Great Success

Monday we spent all day in Central Park. We saw Strawberry Fields and did a lot of relaxing.
Our later flight to London Monday night was on time, and I didn't get any sleep. We arrived at Heathrow Tuesday morning. Since our connecting flight was not until later that night, we were able to spend a few hours in the city. We saw Big Ben, the London Eye, and toured Westminster Abbey. It pretty much rained all day though. Oh yeah, at Heathrow we had a celebrity sighting. We saw Hayden Panettiere walking through the airport with a small group of paparazzi cameras. It was nuts. Anyway, after London we boarded our flight to Entebbe on time as well. It was a very crowded flight. I didn't get any sleep on that trip either. When we arrived at Entebbe, Lee and Jerome were there to pick us up. It was so amazing to finally be in Africa. I can't believe we finally made it. Shortly after, we took about an hour bus ride to our house in Kampala. The traffic here in Kampala is crazy. Lee described it as organized chaos, and I'd have to agree. They also drive on the left side of the road so that adds to the confusion for us. When we arrived at the house, we were greeted by Ben, Renata, Michelle, Kaitlin, Karm, Bosco, and others. They were so happy to see us. It made me even more excited for our journey.


We decided to not waste anymore time so right away we got our things together and headed out. We rode in the bus to a remote village about half an hour away. Our project for the day consisted of our group helping build a new house for a family in need. The family was made up of a widowed mother caring for 17 orphan children. It was amazing to be there and see how the whole village works together. Most of us organized into a huge assembly type line handing bricks down to get to the house building site. After that we all helped go get water. It's absolutely incredible to see how these people live. Also, while we were helping out the local school children came by to sing and dance for us. They were the most beautiful and spirited children I've ever met. After that, some team members and I walked down to the school yard and played football (soccer) with the kids. Overall, it was an absolutely amazing first day in Uganda!