is how the laws of physics appear to be nonexistent. Little motorcycles everywhere called
boda-bodas, used as taxis, zoom in and out of
little spaces that you wouldn’t think possible;
1980s Toyota vans, also taxis, crowd the roads
and somehow manage to squeeze through
spaces that look impossible while also squeezing
an impossible amount of people into them. The
amount of stuff Ugandan people can manage to
put onto one boda-boda is astounding. As Pastor
Phil had said, they are masters of Tetris. I literally
witnessed a boda-boda going down the road with
a set of furniture on the back. A set! A dining
table, a chair, and a couple other pieces.
Which brings me to our task on the second day,
to get beds to the CII school that is surrounded
by what I would call the jungle, or what Pastor
Phil said was “in the middle of the bush.” Uganda
has terrible storms, and Grace Children’s Home
was subject to one that landed a tree right on top
of the boy’s dormitory, crushing all their beds.
Luckily, no one was in the building at the time and
the dormitory has already been partially fixed.
We hired a dump truck to meet us at Rock
of Joy where the beds had been stored. Slowly,
we had people stack 16 bunk beds into this one
dump truck. Somehow they managed it with no
one getting hurt and none of the beds breaking.
While the truck was loaded, I walked a tour
of the school. Rock of Joy is well developed and
has mostly brick and concrete buildings. One of
the concrete buildings is in bad need of interior
repairs and paint and exterior paint as well. Allan
has started a painting and home repair business,
hiring graduates of Rock of Joy, so CII gave him
the funding to repair the building as needed.
There are two buildings built with wood planks
that need to be replaced with brick and concrete
in the next two years according to government
inspectors. The concrete delivered on the first
day will help start that process to show that they
are making progress. A proper kitchen needs to
be built, there is a cooking furnace that works
Allan and Shirley as we wait to get the van in for new
tires.
well but the walls and floor around it need to be
replaced and a concrete floor is needed.
After the bunk beds had finally been stacked
on top of the dump truck we had more supplies
to get before heading to Grace Children’s Home.
Of course these supplies were also being stacked
onto the same dump truck. By the end there were
16 bunk beds, 32 mattresses, and 2.5 tons of
concrete in one truck.
The drive there through thick trees on a
somewhat-there road was interesting enough,
but the best part was seeing the kid’s reaction to
the truck of beds coming down the road. They
were so excited that they helped unload the beds
and carry them into their dorm.
Grace Children’s Home was beautiful.
Abraham, the head teacher and Pastor Daniel’s
son, does wonderful landscaping and has made
a small bridge that crosses a stream that begins
at their well and a garden area. I got to see their
pigs, ducks, and what was left of their chickens.
Last year during a funeral that everyone attended,
the school had about 230 chickens stolen. Every
child at this location is an orphan, there are no
families to pay for them to attend, so what they
already have is how they take care of themselves.
The concrete brought in will help start a barrier
wall to prevent the theft of more animals but
more importantly, it will prevent the theft of
children. One of the biggest problems in Uganda
is human trafficking and Grace Children’s Home
is dealing with this issue first-hand. Last year
traffickers came through the trees that surround
the school and took a young boy. Thankfully the
boy was found and returned but the traffickers
were never caught. The wall and gates will help
protect these children from this happening. We
are hoping that the wall can be built over the next
year or so.
As we had lunch in a wood gazebo-like hut,
Pastor Dick of Jireh Primary School
stands next to the clean water well
that we tasted from while visiting.
One of the first of many children I
saw wandering around alone and
with no shoes.
vGOOD CAUSE continued on page 24
The kids were so excited they helped unload the beds
and carried them to their dorm.
Boda-boda taxi and a man carrying new
bedding on his head. I was amazed
by how much stuff and weight people
carried around like this.
HERVOICE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015v23
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