I've wanted to go on a humanitarian trip to Africa for as long as I can remember. When I found out that FHe (family humanitarian experience) was opening up expeditions to Uganda and Kenya I immediately went to my dad and asked him if we could go. After a few days considering it, he said yes! I decided to pick Uganda because I missed out on a different opportunity to go there earlier in the year and because the projects and activities sounded really fun to me.
The first thing we did after arriving in Mbale was go to a village where a well was built using our money for a celebratory ceremony. This was my first time interacting with Ugandans besides at the Inn and at church. Right after I steeped out of the van a small, skinny girl ran up to me and held my hand. She stayed by my side almost the whole time. Before we turned on the well our trip leader talked about how the well would help the village then we started dancing, which for them is jumping up and down.
After the well ceremony we traveled up to a remote mountainous village in the rainforest to provide a two day heath clinic for the villagers. It was really rainy for one of the days and that made it hard to run the clinic. I helped by taking peoples blood pressure. It was really hard because the villagers arms were so skinny that the Velcro passed each other. I had to hold the velco and the clock as well as pump it.
Next we visited a school where a kitchen was built using our money. They hired locals to build most of it. We finished building it and put stucco on it and finished painted it. We also donated school supplies to the school.
We also taught a lot of classes while we were there. We went to a school and taught woman's health education and handed out days for girls kits as well as taught a business class to woman.
On our off day we hiked to a big waterfall. I repelled down a 300 foot cliff.
The last project we did was provide a health clinic to an orphanage. I missed out on most of this because I got sick from the awful water.
After we were done with the service project's we went on a really cool Safari. We saw lions, elephants, giraffes, hippos, birds, and more!
After the humanitarian trip was over me and my dad stayed behind and spent a few extra days in Jinja and Kampala. I got my hair done while I was there. I also put some other random photos in this section. Like our group photo at the church.
You can watch a video of the trip here. A member of our group made it.