Oh my goodness - it's December tomorrow. What happened?! Can someone please tell me where the year went??? It's officially 11 weeks since we left the UK tomorrow - that means roughly halfway through our whole trip. It's a scary thought; I'm realising more and more by the day how much I LOVE this place. I now call it home! If I'm talking about England-home I say "home-home" to distinguish between the two. Leaving is going to suck :( BUT at the same time, all of you at home are such a big part of my time here. Your support, prayers, emails and letters keep me going to an extent that I really didn't expect! I wish I could take Uganda and people from home and just merge the two and mush them up so that I never have to leave either of them :) Onto this week's update...
Tuesday 24th - Sat around in PJs all morning talking about going on holiday, life, girly stuff etc. Felt like a sleepover, twas nice! Strangely normal... Schools have broken up now so there's nowhere to visit. On reflection I should have been more sensible and read more of my books for interview but I wasn't sensible, so I don't know why I'm bothering to reflect on that...! Bex stayed home from the tailoring school when we visited in the afternoon so that she could plan a big team Bible/personal time. She was really excited about it :) Tailoring school was good. The women still don't talk to us as much as we would like but it's getting better slowly by slowly. I cut some of my own dress templates and sewed them which was pretty cool; my fashion designer cousin Char would be proud! (Love you Lol and Char!)
Bex's team time was awesome; we had communion with Mirinda (purple soda) and doughnuts :D Then we all wrote something encouraging for each other on a bit of paper, did some creative stuff and listened to some music. We've been talking a lot about gifts of the spirit and praying that God shows us what our specific gifting is and that he grows them all in us more. We think mine is wise prophecy, which is pretty cool :D Bex gave me a Bible passage from Hosea 2, which keeps cropping up for me.. Interesting!
Halfway through the team time, we had some terrible news. You might remember I wrote a while ago about a tiny 18-month old baby who came to church called Derek, sister Esther's grandson. Well, he was getting gradually more healthy; even though he was insanely malnourished, he was apparently much bigger than he was when his mum first abandoned him. He died very suddenly on Tuesday from pnuemonia, which Esther couldn't afford to have treated. By the time she was on the way to a hospital it was too late and his little body couldn't deal with the illness. It's absolutely gutting to know that a baby you've cuddled and played with has died. I can't imagine how awful and painful it is for Esther. Please pray for her and for his older sister Angela, who lives with Esther. At first it just didn't sink in. I guess you never know how you're going to respond to things like that happening. We all felt strangely numb. A bit later it sunk in and I just wanted to get out of Uganda as quickly as possible. It's hard to explain. This is the little boy Ellie and I joked about taking home sitting in my flight bag so that we could buy a house and keep him forever. It sounds stupid and melodramatic but it's heartbreaking and if I feel that way, I can't begin to imagine how it is for Esther.
Wednesday 25th - Went to Lilo as usual in the morning. Not many kids there cos they've all gone back to their families in various places now that term has ended. Ellie and Lucy sorted out a game of 'Capture the Flag' for them, which they loved :) The paper flags got completely trashed and loo roll that was tied around them to show if they were in or out was left strewn across the school compound, but it was good times! Then headed back early cos we had to leave the house at 12 to go to Derek's burial. The vehicle we were expecting didn't turn up till 1, so we were insanely late esp cos we had to go into the depths of the village to pick people up! THEN the matatu we had hired broke down on a random countryside road and we had to wait another hour for a vehicle to come and get us. The burial was due to be at 2 so we were really worried about missing it. While we were waiting I played with a load of kids who lived nearby.. At first there were only a few but gradually more and more congregate to see the strange mzungus, so there ended up being about 25 of them! They taught me a load of Luganda words... "amaso" is eyes, "nindo" is nose, "omuwuumba" is mouth and "eviri" is hair. And "cubina" is bottom, which is kinda rude, but I didn't know so I was saying it and wondering why they kept bursting out laughing!!
Eventually a vehicle came to get us; we thought earlier that we were getting a truck, then turned out we had a matatu but we were gutted cos we wanted to be able to say we'd gone on the back of a lorry, so we prayed that God would send a truck, then we broke down, THEN a truck came to get us!!! WOOP! It was awesome :D :D :D We had to climb up over the wheel and sat with the wind in our hair on the bumpiest journey EVER! We really made Mama and Tata laugh :) Got to the burial late, we missed seeing the body and hearing about his life and all the talking bit. I was gutted cos I so wanted to be there for that... When we got off the truck Esther came up to us crying and wailing - it was so awful to see her grief. They're very expressive here; in some ways it's really good for them, cathartic, but it's hard for us to see cos we're not used to it. I wish I'd seen his body. I know that sounds weird, and it would have been horrible, but it doesn't feel real or properly done without seeing him. They carried the coffin to a hole that had already been dug round the back of his father's house (that's the tradition when children die) and filled it in straight away. His father wasn't even there, and his mother turned up despite abandoning him, screaming and wailing. It's hard to feel sympathy or compassion for her; I don't understand how someone can neglect their child so completely and forgo their basic mothering instinct like that, then turn up when the child has already died. I felt so angry with her! Wrong I know, but it's so hard to respond to someone like that. Mama Rachael actually shouted at her; the women were all really angry :S Got home and just rested with the family cos we were all so tired emotionally and from the crazy truck rides... On the way back there were tons of us on the back of the lorry, 46 in fact, cos they crammed a load of kids on with their school bags!
Thursday 26th - Dossy day :) Gilgal is closed now so we didn't have to go there in the morning and Home Cell was cancelled cos the person we were meant to visit wasn't there. We sat around in our PJs, did some reading and some long-term planning for V.W.G while Becky had her hair braided. It looks very cool :D It's in thick braids flat to her head with red and white beads. Took me a while to get used to the change; I kept doing double takes every time I looked at her! We saw the lady from the village who makes dresses and she brought some beautiful material round, so I drew some dress designs and she's making them to fit me in the silk material :) I'm so excited to see what they look like! Found out that the Christmas programme at Bambejja is from the 7th - 10th December, just before I come home for interview, so we have to plan for that soon... That's about it for Thurs!
Friday 27th - Went into Kampala but didn't have to go to training cos it was a public holiday. Met Maree in town cos it was our last chance to see her before she stops being our coordinator and leaves for NZ on the 3rd. Sad times :( We went to Lubbobbo's, our usual Kampala hangout (how cool are we..!) for a drink, then walked down to the craft market. She needed to go to the pharmacy so it was a kinda quick and abrupt goodbye, but I think that was how she wanted it so we didn't mind :) She wants to come back here and marry Yesen, who she's been with for over a year, but the situation is very uncertain. She needs a full-time paid job first, and that's hard to find, so please pray that she is comforted and strengthened as she goes home and that whatever happens, she would find joy in God. Bit of internet time after the craft market (where I went a bit mental and bought myself 5 pairs of insanely gorgeous earrings as a treat) then back home for samosas as normal. Not much else to tell about Friday!
Saturday 28th - Went to Lilo at half10 to help them plant some trees in the compound and around the boundaries of their piece of land. Saw a few of the kids and talked to the women who make the crafts; the 5 of us all bought a necklace then gave it to someone else on the team, so we all have vaguely matching ones :) A lot of Japanese people were there to visit cos they support the school financially and send volunteers over to live here, so it was good to see some kinda-mzungu faces! Typical African timing meant that by 12 the trees that needed to be planted hadn't arrived, so we had to leave and plan for Kids' Club at home. Before we went though we got some price quotes about sorting out an outside wall with cement and plaster so we can do a mural with the kids in Feb - exciting stuff! Planned for K.C at home, then started at about half 2. It was wicked, did some cool team games and face painted them all into the same teams as last week, so the sticker chart was brought out again. Definitely the best way of doing it! We did the flour game, where we hid bottle lids (we had no sweets!) in flour and they had to get them out with their teeth. Reds were short of team members so I had to do it but I was laughing too much and breathed flour in... I think I still have flour at the top of my nasal cavity!! Funny times... Clothes relay made them look silly and thus made us laugh like last week, wheelbarrow races and dodgeball... Ah don't you wish you were here with us having this much fun?! I love the kids :D Spent ages before we started getting a craft ready for them; we drew out keys, but round them and threaded them with ribbon so they could wear them and wrote "I am the key to the kingdom of heaven" on them. They looked very cool :) The kids decorated them with glitter and feathers etc and really enjoyed it.
Boys and girls group at Gilgal was very different - we had barely any older kids cos they've all gone home, which sucks majorly :( We basically just had the smaller ones from K.C so we just played dodgeball and netball, then called it a day. A group of men keep taking the football pitch at the same time as us and obviously we can't just kick them off so that makes boys group very difficult to run. We need to get the boys to run around and work off their energy before we can do teaching/discussion stuff, plus the footie is what attracts them to come in the first place! Please pray that this is resolved soon.. Also, please pray that we have wisdom about whether to keep running the boys and girls groups over the holidays or not. We really want to stay in touch with the young people and we believe the groups are very important but if the practical stuff isn't in place for us to carry them on then we just can't do it.
Sunday 29th - It rained all through the night and the morning so church started extremely late; we were still at home at 20 to 12!! We planned an awesome session for Sunday school but just couldn't do it cos of the rain and not having enough time... We're starting our Christmas teaching series and making crafts with the kids that they can use in their nativity on Christmas Eve. It's really exciting, we can't wait! :D Shame that we couldn't make the angels that we planned to at Sunday school though, they looked so pretty... I didn't end up going to church cos a lady came to braid my hair at 12 and I thought I would've gone to church and already arrived back home by then, but no. It's kinda 20% done now, even though I sat for HOURS yesterday! It's in really thin braids and it's a lot longer cos I have extensions being put in. I hope it'll look OK, once it's done I'll try to show you some photos on here so you can see :) Luckily meant I could do some reading for my interview though - "What the Bible Really Teaches" by Keith Ward is a really interesting, well-written book (See Mum, I'm doing the reading!!! Hehe, love you)
We visited some of the ladies from V.W.G in the afternoon - trekked out into the middle of nowhere! It was lovely though, to hear their stories and hear how encouraged and uplifted they are by the group. It gives them hope in a way that we just can't imagine. In a lot of ways, it's their lifeline as they struggle to feed and clothe their kids and pay for their school fees. They're in very difficult, stressful situations as a lot of them are dealing with bereavement of husbands or abandonment and they have nowhere to turn. It's very humbling to hear them saying thank you to us, and saying that they never imagined we would come to sit in their homes. I'm so used to it here now; I don't think twice when I sit in their houses. I don't compare it to England cos this is normality now. I don't think "Oh they have so little" or feel pity for them. Yes, they do have so little (Mama Rachael had to give one women some maize cos she literally had nothing in the house for herself and her 4 kids, not even tea leaves) but they're not weak and they're not seeking pity or anything remotely like that. I'm proud that I know these women and that I get to sit in their beautiful homes, and I'm privileged to be trusted with their stories. In the third house we visited there were some absolutely BEAUTIFUL children, particularly one little boy who was looking after his baby brother and being soooo polite and kind to us. We lack lots at home and you only realise it when you meet some of the people here. Last night we just chilled at home, I did some reading and caught up with my journal etc. The whole family are back from various schools/unis now, so the house is full and noisy and lovely :)
And so now it's today, Monday 30th and I'm sitting in Mukono with backache and wristache. Ouch :( Writing this much is never a good plan! It's just gone 11am; we need to leave at 12 so I can be back for 1 cos the lady's coming to finish my hair braiding and I need to go to the supermarket in a mo to buy much needed team supplies! We have some of our household budget leftover so we're going luxury and buying some really nice coffee and hot choc today :D We're currently drinking disgustingly old/crystallised "Good African Coffee" which is good cos it's fairtrade, but good in NO other sense, especially not taste!!! I should probably stop rambling now. Thank you for reading this far again lovely people :) One last prayer point actually: It's 10 days till I'm home for my Cambridge interview. Pleeease cover me with prayer for that! Please pray that the journeys are easy and safe and that the culture shock isn't too intense and that I don't get too panicky or scared about the actual interview. Also, please pray that I'll be able to leave my family for the second time without too much emotional upheaval or loneliness. Thank you :)
Right I really am off now - sending you all tons and tons of love *HUG*
Flick
xXx
Sunday 29 November 2009
Monday 23 November 2009
17th - 23rd November 2009
Helloooo! :)
In Kampala again on our day off... It was Lucy's birthday on Saturday (WOOP!) so we had soda and cake over the weekend and toasted marshmallows that her Mum and Dad sent on candles in our living room. Good times! We've just had burgers for lunch, mzungu food galore, to celebrate so we're having a good day. Went to the post office earlier and posted TEN letters, I'm spending a ton on stamps and envelopes :S Anyway, the general update from the week... Lots going on, we're all quite tired still. In fact, I'm so tired that I can't really think back to the week overall as a whole, so I'm just gonna go straight into the separate days!
