T.I.A. This is Africa!

Our journey has nearly come to an end; tomorrow we’ll be back in Canada! Although we’ve all really enjoyed our time here, I think I speak for all of us when I say I’m looking forward to coming home.

On Thursday, we had a pretty long day of travelling. Having left the Lodge at around 10am, we ordered bagged lunches to go, and headed more South for the chimp tracking area. During our stay we have practically made an entire circle around the country! There’s been a lot of travelling time lost, but it’s been nice to experience the different areas of Uganda.  Due to all the tsetse flies on the roads that went through the forested areas on our way, Abdal had us all cover ourselves in bug spray and then close all the windows to the van so they couldn’t get in. The combination of heat, bumpy roads, and lack of clean air was enough to make us feel sick. Eventually though, after a few freak-outs with bug encounters, we arrived at Murchison Falls—Abdal said it is the narrowest part of the Nile. It was so beautiful! Although the water was dirty due to the rainy season, the force it carried as it crashed in between the cliffs was incredible. And there was also a full rainbow that was in between and the ground was shimmery with bits of quartz rock! It was well worth the trip, I think.

From there, we continued to our destination…the Budongo Eco Lodge. Despite the fact that there were tons of bees there, it was probably one of the highlights of our trip! The rooms were set up like a motel with wooden bunk-beds and camping chairs in each. It reminded me of summer camp. Once we got settled, ate our lunch, and changed into long pants, etc., we met in the main lobby with the trackers. Then, Martha and the Be Team set out into the forest in search of chimps. Not too long after we started, we spotted some! Far above us in the trees the trackers helped us spot a chimp with her baby…it was so adorable. Soon we also found a group of them lounging on the ground about twenty feet or so away from us and more above them in the trees! It was so neat to watch them scale the trees, swing from vines, eat, and relax. Every so often one would make a noise and they all began to bang on roots of the trees and holler—it was really cool but almost kind of intimidating! They all were named by the trackers, and demonstrated individual personalities…one even seemed to enjoy all the eyes on him. We all had a lot of fun observing the in their natural habitat and being able to interact with them to some degree.

Later on, after one of the best meals we’ve had all trip, we discussed how our lives might change when we return to Canada and spent some time in prayer. It was a really good time of reflection and discussion.  Among other things, we agreed we would all gain a new appreciation for things that are normally taken for granted in Canada. It was a lot of fun being at that lodge, and we even slept under mosquito nets as fireflies flew around our room—it was our first time seeing them!

Yesterday morning, we left the lodge (where there was no reception, by the way), and began the last stretch of the trip back to Kampala. John had earlier arranged that we would meet Lawrence, the Jr. High youth’s sponsor child from Hoima, on our way. However, due to the fact that the road to Hoima from the North was in bad condition and it was a little bit out of the way, we had to travel an extra two hours to get there. Once we arrived there (after about an hour of very bumpy roads), we picked up Olive, the program director, who showed us the way to the school center. There, we met with Lawrence, his mother, and a number of staff members. Only 9 years old, he was quite shy and didn’t have a lot to say, but was very thankful when we gave him a soccer ball, candy, and a stack of letters from the Jr. High youth. We then played soccer with him in the courtyard for a while, and then we all fit into Abdal’s van and went to see his house. The blessings he’s been given by means of Compassion and the youth was very evident—they said it was with that support that he was able to get a mattress and mosquito net. What a sweet boy! As a token of his family’s appreciation, they presented us with a woven bowl and lid as well as a wooden ladle, and requested that we join them for a home-cooked snack. But when we arrived back at the center, they had prepared a whole traditional meal for us! After some pictures and farewells, we continued to Kampala. Once we arrived, it was about 6pm, so we stopped at Café Javas for dinner and returned to the Sportsview Hotel. Rosemary had taken transportation from Kumi earlier and was waiting for us when we arrived.

