Flying High! The White Eagle Project spreads its wings...

We've had a really exciting, if challenging, start to 2010. Emily, who has been our manager since we started back in 2000, is now fully taking the reins as our newly appointed Director, and she's had a baptism of fire!

We've been looking very closely at how we can serve more orphans and vulnerable children in Nyendo and Masaka. Government statistics indicate that there are well over 3,000 orphans on our doorstep, and we are ideally placed to be helping more of them - we've got a good team, good experience and the appetite to take on some of our community's roughest diamonds.

So we've prepared a new brochure that outlines what the White Eagle Project is all about, and how you can help! If you already sponsor a child through us you will have received your reports, photos and letters recently, and you'll have already seen the 'Join the 2010 Sponsorship Challenge' brochure.

But for those of who you haven't seen it yet, you can view the new leaflet here, and see if you can become part of the 2010 Challenge to reach 100 more of Masaka's most vulnerable children! You can also read a previous post about it by clicking here.

No water and no power... what's a girl to do?

Sarah's continuing to settle in as Team Leader in the Girls' Home, responsible for all aspects of their care and wellbeing, as well as getting involved in the Hospital Ministry and Youth Work. She had a bit of a traumatic week last week as she was introduced to the horrendous consequences of the unreliability of Uganda's utility services... I'll let her tell you all about it:

"One of the things that has left a deep and lasting impression on me this month was when there was no water for a few days in the whole of Masaka (where I live). It made me appreciate being able to wash my hands and flush a toilet so much!!! We had to use a pit latrine... This was not fun!!! The pit latrine stank - it was disgusting. And it was so dark as well, especially in the evenings - I thought I would be clever and take my head torch with me so I could at least see a little bit... this was a big mistake, because when I switched it on, I saw that there were loads of giant cockroaches all over the walls and floor! Eurgghh! - Blissful ignorance would have been better, I think!!!

We also had to visit the pit latrine in groups of 5 or more when it was dark, as the latrine is on a banana plantation just behind the compound where I live, and apparently "Night Dancers" like to frequent banana plantations at night - "Night Dancers", I found out, are dodgy characters involved in witchcraft who get high on drugs and alcohol, then dance around naked - and they are not very pleasant if you meet them.... luckily for me, we didn't come across any!!! While the water was off, we didn't even have enough water to bathe or drink.

The girls and I had to walk with our 2 jerry cans each for 30 minutes to find water - we initially went to the local well, but the water had run out because there had been over a thousand people all getting water from it earlier that day who wouldn't usually get it from there.... so we had to march to a "water hole" instead (which was actually a big dirty muddy puddle as far as I could see). I had a lot of comments from people as I passed by - apparently they'd never seen a Mazungu carrying jerry cans and getting water from a well or water hole before! But we got our water and then boiled it to try to clean it, and then I had a wash, so it was well worth it!!! So that was exciting for a few days (not!) - I was so thankful when the water came back!!! I don't know if I've ever been so happy!!!"

White Eagles excel in Primary Leaving Exams!

You are not going to believe this - when Emily (the White Eagle Director) found out she was so excited she didn't sleep all night! One of the major achievements for children in Uganda, and especially for the children we work with, is to complete your Primary Education by taking the PLE - Primary Leaving Examinations. For many of the White Eagles the despair of believing they were never going to be able to achieve something like that is still a not too distant memory... so when we get results like this we shout with joy from the rooftops!

Because let me tell you, we cannot BELIEVE how good the White Eagles' PLE results were this year. We had 7 lads and 1 girl doing the exam... Ivan, Daniel, Earnest, another Ivan, Joseph, Gerald, Hussein and Judith. And here are the results:

Both Ivans, Daniel, Earnest, Joseph and Gerald ALL passed in First Grade - that's a distinction in our language - with Big Ivan getting some of the BEST results in MAsaka District. C'mon! And Hussein and Judith both passing very very well in Second grade - that's a Merit!

We are so proud of them all, so so proud and although there are big congratulations in store for them, we've also got to thank our brilliant, dedicated, compassionate staff, who let's be honest don't have the easiest job in the world looking after 30 odd children and all the fruitiness that can bring - so here's a big shout out to Emily, Julius, Ronnah, John, Margaret, Kayima, Grace, and Tina - and a big welcome to Sarah who has just joined us!

Sarah's Story - Episode 1!

Hellooooooo!!! I hope you are all well!!! I've been in Uganda almost a month now, so I have LOADS of stuff to tell you! (Warning: this post could be a bit long!) Here goes......

