Agnes' Children's Care

The past week has primarily involved the making a documentary for Agnes’ Children’s Care, an orphanage in Maligita, 30km outside Jinga. It was wonderful to visit the orphanage for a day to learn about how it works, meet the kids and find out how they have come to be in the orphanage. I also met Agnes, a lady with a wonderfully warm African heart and a vision to help the orphans.

I visited about 6 other similar orphan care projects in and around Jinga before deciding on making the documentary and felt that Agnes’s Children’s Care was doing a fantastic job and most in need of any kind of financial assistance. Agnes, together with two other matrons, are responsible for 50 children, mostly orphaned by the devastating affects of HIV and AIDS. They do their utter best to provide for the children but it is difficult to feed, clothe, school and accommodate 50 children without any sort of funding. I was touched by the caring nature of the people at the orphanage. I will return today to give them the copies of the documentary. Agnes has various overseas contacts she plans to send the DVD’s to in order to hopefully gain a little more financial assistance.

Apart from the documentary, I have been doing a bit of kayaking most days. Living on the water’s edge means that it is quick and easy to get a quick run down the river in. It takes about one and a half hours to kit up, get on the water, bumble down about 5km’s of river (including 2 grade 5 rapids and a few grade 4’s) and catch a boda boda (motorbike) back to the campsite. What a life.

Today I am heading back down to the Hairy Lemon, an island in the middle of the river 25km downstream. I will stay there for about 4 or 5 days, enjoying the excellent nearby play waves and a bit of a holiday within a holiday. There is no electricity down there and limited phone signal so I will be a little out of contact for a few days.