Hi Everyone

We had an inspiring time yesterday. We visited a local village and visited a family’s home. Today we visited one of the Watoto villages perched on a hill outside Kampala.

Watoto is a holistic approach to the care of children, most are orphaned and some started life rescued from rubbish bins at the side of the road. Their dream is to build Creative centres so that the children can learn music, dance, tv production etc. We think it’s something that Compassionart can get involved in.

Just to see kids being loved and properly cared for is amazing, this is a great organisation, check out www.watoto.com. Our boys Noah and Levi also thought it was pretty cool to get to play football in their playground. till tomorrow, The Smiths xx

Hi Friends

The emotion of the week is telling now. Our own kids are doing well, but it’s hot and everywhere takes a while to get around.

Today, Andy Hutch, Mark Debnam, Paul Smith, Jeremy Cowart and I took our custom made Compassionart logo inflatable back to the Watoto village to try and shoot the front cover of the album. It’s 40 ft high  x 20ft wide and has a dominant presence!! We inflated it on the piece of land that is reserved for a creative centre. These ladies (often rescued from abusive husbands themselves) live in the village and each look after 8 orphaned children in a little house. True champions of our faith, we were all truly humbled to meet people like this.

Thanks for following our journey this week, I don’t take it lightly that we were able to take six young children to Africa and give them this experience, but we want them to grow up with this in their DNA, to have it in their blood that this life is not about them but about serving people that need help.

We arrived home tonight, 10 pieces of luggage, pram, buggy, car seats and a whole lot of happiness.

Much Love , The Smiths xx

Hi All,

Had another challenging day today.

I took this shot of a kid staring at me through the window. The eyes are the window to someones soul. This soul had a difficult start to life but if you look close enough he has hope behind his eyes.

We also met with a lady today who drove 12 hours from the North of Uganda just to tell us about her organization that is dealing with the horrors of Child War and soldiers. She told us about rebels coming into their villages and abducting young boys (as young as 4 0r 5) only to take them into the bush to train them to be killers for war. Sadly they have started to take the girls as well (child brides), which are abused and raped by the soldiers.

We also learned today that by 2010 there will be 50 million children affected with the HIV/Aids Virus. We need help and wisdom to do the right thing.

The Smiths xx

Hi Everyone

Today we visited one of the Watoto orphan villages perched on a hill in Suubi, 45 mins drive from Kampala.

Watoto is a holistic approach to the care of children. Most are orphaned and some started life rescued from rubbish bins and bushes at the side of the road. Their dream is to build creative centres so that the children can learn music, dance, tv production etc. We think it’s something that Compassionart can get involved in. Just to see kids being loved and properly cared for is amazing. This is a great organization. Check out www.watoto.com. Our boys Noah and Levi also thought it was pretty cool to get to play football in their playground.

Till tomorrow, The Smiths xx

Today we went on a 2 hr drive out of kampala into the African countryside.

We were guests of Compassion UK, seeing all they’re doing for thousands of children and mothers who are in difficult sometimes tragic situations.

If you haven’t sponsored a child through Compassion, it’s a brilliant thing to do, to actually know that you’re changing someones life is truly exhilarating.

We found a beautiful family living in the woods in this mud hut. I can truly say I’ve got friends in high places.

much love, The Smiths xx