Coming home to Uganda

Posted on November 21, 2023 by ileftmyheartinuganda

Greetings from high in the sky,

I write this flying over the Tasman Sea, the long journey home almost complete. What an incredible roller coaster the past 8 days have been in Uganda. It seems every year my welcoming committee grows, in size, noise and emotion. There is nothing like landing on the other side of the world and stepping onto African soil and being completely and utterly engulfed in the warmest welcome imaginable. As I stepped into the welcome arms of Dominic and Rose, Henry, Stellah and a dozen other beaming faces, I was overcome by a sense of belonging, of coming home. It’s a phenomenal feeling.

It was hugely emotional seeing Stellah again, the first time since 2019, and the relief of having her safely home from Saudi Arabia was overwhelming. She survived her 2 and a half years working as a live-in house maid – a desperate measure she took after she lost her job in lockdown and was unable to make ends meet and support her parents and siblings who rely heavily on her for support. Stellah told only her mother that she was going, knowing we’d try to change her mind, and in April 2021, along with a group of other veiled young women, boarded a plane headed into the unknown. It took until July of that year for Stellah to tell me where she was, a moment I will never forget, and since then we have been in touch almost daily as I tried my best to offer moral and emotional support as she endured her daily reality as a modern-day slave. Despite the awful conditions, one day I received a message letting me know that she intended to stay on after her two-year contractual obligation was up as she needed to save enough to put her brother, Vianney, through a vocational course so that he could get a job and support himself. Horrified at the idea of her being there any longer than absolutely necessary, Nath and I took on Vianney’s sponsorship to relieve Stellah of her burden. As events would transpire, Stellah ended up staying on another 6 months after her contract ended as her employers insisted upon it. I didn’t understand at first but, with her passport and documents in their hands, and having heard awful stories of what happened to those who refused, Stellah was too scared to say no. So she ended up getting back to Uganda just two weeks before I arrived and that first hug as I got off the plane in Entebbe was highly charged with emotion. Her brother, Vianney, was also there to meet me and I finally got to meet this bright young man that we had been supporting and it was so wonderful to see how passionate he is about his studies.

We all spent a beautiful afternoon at The Guinea Fowl, my adopted home away from home in Entebbe, sitting amidst the lush tropical gardens and catching up on the year that has passed since I last visited. As afternoon slipped into evening, a steady stream of students kept pouring through the gates of the guest house to join our happy gathering in the garden, which turned into an impromptu party as we celebrated the recent graduation of Tracy, who had just been awarded her Certificate in Medical Laboratory Studies. Bruno arrived with his fiancé and their 9-day old baby, who they had named after Bruno’s sponsor. Dominic and Rose’s son was also there with his young son and it was incredible to watch the next generation of my Kiwi Sponsorships family coming through – even though I still think of these students as children, many are now in their late 20s! – and I feel ever hopeful that their educated parents will ensure a different future for their children.

Henry had taken the week off to work to spend time with me, and Stellah, still finding her feet and settling in, had also made plans to spend the week in the village and so we all set off the following morning on our long journey south, stopping along the way to visit students and take the obligatory equator photo as we crossed from northern to southern hemisphere. It was such a phenomenal feeling to be on the road with my Ugandan family and over the next week, Rose, Henry, Stellah and I clocked up the miles making our way from villages to secondary schools to nursing colleges to vocational institutes catching up with our Kiwi Sponsorships students. We were always met with such warm welcomes, and it was so encouraging to see how well they are doing and how much they’re loving and appreciating the chance to be educated at this level. It was a very busy time but I feel incredibly proud that we managed to catch up with 77 students in my 8 days in Uganda!

Catching up with the Kiwi Sponsorships students at St Thomas Lammenais Secondary School

We had our fair share of adventures along the way, deciding one day to take a short cut from a secondary school to a nursing school – something I would have thought Rose and I had learned better than to do – and ended up quite literally stuck in the mud. Luckily for me, Henry now has his driver’s license and was driving at the time as I sent out sponsor updates along the way when we hit a stretch of road so deep in mud from the morning’s rains that as far as the eye could see were boda boda motorbikes stuck in the mud. Trying to avoid them, we ended up stuck in the ditch, the tyres of Dominic’s 4WD spinning wildly, flicking mud across banana palms and mud huts. After some impressive manoeuvring, including driving into a nearby compound to turn around after our car had spun out 180 degrees, we finally got back underway. Just when we thought we were on track, we slipped off the road again and ended up – literally – stuck between a rock and a hard place. Rose, Stellah and I ended up getting out as Henry reversed back down the road and managed to get the car free just as a truck slid sideways down the hill, narrowly missing Henry who gunned it up the hill. Rose, Stellah and I ended up having to walk up the hill in ankle-deep mud which my flip flops were not very happy about, but you just had to laugh – the entire population of the village we had gotten stuck in certainly was! Eventually, better late than never, we finally pulled into the nursing school caked in mud but immensely relieved to have made it!

In between sponsor visits and off-road adventures, I managed to sit with Dominic and Rose to go through the school’s priority list and see where things currently lie. It was so immensely satisfying going through the list we had made last year to see what progress had been made. An amazing family friend, Simon Gundry, had generously donated money to purchase a piece of land which lies in front of the new KATKiDS Main Hall – something that had been on the priority list since I first came to KAASO nearly 15 years ago. Despite Simon sending the money almost a year ago, it had taken this long for Dominic to negotiate the sale. An elderly lady had lived there and when she died, a seemingly endless stream of family members kept coming out of the woodwork to lay claim to the piece of land – and to state their entitlement to their share of the ever-rising purchase price. Eventually, many hours at the lawyers later, the matter was settled – but not before having had to buy a new piece of land for the family members, construct them a home and exhume and rebury the remains of the ancestors previously interred on the land. Not a simple process! Other major projects were once again completed thanks to the amazing support of KATKiDS in Bermuda led by Jennie Lee and Rebecca, including the upgrade of the children’s kitchen to a ‘modern’ kitchen – still nothing like what you’d find in our kitchens at home, but a system whereby the fire beneath the giant pots can be closed in to reduce smoke and save on wood – the firewood used is now just ¼ of that previously. KATKIDS also funded guttering to be installed on the main hall and purchased two giant water tanks to catch all that glorious rain that falls in the bi-annual rainy seasons – another huge gain for the school that now goes weeks without needing the generator to pump water – an almost daily occurrence in the days before gutters and water tanks.

We had a beautiful day on Thursday celebrating the graduation of the KAASO nursery students who are now moving from ‘top class’ to Primary One next year. 72 little 5-year-olds in graduation gowns singing and dancing in the main hall as parents and community members cheered them on was certainly a day to remember. I was the guest of honour to present them all with their graduation certificates and it certainly felt like an honour. The celebrations ran all day and it never ceases to amaze me the patience of Ugandan children – they literally sat from 10am – 4pm when lunch was eventually served. Nath and I are planning to go to KAASO after the America’s Cup next year with the boys and I can’t help but wonder how our boys will go sitting for such lengths with Ugandan patience but you don’t know if you don’t try, right…?!

As always, there were many tears shed throughout the week. Seeing Brenda exploding with joy as she finished up her final project before graduating from her Fashion Design and Tailoring course was up there. This is a girl I met 15 years ago who, since then, has lost both of her parents and her beautiful grandma and yet who remains forever positive and safe in the knowledge that she is supported by her amazing sponsor and loved by the KAASO family. She has made some truly beautiful crafts – cushions covers, napkins and bags that I’m bringing home to sell on her behalf at my Christmas market. It was with immense heartache that I learned that Carol, one of my original Kiwi Sponsorships students, who gave birth to a baby girl she had so graciously named Emma last October, had lost her baby at only 5 months old, cause unknown. I also caught up with Violah, a graduate nurse now working in a clinic in Kyotera whose father dropped dead the day he enrolled her at KAASO when she was a young girl. She was raised by her beloved grandma Betty in a tiny mud hut across the road from KAASO. Violah tearfully told me of the death of her grandma last December just after I had visited but how lucky she felt to have her sponsors as her second family and to know she was loved by us. I visited Angel at her nursing school and struggled to get through the conversations as flood of tears engulfed her – her family had lost everything during lockdown and she’d had to drop out of school and never imagined that she’d have the chance to complete her education, never mind be studying at a great nursing school on her way to fulfilling her dream.