Tuesday 17th - It was raining in the morning so we had to wash out of bowls in the house. There was one very funny moment when water tidal waved out of someone's bowl and flooded the whole living room :) Lots of towels used to sort that out; good excuse to mop the floor! Maree was visiting us for the day to check how things are at home and see how the placement's going, so we tidied up majorly on Monday night and even dusted all the surfaces, beat out all the sofa cushions and cleaned the windows :D We're so good! Doughnuts and pineapple for breakfast with Maree then we had team time all together and individual time to talk with her. That was really useful... The chick we've recently acquired as a pet, who's called Flick Chick, was running all over my lap and decided to use my skirt as a nest while she was chirping very disruptively as we tried to pray :) It was a great time for us a team; it made us realise that we are a fantastic team and disagreements are OK and they pass with time. We have a unity and a love for each other than far outweighs everything else bad. Maree said it's the first time she's ever had a team without any issues with their coordinators! I'm very proud of us, and grateful to God for giving us each other and our wonderful Ugandan family. I've sent around a LONG prayer request to most people I know who will pray about a situation at Gilgal school; it's too long to write it all out again here. If you want to know more then email me for more details! Anyway, she encouraged us to do some stuff to change that situation and we had a long chat with her about ways of doing that and advice about how to do it.
Thank you everyone who prayed for the team to get along well - we are getting SO much stronger. We can recognise each other's strengths and weaknesses and are getting much better at supporting and encouraging each other through those things. We can all see amazing changes in each other's characters: Nicky is a brilliant leader but she really didn't know that before. She's getting better at being honest about feeling crap and she's growing in her faith for the future. Lucy is LOUD! She's growing in discernment and her prayers have a lovely childlike quality and have so much power in them. Ellie is getting better at being sensitive with people and has a new passion for the Bible. She teaches really well out of it and knows how to love people, esp the older guys in the boys group and at Lilo. Bex is getting stronger and stronger even though it's hard for her being away from James, her fiance. She has a gift for speaking in tongues and prophecy that are growing by the day! And they say that I'm getting stronger in my self assurance and that I'm more comfortable with myself physically; I hardly ever wear make-up now and I feel normal! SUCH a big change!!! Anyway, Tuesday evening we were up till 1am getting a craft ready to do at Lilo... I'll write more about that in a sec :)
Wednesday 18th - Nicky and I had to get up at half7 to get an announcement to the loudspeaker lady about V.W.G by 8. BAD TIMES. Especially after our epically late night.. There was a burial at 4pm so we rearranged the group to 4 on Thursday so that more of the women could make it. When we got back, Tata said that our schedule for Lilo had to be rearranged; they had exams at 11 so we needed to go a couple of hours earlier at 9. Thank goodness we were already up! We went and got the other girls up, had a speedy breakfast and went to Lilo at 9. We were determined to go despite the late change of plan - I love that school, wouldn't want to miss it for the world. There weren't so many kids there cos some of them have gone home for Christmas to the villages where they originally lived with their families. Nico has already gone :( We did the balloon game, which was absolutelty mental. They loveee that game!! It ended up with everyone running around screaming and lobbing balloons, as only kids can, so that was fun! Blatant cheating while we were playing but hey, that's what it's all about :) Then back inside from the craft. Basically, we spent hours backing some paper onto coloured card, decorating it with a bit of glitter then writing a Bible verse on the bottom of each one. It took SO LONG! We made SIXTY of them, and we had to look up all the verses in English, then get a Luganda Bible and match up the parts of the verses that we wanted (we guessed for that bit!) and then wrote them on. It was epic but awesome. So lovely to spend all that time and effort and then see the kids enjoying it. We gave them feathers to stick on, which they thought was weirdly funny! Maybe they hadn't seen them before. Bex sat outside with Natalie and made one with her so she got one too. It's really nice to give them something they can be proud of, that they can keep and gives them some encouragement and love.
After spending that awesome time there, we went home and had a good 6 hours to ourselves before Bible Study. It was great to relax and read, drink coffee, catch up on journal writing... A much needed rest after the late night and early morning before. Nicky led the Bible study really well, went on quite late but it was good. We did a little craft so I had something else to stick into my prayer diary :) In the evening we toasted marshmallows with the family and made them all hot chocolate as a little treat to make them smile! We're going to cook for them again towards the beginning of December, we want to bless them as much as we can while we're here...
Thursday 19th - Bit of a funny day! I went to Kampala on my own to meet Maree and visit the Tigers project who I briefly worked with last year when I was here. Last year we took them to Jinja for a summer camp for a few days and it was awesome! I wanted to go back and see their central project and see some of the work they're doing. It's now been renamed Retrak, after their sponsors, and I met the coordinator who was just taking over on Thursday. The organisation works with boys off the streets. Every Thursday they give a health lesson, take the boys to a football pitch to play a few matches (that's the best way to get them off the streets) then give them lunch and medical care in the clinic at the project. An amazing woman called Julianna works really hard to run the clinic and does mobile stuff into nearby slums where people can't access healthcare at all. They have 3 main programmes for the boys - some are housed at the project in temporary accommodation while they're given counselling and care by the project social workers. They offer this for anyone who comes in off the streets. Then there's a halfway house for some of the boys where they are trained and educated before they're rehoused with different families or go out to get jobs and are helped to live on their own. These 3 stages are great for the boys cos they care for them throughout their growing up; they don't pick them up then drop them again. Please pray that the project sees God's provision financially (they had a severe financial crisis last year and are just starting to build back up again) and continues to grow.
While I was there I only saw one boy who I recognised from last year, which was a shame but also what I expected. It was just good to talk to some of them and watch them playing football having a good time. Maree and I helped out in the clinic for a few hours over lunch time while they were coming with their sicknesses, often serious, which they ignored while they played football then dealt with afterwards!!! Typical boys :) It was a lovely time, although weird being without the girls. Walking around Kampala on my own and being in a matatu on my own was very odd, but in some ways a lot less stressful! Only one person to worry about being run over :) In the evening we watched some House and ate chocolate, good times! Apparently V.W.G went well although there were only a couple of women; it's good that we have the ones who are fully committed to the group, but please pray that we have more coming along soon and that it grows with time. We feel it's on our hearts cos God put it there, but please pray that we have wisdom about how to run it and how to pass over the leadership to them. We've given them all the financial details about the resources, machines and training that we need to raise etc and we're hoping to arrange training for them as soon as possible, regarding the candle-making. There's been a bit of friction between Mama Claire and the other women; it's some long, complicated story that I don't understand! Please pray that they work really well as a team and that they stay united and together in this, cos they won't succeed anywhere near as well apart.
Friday 20th - Kampala AGAIN. Early morning, totally shattered... I had a splitting headache when I woke up! We've had a lot of emotional and physical challenges the last 2 weeks, which has tired us all out. Please pray that I start to sleep better; last night was OK, only woke up once, but my sleep is generally still very light and disturbed, although I'm never quite sure why. Anyway, got into Kampala and had a very interesting training session on Islam and Mormonism. The Islam parts caused some quite heated debate between us and Michael (our teacher). He didn't have a very clear knowledge of Islam and what he was saying was far too generalised... It made me think that I'd really quite enjoy Theology! Pretty lucky since I'm applying for it :) Speaking of which, please pray for my Cambridge interviews. They are on the 15th December, at 8:30am, 9am and 2pm. Coming home will be stressful and difficult I imagine, so please pray that God gives me deep peace and certainty about the whole thing... During lunch we did a little bit of planning and I got some quick internet time at the Oasis office while Lucy picked up her birthday parcel from home :) A guy from Calvary chapel church came and did the talk in the staff prayer meeting; it was on how financial giving should be done. That's a pretty important topic here what with all the prosperity gospel rubbish that goes around. We went to the post office after and got a parcel from home!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D WOOP!!!! It was awesomeeeee, had a really sweet letter from Immy (my gorgeous little sister) and some "hangy things" (lol) for storage purposes from Mum. Love you!
Saturday 21st - LUCY'S BIRTHDAY! :) Had a bit of a chilled morning but amazingly got a lot done. Washing all sorted, tidying and sweeping done and I did a load of washing up for Mama Rachael while Ellie made lunch. Florence from Gilgal came to speak to us in the middle of all that, which was lovely. She just wanted to come for a chat to say hello cos Sarah, her older sister who has already left the village for Jinja, is coming to pick her up at some point soon. It was really sad to think about saying goodbye to her :( I genuinely love those girls. It was good to see her if only for a little while and to have a quick talk. She had to rush back cos Pastor Murenzi hadn't given her permission to leave and she now has to make his drinks for him cos Sarah isn't there. VERY annoying. After lunch we did Kids Club - we did a fun, gamey one this week :) Made a scoreboard and put them into teams with face paint to distinguish them (which they loved!) and did a load of different games and gave out stickers etc. The 3-legged race was a complete failure cos we only had wool to tie their legs together and they broke it straight away!! Dodgeball, the balloon game and the "putting on clothes relay" were great successes! After kids club we headed straight to Gilgal for boys and girls group. Bex, Nick and I did girls group this week and decided to have a chilled time with them without too much intense Bible study cos they did the crazily hard debate thing last week... Played a few games then had a chat and Bex and I did a little talk about beauty and how they're all created differently and wonderfully like the stars in the sky :) It was awesome! Then worship outside like usual and home for dinner. In the evening we face painted Junior and Esther, Caleb and Joshua and ourselves, which was good fun. I was an angel :D Haven't had my face painted in years! I still remember a time when I was about 8 when I went to the Sealife Centre in Southend with Nina and Nonno (my grandparents) and had my face painted as a mermaid! :) Aaaanyway, tangent, sorry...
Bit of a bad part of the day - Nicky had a temperature of 39deg, which is insanely high bearing in mind our normal temperatures here are 36. She was a bit rough yesterday with headaches too, but she's not getting better - thank you God. It was horrible to see her so ill but we prayed for her and she started getting better, so that was good :) Her fever has now gone down and she only has a slight sore throat.
Sunday 22nd - Church in the morning after a VERY slow start. We did the same craft with them as the one we did at Lilo, which they also enjoyed, and then ran out of time so went in for the main service bit. Had to sing at the front as usual, which is still just as embarrassing as it was at first!! Dad did a wicked talk on forgiveness. Then home for lunch and we didn't have any Community Evangelism or visiting women in the afternoon, so we had chilled time again. Got lots done though; sorted out meeting Steve from the travel agents to meet him today to sort out our holiday in January, which is now all booked. YAY!!! :D Sorted out our planning and December programme with Dad, then just relaxed for a while. Watched House in the evening... Pretty standard Sunday! Also had a great prayer time in the evening. We've been increasing the amount that we pray cos things have been harder and with the situation at Gilgal we need to be extra protected, kept safe and Spirit-filled. We went outside; the sky was beautifully clear and there was a bit of a breeze, perfect evening! The kids made a tent out of a parachute which we sat under... I randomly noticed the night guard sitting in the shadows by the compound wall after we'd been out there for ages, which freaked me out, so we went inside after that!!! :)
And now it's today and I'm sitting here still kicking myself cos I haven't replied to all my emails yet and I've already been on the internet for 2 and a half hours!!! The girls always laugh at how long Nicky and I take... Although to be fair, today I've written a hench prayer email! Anyway, I'll stop writing now. Missing you all lots, but still having a fantastic time as you can tell. Sending tons of love as always :)
Flick
xXx
In Kampala again on our day off... It was Lucy's birthday on Saturday (WOOP!) so we had soda and cake over the weekend and toasted marshmallows that her Mum and Dad sent on candles in our living room. Good times! We've just had burgers for lunch, mzungu food galore, to celebrate so we're having a good day. Went to the post office earlier and posted TEN letters, I'm spending a ton on stamps and envelopes :S Anyway, the general update from the week... Lots going on, we're all quite tired still. In fact, I'm so tired that I can't really think back to the week overall as a whole, so I'm just gonna go straight into the separate days!
Tuesday 17th - It was raining in the morning so we had to wash out of bowls in the house. There was one very funny moment when water tidal waved out of someone's bowl and flooded the whole living room :) Lots of towels used to sort that out; good excuse to mop the floor! Maree was visiting us for the day to check how things are at home and see how the placement's going, so we tidied up majorly on Monday night and even dusted all the surfaces, beat out all the sofa cushions and cleaned the windows :D We're so good! Doughnuts and pineapple for breakfast with Maree then we had team time all together and individual time to talk with her. That was really useful... The chick we've recently acquired as a pet, who's called Flick Chick, was running all over my lap and decided to use my skirt as a nest while she was chirping very disruptively as we tried to pray :) It was a great time for us a team; it made us realise that we are a fantastic team and disagreements are OK and they pass with time. We have a unity and a love for each other than far outweighs everything else bad. Maree said it's the first time she's ever had a team without any issues with their coordinators! I'm very proud of us, and grateful to God for giving us each other and our wonderful Ugandan family. I've sent around a LONG prayer request to most people I know who will pray about a situation at Gilgal school; it's too long to write it all out again here. If you want to know more then email me for more details! Anyway, she encouraged us to do some stuff to change that situation and we had a long chat with her about ways of doing that and advice about how to do it.
