Avery Acuff with friends she made in the village of Kiwawah in Uganda, Africa Hammond School's trash was Uganda Royal School and Orphanage's treasure.

When rising Hammond senior Avery Acuff, 17, committed to a three- week mission trip to the orphanage, located in the village of Kiwawah, Hammond donated the entire contents of its lost and found clothing to her. More than 40 polo and athletic shirts and 20 pairs of khaki pants made the 20- hour trip by airplane and bus and were delivered to the children at the orphanage.

In addition, the athletic department donated soccer balls and jump ropes to Acuff, who said the children were thrilled with the new clothes and equipment.

"They loved everything," she said. "The soccer balls disappeared immediately, but the jump ropes were returned to me every night, because they had no place to put them where they would be safe."

Acuff found the conditions at the orphanage, and Uganda in general, to be shocking, but it was nothing compared to where it was several years ago.

Originally the school that served 300 children at the time was located on a quarter- acre of land. Children slept two to three to a bed in bunks stacked three to four high.

With a generous donation of 30 acres of land, along with the help of several churches throughout the southeast, a new facility was built that now holds 500 children. The orphanage's cause was also assisted by two fundraising singing tours throughout the United States by the Uganda Children's Choir in 2007 and 2008.

But it was still a shock for Army brat Acuff, who has lived and traveled to many places in the world in her short life, including Washington DC, Germany, Colorado, Scotland, Italy, Columbus, Ga., and now, Columbia.

"I was amazed at how filthy the entire country was," she said. "The entire country is in poverty. There's no middle class there."

Acuff said she was disgusted by the bugs in the showers and the lizards in the houses, as well as the dusty markets full of merchandise "that even Goodwill wouldn't take."

Her mother, Martha, who had been to Africa on a similar mission trip, said she tried to warn her eldest daughter of the extreme conditions in the country, but Avery said she was still unprepared for the squalor.

"I asked my mom, 'why didn't you tell me that most of the world lives like that?' but I guess she had tried," Acuff said. "I just had to see it for myself."

Coming away from the trip, Acuff said she had a whole new appreciation for her American lifestyle, but she also found herself curiously admiring her new Ugandan friends.

"It's not that they don't know about America, they do," she said. "They also know that they are trapped in this cycle, in this place, and they aren't getting out."

A downer? Hardly.

"They are filled with joy," she said. "There's a lot of dancing and a lot of singing. They don't have anything, but it just doesn't seem to matter."

Their joy extended to blond- haired, blue- eyed Avery, whom they regarded as a celebrity in their midst.

"One little boy wrote me a letter saying that I was the queen of England," she said. "They were always very appreciative of everything I did."

Acuff said she didn't feel she made a significant impact on the children's lives, but said it certainly changed her thinking.

"I feel like I didn't do much for Uganda, but it made a big impression on me," she said.