Tuesday, August 4, 2009

The Past Few Days

The past few days have been pretty hectic as you might imagine. Only now are we beginning to get into the swing of things.

Just before midnight on Saturday night, after 16 hours travelling on three flights, we finally arrived in Entebbe Airport in Uganda. The initial excitement wore off for some us as we realised there were 6 bags lost in Amsterdam where we had made a connection earlier that day. We filled out the necessary forms and made our way out of Departures where officials from Fields of Life met us. They helped us with our 43 bags to our waiting bus and van. Our first night was spent in a guesthouse in Kampala.

On Sunday, our bus driver for the the first two weeks, Anthony (who we have nick-named 'Anto') brought us to a shopping centre to buy supplies and change money. Then we set out for Masaka.

Little did we know but the 580 students and 15 teachers of the Living Hope Primary School waited all afternoon for our arrival. We picked up Pastor Maria, the Director of the school, nearby and drove to it where we were met by swarms of singing and smiling children waving flags they had made which said amongst other things, "Uncle David and your team, you are welcome." The scene was overwhelming.

We were greeted with open arms by the teachers on getting out of the bus. We were then led to our seats where Pastor Maria and all the teachers conducted a ceremony which thanked us from the bottom of their hearts for the extension and our coming to run a Summer camp for the children.

It was then my turn to give a little speech. Given that I was completely unprepared, to say it was daunting is putting it mildly. I expressed our gratitude for the warm welcome we had received and expressed how the pleasure of being there was all ours. To make us feel at home, they put on a traditional Irish slap-up meal of chicken, peas, potatoes and gravy. They certainly did their homework. It was delicious and we're all still standing.

On Sunday night, we returned to the Hotel Zebra where we've now installed ourselves. It is a basic hotel with clean, comfortable rooms and food that's second to none.

The Summer camp has gone on without any major hitch over the past two days. All of the Ventures are taking to it like ducks to water. Some of the activites had to be adapted due to the level of English of some of the younger kids but otherwise it has run like clockwork thanks to Eoghan Cleary's work on the timetable and of course the months of preparation and training undertaken by the Ventures. Anyway, I'll let them fill you in on the rest.

At this stage parents should be receving my texts but if not, contact me. I'm available all the time on my Irish number. Alternatively, my Ugandan number is 00 256 784 597 351.

David

15 comments:

  1. Great to get the update. Keep up the good work.

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  2. HiDavid - Great to hear from you all - sounds like you had an emotional welcome. Delighted to hear about it in detail and certainly amazed to hear that you guys were eating traditional Sunday dinner in Uganda! It sounds fantastic and a little incredible that you are now all there after all the months of hard work and preparation. I hope you all have a fantastic memorable experience. Regards to all and especially Kirsten. Enjoy to the max. Evelyn

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  3. aw wow, what an amazing greeting! i definitely would have cried!! who's bags went missing? holland have a terrible habit of doing that! hope you get them back soon, if not already. glad you got a blog up david :) i'll be keeping up to date with you guys! mega jealous i'm not there! much love to all xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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  4. p.s. get some photos up if ya can!

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  5. It's good to hear that you all arrived safely, hopefully nothing too important was in those missing bags!!!

    What a great welcome you had, thank you so much for keeping us updated with the texts and now this blog, I, for one, can't wait to hear more.

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  6. Just so you know I'm Dillon'd grandma so I'm very interesting in hearing about the trip.

    It's wonderful that you have been given such a warm welcome. I'll look forward to reading more about your venture over the next couple of weeks.

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  7. It all sounds absolutely amazing. We are so proud of you all. Can't wait to hear more.

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  8. Hi there 'uncle david' and all rest of the team. It's great to access your blog site, (only with the help of Matthew) and get the news from Masaka. Are you suffering from the heat there? Where we are in Spain is very close to Gibralta and we can see the cost of Africa across the Strait of Gib. It is amazing to think that you are on that continent, so close but so very far away. Pity about the bags, I can't imagine Katherine was too upset losing hers as she found it very heavy to carry!!!! She'll kill me for saying that!!!! Keep sending the news and it's great to get the texts, I was a bit worried there early on in week as I hadn't heard anything for two days!!! silly mother!!! Say hi to everyone and well done, and give kath a big hug from me. xx

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  9. Hi there 'uncle david' and rest of the team. Its great to access your blog site (only with Matthew's help) and get the news. Please say hi to all and give Kath a big hug for me. x

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  10. Thankfully, all the missing bags arrived yesterday. I'm working on photos for the blog but the connection is so slow, it's proving difficult. I'll let you know asap when we have some up.

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  11. We are sorry we are not there when we hear the food is so good. I dont know how you guys and gals are going to slum it in Lough Dan after this. We are off th Italy in the morning and hope to keep in touch from there. It is fantastic to get all the news....... Noel and Kay

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  12. thanks for the updates.what a fantastic oppertunity. so glad you're all having such a good time. Well done to you all .Andrew, Rory says thanks for the double bed its very comfortable!! xx

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  13. Hope you all have a bit of a rest over the weekend. Look forward to hearing more!!! Delighted you got the bags back. Love from Ahernes and Shannons.

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  14. Bona sera from Rimini. The pasta is good. Fantastic to be in touch with Uganda. Enjoy the safari. See you all soon. CIAO Noel, Kay and Mark

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