22nd - 26th October 2009

:)
Hello party people!

Now for the usual essay-length update, although it's only for 4/5 days this time, so hopefully it'll be a leeeetle bit shorter... As I write there's some awesome Michael Jackson music blaring out in the internet cafe which is making me rather happy! Weather's nice and hot today, lots of sunshine to build up the tans that the team are gradually getting while all of you enjoy classic English cloud and rain. Although to be fair, you all have toilets so I won't gloat too much...

Thursday 22nd - We were all ready to go to Gilgal at half10 but got a letter (classic late African timing) saying that they have mid-term exams so we didn't need to go! It was a real blessing because we were really tired and expected to have an insanely busy week as we were setting up the vulnerable women's group and kids' choir and continuing with the boys' group. It was a beautiful sunny day so I sat outside with music and a book and chilled :D We're slowly covering our prayer wall with arty glittery stuff to the point that we can't stick anything else on. It looks awesome! There was heavy rain and sun at the same time in the afternoon so we went out exploring under our umbrellas to find the rainbow, but apparently Uganda doesn't have any. There just wasn't one; it defied the laws of physics!

So, the main exciting news is the start of Vulnerable Women's Group! Bearing in mind I have limited internet time, we'll call it V.W.G from now on cos it's much quicker to type that. We thought there would only be about 5 ladies cos it rained just before 3 when the meeting was meant to start, and here everything stops when it rains. But we had 33 or 34 women from all round the village crammed into Mum and Dad's front room! It was amazing to see so many people, and apparently there are going to be lots more next week. By the end we had to put 4 mats on the floor and people were sitting on other people and one lady couldn't even get in the door! It's obviously a much needed group. We all introduced ourselves and explained what the group will be for. It's means to be for them to talk and share their experiences and encourage one another in the difficult situations they face. If they stand together as women, they'll be stronger to fight the problems they have. It was a great encouragement to see them all there. One difficulty was that all of them want/need financial help, and obviously we're not here to give handouts, and we had to explain that. It can get very frustrating to constantly be asked for money, but I'm praying for patience and that people will see what we can offer is worth far more than just a little bit of cash.

We have some prayer points:
- For a bigger place for us to meet with them when the group expands, which we're sure it will.
- For all the women to hear the announcements on the village loudspeaker about the meetings, and that they would KEEP TIME! (that's a real problem here)
- We want to start a candle-making business as a source of income for the ladies. They need to be self-sustaining to escape from the poverty they live with and we can't afford to buy the equipment for them to start the business. Please pray that when we write a proposal to Ugandan companies, they want to donate and support the idea. Then we can buy some small machines and wax for the ladies. We can get training for them from the Oasis project Bambejja in Kampala, cos the women there make candles. It's a really useful thing to do; everyone here uses and needs candles and nobody is currently doing it. Please pray that the whole thing goes ahead smoothly and that we have wisdom about how to start it and run it in a sustainable way.

Friday 23rd - Had to get up at 5:45. I HATE FRIDAYS. On matatu at half past 6 to get to Kampala. The stupid taxis are so unreliable that sometimes we leave at half6 and get there at 8:45, but this week we got there at 7:45!!!! SO annoying, but it meant we could briefly check emails before walking up to the project from the Oasis offices. We had a talk from an amusingly named guy - Zedde Mzungu. Bearing in mind he's Muganda, the last name really is hilarious! It was all about Ugandan churches, denominational differences and witchcraft, which cleared up a lot of the questions we've been having lately about that sort of thing. Twas helpful. Then we talked about the holiday in January with Maree - we can only afford to spend 300 pounds on it and the budget price we got from the trustworthy holiday company was $1465!!!! :O We were so disappointed. Means we're going to have to cut LOADS out of it, as in virtually everything! We're trying to decide how to split our time between a safari park and a lake with a beachy island... Hopefully if we minimise travel it'll cost less and we might just have to go for less than the allotted 2 weeks. We could spend some relaxing time in the village though. Anyway! One of the Oasis International Placements arrives this week (tomorrow in fact) and we've invited her and the 2 IPs who are already here to come and visit us sometime. It's nice seeing friendly mzungu faces! When we're in Kampala I deliberately smile at every mzungu I see to make them feel like they have fellow mzungu friends in the middle of the crazy city, but they all look at me like I'm a freak!! Seriously, we're all so moody, we should smile more when we walk down the street! I've decided to keep grinning at white people till i get a smile back now lol...