I had the most awesome welcome when I got here from the kids in the White Eagle Project, which involved loads of speeches, lots of cheering, and even being lifted up in the air above their heads!!! The girls had also prepared a whole load of welcome cards for me. So that was cool! (For those of you who don't know, the White Eagle Project consists of a boys' and a girls' home. There are about 30 kids who live in the two homes (and a few more who live with their families), aged from 11 months to about 19 years old - they are all vulnerable and underprivileged children (many are orphans) who are provided with physical, emotional and spiritual help.)

I'm staying in the girls' home, as a sort of House-Aunt. There are 7 girls, a baby boy, and another 2 Ugandan helpers who I'm living with. The home is nice, although some things are a bit different here... For example, I have bucket baths each day, and I had a little brown furry friend with a long tail visiting me every night for the first week. We managed to get rid of my rat room-mate, and a little lizard moved in (which I don't mind so much, as long as it doesn't crawl on me at night!). We also have an abundance of all things creepy crawly, and I regularly find cockroaches around the home, and there are ants everywhere! They don't have washing machines here either, so it's hand washing only... but all the staff pay someone to come and do their washing, which I think is a wonderful idea, so I'm doing that too! We have power cuts on an almost daily basis, so you have to seize any opportunity that arises to do your ironing, charge your phone, etc. The food here is quite basic and doesn't vary much - I have cabbage with either rice, potatoes, matoke (savoury green banana) or chips every single day for lunch and dinner. (The kids don't get chips - they make them specially for me because I can't have the beans that the kids have on those days because my stomach isn't strong enough - so I'm very lucky!) There's also occasionally a slice of pineapple or avocado, and sometimes the cabbage has other vegetables in with it. So life is somewhat different!!!

There was a team of Muzungus (that's what they call white people - wherever I go, little kids call out "Bye Mazungu!") here from England at the beginning of January, and we ran a week long children's holiday club, which attracted about 85 children each day. It was so much fun! We played games, did loads of art and craft, learnt action songs, did little talks, and generally had a fab time!

During that week, we visited a local orphanage called Nazareth Orphanage which the White Eagle Project kids support through doing practical things like entertaining kids, washing babies, cleaning floors, picking coffee beans, etc. I had visited it 15 months before when I was last here, and at that time there were two desperately ill babies, Babiyire and Josephine who were close to death. We took them to hospital and got them admitted, and then we came back to England (but with arrangements for River of Life to sponsor them so that they had enough food and medication).... Then when we visited the orphanage a couple of weeks ago, I saw them again....It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO amazing to see them looking fat and well!!!! I couldn't believe they were the same babies! It was really special! At the end of the holiday club week, we went to Lake Nabugabu (a gorgeous lakeside place where we take the kids every so often for a day out - usually when people visit who can fund it!) with all the kids from the holiday club and all the church members, and I had the awesome privilege of baptising a whole load of people (including most of the girls from the girls' home) in the lake, John-the-Baptist-style!

Since the team of Muzungus left, I've been settling into life here in Masaka. The kids are all on school holidays until the end of January, so we all spend the day at the boys' home (where there's more room), and we follow a weekly timetable. The timetable involves loads of different activities - discussions, debates, indoor games, outdoor games, life skills talks, and small group discussions (each member of staff has 3 or 4 kids that they meet with and mentor on a regular basis). In between the scheduled activities, the kids just chill, and I chill with them, playing cards or chatting to them about their lives, school, etc. I've been given some specific things to lead, so for the last few weeks, I've been helping lead a Youth Group on Saturday afternoons, giving a "preach" to the kids on a Monday night during their fellowship time, leading a discussion time with the kids on a Tuesday morning, giving training to the staff on a Wednesday morning, and doing a dancing session with the kids on a Thursday. We have staff prayers every day at midday, which is really nice to help us focus on what we're here for. I've also been having Luganda lessons for an hour each afternooon (Mon-Thurs), although so far my progress is limited! I go to church on Sunday, which is absolutely amazing (especially the worship - you should see them all dancing!), and can last anything from 3 to 4 hours! Friday is my day off, and I've spent it at Bwala so far (at the house where the pastor and his wife live) just relaxing, watching DVD's, reading, praying, etc. - It's lovely to do nothing after a hectic week!

A week ago, another Mazungu arrived - a Dutch girl called Thirsa, who is staying in the girls' home with us. She's here for 6 months, and is really nice - we get on well, and it's great to have someone to talk to from a similar culture to mine! (Before I came, I was advised to pray for another white person that I would be able to be friends with, talk to and share with, so it's really cool that she's come within a couple of weeks of me arriving!)

