Eastern Orphanage- Nabukalu

Headed to GULU and Murchinson Falls

The 2 weeks we spent in Bugiri with the kids was a blast. Yesterday before leaving we brought a group of Lab techs and counselors to the orphanage to test the kids for HIV/AIDS and they were all NEGATIVE!!!!!

Praise God, last year when I was here, I arranged for the kids to be tested at a local clinic, and the results were that 9 tested positive. I found out this year that the clinic was scamming us and just made up the results, which is just so typical here. Haha

Anyway when I arrived to Nabukalu it was one of the coolest moments of my life, to see the familiar faces of the kids I spent a month with last year, learning from and laughing with. They crowded around me for at least an hour testing out my memory on their songs and holding my hands. My face hurt from smiling and I think I held the happy tears in, but you know how when you are almost about to cry, how the world outside is glazed over, how you are looking out by seeing through your wall of emotion…that’s how it was.

I must have woken up at 6 the next morning, being back in the village was so familiar. It still remains with its fair share of drama and problems, but spending time with Sarah, Travis, Matt and the kids was a wonderful blessing.

Travis wrote earlier about a group that came to Nabukalu in a really cool bus that was headed by Children’s Hopechest. That was also a really exciting day, because we woke up so so early and started preparing, Sarah is an awesome cook, so we woke up at 4:30 and starting cutting and slicing and dicing. We fed at least 300 people that day thanks to Sarah and the help of Christine (one of the women from the Hopechest group, she donated money for the rice and beef), and Dan Hopechest’s representative.

This really cool girl Brandi and her husband Greg brought these funny ballon pumps for making balloon animals, haha it was awesome, I don’t think our kids had ever seen anything like that before.

I got mosquito nets for the kids that are treated so hopefully this season the malaria cases can decrease. Also me and the guys got towels for every single kid in both orphanages along with a pair of underwear for each kid.

I have this cool idea for next year to build small libraries for the kids from southwestern books, so if you are a book kid reading this and you would donate a set or two to that cause after next summer let me know…that way I can get some feedback before I present it to Henry and Dan the man…

Thanks for reading, and coming along on our journey, next year you should come in person…peace n joy

~jes