Day 11 - Slum Visit

Today was a pretty full on day. This morning we continued our work building the house at the Village of Hope. It's really starting to take shape now with the door frames standing without supports and the walls too high to see what we're doing without the help of scaffolding.

In the afternoon we visited the Kikaramoja slums. We divided into groups where we spread out and visited nine of the houses, delivering a small gift of cooking & cleaning supplies and praying for the people living there. Many of the team found this experience quite challenging, and thought provoking. It was interesting to see the culture created among the community in the slums in the way the people related to each other.

Something that struck me in particularly was the way in which the children took on the responsibility the adults disregarded. One little boy about six years old, for example, had taken over his mother's cooking in the morning when she had gone out drinking, leaving behind her five children. In a similar manner, many toddlers and young children were taking care of and carrying babies on their backs over the uneven ground.

Lucy, who had led my group around for our visits, later displayed some of her handmade jewellery pieces that she and some of the women in the community make to support themselves. Lots of us purchased beautiful vibrant beaded necklaces and bracelets, the money going straight into the hands of the women who made them.

Many of us physically and emotionally drained, we headed back to Suubi House to enjoy the as always delicious cooking of Juliet and her team. Following this we split into groups for a debreifing where we were able sit with, and share the emotions our experience had evoked, and ask the follow through questions.

Today was a hard day, but one I think will not have a fleeting impact, but I hope, an impact that affects our character and our faith.

- Katie O