Thank you everyone who prayed for the team to get along well - we are getting SO much stronger. We can recognise each other's strengths and weaknesses and are getting much better at supporting and encouraging each other through those things. We can all see amazing changes in each other's characters: Nicky is a brilliant leader but she really didn't know that before. She's getting better at being honest about feeling crap and she's growing in her faith for the future. Lucy is LOUD! She's growing in discernment and her prayers have a lovely childlike quality and have so much power in them. Ellie is getting better at being sensitive with people and has a new passion for the Bible. She teaches really well out of it and knows how to love people, esp the older guys in the boys group and at Lilo. Bex is getting stronger and stronger even though it's hard for her being away from James, her fiance. She has a gift for speaking in tongues and prophecy that are growing by the day! And they say that I'm getting stronger in my self assurance and that I'm more comfortable with myself physically; I hardly ever wear make-up now and I feel normal! SUCH a big change!!! Anyway, Tuesday evening we were up till 1am getting a craft ready to do at Lilo... I'll write more about that in a sec :)
Wednesday 18th - Nicky and I had to get up at half7 to get an announcement to the loudspeaker lady about V.W.G by 8. BAD TIMES. Especially after our epically late night.. There was a burial at 4pm so we rearranged the group to 4 on Thursday so that more of the women could make it. When we got back, Tata said that our schedule for Lilo had to be rearranged; they had exams at 11 so we needed to go a couple of hours earlier at 9. Thank goodness we were already up! We went and got the other girls up, had a speedy breakfast and went to Lilo at 9. We were determined to go despite the late change of plan - I love that school, wouldn't want to miss it for the world. There weren't so many kids there cos some of them have gone home for Christmas to the villages where they originally lived with their families. Nico has already gone :( We did the balloon game, which was absolutelty mental. They loveee that game!! It ended up with everyone running around screaming and lobbing balloons, as only kids can, so that was fun! Blatant cheating while we were playing but hey, that's what it's all about :) Then back inside from the craft. Basically, we spent hours backing some paper onto coloured card, decorating it with a bit of glitter then writing a Bible verse on the bottom of each one. It took SO LONG! We made SIXTY of them, and we had to look up all the verses in English, then get a Luganda Bible and match up the parts of the verses that we wanted (we guessed for that bit!) and then wrote them on. It was epic but awesome. So lovely to spend all that time and effort and then see the kids enjoying it. We gave them feathers to stick on, which they thought was weirdly funny! Maybe they hadn't seen them before. Bex sat outside with Natalie and made one with her so she got one too. It's really nice to give them something they can be proud of, that they can keep and gives them some encouragement and love.
After spending that awesome time there, we went home and had a good 6 hours to ourselves before Bible Study. It was great to relax and read, drink coffee, catch up on journal writing... A much needed rest after the late night and early morning before. Nicky led the Bible study really well, went on quite late but it was good. We did a little craft so I had something else to stick into my prayer diary :) In the evening we toasted marshmallows with the family and made them all hot chocolate as a little treat to make them smile! We're going to cook for them again towards the beginning of December, we want to bless them as much as we can while we're here...
Thursday 19th - Bit of a funny day! I went to Kampala on my own to meet Maree and visit the Tigers project who I briefly worked with last year when I was here. Last year we took them to Jinja for a summer camp for a few days and it was awesome! I wanted to go back and see their central project and see some of the work they're doing. It's now been renamed Retrak, after their sponsors, and I met the coordinator who was just taking over on Thursday. The organisation works with boys off the streets. Every Thursday they give a health lesson, take the boys to a football pitch to play a few matches (that's the best way to get them off the streets) then give them lunch and medical care in the clinic at the project. An amazing woman called Julianna works really hard to run the clinic and does mobile stuff into nearby slums where people can't access healthcare at all. They have 3 main programmes for the boys - some are housed at the project in temporary accommodation while they're given counselling and care by the project social workers. They offer this for anyone who comes in off the streets. Then there's a halfway house for some of the boys where they are trained and educated before they're rehoused with different families or go out to get jobs and are helped to live on their own. These 3 stages are great for the boys cos they care for them throughout their growing up; they don't pick them up then drop them again. Please pray that the project sees God's provision financially (they had a severe financial crisis last year and are just starting to build back up again) and continues to grow.
While I was there I only saw one boy who I recognised from last year, which was a shame but also what I expected. It was just good to talk to some of them and watch them playing football having a good time. Maree and I helped out in the clinic for a few hours over lunch time while they were coming with their sicknesses, often serious, which they ignored while they played football then dealt with afterwards!!! Typical boys :) It was a lovely time, although weird being without the girls. Walking around Kampala on my own and being in a matatu on my own was very odd, but in some ways a lot less stressful! Only one person to worry about being run over :) In the evening we watched some House and ate chocolate, good times! Apparently V.W.G went well although there were only a couple of women; it's good that we have the ones who are fully committed to the group, but please pray that we have more coming along soon and that it grows with time. We feel it's on our hearts cos God put it there, but please pray that we have wisdom about how to run it and how to pass over the leadership to them. We've given them all the financial details about the resources, machines and training that we need to raise etc and we're hoping to arrange training for them as soon as possible, regarding the candle-making. There's been a bit of friction between Mama Claire and the other women; it's some long, complicated story that I don't understand! Please pray that they work really well as a team and that they stay united and together in this, cos they won't succeed anywhere near as well apart.
Friday 20th - Kampala AGAIN. Early morning, totally shattered... I had a splitting headache when I woke up! We've had a lot of emotional and physical challenges the last 2 weeks, which has tired us all out. Please pray that I start to sleep better; last night was OK, only woke up once, but my sleep is generally still very light and disturbed, although I'm never quite sure why. Anyway, got into Kampala and had a very interesting training session on Islam and Mormonism. The Islam parts caused some quite heated debate between us and Michael (our teacher). He didn't have a very clear knowledge of Islam and what he was saying was far too generalised... It made me think that I'd really quite enjoy Theology! Pretty lucky since I'm applying for it :) Speaking of which, please pray for my Cambridge interviews. They are on the 15th December, at 8:30am, 9am and 2pm. Coming home will be stressful and difficult I imagine, so please pray that God gives me deep peace and certainty about the whole thing... During lunch we did a little bit of planning and I got some quick internet time at the Oasis office while Lucy picked up her birthday parcel from home :) A guy from Calvary chapel church came and did the talk in the staff prayer meeting; it was on how financial giving should be done. That's a pretty important topic here what with all the prosperity gospel rubbish that goes around. We went to the post office after and got a parcel from home!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D WOOP!!!! It was awesomeeeee, had a really sweet letter from Immy (my gorgeous little sister) and some "hangy things" (lol) for storage purposes from Mum. Love you!
Saturday 21st - LUCY'S BIRTHDAY! :) Had a bit of a chilled morning but amazingly got a lot done. Washing all sorted, tidying and sweeping done and I did a load of washing up for Mama Rachael while Ellie made lunch. Florence from Gilgal came to speak to us in the middle of all that, which was lovely. She just wanted to come for a chat to say hello cos Sarah, her older sister who has already left the village for Jinja, is coming to pick her up at some point soon. It was really sad to think about saying goodbye to her :( I genuinely love those girls. It was good to see her if only for a little while and to have a quick talk. She had to rush back cos Pastor Murenzi hadn't given her permission to leave and she now has to make his drinks for him cos Sarah isn't there. VERY annoying. After lunch we did Kids Club - we did a fun, gamey one this week :) Made a scoreboard and put them into teams with face paint to distinguish them (which they loved!) and did a load of different games and gave out stickers etc. The 3-legged race was a complete failure cos we only had wool to tie their legs together and they broke it straight away!! Dodgeball, the balloon game and the "putting on clothes relay" were great successes! After kids club we headed straight to Gilgal for boys and girls group. Bex, Nick and I did girls group this week and decided to have a chilled time with them without too much intense Bible study cos they did the crazily hard debate thing last week... Played a few games then had a chat and Bex and I did a little talk about beauty and how they're all created differently and wonderfully like the stars in the sky :) It was awesome! Then worship outside like usual and home for dinner. In the evening we face painted Junior and Esther, Caleb and Joshua and ourselves, which was good fun. I was an angel :D Haven't had my face painted in years! I still remember a time when I was about 8 when I went to the Sealife Centre in Southend with Nina and Nonno (my grandparents) and had my face painted as a mermaid! :) Aaaanyway, tangent, sorry...
Bit of a bad part of the day - Nicky had a temperature of 39deg, which is insanely high bearing in mind our normal temperatures here are 36. She was a bit rough yesterday with headaches too, but she's not getting better - thank you God. It was horrible to see her so ill but we prayed for her and she started getting better, so that was good :) Her fever has now gone down and she only has a slight sore throat.
Sunday 22nd - Church in the morning after a VERY slow start. We did the same craft with them as the one we did at Lilo, which they also enjoyed, and then ran out of time so went in for the main service bit. Had to sing at the front as usual, which is still just as embarrassing as it was at first!! Dad did a wicked talk on forgiveness. Then home for lunch and we didn't have any Community Evangelism or visiting women in the afternoon, so we had chilled time again. Got lots done though; sorted out meeting Steve from the travel agents to meet him today to sort out our holiday in January, which is now all booked. YAY!!! :D Sorted out our planning and December programme with Dad, then just relaxed for a while. Watched House in the evening... Pretty standard Sunday! Also had a great prayer time in the evening. We've been increasing the amount that we pray cos things have been harder and with the situation at Gilgal we need to be extra protected, kept safe and Spirit-filled. We went outside; the sky was beautifully clear and there was a bit of a breeze, perfect evening! The kids made a tent out of a parachute which we sat under... I randomly noticed the night guard sitting in the shadows by the compound wall after we'd been out there for ages, which freaked me out, so we went inside after that!!! :)
And now it's today and I'm sitting here still kicking myself cos I haven't replied to all my emails yet and I've already been on the internet for 2 and a half hours!!! The girls always laugh at how long Nicky and I take... Although to be fair, today I've written a hench prayer email! Anyway, I'll stop writing now. Missing you all lots, but still having a fantastic time as you can tell. Sending tons of love as always :)
Flick
xXx
Monday 16 November 2009
10th - 16th November 2009
Hey everyone! (Especially Mum, who just texted me asking why my blog isn't up yet...)
This week has been a really tough one, probably my toughest yet. My back has been playing up all week, which makes everything else more difficult. The pain meant that I had to stay at home all day Tuesday, which was very frustrating, and I've been taking painkillers all week. Those of you who know me well know that I HATE taking painkillers! :( That combined with lack of sleep made me feel more homesick than usual, which obviously adds up to everything else becoming more of a challenge to cope with. There were some really awesome positives to this week, as you'll see when you read the blog. Bear with me cos emotions have been all over the place and I'll try to be coherent and not talk rubbish while I describe what we've been up to!
Tuesday 10th - The girls went to do weaving at Mama Claire's while I sat at home and did nothing. Bad times! The top of my back was all pulled tight like an elastic band around the shoulders and neck and I couldn't move much or sit in the same position for too long. Pretty rubbish to be honest! My sleep was pretty disturbed on Monday night (please pray for better rest) which made everything seem worse. Feeling a little bit like I can't unravel myself, with everything mixed up inside cos of the lack of sleep and pain and other stuff going on too. Felt a bit useless on Tuesday, as if I have nothing to offer, only empty screwed-up-ness. Now you see what Imean by the all over the place emotions! Had some quiet time which helped; Hosea 2 is a beautiful passage that basically sums up a lot of things for me at the moment.
Galatians 5 vs 1: "It is for freedom that Christ has set me free."
Isaiah 60 vs 18+19: "You will call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise. The Lord is your everlasting light."
Micah 7 vs 19: "God will have compassion on you and tread your sins underfoot and hurl ALL your iniquities into the depths of the sea."
Proverbs 3 vs 3: "Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart."
Colossians 3 vs 12: "You are God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved."
Drank an inhumane amount of coffee too; that's what happens when you're sitting next to a kettle and there's no milk to make English tea! I'm pretty sure I'm now addicted to coffee, as I haven't had any yet today and have a splitting headache :S Maybe I should stop drinking it now! Bit of a scandal for the family while the girls were out at the tailoring school in the afternoon; a pair of speakers that were stolen from their house THREE years ago randomly turned up and they had to go and identify them and meet the people who supposedly stole them. There's been a mix-up with the police so a young man is in prison who shouldn't be - please pray that he is released asap cos prisons here are notoriously unpleasant, to say the least.
Wednesday 11th - A ridiculous day, absolutely ridiculous. Team issues have been building for a while, and it all came to boiling point on Wednesday. Overall as a team we work brilliantly together; we all bring our strengths (and our weaknesses) and balance each other out. The work we're doing is going well and we're really enjoying it. BUT, when you live in such a small space with 4 other girls, and you not only live together but work together, travel together, have all your leisure time together... There's no escape! I love all four of them like sisters, and we're all very close, but little annoying things became too much for all of us on Wednesday. Some people are louder than others, and there's a split down the team between who is more similar. It doesn't divide us and there's no exclusion whatsoever, but it's there nonetheless. After little annoying thigns, like spraying the house with insecticide WHILE I WAS ASLEEP IN BED till I was gassed out of my mosquito net (no joke!), or unplugging chargers when other people need to charge something, I suggested a team talk in the evening and thankfully things are mostly sorted out. We just all need to try to find ways to cope with our stress from being away from home, and vent to each other about the little annoyances without talking about each other behind backs. There's a point where it goes from constructive talking to try and find a solution and moves into bitchyness, and I don't want that at all. Please pray that we can all be honest with each other and keep our perspective when we get annoyed; the vast majority of the time we have a fantastic time with each other, and I don't want to lose sight of that and I know the others don't either. Please pray that we're not undermined and that we can be sensitive to each other's needs and support one another when we need it most. It's hard when we are the only immediate support network for one another here; we've left everyone else, like you lovely people, at home.
Anyway, other stuff from Wednesday. We went to Lilo in the morning; my back was hurting and things were quite tense between the team, so it could've gone pearshaped but it didn't (thank you God!) We did the second half of the Joseph story and got them allto dress up with props and toilet roll again (limited resources, desperate times = desperate measures) ... They loved it though! Cos we acted last week they had more of an idea about what to do. We even got one girl to narrate the story for our team :) The performances were awesome, felt very proud. Bex looked after Natalie and Nico, who were both in strange moods. Natalie seemed quite upset but we couldn't work out why or what to do about it (she's mute). The big game of Dodgeball at the end went down a treat... I cuddled a lovely little girl called Charity for quite a while; I definitely have a natural baby-shaped space on my hip, I want to take her home!!!