I think the most emotional catch up, however, came from that of Crespo. Crespo’s mother left long ago for Tanzania and his father was working as a fisherman on Lake Victoria before the government decided to regulate who could fish in the lake, driving all previous fishermen away. Now his father, one of the poorest and yet most dedicated to his family I’ve ever met in Uganda, struggled to make ends meet but was desperate to see his children educated as he had never had that chance. Last year I drove last year several hours to the lake shore to meet with them and to share the good news that his daughter, Annet, would be sponsored and that I’d also found a sponsor for Crespo. Both children had completed Senior Four and were ready to start vocational school this year and while Annet began her nursing school in January, I never heard from Crespo. Rose tried to track him down but it seemed he had disappeared. We spent a frustrating year trying to get hold of him and I communicated with his patient sponsors that we were doing all we could to find him. I’d almost given up hope when, on Friday, the day before I was due to leave the village, Dominic received a call from Crespo’s father to say he had heard I was in Uganda and that he and Crespo wanted to come and meet me. When Dominic told him we were leaving the following day at 7am, Crespo’s father said they would be there. I was sceptical to say the least and when I awoke at 5am the next morning to torrential rain, I knew we wouldn’t see them – no one in Uganda travels during the pounding rains that come each day during the rainy season. That is, it turns out, unless you really, really want something. At 7am, I walked into Dominic and Rose’s house to find two soaking wet but beaming faces – Crespo and his father. As the story unfolded, my amazement increased. It turned out that after our meeting the previous year, Crespo had gone to his secondary school to settle his high school debt but had discovered that it was double what he had initially believed. He felt so ashamed and he didn’t think any sponsor would ever want to help someone with such a debt so he disappeared to Tanzania to work with his mother in a tiny guest house, consoling himself with the knowledge that his sister was studying so hopefully one day when she graduated, she might be able to help him. Crespo’s father, however, had not given up on his son’s dream, and decided that the only way to move his son’s future forward was for them to meet me and discuss the situation face to face. So he borrowed a boat and motored to Tanzania to pick up Crespo and brought him back to the lake shore that night. The next morning, they boarded a bus at 3am to make it KAAASO by 7am to see me. When I got the story out of them, Crespo’s head hung in shame as he told me of his crushing debt, I finally understood why he had disappeared. I reassured him that I was sure his sponsors would help settle his debt (around $600 NZD) so that he could receive his academic transcript and enrol in his electrical engineering course, and upon hearing this, Crespo and his father literally fell to their knees and with tears in their eyes said that they never dreamed that this moment would come. Humbling in the extreme.

There are more stories than I could ever fit onto these pages but all I can say is that the last 8 days have given me such an immense sense of satisfaction and humility sharing these stories with the sponsors who are making these dreams come true. It really does fill me with so much love and happiness to be able to bridge my two worlds. The gratitude and heartfelt thanks I’m showered with on each trip are overwhelming to say the least and it’s such a privilege to be able to relate this intense emotion to all my amazing sponsors.

Visiting students at Maya International School of Nursing

As always, it was so special to catch up with my dear friend Kim who has lived in Kabira, the village where KAASO is, since 2006. Kim does incredible work helping support abused and malnourished children and it’s always so wonderful catching up with her. We shared a beautiful night up KAASO hill with Rose, watching the sun set over the hills, Lake Victoria shimmering on the horizon as distant lightning lit up the sky around us. It’s such a special friendship we share and even more special to have Rose join us for our evening catch ups up the hill.

My final night in Uganda was one to remember forever. Along with Dominic, Rose, Henry and Stellah, a bunch of old students from 2009 had also come to meet us, including Phionah, Dominic and Rose’s daughter who last year was admitted to the bar and is now a human rights lawyer working for a female empowerment organisation. There was also Ambrose, an adopted son of KAASO, is married and a father of two children, one of whom is now at KAASO. Ambrose graduated as a pharmacist and owns his own pharmacy as well as working with an NGO that helps respond to medical crises around Uganda. Derrick, Dominic and Rose’s son, now also a father and working for The Literate Earth Project, an NGO that supplies books to libraries at schools around Uganda, also joined us along with a cast of other familiar faces. We all sat under the stars until midnight having dinner and sharing stories and endless laughter of 2009 – the songs we used to sing, rehearsing for The Wizard of Mwanza, the school show I wrote in which Phionah played Dorothy, nights of sitting down to dinner when the generator would go out and we’d be plunged into darkness, the world of head torches, balancing phones on windowsills and standing on anthills to get enough reception to send a text message, walking to the well to fetch water. There were so many wonderful memories and my face ached from smiling. As I sat there looking around the table at these people that have come to be such wonderful friends, it really brought home the fact that I do have another family in Uganda. And the best thing is, next time I get to bring my boys with me to share in all that love and joy. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

With much love and happiness,

Em xoxoxo

PS. As always, I have a list of students needing support in their educations next year so if anyone is interested in helping, please get in touch. For various reasons, there are also some students needing support for just one year or two as well so if anyone is interested in a shorter sponsorship, there are options there also. Thank you so much xxx

All eyes on Entebbe

Posted on November 11, 2023 by ileftmyheartinuganda

Jambo from Nairobi!

I sit awaiting the final leg of my long journey which will transport me from my island Kiwi home back to my rural village home. I can’t wait to be back.

It’s been a whirlwind the past few days, weeks, months. We relocated to Barcelona for four months for Nath’s work with Team New Zealand and had an incredible time living a totally different life with the boys. Leaving behind the leafy suburbs of beach-side Devonport with our green back yard and peaceful beach, we rocketed ourselves into inner-city urban living, moving in an apartment on the edge of El Born, Barcelona’s vibrant gothic quarter, and the superyacht-studded marina. We were a 10-minute bumpy cobbled-stoned scooter’s ride from Barceloneta beach, with its pumping music, thousands of scantily clad bodies and hawkers weaving through the throng. Charlie’s favourite phrase to mimic became ‘beer, water?’ echoing the persistent call of the hawkers trying to entice us with cold beer and water. We lived life to the full, enjoying late Spanish dinners, grungy flamenco shows, glorious afternoons in our rooftop pool with the other families from the team staying in our same building, overlooking the sparkling waters of Barcelona, watching the boat crane out at the end of the day, knowing that would mean the arrival of daddy home on his scooter, much to the boys’ delight. Jack (4) and Charlie (2), charmed everyone we met with their smatterings of Spanish, calling over their shoulders to all they passed on their little scooters, ‘Hola! Muy bien! Adios amigos!’ The more the reaction, the more their theatrics grew. It was a really special time and leaving NZ in early July for full-blown European summer was something I’d quite happily do every year. We arrived back home last week, just in time for NZ to start warming up for our own down under summer and it’s been wonderful settling back into our local community and enjoying all that home has to offer – a far cry from the endless buzz of Barcelona but beautiful to move between the two such contrasting worlds.

But in the meantime, Uganda. Ever since Uganda first stole my heart back in 2009, I’ve done my very best to return every year which, except for the years I gave birth to the boys and lockdown year, I’ve managed to do. Returning regularly has kept me closely connected to my Ugandan family and I’m so incredibly excited and grateful to soon be back in my favourite land-locked corner of the world.

As always, it was really hard saying goodbye to the boys but we have amazing support with grandparents and Phoebe, our nanny who has come to be like a family member, and I know the boys will be fine. They’ve already spent the time since I’ve been flying sailing on Jack’s little dinghy at Cheltenham beach with Nath and I know he’ll enjoy this special time with the boys too.

I’ve got an ambitious agenda with 97 sponsor visits on my list. As people have kindly remined me, it might not be possible to see each and every one but as I pointed out to Nath barefoot on the beach yesterday having our farewell coffee, the motivation for these visits comes from a place of love not duty and I’m genuinely excited to see each and every face – many of whom I’ve known for 14 years now. Little Brenda, one of my original beauties from my Primary One class back in 2009 turned 21 yesterday and has just graduated from her Fashion Design and Tailoring Course. We’ve been regulary in touch the last few weeks as she’s been busy making beautiful crafts for me to bring home. Henry, my original 12-year-old spark who began this whole journey (now 27!!) is, mind-blowingly, about to begin the visa process for his PHD in Canada. Bruno, my cheeky seminary-dropout turned teacher, has just given birth to a son and has travelled through the night across Uganda from his workplace in the East to come and meet me on my arrival. Stellah, another of my original gems whom I have sponsored since 2011, has just returned safely from 2.5 years in Saudi Arabia – it’s a long story I will share later but for now, I’m just so incredibly excited to engulf her in a huge hug to help wash away the months and years of worry I’ve endured. We’ve kept in touch every few days during the time she was in Saudi and I just can’t wait to be back by her side. We have a lot of catching up to do.

So as I prepare to begin my final leg, Rose texts me saying ‘all eyes are on the airport at Entebbe’ awaiting my arrival. It’s going to be a very full 8 days but I’m going to cherish every moment I have. This time next year I’ll be back – with my boys at my side. Nothing will be more glorious than my two worlds meeting on African soil. But for now, my 11^th trip to Uganda is about to begin and I can’t stop the smile from spreading across my face.

Much love and anticipation,

Em xxoxoxo

With dusty feet and a full heart

Posted on October 13, 2022 by ileftmyheartinuganda

Greetings from Uganda!

After three long years away, it was so good to be back. I arrived to a full welcoming committee at Entebbe airport led by Dominic, Rose and Henry along with a bunch of the Kiwi Sponsorships students, now graduated and working in the city.

