Photos of Students

Dear Family and Friends,

We spent the morning at Hope Children's Home. Thank goodness that Douglas had come with us! Our goal was to take photos of the children who attend Alpha Omega School (which is a part of Hope Children's Home and is located on the home's property), but do not live at the home. (see above photo of dear Fatuma) Show Mercy would like to have sponsors for these children as well. The sponsorship would cover a uniform, shoes, school fees and one meal a day. This may be the only meal some of these children will eat. Here is Show Mercy’s website if you are interested in child sponsorship. http://www.showmercy.org/

We had no idea there were so many. We had purchased a white board this morning. The teachers brought first the “Baby Class” which is pre-school. There were over 50 kids, this is in addition to the pre-schoolers who live at Hope! Douglas wrote down their Lugandan name and their “Christian” name as well as their age. (I will crop out the white board out later and just show the child's face.) Douglas was incredible, knowing the spelling and getting all the names right. Jerry realized that things would be more fun if we gave each child a sweetie (piece of candy), so Jess and a 15 year old boy named Vincent zipped off to one of the many little village “stores” to buy candy.

We worked up until the time the students break for lunch, around 1:00. By this time, we had taken over 100 photos, and this is just the Baby Class through P-1 Class. We then stayed for another 45 minutes so that we could visit with the older kids. It was so hard to leave after just a short time with them. However, we had a big job for the afternoon.




Another amazing experience of today was a trip to the Owino Market (see one of the many entrances in the photo above.) Before we got out of the car, Douglas said, “Now Jerry, you leave your wallet here in the car with Richard, and Cathi, you leave your camera/purse.” There are so many people in the market and pick pockets are a real issue. Owino is like a huge flea market with a million people, not a single muzungu to be seen. Each little store had its own area, manned by one or two people. The floors are dirt, or wooden planks. It is really a series of connected shacks with 10-12 foot ceilings of sheet metal, with an occasion flicker of sunlight. There are areas of specialty: jeans, t-shirts, dresses, children's clothing, almost all are used. Douglas did all the negotiating for us. We had quite a list from the home, including 20 bras for the older girls, 10 uniform shirts, 4 pairs of shoes and play clothes for various kids, backpacks...We spent about $70 for all. Douglas did much better when folks did not know we were with him! One time, he had negotiated a price for some boy’s jeans (5,000 Ugandan shillings, which is about $3) and when the sales person saw that we were with Douglas, he doubled the price! Douglas would have nothing to do with that. Everyone was actually very nice, talking to us and of course wanting us to buy stuff. I was even complimented on my braids! Micah was using his Lugandan slang, which greatly amused all the shop keepers. Before our first trip, I would have been so scared, now it was actually quite fun. However, I wouldn’t attempt it without a Ugandan guide!

Richard returned us to the hotel, with all our bags of treasures. Jess wanted to take a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) by himself to Garden City (a shopping center about a half a mile from our hotel), much to my concern. He took the phone and called when he had safely arrived. Whew! We decided to meet him there at 8pm for dinner. It was an adventurous walk, in the dark, with pot holes and lots of traffic. The crazy boda boda drivers were driving up on the sidewalk because of the traffic jam! We ate at Spur, a South African restaurant chain, loudly serenaded by the beat of African drums on the courtyard below. (Did I mention they were LOUD?)

Love, Cathi