{ed. note: This blog post has come from Erika but had to be sent to me (Corey) via email, then posted from Canada, because for some reason WordPress could not be accessed from Uganda. Just one of those things, I suppose. Anyway please forgive the eccentric formatting of this piece as it came imbedded and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to remove it. Weird, I know.}

The team is home after a slight delay in Amsterdam. They were so awesome! I am so lucky and thankful to have had them.

After a busy Sunday, packing and moving things from the dorms to Andrew’s and to Apricot (including delivering a hefty load to the cleaners), we took 36 hours of rest.

I enjoyed a long walk along tank hill and sipped a juice while watching a football game on Sunday and then on Monday, we just walked around the neighbourhood, ate awesome pizza in a thunderstorm, and saw our friend Henry at the Ivory Castle. It was a lovely day.

Back to work today… no time to keep resting! We were on the road at 8am to reach Kyengera for our new Mama Nguvu intake presentation. We had asked for a maximum of 100 women and I was nervous about what we would find but in the end, we only had 35 attend.

Everyone received an application form and I will return on Thursday morning to collect them so that we can go through them and start the difficult selection process. I am glad to have Andrew and Anna there to help me.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the school has started to build a base for the 10,000 liter water tank than the students in Kelowna have sponsored. Glenmore, North Glenmore, and Dr Knox collectively raised enough money to buy the tank and install eavestroughs to collect the rain so that the students don’t have to walk to get water every morning. The tank may even be there before I go! That would be amazing.

We then went to the Days for Girls office to meet with Diana about the work they are doing and to learn what areas they are working in. As Days for Girls Uganda is an enterprise, we always want to respect the hard-working individuals who are making the kits to sell. We don’t want to be giving our free kits when they are also trying to make a living by selling the kits to the schools. I was surprised to see that they are now using Days for Girls branded flannel for their pads!

The afternoon ended with a visit to Yimba to collect a skirt and jacket I had ordered and then to Maryland Secondary to deliver some balls and jerseys to Godfrey. He is such a passionate man about education and the success of his students. The world needs more educators like him. The students are very lucky to have him.So that was the day! I am off to bed early tonight as we are on the road at 7am tomorrow to head to Luweero. Anna and I are presenting at three schools and we are visiting a fourth where I hope to talk to the head of the school about her sewing machine project. We have books, jerseys, duplo blocks, cars, and balls to deliver to each of the schools as well. Thanks to everyone who donated those items at home. At the end of the day tomorrow, we should have distributed the last 280 kits that we have. It will be a busy day!

Hope you are all well.

In friendshipErika