A thought for Christmas!

Christmas has very much been put into perspective this year... last week we gave out Christmas parcels to the widows that Smile sponsor, and I've never seen anyone so excited and appreciative of some cooking pots and toiletries! It really made me think about how materialistic and superficial Christmas has become back home in the UK and how important it is that we focus on celebrating the birth of Jesus! and also appreciating our loved ones and taking special care of those in need. I promise I'm not trying to put a downer on your Christmas Eve! but tomorrow as you open all your presents and tuck into a big roast dinner, spare a thought for those people around the world who can only dream of such luxuries. Give your loved ones a hug (and if you see mine - give them one from me!) and I pray that God blesses each and every one of you 

"this is the day that the Lord has made..."

Yesterday the widows that Smile sponsor came up to the Smile house to receive their Christmas gifts! Smile has around 17 sponsored widows and we've visited lots of them in their homes whilst we have been here. 

Each widow received three casserole dishes of different sizes. Then in the bottom dish we had put a selection of toiletries like soap, body lotion, toothpaste, shampoo and some children's toothbrushes - as they often are caring for children or grandchildren.

We helped the ladies to look through the boxes, and the highlight was when they opened the last box! Their faces just lit up! They were so thankful, and we received lots of hugs and handshakes! 

We tried to explain what everything was in the box. Some of the ladies are very good at speaking English, but for the others, trying to communicate the difference between body wash and body lotion proved interesting!

 Afterwards the widows were able to choose some tshirts to take home with them.

 Whilst going through her boxes, one of the widows, Rose, starting dancing. With every new item she found in the box, she danced some more! She then started singing "This is the day that the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it".  It was so humbling to see how excited and pleased she was with a set of cooking pots and toiletries! 

All the widows then got together and sang a song. We love spending time with these ladies as they are so friendly and welcoming. It is definitely so much better to give than to receive! 

South Africa!

On Friday 6th December I left very early in the morning for Entebbe Airport! I was chosen to be part of a team that was going to represent England and Wales at an International Girls' Brigade Gathering. The Gathering was being held in Stellenbosch which is near Cape Town in South Africa! Once I had arrived at Cape Town airport, my cousin-once-removed (my Mum's cousin) Pip came to meet me. We went back to her house and I stayed over for a night before the Gathering! Thank you Pip and Andrew for having me and taking me out for pizza and ice cream! On Saturday morning Pip drove me down to Stellenbosch University where the Gathering was being held!

Myself and Pip with her lovely baby bump!

On arrival I was given a lovely bag of goodies which had been very generously provided by Girls' Brigade South Africa! In the evening we had a 'Colour Party' where we had to wear our national colours and had the chance to meet all the girls from round the world! 
The countries represented at The Gathering 2013 were:
- Ghana  -Malawi  -Nigeria  -South Africa  -Zambia  -Zimbabwe  -USA  -British Virgin Islands  -Cayman Islands  -St Maarten  -England and Wales  -Northern Ireland  -Ireland  -Scotland  -Australia  -Cook Islands  -New Zealand  -Papua New Guinea
We then got into our reflect groups which gave us the chance to chat about the day and pray together. I was in the 'Joy' reflect group which consisted of Hayley from Scotland, Nicola from Northern Ireland, Jemila from St Maarten, Chongmel from Nigeria and Aimee from South Africa. 

On Sunday we all had to wear our national GB uniforms for church. We went to the beautiful Pniel Congregational Church which sits at the foot of a mountain. The church service was dedicated to Girls' Brigade and also to the memory of Nelson Mandela. They welcomed each country and I went up on stage to present the English (and Welsh!) flags. After the service, some people from the congregation provided a lovely lunch for us. We then went to another hall and GB South Africa put on a presentation of songs, dances and a nativity for us. A marching band were also there and when they started to play, two girls from Nigeria got up to dance, Ruth Chikasa - the International President - joined them and then started pulling people up to dance! By the end of the song we were all up and dancing with each other, despite having only met the day before! We went outside and released balloons that had prayers attached to them for the future of GB.

 In the evening we had a birthday party for Girls' Brigade as this year it turned 120! GBSA did a wonderful job of setting up the courtyard. The girls from the Cook Islands were wearing beautiful flower headbands which I had been eyeing up all day - so was very happy when they let me try one on!

