The last two days have been long days! We made our trek up to see Pastor Fatima in Kassanda that included a traditional Ugandan dance. Two bottles of water...2000 shillings, 1 chocolate bar...750 shillings, the look on Dan's face when the dancer shook her boodie in front of him...priceless! As we have expected, we've run out of shoes at every location. We've not even been close. By the time the shoes are handed out to the project children, there are not many left for the sometimes hundreds gathered. It's actually harder then I thought it would be as we have to deal with the dissapointed kids and the sometimes angry parents.
I've been proud of how the team has organized things this time. After the first day I told them that we had to be more organized. We were just dumping boxes and fishing through sizes as the mobs attacked. Since that day we have been organizing our shoes when we arrive by sizes and by girls and boys and then we try to do an orderly distribution. This works for a bit but then all hades breakes loose when people see that the shoes are depleating rapidly. Then it becomes parents grabbing at shoes for their kids and we have to intervene. I only wish we had more pairs! It's an amazing site to see. We've got great videos and tons of photos.
When we returned from Kassanda we went back to the church and reloaded before heading out to the Evangelistic Church of the Lord located not to far from Kiwatule. Once again we had well over 250 kids and only 100 pairs of shoes. We also have the problem this year of not having shoes in the smaller sizes because of waiting so long to purchase them (at least that is what Michael is saying). We had a great celebration with them and then handed out the shoes.
Today (Saturday) started off early with a visit to Kiwatule. I have never seen so many kids packed into that building. Michael and Grace both said it was the largest group ever assembled there. They were literally hanging out by the windows and doors and standing room only from the stage on to the back. I suspect there were every bit of 400 kids and we had only 40 pairs of shoes to deliver. Most of the kids had been there since 8 a.m. and we didn't arrive until 9:30. After three hours of music, dance and skits (yes, you read that correctly), it was deemed that we could not pass out shoes in the church without creating a dangerous mob scene. 40 project kids were discreetly ushered to the office area to receive shoes. The remaining children and parents were sent home empty-handed. That was a very difficult time for me. I was tired, hot and thirsty and I had a seat. Most everyone present did not have a chair as the chairs were on loan to a local revival. Kids were spread everywhere squatting, standing and a few seated. I don't know how they managed. Both Dan and I were led to stage for a dance. I doubt the video to that will ever see the light of day!
When we sent everyone home, we grabbed a bite to each at Garden City before trekking to Entebbee to Jubillee Full Gospel Church. Once again, hundreds of kids and only 100 pairs of shoes. Dan and I began to hand out shoes and then things got to crazy with parents and kids barking out things in Lugandan and our English just wasn't cutting it. We finally just pulled back and let them fight it out so to speak. There was so much grabbing that at the end, we had six or eight mis-matched shoes. Several kids got out with two left feet. We sent Elder Kato through the crowd and got most of them corrected. This church was full of beautiful people. It also had a rather strange young man who led us across the street to his small reptile farm. We got to experience some really huge vipers (I mean four to five feet long and 6 or 8 inches around). He just kept climbing around inside these concrete vats full of bushes and grass and pulling out these poisonous snakes and holding them out to us. I have some amazing video and Dan has amazing photos.
They dropped us off at 7:30 p.m. at the hotel. We were able to get quick showers before a light dinner while watching Extreme Makeover Home Edition in the beautiful outdoor TV room. Tomorrow is a big day so I'll sign off for now.
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