On Monday (the 21st – yes I know I haven’t
blogged in a while) we had an awesome opportunity to visit some of the widows
Smile sponsors. It was lovely as we got a warm welcome from all of them and we
learned a lot about their lives. Many of them are brick makers and we where
explained the process in making the bricks which was pretty cool, although it’s
hard because to make, they need rain, which (even though it’s the rain season)
we haven’t had much of. We only managed to visit two because there was a great
distance between them and the final house we stopped off at the Lady was away.
Afterward we went back to the craft market, as it was Sarah’s last week. There
were some beautiful paintings but they were quite expensive. We were all
knackered so crashed early, knowing as well that we had school in the morning.
School the next morning was hard as we witnessed some pretty
heavy corporal punishment which left me teaching the 1/3 of my class that
wasn’t involved (around 15 out of 23 were taken out.) The thought that the
children started their exams the next day didn’t help our mood. We knew when we
where teaching that if they didn’t understand that day, they would really
struggle the next.
Exam day came and went leaving us with a very ill Anna, some
hilarious but pretty poor answers on the question papers and never wanting to
read out loud another badly written exam question. I lead my first devotion on
that day. I have never really done this before, although I have done similar
things, but I think it went well. God certainly helped.
The next day was very long, consisting of planting about a
gazillion beans and listening to nearly all my music (the music player really
helped, thank you muchly Floie :D.) We had a massive lunch which was probably
good because half the team at this point looked like they were about to pass
out. The locals where very generous and luckily nearly all of us managed to
finish what was on our plates.
Friday consisted of the team being split up between the kids
clubs which meant I was stuck with Jon, I mean, had the pleasure of going with
Jon (cough.) We didn’t have much to do as the kids were colouring, but it was
good fun trying to hand out pens fairly with a mob of children surrounding you
trying to get to them. I also led ‘Making Melodies,’ which must have been a
sight. The theme was ‘Jesus loves the children’ which was cute as was helping
the little kids colour. Me and Jon where unhurried in our return journey and
tried an interesting ‘shortcut.’ When we got back, although were really tiered,
we managed to watch Pocahontas which Jon didn’t like it and kept calling it
‘hocus pocus.’
It was shopping day on Saturday, but we really wanted to go
to the post office as many of us new there should be some post there. I got a
lovely package full of Chi Tea from my mum and dad. (Thank you muchly.) I will
remind you of my address again at the end of this blog and I’ll put it on my
main profile, not at all to encourage you to write me letters... Suzie made us
probably the most English meal we have had since being here – Pancakes! They
were very scrummy. One great success, for me personally, that day was getting
Jon to watch Community. For those of you don’t know, and who are interested,
Community is an awesome show with an unfortunately small fan base. This means,
of cores, that I need to get everybody into it.
We had a nice welcome at KBC in the morning as it was
‘Family Bible Study,’ the juice and donut style buns were just a bonus. We
learned during the sermon that KBC was known to some as Mzungu Church, which
amused me greatly as it probably does hold the largest amount of white people
we have seen. As it was Sarah’s last Sunday, and second to last day, we headed
off to a restaurant afterwards to give her a good send off. Now we were told
this place was called ‘Nando's’ but not wanting to get our hopes up we dubbed
it Ugando’s and tried not to think of decent spicy chicken. It was kind of a
good thing we didn’t because the place we went to could not be called ‘Nando's’
by anyone with an English passport. It was good though, the chicken in the
burger being the first we had tasted in close to a month and the chips actually
being fatty. My personal highlight was the strawberry ice cream me and Sarah
enjoyed afterwards. (How we had gone 4 weeks in a very hot country without and
ice cream I will never know.)
Then it came, the day that had been at the back of our minds
that we couldn’t quite face or believe, the day Sarah left us. This time, when
we went out to visit the widows, we focused on the slum areas so we gained are
normal following of adorable kids as we made our way from house to house. One
woman we visited had HIV and AIDs meaning she was feeling very ill but blessed
us with standing and having a photograph with us.
Another was at her stall where she sold watermelons but
wasn’t selling that day because she was under the weather. Despite this she
greeted us warmly and actually served us some of the watermelon that she would
have been selling. Watermelon, I have found, is even more refreshing then water
itself.
