Today marks the anniversary of my 1st week in Uganda. It is also the day that best represents why we answered this call to be here with CoG. I accompanied several of our child mentors to visit one of the villages around Jinja from where CoG has many sponsored kids. It is named Messesse, a village 5 km from Jinja that if in the US would be labeled a 'slum' area. It is indeed very poor, very crowded and very dirty. It rained last night, so the red dirt is best called mud. After visiting one of the primary schools near Messesse where we have 23 'boarding' and 2 'day' kids in P1 and P2 (essentially 1st and 2nd grades), we visited several homes of the parents and guardians in the village. The pics were taken at the school and the village, where a 'muzungu' is always an attraction. One of the mothers (who is HIV positive) we met had just returned from the nearby Lake Victoria where she had purchased a bucket of tomatoes to sell in the village, one of her primary sources of income. The tomatoes cost her 5,000 shillings (app $2.50) and she told us would make app 2,000 profit on the entire bucket. She does this every day..making about $1 a day to feed her 3 kids. CoG sponsors 1 of them who attends the nearby primary boarding school. Her oldest child is a 10 yr old son who doesn't go to school so he can fish to help his Mom survive. The youngest is too young for school, but she wants CoG to sponsor her when she enters school. None of her kids could go to school if it not for organizations such as Children of Grace. This is why we're here!
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