We made our way to our leafy guest house where we spent the next two days joyfully catching up with our students – once hopeful young children, now strong and independent graduates making their way in the world. It was such a thrill for me to hear of their successes and to know that what we are doing is really making a tangible difference in their lives. We now have qualified nurses working in clinics and owning their own drug shops, clinical officers running medical centres, business graduates working in insurance firms, plumbers and electricians, pharmacists, lab technicians, tailors and teachers inspiring the next generation. It’s humbling to see the impact of our work and to feel the ripples flow as these students now help to support their younger siblings and families back in their villages. It was an incredibly heartening way to begin my journey.

We began the long drive south, across the equator and into Kyotera district to where the tar seal gives way to the dirt road. I was so thrilled that Rebecca Roberts and Jennie Lee O’Donnell from Bermuda were joining me on this trip with a very special mission. We drove into the school gates to the pounding of drums and feet, the whole school singing, dancing and stomping as the red dust rose and they welcomed us into the school. We were engulfed by huge hugs and enveloped by love and smiles as we made our way across the threshold and into the folds of my home away from home. Tears flowed as the overwhelming realisation hit me that, despite years of border closures and draconian lockdowns, I had made it back to my Ugandan family at last.

It was an incredibly full two weeks. The highlight was celebrating the official opening of the KATKiDS Main Hall & Classroom block, a project I had been working on with Rebecca and Jennie Lee for the last four years. This two-storied building houses a main hall with a capacity of 1,000 people downstairs, with three classrooms and two offices upstairs. It is a mammoth structure that truly needs to be seen to be believed – it towers over the school and is a shining symbol of how far KAASO has come since the early days of a single grass thatched hut housing a dozen young orphans. The only thing bigger than the hall was Dominic’s smile, beaming with pride as the festivities unfolded. All 707 KAASO students were there, along with around 500 parents and guardians and community members who had all come share in the success of the school. It was a magical day of dancing, singing, celebrations, speeches and ribbon cutting, one etched in my memory forever.

The project was a team effort, but the biggest thanks definitely go to KATKiDS, a registered Bermudian charity led by Jennie Lee who worked tirelessly together with the unstoppable Rebecca, fundraising the bulk of the funds to make this dream come true. Additional funding came via a grant from the NZ Embassy Fund in Addis Ababa which I got through the help of my friends and KAASO volunteers Anna Shattky and Johnny Stokes. The local community also pulled together to fundraise and contribute to the building, and you could see their great pride in what had been achieved. From the early foundations to the final coat of paint, every step was led by Derrick Bwanika, an impressive engineer whose came through the KAASO family, and Dominic himself oversaw the entire process. KATKiDS, Dominic and Derrick were all a dream to work with, carefully managing the budget and ensuring the structure would be enduring and strong enough to last a lifetime.

As always, nothing at KAASO ever serves just one purpose. At its simplest level, the KATKiDS Main Hall is a resource to the school, enabling all 707 children and 57 staff members to fit in one place, but it’s also a symbol of development in the area. More fee-paying parents are now wanting their children to enrol at KAASO, local authorities and MPs are bringing visitors to see what can be achieved in a poor rural village when the leaders are honest and trustworthy, Derrick the head engineer has secured multiple large contracts thanks to the success of his work, and, my favourite benefit – hope. Dominic and Rose have cleverly put the upper classes – Primary Five, Six & Seven – in the three upstairs classrooms as an aspirational goal for the children – if they stay in school long enough, they literally get to rise up and look down on how far they have come. Before the KATKiDS Main Hall, most of the children had never been upstairs in their lives. Watching them walk up the ramp grinning to their classes on the upper floor each day was a joy to behold.

With over 90 students now in the Kiwi Sponsorships, my days were certainly full! We travelled north and south to visit Rebecca’s two sponsor students – both studying nursing from different schools across the district, and it was wonderful to see them reunited after five years since Rebecca’s last visit for my Ugandan wedding. Jennie Lee has also come on board the Kiwi Sponsorships and is now the proud sponsor of a set of twins from Eastern Uganda, both incredibly talented musicians who are on music bursaries at KAASO but whom, without support, wouldn’t make it to secondary school next year. Rose and I clocked up many miles visiting students old and new at their home villages, schools and vocational institutes. I was so relieved to find that the general vibe was overwhelmingly positive and that, in spite of the challenges of lockdown and two years of school closures with no access to online learning, the students had made the most of the situation and spent the time working in their family gardens, supporting their parents, grandparents and guardians around the house and having faith that they would be able to complete their educations eventually. They were all so thrilled to be studying again and so very grateful for the support that enabled them to go back to school at a time when families across the country are struggling to find school fees. One heartbreaking day, we had been visiting a group of our nursing students at their institute and as we drove out, we saw a group of girls walking out the front gates and down the road with their bags. I asked why they were going home when it was still the middle of term and Rose sadly replied that they had been sent home for not paying fees. For our Kiwi Sponsorships students, knowing that they will never be sent away for fees means they can concentrate on their studies without the all-consuming stress of being sent home at any minute. If anyone is interested in joining the Kiwi Sponsorships, there are still students on my list in need of support so please get in touch.

Henry spent my first week with us at KAASO, taking annual from his job at the Uganda Viral Research Institute. He is truly something else. Each time I go back to Uganda, I wonder if it’s possible to be any prouder of him and then I already am and then I see him again and my admiration grows. My 12-year old boy from the village is certainly a huge success – and I’m not talking about his education and job, it’s the way he still comes to KAASO and does all he can to help around the school – everything from helping me manage the Kiwi Sponsorships to teaching computer classes to giving impromptu speeches to inspire the young students to washing Dominic’s too car. Nothing is too much for him. He works tirelessly with Rose to keep the Kiwi Sponsorships family together, meeting up with them, calling them and holding meetings to help guide and counsel them on their journeys. He really is a shining star.

Another incredible success story is Brenda, my little friend from Primary One back in 2009 who, in the time I have known her, has lost both of her parents and her beloved jajja (grandmother) and yet who always approaches life with a smile and is now a beautiful, independent young lady. It was with huge pride I was able to give Brenda a copy of my book, full of photos of her and for her to read her own story in print. Brenda is now studying Tailoring and Fashion Design and LOVING it! My suitcases are full to bursting with all the beautiful placemats, tablecloths, and napkins she has made for me to sell to help her continue towards her dream of one day establishing her own fashion and design business. I’ll be posting photos if anyone is keen for any of her gorgeous products!

I was given the most beautiful send off by the students as I left KAASO and while it’s never easy to leave, I know I will be back. Looking back on the last two weeks, my heart soars and my cheeks ache from smiling from all the beautiful reunions I have had – Anthony the journalist and entrepreneur running his own computer workshops, Lilian now a teacher at KAASO, Marvin the electrician working in Kampala, Teddy the aspiring TV and radio presenter, Phionah the lawyer who has just sat her bar exams, Ritah the theatre nurse in training, multiple other nurses and midwives, Sharon the budding agriculturalist, over 30 secondary students and so many others. I continue to be inspired by my amazing friend Kim who came out from the Netherlands to volunteer at KAASO 15 years ago and never left. She now lives down the road in the village and has set up a project to take care of abused and abandoned children, adopting three girls of her own and establishing a malnutrition ward in the local clinic while also running a farm to produce food to feed the children in the clinic. She is an inspiration! Together with Rose we shared beautiful evenings up KAASO Hill, watching the sun set over the hills while the full moon rose over the banana plantations behind. My final night was spent with my dear friends Sonia and Paul who have also lived in Uganda the last 15 years running AfriPads, an impressive social enterprise that empowers girls with washable sanitary pads to help keep them in school. Seeing Sonia & Paul and their gorgeous little girls made me so excited to bring my own boys with me to Uganda – I have made many promises to many children that next time Jack, Charlie and Nath are coming so I’m not sure I’ll be allowed back in the country without them!

So now I begin my journey home with a full heart, dusty feet, a head spinning with so many wonderful stories – and a growing excitement for the moment I will hold my boys in my arms again. Nath has done an incredible job of holding the fort with huge support from both of our mamas and our amazing nanny Phoebe, all of whom have made my trip possible. I’m so grateful to everyone who helped with my boys while I was away, I know it wasn’t always easy! I’m feeling so full of love from everyone in my Ugandan family, and now all I want is to get home and be engulfed by hugs from my Kiwi (and Aussie!) family.

Till we meet again Uganda – I can’t wait to bring my two worlds together next time.

Much love,

Em xoxo

Africa on my horizon

Posted on October 4, 2021 by ileftmyheartinuganda

Greetings from Tarifa,

Fourteen years ago I came to this hidden gem in the south of Spain, a mecca for wind sports, a stumbling maze of whitewashed buildings, an endless stretch of white sand dotted with colourful beach umbrellas, a never-ending steam of ships making their way out the mouth of the Mediterranean and into the open expanse of the Atlantic Ocean.

