Day 10 “Workshops galore….”

                Thankfully we had not been woken up by the rooster or the call to prayer like usual but still work up early at 7am. Due to our time constraints we were all on our own for breakfast eating cereal. We all packed into the 9 passenger van and two other cars to head to Pastor John Muwenge’s church where the workshops were to take place. Our several travels to Mukuru had prepared us; however, this time was different it was raining severely.  The roads were very bad because they had been washed away and the open sewage had spilled over but we hiked into Mukuru with our stuff for the workshops. Many people were there waiting but also many trickled in due to the weather. Also, the Daystar students arrived thankfully despite the difficulties. With them came Lucas and Laura both students that we met. Laura is from Michigan and had been helping Elijah at the orphanage in Muchakos on her 10 month stay thus far. Lucas is a student that is affiliated with Afrizo (a choir that has traveled to the United States) and is very musically talented. The workshops were a great success we discussed First Aid, Sanitation, Clean water technology, Suturing, and Child and Maternity health maintenance. The workshops went on for more than 4 hours with some food and refreshments at the end. The refreshments included: samosas, chips (French fries), and sausages.  We were able to get to know a lot of the community workers and children in Mukuru.

After our long sessions and long day the team that was left: Josiah, Julie, Rachel, Lucas, Laura, Dr. Laura, Jillo, Faria, Amanda, Alyssa, Dr. Furaha, and I. Unfortunately, when we finally got back to Lancaster around 7pm we realized that Lance had the keys and he was no where to be found. So we decided to walk once again to the Nakumatt to get dinner while we waited for Lance and the other team to get back.  We went to the restaurants at the Nakumatt and had a great meal with everyone. Then, we got a hold of Lance so they came to pick us up instead of us taking a Citi Hoppa back to Lancaster. Sadly, they only had a 5 passenger car so we had to take 3 trips back and fourth to get everyone home. The reason that they insisted we take the car back was they had heard some people napping around the area and didn’t want us out at night. On one of the trips back from the Nakumatt the car did get pulled over by the police. They took the people from the car and brought them into the alley and tried to say they were going to take them to jail because they didn’t have a seat belt on; however; the matatu’s have 10+ people in them without any seatbelts. We realized that it was a scam to get money to bribe the police men.  We did not give them any money despite the many tactics they used; thankfully Duncan had been driving because he was able to convince them otherwise. Eventually, we all got home safely with some a little shaken up.  As we wound down for the night a discussed our plans for the medical camp we continue to pack medications that would be used at the medical camp pharmacy. We didn’t get to bed once again till 2 am and with an early morning we were all excited but exhausted.