Got a package from Auntie Boo, Uncle Chris, Lol and Char when we went to the post office on the way home. It was SO good!!! It had a lovely card in it and made me feel all loved :) Plus they sent PROPER ENGLISH CHOCOLATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh the joy :D

Saturday 24th - Washed my hair early in the morning as a bit of quiet time and luxury... I shampooed it twice :) It's amazing how you begin to appreciate the tiny things! Started reading "The God Delusion" by that legend of an open-minded man, Richard Dawkins. Cracks me up how McIntyre's reply book thing, "The Dawkins Delusion", is like a tenth of the length. Classic! Olive and Pastor George, the guy who led the church we visited last Sunday, came to visit with their little adopted daughter called Joy. She was lovely but scared of our white skin! Bless her. While we were talking to them, the 5 of us realised that we're all slowly morphing into one another... We finish each other's sentences, the others now say mate all the time like me and I say hun ALL the time like Nicky. I hope we're not too different when we come home!! Well, not in that way, I hope God changes us in lots of ways! Argh stop rambling Flick... Back to Friday. He left us his internet for a little while, which was a blessing. Meant I got to read some emails :) Kids club started at half2 and went on till 4. The kids had fun running around playing games. We did the story of Samson and I acted out the part of a very convincing strong man, even if I say so myself! As usual it started raining halfway through, so we took the choir under the porch and did some singing with them. They loved it! Yesterday (Sunday) this guy called Albert came to visit; he's in an African dance/band troupe that travel all over Europe performing. they're going to London in 2 weeks to do a few concerts (how jealous am I?!) and he said he'd teach us how to do proper African dancing, and he'd teach Kids Club and choir too :D :D :D I'm SO excited! What a great opportunity for the kids!

After Kids Club we headed to Gilgal for boys and girls group. I went to the girls one this week but there were less girls cos it's visitation weekend (whatever that means!) and some from P7 had exams. Please pray for those students; P7 is the last year of primary school and at the start of November, somewhere between the 1st and 6th, they have their really big exams to see if they can progress to senior school. It's a very stressful time for them, so please pray that they're filled with peace. We didn't have a translator so the group was pretty difficult; we did the story of Mary Magdalene, such a wicked character in the Bible. By the end they seemed to be getting the ideas of devotion and redemption really well though; I LOVE the story of how she goes to anoint Jesus' body and thinks he's the gardener. I just love it :) I was very embarrassed to cry in front of the girls when Becky was talking about it! We spoke to one of the P7 girls afterwards; she needs a lot of support so we're going to meet with her again sometime soon. La Tormenta in the evening (THEY KILLED SANTOS!!!!) and beans with chapatti for dinner - one of our favourite dinners :D

Sunday 25th - Church in the morning was loooong as always but not too bad. I managed to read quite a bit of the Bible during it! I miss Vineyard SO much; it's a very different experience of church but I'm reminding myself that there's no 100% right way of doing church. I just love my family at Vineyard :) After a really quick lunch we went to visit 3 of the women from V.W.G. They were so excited about us going to see them! We left at half3 and didn't get back until 8 :S Pastor Ben and the kids were really worried about us, bless them. The first lady was a widow called Winifred. She had a little mud house with a grass roof like most of the people in the village and sat and talked with us. We told her about the candle-making and craft ideas for the ladies, cos she was looking for some help. She has grandchildren to look after and send to school. One of the kids standing outside had a massively distended stomach; we think it was worms cos she didn't look that malnourished. She was really lovely :) She hadn't managed to buy sodas to serve us so she gave us 3000 shillings to buy our own soda. Seriously, that would have been SO much money from her. We didn't want to take it but we had to out of politeness; that's the way it works here. Her generosity and kindness really touched my heart. It humbles me every time. We just don't expect them to be as giving as they always are when they have so little; it reminds me of the lady who puts her 2 bronze coins into the offering somewhere in the Bible.