In the evening, we had our reflect groups again. They then showed the film Girl Rising which is an inspirational film about 9 girls from 9 countries who are overcoming their struggles, often caused by the simple fact that they are female. If you get the chance to watch this film, it is so worth it! I've always been quite interested in gender equality and campaigning for women and girls, but it was still eye-opening and quite shocking to see what some girls are faced with. 

Monday was the Pacific Fellowship's sharing day so they taught us some of the games and songs they do with their girls. We also had a chance to try some Pacific snacks in our refreshment break. 

In the morning we had our 'Because I am a Girl...' presentations. Each country presented an issue that they feel is the biggest struggle for girls living there. GBEW (England and Wales) decided to talk about anorexia and eating disorders. Myself and our group mentor Kim were nominated to talk and ended up being the first country to go! We were the only country to present the issue of eating disorders, but some of the other countries covered self and body image. Other countries presented topics such as gender inequality in the workplace, education, inadequacy, forced marriage and teenage pregnancy. It was really interesting, but also heartbreaking, to see what girls are facing in these different places, and where similarities lie between counties. It got us thinking about how GB can help to tackle these issues and be there for their girls. 

After these presentations, a lady from the charity A21 came in to talk about human trafficking. We heard some absolutely shocking statistics and stories about trafficking that is going on today. What surprised me is that there are MORE slaves today, than when the slave trade was legal. She also told us that the average age of a trafficked person is 12. 12! It broke my heart to hear about it and I can't believe that it's happening in the 21st Century. If you want to know more about A21 then their website is www.thea21campaign.org.

Tuesday was our 'equpping' day so we chose two workshops to attend. I went to 'Being an influencer' and 'African Craft'. It was also the African Fellowship's sharing day so we tried lots of interesting food and played a game called 'mosquito' which left us all singing the song for it for the rest of the week! In the afternoon we took part in some outreach by making up over 1000 food packages that were going to be given out in South Africa's townships. It was great to do some practical work to help these people.

In the evening, the Africa day concluded with an African drumming lesson! I was very excited about this and even though we were supposed to wear our country's national dress, I went for my Uganda trousers! I loved the lesson so much and at the end some of us got up to dance which was pretty funny! I'm now seriously considering buying myself a drum.

(If you're still reading this - I'm impressed!) Wednesday! Wednesday was our day out in Cape Town. We went to a museum dedicated to the effect of the apartheid on the local area. We then went to a craft market where I got to try out my haggling skills! The highlight of my day was definitely Table Mountain! We went up in the cable cars and walked out onto a very windy mountain top! The views were stunning and I fully agree with the fact that it is one of the seven natural wonders of the world. We had dinner in the cafe at the top and I suddenly remembered half way through eating that I was on top of a mountain! 

Thursday was the Caribbean-America Fellowship's sharing day. From what I was told, the Caribbean sounds like a very good place to live! During the day we were focusing on the next 120 years of Girls' Brigade. We split in to four different groups, communication, creativity, advocacy and the GB girl declaration. I chose advocacy as I really believe that Girls' Brigade can really make a difference in campaigning and fighting against social injustice. My group decided to focus on getting girls into education and keeping them there! At the end of the day we presented our ideas and suggestions to the rest of the delegates and the International President of Girls' Brigade. We're hoping that our ideas will be put forward at the International Conference which is happening next year.

On Friday morning we went to the beach! It was so so sunny and we were all eager to get in the sea! They had arranged some games for us to play on the beach which were pretty interesting! It was really nice to spend some time just chilling with the new friends that we'd made over the week.

In the afternoon we returned to Stellenbosch where GB Europe had the chance to share our snacks! The table was basically just sugar, sugar and more sugar! But it was great for me as I've missed English food so I tucked in! 

We then had time to reflect on how God had challenged us throughout the week and what we had learnt. Lots of people came up to the front to speak and it was a really lovely time.

In the evening we had a Christmas BBQ, or 'braai' as the South Africans call it! Presents were handed out to the amazing planning team and we had a lots of good food! Afterwards we went upstairs for 'GB's Got Talent' where the GBEW team blessed the audience with a One Direction tribute! 

