four years!

I leave on Monday for Uganda. I can hardly believe the time has finally come! It really doesn’t seem possible that a year has passed since my last visit.

Getting ready to go back always makes me spend time thinking about what has gone before.

Four years ago I headed to Uganda for the first time. I was a student in Thatcher Cook’s NGO photography workshop. I had always wanted to go to Africa, and going with a group of photographers seemed like a great way to introduce myself to the place.

I had no idea, of course, where that first journey would lead me.

It’s been an incredibly fulfilling (of course, sometimes frustrating) four years. Changing the truth for the children I met in 2006 has essentially become the centerpiece of my work-life. It is how I define myself professionally now.

One of the ways I measure the time that has elapsed (other than the new wrinkles on my face or the additional number of stubborn arches and pains that greet me each morning) is what has transpired at St. Mary Kevin Orphanage and how the children there have changed. Often, I look back at all the letters that have been exchanged between the directors of SMK and the children and me, as well as the many photos I have taken over the years. They document the growth and change that define Change the Truth.

In 2006 the true orphans lived separately from the children with guardian or parents. Their dorms were more dilapidated than the others. They ate their meals separately, sitting on the ground outside their dorms. Their clothing was more ragged, and the state of their health seemed worse than the other children who attended school at St. Mary Kevin. They struck me, for lack of a better phrase, as “second class citizens” in an already sad and desperate situation.

Separated orphans, 2006

Dorm room, 2006

Over these four years, the orphans have been integrated into the living space of the other boarders. They are better fed and better clothed. They have access to better medical care. Thanks to Mama Rosemary (director of SMK) for providing these improvements. And thanks to CTT donors, who have been responsible for making a lot of these improvements possible.

Tony was one of the orphans who made a lasting impression on me in 2006. He has become one of my good buddies at SMK. I can see how he has grown and changed over the years; I can see how possibilities and opportunities have opened up for him. I can see that he seems happier, healthier and more hopeful. He is just one of so many whose lives and outlooks for the future have changed.

Tony, 2006

Tony and other orphans, 2006

I am grateful for all the support CTT friends have shown. After my first visit, I sent over a few hundred dollars for the purchase of books… money I had raised from a handful of good pals. Now we are sponsoring close to 30 students in secondary school, one in University and one in nursing school. We are providing textbooks, bedding, mosquito nets, musical instruments, rainwater collection tanks, computers, newly painted dorms, seeds for the garden, clothing, food and more. And we have a full time social worker living on the grounds of SMK providing ongoing support. How far we’ve come!

Tony, 2009 (with my husband, Eddie)

Tony, 2009 (a trombonist in the marching band)

Tony, 2009 (holding a photo of his pen pal, James)

Thank you for making this journey with me. There are many more projects to fund and many more children to assist. I hope you’ll stick around for at least four more years.

Please be sure to tune in to the blog while Team 4 is at the orphanage December 19 – 29. I promise to post more pictures of Tony so you can see how much he has surely grown!