Arua

Hey Everyone!

How's it going? Man I have finally reached Africa and it is such an amazing feeling! :-) Flying into Entebbe I was grinning like a mad woman :-) Had the most overwhelming feeling of "this is where I'm supposed to be" right now! So awesome!

I have SO much to say so thought I should write now cos otherwise my next email home will be mammoth! Man, it's just been the COOLEST week and it's so great to be here.

Flight to Africa
The flight to Africa was highly memorable on many accounts! Firstly, I was standing at the end of the most ginormous que waiting to check in. One of those lines that kinda has an everlasting curve! The African people were bringing pretty much all their possessions back to Africa, TV's Microwaves, on average 2 trolleys each! So I'm standing at the end of this line that;s not moving thinking I'm gonna be there for at least 2 hours when this Arab man comes up to me and tells me to follow him. Feeling slightly freaked out, I start walking with him wondering why I've been singled out when he takes me up to the "First class and Business class" check in... right past all the African business class and first class people so that I am at the top of the que! Unbelievable the kind of racial privilege I got because I am white! Couldn't get over it! So I was like checked in immediately? wow. I am sorry to say I did not get bumped up to Business class on the actual flight though!
Also, our flight was delayed almost 3 hours due to passport fraud! Was SO fascinating to watch... it was the guy ahead of me in business class so I kinda followed him the whole way til we were just about to board and it was found that his passport was someone elses! Somehow he'd managed to weasel his way through every checkpoint! He was SO clever! He was wearing an immaculate suit and kept bringing out his "gold card" and flashing it to all around him! Anyway, it was very exciting to watch. Lots of screaming and fighting going on. I thought "Africa here I come!!!"
I met just the most incredible people on all my flights. One lady who's working in refugee camps with the medical team, another plastic surgeon going to Gulu to work on the faces of children who have had their lips, noses and ears cut off by the rebels. SO inspiring to talk to these people!!
Arua
So I spent one night in Entebbe and arrived in Arua on Friday! Kim Trenwith was there to pick me up! Man it has just been the most full on few days!!! We have been SO busy! The Trenwiths have been working for ora for almost 6 months now. It's just amazing to see them interacting with the locals and seeing how much progress they have made here. "Team Uganda" is also here at the moment so it's a full house! "Team Uganda" are a group of Hamiltonians all living in London who have fundraised almost $5000 for orphans in Arua. They have brought over heaps of 2nd hand clothes, toys, stationery etc etc for the orphans and ae here distributing them and getting involved in some of our communities with our orphans. Man, they're the coolest people. We've been having such a rad time!
Hospital and Bernard
So on my first day, we went into the hospital to take Bernard our little orphan who has sickle-cell amenia in for his monthly checkup. A quick background on Bernard for those of you who don't know is that he is one of sponsored kids who has been with us the longest. He has a condition where he needs to have blood transfusions just about every month and is very very ill most of the time. When we first started sponsoring him his father was indebted to the hospital because he couldn't pay for the transplants so would work for them on top of his normal job. We found out that the cost of a transfusion is NZ $3.50 so we paid off the debt and ora now pays for all his treatments. Bernard sobbed his wee eyes out when he was told he had to have another transplant. They are so very painful for him!! We also took heaps of colourful wall posters to put on the bland walls of the childrens ward in hospital and gave each of the patients a little toy that team Uganda had provided. Was so cool to be able to do this. Saw SO many sick kids though... and the conditions of the hospital were so incredibly bad. We saw so many kids who could hardly breathe yet were not on oxygen... none of the beds had sheets on them and the children were just lying there motionlessly. SO sad... I really can't wait to be able to go back and pray for the kids.
Ora Land Development
On my 2nd day here we went out to the land that ora has purchased. We are building a community care project for some of our orphans with special needs. HEAPS of our ora sponsored kids were there to help at the working bee. Was SO great to see them! Had such a community feel to the place as we all got out and worked together moving bricks, slashing tall grass, painting the meeting room. Was also awesome cos I got to talk to heaps of the sponsored kids one on one. I have brought over all our Christmas correspondence publications for the orphans to fill out to wish their sponsors a merry christmas and thank them for paying fees. Man, was so cool cos I know who sponsors most of them so I could say "Beatrice, your sponsor is Wally from NZ. He is ra ra ra and he prays for you every day and cares about you so so much! He is so happy to be able to sponsor you!!" and the little kids would just blush and put their heads down and you'd realised they'd never been told that someone cares about them before. Some of the letters back to sponsors are amazing. These kids are SO grateful to be sponsored and to be going to school!

Worming and Scabies
Today was probably one of the coolest days. We went out to Ringili with heaps of blankets, soap, clothes and worming and scabies treatment. Only orphans and widows were there... man... you should have seen the crowd from this single community! Gasper, one of our social workers had worked out on a basis of need who we should give things to. Everything was given in such an orderly way. Was SO great to be able to treat these kids for worms and scabies. Man, you should see their swollen bellies and skin riddled with the most contagious itchy scabies. Amazing that it is SO easy and SO cheap to treat these serious medical conditions. Was awesome to see kim in her element as a nurse and once again, all thanks to team Uganda for providing all the medical supplies and everything else. Money really does make the world go round.

So tomorrow Sally Hanna (Director Ora NZ) arrives so I'm sure we'll be having heaps of meetings with the whole team. We are going to Gulu on Wednesday to work see the Anaka foundation and children who are orphaned because their parents have been killed by LRA rebels. It's just so cool to be here. There is SO much that can be done here and it's awesome to see how you can so easily make a difference. I just found out that the name "Arua" means "prison" in the local language and it's almost like sponsorship and all this work ora and team Uganda are doing is freeing captives from bondage. I couldn't believe it when I found out that "Arua" means prison. It seems like this whole time in Africa for me has this reoccurring theme of bondage, slavery, oppression, justice and thow God requires us to help free people from this. I'm so stoked to be in Arua for a decent amount of time and stoked to be working with such amazing people.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support. Will update you on Gulu soon!
lots of love
Bex