The time came to pack my suitcase and start saying my goodbyes! I had such an inspirational group and I can't wait to see how GB will take on our ideas. Hopefully there will be another Gathering in the future! I made lots of friends from all round the world and it just proved to me that I have an amazing family of GB girls that have the same enthusiasm for God and Girls Brigade. I hope we stay in touch!

Leaving our legacy!

I travelled back to Uganda, nearly missing my second flight (again!) and was picked up from the airport by Alex and Susie - who let out a rather high pitched squeal when she saw me haha! Thank you Alex for all the airport runs you did for me :)

Now it's time for us to start preparing for the run up to Christmas!

Christmas is coming!

(more photos to follow)

Today we had our first Christmas party at Blessed Word Children’s Club!

On Monday we spent the day sorting aid in preparation for the arrival of the sea container that should be arriving in the next few days! We continued this on Tuesday and made up Christmas gifts for all the children at both Blessed Word and Family Believers Children’s Clubs. We wanted to give each child an item of clothing, some colouring sheets, an accessory (like a hat, scarf or pair of tights) and some stationery bits. We have about 80 children on the register for Blessed Word and 115 for Family Believers so we had a lot of bags to make up!

On Wednesday we made preparations for the Christmas party; making costumes and props, washing up cups and plates for the children to use and packing the boxes.

On Thursday we went to Blessed Word to go through a final rehearsal for the Christmas play that some of the children were performing. As ‘mzungus’ we seem to attract a lot of interest and so lots of children turned up who weren’t involved. We took it in turns to go outside the church and play with the children (and by this I mean, watch all the boys bundle Jon). Susie, Kathryn and I did a piggyback race (I won, don’t let Susie tell you she did). It was really lovely to just be able to spend time with the children and have a laugh with them without it being part of a structured activity.

And then Friday arrived! We were up early to arrive at Blessed Word at 9am loaded with lots of boxes (although not as many as we needed as we later found out!). We set to work decorating the church and trying to make it as Christmassy as possible – always with a child or two in tow. The party finally started about 11 and we led ‘We are marching in the light of God’ and some other songs. We discovered that Ugandan children are very good at musical statues. The time came for the children to perform their version of the Christmas story. Even though the children were speaking in Ugandan and I was watching it whilst tying on shepherds’ beards, it was still so touching to see the story unveil through these children. They are actually a very talented bunch! At the end of the play, Moses and Jon came out dressed as Father Christmas (as Anna so eloquently put it "Jon looked like a weird pregnant Dennis the Menace") and gave out sweets.

Lunch was served and I ended up with a very large portion to which Susie said that she would give me 1000 shillings if I ate it all (about 20p). Moses then offered £1000 if I finished it! Sorry bank account, there was just so much rice! The time came to give out the Christmas presents which we had all been looking forward to as we had spent so much time getting all the bags together. We were just moving on to our second box of gifts when we noticed that they were for Family Believers Church! Uh oh! Thankfully all the other boxes were for Blessed Word but we hoped and hoped that we had just brought along an extra box rather than the wrong box! We got to the end of the presents and it became clear that yes, we were missing a box. Kathryn and I took up Santa’s role and decided to go back to the house to get the missing presents! We ran up the wonderfully steep hill to the main road (aka Kathryn ran and I asked if we could just jog/speed walk/stop/collapse). Once we were at the house we ran inside and tore open all the FBC boxes to find the one full of Blessed Word presents! We got a boda boda back to the church. Sleighs are old school, Santa uses motorbikes now. We handed out all the remaining presents and helped some of the children to look through their bags and try on their new things. Eventually, the party finished about half six! It was crazy and chaotic but we had fun, the children were happy and we were able to share the story of the birth of Jesus. I hope we were also able to share the love and care of Jesus to these children and this community.

We got home to a powerless house, but luckily my laptop had power so we could treat ourselves to an episode of Miranda. We’re looking forward to going to bed tonight!

Building, Boxes and Blessed Word

Firstly, I apologise that I haven’t blogged in such a long time! We’re busy busy busy! I will give you a quick rundown on what we’ve been up to! I hope you’re sitting comfortably...

