Building, Brigade and the Beach

Sorry, I'm late again!

On Friday 11th, I was unfortunately not well enough to go to children's club so my wonderful team-mate Anna ran Blessed Word by herself!

Thankfully by Saturday (12th) I was feeling much better and the five of us were invited round to our friend Lawrence's house. We know Lawrence through KBC and was one of the first people to make friends with us. It was a really nice time and we were able to fellowship (and learn some dance moves from) some of the other guys we know from church! See below for the mountainous plate of yummy food we had for lunch!

the other four

Lawrence

Me and Kathryn

On Monday 14th I spent the day helping Anna and Kathryn to choreograph a dance for LT Warriors - the dance group they are part of at church. It was an opportunity for me to resurrect some of my moves from GCSE Dance and various dance shows I've been in. It was great fun and I ended up going to LT with the girls in the evening and was signed up for the performance on Good Friday!

On Tuesday we woke up to very heavy rain, which we then had to walk to school in! On our way we came across a little girl walking by herself. She didn't have a coat and I felt bad walking next to her with my rainmac! So I introduced myself and she took shelter under the side of my coat. We walked together for a good 40 minutes, a long way for a little one to go by foot!

We all arrived at school, a little damp to say the least. We recapped on phonics and did some new words with the children. In nursery section, me and Susie told a story about a zoo (hence the lion impression underneath).

telling a story

learning some new words

Susie doing some one on one with Baby Class

Me with some of Middle Class

On Wednesday morning Susie and I went down to Ruth Mother Care again to pick the children up and bring them back to the Smile House. All the children were very excited to go to their mzungu teachers' house and they asked if they would be able to meet our sons and daughters!! We all piled into a taxi and spent the whole journey singing 'we are marching in the light of God' and 'i love you Jesus deep down in my heart'. When they arrived at the house we played some games with them before giving each of them a new pair of shoes, a hat, a jumper and some school things. It was so lovely to be able to bless the children and their teachers in this way; we all love going to RMC and have built up great relationships there. Wednesday was the children's last day before the Easter holidays so we won't be going there for a few weeks - we'll miss them!

New Shoes!

Trying a 10-11 aged jumper on 3 year old Patrick!

New hats

The wonderful Teacher Ruth and Teacher Monica

Helping the girls go through their school packs

RMC and Smile

 On Thursday 17th we became builders once again down at Blessed Word. We were carrying bricks, stones and sand to the building site and digging foundations. After lunch, things got a bit muddy!

Very muddy legs!

Digging

 On Good Friday we ran children's club at Blessed Word. We taught about the resurrection and had a little Easter egg hunt for the children too! As the building work was going on, we had less space than usual but that didn't put the kids off - we had 61 come along!  

The Hokey Kokey

Easter Egg Hunt

Afterwards we went to church for the Good Friday service. I was making an honorary LT Warriors appearance alongside Kathryn and Anna and we were dancing in the service. It went really well!

the girls ready for the dance

On Easter Sunday we went off to church. Two ladies who I know from Girls' Brigade, Ruth and Denise, were visiting Uganda and they came along to KBC. Afterwards they treated us to a lovely lunch and then we went to visit a GB company out here.

Out for lunch

We went to 1st Kampala GB Company who were so welcoming. They showed us how they make candles and were also making bracelets. We joined in their Bible study too. It was really lovely to visit a Girls' Brigade out here and I have been meaning to since we arrived! Thank you Ruth and Denise for taking me and Susie out for the afternoon, we really enjoyed ourselves!

Making bracelets

Captain Dorcus

1st Kampala GB

We had Easter Monday off as it was a public holiday. Susie, Anna, Shavan, Innocent, Patrick, Ivan and I drove down to Entebbe for a day at the beach! We swam in Lake Victoria and tried some Ugandan-style fish and chips - to which Anna exclaimed "my fish has a face!". It was a lovely day out, despite the sun burn! Oops! 

Over the last week we have spend lots of time at Blessed Word, building, building and more building! I'm going to come home with some impressive arm muscles!

the rain looking pretty

carrying stones on my back!

On Friday Anna was ill, so Kathryn stood in for her. It was my final week at Blessed Word and we played some new games with them. We told the story of Pentecost and gave out glow sticks which caused a ripple of giggles when the children saw them changing colour! It has been great to get to know the children at Blessed Word and I'm very much looking forward to returning to FBC - I've missed them!

What's the time Mr Wolf? Dinner time!

Trying to see their glow sticks glowing in the dark

Please pray for the health of the team at the moment!

