The "Lucky Ones"

The title of this update was a passing remark made by one the members of this team. I'm not even sure who said it but the words have been ringing in my head for the past few days. They make me feel sad and joyful at the same time, if that is even possible. They were referring to the children here at the school we have been working at. I will try to upload photos as soon as possible (this is the first time I have been on a computer or near electricity for weeks) but for now try to imagine if you can. We arrived at Butagaya school on Monday and we were met by a sea of black children wearing bright yellow dresses and shirts. These uniforms are one of the ways to distinguish between the boys and the girls in this school. They all have shaved heads as they board at their school and so head live spreads quickly, especially as they are crammed into classrooms where they sleep by night and learn by day.

The other way of course is by their developing bodies the young girls can barely afford to go to school and so they wear torn dresses and no bras. My first thought on seeing the girls "dorm' was how horrible it must be for these girls in the heat menstruating. They have absolutely no privacy and no sanitation. The beds they sleep on are simply straw mats, but of course a few have mattresses. They're the "lucky ones". I will spare you the details of the toilets but I'm sure you can imagine. They call it the long drop. I tend to hold my breathe when using it and Gill you'll be happy to know I'm singing through it.

I will start with some news of today and work backwards. Today for me was slightly different from the rest of the team. I was privileged to go with only two other people to meet some children who were previously child soldiers in Northern Uganda. They told me of how they were captured by rebel soldiers. This war is going on as we speak and children and their families are living in fear that they will captured in the night by these men. They are taken into, what they refer to as, the bush. There they are trained to kill. One girl we spoke to said she was stolen from her school in the night. The soldiers took her along with another hundred girls. They marched them for days into the bush. She was made to cook for the commander of the rebels. I asked her if she ate with the soldiers but she sad no. They were not fed so they ate the leaves from the trees and the dirt from the ground. It's hard for me to fathom how she could survive such torture let alone talk to some strange (intrusive) white girl about it but thank God that she could and I pray that her story will not jut be heard by me but that you will listen and take not, pray and tell and others about her. She now attends Lords Meads, a secondary school here in Jinja. She too is one of the "lucky ones" I guess.

Another young boy spoke of how he was taken from his home when he was eight. His parents were killed. I'm not sure if he was forced to kill them or not but I know that, that goes on and that it is seen as a sign commitment to the rebels. He too was taken to the bush. He was given a gun and trained to use it. The rebels take these young boys and train them to kill. Their intention is to overthrow the government and rule Northern Uganda. He talked about how they had to walk and train everyday and how if they became to weak to continue (baring in mind they were not fed) they were killed. Not only shot but "chopped up". He pointed to a point on the back of his head and said, "they hit you there and you die."

Both of these children escaped. I cannot imagine the bravery of these young people to flee the rebels but they both said that God was very important to them when they were in the bush and he got them through. Another interesting thing they said was that they went to the camp in Gulu. (I haven't researched it but maybe you could research it a little). He said that it was better to be in the bush than in the camp because in the bush he could eat the leaves but in the camp (where I assume there is aid) they had to share bags of rice and there wasn't enough for everyone.


Visited an Aids orphanage this afternoon...a whole other blog!
I'm sorry I'm running out of time to write, we have to go back to camp and I may not get internet for some time. But please keep these children in your prayers.
I promise to write happy stuff next time. So many good, exciting and wonderful things have happened since we got here it's just that this is what is on my heart right now.

Last night we had a musical evening at Lords Mead school. Eliza and I spent the day singing with the children and teaching them some music which they performed with us infront of their whole school. Em taught them dance (they have serious rhythm) which was amazing and Lorna spent the day teaching the younger kiddies English. We love it here and wouldn't be anywhere else! Love you all xxx

Getting To Uganda

Well, where to start? We have only been gone a short while and already so much has happened and how life has changed for us. Please excuse me if some of this does not make complete sense but I will try to articulate our experiences as best as possible for you. Today in itself has been an (exhausting) adventure in Africa but I'll tell you all about that in a sec.

So we left Moz and traveled to South Africa. I assume you all know the story of how we came to be staying with the Williamson's. For those of you that haven't heard it, it was a real miracle. We met Naomi Williamson on the plane over to Jo'Berg and she invited us to stay at their home in Pretoria, enabling us to visit our partnership church, St Andrew's, there. We must thank God for them because meeting them we a complete privilege and blessing for us. They are a truly wonderful family and their hospitality was very much appreciated!

