gloria baker feinstein's blog: team 8 blog post: alan

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

team 8 blog post: alan

"Report from Change the Truth Team 8

December 22, 9:15 p.m.

Nearly all of the members of Team 8 are asleep or nearly asleep as I write this. It’s been a long but very rewarding day!

The five members of the Cobb family (Alan, Anna, Gus, Holly & Wyatt) arrived last night at Entebbe, went through an uneventful and quick Customs processing and then were greeted with big smiles from Team leader Natalie Boten who was so nice to arrange to pick us up and our eight bags of supplies and luggage. There was a smooth trip to the Lodge and just a teeny bit of winding down before everyone was out for the night.

We started the day with breakfast at the Lodge with Natalie laying out the proposed schedule and being joined by Suzanne Garr, who arrived a few days before.

For three members of the Cobb family, (Alan, Gus & Wyatt) this was the first trip to Uganda and SMK. No one could have adequately explained the warmth and love we all felt from the residents, students and staff. I don’t know if I have ever met friendlier people who truly appreciated our presence.

All members of Team 8 were also greeted with a special, handmade sign from one of the students. What a nice touch.

The morning was highlighted by a birthday celebration for Oliva who turned 11 today. Suzanne made the special effort for a great birthday cake!

It rained much of the day, but that didn’t stop Anna, Suzanne and Holly from working with the children on a craft project organized by Suzanne, including returning post cards from dozens of pen pals in Wisconsin.

Natalie and Melissa spent a lot of the day organizing Christmas presents and the bags of supplies brought by the members of Team 8. There is a lot of stuff! Thanks to all who donated the many school, medical, health and bath supplies.

Wyatt and Gus played hacky sack in the pre-school room. It was raining hard enough that some of the rain made its way into the room. That was only a small hindrance to batting around the hacky sack.

What better to do when it is raining then to play indoor games? Wyatt and Anna played Trouble with many of the students while Gus and Alan played many rounds of the game Monster. It is exactly like 'Uno' only better because it is with a real deck of cards. Thank you to SMK student Brian for teaching us how to play! Claire Faith added some fun competitive attitude to the game!

Wyatt and Gus listened to Nicky’s recent recording of his musical composition and look forward to jamming with him in a few days.

Rosemary, the founder of SMK, came by and graciously thanked the members of Team 8. It was an honor to meet a woman who vision has led to the great things at SMK. Joan Faith, the administrator, also expressed her appreciation.