Monday 11^th November: We went to Lubaga Hospital to visit some patients. We saw 3 patients and prayed with them. I also got asked for my number by one of them but (truthfully) told him that I couldn’t remember my Ugandan mobile number! It was interesting to see inside the hospital and the ward we went to had six beds in it, although in England you would probably only find two beds in there. It was nice to be able to chat to the guys in there and keep them company, especially as one of them said that his Mum is unable to visit him very regularly because she has to care for his younger siblings back home. After the hospital, Jon, Susie, Olivia and I went to the post office to check our PO Box. I had a lovely letter from my Nanna and Grandad.

Tuesday 12^th November: Tuesdays are our school day! I sat in my year 6 class for the morning and marked their English books. In the afternoon I went into year 4 with Susie and the teacher asked us to do RE revision with them, so we did a quiz! It went really well and we saw the children’s competitive side! When we got home some of the others had a water fight as it was a very hot day! Below is a photo of us with two little boys who always coming running towards us when they see us walking to school! They are so cute and we call them the twins!

Wednesday 13^th November: Back to school again. I had a really tough time in my year 6 class. They had science, and the teacher was doing revision as they had upcoming exams. The pupils were struggling to remember some bone names and so my teacher sent the 3 boys out to find sticks. When they returned she caned the entire class. I had to walk out of the classroom and ended up in tears, thankfully Kathryn was just walking past, so she came to our little staff room with me. Over the weeks I have built up a relationship with these children, which made it even worse to see them so scared and vulnerable. It is really upsetting to see the children punished in this way, and we are working with the school administrator to try and stop corporal punishment at the school.

Thursday 14^th November: We went to visit some families who live in the slums. It was so hot when we left the house, so Kathryn prayed for clouds. We then got a lot more than we bargained for when the heavens opened and it chucked it down!! I’m sure any onlookers would have been very bemused by the mzungu girl running down the road with a motorbike helmet and Buckingham Palace rain mac on! Once we were in the slums we split into two groups. I was with Nick, Anna and Jon and we visited about five or six families. It was a very humbling experience and was also nice to meet the parents of some of the children who come to our kids club.

In the evening, Susie and I went to choir and got measured up for our Christmas uniform!

Friday 15^th November: In the morning, we went through the Christmas play that we are teaching to the children’s clubs. I took up the role of Mary and Brian taught me how to walk like a pregnant woman! Moses was Joseph and Anna was Angel Gabriel. The others multiroled! It was such fun and we are starting to build friendships with the local volunteers which is really lovely. In the afternoon, myself, Anna and Brian went to Blessed Word Children’s Club. It was only the second time I’ve been there and was a nice relief from the chaos of FBC! In the evening we went to TGIF, which is KBC’s programme for university students. It was interesting trying to teach the Ugandans how to play cheat… “two fours… three fives… what can I put down?... four, five or six… I don’t have any of those… you’re not meant to tell us that…” and it continued!

Saturday 16^th November: We had a wonderful lie in and slept until 10am! The first day that we had slept past 8! Usual Saturday business of washing, cleaning and food shopping.

Sunday 17^th November: Went to KBC for church. Susie and I helped in one of the children’s Bible study group. After Church we met a lovely group of ladies from the UK who are in Uganda for just one week! It was so nice to chat to them and hear what they’re up to out here! In the evening we had dinner as just the seven of us who live here, it was so lovely to see how our little ‘family’ is developing.

Monday 18^th November: In the morning we walked a very long way under a very hot sun to visit a widow. Her name was Jennifer and she was very lovely, she made the journey there much more worth it! We gave her a Christmas care package which she was very grateful to receive, and immediately split it in two with her neighbour. When we returned, Susie and I helped Brian and Moses to get some aid down from the loft.

Tuesday 19^th November: The end of year exams had started at school so we helped with invigilating those. We had another incident of quite bad caning. We would like to ask for your prayer in this area as we really need God to intervene and change the hearts of the teachers.

Wednesday 20^th November: Susie and I stayed at home today while the other three went to school. We sorted out all the boxes of aid that we had got down from the loft on Monday. We sorted clothes first and made up Christmas gifts for the children at FBC and BWOL. I’m really looking forward to giving them out in a week or two.