This morning, we got up and had breakfast at the hotel, and left at around 10am. We then went to the bank and to a video store where we bought packages of DVDs for Martha, Alice, and the kids at the orphanage to watch. From there, Abdal took us to a craft market where we wandered through countless shops, admiring all the art and merchandise. There were some really neat things! Due to all the emissions from the cars on the busy streets in the city, though, we find it quite difficult to breathe.

Tonight is our final night in Africa! It’s kind of hard to believe in some ways, and in others, it’s about time. John had us further discuss tonight about how this trip has impacted our views and what we will take away from it. Martha, Rosemary, and Abdal will all be accompanying us to the airport tomorrow morning at 7am…it will be another long day of travelling. So, we will all likely have much time to reflect on all our time spent here. I know I will miss the sunshine, the friendly community, the simplicity of life, the children, and all the special people we’ve encountered. We are all so thankful to have gotten the opportunity to follow through with this aspect of God’s calling on our lives, and look forward to sharing it with you all further when we return. Please continue to pray for our health, and a safe journey home!

God bless,

The Be Team

BE LOVE! J

Final Day at the Orphanage, Journey to the North, Going on a Lion Hunt!

Well, the past few days have been busy ones! First off, I don’t believe I have commented on the driving here. In Uganda, unlike some other bordering countries, they steering wheel is on the right side of the vehicle and they drive on the left side of the road. Often, it seems like a game of “chicken” or a near head-on collision on the narrow roads. We know we’re safe with Abdal though. In the city, people drive relatively fast and when entering the many round-abouts, they have to aggressively push into traffic rather than yielding. Cars drive really close to each other and pedestrians don’t have the right-of-way. Driving here is definitely not something I would be able to do well here. A few times we’ve seen John in the front left seat of the vehicle and momentarily panic, before realizing he is not in the driver’s seat! J

On Monday, we had a late start at the orphanage. As it was our last day in Kumi, we did some laundry in our bathroom in the morning, and made it to the home at around noon. At this time, the older kids were at school and the only children there were the four youngest orphans, young community children, and a few older ones that were home sick with the chicken pox, which has been going around for a while now. Shortly after our arrival, the community children were dismissed for home, and we spent some quality time reading and playing games with the few children from the orphanage. By the time the older kids had returned to school after coming back for lunch, we filled Abdal’s van with the younger children and ourselves and headed for the school.

Once there, we were seated as all the students were seated in the shade of the trees. As promised, we returned with a few gifts for them: 170 New Testament Bibles, a soccer ball, and ball caps for all the teachers. The kids found it quite hilarious when they saw their headmaster with the hat on! They were really appreciative of the support, and hope to be connected with the schools of Sylvan Lake in the future. After that, the T.O.U.C.H. children performed two songs for the rest of the school- first, “Be Happy” (which is the one that we taught them), and then one of their own, “Be Rooted”. They even had us join them! Rosemary then selected a few student volunteers to perform “Be Rooted” in front of the whole school. We couldn’t believe how much courage some of those kids had—even if they made mistakes and over 800 people were laughing at them, they still didn’t stop. Rosemary then promised to give them each a book. We then organized a giant soccer game: the teachers and Canadians vs. the older girls. It was so hot out on the field, running around under the African sun! All the rest of the students crowded around the sidelines, cheering at goals and laughing at mistakes…no pressure or anything! Haha, but they found it quite entertaining. It was a close game, all in all, but the students ended up winning by a goal. Afterwards, they had the older boys play, and during this time I talked with some students along the sidelines with my mom, and we shared songs with each other. When the game finished, the headmaster lead the students in a prayer for a safe journey for us, and they shared their Ugandan National Anthem with us. It was like a giant choir—it sounded so nice.

We then fit the younger kids, Martha, and our team back in Abdal’s van, and we returned to the orphanage. Unfortunately, the school-aged ones had to walk home still. In order to leave something behind other than the basketball hoops for the home (which are now in the process of being made), the sport of hockey (Eric was proud for spreading the Canadian spirit), the love for the children and Jesus, we decided to each plant a tree outside the orphanage. It was a very symbolic moment of growth and rebirth; hopefully they will be able to grow!

