Uganda 2013: Its hard work but the rewards are so many.

A day in the jungle;

It's the second day of teaching, as much of a cliché it is to say; words can't describe how amazing this is. To teach children that want for nothing and that are happy to walk away with just a pen in their pocket. Today's lesson was on the subject of the Jungle and it's animals. With worksheets, puzzles and colouring, we had a day that the children would definitley remember. Nicole arrived late last night and it feels good knowning all of us are together. With all of us finally here, our lessons can now run smoothly, with Nicole raring to go after the long flights, she led the lesson. Within the lessons we did puzzles that Lexy cut up, we spent most of our time trying to figure out how to piece together a picture of a sloth. The children loved the animals and the word searches, Susannah sat with the boys and helped – we have a feeling she enjoyed it more than the class, however the answers were on the sheets and after catching one of the boys cheating, Sarah sat down and scribled out the answers. We are bonding well with the children and it's heartbraking to hear their lifestories. I don't think any of us realised how so much devastation could happen in live's so young.

After break we started to decorate t-shirts. All the children loved it and the classroom filled with laughter and music. Glitter and paint spread everywhere and all of were having so much fun. We helped the kids with their tops and then had them all sign ours. They were able to stick fabric and glitter, tie fabric, paint and cut their t-shirts. Each of them were so excited about sharing what they'd made and wanted us to write on their tops too!
We had lunch and went straight outside to set some lanterns off with everyone, but because Jimmy isn't as much of a man as he likes to think he is, he wasn't able to send them off, well maybe it was the wind that stopped them going up.. If he'd let us draw a glitter moustache on his face, they may just have worked. We then had a mini olympics where we set up relay races. We split the children into four teams and had them running with mini bean bags on their heads, had egg and spoon races, jumped in sacks and then did a three legged race. Even Michael, the teacher, was having a histerical time!! We also did a a game where you stand in a line, holding hands and have to get a hoop from one end to another without letting go of their hands.

We spent our free play outside dancing to music and doing all sorts of gymnastic moves. Nicole and Susannah tried some interesting moves and dances and even managed to get their legs on each others shoulers at the same time while standing on the other legs! We even had some cartwheeling and wheelbarrow races going on! All in all it was a very fun and entertaining day!

Written by Nicole and Susannah. - so glad I'm finally here knew all the trouble would be worth it in the end, and it 100% is - Thanks for the message dad! It's amazing here! Tell Sara she'll become a duplicate of me if she wears another item of my clothing haha!

Hi mummy, its Ali! I just wanted to say hi quickly and hope you're okay. I'm loving it here and might not come back! tell April i say hello and would love to hear from her but remind her the messages get read out to the group so nothing rude haha!!! also tell her that Kub is having fun! love you all lots and lots and nillions and lots more :) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

p.s Claire Wilson can you please tell Julie Moorey that she needs to write on the blog!! Thank you :) xxx

Retrak – Today was are second day working with the boys in club house. As we arrived we noticed the word had got Around town that the white people were at the club house  as there was more boys then usual. It was great to see so many boys willing to learn with us and joining in different activities. The boys loved to get stuck in and play different games, colour, read, have fun with bubbles and generally getting involevd and have fun. Not only did we put smiles on their faces and memories in their mind, they did the same for us as a team aswell!

As we approached lunchtime we knew most of the street children, that were unable to stay overnight, they were just about to leave due to not understanding that we would be back.

We had to keep strong throughout the day as boys came and left as we knew what they would be going back to. Even a simple thing like the smell of their clothes as they walked past, brought back the memories of their sad reality and our freshly new experienced things that we saw and smelt on the outreach walk. It hurts to know that children as young as 4 are on the streets doing drugs to stop the pain of their tramatic present and past. Being on this one of a life time trip makes us want to help and do more and i hope that this week is just the beginning for us all.

It was amazing to see troughout the day how greatful they were for the simple things that they were getting involved in and recieveing, we could see it on their faces. Yestarday the children were very weary of use it was nice to see the children open up and beggin to trust use more as they have not been able to trust for a long time. As we are getting to know the boys it is impresive at how intellgant they really are, and that clubhouse is the first step towards there succes. we are so thankful that we get to go back tommorow and hopfully they will stop seeing use as americans ;)

By

Crystal Brown and Abi Matthews 

PS Paul S writes. you should all be so proud of your daughter, sister, girlfriend and wives!! (me and jimmy are doing ok to!) Every morning I read out the messages you send so any words or embarrassing stories about them feel free to add! we have a good laugh. All are healthy and getting into a rhythm of hard work with great rewards. Enjoy the blog!