Working in Uganda

While on our mission trip, we have completed many projects! 

Building a veranda around the new baby and top class (preschool and kindergarten) buildings-

Check out one of the local mason workers that was leading the project. He doesn't have any shoes on! Talk about tough!

Planting bushes in the courtyard-

Oopsies! Forgot my gloves!
(At least it was night and I couldn't see how messy we were.)

Adding fascia boards on the buildings, so that gutters may be added-

Nick got the brilliant idea of painting the boards, one evening, before they were hung. Too bad they  had never done it that way and went for the extra (unpainted) boards first.... But, in the end, all the boards were used and all of them were painted one way or another.  

Putting in two 5,000 liter tanks in to catch the rain water from the gutters-

Just after the "boys" tank was set up on the pad.

Passing out shoes and dresses to over 40 students-

Eleven girls, who were needing clothes the most, modeled the dresses very well.
I wish you could have seen their smiles as we dressed them! 

Distributing over 200 pairs of reading glasses to people in the community-

( I may have to learn how to add pictures later... unfortunately I was at another school handing out dresses when this was happening. Just imagine many parents and community members putting on reading glasses and looking at a beautiful book as if it were the first time.) 

We have supported all of the projects, but the credit should go to the hard working people of Uganda; without them, none of this would be made possible. Although they may not move quickly or do things on time (like in the US) – they definitely work very hard! 

I feel like I am forgetting something, but I will be sure to fill that in once I am able to pour over our thousands of pictures and really reflect on what God has been doing while we have been His hands and feet in Uganda. 

WOW! God has really blessed the work that has been done. I hope that He is blessing your work as well. 

Go Where There is No Path

One of my second grade students, from the 2011-2012 school year, shared a leadership quote from her dad that says, “Go where there is no path”. I couldn’t help but think of that as we traveled over 12 miles through “the bush” this week enjoying the countryside and wildlife.

Enjoy some of our pictures…

These women put our walks through the hills to shame.
They are carrying bags of charcoal on their heads!

Our shoes were already pretty wet becuase it had rained the night before, but none of us really wanted to walk through the streams. Be careful Liz!
 (David is viedo taping- just incase you fall in.) 

One of the many baboons we got to see and "play" with. He would jump and shake the branches and hit the tree limbs trying to scare us. Then we would jump around and encourage the behavior.

This is David... he is one of the local guys we met that kindly volunteered to lead us on this adventure!

Check out these houses! I just can't get over the way they build their homes!
 (and I love that so many people plant crops on the rest of the land they have - no growing or cutting the grass here)

We were still in the middle of nowhere when we saw a group of men making bricks. They were very welcoming and showed us all the hard work they put in to make bricks. We decided that we might look like this guy too, if we did the kind of work he does everyday!

Well, that is an abbreviated version of our adventure.
Hope you enjoyed it!

A Trip to the Clinic

Thanks to the Chardon Rotary group, there is a fund for the health of the students. While spending time with the children we started to notice that many of them had a common head fungus, so we decided to collect children from the four youngest classes and take a trip to the clinic.

We went classroom to classroom to collect the students that looked like they may need some treatment. Then we made one big line of 31 and headed into town.

The new clinic in Masindi has been built and sponsored by a group from South Carolina. They will stay for three years and then hand everything over to the people of Masindi. Currently, there are three Americans helping.

When we arrived, we had the children sit in three benches in the waiting area.  The nurses weighed each student and took their temperature. Then they would move to the benches outside the doctor’s office. I would take them one by one into a room to be checked by the doctor. He was very kind and worked well with the children. I have found that many of the men are very nurturing here- maybe even more than the women.

Once the students were checked we took their paper to the cashier and they moved to one more set of benches where they would wait for their medicine- topical or oral or both, depending on the severity of their infection.

The last little boy I took to the Dr. had boils on his legs. His treatment was done by nurses in another room. He was about 5 years old and cried and cried – I felt terrible. Finally, when they finished I had him get on my back so I could carry him home.

Here the women carry their young children on their backs with a wrap around their waist. When I invited the little boy on my back he didn’t wrap his arms around my neck like children would in the states. He settled in and we took the mile walk back to school together. It’s an experience I won’t forget- and now I can be thankful ,when I take our future children to the doctor, that there aren’t thirty-one children along.

Quick Update From Uganda

Hey Everyone!

I'm sorry we haven't posted anything in some time. There is just so much going on and we want to make sure we take it all in, so look forward to more posts in the next two weeks as we wrap things up here and head home.

It's hard to believe our time is coming to an end already! I wish we had a few more weeks instead of a few more days. We know that it will be a little while till we can get back here again, so I think that is making it harder!

In the last week, we have...

-          been a few feet away from Chimpanzees 

-          “played” with a group of baboons

-          attended a traditional wedding ceremony called an introduction

-          attended a wedding (in a church) and reception

-          done some cement work

-          taken school pictures of over 500 students

-          planned a field day for later this week

-          planted bushes in the courtyard

-          visited friends in two villages

-          attended three church services

-          taken a boat ride down the Nile River

-          hiked to the top of waterfalls

-          taken a game drive with lots of wild animals

-          BEEN ABUNDANTLY BLESSED

.. and now we are going for a short stay at a hotel to have a night of R&R and a bit of downtime before we savor our last week here.

Check back for more details and pictures soon!
Till then… be blessed!

A Rock Foundation Education

It has been one (quick) week and we have been enjoying many things about Masindi and Rock Foundation School. We have also been working at the school, appreciating worship at church and visiting many friends. Over the next few days/ posts I will try to share some of these things with you and pray that you may find a place in your heart for God’s people here in Uganda.

Education means so much to me. Education also means a lot to the people here- maybe even more than in the United States. All students arrive at school between 7:30 and 8:00am. The preschool and kindergarten classes leave around noon. The early primary students are out at 4:00pm and the late primary grades and secondary students end class around 6:00pm. The secondary students, who are boarding students, will go back to school in the evening to study and “make corrections” (homework) till about 10pm.  Could you imagine these hours in the United States? That is just the beginning…

Take a look through these pictures and I will tell you a little bit more about Rock Foundation.

The students sit very close together at benches in the classroom. They are required to have a pencil and a notebook to write in, as well as a uniform and shoes.

Every day, all of the students in Uganda (who are given meals at their school and do not have to leave or hope for food at home) eat the same thing. If there are two meals served at their school, they are given porridge(cooked watered down cornmeal) in the morning and posho (cooked thick cornmeal) and beans at lunch. Sometimes the beans have cabbage or dodo (a green vegetable) to supplement.  If you didn’t catch the first words in this paragraph, go ahead and look again. Yes. Every. Day. The students eat the same thing every day! Not only do they eat the same thing- over 500 of them wait patiently in line and bring their own dishes and eat with their hands in whatever spot they can find. Talk about not being a picky-eater! 

At a special ceremony on Saturday, we learned about “prefects”. Very similar to student council, these are positions that students apply, interview and are voted for. Some of the positions include a prefect for: safety/ security, library, church, academics, sports, and “head boy” or “head girl” for each class. 

The ceremony was held in the church with lots of dancing and singing! I love celebrations here! (I can’t wait for the wedding next weekend)

Even one of the teachers gave a special performance! 

They take the positions very seriously and Christine (the director) really challenged them to be their best, but not think more of themselves than others.

Wow. There is so much more I could say… but I will stop here. If you have any questions or comments- I would love to hear them!!

Until next time- know you have been blessed and you can be a blessing!