And, just above those ships, the mountains of Morocco, once again hovering tantalisingly on my horizon, so near and yet so far. Fourteen years ago, I caught my first glimpse of Africa, at the time still a dream, a hazy mirage I hoped I might one day grasp and find something solid. Today, nine trips and over a year spent in Uganda later, ‘Africa’ is very much a defined place to me. And yet, once again, it hangs hazily on my horizon – it could be the early morning light on a stormy morning but it’s also the fact that I truly don’t know when I’ll be able to return to my African home.

Uganda is in the grips of a second nation-wide lockdown. This one began in early June and we don’t yet know when it will end. My latest conversation with Dominic painted the rather bleak picture that it is predicted to be next year before schools will reopen. The mind boggles – 15 million children out of school since last March with only intermittent studies for some – and those are the lucky ones; some students have been out of school for close to two years. It’s beyond comprehension. Distance learning is impossible in remote villages with no connectivity and many children are suffering from a multitude of threats – violence, child labour and teen pregnancies are rising at frightening rates. It’s a difficult and uncertain time for my friends on the continent that hangs on my horizon and I’m so painfully aware that across the thin Straits of Gibraltar here in Spain, life continues largely as normal. Yes, there are masks and hand sanitiser and I’m sure there are those doing it tough, but there are also tropical juices, tapas and cafes con leches. How vast the divide this narrow stretch of water brings.

Despite the challenges faced, Dominic never finishes a conversation without his usual optimistic enthusiasm and overflowing gratitude, and he took great delight in updating me on the success of our latest fundraiser – a teachers’ project fund which is enabling KAASO to retain, pay and keep motivated their out-of-work teachers. With no government funding, KAASO is classified as a ‘private school’ so when students stop attending, school fees cease, making it impossible to keep paying the teachers who then have no way to support themselves and feed their families. Thanks to our new fund, KAASO teachers now come to school each day to work on their various projects – a piggery, a poultry project, goat-keeping, brick-making and various agricultural projects, including growing crops and seedlings. These projects not only generate much-needed income and sustenance for teachers, but also help keep them connected to KAASO and give them a purpose during these difficult times.

As Dominic wrote in his recent progress report:

Sustaining staff during a time when the main income generating route is closed is so hard in a developing nation like Uganda. As KAASO management, we are so grateful to our supporters and donors for that hand they have rendered to us especially during this challenging time. We know ‘’we can’t do everything, but we can do something’’.
Let blessed be your Hands.

Leaving NZ straight after my book was launched meant I had very little time to actually reflect on the enormity of achieving my lifelong dream and it’s only been the past couple of weeks here in Tarifa, staying in one place for more than a few days, that I’ve started to catch my breath and begin to take in the messages of love and support – and to realise the impact of my words and the awareness they are generating for KAASO. It’s a wonderful feeling. We now have 80 children sponsored through the Kiwi Sponsorships – something I never imagined when we first set out with just Henry. I’m so grateful to all our new sponsors, as well as to those who have donated to the teachers’ fund and also to all those over the past few months who have read my book and got in contact with me with messages of support and encouragement – it really has meant the world.

As our time on the road comes to a close (all going well, in just over a week we’ll be flying to Australia to spend the rest of the year there before finally heading home to NZ in January/February), I take this moment to look back on the last few months travelling across Europe with Nath and our two young boys to Nath’s various sailing events. What a whirlwind! It’s been incredibly busy looking after our wee boys (Jack is now just over 2 and a half and ready to take on the world and Charlie is coming up 9 months, bobbing his way through each day full of smiles), but I’m so very grateful that we’ve been lucky enough to be together as a family and to experience the freedoms of European life right now while so many of our family and friends back in NZ and Australia are in lockdowns.

I don’t know the answer to this strange global predicament, and I often feel conflicted by all that is going on in the world around us. One thing I do know is that it’s a time for unity not divisiveness and that polarising opinions do nothing to bring us together. So I’m trying to simply embrace an open mind, to listen to all sides of each argument and not let the weight of the world weigh me down, something my huge heart often struggles with. Everyone has the right to their own beliefs, everyone’s life experience is shaped by different forces and people’s minds work in different ways. There’s a lot I don’t know, but what I do know is that we just need to keep loving and supporting each other and that no one can underestimate the power of hope and positivity. I want nothing more than for my boys to grow up in a world of openness and love, not fear and separation. Time will tell where all this ends up, but for now I am just trying to live each day with my old mantra from years ago – open your eyes. And heart and mind. The world needs more openness.

As the sun climbs higher in the sky and the day begins to unfold, it’s time to rejoin my boys for the day. I feel clear-headed from my morning walk and from taking this brief moment to capture my thoughts. I hope this finds you well, wherever you may be, whatever shape your days may be currently taking.

I leave you with a beautiful moment from a few days ago when I took Jack down to the beach for an evening swim. The sand was warm and, unlike this morning, the horizon was spectacularly clear. I was looking over Jack’s head at the outline of the mountains, that undeniable magnetism that constantly pulls me towards Africa, when suddenly he stopped and grabbed my hand.

‘Look mama, look!’ he said, pointing the peaks of Morocco, jutting across the sky. ‘That’s Africa!’ he told me proudly, repeating what I’ve told him each day.

I smiled. ‘That’s right Jack, it is Africa.’

He stood staring, eyes still fixed on those mountains. ‘Yes, and our friends are there. Dominic and Rose and Henry. They’re in Uganda.’

‘They sure are.’ I said, marvelling at the way he absorbs everything he hears, a little sponge.

‘Yes.’ He nodded solemnly and then looked up at me, his face wise beyond his years. ‘And mama, one day you’ll take me to Africa, won’t you?’

It was all I could do to stop the tears from falling. I nodded and crouched down to wrap my arms around his little waist to we could look over at Africa together.

One day my boy, one day.

Much love,

Em xoxox

If anyone is interested in donating to our teachers’ project fund, you can do so here:

NZ & rest of world: https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/kaaso-covid-relief

UK (tax deductable donations through our partner charity, Unity is Strength): https://unityisstrength.org.uk/covid-19-measures

Between Two Worlds – the road to publication

Posted on April 28, 2021 by ileftmyheartinuganda

A rare quiet moment of peace on this beautifully calm morning in the Bay of Islands.* Jack, our effervescent two-year-old is down on the beach with mama, his beloved ‘JoJo’, and Charlie, our three-month-old latest addition to the family, is blissfully sleeping downstairs. And I am taking this moment’s repose to finally sit down and do what I love most – write.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been 8 months since I last wrote here but also not so surprising considering all that has happened during that time. Nath was lucky enough to be retained by the Sail GP circuit throughout 2020 – he wasn’t able to sail or travel but there were plenty of meetings, which, thanks to an international team working on different time zones, mostly took place early morning and late night, meaning the days were free to spend with Jack while I battled morning sickness and increasing fatigue as my body went through its remarkable transformation. My swelling belly grew and grew as new life bloomed within me and at last, on 5^th January, 11 days after his Christmas Day due date, our wee Charlie entered the world, mercifully missing his brother’s birthday by one day.

Now a family of four – with Nath and Jack welcoming baby Charlie into the world

At the same time, Nath resumed work outside of the house for the first time since the initial March lockdown, commentating on the 36^th America’s Cup racing which took place on Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf. I was so happy for Nath to be involved, albeit in a rather different capacity, in the event which has always been such a huge part of our life, but it was overwhelming to be suddenly without him after a year of never being apart. When Charlie was just 6 days old, Nath headed off to work and I was incredibly grateful to have my muzungu sister, Kirsty, come up from Wellington with her 5-year-old Mateo, to help me through those early days. She tag-teamed with mama, who spent most of the summer staying with us, helping so much through that crazy time.

I couldn’t have survived without mama and will always be eternally grateful for her help, as not only was life with two children incredibly busy but, in between chasing a toddler and rocking a baby, another new life was taking shape – my book.

Ever since I first arrived at KAASO back in 2009, I have been writing about this incredible part of the world, sharing the stories of children in a little corner of East Africa that often go unheard. In an apartment in Sydney’s Bondi Beach in 2010, I wiped off my dusty notebooks and first pieced together my stories, working the late shift at Ariel Booksellers in Paddington by night, and writing by day. It was truly living the dream and, a year and a half after I first began, I felt immensely proud to have ‘finished’ my book. I submitted it to a Melbourne based publisher before moving to Paris at the start of 2012 and was devastated when they came back saying that while they loved my story, they were unable to publish it at this time. That was the beginning of what was to turn into a decade-long journey and, looking back now, I’m so grateful that they did turn me down. I didn’t know it at the time, but what felt like the end of the road turned out to be just the first step on my path to publication.