Thursday 21^st November: We became builders! The building at Blessed Word is still under construction so we went to help with that. Our job was to carry lots and lots of bricks from where the truck dropped them off, to the church. It was a very warm day and we got very much covered in brick dust! We had a good day and showed off our strength by successfully pushing a wheelbarrow full of bricks (or in some cases, wheelbarrows full of gappers!). We had achey muscles the next morning but it’s satisfying to know that we’ve contributed practically to the building project there. We are returning next week.

Friday 22^nd November (Happy 18th Birthday Jess!): Susie and I went to Blessed Word for Children’s Club. It was only the two of us to begin with but we managed to do songs and games without a translator! We then made Christmas cards with the children and had to massively improvise when we realised that we had forgotten the colouring pencils! Luckily we had brought enough glue and stickers to decorate with! The children at Blessed Word are lovely, but when it comes to squares of shimmery card they can get pretty rowdy!! We have returned home and I was half way through writing this blog when the power went! Hopefully it will come back soon so I can post it today. 

Prayer Requests: 

- For the children and teachers at Chosen School and the issue of corporal punishment.

- We desperately need rain at the farm!!

- The upcoming Christmas season

getting our african names!

The other evening we were given our African names, chosen by Alex, Olivia and Jacob. Before Sarah left, she was given the name 'Kembabazi' which means gracious.
Kathryn is now 'Kaneza'. This literally translates to 'little stick' but means that she is small or cute! 
Jon's new name is 'Mugisha' which means 'blessing'. Although it sounds a bit like magician which Jon keeps introducing himself as!
Anna is 'Uwera', which translates to 'pure'. She loves this name and has already changed her facebook name to it!
Susie is 'Irakoze'. This means 'God has done great' which is so lovely!
Alex gave me a choice between two names (anyone who knows me knows that this is not a good idea because I cannot make decisions!!). 'Kiizi' or 'Irambona'. Kiizi means 'somthing beautiful' and Irambona means 'God watches over me'. I let the team decide! They chose Irambona, so that's me now! 

Sorry it's a short blog today!

Quick update:
- We went hospital visiting on Monday and are going again tomorrow.
- Tuesday and Wednesday were school. One of the teachers went outside to show the children plants during a science lesson, and went to get a model skeleton to teach about bones!! This is such progress as when we arrived they simply read from textbooks.
- We've run out of marmite... SOS.
- We had some visitors! Kelly and Jono are both British, and Kelly did a gap year with Smile a few years ago. It was so lovely to chat to them and they came to children's club with us on Friday. 
- A baby weed on me again at children's club. Twice.
- We've had very little power all week, hence why I haven't been blogging! Cooking by candlelight is interesting but we're hoping that by the end of the month, it will be back to normal.
- It's been raining quite a lot, but it's still very hot! Hard to believe that it's November!!

Prayer requests:
- Jacob, our security guy, is recovering from malaria so please pray that he returns to full health.
- A young lady who was involved in the church we go to died during childbirth. This has shocked the whole church. Please pray for the husband and their newborn son.

baby cardigans!

Yesterday we went to the FBC slum to take part in some community outreach. We had a few boxes of aid left over from the last sea container that came out to Uganda so carried them down to the church. There were lots and lots of very cute knitted baby clothes that the four of us girls cooed over for about 10 minutes. 

We packed some of the clothes into our bags and headed towards our first family. This month, the family had a fire in their home which pretty much destroyed everything they owned. Myself, Susie, Jon, Moses and Nick went into their house to give them a big bag of clothes, school bags, pencil cases, and some cooking utensils. They were so grateful, the children excitedly tried on a jumper and a t-shirt and looked very proud standing there in their brand new things. The guys waiting outside said that the family’s neighbours had come to thank us for helping them because the fire had shocked the whole community, and they wanted to help them rebuild their lives.

After praying with the family, we went on a walk round the slum to give out the baby clothes! Susie and I found a tiny baby who was asleep, but didn't even moan when his older sister woke him up. We dressed him in three different cardigans and he looked adorable!

Word soon spread, and we were surrounded by babies – not complaining! We gave out lots of cardigans and jumpers to the smaller children.

Some of the older kids were hanging around so I gave out quite a few of my bracelets. (Which revealed my very obvious tan line!).

