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