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 :)

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