The years that followed saw me globe-trotting in my role as Event Manager for the Louis Vuitton Cup, working in Paris, Nice, Monaco, Venice, Naples, Newport, New York and eventually San Francisco. It was there I met my love, Nath, and, in the months following the 2013 America’s Cup, with Nath’s encouragement, I enrolled in an intensive writing course down at UCLA under the instruction of an incredible woman named Jennie Nash, someone who would change the course of my book – and my life. A few days in, Jennie pulled me aside and asked if I’d be interested in working with her after the course to completely rewrite my story from scratch. It was a daunting prospect but I agreed and together we set to work. We broadened my story from a blow-by-blow account of what had happened during those first 6 months in Uganda, and widened the scope to encompass the years that followed and the effect they had on me and my continued work at KAASO. Most importantly, the book came to include both my world in the village in Uganda and the one I continued to inhabit as part of the international sailing community. I learned that I didn’t have to renounce one world for the other and that in fact, moving between my two worlds was where I was meant to be. I learned over time that it wasn’t simply a case of one side helping the other – the flow went both ways: finding a meaningful cause to support helped enrich the lives of my supporters around the world who were thrilled to find a project that was truly making a difference – and they could see the tangible change they were making on the lives of those in the village.

I wrote from makeshift writing desks around the world as Nath and I travelled to his various Olympic and America’s Cup events, setting up my creative space everywhere we went. When I finally completed the first draft of the manuscript, we were, rather momentously living on a houseboat in an inland waterway just north of Buenos Aires while Nath was competing in an Olympic world championship event and I’ll never forget rowing ashore in torrential rain with my laptop in a rubbish bag tucked in my wet weather gear so that I could get an internet signal to send the manuscript off to Jennie. What a journey we had shared!

Rowing ashore from our houseboat in San Isidro, Buenos Aires to email off my completed manuscript

That was late 2015 and the year and a half that followed was spent trying to get my manuscript ready for submission while supporting Nath in Bermuda where he was working as the Skipper of Artemis Racing for the 35^th America’s Cup. I was also working on the America’s Cup managing their VIP hospitality and life was very full – but incredibly fulfilling and a whole lot of fun! I sent my manuscript off to a bunch of New York agents and received various expressions of interest but ultimately they all declined my work. I was disappointed but I had come to learn that my journey was not necessarily going to be an easy one and that I just needed to persevere. I had a lot else going on anyway – I had been organising major fundraisers in Bermuda through my amazing new network of supporters there and we had managed to fund not only a school bus for KAASO but also an entire water harvesting system encompassing four 20-thousand-litre water tanks and gutting on all school buildings.

The America’s Cup ended and Nath and I hit the road once more and my manuscript submissions resumed – this time to UK publishers as we were Europe-based and spending a lot of time in London with my brother and his partner there. Again, some encouraging responses but ultimately no offers of publication.

Nath and I finally travelled to Uganda together where we celebrated our much-awaited Ugandan wedding at KAASO with both our families who had made the trek to be there with us – along with the 1,000-odd guests from Uganda!

After a summer working with Nath in Australia on a new sailing event called SuperFoiler, we moved back to NZ and I got pregnant with our first son, Jack. He entered the world in early January 2019 and we spent the rest of that year on the road following the Sail GP events at ports around the world. My book was well and truly relegated to the backburner as I took on my new role as a travelling mama, bouncing around continents with a baby as we cheered on daddy.

With Nath and Jack at Sail GP San Francisco 2019

We flew back into New Zealand in mid-March 2020, expecting to be home for a few weeks and then something we never could have imagined possible happened – Covid hit and the world locked down. Borders shut, planes were grounded, doors closed and streets emptied. It was a shock beyond belief but I, like so many, believed that it would ‘just be for a year’, that by 2021, we’d all be back to ‘normal’. Little did we know.

In the meantime, we lived a simple life, stayed at home, planted vegetable gardens, planned meals to make our supplies last and spent time together as a family of three. As the year went by and New Zealand’s lockdown was slowly lifted, Nath managed to get back out on the water, relishing his new hobbies of wind foiling and winging. Every afternoon he would come home buzzing from the thrill of it, his eyes shining with excitement as he recounted the new discoveries he’d made in techniques, settings and manoeuvres.

Meanwhile, feeling decidedly average, I was staying close to home feeling rather sorry for myself battling all-day morning sickness. Then, one day in late July, I realised that I was actually feeling better but I still wasn’t up to much and that it was time to find my own spark. Seeing Nath fizzing each day kicked me into gear that I also needed to be learning and growing and feeling the buzz that comes with doing new things, which make you feel truly alive. My unpublished book was still hanging over me but I had convinced myself that to get published I needed to have a well-established platform of thousands of followers and to be a household name before I could start submitting the manuscript – something I had never had time to do. I chatted it over with Nath and realised that, with a second baby due at the end of the year and Nath likely to start sailing around the world again in 2021, I was never going to have as much time in my whole life as I had right now with a husband at home and ‘only’ one child to look after between us. I decided not to wait any longer and to just give it my best shot now: it was finally time to find a publisher for my book.

I set to work but quickly realised that to get anything done, I needed to leave the house or Jack would come and find me and want to help work on ‘mummy’s book’ on my computer which wasn’t really all that helpful. So, each morning, I would go down to our local plant based café, The Living Room, and set up my writing studio. It consisted rather simply of my laptop, a notebook and a soy latte but it was all I needed to get back into it.

I researched every publishing house in NZ and Australia and made a list of those for which I thought my book might be a good fit. I had come to peace with the realisation that I might still be met with a stream of ‘thanks-but-no-thanks’ emails, but I had identified a few good self-publishing houses which were my back up so that, no matter what, I would end up with a copy of my book to put on my bookshelf and, quite literally, close that chapter. It felt good to have a plan.

I sent out my first submission on 8^th September and held my breath in the days that followed. A week later, while chasing Jack around our local playground, I received an email requesting the full manuscript. I was overjoyed. Jack and I celebrated with a little dance and then I spent the rest of the afternoon pushing Jack on the swings, grinning from ear to ear. I felt a glimmer of hope – this felt right for the first time – but tried not to get my hopes up too much. Within three weeks, my wildest dreams had come true – I had received not one but two offers of publication! I never imagined I would have to turn down a publisher and it was hard to do as both were incredible publishing houses, but I ultimately went with Allen & Unwin NZ and what a dream it has been to work with them. I have loved the process from start to finish – although I’m not sure life has ever been so busy as trying to edit an entire manuscript with a newborn baby and a toddler and a husband coming home at 9pm each night! But somehow (thanks mama!), we got there and I can’t believe that I now have my very own (advance) copy of my book – my two babies of 2021 to cherish.

The book is due for release on 25th May so in less than a month, it will be on the shelves and people far and wide will be able to get an insight into what has held me captive the last 12 years in a little corner of the world down a red dirt road.

Thank you so much to the incredible team at Allen & Unwin for believing in me and for bringing my story to life. Thank you also to Jennie for helping me shape my story – I’m so proud of what you helped me to achieve. And a huge thanks to all those who have supported me along the way – anyone who has met me within the last 12 years has been hearing about this book. I hope you all feel as relieved as I am that it is finally going to be on the shelf! Now I guess it’s time to start working on the next book…

*The reality of life as a mama meant that this took me four mornings to finish, punctuated by picking up Jack when he fell over and bumped his head, going downstairs to pat Charlie back to sleep, tripping over the toys Jack had left lying about on the way back up the stairs, making Jack a snack, going back downstairs to pat Charlie again, filling Jack’s water bottle then allowing him to sit on my lap to ‘help’ mummy on her computer, eventually giving in and picking up Charlie and bouncing him while trying to one-handedly insert photos, proofreading with Jack pulling my top demanding MUMMY PLAY WITH ME. Ah, life.

New life and hope when we all need it most

Posted on August 18, 2020 by ileftmyheartinuganda

What a strange time we all find ourselves in. It’s been hard to know what to say, what to post, what to write, conscious as I am that we are all living this pandemic so differently – spread across the globe in different situations, juggling different worlds, all faced with diverse challenges and unknown future prospects. For some, it has been an immense struggle, battling with illnesses, uncertainty, a lack of childcare while working full-time, extreme lockdowns, families separated across borders and a lack of freedom and fresh air. For others, it’s been an almost tranquil time of togetherness, simple pleasures and making the most of what you have, not needing more than that. The contrast is marked.

For us as a family, I have felt incredibly fortunate to have been in New Zealand throughout this period – much as we miss our family across the Tasman and hope that we will be reunited before too long! In early March, we flew back into Auckland from Sydney, Nath’s first Sail GP event of the season complete, with a full programme of events mapped out around the world for the rest of the year. The day we landed, the global pandemic was declared and I must say, I was still largely ignorant of the scale with which this was about to affect our world. Until then, it had seemed something far away, unrelated to our itinerant travelling life which had been so full, even more so since the joyous arrival of Jack last January. But within a week of returning home, we were in self isolation and the day we were due to re-enter the world, New Zealand’s five week nation-wide Level 4 lockdown began.