The second house was with a lady called Margaret, who was the aunt of another lady called Grace, the mother of a third lady (can't remember her name :S) who had a little son called Junior. They had this little mud house too but they'd decorated it specially for our visit with white cloths and flowers. We put them in our hair and made them laugh when we left :) It was a lovely time. All the 3 women shared their stories and secrets with us; the lady who's name I can't remember is in her early 20s and lost her husband very recently. She tried to get a job by going with a man, but he impregnated her so she couldn't work and had to go back to her Mum. They are desperate. We prayed with them, it's all we can do, and again told them about our plans for the ladies. They seemed really supportive of the ideas so we're going to get them started ASAP. After that they served us tea and biscuits :D We had so much fun! It's like finding sisters, just in a different country. Sounds weird but it's true! The third house was something else... There are 2 ladies living there, called Justine and Lydia. Both have young children and look pretty young themselves. They live in a brick house, still only one room just slightly taller. They rent it from Lydia's husband. He has left Lydia with her children for another woman, so she has 2 children to care for and is very heavily pregnant (about 8 months). She can't work and they literally have nothing. They use fabric and curtains to close off the living part of the room when people come to visit; the only thing behind the curtain was a mattress on the floor. Lydia told us how her husband left and comes back demanding rent, sleeps with her by force and then leaves. She can't say no because he'll beat her or chase her out of the house and she has nowhere else to go. The women here are sometimes powerless to change their situations, even if they wanted to. They can't afford contraception. He has infected her with HIV and so the likelihood is her children have it too.

Justine looks really young, but it actually very old. She has six children; the oldest is a boy who's already married and is 18 years old. People here sometimes get married to alleviate their own poverty - needless to say, it doesn't work most of the time. She has 2 of her children living with another relative somewhere else and the 3 youngest ones are living with her. Her husband lives in the village but is never around; he has also left her for other women. He drives past on his boda and his children see him, run shouting "Daddy!" and he just drives right past and ignores them. What an awful example of fatherhood. It broke my heart listening to her story. At this point it was getting dark outside so the room was lit by the flame of a paraffin burner, and it was just so poignant. It's hard to explain; being somewhere like that, smelling the mud of the walls and hearing the insects outside and not being able to see beyond the few people sitting around you... It's a whole other way of seeing the world. Meeting women like that, who are so glad just to serve us tea and sit with us for awhile, who thank us for being there and spending time with them, when really it's an honour for us. A genuine privilege. I can't even begin to tell you how grateful I am to be here. She is so strong, to stay with her children like that and still be joyful, because she really was a gracious person. She shone with it! Then we found out she has HIV and doesn't take medication because she's scared as she doesn't know how to take it. It sounds silly, but that's the extent of the lack of education here. We're now thinking about organising for someone (probably Olive because she has a clinic) to come and do a health seminar for the women on one of the Thursdays. If we could get a bell to ring over the loudspeaker system when they need to take their medication, then that would help. We're also planning a Youth seminar day sometime in December, and will do one for the women around the same time. There's so much we want to do, so many ways that we could serve these women. Justine had this little girl curled up on her lap, her daughter Esther, who is also HIV+ and it just broke me inside. It's so unfair. How can their Dad just leave them? Please pray for those women that we visited.

So it's now Monday and I have to get off the internet; 2mins left! I'll write more on here either on Friday or Monday. Thank you for keeping up with me :) Feel free to email or write whenever:

felicityosborn@gmail.com
and
Flick Osborn
Oasis Uganda
PO Box 3518
Kampala
Uganda

Lots and lots of love to everyone at home. Thank you for praying :)
Flick
xXx