We began our bus drive by singing "This is the Day that the Lord Has Made," but each person had to choose a word to replace "day". We sang 19 different versions to refocus on the fact that everything we have seen and experienced and everything we'll do today was ordained by the Creator. Doreen's word was "time," and I was reminded of the verse from Galatians, "You are observing special days and months and seasons and years!" (Galatians 4:10). This beautiful sunrise added to the best start to the morning.
A two hour bus ride got us to Suubi Children's Center, the school created and run by Global Hands of Hope. We walked through the gates like a rush party with the children lined up on either side of the entrance forming a tunnel and singing.
Ronnie, Richmond's brother, and his wife Ritah run the school. They led us into a room to welcome us and teach us about the school and what our day would look like. We split into teams to serve porridge in the classrooms and unload shoes from the bus. After using the newly-installed Western style toilet, we scooped porridge into cups for each child and served it in their classrooms. The next task was to get them to all take their shoes and socks off so that we could get them to line up and have their feet measured.
Dr. MacGregor let his boys, Callum and Alistair, announce to the kids that they were all getting new pairs of shoes since they had done so much to fundraise for them. This could've been an unbelievably chaotic process but it really went very smoothly, all things considered. We used pre-printed shoe size charts to measure their feet and wrote their sizes on their hands. Dr. MacGregor called out shoe sizes while four members of our team pulled the shoes out of the bags and passed them to the children.
The kids returned to their classrooms with huge smiles to put their new shoes on.
All 160 kids received new socks and shoes, and most got some sunglasses stuffed in their shoes as well. Arthur picked up pizza for us for lunch, which we scarfed down after spending all morning in the sun. After lunch, Ronnie talked to us about the sponsorship program at the school. Baylor helped create the sponsorship program 2 years ago, and now all but 11 students are entirely sponsored for uniforms, two meals at school every day, and general school fees. They ask that sponsors to commit to praying for the child, writing letters, sending gifts, etc. and stick with the child through their time at Suubi. Ronnie's vision is that he will see these children all the way through high school and their sponsors will attend their graduation someday.
Four of us committed to being sponsors, so they took us into the other room with our four sponsor children. Elizabeth, Jayson, and Debra got to go visit their child's homes (Arthur drove them, and ran over someone's chicken while en route), but Jovia, the four-year-old little girl I will sponsor, has a mom and grandmother who work at the school, so I got to meet them there. The grandma was so excited that Jovia had a sponsor, running around and giving everyone high-fives. The teaching staff gathered around to celebrate Jovia, and one of them started clapping for her, telling her to dance. She started moving her tiny little hips, completely stone-faced--hilarious.
There are still seven children who need sponsorship. If any of you reading this feel led to help out this incredible project in any way, please let me know and I can get you more information.
We planted and prayed over a tree in the yard of the school as a team, and the members of the team who were here last year prayed over the tree they had planted then. Apparently much has changed about the look of the campus since then, and next Ronnie took us around to show us his plans for the school's development in the future.
This area has been cleared to build a playground for the children. There is a law in Uganda mandating that any school teaching third grade must have a playground. I know the energy of one particular third grader all too well, and this seems like a completely reasonable law. This area will also hold a building to house teachers.
Above the current school buildings, this hill has been torn down to clear space for a three story building. The bottom two stories will be classrooms for the older children and the top floor will be a dormitory for visitors. Ronnie didn't go into a ton of detail on what that area would look like, but I think it would be valuable to model it after a hostel with separate mens' and womens' bunk rooms so that Suubi can house anyone who wants to come serve the school in one capacity or another.
Ronnie is an unbelievable visionary. He has huge hopes and dreams for this school and this land, and I am so excited to hear updates on what the Lord does here.
Arthur replaced the chicken he annihilated and we loaded up the bus to drive to Jinja. We boarded two boats and our guides taught us about some of the wildlife while they paddled us to the source of the Nile River. I guess I'm an idiot, or I'd just never thought about it before, but I didn't realize what "source" meant. I was thinking of it as just the beginning of the river, but the water obviously has to come from somewhere. Duh. So we got to see the springs that spout up from the ground to provide the water, which is at the same spot where Lake Victoria meets the Nile. Seeing this spot and its astounding beauty was surreal. Side note: my camera was dead, so photo credit goes to Rong and her unbelievable camera.
We pulled up on shore just a little ways down from where we had left the dock to see the reptile "park" (aka two cages with snakes in them). Turtles, crocodiles, cobras, and...donkeys. Ecclectic.
After the cobra attacked the glass where Jayson and Becca were taunting it, we took our leave and returned to the dock. We failed to count heads on the bus, and got halfway up the hill before we noticed Arthur running up the hill behind the bus. Poor guy. Rough day.
We had a long dinner in Jinja and left with several sick teammates after a long day in the sun, but some Pepto Bismol got them through the two hour drive back to the hotel in Kampala. We got to pray for Ronnie and Ritah at dinner and the work that they're doing in Bukeka. The impact they've made on this community is incredible, and their obedience and adherence to God's callings for their time and talents is such a solid example. Today was a true blessing!
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