Alice, the primary school teacher who looks after the kids with Martha when Rosemary is gone, lead the children in a prayer for us and a beautiful farewell song. It was such an emotional time…how sad it was to think of leaving those children when they held such a special place in our hearts! After long goodbyes and many pictures, we left, and looked back at the Children’s Home to see 35 kids waving goodbye.

Due to an unfortunate local death, Rosemary could not join us on the rest of our journey. However, her sister Martha decided to come instead! She is such a wonderful woman, and only in her twenties, seldom gets a break from serving the children—from 5am to 10pm, every day in the week. We are very blessed to have her with us! J We will be meeting with Rosemary on Saturday, our final day in Uganda, in Kampala.

On Tuesday April 5^th, we left the North East Villa Country Resort in Kumi (which, by the way, is in Eastern Uganda), and began the long journey up north. Having left at around 8:30am, we bought some bananas from the market, and a few hours later we managed to stop for lunch at the “Otino Waa Tower Café and Gift Shop”. We enjoyed cinnamon buns and ice cream, and checked out the shop. In it, were many things all handcrafted by the children from the neighbouring orphanage and school. The entire establishment was founded by a couple about ten years ago in Oregon, who have lived in Uganda ever since, and consists of a school, orphanage, bee keeping area, church, store, café, and more. It’s quite the place! And how inspiring it is to see such faith in action...even the smallest efforts really do make a difference.

We continued on for a couple more hours and eventually crossed the Nile River, which is considered to be the longest river in the world. Closer to the park, we spotted a few baboons as well as some large African elephants in the distance. It was crazy! All this time, we’ve had to continue to remind ourselves that we are, in fact, in Africa. Not long after, we arrived at the entrance to the park where we paid our entry fees and experienced another variation of some of the toilets here: a square hole in the cement in an outhouse! Haha, good times.  Once we continued on through the park, we saw many animals: warthogs, water-backs, bush-backs, tons of antelope, buffalo, many species of birds, more elephants (up close!), and giraffes! It was quite the experience. Abdal also took us to the site of the sister hotel to the one we’re in now, to see its remains after it was bombed by rebels about ten years ago. What a sad reality! The hotel we are in now is amazing. It’s called the Paraa Safari Lodge, and was recommended to us by the previous team (or teams?). The food here is also pretty great, and it’s a nice change from our usual diet of spaghetti and rice! There is even a nice pool here, which we were really thankful for earlier this afternoon.   

This morning, we met Abdal at 7am outside of the hotel to begin the safari with the ranger. Since we had requested our breakfast be to-go this morning, they packaged our meals for us and we enjoyed them while on a hunt for wildlife. We saw most of the same animals this morning as we did last night, but this time the natural lighting was much better for photo-taking, and we were able to get a lot closer to the animals. However, we did get to see about 75 hippos bathing in a lake up close…it was incredible! The giraffes, in particular, are really neat—they are really tall and so curious of us that they just stare at our vehicle while they chew the leaves from the tree until we drive away. We even saw a pregnant one today. Unfortunately, there aren’t any zebras or tigers found in this park we weren’t able to spot any leopards or lions (unsuccessful at going on a lion hunt!), but our experience was still neat. A group we had met on the plane from London are staying here as well, and most of them are from across Canada (two from Drayton Valley). They went on a safari this afternoon as well, but luckily were able to see 3 lions! When we returned, we cooled off in the pool and had lunch in the restaurant. Initially, we were going to go on a boat trip on the Nile, but decided it was not a worthwhile expense, so we spent the rest of the day relaxing. Most of us were really tired and had a nap, and were awoken by the short thunderstorm that occurred around 4pm. After lounging around the pool for a while longer, we went for dinner and taught Martha how to play Dutch Blitz!

