Hope, Play, Pray, Praise

We arrived in Soroti Sunday evening at Hotel Timisha. It's just lovely, it's quaint and cosy lying on the outskirts of the town. We had wifi, a good shower and a cute little 4 poster made from a mosquito net. David and Fred joined us for dinner, they are the managers from The Ark. David was a sponsored child himself and after graduating university as a teacher he came back to work for the charity. It was an honour to meet these men and hear about the great work they do for the community. 

 

Fred and David, managers of Global Care Soroti

At 8am Monday we were finally onsite at The Ark for devotions. The staff gather together to say a prayer, sing and read a passage from the bible, the room was electric with excitement. The people could not have been more welcoming; praising and thanking us for coming to Uganda. Their singing was awe inspiring, their voices filled the village and their clapping was infectiuous. We left feeling full of enthusiasm but also, a lot of pressure to deliver the help they were so desperate for. 

We were given a couple of hours to set up; emptying our cases and drowing in paperwork we all had a little wobbly moment that we shall blame on the heat but was probably more to do with nerves and emotions. The cook served us tea at 10:30am of samosas, bananas and mandazi, which are like delicious little doughnut triangles! After which Fred gave us a tour of the beautiful complex. Fred told us about when Global Care first started and the children who fled from the LRA, a rebel group who terrorised Northern Uganda between 1987-2007. It is reported that to present day 2000 children have been abducted, 100,000 people killed, and 1.5million people have been displaced. During that time the founder of Global Care, Ron Newby, came over to Soroti and found masses of orphans. The grounds of The Ark were first used as a camp for these children, providing shelter and facilities. Since then it has also been a skills centre training local young girls to become seamstresses and then almost 10 years ago The Ark was born. 

The grounds are big with a field they use to hold a party at Christmas with all of the local people, a house which is now rented to an American family and many offices. The meeting room was my favourtie; it was a little roundhouse (pictured above) with windows all around overlooking the gardens. In the garden they grow fruit and vegetables to feed the children as they are in deseprate need of vitamins, and Fred picked us some peanuts to try which grow below the ground! During this time the delegates had begun to arrive so we were introduced to people from Attira, a school for the deaf, and Runkurgi who support physically disabled children in government schools. We were later joined by colleagues from Ngero blind school and Abbeko playscheme for children with disabilities. 

Then came the most special part... meeting the children. We literally jumped right in and the children immediately melted our hearts. Joshua was the first intrigued litle boy. He came crawling over without so much as a second thought to greet us. His huge smile and even brighter laughter lit up the room as he planted himself down on my lap. The other children followed suit as we disburst ourselves amongst them. We taught the children to high five and engaged them in a rendition of Row Row the Boat. Sylvia was thrilled to learn the lion verse... roaring at the top of her voice. Samuel was fascinated by Collettes bag; he unzipped it and began to explore the contents. He pulled out her compact and was beside himself as he saw his reflection, much like Joshua and Samuel who took great joy in the selfie mode on my camera. I think it's fair to say they had not been allowed to take a photograph before. Linzi aided the Ark staff,  Aida and Lucy, to do some physio with Wilfred and Nancy and demonstrated how to communicate with intensive interaction whilst Laura encouraged Rebecca to use her walker. Their energy was all the reward needed to come to Africa. Out of the 10 chidren at The Ark, 5 are still awaiting sponsorship, if you feel you could support the children you can find out more information here www.globalcare.org/sponsor/

Over idle conversation at lunch we were discussing how beautiful the ladies dresses were and how we would all love to buy one. Moments later Fred was on the phone to Hope, the lady who used to teach tailoring at the skills centre. She now employees the students as seamstresses and within 15 minutes she was at The Ark. She whipped out her tape and began measuring us up. She bought with her a rainbow of fabrics to choose from, which was well recieved by Joshua who insisted on sitting on each length but we did allow him some input into making our selections. Like children waiting for Christmas we cannot wait to recieve our new dresses in a few days.

Training started with an introduction to Two Rivers; they were very interested in hearing about our children and staff. We spoke about ourselves and got to know the delegates who came from playchemes, mainstream schools, deaf schools and blind schools. We discussed difficulties and concerns that we face in both the UK and Africa, we recognised similarities amongst the countries and the different settings across Uganda. We learnt more about the hardships facing children with disabilities and the extremly high level of deprevation these families face. When Laura and Linzi helped to take the children home it was very apparent how different housing conditions are compared to back home but despite the poverty we witnessed we have never seen such happy,  smiley and friendly children who waved as we drove past. They were genuinely delighted when we waved back, followed by shouts of Mzungu, Mzungu (meaning white person) 

Meanwhile Rosie and Collette introduced the delegates to sensory play. I'm not going to lie they we're a little bemuzed when we first produced empty plastic bottles and sticks and told them we were going to make toys. But once we gave them a bag full of art and craft materials they were totally onboard with the craziness that is British sensory education. They giggled as they rifled through the materials and used them to create colourful works of art. They were genuinely thrilled with their resources and how proud they were of their sensory bottles, story stones and mobiles. It was a wonderful end to an emotional day, to see how enthusiastic and open minded they were. We hope that their enjoyment encourages them to take our experience and expertises back to their settings and communities.