O my gosh what a day! Ross has taken forever with the blog and Gemma has taken 20 minutes .... He is such a perfectionist that Ross! But finally here is my attempt at day 5!
The day started off with breakfast and the usual omelette (I had one at a family's house earlier in the week and it tasted a bit dodgy – this one wasn't much different!) We waited for Father Godfrey to come to collect us so that we could go to look out over Uganda at the amazing views that it has to offer from a mountain in Homia. But not everything is plain gravy and that is particularly true in Uganda! Africa has a rather different concept of time than we do! Father Godfrey arrived about an hour late and still had to go and sort out bits for the party later. While we waited for him, we decided that we wouldn't go to the mountain as we wanted to spend more time with the kids as it was our second to last day in Homia, and the time we would have with them would be invaluable to us. Father Godfrey eventually arrived and took us to the parish where the kids were slowly arriving in dribs and drabs. We split off to play sport - the girls went to play netball and the boys to play football.
I decided to go with Father Godfrey and collect a group of kids who live about 5km from where the party was at. On our way there, I noticed we were in a car that didn't work quite so well – there was no speedometer, or temperature gauge and the petrol gauge didn't work at all. I asked him how he knew when he would run out out of petrol and he said it was a game of guessing - this filled me full of confidence that we were going to make it back to the parish! As we went through the town of Homia, Father pointed out several landmarks. The King's house was one particular landmarked that really stood out. It was a fantastic building that was literally built for a king. As I took a picture to show the others what the house looked like, a guard came out of no where and seemed to be wanting something. I had never been so scared - mainly because they were talking in a totally different language and I didn't know what was going on!
When travelling through the different villages on the way to collect the kids it was amazing just to see how people lived. The way of life is such a contrast compared to the life in England. As we went through one of the many villages I saw kids with no clothes and people with no shoes. It has started to make me appreciate what I have been given, what I have and what I can get. We pulled into the church to collect the kids – Father hooted his horn and all the kids piled in. Once all the kids were loaded into the back of the pick-up truck off we went, travelling back through all the villages that had been past already. The children were singing their hearts out in the back of the truck - it sounded like the sound of angels. It was amazing to hear their voices – they were in such high spirits. It was incredible to witness as they didn't have much but they are obviously so rich in other ways.
It was amazing to see when I got back to the party that all the KISS kids had turned up – it looked like there were thousands of them, all with their voices in high spirit. They were in a massive Xaverian square formation which I had never seen the likes of before (the Xaverians are a kind of catholic scouting movement). They even managed to squeeze a line about Scotland into one of their songs – Allan would have felt left out without it!
After all the fun and excitement of the square formation it was on to the really good part of the games. They were bizarrely done!! Games included a penalty shoot out with points being scored according to which sticks the ball passed between and a relay race in which you had to fill your mouth with water and spit it into a bottle at the other end of the track!
We sat to have a drink and a chat and I met a 5 year old girl who we met the previous day - she was loving being with me! She was so adorable and everyone loved her. She was so attached to me and wanted to do everything with me. It just gave me a little taster of missing home that little bit more as she reminded me so much of my little niece back in England.
The day was coming to a close – there was just one more item on the party agenda – the kids performed a show for us in a spectacular fashion – it was just mesmerising! They literally gave it everything and even Simon Cowell would have been happy. They performed several dances and sang loads of songs - but we felt the favour had to be returned! We decided to dress up in traditional Ugandan dancing attire – grass skirts and shakers strapped to our legs – and gave it a full on traditional Bunyoro dance! The crowd loved it! Father Godfrey then thanked us all for coming to Hoima and for all that KISS does for the community. He presented us with a plaque to take back to John Henry Newman as a special appreciation for all the school does for KISS. Then it was time to leave... We were sad to say goodbye to everyone we had got to know so well... They are no longer people we happen to sponsor – they are our true brothers and sister in Uganda.
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