Nsambya Babies Home, Kampala, Uganda, Africa

Here we are at the Nsambya Babies Home.  We spent two days here with the orphaned babies.  I'm not sure how to put into words the emotions I felt when we first walked in.  The babies saw us and they flocked to us.  It was as if they knew that we were there to love and cuddle them.  They were literally fighting with each other to have us hold them.  I had one in each arm and one on each leg as did my sister Suzy and my parents.  They had a death grip on us.  If you tried to put them down, they would not let you and it was as if they knew that if you put them down, that would be the end of their time to get love and attention.  It was heartbreaking.  When we first entered the babies area, it was so overwhelming.  We didn't know what to expect or what to do and we had all these babies climbing up our legs.  It was so dirty and such a different world from where we've all reared our children and you just can't imagine having your own child being left in a place where the conditions were so bad.  My mom, sister and I locked eyes and we all started to well up with tears when we first got there because the emotions we were all feeling were so intense.  I looked at Suzy and my Mom, and said "Come on, we have to BUCK UP!"  I was saying that as much to myself as I was to them!  Somehow we were able to tuck away many of our outward emotions and get thru it.   

The kids were so starved for love and affection so we spent most of our time playing with them.  There were no toys as we know them.  There were some broken down bikes that looked like they were from the 1970's, rusted and broken.  The kids were kept outside most of the day.  Many were sick with fevers and runny noses. There was no soap or hot water to wash your hands and I was terrified I was going to get sick.  I think we used a bottle of purell each day we were at the babies home!  There were no structured activities or anything for them to do.  They fought a lot and mostly wandered around or wanted us to hold them.

One of the "mothers" as they called the workers took an almost empty can of formula powder and dumped what was left of it on the ground and the babies started to lick it up off the ground. They don't have diapers there so the babies walk around all day and just go potty on the ground.  We had seen them wipe up the pee off the ground with what we called the "Pee Mop".  It was never rinsed or cleaned (there is not such thing as cleaner there that I saw) and they used it again and again.  To see the babies get down on the ground and lick up the powder where one had just pee'd earlier was more than we could take.    One of the 2 year olds who must have had some developmental problems pee'd on the floor and before I could get down the hall to her, she laid down on her belly and started to lick it up.  I yelled "Noooooo, Sambyia....noooo" but she just looked up at me and smiled and then went back to licking it up until I was able to get to her and clean it up with the "pee mop".   If you look closely at the top photo of the little girl in the hallway, you can see the puddle of pee on the floor.  This was after she licked it up and I was getting the mop.  My Dad was taking the photos.

I wish the whole world could see what we saw.  It's just not right to see children being neglected, abused, abandoned, and mistreated.  We spend billions on our dogs and cats in America and yet, we don't do much to help these children.  What we saw here at the orphanage is just one grain of sand in a huge desert in relation to all the other suffering of children in Africa and around the world.  Everywhere we went we saw suffering in every way imaginable.  If you watched American Idol Gives Back, you also saw suffering in many parts of Africa and around the world.  Most of the African countries have some sort of war, famine, genocide, or some type of suffering.  I hope I can open a window for whoever reads this to see that there is tremendous need out there to do something, even if it's small!

When we left the babies home on the first day, we decided that one day in Africa is equal to 5 days at home because it was so strenuous in so many ways as well as well as being able to absorb all that we did and saw.  It was so much that it seemed like it had been 5 days!