Day 2 - Luggage & Kids

A large 2-storey school is in the final stages of construction adjacent to the pool of BV.  It's strange to see a building towering next door.  Overall, there has been considerable development in this neighbourhood just in the past year.

Impressive new school beside Banana Village

We received notification from the airport that our luggage did come in on the Brussels Air flight last night, and Davis is kind enough to get one of his co-workers to pick it up at the airport.  It arrives just in time, as Jackie pulls up with a rented van and about 10 of our kids.  Banana Village is rather empty today, so Jemima has kindly arranged to put the kids up in guest huts rather than the large dorm building.

Sarah with an EnviroThreads sachel which Nadine had sent last year

Shatra

Sasha is adorable in her braids

We have brought 4 soccer balls which the kids are thrilled to receive.  Davis and Joshua had commented last year on Moses' advanced skills in football, and Jackie has by now enrolled him with a team, so he is getting some actual coaching, although he needs to travel 6 km each way for practices.  Everyone gets changed into swimming costumes.  The kids enjoy Jenga games that we have brought.

Charlotte is very focused

Crash!

It's wonderful to see how comfortable the children are now with swimming, compared to the first year when we had to work hard to coax some of them into the water.  Ian's sponsor, Mindy, sent along an entire box of figurines and the kids spend a good hour trying to work out how to get them all assembled.

miss Charlotte models her swim costume

Cutie in a moment of contemplation

Hassan has a lovely smile

Jovan

Saleh looking cool

Charlotte & Sasha work on assemblies

Brenda is first to complete her figurine

The remainder of our Kulikayo group arrive in dribs and drabs over the course of the day.  Olivia, Gloria, Daniel and Jovan have come from Kampala.  Shakira had a very long journey.  Rose, the former nurse at Bright Kids, is now doing community nursing in Nakaseke, which is on the other side of Kampala.  Shakira has been spending her school break being nanny to Rose's children, Angel & Anthony, so she had probably 5 or 6 hours of transport via van buses and motorcycle taxis to reach BV.  Hasifa had a meeting at school which held her up until late afternoon.

Susan arranging snacks

Hassan works on his Jenga skills

Olivia looking beautiful

Marjorie being cool

Daniel staying cool

Shakira arrives to hugs as Shatra looks on

school construction overlooks the pool

Charlotte

Hasifa

Moses

Sarah with her sponsor

dinner time

the kids try their hands at Twister

Late afternoon in Uganda corresponds with morning in Canada, and we're very happy to have many of our children enjoy video chats with their sponsors.  Shakira in particular, has a very long exchange with Paul and Mary Ellen in Nanaimo.

Joshua and the BV staff do a great job serving BBQ chicken, chips, rice & vegetables to our crew, topped off with a small tub of ice cream.  We then retire to the conference centre, where we are treated to viewing a couple of Jackson's music video productions before watching the feature film, "Up".