HungryForLifeInternational

The catch of the day: viper/skipping rope!

Saturday began with sad news from Pete. While having our team devotions, Pete came in and told us that one of the babies died during the night. He was about 4 months old, his name was Chris. The puzzling thing in this death was that Chris was one of the healthy, vibrant ones. So many of the babies are sick, lethargic, suffering from HIV, and on some kind of medication. But Chris was healthy and happy. He was no trouble to the caregivers. He was one of the ones that was easy to sit and hold.
It was a difficult start to the day. That news came at 9:30 and we had a sports day to begin at 10. We needed to collect ourselves and move forward fast. We spent most of the time we had in prayer and as difficult as it was, we had to put the emotion aside, turn around and focus on the other 150+ children that came to play.
The sports day was great. Most of the children from the home were there, plus lots of kids that attend the school from the community. Many of these children brought their parents who eagerly jumped into the games. It was 3 hours of high energy, organized chaos. The sports day ended with a big game of netball. It was the team against the community people with about 200 children and parents surrounding the court and cheering wildly. You would be surprised how hard it is to score on a 10 foot high hoop when there is no backboard. It ended as a 7-7 tie.
The highlight that day came next. We split up into pairs and with the escort of translators, walked through the community with those kids and visited their homes. This was a close up look at the poverty, the lives and the stories behind Uganda. It put faces and humanity to everything we had seen. The honour, respect, humility, and generosity is astounding in the context of 100 square foot houses made of mud and brick and straw.
The day of emotional rollercoaster riding for our team came to a peaceful, pleasant conclusion with a spectacular BBQ with Pete and Pita. 6 kinds of meat, quietly sitting under the veranda in the lush green, tropical paradise…. very normal for us; but given the context of such great need, awkwardly conflicting in the heart.
Dave Brotherton

Monday we head off to Jinja to see some local sites that include a waterfall and the mouth of the Nile River. We will also be treated to some local delicacies such as -chicken on a stick- as well as dinner out with Piet and Pita. Continue to pray for the team as we begin to wind down this trip and begin the task of re-oreintation into North American culture given all this team has heard, touched and smelled in Uganda.

~HFL Team Leader

Some thoughts from my journal of yesterday:
… I realize that if the flight home was tomorrow, Ive already -got my money’s worth-. Ive never seen anything like this place, and I wouldnt trade seeing this first hand for anything. Papa and Mama (Piet and Pieta) are very patient and giving of their time, and their stories and example are amazing to watch.
… My heart is to full right now, I dont even know where to begin. Ive been very much struggling with the bewilderment of how this society can be so broken as to have so many abandoned children. And does the success of this place amidst poverty become a self-fulfilling prophecy, wherein the extended family that may have traditionally cared for orphans finds a way to get the kid here instead? And where does it end? When do the doors have to close when there just isnt more room? And what will really happen to these children when they graduate to the real world of Uganda? All these theoretical worries, but then in church today when new baby Dave was publicly blessed in prayer I realized that I was experiencing something more fundamentally right and good than almost anything else I have ever experienced. A little person, beautiful and created and full of promise and hope, who now has a name and a family when a few days ago he was quite literally trash.
… The brokenness and hopelessness of society here is almost overwhelming. I think of the story of saving one starfish at a time on a beach littered with millions of them, and also I see a strong current that is sweeping them back onto the beach as they are rescued. And yet this is such a hope filled place.

Tonight at the end of a long hard day we were treated to a delicious meal of rice, chicken and g-nut sause (Ugandan Peanut), prepared by our team cooks: Coleen, Janice and Caitlin. We have been treated amazingly well by these women. Continue to pray for team health as we begin another long full day tomorrow as we kick this trip into gear!

~HFL Team Leader