African Dream

When we are young, sometimes we feel like we are invincible and we can change the world. This feeling can lead us to amazing adventures and in fact can lead us to fulfill our dreams. In aim to achieve our purpose we are able to do incredible things. We define the rest of our lives when we are young.

It’s this wish of doing something that is worth, that makes possible we have such a variety of young people volunteering for Arise and Shine Uganda. Our team is a mix of every continent, each one of us trying to be part of the same dream, sharing the same vision.

We came thinking that we could change the people and when we get here we just realize that we are the ones changed by the smiles of the children in the babies home and by the respect of the people of Kamuli district.

Here are the testimonies of our team during the past week.

Natalia – Brazil

“I’m already in Uganda for one month, and I’m just amazed by the people here. Working in the babies’ home just makes me see how it’s possible to be happy with so little. Simple gestures can make a huge difference with those kids, they can smile everyday even if they are fighting with troubles that I could never find myself facing. In the village, it’s not different, people are so glad and thankful that just showing them that we care is enough for making them feeling important. Let me share one experience I had these days: I brought a girl named Angela from the village to Jinja. The woman who takes care of her told me that her parents had died and she was feeling sick for a long time, but never getting better. She also told me Angela was HIV+. So we decided to bring Angela to get a properly health care in Jinja. We found out she was HIV-, which made me feel very glad. Then I took her to the hospital and now she has got the treatment for her sickness and is feeling better. Back in the village her step mother with simplicity and humbleness gave me a gift that I will never forget, four eggs and peanuts, it may not be a valuable present but made me feel that was worth every minute I spent in the hospital with Angela!”

Yuri – Japan

“Hi, Im Yuri, I’m a new volunteer from Japan! This week, I went to the village(Kibuya)at first time. It was really good! There are no water and no power, so we went to the well to get water! It was nice experience for me. I had Adult Literacy Class with Lily, the volunteer from France. There are 5-10 students, and it was my first time to teach English to adults but I did my best. I taught English words of parts of the body. Besides, I also had condom demonstration for adults. When I explain the way of using condom, I used banana to make them understand easier, and it was really good. They laughed at it so much.  When I was going back to Jinja, one of the students in Adult Literacy class asked me, ‘Will you come here next week again?’ to hear that, I became sooo happy. I’m really looking forward to meeting and teaching them again!”

  Madeleine – Norway

 

“This week the beadsproject have made big strides. First and foremost Sharon and I (Madeleine) made a project design and a plan for the project which hopefully will make the project reach its full potential. Second I started to organize the project which has been influenced by discontinuity, so now the ladies now have their own profile to ensure the right ladies get paid.             

Also this week I have undergone beadstraining, which is a lot more extensive than you would think. You have the cutting, the rolling, the gluing, vanishing and threading. And that's not all, you also have to think about what different papers make different beads. So now after 3 lessons hopefully I will be able to pass on my new-found knowledge.  This week has been very busy and exciting, I have big plans and hopes for the beadsproject!”

Femka – Netherlands

“Everybody deserves a change!

It’s my first week in Africa and it already feels like home! I will be here for 4 weeks and mainly will work with children with a disability in the Babieshome in Jinja and in the village in Kamuli district. This week we did the first pre-school lesson with three of the disabled kids and it was amazing! We gave them papers and color pencils and they got really excited. It was probably the first time ever they have made a picture on their own. From now on we are going to do the pre-school lessons every day and we are going to learn the teachers how to work with the disabled children.  People in Africa think that being disabled is a punishment and they are not accepted yet, so there is still a lot of work to do for us here in Uganda. Everybody deserves the same chance. Pay it forward!”

Maiken and Karoline – Norway

“Next week we are going to start having sessions about HIV/AIDs and syphilis in the center near the village. We are going to have sessions every Tuesday, with condom demonstrations and sharing out condoms. So this week in the village we mobilized for the sessions. We hung up posters in the center, and went around to talk to people about it. There were a lot of people that seemed interested, and I think that to hold sessions in the center will be a really good location for bringing a lot of people together, and also get more men involved in the sessions.”

   

Lili – France

“This week was the third week of adult literacy session for me. We worked together with Yuri, a new volunteer from Japan.  Besides teaching parts of the body, the verbs to have/to be and objects in the house, we held a conversation on Tuesday and Wednesday at the end of the classroom. And that was a cultural experience of its own! To the question “What is your marital status?”,  Harriett, Janepher, Rosa and Annett were actually bewildered to see that at the ages of 21 and 26, Yuri and I could still be single while at that age, they were already married and had 2 to 3 kids.

 Similarly, we encountered disgusted expressions on their faces when we told them that our favorite foods were raw fish, snails and frogs.  Finally, I felt proud when Harriett answered that her favorite hobby was to come to my classes to learn English. I just felt so touched to see that they were appreciative of our work and they were realizing the impact of English classes on their own empowerment.”

Sharon – Uganda

“HEY ITS THE VILLAGE LIFE .its sweet!!

       When one hears the word village, the person goes like ‘no…. I can’t go to the village’ but guess what? It’s one of the best experiences in the world! You know why? I know you don’t, so I will tell you why. I have been to the village myself and gosh…… I don’t really have the right words to use but I will try. I worked with adult literacy mostly in the lower class and ladies are the most active, though I have a gentleman. It can be lots of fun when they laugh at each other, when they know nothing on how to write their names. But I am glad, happy and proud to tell you that now I have the best students who have learned how to write their names. One good thing is that you always want to teach them because they are so devoted students who never give up. I’m an African who enjoys the village so what of you? You can give it a try. Promise you will before I continue. I do the translating too, for my white friends´…..and it’s amazing because my friends can’t get anything the villagers are saying and likewise the villagers don’t understand English. Let me take a second and laugh. Ha ha ha ha. It’s really funny.  Sorry I cannot say the whole of it because if I do you will not tune in next time. So if you want to know what’s going to happen to my adult class then join me! I remain Sharon Luda: the village girl.”