Anyway, I'm sorry if this post is too long and takes you forever to read!!! It's just that I'm very excited, and really enjoying myself, and wanted to tell you all about it!!!

I hope that you are all well, and that you're not too cold over in chilly England (hee hee!!!).

Loads of love,

Sarah

Sarah is originally from Manchester, UK, and is currently our Girls Home Aunty in the White Eagle Project. She's very kindly agreed to us publishing her newsletters on our blog to give a taste of life as a missionary at River of Life

Join the 2010 Sponsorship Challenge!

Could you, or someone who know, provide sponsorship for one of the White Eagles?

This Christmas and New Year has marked the 10th Anniversary of the White Eagle Project, and what a ten years it has been! From the original 21 boys that we took off the street on Boxing Day 1999, we have grown to be helping 50 orphans and vulnerable children in Masaka, through our boys home, our girls home and where possible in their families. From 2010 to 2015, we want to significantly boost the number of children that we're helping.

Our vision at the White Eagle Project is to love and empower our children to excel in all areas of life so that they can grown up to be responsible and productive members of Uganda - which means we focus on quality education and quality mentoring, so that the White Eagles may become tomorrow's nation-changers - like Fred, Charles and even little Mercy!


Could you, or someone you know, help us help more children?

There are an estimated 2.3 million orphaned and vulnerable children in Uganda - we estimate 2,000 of them are on our doorstep in Nyendo. We know we can really help give these children a hope for the future - could you help it happen for Jonah, Mukisa, or Shadia?


If you would like to find out more about our Sponsorship Program, please send us an email by clicking here

River of Life's 2010 Holiday Club - Building the Body of Christ!

On Jan 2nd, the fabulous team from St Bertelines in Runcorn touched down in Uganda. For the next 8 days they were to get stuck into all things River of Life, and in particular run a Holiday Club for the children of Nyendo. We were expecting maybe 50 children, but no-one quite knew what would happen come Monday morning... !

With Big Charles and Gerald managing registrations, we waited for the children to arrive... First there were 10, then 20, 25, 30... at this point I was thinking we should have got the word out a bit better! Then there was 50, 60, 70. Soon the Church was filled with over 90 'children' aged from 3 to 23 = plus the 10-strong team of staff and volunteers looking slightly alarmed.

But we rocked (if I may say so myself), and really set the scene for 2010 - River of Life is a church that exists for the community, for mission and to see peoples lives transformed. Themed 'The Body of Christ' we taught from Corinthians 12 about how everyone has a part to play in God's Plan, and everyone's part is important. With a drama skit designed and performed by the White Eagles, games, parachutes, balloons and teaching sessions, the holiday club was something that most of the children there would never have experienced before.

You can check out pictures of the week on our Flickr gallery. A special thank you to the team from St Berts!

A little piece of Runcorn comes to River of Life...

We were immensely blessed in the first week of January to welcome a team from St Bertelines Church and Primary School in Norton, near Runcorn (which is near Liverpool). Musumba John, the vicar, Julie, the headteacher, Nicki, Rob, Josh and Sarah Beaney were the A-Team, and their passion and commitment was wonderful to see! They had spent the autumn term fundraising for the White Eagles with their very own 'St Bert's Build a Bog' campaign, and were able to see/smell for themselves the pit latrines that the new washrooms will replace. They also brought with them a fine collection of football shirts (a lot of Liverpool shirts - so there'll no doubt be a few more fans singing 'You'll Never Walk Alone' in the coming years), games, toys, and clothes to bless the children with.

But perhaps their single biggest contribution was themselves. They threw themselves into serving the children of Nyendo and Masaka with such energy. They ran a holiday club for about 90 children all week - children from Nazareth Children's Home, River of Life Sunday School including the White Eagles and a lot of local children. With art, crafts, games, parachutes, balls, balloons and all the rest they absolutely thrilled the children. Mzee Rob's 'Mary Poppins' bag deserves a special mention - but I'll leave the rest to put in this story...

Credit where credit's due - I'll give the last word to some of the staff who were so blessed to work with the team:
"They were generous givers to everyone - even if they were tired, they still gave of themselves fully and had the joy of the Lord all the time... they showed a lot of love to everyone - we can learn from this and ask God to give us more of His love!"

We hope very much that this will be the start of something very exciting as we build a link with St Bertelines!