There aren’t as many bugs here as we had expected, and, as mentioned, the mosquito count during rainy season is surprisingly low. Tomorrow morning we are packing up and leaving the lodge and driving a few hours to another hotel, where we plan on going on a chimp spotting adventure. For the past few days, my stomach hasn’t been feeling 100%, along with a few others of us. Also, after today, Ashley and I are quite burnt…it’s not a pleasant feeling when the temperatures are already so hot. Please continue to keep us in prayer as we continue this journey. The days are running out, and before we know it, we’ll be back home (hopefully by then all the snow will have melted). We are really learning about each other while we are here, and though it’s been a rollercoaster of a ride with ups and downs, but we’ve all been here to support one another. Hope all is well with all of you. J

Love,

The Be Team

New friends, Testimonies, Church, and Sunburns!

Initially, I didn’t expect to have many blog-worthy things to post from yesterday, but over the past two days combined, so much has happened!

Two days ago, Saturday April 2^nd, we met Rosemary’s niece Juliet who has made the school uniforms for the children. While we were in town, we stopped at a booth in the market and Ashley bought a pair of sandals to replace Sam’s pair that had broken during a soccer game on Friday. It’s so crazy how the cost of life here differs so much from back home! According to Ashley, a pair of girls’ underwear was for sale for about 300 shillings. The best way to convert from shillings to dollars is to move the decimal over to the left 3 spots, and divide by two. In other words, one pair of underwear costs roughly fifteen cents. I have such a hard time believing how much we take things for granted in North America, and how our culture is so obsessed with money and things. I came upon the realization the other day though, that the typical way of life here is not necessarily wrong. Many people may live without electricity, more than a couple clothing items, and without a vehicle. To us, this may seem like they are in dire need of help to assist them in being a step closer to the good life we know of. However, they live simply. As long as needs are met, perhaps this way of life is not as far off as it seems, and our excessive tendencies are, in reality, not the way God intended. Now there’s something to think about!

Once we arrived at the orphanage, Rosemary brought out the letters and gifts from the sponsors and they were presented to the children; there were many happy and thankful faces! Afterwards, John presented the Bibles. Although they all combined to be over a hundred pounds to carry around in our luggage, it was fully worth the hassle. Each child received a full copy, and each member of the Be Team wrote a specialized message of encouragement inside the cover—again, it was time-consuming, but so worth it!

After lunch, we did a craft with the kids, which Martha said was their first one! That fact, in itself is pretty unbelievable, as we do crafts so often back home that they are seldom fully appreciated. The children from the orphanage as well as from the community each coloured a piece of paper and a paper plate and wrote their names in them. We then made hanging mobiles for each child by creating shapes with their paper and attaching it with string. It seemed to take all afternoon to finish over forty of them, but the children really enjoyed having them.

Shortly after was the most emotional part of the day; some of the children were sharing their testimonies as Sam translated them. To hear the real stories of the poverty-stricken and/or hopeless situations that the kids were in prior to the home was so touching. They’ve witnessed so much at such a young age. Even now, they are so grateful to be able to live in the orphanage and to have the privilege to shower, eat, have a bed to sleep on, and someone to love them. Compared to what we’re used to though, they still have so little—but they are grateful to “have everything they could every want”. It’s so humbling and heartbreaking to realize how frivolously we live all the while taking everything for granted. Hearing their testimonies was definitely an emotional time.

Yesterday, before heading to the English church service at 7:30am, I found yet another friend! I named him “Freddy the frog”, but was nowhere to be found later on in the day. On that same note, last night while writing in my journal, a giant dung beetle crawled into our room. I remained rather calm until it started to fly and hover above me…I ran away, haha.

For part of our  mission, we rented two vans to transport the children from the orphanage to the church in Kumi as they had never been there before. We all went to the front once we arrived, and hundreds of people were packed into a relatively small sanctuary. Francis explained the vision of T.O.U.C.H. Ministries and Rosemary’s passion, and Rosemary then introduced each of us to the congregation. They sung many hymns! Shortly after,  the older children from Ogooma shared a few of their songs to the people of the church. It was wonderful! They have such energy and passion when they sing and their smiles are enough to light up the whole building. John was asked to preach, so he shared a great message; God has a plan for everyone, and he makes all things work together for the good of those that love him. They enjoyed his sermon so much that he was asked to speak again at the second (local language) service!