After Lilo we got home for lunch and didn't have time to do much before V.W.G at 3. Not many ladies came on time, as always, but we talked about the strategy for the group again and explained about candle wax and stuff. We have a quote of 120,000sh (4o pounds, there's no pound sign on the keyboard, how annoying?!) for 1kg of wax, which makes 1400 candles. We would sell a packet of 10 candles for 2000sh so you can do the maths! The packaging only costs 2500 for all those 140 packets, which seems really cheap - yay - so we're going to try to start making them before Christmas. We've organised for a lady from Bambejja to come and train them, but we need to invest 200,000sh to buy a machine that the ladies can make candles with on a rota. The rest of the time we're going to give them moulds that they can use at home. It all takes a lot of organisation and planning! Hopefully all the ladies involved are going to contribute 10,000sh so they can buy the first lot of resources to start making the candles etc. Exciting stuff but it still needs a lot of prayer :)
After V.W.G we had bible study, as usual, which Lucy led really well. Then before dinner we had our team talk and cleared the air, thank goodness, and dinner was really awesome after that! We had a lovely time altogether, making chapattis with Mama Rachael and Jonathan (her oldest son). While we were sitting outside Max the dog fell asleep on my lap in an extremely cute way, wish I could've put a photo up of him!
Thursday 12th - 101 days till we go home, 58 days since we've been here... We planned to do the story of Jericho at Gilgal this morning cos of how often we've had people from home say about bringing walls down while we're here. When praying for Gilgal and the whole situation with the Pastor there, we felt that the story of Jericho was very important, so we decided to do it with the kids. We planned to take each group out onto the field for a game, then do the story with them, then march around the field with each class individually, singing and shouting. As we were walking into the nursery group we changed the plan; we decided to do 15mins with each group,playing a game and telling the story, then we took the whole school out onto the field at the end. It was MENTAL!!! We had all the kids following us around, shouting and singing their Ugandan songs. We took them round the classrooms, all over the grass and they loved it! It got a bit insane after a while; I was exhausted cos I was leading all 400 of them around, yelling "Alleluia" (it's a chant thing that they do) at all of them, and trying to 'sing' loud enough for them to hear which song we were doing! It was really powerful though, especially when we felt that story was so important for them. We made shakers out of empty toilet rolls, cupcake cases (to stick over the ends) and rice, which a few of the kids could walk round shaking. It was AWESOME! Such a sense of fulfilment to actually do something that we felt was so significant for them.
Then in the Prayer and Praise bit at 1 o'clock (which we didn't want to stay for but got forced into!) the Pastor turned up. He walked through the kids, parting them like they were the Red Sea and then led the whole thing. It was really difficult to shake his hand and be polite to him and pray with him etc when we know that he lives a life of such double standards. But then I guess we all get stuff wrong, we all need God's grace and he's no different from anyone else. We're trying to pray for him, which is difficult but it's a good discipline to get into; God loves him and so should we. Please pray for him. Please pray that he realises the extent of his wrongdoing and that God touches his heart and opens his eyes to himself, and gives him the courage to change. It turns out that this was our last day at Gilgal before the really long Christmas hols start at the end of November; we want to stay in touch with as many of the kids as possible, so please pray that we're able to do that through Kids Club, boys group and girls group. I love the children there, and especially at Lilo, and the thought of leaving them really cuts me up. I don't want to only be here for 5 months and have no lasting impact; I want to have friendships with them by the time we leave, and to have encouraged them and loved them so that they know how special they are. The emotions of this last week make stuff like that all the more poignant.
We went to sister Esther's for Home Cell after Gilgal - got bodas there cos it was much easier than walking, especially for me with my bad back. Taking painkillers only does a small amount to help! As always, her hospitality was breathtaking; she cooked matoke, sweet potato, cassava, pumpkin, beans, greens and g'nut sauce!!! We then also had to have dinner when we got home. Not cool!!!! :S
Friday 13th - Bambejja again. Got up at 6 to leave at 7... Had training for 4 hours, which wasn't very helpful, but there you go! It's the principle I guess...? There wasn't enough material to fill the time so we repeated a load of stuff, did pointless exercises. Yeah, as you can gather I'm not a fan of the theological training!! We got to see Maree though which was lovely; she's leaving in 2 weeks and we'll really miss her. I can't imagine being here without her to talk to. It's a bit of a worry. Jocelyn, the temporary replacement is lovely but very Ugandan and sometimes you need someone Western who can understand where you're coming from on things. But there you go, that's life. We got a bit of planning done over lunch time which was nice :)
I actually phoned Mum from the taxi park on the way home cos I was so homesick; all the others got post and I didn't, which sucked very majorly. It just added another level of emotion on top of everything else! Hearing from home is so special when it happens and I inevitably build my hopes up for it when I shouldn't cos the postal system SUCKS!!! Love you Mum :) My Mum has that ability just to cheer me up with the sound of her voice and she has such wise advice to give whenever I need it. I'm very blessed to have her. Tried to get onto the Internet later but it wasn't working... Bad times! Spoke to Daddy in the evening on the phone (Love you too Dad!) and he told me all about a job interview he has on Friday. Exciting stuff :) I'm proud to have the family that I have.
Saturday 14th - One day left till we've been here 2 months. Woke up in a not happy place again after back pain moved to my lower back and got worse, and I didn't get much sleep again. ARGH. We got up early to go and do Kids Club at 9 instead of 2 like usual because Lilo were having a sports day and parents morning, so we went to be a part of that. We had a fantastic time! We planned a whole 90-min session like usual but only had half an hour, so we changed it completely. Luckily we had all the props etc for Joseph with us, so we got all the kids to act out what we've done for the last 2 weeks on Wednesdays and they were brilliant. I felt so proud!!! I couldn't have felt prouder, even if I was watching my own kids in their Christmas nativity!!!!!! :D :D :D They were so good, then we sang a silly song with a dance to the adults and even the older boys joined in :) There were some visitors from Japan who sponsor some ladies who help at the school and they were there to hear the school reports and meet all the teachers. It was good to see some other mzungus! The children were all dressed extra smartly in their uniforms; Natalie was wearing a blue dress with a white collar and didn't have a bit of mud on her! She was really happy to see us and came over squealing cos she was so excited. Nico was wearing beige shorts and a spotless white top and came to sit next to me. He sniffs everything before he touches it, and was sniffing my arm before he held my hand and decided to snuggle down over my lap and doze off! It was one of those lovely moments that I'll never forget. The deaf girls did a song and a sketch in sign language and the choir sang a song. It was just awesome to see them all doing their thing and having fun :) I'm going to miss that school a lot. The children are so wonderful. They even did science experiments with the most basic stuff EVER! They used a straw as a pipette and put water in a can with it, then put a plastic cup over the can, heated the can and the cup flew off! :D It's amazing what people here can do with so little.
After speeches and reports from the teachers and visitors they started on the sports day stuff and we headed back for lunch cos we were all shattered after 2 early mornings. I finished reading "The God Delusion" and also finished "The Dawkins Delusion" which was cool :) Now starting on Keith Ward and hopefully I'll be set for my Cambridge interview... I'd love to be able to argue effectively against Dawkins and express my faith more eloquently in an intellectual way. It's easy to use the cop-out of "you can't explain it completely logically, that's the point of the faith element" but I don't want to use that excuse anymore! We then went to Gilgal at 5 to do girls group. It was a challenge cos Mama didn't come with us so we had no translator. We tried to get the girls to debate about forgiveness but it was difficult cos they don't get taught to think that way in school, so it will take a while to get them to argue and ask questions properly. Sarah wasn't there cos she's still sick and Florence, her sister, said that she went back to their home in Jinja on Friday to stay with aunts and uncles. We were very sad not to say goodbye, but apparently she's coming back on the 27th Nov to pick up her brother and her sister. Please pray that she has a fresh start away from Gilgal and that she can continue with her education.
Sunday 15th - TWO MONTHS SINCE I'VE HA MY FEET ON ENGLISH SOIL!!! How weird?! We got to church late today (as always lol) and only did Sunday school cos we've all been so tired and run down. My back still isn't in the best shape so I'm trying to conserve my energy! I spoke to Nina on the phone last night; LOVE her!!! I made apple sauce with Mama Rachael last night and it reminded me of the middle of her apple pie... I really miss that pie! The apple sauce was good though.. Sunday school went well, we used the shakers from thursday for them to decorate and then did the story of Jericho again. Also invented bowling with a tennis ball and water bottles slightly weighed down :) After lunch the girls went to visit a few ladies from V.W.G but I stayed at home cos of back pain and Bex stayed at home cos of a headache. Bad times :( It was good having a break though and carrying on with some reading etc. Hadsome interesting theological debates with Jona and Timo while I attempted to read! The Ugandan theology can be pretty hardcore at times; they have a lot of absolutes, like Christians can never drink alcohol. I disagreed with that one! It's really interesting though cos it's all to do with the culture and their history and upbringing. Intriguing stuff :)
So now it's Monday and it's nearly 5pm. I'm pretty tired sitting here and we need to leave soon to go to the post office, then Shoprite to buy a few bits and then head home. It's been raining outside so the taxi park will be perilously muddy! I feel happy now though; it's been a relaxing day and I got pizza for lunch and Bex and Nicky are with me so it was easier to navigate the roads safely! We met up with Maree and had a chat, which was really helpful and reassuring. My back is killing me so please continue to pray for that. I know there will be challenges while we're here so I'm trying to stay on track and full of positivity. I haven't prayed or read my Bible enough this week and I know I need to do that more to stay strong and firmly rooted in God when the troubles like tiredness and a bad back come. Thank you so much for your support and prayers; they mean the world to me and they totally make a difference. I'm very blessed to have such support at home and I can't wait to see all of you. Only 3 and a half months to go now!
Sending tons and tons of love, and a big hug to all of you reading this :)
Flick
xXx
This week has been a really tough one, probably my toughest yet. My back has been playing up all week, which makes everything else more difficult. The pain meant that I had to stay at home all day Tuesday, which was very frustrating, and I've been taking painkillers all week. Those of you who know me well know that I HATE taking painkillers! :( That combined with lack of sleep made me feel more homesick than usual, which obviously adds up to everything else becoming more of a challenge to cope with. There were some really awesome positives to this week, as you'll see when you read the blog. Bear with me cos emotions have been all over the place and I'll try to be coherent and not talk rubbish while I describe what we've been up to!
Tuesday 10th - The girls went to do weaving at Mama Claire's while I sat at home and did nothing. Bad times! The top of my back was all pulled tight like an elastic band around the shoulders and neck and I couldn't move much or sit in the same position for too long. Pretty rubbish to be honest! My sleep was pretty disturbed on Monday night (please pray for better rest) which made everything seem worse. Feeling a little bit like I can't unravel myself, with everything mixed up inside cos of the lack of sleep and pain and other stuff going on too. Felt a bit useless on Tuesday, as if I have nothing to offer, only empty screwed-up-ness. Now you see what Imean by the all over the place emotions! Had some quiet time which helped; Hosea 2 is a beautiful passage that basically sums up a lot of things for me at the moment.
Galatians 5 vs 1: "It is for freedom that Christ has set me free."
Isaiah 60 vs 18+19: "You will call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise. The Lord is your everlasting light."
Micah 7 vs 19: "God will have compassion on you and tread your sins underfoot and hurl ALL your iniquities into the depths of the sea."
Proverbs 3 vs 3: "Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart."
Colossians 3 vs 12: "You are God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved."
Drank an inhumane amount of coffee too; that's what happens when you're sitting next to a kettle and there's no milk to make English tea! I'm pretty sure I'm now addicted to coffee, as I haven't had any yet today and have a splitting headache :S Maybe I should stop drinking it now! Bit of a scandal for the family while the girls were out at the tailoring school in the afternoon; a pair of speakers that were stolen from their house THREE years ago randomly turned up and they had to go and identify them and meet the people who supposedly stole them. There's been a mix-up with the police so a young man is in prison who shouldn't be - please pray that he is released asap cos prisons here are notoriously unpleasant, to say the least.
Wednesday 11th - A ridiculous day, absolutely ridiculous. Team issues have been building for a while, and it all came to boiling point on Wednesday. Overall as a team we work brilliantly together; we all bring our strengths (and our weaknesses) and balance each other out. The work we're doing is going well and we're really enjoying it. BUT, when you live in such a small space with 4 other girls, and you not only live together but work together, travel together, have all your leisure time together... There's no escape! I love all four of them like sisters, and we're all very close, but little annoying things became too much for all of us on Wednesday. Some people are louder than others, and there's a split down the team between who is more similar. It doesn't divide us and there's no exclusion whatsoever, but it's there nonetheless. After little annoying thigns, like spraying the house with insecticide WHILE I WAS ASLEEP IN BED till I was gassed out of my mosquito net (no joke!), or unplugging chargers when other people need to charge something, I suggested a team talk in the evening and thankfully things are mostly sorted out. We just all need to try to find ways to cope with our stress from being away from home, and vent to each other about the little annoyances without talking about each other behind backs. There's a point where it goes from constructive talking to try and find a solution and moves into bitchyness, and I don't want that at all. Please pray that we can all be honest with each other and keep our perspective when we get annoyed; the vast majority of the time we have a fantastic time with each other, and I don't want to lose sight of that and I know the others don't either. Please pray that we're not undermined and that we can be sensitive to each other's needs and support one another when we need it most. It's hard when we are the only immediate support network for one another here; we've left everyone else, like you lovely people, at home.
