I think all of us felt a big emotional letdown the first couple of weeks back in Canada. After the intensity of daily interaction with those beautiful children and staff, it's like all the helium quickly escaped from our festive balloons. We consoled ourselves with a fun get-together at Dan & Nadine's to view slideshows and an amazing video compilation by Matt, and share stories & memories.
Our friends from the USA sponsored Victoria's travel back to North America in September. She visited Lindsay first and gave school presentations as well as being the guest of honour at our fundraising dinner/auction/dance gala and another fashion show fundraiser hosted by the Cat & the Fiddle and Cathy Allen's Ladieswear. Great fun and excellent fundraising results, the proceeds of which went toward further progress on construction of the big kids' dorm at BKU.
We met a new friend, Carly, who is in her final year of social work studies at Fleming College in Lindsay. Carly struck up a strong attachment to Victoria and worked hard toward her personal goal of spending a three-month placement at BKU to finish up her studies. She will already be acclimatized, having arrived in Uganda two weeks ago.
Following her visit to Canada, Sue & I drove Victoria to Pittsburgh to meet with her supporters in the USA. After a sightseeing stop at Niagara Falls, we joined our gracious hosts, Lou & Pauline, at their home in Pittsburgh. It was our first visit to the home of the Penguins and we were most impressed with the sights, the neighbourhoods and the university campus. We attended a screening of "Under the Umbrella Tree" at Carlow U which was followed by lots of lively discussion. Alas, Sue & I could only stay the weekend, and missed out on the world premiere of the documentary based on Victoria's life work, which was held a week later.
We had the pleasure of reconnecting with Mary & Susan, friends we had come to know from July. We also met Godfrey, Victoria's nephew from Uganda who is braving his first Pittsburgh winter studying at the university. Lindsay Angelo is a graduate student who spent time last year in Uganda doing research for a funding application which she created and which was submitted to the Diehl Foundation in Florida. This was successful in attracting a $50,000 grant which will be used for a greatly expanded farming operation at Bright Kids. It was a pleasure to meet Lindsay and her husband. We are very excited at the prospects for markedly increased sustainability and self-sufficiency in meeting the dietary needs of the Bright Kids.
Simone is someone we have known through pictures of BKU and the Umbrella Tree movie. It was really great to meet her in person and learn of the great work she is doing for challenged youth in Pittsburgh.
It Starts with Soccer, the organization run by Doug & Rich, great guys we met last summer, raised more funds to put the finishing touches on the big kids' dorm, and Victoria was able to move first the boys then the girls over to their very first home incorporating plumbing and running water.
Susan & I hope to accomplish a few things during this visit. I will, of course, liaise with Rose and re-stock the clinic and hopefully work out any issues she is having with the electronic medical records. We will visit Medi's school again, and Victoria is hoping to organize an immunization day for his students who now number almost 500!
Our main project will be working to renovate the small dorm previously used by the big kids, so that the "babies" can be moved in a little later this year. Angel is busy with her new twin babies, but has designs on the existing babies' dorm to become a new nursery school. Oh, how I wish we could get our ECE expert friends Leslie, Mary Lou & Annie there to kick off that adventure!
We have a bit of touristy fun planned this trip as well. We have booked travel and a 2 night stay in Murchison Falls National Park. The area around this cataract in the Nile is home to a rich diversity of birds & animals.
Will try to keep faithful to my blogging duties. We'll see how it goes....
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