands of kids needing rehabilitation.

I am in town now meeting Kate for dinner soon. Tomorrow is our last day so we're planning on doing lots of fun stuff with the kids; pass the parcel, make icing biscuits, watch Madagascar and possibly make masks too. These are the children from the consolation home who have disabilities. There are a few siblings of these kids that also live there. Their homes are right next door to ours so we have got to know them really well. They're beautiful!

Better go, this is long :))

Where sleeping babies lie

Gangster

Just tapping into my cool streak.