At the end of the afternoon, we dressed one more baby who Kathryn was cuddling. I helped her put the cardigan on and then held her for a bit, and she showed her appreciation by weeing on me! Anna ran off, Jon laughed and Kathryn tried to mop up my skirt. I suppose it had to happen to someone!

I really enjoyed the day but I’d love to be able to provide clothes for all the different ages. We've come up with a few ideas about days or afternoons where we use the church and have clothes for all ages, babies to teens. We haven’t made any definite plans yet, but maybe in the future you could get together with your church/youth group/class/work place/etc and send out a package of children’s clothes. For the meantime, if you are sending out a letter or parcel, it would be great if you could chuck in a few bracelets for me to give out to the children. They love them! The rubber charity bands that get worn for a few weeks and then forgotten about, would be great as they are often colourful and durable!

Don’t worry if you can’t send anything, I honestly don’t expect you to! Prayer is the most valuable and important thing you can bless us with. Please also remember to send me your prayer requests so I can pray for you!

Lots of love xxxx

just another manic monday...

On Monday we went widow visiting again. We visited a different group of ladies this time who live near to where we work at Family Believers Church. The first lady we went to see was called Harriet, she has a daughter who is sponsored through Smile. Harriet is currently living with her sister because she is ill with HIV and TB. We were invited into their house, spoke with them and prayed for them and the children they care for. Please keep this lady in her prayers, she is very unwell and feels that she is a burden on her sister who has to support them both financially.

The second widow we visited was called Teopista and she was so lovely. She was unwell with the flu, but that didn't stop her from welcoming us with a beaming smile. She learnt all our names and cut up a watermelon for us to share. She was sad to hear that it was Sarah’s last day and asked her to stay longer! During our time with Teopista a little girl came over to see us. She took a shine to Kathryn and Jon who taught her how to high-five and let her wear KJ’s England cap.

We continued on and met a lady called Esther. She had a very little house where she lived with her 4 sons. The house had been built for her by a local pastor. Esther sells second hand bed linen to support herself and her children who are mostly in secondary school.

The final widow we went to see was Elizabeth. She has 10 children, of whom all but one have grown up and left home. She also has 5 grandchildren, and looks after a couple of them in her home. She doesn't have a permanent job but one of her daughters sends her financial support. Elizabeth hopes to buy her own house as she struggles with renting.

We stopped off to eat lunch and a lady walked past selling chips. Now chips in Uganda are not the type of chips you are thinking of. They are made from cassava, but are yummy! So me and Susie decided to order some. 20 minutes later we were concerned where our cassava chips had got to, but when the lady came back she produced a whole plate of food! Including English chips! Just one example of many where the language barrier gets you more than you bargained for!

We got back to the house and helped Sarah pack her suitcase! :( Outside it began to get windy, so myself, Jon and Susie went outside to save the washing that was on the line. I walked down to the end of the house and spotted Smile Uganda’s pet rabbit just outside the gate of the compound. “Erm I don’t think she’s meant to be there!” Jon ran to get Shavan and I ran after the rabbit, luckily she ran back inside the compound. The three of us then proceeded to chase the rabbit round the house for a good 10 minutes, with Susie standing there laughing at us with an armful of damp washing. It was a sight to behold. We eventually caught her and put her back in the hutch, no wonder her name is Trouble!

In the evening, we had to say goodbye to a beloved team member. Sarah's month was up and she had to go back to England! Olivia gave her her African name, Kembabazi which means 'graceful'. We will miss her very much (although now our room seems a lot bigger!). Alex drove her to the airport and we all ran down the road shouting "Bye Mzungu!". Emosh. 

Prayer Requests:

-          For rain, we have done a lot of planting, but the plants won’t grow unless it rains! It seems to be raining everywhere else except where the farm is!

-          For health, Kathryn has developed a cold (although she’s trying to tell herself that she hasn't , Anna is recovering from her throat infection but still taking the penicillin so just pray that it all heals completely, Shavan – one of the local volunteers – is ill with suspected malaria so please lift him in your prayers. Also please just pray for the general health of the other team, living in such close proximity – germs spread quickly!

-          For the widows, children and families that we visit and work with.