Following the first service, we all went back to the hotel to have breakfast, and the kids were taken to Rosemary’s house. The older children, my mom and John then returned to the second service, while Abdal took Ashley, Eric and I to Rosemary’s house to spend time with the younger children. From what I heard the second service went well, and they apparently were introduced to the community’s oldest member—a man of 111 years! At Rosemary’s, the children were very happy to see us. We gave them crosses made of neon slurpie straws that we had made, and later gave them balloons to play with. No matter what we are doing, it can be seen that they are just so happy to receive such love and attention. Eric made Kraft Dinner for the kids for lunch, which from what I’m told, is a joke from the Real Team. Although the texture of it was not what it was supposed to be, the children enjoyed having it with their rice. Rosemary also prepared lunch for Abdal, Francis, and the Be Team—a combination of rice, pork, beef soup, matoke (green bananas, cooked and prepared like mashed potatoes), sukuma wikki (greens), eebbo (a mix with greens, and I believe it is a local dish) and atapa (cassava flour mixed millet). I tried everything other than the meat. Although not necessarily our kind of food, we figure we should at least experiment a bit; when in Africa, do as the Africans do! Other than that, we’ve been eating spaghetti and rice nearly every night for dinner at the hotel!

Later on, Sam had the kids sing a few more songs, and got us to join in with them. It’s harder than it looks! A boy named James also tried to teach Ashley and I how to dance yesterday…although embarrassing, it was fun, and the kids sure got entertainment! J The children even have “Be Happy” memorized now, and they start singing and doing the actions randomly throughout the day.

The sun is so hot here...we’ve all gotten quite burnt as some point or another, despite our SPF 60 sunscreen. Today is our last day with the kids before leaving for Northern Uganda to the Safari. It is going to be so hard to say goodbye to them—each of their individual personalities have touched our hearts in such a way that I’m sure we will always remember. It will sure be an emotional time, but hopefully when we leave, even if the children forget us, they will remember Jesus.

We cannot thank you all enough for your support! We are so thankful to have been healthy and doing well thus far. And as we read our encouragement notes every morning, we are reminded of all of you back home who keep us in your prayers. Thank you!

Love,

The Be Team

April 1st, 2011

What a busy few days! Since leaving Kampala, so much has happened that we haven’t been able to share it with you all yet. On Tuesday March 29^th, the date of the last entry, I had said we were on our way to the orphanage. But by the time we arrived in Kumi, Rosemary said it was too late to visit the orphanage—we would get set up in our hotel and visit the following day. Along the way, many children waved and smiled at us, shouting “Mazunga! Mazunga!”…their term for white people. The whole town of Kumi has a really nice atmosphere to it, and it is a very well kept place. The people, for the most part, are all very friendly and welcome us every time we pass them.

When we arrived at the North East Villa Country Resort, all the neighbourhood children came to greet us: first just three boys, and then many, many more. As this was our first interaction with children since arriving in Uganda, we were so overwhelmed with their smiles. We took many pictures of them, and when we showed them their smiling faces, they couldn’t stop giggling! It was the cutest thing in the world! Just the other day we gave them a small soccer ball. It is incredible how something so simple and taken for granted in Canada can be appreciated so much—Abdal said we made their day. One in particular was a little one, about a year old, who stood across the road. When we approached him, he started screaming and running away! Though rather disheartening, this is actually how most of the babies react. Not having ever seen a white person before, they are very frightened by us.

Our resort is nice and quite classy compared to the neighbouring houses. Ashley, my mom and I even have roommates- Leo the lizard, Seth the salamander, Baxter the baby salamander, and Calvin the cockroach! I think it’s safe to say that we’ve experienced a bit of culture shock here. To help explain how we measure the time difference here, we add three hours to the local time and switch the AM to PM, or vice versa.