Pre-Covid days on the beach in Sydney

Guiltily, I quite enjoyed our time at home. Our wonderful friend Simon Gundry had supplied us with all the materials we needed to build garden beds and so we got to work in the late summer sun, building and planting and growing new life while Jack oversaw the process from his backyard swing, an online purchase which had mercifully arrived the morning before lockdown began. Nath and I spent hour upon hour discussing the global situation and wondering where it may lead, ruminating on how the situation would look with the benefit of hindsight in years to come and how our opinions would have changed by then. I am conscious that everyone has their own opinions on the situation – some very strong ones too – and these are obviously influenced greatly by people’s individual situations, but I will state that I think our prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, is incredible and has managed the situation so well. I have felt overwhelmed with gratitude to have had such strong, clear, ethical leadership at this time where it would have be all too easy to rule with fear, false information, indecision or even oblivion as we have unfortunately seen unfold in other parts of the world. We have had the opposite here and I feel endlessly lucky for that.

Nath putting our garden beds together

Not sure the start of a five-week lockdown was the best time to reseed the lawn with a toddler who had just learned to walk, but that’s what we did!

Happy Jack in his swing

Over the past few months, I have kept in close contact with Dominic and Rose in Uganda. KAASO – and all schools across Uganda – were closed down from Friday 20^th March in a pre-emptive move to curb the spread of Covid-19 as Uganda had very low case numbers at the time. I couldn’t help but feel optimistic as Uganda has had highly infections diseases like Ebola and Marburg to deal with in the past and has always been very successful at containing any outbreaks. In spite of the school closure, Dominic and Rose’s spirits were high. With the students gone, they took the opportunity to work in the numerous school gardens and it has been a bumper season with crops growing in abundance. Elderly members of the community come to KAASO’s gates and receive food parcels from the school gardens as the school continues to try and help their people.

Rose and her new matooke plantation

Blog 10 Matron Passy working in one of the school vegetable gardens

Passy, one of the school matrons, tending to cabbages planted within the KAASO school grounds

In Uganda, I find that life is generally much harsher in the city than in rural settings where food grows in such abundance, but I have been heartened to receive messages from graduated Kiwi Sponsorships students in Kampala finding temporary work in spite of everything, making the most of this time while their workplaces or educational institutions have closed down. I delight in the messages I receive from Henry who, in typical Henry fashion, has been out in the community as part of an outreach team, distributing masks and hand sanitiser and helping educate people in remote areas about the dangers of Covid and the need for good hygiene and sanitation.

Henry in a community marketplace educating people about Covid-19

Blog 7 Henry pinning up posters in the market

Henry sticking up educational posters

Blog 8 Henry in the microbiology lab at the hospital

Henry in the hospital microbiology lab with a colleague

Henry after a day’s work

Another huge positive at KAASO has been that construction on our incredible two-storied school hall and classroom block has continued, with workers staying in the empty school dormitories and, while following social distancing, keeping up the momentum of their work. Funding has come almost entirely thanks to KATKiDS charity in Bermuda, led by my dear friend Rebecca Roberts who has worked tirelessly with Jennie Lee O’Donnell from KATKiDS to make this incredibly ambitious dream come true. It has been the most incredible partnership and, boosted also by a New Zealand Embassy Government grant, we have raised over $130,000 NZD – by far our greatest achievement ever! I am forever grateful to Rebecca, Jennie Lee, the NZ Embassy in Ethiopia and all who have supported us along the way. More updates to come on this!

The incredible KATKiDS School Hall and Classroom block at KAASO

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly international news reaches Uganda, a far cry from the isolation I felt when I first lived there in 2009. A mere few hours after it was announced that NZ would move back into Level 3 lockdown last week, I received a message from Dominic worried about the situation here as he had heard the news of our renewed lockdown. I assured him we were fine and I remain optimistic that the situation will be brought under control again here soon. As for what the long-term future holds, that of course remains a mystery but my instinct tells me we are on the right track and I am hopeful that we will soon go back to the levels of freedom we have been so fortunate to enjoy for the past few months.

I spoke to Dominic a couple of nights ago and listened with delight as he told me about the school’s new tomato and coffee gardens, the additional eucalyptus forest they have planted and the acres of sweet potatoes growing beneath the ground that will be used to feed the returning students – whenever schools reopen. Dominic is hopeful that they might be able to get in the third and final term of this year and said there is even talk of reducing the long Christmas holidays to just one week to squeeze in another term before March next year. We will see. But down the dusty dirt roads of Kabira, the overriding messages I continue to get are those of hope for the future – something that helps me to sleep at night!

Workers tending to the tomatoes in one of the new school gardens

As the school hall continues to take shape, the cabbages grow around the school, the pigs produce piglets and the school cow has had its first calf, we are also growing here in NZ. Not only are our garden beds now full of plentiful herbs and leafy greens, there is new life growing within me – our second child, Jack’s affectionately nicknamed sibling, ‘Jill’ (whose sex we won’t find out!) is due on Christmas Day! So that’s keeping us busy here and makes me smile every time I rub my fast-expanding belly. In the same way KAASO is using this time to grow and produce as much as they can, for us, 2020 will not be a write-off but a time of new life. I’m also using the next few months to work on my book in the hope of finally bringing my manuscript to the page before you… Watch this space!

My very happy boys after our first scan in May

Blog 12 Me and Jack

This is a strange time, but, as ever, I am optimistic we will get through it. Sending much love to you all far and wide. Stay safe, take care and, as has come to be NZ’s new catchphrase, be kind – the world has never needed kindness so much as now.

Em xxxxx

From one home to another

Posted on November 20, 2019 by ileftmyheartinuganda

Greetings to you all,

What an incredibly full but immensely fulfilling 10 days it’s been. I was worried that such a short trip to the village might feel like it wasn’t worth so much travel, but it went far beyond my expectations and it’s reassuring to know that, having spent so much time in Uganda over the years, I can get so much out of a whirlwind trip like this last one.

Rose and Dominic had done an incredible job of making sure everything was ready for our arrival and Kirsty and I were greeted at the airport by 8 of the Kiwi Sponsorships students, which meant that within an hour of arriving, my interviews had commenced!

We had a beautiful night at the Guinea Fowl, a blissfully chilled little guest house in Entebbe, sitting under the stars with Dominic, Rose and Ambrose, a boy we met when we first came to KAASO 10 years ago who Kirsty has been supporting ever since, now a grown man (and qualified pharmacist!) with his wife, Flower, and their 6 month old baby, Anthony. Such a special time.

The following morning, we caught up with John & Mirriam, Sonia & Paul – friends from NZ, Canada and the US, all living in Kampala with their expanding families and it was amazing to share stories from over the years and to meet the new additions to their families.

Our arrival in the village was magical – a full welcoming celebration had been organised and we were entertained by dancing, singing, speeches and countless hugs and smiles, while being refreshed by fresh homemade passionfruit juice – my absolute favourite! The children had made signs and pasted them around the school – ‘Welcome Back Home Emma and Kirsty’ – and that’s just how it felt. Like we had come home.

The days were full to bursting as we toured the school and got the updates on its myriad of projects. I managed to catch up with all the Kiwi Sponsorships students (something that usually takes 6 weeks – now done in record time thanks to the organisation of Teacher Gerald, the Kiwi Sponsorships Coordinator in Uganda, who had arranged for all the students to meet in central locations so we could get through them in the limited time we had!), got the latest on the Suubi Sanyu student microloan fund, spent evenings up with Kim up KAASO hill, shared stories with Rosie, the British volunteer currently living at KAASO, and saw the incredible progress of the KAASO Main Hall and Classroom Block we are constructing with the support of KATKiDS in Bermuda (greatly assisted, as always, by the unstoppable Rebecca Roberts!). There was certainly never a dull moment.

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The Kiwi Sponsorships Graduation Day was very special as it was tied in this year with the 20-year celebration of KAASO. It seems so hard to believe that 20 years ago, KAASO began with just 12 young orphans living in Dominic and Rose’s living room, being taught in a grass thatched hut – and now that same school has educated literally thousands of children, with a current roll of over 630 students receiving top class educations, a third of them without paying a single shilling to do so. How far they have come.

Our Kiwi Sponsorships graduates this year were Anthony, the son of a peasant farmer, who has just fulfilled his dream of becoming a journalist, and Deborah, a girl with a shockingly tragic past whom Nath and I took on supporting a few years ago. Deborah has made such a dramatic turnaround and now has a qualification in tailoring, fashion & design. Seeing Rose wearing the most beautiful dress Deborah had made her on the day of graduation filled me with such immense pride. Again, I marvelled at how far we had come as the 5^th annual graduation ceremony took place, and our 22^nd graduate was celebrated.

It was very emotional being in Uganda for the first time since we lost our dear Damian, one of our beloved Kiwi Sponsorships students, who was murdered in May this year. His absence was greatly felt, but the gap was filled in a small way by his dynamic five-year-old daughter, Lizzie. None of us knew of Lizzie’s existence until after Damian’s death as he had feared to tell us for worry of disappointing us, but in the wake of his death, her gorgeous little face, so very similar to her father’s helps bring us some relief as we are reminded of her incredible father and we know that his memory will live on within her. She is now studying at KAASO, supported by Damian’s amazing sponsors, Sarah, Matt, Hugo & Amelia.

