Juan Diego I never expected that I would spend part of my summer in Africa. When I was invited to join a mission trip to Uganda, I was very excited to travel to a new place. However, as time passed, anxious thoughts started to fill my mind. What am I supposed to do in an orphanage? Isn’t Uganda supposed to be dangerous? What will happen if I get sick there? Will my parents be able to get there in time if something happens to me? Since I knew we were working with children, our luggage consisted of toys, books and stationary. After a 14-hour flight we arrived in Kampala, capital of Uganda, where a driver named Peter drove us for five hours to Jinja, the campsite where we would sleep at night. Starting the next day and for the next 10 days, we would wake up at 4 a.m., go to the orphanage and come back at 11 p.m. at night. That first day took me completely by surprise. I expected a building consisting of rooms for children, but instead I found myself in a farm-like structure with 43 smiling children. As the children lost their parents at an early age, one would expect the kids, aged 4 to 20 to be down-hearted. However, the children were optimistic throughout, always having a smile on their faces and thanking God for the life they were given. Take the example of 4-year-old Mugenyi and his four siblings. Mugenyi’s mom died during childbirth so the children were put in the care of their grandmother. Having lived a life of poverty and barely being able to take care of herself, having five additional mouths to feed was an impossible task for the grandmother. After weeks of barely getting by, the children tormented with malnutrition and herself starving, the situation quickly got desperate. Through an interview we conducted the grandmother told us she planned to lock the kids in a room while she committed suicide, a common practice in rural parts of Africa. However, the very same day she was planning to commit suicide she heard of Tumaini Children’s Home and things got better from there. Through some private funds we were able to place the children into schooling, housing, as well as cover other basic needs. Currently the children’s diet consists of porridge every day and fruit once a month. To improve the quality of their diet is our top priority for the near future. Tumaini Children’s Home is exactly what it promises to be and so much more. Here a local church provides a place of “tumiani,” meaning hope in Swahili, schooling and a home for its local community. Tumaini Children’s Home is unique; it serves not only as an orphanage but also as a school, providing orphans with the knowledge, skills and values that they need to survive in their environment through quality education. With private donations, the orphanage was able to get floor tiling, mosquito repellant, beds, bed sheets, bathrooms and classrooms for the school. However, the work is far from over, we need to find a sustainable source of income for them not to have to depend on donations, and we need to find a way to make the orphanage sustainable. Traveling to Uganda is a truly enriching experience, as one learns to appreciate all the hardships that one goes through. Simple things that we take for granted in our daily lives as small as a canned soda would bring smiles and happiness. At the end of the trip I was in a huge state of shock having realized how ungratefully some of us live our lives, complaining about petty little “misfortunes” that people in remote parts of the world wish they had. Spending time with people who have never watched television, never had a nice pair of shoes and barely had anything to eat really change me. It changes the way I see life and how to continue living it. Because of this humbling experience, I am determined to continue my work with Tumaini Children’s Home. My school, Shen Wai International School, has provided me the opportunity to carry on through an after-school activity that helps to raise funds to help them and find a way to make the orphanage independent of private donations. |