After breakfast we took off by boda heading for our orphanage "The Children's Home of Joy". The children were already waiting for us to arrive. So was the bus driver that we had hired. Stefan sponsored an excursion to a swimming pool and we were all invited! The bus was a bit funny and would have never gotten permission to drive in Switzerland but it was going to be fun anyways. The kids and staff were all excited and hopped the bus with a smile on their faces. Off we went! I was very much wondering how that swimming pool would be like. I had never seen such a place during my stay in Uganda, except for a few hotel pools during my safari trips. Next to me sat Mildred who was one of the first six kids who we had moved from the old place to Masindi. I played a little game with her. We challenged each other spotting and naming the plants we saw alongside the road. So we shouted “banana”, “maize”, “cassava”, “pineapple” and so on during the whole trip. It was a nice trip which allowed us to get to see the surroundings of Masindi a bit. The farther we drove, the more sugarcane we spotted. We soon approached a sugar refinery. We soon realised that this pool was built and run by this sugar company who was told to employ over 1’500 people. We soon arrived at the gates of the pool facility and entered. They didn’t ask for an admission charge for the club but we had to pay a small fee for using the pool which seemed fair. Soon after changing their clothes the first kids jumped into the pool. The first one to hop into the cooling water was Stefan though. As I’m not too keen on spending time in the water I made myself useful by taking lots of pictures. It really cheered me up to see how much they all enjoyed the pool. Stefan tought some of the staff how to swim and so did Claudia to some kids. While taking pictures I also chatted with some of the kids. With the oldest one I discussed his future plans. He is a clever young man and a very talented artist. Man, he can draw! I already rack my brains finding a way to support him developing his skills in the future! Any ideas welcome! ;-) As always, the kids were fascinated by my camera so I tried to teach them how to use it.
After a few hours in the water we prepared ourselves for lunch. Even though we had ordered the food on time it took a lot longer than we had expected. While some of the kids ran around some waited on some of the many sofas where they almost fell asleep. I played with one of the boys and a girl who I had to chase in the garden. Finally the meals arrived: chips and chicken. It was amazing to see how the kids managed the whole meal without batting an eye whereas I struggled. They really behaved well ant it was quite cute to watch them how they tried to eat the chicken using fork and knife. I told them to using their hands and demonstrated that I did it also like this. Other than that we might still be there! It’s been already late when they all finished and we had to bring them back to the "The Children's Home of Joy". After fooling around at the pool and enjoying such a wonderful meal most of them fell asleep soon after departure. Mildred, who again sat next to me tilted sidewards as she fell asleep so I reached out supporting her head for the rest of the ride, later I crumpled my shirt to form kind of a pillow for her. I was pleased watching all those sleeping kids and recalling the day.
We soon arrived at "The Children's Home of Joy" where the kids had to be woken up. Some of the kids were so tired that they disappeared in their rooms and fell asleep immediately. We said goodbye to the remaining staff and kids and took off with the bus that brought us safely to the hotel. Siesta time!
In the afternoon we had another meeting with our project leader, Newton. We had to discuss a few details and wanted to get to know him better as we had met him the first time during the meeting with the Bishop the day before. We had also invited him for supper and thus were a bit surprised when he seemed to want to leave after the meeting. We felt a bit embarrassed when we realised that his wife was waiting in the car during the whole meeting. We apologised and asked her to join us for supper which she did. After a nice meal we said goodbye to them. Then we reviewed the day and discussed the next day’s schedule before we went to bed… A fantastic day was over...
our bus
Swimming instructor Claudia...
and swimming instructor Stefan... must be kind of a family gene...
he reminded me a bit of Gollum posing like this
enjoy your meal!
Ups, I mean Mildred the sleeping lioness
back at "The Children's Home of Joy"
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