Adorable AIDS Orphans

On Tuesday morning Shalina and I were walking to the hospital when we heard “Good morning, white people!” coming from an SUV parked further down the street. We looked up since the accent was not L’Ugandan and the voice was friendly, and we met Brian, a construction consultant from Australia. We chatted with him and learned that he and his wife Jan were building an orphanage for AIDS orphans outside of Lwamata, the next town south from Kiboga. We exchanged phone numbers, and told him we’d be in town this weekend if he needed help with anything.

We talked to him on Thursday and he told us he and his wife were driving to a place 3hrs away to visit some orphans on Saturday, and invited us to come along. Shalina and I were feeling adventurous and trusting, so we said we’d love to go on an all day trip across Uganda with two strangers to meet some kids.

We met the Australians at 7:30am African time yesterday, which meant it was 8:15 when we hit the road. We quickly learned everything about their lives since Brian is a talker and a storyteller. The short version is that after Brian’s father died and he also received a terminal diagnosis, but then was completely healed, he decided he wanted to make big changes in his life. A series of events led him to Uganda, and to an orphanage named Mountains of Hope that was about to be forced to close due to lack of funding. Brian and Jan got involved and haved turned the situation around with their passion to help, their love for the kids, and Brian’s business savvy.

They have a 5-10yr plan to make the orphanage, which they’re moving from its current location in Mpigi (3hrs from here) to outside Lwamata (where it will be renamed Valley if Hope), and the school they’re building as well to be fully self -sufficient, and to introduce microfinance projects to the community on multiple fronts. It’s a well thought out and patient plan, and it reminds me a lot of the Ratzloffs’ work in Cambodia. Here's their website if you want to learn more or make a donation! http://wellspringcharities.org.au/home/

ANYWHOODLES, we drove to Mpigi yesterday morning, picking up a Ugandan named Sarah along the way. Sarah is the first “graduate” of the orphanage—she finished secondary school, spent a year being trained as a teacher, and is currently teaching at the primary school meeting at an old, scary-looking church building that will move to the new site next door with the orphanage once its built. She is cute and smart, and survived extremely rough times with her family before she lost them, and at the orphanage before the Australians came along. She was of course the most popular person once we reached the orphanage, since she was basically a mother to many of the kids.

There are currently 8 orphans staying at Mountains of Hope (and the two kids of the caretakers). (The number of kids fluctuates and was at 13 last year, but besides one sassy 4yr old who needs a lot of love and medical attention they are trying not to accept any more orphans til they make the move in September). They are so adorable, and clearly healthy, happy, well-fed, and well-dressed. They are very loved. It was awesome watching them interact with the Australians after not seeing them for a year. [you can see a lot of the courtyard of the orphanage here, with bedrooms and classrooms around the borders. you can also see Patrick, who hammed it up for every photo]

The kids were pretty shy with us at first, and just knelt around watching us while we met with James, the caretaker. He brought out blocks to distract them with after a bit, and I made friends quickly by joining them on the ground building towers and knocking them over. Knocking over block towers is fun in every language!

It wasn’t long before I’d stolen Blessing, the caretakers’ 8 month old baby to cuddle with, and was playing with a curious-but-suspicious two year old on the side. The older kids took longer to win over, but I just rough-housed and tickled the boys (and perfected my warrior pose and warrior grunt), and played swings with the girls (with some more tickles). Once we brought out the camera we had lots of fun taking pictures with them, and letting them try to take pictures of us (it was mostly just their fingers blocking the view of our chest or our legs…they were funny but didn’t get saved).

Shalina had been more reserved with the kids, chatting with the adults instead, until she pulled out her chapstick. For some reason the kids, who didn’t speak much English besides the usual greetings, knew “Lipstick! Lipstick!” Shalina donated her chapstick to the cause, and the kids had a riot putting lipstick on themselves and others. We think the boys enjoyed it the most.

We had a delicious meal cooked in the outdoor kitchen, and used the bathrooms which, while clean, were interesting…just a hole the size of the brick in the floor with doors that don’t close. We left around 3pm to start the drive back, and since we made it to Lwamata before it was completely dark we drove out to the construction site of the orphanage and the school (and dropped Sarah off there). It’s such a lovely, peaceful location. We know the kids will love it and thrive with a great school, good food, and medical care. The Australians treated us to a meal at their guest house in Lwamata (sooo delicious) before driving us home.


It was a wonderful day, and was such a treat to speak rapid English with people that understand you and to play with adorable kids all afternoon. We want to meet the sassy 4 yr old, Marissa, since she still has some unresolved medical issues that they’d like some advice on (she’s staying with the family of one of their Ugandan associates near the construction site), and hopefully we can direct her to appropriate doctors or medical facilities. They’ve received a lot of conflicting advice and aren’t sure what to do. We don’t know if we can help, but we’ll try! So hopefully we’ll see them the next weekend we aren’t out of town.