Greetings from under the shady palms of Uganda,

It hasn’t even been a week but I am well and truly back into the swing of things here in my Ugandan home. With a stomach full of fried grasshoppers (’tis the season…) and teeth sugar-coated from sweet sodas after a local school visit, I sit reflecting and trying to capture the past few days.

Rose surprised me at Entebbe airport, meeting me off my flight with Dominic and a bunch of roses wrapped in colourful cellophane. It was incredible to see her, I have always had to wait for the long journey south before being reunited with this amazing mother-to-600 and friend to me. The three of us chatted animatedly on the trip down to KAASO, catching up on all the latest news from KAASO and the surrounding community. We pulled in through the school gates after dark and I was overwhelmed by a 300-child choir serenading my return, their little ‘wimowaes’ ringing through the village. My room and the dining room were all hung with hand-drawn signs welcoming me home, plastic flowers adorned my mosquito net and balloons hung from my chair inviting me to ‘sit comfortably.’ It was good to be back.

I don’t know whether it was the postponement of my trip or simply the fact that I continue to return every year, but since being back I have felt an enormous sense of appreciation from everyone I meet for my annual visits and I am constantly showered by thanks and gratitude. “Thank you for loving us,” rings in my ears daily. “Really, you are loving us so much and we are so grateful for all you are doing and those people back home, eh, they are loving us too!” More than they could ever know.

It’s the last week of the school term before breaking off for the Christmas holidays and the children are preparing with fervour for the upcoming speech day on Sunday at which I have been invited to be the guest of honour. It seems this is an event to rival any Broadway production as the school constantly rings with the sound of drumming and singing as the children practice over and over again, ensuring their Sunday performance to the parents and guardians will be perfect. Little Brenda, a girl I first met as a 6-year-old in 2009, is the main soloist and I feel so incredibly proud watching her move around the grassy stage, thinking back on the days when she was too shy to look me in the eye, never mind perform to a crowd. These continued visits help remind me how far these children and the school as a whole have come over the past 6 years and I am forever humbled to be part of something so extraordinary.

The children have also been enjoying picking up where we left off with our music sessions, singing with me under the shade of trees around the school grounds. Stephen, one of the Kiwi Sponsor students, is back from secondary school for the holidays and has been coming for daily guitar lessons. He learns so quickly and can’t stop beaming as he plays and it’s just a joy to see. What’s been even more rewarding has been watching him teach the guitar to other children at KAASO, some of the older children who have been singing with me since 2009 and have always wanted to learn to play. Now they have their chance and it’s coming from one of their own students, something I only could have dreamed of a few years ago.

In between rehearsals, music sessions and late-night catch ups over the dinner table with Rose, I have been working with Dominic to put together a solar budget to help bring back to life the system installed in 2009 which is no longer working. We have had many lengthy discussions, I have climbed multiple triple-decker bunks to photograph wiring systems and charge controllers, sat in solar offices in the nearby town of Kyotera waiting for men to arrive on the back of motorbikes bringing information and quotes. It’s a lengthy process but we are getting there slowly and I hope that by the time I leave we will be able to bring solar-powered light back to KAASO.

The Kiwi Sponsor students are slowly trickling back to KAASO as they finish up their year at school and now I find them helping around the compound, cooking, cleaning, sweeping, feeding chickens, bathing smaller children and doing all they can to help Dominic and Rose, their gratitude evident for the adopted parents who have supported them so much and enabled them to get to where they are. It is such a pleasure to see their smiling faces and we are planning a Christmas party for them all before I leave in December.

Every time I come back to Uganda I am reminded of how truly incredible this place is, how determined the children are to succeed against considerable odds, how dedicated Dominic and Rose are to helping them, how far KAASO continues to come and how much joy I receive from simply being here. There is, as always, a long way to go and many mountains still to climb, but as Rose said in the light of a dim bulb hanging over the dining table last night, “You can’t do everything, but at least you can do something.”