Building in Uganda

We're now most definitely back from building in Uganda. (We've been back for a few days now, but falling back into 'real life' is hard work, and I've only just had time to surface for air!).

What an experience it was.

Check it out here:

• There's a short video describing the project and the trip on YouTube here...

• A small selection photos of the work we did are available on Facebook here.

Nine people from C3 went out on a two-week mission trip, to build part of a student house in the Suubi Watoto village. The build was extremely successful, and the team worked together really well.

It's really hard to put the trip into words; the whole thing was truly a life-changing experience. We saw the good and the bad in Uganda. The country is developing fast, recovering from a legacy of brutal dictators and a devastating aids epidemic. An estimated two million children have been left orphaned, 880,000 as a result of aids alone. Those are frightening statistics.

We witnessed the poverty and awful conditions that so many Ugandan children live in - seeing children living in ditches beside the Kampala railway lines was a moving experience. And in contrast to this, we saw the incredible change that Watoto is making in children's lives: seeing them plucked from the gutter (in many cases, quite literally) and given joy, a family, a house, an education. It's radical social action, making a real difference in these children's lives.

It was awesome to see the scope and quality of the work being done at Watoto, and a privilege to be able be a part of the project. They are currently running three villages. A fourth is being built right now in Gulu - in the aftermath of the bloody Ugandan civil war in those northern territories. It will minister to the thousands of children who have been enlisted as child soldiers, or child prostitutes.

Check out more about Watoto here.

On the road to Uganda

Tomorrow I'm flying to Uganda with eight other people on a mission trip to do building work for the Watoto orphanages.

Strangely, with all of the mad things going on here, I haven't really had a chance to stop and think too much about this trip.

It's no doubt going to be hard work, but an interesting and life changing thing to do. We don't yet actually know what kind of building work we'll be doing when we get out there; it could be house construction, or it could be essential infrastructure work. We'll see... Either way, I can't wait to make a difference in the lives of people out there.

I'll no doubt write about the whole experience in a couple of week's time when I'm back. I'm going to try to keep an audio diary of the trip, so hopefully there'll be something interesting to listen to, too.

My boss has asked me to kindly not contract malaria, or any other kind of life-threatening illness whilst I'm out there, so I'll have to bear that in mind...

A trip to Uganda

And now for something not code related... In July this year I will be heading out to Uganda for two weeks - to do building work for Watoto orphanages. It's going to be hard work, but very, very worthwhile.

Watoto is an awesome project that builds homes for children left orphaned as a result of war and disease. The project has a long term goal to provide family life, shelter, education, and medical care for these kids.

Thanks to the support of people around the world, Watoto has built several villages for orphans. Far from being drab institutions, the children are given a full life and placed into a new family (of 8 orphans with one adoptive mother).

We need to raise a whole tonne of money to fund this project (as I understand it building and setting up a single house costs about £20,000, for example). I'm not sure how I'm going to raise funds yet, and since inspiration doesn't tend to turn up magically, I'd appreciate some ideas!

If anyone wants to support us in this project, I'd love to let you! Please do contact me.

I'm sure there'll plenty more about this project to come...