Hello everybody! The days are flying by rapidly and we’re trying to squeeze in as much as possible. We have got into a great routine now. Chris, Jack and Benjamin served the early morning porridge to the boarders at 6:30am. Prayer time was then at 7:45am, although before that, quite a few of the young people went for an early morning run again with Farida, our wonderful Volunteers’ Manager and Richard, the Lodge General Manager.
The young people are growing more confident at Bible Study time – we all take turns to lead, from the Book of Mark and then the day’s leader starts us off in prayer. After breakfast, everyone burst into activity. Jack, Jordan and I continued to repaint and freshen up areas of the Volunteers’ Lodge. Less of a mess was made today – they are learning fast, although my hands may now be green forever, as the paint thinner doesn’t work too well!
Gabriela and Emilie continued with the Noah’s Ark mural – it’s looking terrific and there is now a myriad of colours on the work table. (The rhino is my favourite, so far). They have great patience for it.
In the meantime, Madeleine spent the morning at the Medical Centre across the road, with Rosen the midwife (no babies came today – phew!) the doctor’s assistant, Justin and the doctor himself (but we can’t remember his name!) She helped to treat a little girl who was blind in one eye and a small boy from the school, who had fallen on his head. Both patients left in a better state than they arrived, thank the Lord! Madeleine also made up about three hundred little paper envelopes, which the medicine goes into. Benjamin also made a visit to the Centre to get his infected toe treated (don’t worry – he was back to his bouncy self by mid afternoon!)
Giles, Chris and I then did the mid-morning porridge for the whole school and washed up the huge, gloopy bowls afterwards. We then went into the “Babies’ Class” to stick up all of the really colourful posters that we had made. There were forty little ones in that class, around three to four years of age. There was also a boy of about 18 months in there – we think he was the cook’s son, while she was at work. There was also a small baby sleeping in the corner, presumably belonging to the teacher or the assistant – we didn’t like to ask. We also toured all the classes, to give the children a new pencil each (with a rubber on the end). I can’t tell you how delighted they were – it was humbling.
While this was going on, most of the boys went to help out in the P.4 Maths class and when I looked in on them, they were in their element, marking books. In the meantime, Mark was doing a tour of the classes and got involved in a very strenuous P.E lesson, involving a ditch, I believe!
Things got very interesting in the afternoon……we were part of a local project called “Tip Tap”. We visited three homes on the hill and at each house, constructed a waist-high device out of wood, nails and a jerry can. When the string is pushed with the foot, the jerry can tips up and sprinkles out water. Using this and the soap attached, it is a way of introducing more hygiene into the lives of local farmers, most of whom have no running water. We watched the first one and tried to figure out exactly how it worked, but we built the next two in just over an hour. Both the boys and girls took turns digging, hammering and sawing. It was a great achievement.
When we came back, the School’s Scout Group lined up to sing and dance a farewell to Joy, one of the other Volunteers. They pulled in some of the young people for their antics and it was hilarious. The Scouts were then rewarded with a fizzy drink and a few sweets each, provided by the Lodge.
Lots of the young people then disappeared off to the communal clothes washing area and seemed to have a jolly time, in no hurry to come for tea. Prayer Time was led very well by Gabriela and we had a good chat about Jesus and the fig tree. Then everyone headed off to the school again for Homework time.
This was another great day, in which we enjoyed the company of the children and made a bit of a difference in the lives of some people in the local community.
Thank you for your continued prayer. We ask that our remaining time here in Uganda will be truly blessed.
Claire xx