Putti Village
Contributed by Rachelle Lieberman
After our 3.5 hour drive to Mbale, Izzy, Brian, Erin and myself finally pulled up to Putti Village. Putti is a small Jewish village about 10km from Mbale. We were warmly welcomed by hundreds of children and adults, and they were very quick to help unload our van for us.
All of the donations after being unloaded.
After that the women of Putti had arranged a performance for us. They sung and danced beautifully in vibrant dresses. They even made me a dress and managed to get me up to sing and dance with them.
Next, we began to pass out all of the donations we brought. We got sanitary pads for the women, toothbrushes for all, shoes, t-shirts, and coloring books for the kids, and lots of medication that we left in Mbale. They were all so grateful for all we brought them!
That night we had Shabbat services in the synagogue proceeded by Shabbat dinner. It was very interesting to see village life in Putti. It is so simplistic. They barely have electricity, everything is cooked on an open fire, and they all share living quarters. Erin and I slept in a room with at least 12 other people, and the same can be said for the 2 boys. There is such a sense of community, it is very refreshing to see. It may be due to a lack of space and infrastructure, but they are happy!
Boy playing with tire in Putti.
The next morning we once again had Shabbat services and then had to take off to head back to Kampala to rejoin the rest of the group. It took us 5 hours to get back to Kampala due to all the traffic jams, but we are used to those by now. We then joined back up with the rest of the group and had a great dinner at a casino close by.