The Village

I visited the village today where the children who are 2- 18+ live.

Unfortunatly I only filmed it instead of photos (my digital camera is broken because I put it in my pocket to pick someone up and little hands grabbed it and dropped it)

The homes have all been built by volunteer teams from around the world, some come in families, church groups or organise random groups online. The bricks are made on site and the teams build with Ugandan builders to create a home.

The Homes have a kitchen, dining/lounge area and 3 bedrooms, 2 for the children (they sleep 4 in each room) and 1 room for the Mum. There is also a proper bathroom with running water.

The employ the Mums who are mostly widows or grandmas and they live in the houses until the kids are old enough to move out, at which time the the Mum can retire to a retirement village provided by Watoto.

The Villages have many homes set in clusters to create a community feel, and they have kindergartens, Primary Schools and High Schools. They also have a church on site. In the future they hope to build things like sports grounds, a pool, a medical clinic etc.

The concept is brilliant and they hope to eventually be self-sufficient (not relying soley on international donations) They hope to set up farms and grow and produce and farm their own food, as well as supplying the neighbouring communities. They also hope to expand their small production facilities that currently make the furniture and clothing to be able to run like businesses not only supplying their own needs but to sell to the community.

The model is proving a massively successful way for Africa to cope with its orphaned children problem, and many churches and groups from across to continent are being encouraged to replicate the model in their own countries and settings.

I was in awe at the village and I got to see my newly moved toddlers (who I mentioned moved from the Babies home into their new home in the village with a new Mum) and they are all settling in well. Eventually they will have new brothers and sisters join them until there are 8 per house (right now they are starting each new Mum with 3 new toddlers so as not to be too overwhelming) - it was so exciting to see them in their new homes but I will miss them a lot.

I will post photos of the villages next time i visit.

As for everyday life, I am struggling to live on their diet of CARBS, CARBS and more CARBS, every meal is rice, potatos, breads, mushy banana stuff that tastes gross and usually some kind of bean or meat. So I am buying my own fruit and veg which is not cheap.
The pineapple here tastes divine though!!!

Anyway I will write again soon

From Felicity