Day 16: Schoolies 2017 Setting the Bar with a 3 from 3 Sweep

​G’day fam and friends back in Straya!
 
Today we started the big day with the popular favourite of pancakes made by our lovely chefs and eaten with the last scrapes of Nutella that we have left. Heading into the Village of Hope as we do, we were preparing to smash out some of the last work that we’ll do here in Uganda. 

​Blessing House 7 and 8 with a lovely fresh coat of paint just before Christmas, it changed the dark brown houses into a lovely “joyful space” for them to live in, as the Uganda’s put it. Leaving only two more houses to paint out of all 10 J.
 
After a good mornings work sesh we then paid a quick visit back to the YSU (Youth Support Uganda) site, where we first started digging out trenches at the start of the trip. It was really awesome to see the work in progress as the foundations were starting to make progress for the new youth centre building. We then prayed over the space and the impact it will have over the young people. Taking a Mad happy snap with the team we then headed into town for our last chance for to have fun bartering in shops and enjoy a delicious meal. Club Sandwich hit the spot with a double Dekker ;) sanga with Chicken Egg and chips.
 
We then went home to prepare for the biggest event of the day. The team ran out of the Clubrooms (Suubi House) with heads held high as we undefeated so far. Heading into our third Football match against our toughest team yet, the builders. Walking into the stadium (Jinja Christian School) we began with some light game warm ups as we waited for the other team as we didn’t want to use up all the ATP we had left in our bodies.
 
Kick off took place with a tactic of taking as many shots as possible from all distances as we just needed to score and then defend. Many tense moments took place with free kicks from tackles and close calls from cross bar hits. It was 0-0 at half time with a very sweaty schoolies team slowly losing our good form. The whistle blew for the start of the second half and the Uganda team went harder than ever making us work hard in the defence. Then legendary keeper R Dekker sent a ball from the backline to the crowd favourite (B Halamoutis) giving a cheeky half volley to the forward line where the flying eagle J Dubbeld headed it straight into the feet of Julius (Transfer from the Uganda team) who then kicked an oweh of a goal! Causing the whole stadium to go nuts! Holding a solid defence and parking the bus for the last bit of the game it wasn’t long till we had Victory!
 
Holding the sweet title of champions, being undefeated after 3 games, the smell of victory continued on, as this was a rare feeling for the HopeBuilders to perform so well against the Ugandans. In fact it was a schoolies first, holding a new record.
 
 Sharing a lovely dinner with the builders afterwards it ended the busy day with a really nice time of good chats and fellowship.
 
I think that’s enough from me.
Yours truly,
 
Joshua ‘The Machine’ Dubbeld