After arriving in Kampala Uganda on July 26, and getting our family settled, the first thing we did was go and visit the children at the school Pastor Hummer has called New Rays of Hope.  It was last October that we met Hummer, his wife and family and saw the desperate little school of 30 orphaned and severely needy children that he had started in Banda, on the outskirts of Kampala.  8 months later, the school has been moved, expanded and improved and there are now 170 kids that would never have gone to school othewise.  They get an education that surpasses the national standard, 2 meals a day, medical care, counselling, music and lots of fun but every day 10-15% miss school due to sickness from infections, viruses and mostly from malaria, the number one killer of children in Uganda. 

We asked Hummer to show us where some of the children lived and we were sad to see the conditions that they were living in.  The roofs were made of papyrus mats with huge holes in them so that when it rained, the water poured in on the dirt floor, on the families and on their very few possessions and clothing.  Rats and roaches had made homes in the roof mats. The children slept right on the ground, on an old chair and sometimes on newspaper if they could find it.  They had no mattresses, no blankets and no mosquito nets to protect them from malaria.  From lying on the dirt, they were getting skin infections from the parasites, colds from the damp conditions and bites from rats and other pests.  The temperature really goes down at night here, I have been cold in my nice house, on a mattress with a sheet and a warm blanket and I'm from Canada so I can't imagine how the mothers feel seeing their kids sleeping on the cold ground with no blankets. 

Well, as most you know, we are a crazy building, renovating, decorating family so we couldn't resist the opportunity to try to bring these families some basic comfort and joy.  Hummer chose 5 very needy houses (house is a strong word-more like 8'X10' shacks with papyrus roofs, mud walls and dirt floors) for us to start with.  We will be putting on tin roofs with overhangs to prevent the mud walls from washing away in the rain, concrete floors for easy sweeping and washing, and we will give them mattresses, blankets and mosquito nets. These beautful people have been praying to Jesus for help and we get to be the ones who become God's hands; what an honour.  These 5 houses will be a test run so we can see how much it will cost to do one house and to see if any problems arise.  Click on the youtube video to see the houses we will be working on.  Check out the "after" story and pictures in the next edition of Hippo Africa.