PICTURES, GOATS AND GAGGLES
Don’t know what happened last night. I did blog and sent it to Steve but apparently it did not make it to the other side of the world. Tonight’s addition will be short as we are all exhausted and yes, I can vouch for that! We went back to Top Hills today and I am excited to report that our fabulous carpentry crew completed all six desks. The desks look great and should last forever. John and Josh did a great job teaching the Ugandans how to do it, and the Ugandans did a great job in execution. Those desks are never coming apart. It was a well-oiled machine by the end of the day. So much fun to watch all the different people working together to accomplish a goal.
Meanwhile on the other side of the yard, Jen, Liz, Vicki and Emily put a huge dent in the photographing of all the classrooms. It was such fun watching them organizing the class pictures. The background for the pictures was the greenery behind them and these four it was easy to get the kids to smile. This too ran very smoothly and I have to give full compliments to the photographers!
The third group of us did the Ambassador program. We interviewed 14 kids for future sponsorship. This team included Judy B, Judy H, Paige, Jaimie (until she deserted us to go let Haji tutor her on Suduko) and me. We started with the usual first questions; name, age, date of birth (which most of them had no idea), etc. and then Jaimie asked for their favorite Bible verse. The first child mentioned a story and there happened to be a children’s Bible on the table (I had bought it to give to Rashidah, my sponsored child). She opened the Bible and asked the child to read it. Judy H came to life. The educator in her woke up and it started. After reading Jaimie asked if she had a Bible and when the answer was no, she asked if she would like one. This answer was an overwhelming yes. And so that became a part of the interview. I loved the way God is using this group. So as each child came up we asked them to read for us from the Bible. Not one had a personal Bible. And yes, each child said they would like to have one. So based on their reading level, we are buying them each one tomorrow. Pretty cool!
The Ambassador group finished earlier (I think we rocked!) and so we then went into the village with the Mercy bags, but not until we had distributed all the goats and chickens. Of course we had our gaggle of children with us; every hand was holding at least one child. As the day was wearing down and we were beginning to distribute the goats and chickens; I did mention (although quietly) that if we let the goats eat the chickens we could save a little bit of time. You’ll be glad to know this plan did NOT go into affect.
My little girls Rashidah is the cutest kid at the school. I know some of you may have a different opinion, but I just want you to know that you are wrong! The first day she was shy. Now she won’t let go of my hand. And her father is so grateful that we all come and help. He is such a humble man. And Pastor Baidu (Stephen) is the best. He has decided he is the Boss and I am the Goss. Tonight he fell asleep on the bus coming home so he is now Boss Sleepy Stevie. Such a wonderful heart. I just love him.
Meet Rashidah:
As you continue to read this, here is the blog that was supposed to get posted last night. Love you all. Thanks for thoughts.
DOWNPOUR IN UGANDA –BOTH FROM THE SKY AND FROM MY EYES!
Today (Monday) we started again at 7:30. For those of you who know me you know mornings are not my favorite time of day. However here in Uganda somehow it just happens. There is a team here from Australia and today one of the women was really missing her peanut butter. Well I happened to pack 8 small packages of peanut butter and I have no idea why. So I went back to my room and hand delivered my peanut butter to this young lady. She was so excited. Oyfho8tfguiopjo4r5ty6789lgvjnkkii (that was from Liz as usual causing nothing but trouble). She is trying to tell me she is not trouble but obviously from the prior sentence that is not true! We had a wonderful morning. We started our day in town so our team could buy the few items we needed to proceed with our journey. Then we stopped at Bulubandi so we could pick up the tools to make the desks and the Bibles we had bought for the mercy bags that we distribute. Once we arrived at Top Hills the lumber for the desks was in the process of being unloaded from the truck. Our timing couldn’t have been better. So the men went in one direction and the women headed off to take pictures of the different classes. We started with the nursery level. We took their very first (not only because it was truly their very fist class picture, but also because it was the very first time any class has ever had a class picture taken. I cannot begin to tell you how well behaved these little kids were. As we walked into the class they all stood up and recited something welcoming us into their class. Then they walked out quietly in two very straight lines and stood silently until we told them where to stand. Jen took the picture, Liz recorded the number on a sheet of paper and then we proceeded to individual pictueres. The kids were just so good! And Jen did such a good job! There was only one problem. Right after the class picture was taken the skies opened up. And it poured! And poured! And poured! Fortunately we made it to the classroom and ate while it rained. The interesting thing is that classes had to be put on hold because no one could hear a thing! The kids just sat in their seats and as soon as the rain stopped the teacher continued teaching!
After the rains stopped we started again. Jen photographed, Liz recorded and Vicki straightened all the collars. We looked like Lifetouch. They have absolutely nothing on us – except maybe professionalism and talent! Actually we did a great job. Tomorrow we will try to take the rest of the classes which include the individual Nursery pictures and P3 through P7. Meanwhile the men, led by John, cut all the wood and finished their first desk. May not sound like much but now that the model is completed the rest will just be a piece of cake. And they look great! The guys were so much fun to watch. What a team. And whoever it was from Bulubandi who was doing the sawing…I wish I had half his strength and endurance. He made it look like he was sawing a toothpick, instead of a 4” piece of wood! As expected they had a whole group of young boys standing nearby just watching. It was so neat to watch all the men working together. Later in the day Glenn pulled away and pulled out his guitar. This is a lot like a chick magnet –though in his case it attracts just about everybody.