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I didn’t know how it would feel returning to KAASO as a mother. I thought I would feel even more emotional than usual about the children and their difficult situations – and of course, I did feel that. But what struck me most what the new light in which I saw the parents and guardians. In the past, I had often been frustrated by the lack of things in the children’s lives – not monetary things, but love, support, encouragement, guidance. But now, as a parent myself, I know that raising children isn’t always easy – it can be exhausting, frustrating, repetitive and hard work (while at the same time being the most amazing thing in the world!). But couple all that with having no money, barely enough food, no real home to live in, no job prospects and no education, and parenting becomes near impossible. Meeting with the parents and guardians of the Kiwi Sponsorships students on graduation day has always been such a special time for me, as they show their immense gratitude to the sponsors for supporting their children in their education, but this year I felt struck by the realisation of how difficult it had been for these parents, guardians, grandparents and distant relatives to simply raise these children to where they now were – and I recognised that just having brought them up was an achievement in itself. Most of these adults had never made it beyond primary education themselves and were sustenance farmers who lived at the mercy of the rains, caring for at least half a dozen children in their simple mud brick huts. And here were their offspring now graduating as journalists, nurses, midwives, plumbers, electricians, teachers and lab technicians. I now understood the full extent of the immense pride they felt at seeing their children have the chance of a future they never even dared to dream about. And that filled me with a newfound pride for what we are achieving in the community – this wasn’t just about the children, but also about the adults that raised them, doing the best they could with what little they had. Anything I can do to help make their tough lives a little easier is immensely rewarding – and appreciated beyond belief.

Having Kirsty at my side on this trip after our initial blind date at KAASO 10 years ago (incredible now to think that we didn’t know each other when we first moved to the village!) was very special. It was amazing to share the experience – both that of being at KAASO, but also of having had to leave our boys behind in NZ. We both missed our little ones like crazy and I definitely won’t be rushing to leave Jack again anytime soon, but it was worth it in the end. He was soooo well looked after by his dada and his Nana Jas, who came to stay, and it meant that I could go to the village worry-free after my two-year absence. Jack is so incredibly well loved, and while that will forever continue, it’s also important to me to share some of that love with children who could do with a little more love in their lives.

So now I’m home to spend time with my boys, reflect on my time in the village, and get ready for Christmas, my favourite time of year. Crazy to think this time last year we were waiting for Jack to arrive – and now he’s not far off turning one. Oh, how time flies.

Thank you for sharing my journey and for all your continued support for KAASO. To all my wonderful sponsors, your reports, photos, videos and letters will be coming to you as quickly as Jack’s nap times allow!

With love and gratitude,

Em xoxoxo

Let the adventure begin

Posted on November 7, 2019 by ileftmyheartinuganda

Greetings to you all,

Well, it’s certainly been a while! The last year has been one of the most incredible of my life – welcoming our little Jack Henry into the world and experiencing the most immense joy at seeing the world through his eyes has been mind blowing. It sounds silly, but I truly never realised how much I would love being a mama until Jack came into our life. And now I’m totally smitten.

I have spent every minute of every day with him and, until now, a few hours while he’s sleeping is the longest we’ve been apart. But all of that is about to change. Tonight I board a 17 hour flight to Dubai and then onwards to Entebbe where Dominic and Rose will be waiting to take me back to my village home. I feel sick at the thought of leaving my little monkey behind, but also incredibly excited to see my Ugandan family after two years apart.

I’m so thrilled to have Kirsty joining me – one of my original muzungus and a supermum of two boys, also leaving them behind for this short stint so that we can be back in the village that stole our heart. It was 10 years ago this year that Kirsty, Cherie and I first went to KAASO and it’s also an amazing 20 years since KAASO began – starting with those 12 children, now home to over 600. A year of milestones! This time two years ago I was in the village with my Kiwi, Aussie and Ugandan families celebrating my Ugandan wedding to Nath, now I go with Kirsty to celebrate the 20 years of KAASO, 10 years of the Kiwi Girls and a much-awaited reunion with the 69 bright sparks in the Kiwi Sponsorships programme (soon to become 71 thanks to the two new sponsors who have already come on board for next year – if anyone is interested in taking on a child, I have a list of 7 more students looking for support!).

I have never been to KAASO as a mama. I went first as a wide-eyed volunteer, I returned 18 months later as a friend, and then over the years of repeat visits that friendship became more akin to family. But this trip feels like the most significant yet – now, as a mother, I get to feel the full force of how important the work being done at KAASO is, to truly understand what it means to love and support a child – something I don’t believe I could feel the true extent of until now. I had loved before, I had felt before, I had been incredibly passionate before, but the fierce love I have for Jack, the kind of love that makes me feel I could move mountains, part oceans and blow trees over, is like nothing else. I was always an overly emotional girl and now I’m almost frightened to return to KAASO with my ever-heightened sense of feeling. It’s going to be an emotional few days for me I know!

So, with a heart full to overflowing, I leave my little Jack Henry behind in the safe and warm arms of his dada, his nana and his Auntie Haylee, so that I can be reunited with the original Henry that inspired this all – and Dominic, Rose, their family and the 600 children of KAASO…

My 10 days out of New Zealand gives me 8 days in Uganda, just one week in the village. It’s going to be frantic, it’s going to be a whirlwind, it’s going to be hard at times but I know I will be fine, I am doing the right thing. There are children to visit, construction projects to oversee, priority lists to update, Graduation Ceremonies to organise and the 20 years of KAASO to celebrate. I will not have a minute to dwell on my longing for my boy(s!).

So wish me luck, and let the adventure begin…

Much love,

Em (a.k.a. Madam Emma or Mama Jack Henry as I’m now known!) xxx

A profound influence

Posted on December 9, 2017 by ileftmyheartinuganda

And then it was over. Five weeks, gone in a heartbeat, the days too quickly being swallowed by time and now I find myself winging my way northwards, to London, trading dirt paths for multi-lane roads, rows of banana palms for blocks of flats, equatorial heat for December cold. I love London but my heart is heavy. Leaving my Ugandan home hurts every time but somehow this time feels harder than other years. I think this has been the most incredible of all my trips, full to bursting with so many happy moments, with both families there to share in the joy and, finally, with my love at my side, walking beside me through the village he has heard so much about since the day we first met. Usually I am sad to leave but excited to be reunited with Nath but now, having had him in the village with me from the start, I wish I could have stayed so much longer. But time marches to the beat of its own drum, out of my hands, unwilling to be slowed. So here we are.

There are so many moments from the past few weeks to write about, it’s hard to know where to begin, but I will do my “level best”. Thanks to a donation from Northbourne Park School in the UK, KAASO was able to buy a projector which meant we were able to screen the bus video to the children, reliving the joy of the day the bus drove into KAASO, as well as delighting the children with images of Bermuda – up till then, simply a name written on the side of their bus and now on their water tanks, a name that inspired fear of the mysterious Bermuda triangle, which the children were always terrified I’d disappear into. It was such a thrill watching their faces as they saw Beau’s amazing documentary for the first time, bringing a wave of emotions back over me, reliving that glorious day.

We celebrated KAASO’s last day of the school year with the nursery children’s graduation ceremony. Nath, as the guest of honour, played the role of Chancellor, presenting certificates to each tiny pupil who will next year join Primary One, officially starting their primary education. The children were so excited to come up and shake Nath’s hand and pose for their photos, some with parents or guardians, others alone.

As the ceremony ended, the school gates buzzed with motorbikes piled high with mattresses and metal suitcases, as the children went home for the holidays, leaving us with just a few dozen remaining pupils. As the younger children were leaving, the older ones were returning, the Kiwi Sponsorships students coming back from secondary school to KAASO to help out in the holidays, their way of giving back in thanks for the support the school has given them over the years. I was so happy to be reunited with my old friends, now growing up and transitioning from children to adults making their way in the world. It was busy and exciting and hectic trying to catch up with them all as they arrived en masse, eager to tell me about their year at school, especially the eleven Senior One students who started secondary this year. I lived their highs and lows, their challenges as they battled bouts of malaria, their excitement as they shared their highlights of their year – our wedding, school visiting days and tours, listened to their dreams of future plans and helped guide them in their projects for the holidays – piggeries, passionfruit gardens, matooke plantations and poultry projects.

As my visits ran through the days and into the nights, Haylee was busy with Nurse Jackie and the remaining KAASO students making crafts for our Christmas market back in Australia. Nurse Jackie, in between looking after sick children in the school sick bay, has now made over 400 placemats and I’m so incredibly proud of her. It’s been a huge project and one I hope we can continue as they are just gorgeous – an idea inspired initially when I wanted a Ugandan touch at our NZ wedding so commissioned the students to make 150 placemats which proved to be a huge hit. We continued last year, selling them at a Bermudian Christmas market and now it’s Wangi’s turn! The secondary students also made Christmas stars and mobiles and now all our bags are full to bursting with beautiful Ugandan crafts. Watch this space for the Suubi Sanyu craft division!