Anyway, other stuff from Wednesday. We went to Lilo in the morning; my back was hurting and things were quite tense between the team, so it could've gone pearshaped but it didn't (thank you God!) We did the second half of the Joseph story and got them allto dress up with props and toilet roll again (limited resources, desperate times = desperate measures) ... They loved it though! Cos we acted last week they had more of an idea about what to do. We even got one girl to narrate the story for our team :) The performances were awesome, felt very proud. Bex looked after Natalie and Nico, who were both in strange moods. Natalie seemed quite upset but we couldn't work out why or what to do about it (she's mute). The big game of Dodgeball at the end went down a treat... I cuddled a lovely little girl called Charity for quite a while; I definitely have a natural baby-shaped space on my hip, I want to take her home!!!
After Lilo we got home for lunch and didn't have time to do much before V.W.G at 3. Not many ladies came on time, as always, but we talked about the strategy for the group again and explained about candle wax and stuff. We have a quote of 120,000sh (4o pounds, there's no pound sign on the keyboard, how annoying?!) for 1kg of wax, which makes 1400 candles. We would sell a packet of 10 candles for 2000sh so you can do the maths! The packaging only costs 2500 for all those 140 packets, which seems really cheap - yay - so we're going to try to start making them before Christmas. We've organised for a lady from Bambejja to come and train them, but we need to invest 200,000sh to buy a machine that the ladies can make candles with on a rota. The rest of the time we're going to give them moulds that they can use at home. It all takes a lot of organisation and planning! Hopefully all the ladies involved are going to contribute 10,000sh so they can buy the first lot of resources to start making the candles etc. Exciting stuff but it still needs a lot of prayer :)
After V.W.G we had bible study, as usual, which Lucy led really well. Then before dinner we had our team talk and cleared the air, thank goodness, and dinner was really awesome after that! We had a lovely time altogether, making chapattis with Mama Rachael and Jonathan (her oldest son). While we were sitting outside Max the dog fell asleep on my lap in an extremely cute way, wish I could've put a photo up of him!
Thursday 12th - 101 days till we go home, 58 days since we've been here... We planned to do the story of Jericho at Gilgal this morning cos of how often we've had people from home say about bringing walls down while we're here. When praying for Gilgal and the whole situation with the Pastor there, we felt that the story of Jericho was very important, so we decided to do it with the kids. We planned to take each group out onto the field for a game, then do the story with them, then march around the field with each class individually, singing and shouting. As we were walking into the nursery group we changed the plan; we decided to do 15mins with each group,playing a game and telling the story, then we took the whole school out onto the field at the end. It was MENTAL!!! We had all the kids following us around, shouting and singing their Ugandan songs. We took them round the classrooms, all over the grass and they loved it! It got a bit insane after a while; I was exhausted cos I was leading all 400 of them around, yelling "Alleluia" (it's a chant thing that they do) at all of them, and trying to 'sing' loud enough for them to hear which song we were doing! It was really powerful though, especially when we felt that story was so important for them. We made shakers out of empty toilet rolls, cupcake cases (to stick over the ends) and rice, which a few of the kids could walk round shaking. It was AWESOME! Such a sense of fulfilment to actually do something that we felt was so significant for them.
Then in the Prayer and Praise bit at 1 o'clock (which we didn't want to stay for but got forced into!) the Pastor turned up. He walked through the kids, parting them like they were the Red Sea and then led the whole thing. It was really difficult to shake his hand and be polite to him and pray with him etc when we know that he lives a life of such double standards. But then I guess we all get stuff wrong, we all need God's grace and he's no different from anyone else. We're trying to pray for him, which is difficult but it's a good discipline to get into; God loves him and so should we. Please pray for him. Please pray that he realises the extent of his wrongdoing and that God touches his heart and opens his eyes to himself, and gives him the courage to change. It turns out that this was our last day at Gilgal before the really long Christmas hols start at the end of November; we want to stay in touch with as many of the kids as possible, so please pray that we're able to do that through Kids Club, boys group and girls group. I love the children there, and especially at Lilo, and the thought of leaving them really cuts me up. I don't want to only be here for 5 months and have no lasting impact; I want to have friendships with them by the time we leave, and to have encouraged them and loved them so that they know how special they are. The emotions of this last week make stuff like that all the more poignant.
We went to sister Esther's for Home Cell after Gilgal - got bodas there cos it was much easier than walking, especially for me with my bad back. Taking painkillers only does a small amount to help! As always, her hospitality was breathtaking; she cooked matoke, sweet potato, cassava, pumpkin, beans, greens and g'nut sauce!!! We then also had to have dinner when we got home. Not cool!!!! :S
Friday 13th - Bambejja again. Got up at 6 to leave at 7... Had training for 4 hours, which wasn't very helpful, but there you go! It's the principle I guess...? There wasn't enough material to fill the time so we repeated a load of stuff, did pointless exercises. Yeah, as you can gather I'm not a fan of the theological training!! We got to see Maree though which was lovely; she's leaving in 2 weeks and we'll really miss her. I can't imagine being here without her to talk to. It's a bit of a worry. Jocelyn, the temporary replacement is lovely but very Ugandan and sometimes you need someone Western who can understand where you're coming from on things. But there you go, that's life. We got a bit of planning done over lunch time which was nice :)
I actually phoned Mum from the taxi park on the way home cos I was so homesick; all the others got post and I didn't, which sucked very majorly. It just added another level of emotion on top of everything else! Hearing from home is so special when it happens and I inevitably build my hopes up for it when I shouldn't cos the postal system SUCKS!!! Love you Mum :) My Mum has that ability just to cheer me up with the sound of her voice and she has such wise advice to give whenever I need it. I'm very blessed to have her. Tried to get onto the Internet later but it wasn't working... Bad times! Spoke to Daddy in the evening on the phone (Love you too Dad!) and he told me all about a job interview he has on Friday. Exciting stuff :) I'm proud to have the family that I have.
Saturday 14th - One day left till we've been here 2 months. Woke up in a not happy place again after back pain moved to my lower back and got worse, and I didn't get much sleep again. ARGH. We got up early to go and do Kids Club at 9 instead of 2 like usual because Lilo were having a sports day and parents morning, so we went to be a part of that. We had a fantastic time! We planned a whole 90-min session like usual but only had half an hour, so we changed it completely. Luckily we had all the props etc for Joseph with us, so we got all the kids to act out what we've done for the last 2 weeks on Wednesdays and they were brilliant. I felt so proud!!! I couldn't have felt prouder, even if I was watching my own kids in their Christmas nativity!!!!!! :D :D :D They were so good, then we sang a silly song with a dance to the adults and even the older boys joined in :) There were some visitors from Japan who sponsor some ladies who help at the school and they were there to hear the school reports and meet all the teachers. It was good to see some other mzungus! The children were all dressed extra smartly in their uniforms; Natalie was wearing a blue dress with a white collar and didn't have a bit of mud on her! She was really happy to see us and came over squealing cos she was so excited. Nico was wearing beige shorts and a spotless white top and came to sit next to me. He sniffs everything before he touches it, and was sniffing my arm before he held my hand and decided to snuggle down over my lap and doze off! It was one of those lovely moments that I'll never forget. The deaf girls did a song and a sketch in sign language and the choir sang a song. It was just awesome to see them all doing their thing and having fun :) I'm going to miss that school a lot. The children are so wonderful. They even did science experiments with the most basic stuff EVER! They used a straw as a pipette and put water in a can with it, then put a plastic cup over the can, heated the can and the cup flew off! :D It's amazing what people here can do with so little.
After speeches and reports from the teachers and visitors they started on the sports day stuff and we headed back for lunch cos we were all shattered after 2 early mornings. I finished reading "The God Delusion" and also finished "The Dawkins Delusion" which was cool :) Now starting on Keith Ward and hopefully I'll be set for my Cambridge interview... I'd love to be able to argue effectively against Dawkins and express my faith more eloquently in an intellectual way. It's easy to use the cop-out of "you can't explain it completely logically, that's the point of the faith element" but I don't want to use that excuse anymore! We then went to Gilgal at 5 to do girls group. It was a challenge cos Mama didn't come with us so we had no translator. We tried to get the girls to debate about forgiveness but it was difficult cos they don't get taught to think that way in school, so it will take a while to get them to argue and ask questions properly. Sarah wasn't there cos she's still sick and Florence, her sister, said that she went back to their home in Jinja on Friday to stay with aunts and uncles. We were very sad not to say goodbye, but apparently she's coming back on the 27th Nov to pick up her brother and her sister. Please pray that she has a fresh start away from Gilgal and that she can continue with her education.
Sunday 15th - TWO MONTHS SINCE I'VE HA MY FEET ON ENGLISH SOIL!!! How weird?! We got to church late today (as always lol) and only did Sunday school cos we've all been so tired and run down. My back still isn't in the best shape so I'm trying to conserve my energy! I spoke to Nina on the phone last night; LOVE her!!! I made apple sauce with Mama Rachael last night and it reminded me of the middle of her apple pie... I really miss that pie! The apple sauce was good though.. Sunday school went well, we used the shakers from thursday for them to decorate and then did the story of Jericho again. Also invented bowling with a tennis ball and water bottles slightly weighed down :) After lunch the girls went to visit a few ladies from V.W.G but I stayed at home cos of back pain and Bex stayed at home cos of a headache. Bad times :( It was good having a break though and carrying on with some reading etc. Hadsome interesting theological debates with Jona and Timo while I attempted to read! The Ugandan theology can be pretty hardcore at times; they have a lot of absolutes, like Christians can never drink alcohol. I disagreed with that one! It's really interesting though cos it's all to do with the culture and their history and upbringing. Intriguing stuff :)
So now it's Monday and it's nearly 5pm. I'm pretty tired sitting here and we need to leave soon to go to the post office, then Shoprite to buy a few bits and then head home. It's been raining outside so the taxi park will be perilously muddy! I feel happy now though; it's been a relaxing day and I got pizza for lunch and Bex and Nicky are with me so it was easier to navigate the roads safely! We met up with Maree and had a chat, which was really helpful and reassuring. My back is killing me so please continue to pray for that. I know there will be challenges while we're here so I'm trying to stay on track and full of positivity. I haven't prayed or read my Bible enough this week and I know I need to do that more to stay strong and firmly rooted in God when the troubles like tiredness and a bad back come. Thank you so much for your support and prayers; they mean the world to me and they totally make a difference. I'm very blessed to have such support at home and I can't wait to see all of you. Only 3 and a half months to go now!
Sending tons and tons of love, and a big hug to all of you reading this :)
Flick
xXx
Sunday 8 November 2009
2nd - 9th November 2009
Hey again everyone :) Weekly update time!
Quick sum-up of the week to start - it's been very busy and we've realised that being at Gilgal is more important than ever. We're also learning how important prayer is; when we don't do it we see the effect in ourselves and the work we're doing. It's easy to forget to pray, or be doing other things that seem more important on the surface, but for me as an individual and the team as a whole, prayer is what binds us together and keeps us going in the same direction and more importantly God's direction. A lot is happening here and it can be easy to get swept away in it... As I write I feel a little bit lost! Almost like I don't know where to start and the week has turned into a bit of a blur. I guess that's just a mixture of tiredness and the build-up of how long we've been here - it's nearly 2 months now. I'm really proud of myself and the girls for how well we've done! :) We've already seen some truly incredible things, as I'm sure you've all picked up on from the blog, and it's an amazing opportunity that God's given us to be here. When I feel a bit crap I try to remind myself of that! Anyway, long introductory ramble over :) Let's get going with the week...
Monday 2nd - Bex and I went to Kampala and found an amazing food place right next to Barclays, Stanbic and the post office! This means MUCH less walking and less stress on visits to Kampala. WOOP :) Plus there's internet in the food place, so we could eat ice cream while emailing! Luxury... We couldn't have our hair braided like we wanted to, so we're having it done in 2 weeks instead. Pretty standard day off apart from that!
Tuesday 3rd - No visiting schools in the morning so we could get some Bible reading and journalling done... I'm still really rubbish at getting my diary written on the right days! It's awful, every entry starts with "Well, it's meant to be Wednesday but I'm writing this on Sunday..." Anyway, it was great to have some alone time and chill for a while. We were getting ready to go to the tailoring school as usual in the afternoon when we heard that Alex, the pastor who runs it and translates for us, had cancelled the school because his niece suddenly passed away. She had only just got married. Yet again, the reality of death is more stark here than at home. We didn't go to the funeral or anything like that cos we aren't connected as such with the family so we spent the whole day at home, planning and stuff. I think it meant that by the evening we were all a bit tense, so 'Team Bible Study' turned into 'multiple heated theological debates'! It was interesting.... Not the ideal end to the day. Please pray that the team continue to bond and get on well; we really are like sisters, very close and we share everything! We just need time away from each other sometimes :) Everything felt like wading through treacle on Tuesday. Very slow and sluggish and not great. But we're bound to have days like that. The end of the day was hilarious; Lucy, Bex and I went to give an announcement about V.W.G to the lady who runs the loudspeaker thing.. We ended up ruining the whole thing by laughing over the speakers and talking in terrible Luganda. Stuff like that I'll take home with me and never forget :) It's difficult to get things like that across to you guys at home!