The next widow was doing well, but it was really strange to see a large number of people living in such a small space. She told us how the three leveled bunk bed was such a blessing as it gave them more room.
Before going back, Anna and I took a detour to KBC where we spoke at length with the leader of a group called LT Warriors, a dance club (very street based,) choreography for their Christmas production the main subject. In true Ugandan style, Sarah had her last meal in the darkness that can only be cause by a power cut. After some hugs and tears she drove away to the backing track of ‘See you Mzungu!’ and ‘bye Mzungu!’
And then there were 5.
*Insert some Geeky Leaving quote, that most won’t understand
so there’s no point in trying to think of one, here*
Tuesday was strange, waking up, finding an empty bed and not
having to wonder if we should wake up Sarah because it was getting late. We
went to school in a strange fashion, pointing at every dog, and even the pig
(Jefferson), and saying ‘Rabies!’ because Sarah wasn’t there to do it for us.
We reached the school where I taught a ‘prepared’ lesson on tenses (we have
been doing tenses for the past two weeks so I had quite a few things up my
sleeve) and proceeded to join Jon’s class. This was mainly because P3 where
being taught Luganda but also because observing can be boring, especially when
you are doing it for 4 out of 5 lessons a day. I taught him BSL alphabet which
we used to converse with the rest of the lesson. To be fair to us the teacher
was just copying from the book to the black board and the kids where copying
from that into their books – fun times.
Wednesday consisted of several breakthroughs in this area.
One was a teacher who we had almost labelled ‘lost cause’ actually interacting
with the children, another was me politely taking a stick of a teacher and the
lesson only leaving three children hurt. The finally one was when a teacher
left for a short while only to come back with some leaves to teach science
with! That was the first time we had seen it happen and, hopefully, won’t be
the last. The only drawback was that in my final lesson no teacher showed up...
all lesson.
We had Cute Overload on Thursday as we set of into the slums
equipped with loads of clothing and school equipment. It was such a joy, not
only clothing these tiny children that had previously been wearing nothing at
all, but to know that what we were doing actually made a difference and that
God can work through it.
1 month in.
TGIF is what a lot of us where thinking as it had been a
long week but we had a nice relaxed morning before splitting and going to the
children’s club once more. You would
never guess who I got stuck with, again. We had swapped places but not people
so Jon and I headed down to Blessed Word of Life church and where met with more
adorable kids than normal. There we recapped ‘Mary and the Angel’ with craft to
start the Christmas lead up (the children’s clubs Christmas parties are late
November early December as it coincides with the end of term.)
Shopping, shopping and more shopping is how I would describe
Saturday as that is what we did most of the day. First of though we went to the
post office and I received a lovely letter from my Sister, which may or may not
have made me cry... and a package from my mum.
And here we are, Sunday, the day of the Sun (or what I would
like to say – the day of the Son.) I have just witnessed my first proper
eclipse and have had a good morning at Church. We are hoping the power
continues so we can catch Ugandan X factor on the box (as my dad would
say.)
Here’s the reminder of my address:
Kathryn
Sweetlove
PO Box
5895
Kampala
Uganda
East
Africa
I love getting post as it makes me feel like I’m not so far
away from those that I love.
In my blog I have mentioned giving out clothing etc if you
feel like you would want to contribute to this you are welcome to send things
to the address above or through Smile International. Either way I assure you it
will get to those in need. We also, at some point would like to bless the
children in the slums with bracelets, so if you have some old ones (plastic,
fabric, glass – whatever) feel free to send some over. We will take pictures
and you can see a child’s face light up because of your gift.
Prayer requests:
·
Rain. We are in much need for rain at the farm,
it is the rainy season yet we have had zilch for a long time now.
·
Health. Personally, I have been under the
weather for a few days now and would like to go half an hour without sneezing.
Another ‘Gapper’ (Anna) is on penicillin for infected throat and bites. Another
two members of the team have colds, one we suspect has malaria. If you could
also pray for the widow’s health as one is suffering from Aids, and another
from flu.
·
Decision Making. One of the ‘Gappers’ has been
struggling with the option of extending her gap year. If you could pray for
peace or a clear decision for her.
Thank you for your continuing support, if you have any
questions about anything I have done, will do or could do you can comment
below, ask me on face book or drop me an email at cupcake2nd@hotmail.co.uk.
Wow that was a long post :D
KJ
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