DAY 8 – M-LISADA and Gateway Mercy Orphanages

Day 8 represented the final day of our time in Uganda, as well as the final day of Rocky Elsom’s reign as Wallaby captain. We can only hope that we have had a bigger impact on the lives of some poor Ugandan children than Rocky has had on the rugby field in recent times.

The plan for the day was to visit two children’s orphanages (M-LISADA and Gateway Mercy Orphanages) and make donations of the clothes, shoes, toys and school equipment that had been brought from Australia, and stop at UACO and Missionaries of the Poor to donate some food.

The first stop was Missionaries of the Poor where we dropped off over 75 kilograms of rice, sugar and other basic foods. While it seemed like an enormous amount, with over 300 hungry people to feed, it was a shame we couldn’t fit more in the van to deliver to them. Nonetheless it was very gratefully received by the brothers at Missionaries.

The next stop was M-LISADA Orphanage, an orphanage that had been visited by the 2009 team which helps lift children out of poverty by teaching them to play musical instruments. M-LISADA’s band regularly gets paid to play at events in Kampala. After a tour of the surrounding slums we were treated to a fantastic concert by the children, featuring performances by a brass band, African dancers and acrobats. It was great to see the positive impact M-LISADA is having on these children’s lives, and our donation of clothing, school equipment and toys was very gratefully received. It was also amazing to see the impact that these visits have on the children, with several of them remembering Mini and other members of the 2009 team.

With time in the day running short – no thanks to Kampala’s seemingly endless traffic jams – we made a quick stop to UACO to deliver some food for their patients before proceeding onto Gateway Mercy Orphanage.

In hindsight we were lucky to make it to Gateway. It is buried deep in the heart of one of Kampala’s slums and the road in would have been a difficult one to navigate on foot let alone in a 10 seater minivan. However, thanks to our wonderful driver Remmy, we made it.

Unfortunately there weren’t too many children at Gateway due to many staying with extended family during the current school holidays.

We left the final load of clothing and school equipment with teachers at Gateway which once again was very gratefully received. It was obvious that these items would be treasured by the children with one of them still wearing a North Adelaide guernsey donation by Pat Hodby from the 2009 team.

The day ended with a great Indian meal at a restaurant in Kampala’s CBD, followed by an early night with the prospect of a 4.00 am airport departure curtailing any ‘last night’ celebrations.

Off to Tau Game Lodge in South Africa tomorrow for two nights of much needed R&R. We will check in with a final blog tomorrow to round off our trip.

Rob ‘Shandy’ Shand