Finally arrived!

The first days at Child Hope Ministries were wonderful. These people are just incredibly warm-hearted, I feel like part of the family.

As for volunteering, I think I have come down to earth. If you really want to make a difference, you have to go to larger organizations and be a professional in a specific field. For example, in the field of medicine, social entrepreneurship, sustainable economics or whatever. There, with the training and specific skills you have, you can truly make a difference. For example, after completing my masters, I could train in psychotrauma therapy and then work in war zones or with refugees in general.

Don't get me wrong, in my eyes what I'm doing is still meaningful. There is cultural exchange taking place, I can support the project by incorporating smaller ideas, learning English with the children, helping with household chores, etc. This has a lasting impact on both me and the family. I also have some small ideas on how I can continue supporting the project even after I leave (besides donations), so I will have achieved something small at least. So one should not approach the matter with too high expectations (as always ;).

For those who are interested: what does a typical day look like? We get up very early, starting Monday I will take the youngest to school at 7 o'clock. Then we have coffee and exchange ideas about the upcoming day.

Then we do whatever the day brings, discuss one of the projects or, for example, drive to the house that is currently under construction. The youngest also come back from school quite early and then we have lunch. I spend the afternoon writing, reading, spending a lot of time with the kids and trying to get to know each one a bit better. Then there are various household chores to do (hand washing, for example, takes a really long time, especially because everything gets dirty so quickly) and then it's dinner time. After dinner comes my favorite part of the day, we go jogging and then do exercises in the garden, always with at least 5 kids in tow.

As you can see, life here is pretty relaxed, not much happens in general and it clearly contrasts with the last few months of my life. I have a lot of time to think and have realized that I have actually overdone it with activities. On New Year's Eve, I promised myself to seize everything so that 2016 would be my year, and I have stuck to that so far. I never said no, I went to countless parties, festivals, dates, trade fairs, on vacation, simply to all other events, on city trips, to amusement parks, and so on. It was wonderful, I had so much fun and wouldn't want to take any of it back. But I have realized that one should maintain a certain balance, as with pretty much everything in life. Because if you rush from one event to the next, each one loses some of its shine and you are only halfway present for everything.

As you can see, I think about a lot of things during all this chill time and try to find a bit of inner peace again!

This weekend I'm taking a trip to Jinja, I'm sitting in a café right now and using the Wi-Fi. The accommodations are all too expensive for me (18$ per night, my family could feed 15 children for 2 weeks with that - yes, my sense of money is slowly changing), but I still hope that my travel companion from Kampala will get in touch and I can stay with him. So, I'm starting the day now and I promise the next posts will be a little less diary-like. Oh, it just feels good to let it all out!

Warmest greetings from Jinja and see you soon

ps. internet is also very expensive here (20$ for 2GB) so I won't be online often next month.