On Wednesday morning, we picked up Rosemary from her house in Kumi and went to the Catholic School. As we pulled up, we could see countless eyes peering up at us from the different classroom buildings. Carrying the boxes of notebooks and pencils bought with money from C.P. Blakely, we watched as around 840 children ran to the shaded area behind the buildings and sat down before us. All of them began to sing and clap to welcome us, and it was all too overwhelming! It was an emotional experience, for some more than others. J  After a few introductions, John read a story about Jesus…all the kids busted out in laughter when they heard John laugh! When the story was finished, Eric, Ashley and I tried to teach the children the words and actions to “Be Happy”. Despite the fact that they had the lyrics, there was too much of a language barrier for them to keep up, but the older kids got the hang of it. Later on, the notebooks were distributed to the children—two to seven per child, depending on their level of schooling. We left shortly after, and we promised we’d be back with a few leftover supplies.

From there, the Be Team, Rosemary, Abdal, John (Rosemary’s uncle who works for the radio news) and Martha (Rosemary’s sister) headed for the Ogooma orphanage. What a nice establishment! When we arrived, only the primary school kids were there as it was during school hours. They were all quite excited to see us, though a little shy! Gloria, the youngest, almost immediately took to holding our hands. Gradually, the older children began returning from school and rushed to greet us. One-by-one they shook our hands and knelt down while introducing themselves. We couldn’t understand why they were bowing down to us, but Rosemary explained that it is simply a customary action of respect. It’s very humbling! We handed out a few balls and books and the kids were very happy! A majority of the rest of the supplies were then given out—anything from clothes to backpacks, to toys to shoes! It was unbelievable how much those things were appreciated, and that much could be seen from the look on their faces. The kids got us to read the books to them, even the same ones over and over! There are also many children from the community that come around the orphanage, and it’s really sad to see their unmet needs as well.

Later on, Sam (the music teacher and Rosemary’s nephew) came and got the children to perform a few of their songs. The amount of energy and passion they showed was incredibly inspiring…what a great thing that they can so cheerfully and fully praise the Lord!

Yesterday—Thursday, March 31^st—we first went to the Kumi market to buy fruit and then spent the whole afternoon with the primary school children. We taught them many games like “x’s and o’s” and a relay race with spoons and marbles. They had so much fun! Later on, it began to rain more than I would have ever expected! The huge downpour came out of nowhere and caused small rivers to form in the dirt. Unfortunately, the rains began to pour as most of the older children were on their walk back from school! It put a bit of a damper on our plans to share testimonies and hand out Bibles to the kids, so we left early and returned this morning.  Hopefully there won’t be many mosquitos with the moisture; so far, I haven’t seen very many, and there has been very few bites. And so far, we’ve all been in good health! J

We are at the orphanage until Tuesday, I believe. Already, we are beginning to connect with each and every child and see their unique personalities. Last night, Martha got the kids to write a special thank-you letter to one of us, which we received this afternoon. They were so sweet! At a time when we began to feel discouraged and overwhelmed, handwritten notes of their appreciation assured us that we really are making a difference. They are so grateful for our presence, but as John said, we’ll know we’ve really done our job if they remember Jesus when it comes time for us to leave.

Tomorrow is Saturday and we will spend the day at the orphanage with all the orphans as well as many from the community as there is no school. Thank you so much for those of who sent encouragement notes with us—we read a few every morning and inspire us to love these kids and to be open for God’s work. I will try to upload another post in a day or so! God bless, and thank you for your thoughts and prayers!

