It is real

I was at at 5:30 - not too excited- but I decided it was a little early. I went over to the restaurant and they were preparing a buffet breakfast as 20 + women have arrived for a workshop on family planning training. So much for quiet breakfast anymore. However, breakfast was a treat starting with fresh bananas and tea.Then the buffet of matoke (cooked bananas) beef stew and an egg omelet (this was special for me). Over to the house with the photo op of Sue and I cutting the seal. The door opened and of course stuff fell out but off we went. 4 teenage girls, 1 teenage boy, 2 - 20 year old men, Sue and I. Just over 1.5 hours later the boxes were sorted between kids, adult and reference,  and the container was empty. We bought a case of pop to celebrate. Sue wouldn't let anyone have a break until it was done!

Then we started the organization. Moses and I built the first 3 shelving units with "his tools" including cordless drill, saw and hand tools. After that Mama Kyanji decided she wanted to get involved so she took my place and I started building a basketball net. It couldn't have gone better if planned, the neighbourhood kids were over helping build and filling the base with sand . Once the net was up even the adults were interested and everyone laughed as I lifted kids up to "dunk" their first one.

We started to fill the bookshelves as they were being built but even though we had sorted the boxes we still couldn't find the "right ones". We began filling the bottoms with the heavy encyclopedias, but could only find partial sets of all  four series we brought. Maama Kyanja has taken a remarkable interest in the library she is in total control of where things should go and even though we wanted to call it a day after 8 hard hours she said that the kids had to keep working as she wanted a certain section done. It sounds so familiar!

Sue and I left to go to the internet and left them to put together "their library" you cannot buy commitment like we saw today and to make your heart even warmer, every once in a while one of them would stop to glance at a book or even the pictures in some of the larger reference ones. This is what we have all waited for, a true library that lets kids explore what they could only have imagined. We found electronic books for Moses, sewing and quilting for Mama Kyanja, cooking for Maureen and Ellen was presented with her long prayed for chemistry book when she came home from school.

All of you out there created this and I have the fortune of being the emissary, on the ground to witness something so special. To complete the day the younger kids were outside riding tricycles, using a bulldozer and kicking soccer balls as we worked inside. I watched kids laugh and run after balls as parents watched from a distance with their own delight.

I thank all of you for making Sue and my dreams come to light.