Reuniting with Empower African Children

As some of you will recall, we recently hosted the performing group from Empower African Children at Ursuline during our Global Celebration Day. Their performance was spectacular and most importantly, the children quickly took hold of our hearts with their respectful and joyful personalities. We even welcomed them back a week later for a spirited soccer match which, I am sorry to say, gave them the opportunity to prove their superiority not only in dancing but also in soccer (ouch). Despite this setback in our relationship, we at Ursuline remain on very friendly terms with Empower African Children and we are looking forward to partnering with their school in the future - Hopefully their school will open in 2011.

For now, the children attend boarding school just outside of Kampala and this afternoon I went to visit their school (yes, they have classes on Saturdays) and to accompany the children back to the Empower Afrcian Children training center here in Kampala where they are spending the night. It was such a joy to see the children again and to meet the other members of the group!! They all came running up to me, welcoming me to Uganda and telling me how happy they are that I really came to see them here in their home country. My favorite part of the day was showing the pictures of the (tragic for UA) soccer game to the boys who played that day - they studied each photo carefully and kept saying how much fun they had at Ursuline (yeah!!). A million thanks to Bill T. for taking the photos, printing them and then sending them with me - they are more than treasured by the children here!

Well, the jetlag is actually hitting me a bit so I am going to retire to my lovely mosquito netted bed - another adventure awaits me tomorrow!!