Wednesday 4th - My sleep is getting better, so thank you to everyone who prayed for that :) Got a properly good, undisturbed night of sleep! Lilo in the morning: We did the first half of the story of Joseph, where he gets arrested and taken to Potiphar in Egypt. We split the kids into groups and got them to do dramas; they loved it! I wasn't sure it would work but it really did. We gave each group a toilet roll (making use of limited resources!) and one extra prop to tell their part of the story. My team was awesome!! Joseph ended up mummified in various coloured scarves, Jacob had a toilet roll beard and the Ishmaelites had toilet paper crowns. It was classic, got some hilarious photos of them :) We're trying to do different, sensory things with them towards the end of term. We're doing the other half of the Joseph story next week, then also doing gardening the week after. In February (they're not at school between the end of November and the end of January) we want to do a big wall mural with them too, get them to do their handprints and stuff. They'd love that. Nico wasn't there, he was still in bed for some reason (ill?) and Natalie was sat outside eating dirt as usual :(
We've moved V.W.G from Thursdays to Wednesdays cos it's too difficult to get to Home Cell afterwards on a Thurs. We got back and prepared for V.W.G pretty much straight away; it was a full on day! Talked to Mama and Tata who have come up with an awesome financial plan for the group. Basically, we order wax and wicks in bulk for the ladies to Tata's central organisation. They come and get the materials and he pays them cash in hand for the candles they'll make (they need cash pretty much straight away to live). Out of that, we take money for the wax and wicks and some money from the profit of selling the candles to put back into the central organisation. Out of that, we can save up for some sweater making machines and more sophisticated candle machines. At the moment, the plan is to make candles using a drip method by hand and we're going to get someone from Bambejja (the Oasis project where they make candles) to come and train the women. It's very exciting :) We have some prices for the sweater making machines: 2.5 million shillings (that's nearly 1000 pounds) or 500,000sh for a smaller one. It's a big target and a lot to save, but we can do it. We had some problems with Mama Claire and other ladies at the meeting who think that one woman will lead each part of the project, but we had to explain that it's a team thing. They'll all be paid for what they make, depending on how much that is, and nobody will 'own' the sewing machines etc, cos they're owned by the central organisation. It was good to clear all that up - it got a bit tense! Please pray that they work well and effectively as a group, not competing too much or resenting one another cos that'll undermine both the work itself and our reason for setting it up.
El led Bible Study straight after that for people from church and it was awesome. We started our series on Hebrews, which is what the group chose. I'm reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins at the moment; it's a difficult one! I'm enjoying it though (he can be quite genuinely funny, if slightly insulting, in places!) and it's showing me how open minded and resilient I'll have to be doing a Theology degree!
Thursday 5th - Happy 12th birthday Char :D Love you! OK so today was a crazy one! We were meant to go to Gilgal in the morning but found out on Tuesday that Tata organised for us to go to a different school instead. This was a bit of a pain cos it's so important for us to be at Gilgal cos of the situation with the Pastor there, and we really feel it's a stronghold (in a bad way!) in the community that needs to be broken down. We've had a lot of stuff from people (thank you Charlie! :D x) about breaking walls down while we're here, and the story of Jericho seems to fit like a jigsaw with Gilgal, so we're praying about that. There's a lot of battling to do there, with the Pastor and his way of life/teaching and the general state of things there too. Anyway, we went to this school really far out in the countryside. The road was awful but we drove through some absolutely beautiful scenery. It was stunning; Luc was hung out of the windows trying to get photos at several points! It took about an hour and a half in a special (specially hired matatu) to get there. Because we didn't want to totally miss Gilgal we had organised to be back there by 1 to lead their prayer and praise session. We prayed a lot about it and felt really happy to be going there at least for a little while :) On the way to this other school we found out we didn't have a vehicle to get us back till 1 o'clock, and the road was too dangerous to use bodas (motorbikes) so we didn't know what to do. We tried to call a boda man who Mama Rachael trusts but we couldn't get through and Tata wasn't at home. SO FRUSTRATING. We ended up not getting back for Gilgal and had to send our apologies. Poor Becky was ill at home (she'd had flu for the last 4 days) so she had to explain and sort it out :( It was totally gutting. Please pray that we get back to Gilgal next Thursday without any problems and that everything there goes smoothly and is covered by God.
The other school we visited was awesome - we did the story of Zaccheus. Cos I'm the shortest, that made me him and I actually had to climb a mango tree! Speaking of which, it's nearly mango season which is reeeeeally exciting :D They're my favourite ever fruit... Anyway, the story went good and we did all the usual songs and games. I love the kids here! It's a privilege being able to meet them. We turned our annoyance and negative feelings about Gilgal into lots of positive funnage with the kids, so that was good. They want to be pen pals with us, so maybe we can sort that out through Oasis or something... We had to buy cake on the way back and then go straight to home cell cos it was at the Pastor's house way out in Kabimbiri (a 40min walk after the 90min matatu journey) so we didn't have time to go home for lunch. VERY long day! Instead of walking we decided to be cheeky and Mama Rachael let us get bodas :D :D :D It was AWESOME!!!! Ellie was over the moon cos she has a motorbike at home and obviously hasn't ridden one for months. They were very safe - I told them we'd pay the 1500sh if they drove badly, 2000sh if they were safe :) That gave them incentive to drive well!
Then the rain came while we were sitting outside in Bible study - we ran for home but then the heavens opened in their typical Ugandan way and we were completely SOAKED! It was so much fun :) You know how much I love the rain! Everyone ran for shelter in a random Catholic church that we found, but Ellie and I ran around in it. I'm really proud of her for that cos of her sporadic water phobia; I think she's actually starting to get over it and move forward which is pretty cool! The skies looked pretty thunderous and we had to get home, so we had just stepped out from the church to walk home in the rain (much to Mama's trepidation cos she's scared of the rain lol) when a big car turned up, and the man driving it was Father Maurice, the pastor of the Catholic church. He decided to offer us a lift to get home :D I love how God provides just at the right moment! Plus he never usually drives that car, every other time he drives around he has a tiny car, but this one fitted TEN of us in it and he took us all home :) Good times!
Friday 6th - Got a little lie-in cos we had to get to Bambejja at 11 instead of 9 :D Yay! A visiting group from England did the prayer meeting and some training for us, so it was much more chilled and generally nice! Very odd hearing English accents again though... They seemed soooo English with their socks and sandals (no joke) and high-waisted trousers. Kinda nice and comforting to see typical English old people! :) It made us realise how much more Ugandan we are now though. Mama always calls us Muganda - we have this joke, no idea where it came from, when we say "silly mzungu" but apparently in Luganda that means 'I am not a Mzungu'... Now when kids shout mzungu at us we just say silly mzungu, i am muganda!!!
Saturday 7th - Kids club like normal at 2 went well... Not much that I can remember of Saturday! Hmmm.... We got a couple of kids from Lilo, which was cool cos we've been plugging it a lot more at all the schools we go to! Same kinda stuff as usual... I managed to find some space in one of the bedrooms to do my journal which was nice and peaceful. It's not often that things are actually quiet at home! Timothy and Jonathan, the 2 oldest kids are home from uni/school so it's been nice having them around. It's meant lots of noisy games of Uno while we watch La Tormenta! Boys and girls groups went really well. Ellie and Nick did the boys group - they met the co-pastor of Pastor Murenzi's church (he's the dodgy one that I wrote about a few weeks ago, the headteacher of Gilgal where we do the boys and girls groups) called Joshua, who's a really cool young guy. It seems like he'll be a good way for us to change things at the school and he'll be a brilliant role model for the boys too. I was doing girls group, which went well. We got them discussing the story of the woman at the well, and they actually did discuss! Loved it :) It's good hearing them ask questions and offer suggestions cos they're not encouraged to do that in school. The point of Jesus knowing us inside out and giving us new life is really important for them; no matter what they've done or what other people have done to them, he's there with open arms. No matter what.
One girl called Princess who's just finished her P7 exams left to go to Kampala 'forever' - please pray that she gets settled there and finds a senior school where she can join S1 and study (that's our equivalent of year 7). She needs school fees and a safe place to live, so please pray. Also please pray for Sarah, who's in P7 too. She's very sick; she's on antibiotics for a bad cough and is being sick and all sorts. She's a lovely girl, full of joy, and still came to girls group despite being ill, so please hold her up in your prayers. I love the girls here; today it really felt for the first time that I was friends with them, close friends. I went with about 8 of the girls to drop Princess off at the road and say goodbye to her. It was lovely, joking around with them and just them being comfortable with me. Ah it was awesome!! After those groups we went home and chilled out with the usual comforting cups of tea and coffee that remind us of home :)
Sunday 8th - Yesterday! El preached at church, which was fantastic. Sunday school went well... We're slowly getting there later and later so we're there for less time! We got there at 11 yesterday lol.. We thought we would be visiting women in the afternoon from V.W.G but one of the ladies we arranged to see died really suddenly the day before. She was heavily pregnant and was at the meeting on Wednesday. She was due to give birth at any time; the baby died, and she left her husband who she had recently married. It's so tragic; words can't describe it. There's no more I can say other than to ask you to pray for her family, and for me that I don't get hardened or used to it. Just because it happens a lot doesn't mean that it's the way it should be.
On a lighter note, I was asleep on the sofa in the family's house in the afternoon and was woken up by a child holding a squawking chicken in my face - NOT COOL!!!! Admittedly it was funny, but seriously, I was terrified! :) Oh and I held a beautiful newborn baby girl and had a lovely cuddle with her outside while Josh, Junior and Esther were burning random bits of wood (health and safety violation much?!?!)
Anyway, I'd better stop writing now cos I have to go. We have some people from El and Bex's church in Southampton visiting us today - they're coming over for their own project but they have some surprise presents and things to drop off for us from Ellie's Mum :D More mzungus to see! As I write, the internet cafe is swarming with them... It's actually very odd to see so many. Coming home is going to be completely bizarre! One last thing - I got an unconditional offer from Nottingham Uni last week :D :D :D :D :D It's SUCH an answer to prayer and has really calmed me down. Regardless of Cambridge or Durham, I have an awesome place to go! :) Very exciting! Right, I really am off now. Feel free to email or write to me; it's always lovely to hear from you! Sending tons and tons of love and a big hug to anyone who wants one :)
Flick
xXx
Quick sum-up of the week to start - it's been very busy and we've realised that being at Gilgal is more important than ever. We're also learning how important prayer is; when we don't do it we see the effect in ourselves and the work we're doing. It's easy to forget to pray, or be doing other things that seem more important on the surface, but for me as an individual and the team as a whole, prayer is what binds us together and keeps us going in the same direction and more importantly God's direction. A lot is happening here and it can be easy to get swept away in it... As I write I feel a little bit lost! Almost like I don't know where to start and the week has turned into a bit of a blur. I guess that's just a mixture of tiredness and the build-up of how long we've been here - it's nearly 2 months now. I'm really proud of myself and the girls for how well we've done! :) We've already seen some truly incredible things, as I'm sure you've all picked up on from the blog, and it's an amazing opportunity that God's given us to be here. When I feel a bit crap I try to remind myself of that! Anyway, long introductory ramble over :) Let's get going with the week...
Monday 2nd - Bex and I went to Kampala and found an amazing food place right next to Barclays, Stanbic and the post office! This means MUCH less walking and less stress on visits to Kampala. WOOP :) Plus there's internet in the food place, so we could eat ice cream while emailing! Luxury... We couldn't have our hair braided like we wanted to, so we're having it done in 2 weeks instead. Pretty standard day off apart from that!
Tuesday 3rd - No visiting schools in the morning so we could get some Bible reading and journalling done... I'm still really rubbish at getting my diary written on the right days! It's awful, every entry starts with "Well, it's meant to be Wednesday but I'm writing this on Sunday..." Anyway, it was great to have some alone time and chill for a while. We were getting ready to go to the tailoring school as usual in the afternoon when we heard that Alex, the pastor who runs it and translates for us, had cancelled the school because his niece suddenly passed away. She had only just got married. Yet again, the reality of death is more stark here than at home. We didn't go to the funeral or anything like that cos we aren't connected as such with the family so we spent the whole day at home, planning and stuff. I think it meant that by the evening we were all a bit tense, so 'Team Bible Study' turned into 'multiple heated theological debates'! It was interesting.... Not the ideal end to the day. Please pray that the team continue to bond and get on well; we really are like sisters, very close and we share everything! We just need time away from each other sometimes :) Everything felt like wading through treacle on Tuesday. Very slow and sluggish and not great. But we're bound to have days like that. The end of the day was hilarious; Lucy, Bex and I went to give an announcement about V.W.G to the lady who runs the loudspeaker thing.. We ended up ruining the whole thing by laughing over the speakers and talking in terrible Luganda. Stuff like that I'll take home with me and never forget :) It's difficult to get things like that across to you guys at home!