We now have less than three months left in Uganda :( Thank you for all your love and support. Grace x

You'd think after six months I'd be a bit better at this whole blogging thing!

Here we go...

Friday 28th March
For the children's clubs we work on rotation so that every month we change the leaders for each church. This month I am at Blessed Word of Life Church with Anna. The children at the church are so lovely and it's a tad calmer than FBC! 
We told the story of Palm Sunday and I was volunteered to play the part of the donkey. Anna told the story, and chose the biggest boy out of all the children to play Jesus! I gave him a piggyback into 'Jerusalem' as the rest of the children waved paper leaves and cheered, shouting "Hosanna!" 
Below are some photos of some of the children very proudly showing off their colouring!

After kids club we headed off to TGIF at church. On the way, Anna and I sat in the front of a taxi and were chatting away. A conductor from another taxi came over to us and told us to move into his taxi, "but we're already on this one!" we laughed... before turning around and realising that our taxi had completely emptied and the taxi stopped there. Oops. 

Saturday 29th March

Two trustees from Smile International were visiting the centre here and on Saturday evening they treated us gappers to a meal out! Their names were Graham and Jo and they've been out visiting the different Smile centres around the world. We chose Cafe Javas, which Jon has been desperate to go to since we practically arrived. I had a veggie burger and chips and then me and Susie shared an ice cream sundae. You won't believe how excited we got about this. It was a lovely evening out, thanks Graham and Jo! When we got home I was able to skype a bunch of family friends,  including my three of my best friends which was the perfect end to the day!

Sunday 30th March

Happy Mothers' Day! Off to church in the morning with Graham and Jo. In the afternoon I was just settling down after my lunch when I looked outside and saw lots of children walking into our compound! We soon realised that they were the children from Blessed Word and the guys were getting aid from the container. I went outside to help out. I was allocated girls' shoes, the best job! I tried my best, only really knowing the luganda for 'shoes', 'come' and 'good?' to find a pair of shoes to fit each girl and eventually all the girls were kitted out with shiny new shoes. We gave out shoes, school packs, jumpers, tshirts, toys and hats. Not your usual Sunday afternoon but a very lovely one!

Monday 31st March

In the morning we went to Holy Cross Orthodox Hospital for outreach. We saw newborn twins and a baby who had just been born the night before! 

In the afternoon we had a bit of free time so we sat down and watched Frozen. I've seen people talking about this film all over facebook and have been desperate to see it! Since then we have been annoying everyone in the house by repeatedly singing 'do you wanna build a snowman?'

Tuesday 1st April

We returned to Ruth Mother Care School to do some teaching. The day started off with PE and we taught the children how to play What's the time Mr Wolf? which they got the hang of and it was great fun! Time for lessons and I was in the nursery section with Susie. We continued teaching them some more phonics, trying to remember the actions my god-daughter used when she learnt to read or making up an action for each letter sound. After break Teacher Ruth taught but the children wanted me to mark their books as I had a special 'Nice Work!' stamp! 

In the afternoon we said farewell to Graham and Jo as they returned home to England! Anna would have been getting on the same plane as them if she had not extended her 6 month trip to 9! 

Wednesday 2nd April

Back to Ruth Mother Care. We taught them the hokey kokey during PE which the children thought was the best thing ever! We taught a handwriting lesson and discovered that we'll probably need to focus on that some more! I really enjoy working at this school as we can really see the difference we are making and the progress the children are making. The two teachers are so lovely and spoil us everyday with chapatis and cassava chips and lunch, yum!

Thursday 3rd April

In the evening we went off to choir and LT Warriors. We sat on the taxi to go home and a man came up to the window to talk to us. He introduced himself to Anna and Susie and kept calling them the wrong names. He then noticed me sitting in front of them and decided that my name was Brenda, right. He asked for our numbers, told us he was a famous artist (oh, and a cannibal) and performed a rap entitled 'Anna'. Reminded me of a night out in Essex (miss u essex).

Friday 4th April

Blessed Word Children's Club with Anna. This week was the story of the last supper. We wanted to make it more interactive for the children so we had our own special communion with bread (chapati) and wine (fruit juice). We had 45 children this week which shows that numbers are growing at the club! We taught them the hokey kokey, which went down very well, and duck duck goose, not so much. 

Tuesday 8th April

Today we were at Ruth Mother Care. We focused on blending letter sounds to make words and Teacher Ruth showed us a Magic Key book that she'd been given! I learnt to read with these books so it was so weird to read them again!

We've been having lots of rain over the past few days which often cuts off the electricity in the house, but I finally got round to posting a blog!

Love to you all x