As the crafts took shape inside, so did the pathways outside, as Nath and his team of Kiwi Sponsorship boys pushed wheelbarrows of earth around the school, creating trenches, drains and pebbled paths to stop the chronic dust from overtaking, dust that turns to mud in the rainy season and makes moving around the school a challenge. After a solid week of 12-hour days of hard labour, the boys proudly laid the final paving stones outside Dominic and Rose’s house and the KAASO Pathways & Drainage project part one was completed – a huge achievement! Dominic laughed that no one had ever seen such a hard-working muzungu in the district – and Nath sure has the blisters to prove it. The boys were paid one soda a day but no one complained – it’s their way of appreciating the support they’re receiving in their education and doing their bit to help KAASO keep moving forward.

For seven weeks now, KAASO has not had to pump water once, the school now being sustained by the tanks from the Bermuda Water Project – four x 20,000 litre concrete tanks and a 10,000 litre plastic tank ensuring that no drops of precious rainwater are wasted. People from all around the community are coming to admire the system and Dominic can’t stop beaming.

Our final night at KAASO, we had the most beautiful farewell party sitting out under the stars while the students sang and danced for us and the teachers gave moving tributes and expressed their immense gratitude for the work done over the past month. It was hard to stop the tears from falling listening to their heartfelt words and when Nurse Jackie lead the students in singing ‘Leaving on Jet Plane,’ a song I taught them in 2009, I gave up trying to stop the tears. But Dominic has an uncanny way of making me switch from tears to laughter in a matter of seconds and soon we were all up dancing, upbeat Congolese melodies ringing out in the starry night. The pathways complete, Nath’s final legacy was building a fire pit up outside Dominic and Rose’s house, and the party was soon transplanted to the fireside. Thus I found myself that final night sitting by the roaring flames grinning from ear to ear as the teachers and matrons danced, and I caught up with Brenda, my little friend from Primary One in 2009, now at secondary school, 15 years old and almost as tall as me. She laughed back at the days when she barely spoke English and I used to call when I was away from KAASO and Rose would put her on the phone to talk to me and all she could say was ‘yes’ – and now here we were talking about her future plans of becoming a nurse, the songs she loves to write and sing, and sharing her dreams of all she hopes to do in her life. Like a proud mother, I just shake my head in wonder and marvel at the journey I have taken.

In his speech at our wedding, Nath thanked Dominic and Rose for all the love and kindness they have shown me, pointing out that I met the two of them and everyone at KAASO before I met him and it really brought home to me the profound influence that KAASO has had on my life. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t come to KAASO with Cherie and Kirsty back in 2009. I can’t even imagine it. KAASO has shaped me in so many ways and I am who I am today because of this beautiful village community. So even though my heart still feels heavy as I fly away from my Ugandan home, I can be nothing but grateful for having found KAASO – and being able to share it with those I love most.

Till next time…

My big fat Ugandan wedding – and other stories…

Posted on December 4, 2017 by ileftmyheartinuganda

My trips to Uganda are always incredibly busy but I think this one has to take the cake. Somehow I didn’t quite get my head around how manic it would be juggling my 56 sponsor visits, the official opening of the Bermuda Water Project, the Kiwi Sponsorships Graduation, starting up a placemat and crafts business, going through all the Suubi Sanyu student microloan fund projects, celebrating our very own Ugandan wedding and hosting 10 muzungus (Swahili for white people – literally means ‘one who wanders aimlessly’ after the early missionaries in Africa!) in the volunteer house… Throw in a safari, the nursery students’ graduation, an accounting workshop, a day at the lakeshore for the teachers’ annual staff party and a visit to a local coffee producer, and there hasn’t been much time to breathe! But I can’t help but love every second.

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As I write, Nath is outside with a team of Kiwi Sponsorship boys building much-needed pathways through the school, stopping the students from skidding through pools of mud when the rainy season hits with force and preventing the waves of dust that billow through the dry season. Work is also underway on a netball field thanks to funds from St Paul in Australia – Nath’s old school where his mum works – as well as the St Paul Australia/St Paul Uganda garden. Other donations are going to construct a latrine and changing room for the teachers – for 18 years, the teachers have shared the children’s pit latrines and it’s about time they had a toilet of their own. These are just some of the many projects on KAASO’s priority list that are being tackled and, as always, the vision of the school continues to blow me away.

Our Ugandan wedding was only 10 days ago but I have to pinch myself to believe it actually happened. Of course I knew that it was going to be huge but it’s another thing to actually experience the full weight of the love of a school, a village and a community. The day started at 6:30am, in the dark, being told it was time for me to leave to get ready – had I bathed? I was still in bed but jumped out and tried to quickly prepare myself for what was about to be one of the biggest days of my life. Mama, Jas and Haylee came with me to the local Bridal Salon in Kyotera where absolute hilarity ensued as they tried to work out how to style my hair – no one had ever worked with Western hair before, never mind long blonde locks – most African women wear synthetic weaves. Haylee fortunately stepped in to help create the bun required to prop up my (compulsory) crown and veil. Being sewn into my enormous princess dress, having high heels strapped to my feet and jewels bedazzling my neck will forever be etched in my memory – not to mention the moment we all stepped out onto the main street of Kyotera which didn’t know what had it hit it – a giant muzungu meringue with a team of hot pink bridesmaids (I love that Haylee’s first time as a bridesmaid was in Uganda!) and two muzungu mothers in satin gomesi, the traditional Baganda dress. We certainly caused a stir! We drove through the streets of Kyotera to the home of a parent from KAASO who hosted us for a wedding breakfast of beans, rice, chapatti and spaghetti. An hour and a half late, the boys joined us, inverting the tradition of the bride being the one to keep the groom waiting… We had a you-had-to-see-it-to-believe-it photo shoot in the back streets of Kyotera before starting our police-led convoy through the town, Dire Straits’ ‘Walk of Life’ blaring as our 25 car convoy hooted and bounced its way through the pouring rain, creating a spectacle I don’t think will ever be forgotten in Kyotera.

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Arriving at KAASO, all 600 children along with hundreds of parents and people from the local community were standing in the rain waiting to welcome us, chanting and singing our arrival. We performed the traditional Baganda wedding ritual whereby Nathan has to offer a cock (a rooster!) to Nick, the muko – brother in law – at which point Nick must decide if Nathan’s cock is big enough to trade for his sister… Needless to say there were plenty of laughs! The day continued with speeches, traditional dancing, a song from Brenda which she had written for me, a beautiful tribute from Kim with the Primary Five students, an insane procession of gifts and no less than three outfit changes – from my huge Murial’s Wedding-style white dress to the traditional gomesi to my final ‘party dress’ made by an old student of KAASO who is now a fashion designer in Kampala. I never could have imagined when I first came here that one day I’d be back marrying the love of my life (again) with my entire family there to witness. Beau was a legend, capturing it all and I’m sure there will be a rather entertaining video to come… To top it all off, Ugandan TV was also there and last week, our wedding featured on the national news!

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We barely had time to recover from the wedding celebrations before it was time for the Kiwi Sponsorships Graduation, celebrating two of our nurses – Irene and Teddy – as well as Brian who has completed his secondary school. The day began, as always, with a meeting of the sponsor students who all began by introducing themselves and sharing their dreams of what they hope to become – young doctors, lawyers, teachers, nurses, accountants, plumbers and businessmen in the making. It always makes me so proud to listen to the students inspiring each other, encouraging their fellow students in reaching their dreams. The guardians’ meeting is always one of the highlights of my trip, while being one of the biggest heartbreaks. I struggle to get through my speech each time as I am floored by the humility, strength and gratitude of these guardians, many of whom are elderly jajjas, grandmothers. Having my family there to bear witness to it all was especially moving for me as I am so often overwhelmed by trying to take it all in alone. The graduation ceremony that followed was a time of festivity, laughter and dance as we celebrated our three students who have now completed their education – and thus ending their 6-year Kiwi Sponsorships. That now takes us up to a total of 13 graduated students, all of whom are now making their way in the world in various vocations around Uganda – nurses, vets, pharmacists, plumbers and lab technicians. If anyone is interested in sponsoring a child, you can find more information about it on our website at KAASO Kiwi Sponsorships or contact me directly – I have a list of 11 students who won’t make it to secondary school next year without help so any new sponsors are highly welcome!

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Time is spinning way too fast and while we have already been here a month, it has passed in a heartbeat. With less than a week to go, I wish I could slow down the clock. I love my Ugandan family with all my heart and I love even more that my three families are now joined. When people around the world ask what I do, I always smile and simply say, “KAASO.” It is the most rewarding thing I could ever imagine doing and everyday I feel grateful to have left my heart in this magical little corner of the world.

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