Ok so back to Uganda. We made it here and have met up with (my beautiful sister) Eliza, Derek and Emily. This trip is yet another testimony of how miracles or "coincidences", as some may say, happen every day. I know that for some of you reading this it may sound like fate or even luck but we are living it and we know the difference.

So back to the story of Uganda. Basically when we were planning this trip we tried to organise it so that we had a different project in each place. So we set about making contacts and organising a general direction to fly around the world! After what seemed like a million emails and phone calls we booked our flights. However, it turned out that we were due to arrive in Uganda on the 22nd of July, two weeks before our project in Kampala with Dwelling places was due to begin (9th August). We were slightly disappointed and rather anxious about this time as we didn't want this trip to be a holiday or for sight seeing and so we saw this time as kinda "wasted".

Now this is where Emily comes in. Emily (Young) has been part of our family for as long as I (Erica) can remember. She is Eliza's closest friend (apart from me of course) and generally a total gem. Em lives and works in Oxford and had previously mentioned to Eliza and Derek that she was leading a team out to Uganda to help build a boarding house for an underprivileged school here. She had asked them to go but they said no as they were saving to possibly come to Aus to see us in Dec.

Weeks passed and Lorna and I continued to pray about our spare time in Uganda and that it might be used for something positive and worthwhile. Then one morning Eliza and I were in car and Em phoned. She said that she'd booked two flights to Uganda, one for Eliza and one for Derek. Eliza was driving so I was translating from the passenger seat and lets just say that the red Eliza's face turned wasn't a happy red. "Why has she done that?" Eliza asked. Anyway the three way conversation went on for a few seconds before Emily said, "Erica can you jut give her the dates and ask her to phone me when she's stopped driving? The trip I am running will be in Uganda from the 22nd of July until the 9th of August". Scroll up...they are the exact dates we had been stressing about. And so Eliza, Derek, Emily, Lorna and I are all currently in Jinga in Uganda! Needless to say I screamed hysterically and Eliza almost crashed the car but sometimes miracles take you completely by surprise!

A Scottish Tornado Hits Pretoria!

Wow, we had a wonderful time meeting Hildegard and Rudi and had a great time together, just a pity the visit was so short and every meeting a rush. After chatting on the phone and a lengthy arrangements, the four of us finally met on Saturday. We went for drinks at a local mall, discussed various issues on the church, youth, etc, we watched a few of their wonderful films and ended up having supper before heading back to our “host” family, Tom and Naomi Williamson.

Rudi offered to take us to his work office so we could check our e-mails (which seemed to be a luxury on the tour so far), so we got picked up very early Sunday morning. Although we had almost an hour, we were still going at it when we got torn from our computers to rush off to chuch for the 10:00 service. At least we managed to send some important e-mails and write our pics to cd to clear the camera memory sticks. We managed to say a few words to the congregation (although we were a bit late and had to “interrupt” the service!) and also get some footage of St Andrews church in Pretoria.

As soon as the minister said “Amen” we dashed off again, this time to Thambo airport in Johannesburg. Again a major rush (Lorna was very quiet, I assume she was a bit worried about missing the plane and Rudi driving too fast!) but all ended well and we got to the airport safely and in time. We said our sad farewell to friends who we barely knew, but somehow really felt connected to. A pity the time was so short…

We Have Arrived!

Dear all, we arrived safe and sound in Mozambique and are having an amazing, amazing time! God has been so good to us and honestly if we told you of all the miracles thus far you seriously would think we were deranged (even more so than we already are!)

On the flight to Johan we sat next to a woman called Naomi and she invited us to stay in her home for the three days we are in Johan. Obviously we were delighted as we were nervous about where we would stay these three days ( after the Mozambique team leave and before our flight to Uganda). Not only that she actually lives in Pretoria. The place we didn't think we would have time to visit and the one WWW contact that we thought we wouldn't have time to see. Anyway she said she will take us to the church and also to visit her school which could be amazing! Please pray for this as we really feel it is a miracle.

We should arrive in Pretoria the middle of July and our flight to Uganda is a few days later.

This is Africa and we have learned already that time is not a common concept here so we will be flexible. Miss you and love you all E and L x