Wednesday 4th - My sleep is getting better, so thank you to everyone who prayed for that :) Got a properly good, undisturbed night of sleep! Lilo in the morning: We did the first half of the story of Joseph, where he gets arrested and taken to Potiphar in Egypt. We split the kids into groups and got them to do dramas; they loved it! I wasn't sure it would work but it really did. We gave each group a toilet roll (making use of limited resources!) and one extra prop to tell their part of the story. My team was awesome!! Joseph ended up mummified in various coloured scarves, Jacob had a toilet roll beard and the Ishmaelites had toilet paper crowns. It was classic, got some hilarious photos of them :) We're trying to do different, sensory things with them towards the end of term. We're doing the other half of the Joseph story next week, then also doing gardening the week after. In February (they're not at school between the end of November and the end of January) we want to do a big wall mural with them too, get them to do their handprints and stuff. They'd love that. Nico wasn't there, he was still in bed for some reason (ill?) and Natalie was sat outside eating dirt as usual :(
We've moved V.W.G from Thursdays to Wednesdays cos it's too difficult to get to Home Cell afterwards on a Thurs. We got back and prepared for V.W.G pretty much straight away; it was a full on day! Talked to Mama and Tata who have come up with an awesome financial plan for the group. Basically, we order wax and wicks in bulk for the ladies to Tata's central organisation. They come and get the materials and he pays them cash in hand for the candles they'll make (they need cash pretty much straight away to live). Out of that, we take money for the wax and wicks and some money from the profit of selling the candles to put back into the central organisation. Out of that, we can save up for some sweater making machines and more sophisticated candle machines. At the moment, the plan is to make candles using a drip method by hand and we're going to get someone from Bambejja (the Oasis project where they make candles) to come and train the women. It's very exciting :) We have some prices for the sweater making machines: 2.5 million shillings (that's nearly 1000 pounds) or 500,000sh for a smaller one. It's a big target and a lot to save, but we can do it. We had some problems with Mama Claire and other ladies at the meeting who think that one woman will lead each part of the project, but we had to explain that it's a team thing. They'll all be paid for what they make, depending on how much that is, and nobody will 'own' the sewing machines etc, cos they're owned by the central organisation. It was good to clear all that up - it got a bit tense! Please pray that they work well and effectively as a group, not competing too much or resenting one another cos that'll undermine both the work itself and our reason for setting it up.
El led Bible Study straight after that for people from church and it was awesome. We started our series on Hebrews, which is what the group chose. I'm reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins at the moment; it's a difficult one! I'm enjoying it though (he can be quite genuinely funny, if slightly insulting, in places!) and it's showing me how open minded and resilient I'll have to be doing a Theology degree!
Thursday 5th - Happy 12th birthday Char :D Love you! OK so today was a crazy one! We were meant to go to Gilgal in the morning but found out on Tuesday that Tata organised for us to go to a different school instead. This was a bit of a pain cos it's so important for us to be at Gilgal cos of the situation with the Pastor there, and we really feel it's a stronghold (in a bad way!) in the community that needs to be broken down. We've had a lot of stuff from people (thank you Charlie! :D x) about breaking walls down while we're here, and the story of Jericho seems to fit like a jigsaw with Gilgal, so we're praying about that. There's a lot of battling to do there, with the Pastor and his way of life/teaching and the general state of things there too. Anyway, we went to this school really far out in the countryside. The road was awful but we drove through some absolutely beautiful scenery. It was stunning; Luc was hung out of the windows trying to get photos at several points! It took about an hour and a half in a special (specially hired matatu) to get there. Because we didn't want to totally miss Gilgal we had organised to be back there by 1 to lead their prayer and praise session. We prayed a lot about it and felt really happy to be going there at least for a little while :) On the way to this other school we found out we didn't have a vehicle to get us back till 1 o'clock, and the road was too dangerous to use bodas (motorbikes) so we didn't know what to do. We tried to call a boda man who Mama Rachael trusts but we couldn't get through and Tata wasn't at home. SO FRUSTRATING. We ended up not getting back for Gilgal and had to send our apologies. Poor Becky was ill at home (she'd had flu for the last 4 days) so she had to explain and sort it out :( It was totally gutting. Please pray that we get back to Gilgal next Thursday without any problems and that everything there goes smoothly and is covered by God.
The other school we visited was awesome - we did the story of Zaccheus. Cos I'm the shortest, that made me him and I actually had to climb a mango tree! Speaking of which, it's nearly mango season which is reeeeeally exciting :D They're my favourite ever fruit... Anyway, the story went good and we did all the usual songs and games. I love the kids here! It's a privilege being able to meet them. We turned our annoyance and negative feelings about Gilgal into lots of positive funnage with the kids, so that was good. They want to be pen pals with us, so maybe we can sort that out through Oasis or something... We had to buy cake on the way back and then go straight to home cell cos it was at the Pastor's house way out in Kabimbiri (a 40min walk after the 90min matatu journey) so we didn't have time to go home for lunch. VERY long day! Instead of walking we decided to be cheeky and Mama Rachael let us get bodas :D :D :D It was AWESOME!!!! Ellie was over the moon cos she has a motorbike at home and obviously hasn't ridden one for months. They were very safe - I told them we'd pay the 1500sh if they drove badly, 2000sh if they were safe :) That gave them incentive to drive well!
Then the rain came while we were sitting outside in Bible study - we ran for home but then the heavens opened in their typical Ugandan way and we were completely SOAKED! It was so much fun :) You know how much I love the rain! Everyone ran for shelter in a random Catholic church that we found, but Ellie and I ran around in it. I'm really proud of her for that cos of her sporadic water phobia; I think she's actually starting to get over it and move forward which is pretty cool! The skies looked pretty thunderous and we had to get home, so we had just stepped out from the church to walk home in the rain (much to Mama's trepidation cos she's scared of the rain lol) when a big car turned up, and the man driving it was Father Maurice, the pastor of the Catholic church. He decided to offer us a lift to get home :D I love how God provides just at the right moment! Plus he never usually drives that car, every other time he drives around he has a tiny car, but this one fitted TEN of us in it and he took us all home :) Good times!
Friday 6th - Got a little lie-in cos we had to get to Bambejja at 11 instead of 9 :D Yay! A visiting group from England did the prayer meeting and some training for us, so it was much more chilled and generally nice! Very odd hearing English accents again though... They seemed soooo English with their socks and sandals (no joke) and high-waisted trousers. Kinda nice and comforting to see typical English old people! :) It made us realise how much more Ugandan we are now though. Mama always calls us Muganda - we have this joke, no idea where it came from, when we say "silly mzungu" but apparently in Luganda that means 'I am not a Mzungu'... Now when kids shout mzungu at us we just say silly mzungu, i am muganda!!!
Saturday 7th - Kids club like normal at 2 went well... Not much that I can remember of Saturday! Hmmm.... We got a couple of kids from Lilo, which was cool cos we've been plugging it a lot more at all the schools we go to! Same kinda stuff as usual... I managed to find some space in one of the bedrooms to do my journal which was nice and peaceful. It's not often that things are actually quiet at home! Timothy and Jonathan, the 2 oldest kids are home from uni/school so it's been nice having them around. It's meant lots of noisy games of Uno while we watch La Tormenta! Boys and girls groups went really well. Ellie and Nick did the boys group - they met the co-pastor of Pastor Murenzi's church (he's the dodgy one that I wrote about a few weeks ago, the headteacher of Gilgal where we do the boys and girls groups) called Joshua, who's a really cool young guy. It seems like he'll be a good way for us to change things at the school and he'll be a brilliant role model for the boys too. I was doing girls group, which went well. We got them discussing the story of the woman at the well, and they actually did discuss! Loved it :) It's good hearing them ask questions and offer suggestions cos they're not encouraged to do that in school. The point of Jesus knowing us inside out and giving us new life is really important for them; no matter what they've done or what other people have done to them, he's there with open arms. No matter what.
One girl called Princess who's just finished her P7 exams left to go to Kampala 'forever' - please pray that she gets settled there and finds a senior school where she can join S1 and study (that's our equivalent of year 7). She needs school fees and a safe place to live, so please pray. Also please pray for Sarah, who's in P7 too. She's very sick; she's on antibiotics for a bad cough and is being sick and all sorts. She's a lovely girl, full of joy, and still came to girls group despite being ill, so please hold her up in your prayers. I love the girls here; today it really felt for the first time that I was friends with them, close friends. I went with about 8 of the girls to drop Princess off at the road and say goodbye to her. It was lovely, joking around with them and just them being comfortable with me. Ah it was awesome!! After those groups we went home and chilled out with the usual comforting cups of tea and coffee that remind us of home :)
Sunday 8th - Yesterday! El preached at church, which was fantastic. Sunday school went well... We're slowly getting there later and later so we're there for less time! We got there at 11 yesterday lol.. We thought we would be visiting women in the afternoon from V.W.G but one of the ladies we arranged to see died really suddenly the day before. She was heavily pregnant and was at the meeting on Wednesday. She was due to give birth at any time; the baby died, and she left her husband who she had recently married. It's so tragic; words can't describe it. There's no more I can say other than to ask you to pray for her family, and for me that I don't get hardened or used to it. Just because it happens a lot doesn't mean that it's the way it should be.
On a lighter note, I was asleep on the sofa in the family's house in the afternoon and was woken up by a child holding a squawking chicken in my face - NOT COOL!!!! Admittedly it was funny, but seriously, I was terrified! :) Oh and I held a beautiful newborn baby girl and had a lovely cuddle with her outside while Josh, Junior and Esther were burning random bits of wood (health and safety violation much?!?!)
Anyway, I'd better stop writing now cos I have to go. We have some people from El and Bex's church in Southampton visiting us today - they're coming over for their own project but they have some surprise presents and things to drop off for us from Ellie's Mum :D More mzungus to see! As I write, the internet cafe is swarming with them... It's actually very odd to see so many. Coming home is going to be completely bizarre! One last thing - I got an unconditional offer from Nottingham Uni last week :D :D :D :D :D It's SUCH an answer to prayer and has really calmed me down. Regardless of Cambridge or Durham, I have an awesome place to go! :) Very exciting! Right, I really am off now. Feel free to email or write to me; it's always lovely to hear from you! Sending tons and tons of love and a big hug to anyone who wants one :)
Flick
xXx
Monday 2 November 2009
27th October - 2nd November
Hey everyone :)
Another week has gone past - tomorrow it's SEVEN weeks since we left the UK. It's very surreal to have been gone that long... It just shows how the time will fly past till February when I can see you all again! I promise I'll try to be quicker with the updates this week....
Tuesday 27th - No water to wash with. Bad times! Although the team and I figured that none of us had washed so technically none of us would realise the difference on each other :) Visited a school called Edusabo in Kasawo in the morning. It was opened 4 years ago and had 80 pupils when it started. It now has 470 students from nursery to P7. The school is on land that was bought by a local village church; they raised all the money themselves without any external help, which is a real achievement here and very unusual. It was an amazing project to see :D As always the kids were lovely, and we did the usual games, songs and story with them. The headteacher has architectural plans drawn up for some building of houses for teachers, classrooms, offices and a big school that they want to do ASAP and they've sent a proposal to the Japanese Embassy in Kampala. It's so good to see what people can do here for themselves, without relying at all on mzungus. It gives us hope as a team for V.W.G (vulnerable women's group) and what they can do for themselves in starting the candle making business etc. The teachers served us this amazing fruit juice and pineapple afterwards, which was a blessing cos we're definitely not eating enough fruit, and there's nothing we can do about it :( Its mango season soon though (WOOP!)
Visited the tailoring school as usual in the afternoon. I took my half-finished paper dress from last week and a girl called Heifah (not sure how you spell it?!) helped me sew sleeves on and do the hemming. It's now complete and is going on my wall when I get home! :D I put it on Junior when we got home, he didn't appreciate my sewing skills though, being a 6 (or 7?) year old boy! I'm reading "The God Delusion" at the moment, to prepare myself for the inevitable onslaught of my Cambridge interview (my personal statement is very faith based...) and am struggling through it but persevering and actually enjoying it!
Wednesday 28th - Again, no water in the morning. VERY BAD TIMES! Apparently the pump for Kampala and the whole surrounding region has been breaking intermittently for the last week. At time of writing (the 2nd) the longest stretch we've had without water is 3 days, which means greasy hair and washing in about an inch of water. Eeeew.
Lilo in the morning as always :) We did the story of the wise man and the foolish man but did it a little differently with the older ones; we gave them loads of craft materials, like plastic bottles, loo rolls and card etc and told them to build a house. We did it as a competition to see whose was strongest, best looking, best teamwork... They loved it! :D Doing things like that with them definitely works better. While they were doing that I went outside and sat with some of the mute and more severely disabled children cos sometimes they're a bit left out and I don't like that. Natalie is a mute girl, who can only say "Mama" and we were making boda boda noises everytime a motorbike went past (she found that very funny!) Nico (Nicholas) is another mute boy who is also quite seriously physically disabled. I was just sitting with him and got a gorgeous smile out of him at one point :) He liked my pink plastic shoes, so we were playing with them for a while, till he ended up wearing one of them! It was SO lovely. Genuinely, some of my best moments of the last 6 weeks. It's an incredible privilege to be able to sit with children in the dust like that, just talking to them, playing and spending time with them without having to worry about doing anything else. Just poking our fingers through the holes in my shoes was enough. I LOVE that. Such small things, especially with children, can overcome things like language or culture barriers. I'm getting to know more of their names and we're slowly building closer relationships with them. Ah I love that school!