Love,

The Be Team

Safely In Uganda

Hello everybody!
Rosemary has given us her internet stick to use, so now we can update you all on our activities, but until now we haven’t been able to. Uganda is such a beautiful country! It’s definitely a lot to take in.
On Saturday March 26th, we unloaded our 14 hockey bags with various donations and supplies and checked into the airport at around 7:30pm. Despite our best efforts to keep each bag under the allowed weight—or a pound or two over—almost all of our bags were overweight! We redistributed a few supplies in our carry-ons, but Tim McIllravey ended up having to take a bag of used women’s clothes and new kids clothes back to the church for the next group to bring.
After about a nine hour flight, we landed in London at around 1pm their time. Because we had about a 7 hour layover, we took the Heathrow Express from the airport and went to the Picadilly Circus and explored downtown London. It was a very beautiful, clean city with an interesting atmosphere, but much like Canada. We walked down to the Buckingham Palace and took lots of pictures, but we were all surprised to note that the palace was not as extravagant from the outside as we had expected.
Once we got on the plane, we endured another 8 hour flight to Entebbe, Uganda. I think it was really good to have flown during the night though so as to ease the effects of jetlag. We got in at around 7am Uganda time, and met with Rosemary and Abdala for the first time- what amazing people! It had rained that morning, so it was quite wet and the air was humid, but it sure beat the snow in Canada!
We loaded Abdala’s van with all of our luggage, which fortunately all found their way to Entebbe with us, and made our way to Kampala. They brought us to the Sportsview Hotel in the city, where we stayed last night, and then we ran a few errands; we went first to the bank, and then to a market store where we purchased hundreds of notebooks and pencils for the school with money donated by C.P. Blakely. Although the flights helped to prevent jetlag, we were all quite tired. Ashley and I decided to nap for a bit, and when we were woken for supper, I thought it was the morning and I had slept all night! Later on after our dinner at the hotel, we had a prayer session  and Bible study in our hotel room. First, Rosemary and the Be. Team spent individual quiet time with God, and then we prayed one-at-a-time for each other. I can really feel God’s presence with us on this trip, and we are so thankful for all the prayers. We are all really looking forward to see the ways in which God will bring us closer to one another, closer to him, and open our eyes and hearts to the things unseen.
This morning we left the hotel with all our bags and stopped back at the bank and store to buy water. Rosemary’s friend Frances who is a board member on the T.O.U.C.H. ministries team said it was 32 degrees Celsius! As hot as it is, I would take it over our freezing, snowy winter days. Not long after, the rain started to pour down, out of nowhere it seemed, but since it has been relatively clear and extremely hot. Since having left Kampala, we are on our way to the orphanage in Ogooma- about a 6 hour drive. We passed over the Nile River dam this afternoon, which according to Abdala, is the main power source for the region.
Even just from driving we have seen many people—especially children—with a great joy. We are all so excited to see the children at the orphanage! Hopefully we will be able to check in again soon. Again, we are very grateful for our church family’s prayers, and hope all is well in Canada!
With love from The Be Team
(Delaney Moore writing on behalf of  Ashley Thomas, Eric McIllravey, Carla Moore, and John Haazen)

The Last Post From the Real Team

 Home!
Hi Everyone:  We are all home safe and sound. Tired, but filled with hearts full of joy. So many stories, tears and laughter that we are so looking forward to sharing for you. Thanks for all the prayer support, thats what made it so amazing. I have enjoyed sharing with all of you are experiences and looking forward to sunday.


Love Sherry
The Real Team

last night in Kampala!

When, the Real Team's journey is drawing to the close. What a sad time that is. We went shopping to day and you can only imagine all the shopping with five women. We traveled on Africa time while shopping, "No hurry on africa time" .  But we had money left over so we purchased Instrumments for the orphanage. Rosemary picked out drums and more shakers. So those children will make  a joyful noise unto the Lord. Rosemary figured she would be tackled to the ground when she arrives with all the musical instruments. Then she will make us a cd named 'REAL TEAM  childrens choirs".  But when she seen the children to day, the children were all crying. When she asked what was the matter the children responded that they wanted us to stay thats why they are so sad, Tears well in my eyes once again cause it just feels like I need to hug them all one more time, but that is not possible.  Tomorrow we are off to the equator and then to the airport by 8pm and let the long journey begin. We are got joined for supper tonight with the building engneer which we hope and pray for some good pricing.Please pray for the twins boys(Frances and thomas), Gloria and Fabian. They all  have malaria but are on maralira medication and doing well. And please pray for safe journeys for us. Richard if you are still planing to pick us up, we will be arriving at 6:40pm  in calgary on sunday

Sherry
THE REAL TEAM