Luke and Gene's Trip to Africa: WOW!!!!

How can I even come close to explaining in words what we have seen and experienced over the last two days? I will try, but know I will not do it justice. We didn’t do as much manual labor these first couple days as I expected, though we did a lot more relationship building and bonding which was as much or more important. We set off Thursday morning on a five hour bus ride to visit a large group of widows and orphans that are currently being sponsored by Global Family Rescue (GFR). Along the way, we noticed a school of kids playing soccer with their typical soccer ball in Uganda, which is essentially wadded up garbage bags wrapped in twine. We stopped the bus and through them out a couple real soccer balls. It was incredible to see the joy this brought to these kids. They were ecstatic playing with a real ball – probably the first time in their lives they could actually play with a real ball. On the way back a day later, we saw them playing with one of the new balls we gave them.

I don’t think I can even come close to describing the poverty conditions that we encountered. Outside the city where we will be spending most of our time, the people there are living in small huts, sleeping on dirt floors, most houses are in very poor shape, no doors – just a dirty sheet in some cases covering the door (same for the window openings).

When we arrived at our destination, we were greeted by about 30 widows that were singing, making some cool noises with their tongues and dancing (by the way, many were very old, but still singing, smiling and dancing). It was really overwhelming to be a part of. They were essentially thanking us in a BIG way as representatives from GFR for all they have received in sponsorship. Then it just kept getting better. Kids came from everywhere. Huge smiles to see us Mzungu’s (sounds like Muzungu - means white people in their native Lugandan language). These kids were just great. Most I think were orphans; though I am sure we attracted more kids around the area. We were handing out candy to them, playing with them. It was so awesome to see Luke playing with the kids. They loved playing with him. He has done amazing here interacting with the locals. As we would drive by in the bus, Luke would wave at the kids and they would just light up and literally start running and jumping towards the bus with excitement. Not often they see Mzungu’s so far out in their area.

It was tremendous to see such smiling faces in the kids. It was also very difficult to see those that couldn’t smile and seemed to have just lost all hope. There is a lot of pain here along with joy. Death is everywhere in every family. I have yet to meet a family that had not experienced death of some immediate family member. More than likely one or both parents have died and/or some of the children. In many cases you see widows caring for their children, or grandparents, or no parents/grandparents at all. Granted, GFR’s mission is to help the neediest, so this is the typical family they are helping, but there are just so many and so much need. It is really overwhelming. But again, there is also tremendous inspiring joy among these people.

After our visit to the widows and orphans being sponsored, we went to visit a grandmother who is caring for her grandchildren (father had died back in 2003). We drove the bus as far as we could on a small trail, then got out and hiked the rest. When we showed up, I can say, I have never been greeted with such enthusiasm and joy. This lady (must have been over 80) was beside herself with happiness to see us. She hugged me like I have never been hugged before. Literally as she was hugging me, she was dancing at the same time and shouting something that I could not understand. What I did understand was that she was overwhelmed with thankfulness. After me, she did the same to Luke. Luke was prepared, because he saw me first, so he did just fine. GFR had built her a home last year. She now is living with her grandchildren and daughter-in-law in a brand new home and is receiving monthly sponsorship that literally saved her life and her grandchildren’s life.

While we were there, they put us to work in her garden where we hoed and pulled by hand the weeds around her sweet potato plants.

On the way back, we past women and children who were carrying large containers of water from their water hole. We decided to go check out where they were getting their water. We showed up to a very small water hole that looked like some of the dirtiest water I have seen. Literally, it was just brown in color. That is this villages water they use every day for drinking, cleaning, etc. We watched as very young girl walked into the water, filled her water jug and then put it on her head. One of the adult ladies in our group tried to pickup the same container and could not get it even to her head it weighed so much. We watched two little kids (neither one over 10 years old) pushing a bicycle loaded down with water jugs up a hill. One of the other guys in our group and I helped them up the hill, though I think they were just being nice letting us help as they do this every day.

I going to stop here and create another blog for today as it was filled with even more great adventures.

Luke with some orphan children.