Did the washing outside in the beautiful sunshine as usual for a Wednesday afternoon... Then Sarah (from P7 at Gilgal) and another girl called Princess came to visit us completely randomly! Luckily we had just tidied up and swept, and Bex had some biscuits we could give them (the importance of hospitality etc) so it was all good. They gave us a letter to invite us to their P7 pre-exam party on the 31st which was really kind of them, but also asked us for money (anything upto 80,000sh) That was awkward cos we can't give out money (it reinforces the stereotype of rich mzungus giving out cash to anyone who asks) so we had to say that we couldn't go to the party even though we would have wanted to. Luckily we can blame it on our busy programme! Bible study in the evening went well... Classic moment was sister Esther borrowing Tata's (my new name for Pastor Ben; it's Luganda for Dad, cos I just can't seriously call him Dad or Daddy like the other kids do :S I love my own Dad too much, it's just weird!) glasses. They we're obviously waaaay too big for her face and it just made for some classic slapstick comedy :D
Thursday 29th - Gilgal in the morning went well. Annoyingly still started 20mins late... Nursery screamed and squealed as we walked in, as always, and had great fun playing the Name Game. It was raining, which made playing games a bit difficult. One boy always sits at the front grinning; I don't know his name but he's lovely and is definitely my favourite! :) Did the J-O-Y song (hilarious) ... all the other groups went well, pretty much the same. I told the story for P5+6 and 7 - I love doing that :) Cos they're older it's easier to talk to them as friends. It's a different way of doing the same thing... We went into the main hall after all the teaching for their singing/praying thing for half an hour like normal. It's always a bit weird being at the front and viewed as different - Ellie and Lucy particularly hate it - but it's their way of honouring us and making the most of us being there. It can be uncomfortable and even a bit intimidating, but we just have to get used to it. We led a few songs and luckily didn't have to do a talk cos another lady spoke for ages! *sigh of relief*
Jocelyn (the person taking over Maree's role of coordinator in December) came to visit Mama and Tata while we were at Gilgal and then had lunch with us and we "showed her round" our little house. Basically that meant looking at our brightly coloured/glittered prayer wall! We took the washing line down before she came in and chucked all the mess in one corner so it looked a lot better than it actually is! (Yes, I know, we're still typical teenagers!) Seriously though, it's really hard to keep it tidy cos of all the stuff in such a small space, but we're doing well. We tidy every day, even though I know Mum and Dad will find that hard to believe! :) While Jocelyn was round she said everyone in the community is really happy with us and feels that we're doing lots of good stuff. Apparently we're the best group they've had, WOOP! :D
V.W.G didn't have so many ladies this week cos we didn't announce it over the loudspeakers, totally forgot :S Next week we're going to use the World Vision centre in case we have more and we'll announce in 2 days before the meeting so that they all come. They gave some suggestions for business ideas that they can lead, so this week they're researching growing flowers for bouquets, making sweatshirts and tie-dying while we research candle making stuff. Please pray that we have wisdom about how to run it, that they have motivation to fundwaise and work themselves and that the whole thing would go smoothly. It seems quite daunting when we think about trying to set it up!
Friday 30th - Up at 6, left for Kampala at 7. Not a good morning! 4 hours of theological training with Pastor Michael in the morning, then we planned for stuff this week over lunch, then had staff meeting from 3 till 4:45 :( Too long! Looking through the staff handbook was NOT the most joyous part of my week, especially considering I'm not an Oasis staff member and therefore served NO purpose being at the meeting where they discussed amendments to the handbook and financial policy on fraud. Yes, that's right, FRAUD. Not happy times!
We all got home late and stressed to samosas and the whole family was moody cos Mama Rachael wasn't back from Kampala yet (it rained so she couldn't leave). Oh and to top the whole day off, when I was in the taxi park walking down the steps, I slipped in some mud and fell flat on my bum in front of MANY men who all proceeded to laugh hysterically. To be fair, it was quite funny! :D
Saturday 31st - Granddad's birthday; would've been his 80th :( We had a very relaxed, chilled out morning. Did some washing and tidying as usual... We've sorted out having some drums made by a guy in the village so we need to go and see him soon. Mama Rachael was out doing a talk at a school and didn't get back till half 4 so we had no translator for Kids Club. Joshua did the best he could but it didn't go that smoothly. Ah well! The kids had fun :) I just find it a bit frustrating when we don't do things as well as I know we could. I'm a perfectionist at the best of times and it's a pain here when we can't get things right and it feels like something isn't as good as it should be for the kids. But we have time to work on that :) It rained really heavily after kids club so we didn't do boys and girls groups, also cos the P7 kids have their big exams this week so they wouldn't have been able to come. Please pray that all of them feel peaceful about their exams and the outcome.
Sunday 1st - It's November!!! Where did the time go?! :S It'll hardly be any time till I'm home and can see all of you now; February will come round soooo fast! :) We went to an African wedding: It was amazing! We had 3 hours of church in the morning then had to go and get changed into traiditional Ugandan dresses called gomezes that people wear for weddings. They're floor length with pointy shoulders and are tied around the waist with thick, heavy sashes. Very hot to wear!! We managed though :) I had to do the bride's makeup (she liked my glitter!) and we danced in front of her when she came into the church cos we were spcially invited guests. Was a totally bizarre but awesome experience! The reception was weird and to be honest completely awful compared to English ones! Really made me miss English organisation and stuff...
Right, no time left! Got to go. I'll do more detailed prayer requests next week... Sending loads and loads of love back home. Missing you as always.
Flick
xXx
Another week has gone past - tomorrow it's SEVEN weeks since we left the UK. It's very surreal to have been gone that long... It just shows how the time will fly past till February when I can see you all again! I promise I'll try to be quicker with the updates this week....
Tuesday 27th - No water to wash with. Bad times! Although the team and I figured that none of us had washed so technically none of us would realise the difference on each other :) Visited a school called Edusabo in Kasawo in the morning. It was opened 4 years ago and had 80 pupils when it started. It now has 470 students from nursery to P7. The school is on land that was bought by a local village church; they raised all the money themselves without any external help, which is a real achievement here and very unusual. It was an amazing project to see :D As always the kids were lovely, and we did the usual games, songs and story with them. The headteacher has architectural plans drawn up for some building of houses for teachers, classrooms, offices and a big school that they want to do ASAP and they've sent a proposal to the Japanese Embassy in Kampala. It's so good to see what people can do here for themselves, without relying at all on mzungus. It gives us hope as a team for V.W.G (vulnerable women's group) and what they can do for themselves in starting the candle making business etc. The teachers served us this amazing fruit juice and pineapple afterwards, which was a blessing cos we're definitely not eating enough fruit, and there's nothing we can do about it :( Its mango season soon though (WOOP!)
Visited the tailoring school as usual in the afternoon. I took my half-finished paper dress from last week and a girl called Heifah (not sure how you spell it?!) helped me sew sleeves on and do the hemming. It's now complete and is going on my wall when I get home! :D I put it on Junior when we got home, he didn't appreciate my sewing skills though, being a 6 (or 7?) year old boy! I'm reading "The God Delusion" at the moment, to prepare myself for the inevitable onslaught of my Cambridge interview (my personal statement is very faith based...) and am struggling through it but persevering and actually enjoying it!
Wednesday 28th - Again, no water in the morning. VERY BAD TIMES! Apparently the pump for Kampala and the whole surrounding region has been breaking intermittently for the last week. At time of writing (the 2nd) the longest stretch we've had without water is 3 days, which means greasy hair and washing in about an inch of water. Eeeew.
Lilo in the morning as always :) We did the story of the wise man and the foolish man but did it a little differently with the older ones; we gave them loads of craft materials, like plastic bottles, loo rolls and card etc and told them to build a house. We did it as a competition to see whose was strongest, best looking, best teamwork... They loved it! :D Doing things like that with them definitely works better. While they were doing that I went outside and sat with some of the mute and more severely disabled children cos sometimes they're a bit left out and I don't like that. Natalie is a mute girl, who can only say "Mama" and we were making boda boda noises everytime a motorbike went past (she found that very funny!) Nico (Nicholas) is another mute boy who is also quite seriously physically disabled. I was just sitting with him and got a gorgeous smile out of him at one point :) He liked my pink plastic shoes, so we were playing with them for a while, till he ended up wearing one of them! It was SO lovely. Genuinely, some of my best moments of the last 6 weeks. It's an incredible privilege to be able to sit with children in the dust like that, just talking to them, playing and spending time with them without having to worry about doing anything else. Just poking our fingers through the holes in my shoes was enough. I LOVE that. Such small things, especially with children, can overcome things like language or culture barriers. I'm getting to know more of their names and we're slowly building closer relationships with them. Ah I love that school!
Did the washing outside in the beautiful sunshine as usual for a Wednesday afternoon... Then Sarah (from P7 at Gilgal) and another girl called Princess came to visit us completely randomly! Luckily we had just tidied up and swept, and Bex had some biscuits we could give them (the importance of hospitality etc) so it was all good. They gave us a letter to invite us to their P7 pre-exam party on the 31st which was really kind of them, but also asked us for money (anything upto 80,000sh) That was awkward cos we can't give out money (it reinforces the stereotype of rich mzungus giving out cash to anyone who asks) so we had to say that we couldn't go to the party even though we would have wanted to. Luckily we can blame it on our busy programme! Bible study in the evening went well... Classic moment was sister Esther borrowing Tata's (my new name for Pastor Ben; it's Luganda for Dad, cos I just can't seriously call him Dad or Daddy like the other kids do :S I love my own Dad too much, it's just weird!) glasses. They we're obviously waaaay too big for her face and it just made for some classic slapstick comedy :D
Thursday 29th - Gilgal in the morning went well. Annoyingly still started 20mins late... Nursery screamed and squealed as we walked in, as always, and had great fun playing the Name Game. It was raining, which made playing games a bit difficult. One boy always sits at the front grinning; I don't know his name but he's lovely and is definitely my favourite! :) Did the J-O-Y song (hilarious) ... all the other groups went well, pretty much the same. I told the story for P5+6 and 7 - I love doing that :) Cos they're older it's easier to talk to them as friends. It's a different way of doing the same thing... We went into the main hall after all the teaching for their singing/praying thing for half an hour like normal. It's always a bit weird being at the front and viewed as different - Ellie and Lucy particularly hate it - but it's their way of honouring us and making the most of us being there. It can be uncomfortable and even a bit intimidating, but we just have to get used to it. We led a few songs and luckily didn't have to do a talk cos another lady spoke for ages! *sigh of relief*
Jocelyn (the person taking over Maree's role of coordinator in December) came to visit Mama and Tata while we were at Gilgal and then had lunch with us and we "showed her round" our little house. Basically that meant looking at our brightly coloured/glittered prayer wall! We took the washing line down before she came in and chucked all the mess in one corner so it looked a lot better than it actually is! (Yes, I know, we're still typical teenagers!) Seriously though, it's really hard to keep it tidy cos of all the stuff in such a small space, but we're doing well. We tidy every day, even though I know Mum and Dad will find that hard to believe! :) While Jocelyn was round she said everyone in the community is really happy with us and feels that we're doing lots of good stuff. Apparently we're the best group they've had, WOOP! :D
V.W.G didn't have so many ladies this week cos we didn't announce it over the loudspeakers, totally forgot :S Next week we're going to use the World Vision centre in case we have more and we'll announce in 2 days before the meeting so that they all come. They gave some suggestions for business ideas that they can lead, so this week they're researching growing flowers for bouquets, making sweatshirts and tie-dying while we research candle making stuff. Please pray that we have wisdom about how to run it, that they have motivation to fundwaise and work themselves and that the whole thing would go smoothly. It seems quite daunting when we think about trying to set it up!
Friday 30th - Up at 6, left for Kampala at 7. Not a good morning! 4 hours of theological training with Pastor Michael in the morning, then we planned for stuff this week over lunch, then had staff meeting from 3 till 4:45 :( Too long! Looking through the staff handbook was NOT the most joyous part of my week, especially considering I'm not an Oasis staff member and therefore served NO purpose being at the meeting where they discussed amendments to the handbook and financial policy on fraud. Yes, that's right, FRAUD. Not happy times!
We all got home late and stressed to samosas and the whole family was moody cos Mama Rachael wasn't back from Kampala yet (it rained so she couldn't leave). Oh and to top the whole day off, when I was in the taxi park walking down the steps, I slipped in some mud and fell flat on my bum in front of MANY men who all proceeded to laugh hysterically. To be fair, it was quite funny! :D
Saturday 31st - Granddad's birthday; would've been his 80th :( We had a very relaxed, chilled out morning. Did some washing and tidying as usual... We've sorted out having some drums made by a guy in the village so we need to go and see him soon. Mama Rachael was out doing a talk at a school and didn't get back till half 4 so we had no translator for Kids Club. Joshua did the best he could but it didn't go that smoothly. Ah well! The kids had fun :) I just find it a bit frustrating when we don't do things as well as I know we could. I'm a perfectionist at the best of times and it's a pain here when we can't get things right and it feels like something isn't as good as it should be for the kids. But we have time to work on that :) It rained really heavily after kids club so we didn't do boys and girls groups, also cos the P7 kids have their big exams this week so they wouldn't have been able to come. Please pray that all of them feel peaceful about their exams and the outcome.
Sunday 1st - It's November!!! Where did the time go?! :S It'll hardly be any time till I'm home and can see all of you now; February will come round soooo fast! :) We went to an African wedding: It was amazing! We had 3 hours of church in the morning then had to go and get changed into traiditional Ugandan dresses called gomezes that people wear for weddings. They're floor length with pointy shoulders and are tied around the waist with thick, heavy sashes. Very hot to wear!! We managed though :) I had to do the bride's makeup (she liked my glitter!) and we danced in front of her when she came into the church cos we were spcially invited guests. Was a totally bizarre but awesome experience! The reception was weird and to be honest completely awful compared to English ones! Really made me miss English organisation and stuff...
Right, no time left! Got to go. I'll do more detailed prayer requests next week... Sending loads and loads of love back home. Missing you as always.
Flick
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