Yesterday Irene had asked Paige if she would come see her home and so tonight on our way back from Bulubandi we did just that. She has a beautiful little home. She started singing and so we all joined in. Then we prayed over her home and then sang again. As we got ready to leave she told Paige that she was so happy that she honored her promise to visit. Wow. Sure am glad we did that!!! Then we dropped a few members of the team at Phil’s kid’s house so they could spend more time with their kids. The rest of us came back to the Mum for the evening. When it was time to go back to pick them up Judy Howitt and I drove back with Haji. I loved spending that time with him. He is such a great man and his sense of humor is wonderful. He has the team laughing all the time. This year for me has been so good because I have had time to sit and really get to know the Pastors. I love their commitment. Stephen Baidu cracks me up. He has me in stitches more often than not. And I love the heart that Wilson has. So in a nutshell that was our day. It was rich in love and I couldn’t be any prouder to be associated with a finer group of people. To my family I miss you terribly. To my WANA friends have fun this week. Love all of you.
Don’t know what happened last night. I did blog and sent it to Steve but apparently it did not make it to the other side of the world. Tonight’s addition will be short as we are all exhausted and yes, I can vouch for that! We went back to Top Hills today and I am excited to report that our fabulous carpentry crew completed all six desks. The desks look great and should last forever. John and Josh did a great job teaching the Ugandans how to do it, and the Ugandans did a great job in execution. Those desks are never coming apart. It was a well-oiled machine by the end of the day. So much fun to watch all the different people working together to accomplish a goal.
Meanwhile on the other side of the yard, Jen, Liz, Vicki and Emily put a huge dent in the photographing of all the classrooms. It was such fun watching them organizing the class pictures. The background for the pictures was the greenery behind them and these four it was easy to get the kids to smile. This too ran very smoothly and I have to give full compliments to the photographers!
The third group of us did the Ambassador program. We interviewed 14 kids for future sponsorship. This team included Judy B, Judy H, Paige, Jaimie (until she deserted us to go let Haji tutor her on Suduko) and me. We started with the usual first questions; name, age, date of birth (which most of them had no idea), etc. and then Jaimie asked for their favorite Bible verse. The first child mentioned a story and there happened to be a children’s Bible on the table (I had bought it to give to Rashidah, my sponsored child). She opened the Bible and asked the child to read it. Judy H came to life. The educator in her woke up and it started. After reading Jaimie asked if she had a Bible and when the answer was no, she asked if she would like one. This answer was an overwhelming yes. And so that became a part of the interview. I loved the way God is using this group. So as each child came up we asked them to read for us from the Bible. Not one had a personal Bible. And yes, each child said they would like to have one. So based on their reading level, we are buying them each one tomorrow. Pretty cool!
The Ambassador group finished earlier (I think we rocked!) and so we then went into the village with the Mercy bags, but not until we had distributed all the goats and chickens. Of course we had our gaggle of children with us; every hand was holding at least one child. As the day was wearing down and we were beginning to distribute the goats and chickens; I did mention (although quietly) that if we let the goats eat the chickens we could save a little bit of time. You’ll be glad to know this plan did NOT go into affect.
My little girls Rashidah is the cutest kid at the school. I know some of you may have a different opinion, but I just want you to know that you are wrong! The first day she was shy. Now she won’t let go of my hand. And her father is so grateful that we all come and help. He is such a humble man. And Pastor Baidu (Stephen) is the best. He has decided he is the Boss and I am the Goss. Tonight he fell asleep on the bus coming home so he is now Boss Sleepy Stevie. Such a wonderful heart. I just love him.
Meet Rashidah:
As you continue to read this, here is the blog that was supposed to get posted last night. Love you all. Thanks for thoughts.
DOWNPOUR IN UGANDA –BOTH FROM THE SKY AND FROM MY EYES!
Today (Monday) we started again at 7:30. For those of you who know me you know mornings are not my favorite time of day. However here in Uganda somehow it just happens. There is a team here from Australia and today one of the women was really missing her peanut butter. Well I happened to pack 8 small packages of peanut butter and I have no idea why. So I went back to my room and hand delivered my peanut butter to this young lady. She was so excited. Oyfho8tfguiopjo4r5ty6789lgvjnkkii (that was from Liz as usual causing nothing but trouble). She is trying to tell me she is not trouble but obviously from the prior sentence that is not true! We had a wonderful morning. We started our day in town so our team could buy the few items we needed to proceed with our journey. Then we stopped at Bulubandi so we could pick up the tools to make the desks and the Bibles we had bought for the mercy bags that we distribute. Once we arrived at Top Hills the lumber for the desks was in the process of being unloaded from the truck. Our timing couldn’t have been better. So the men went in one direction and the women headed off to take pictures of the different classes. We started with the nursery level. We took their very first (not only because it was truly their very fist class picture, but also because it was the very first time any class has ever had a class picture taken. I cannot begin to tell you how well behaved these little kids were. As we walked into the class they all stood up and recited something welcoming us into their class. Then they walked out quietly in two very straight lines and stood silently until we told them where to stand. Jen took the picture, Liz recorded the number on a sheet of paper and then we proceeded to individual pictueres. The kids were just so good! And Jen did such a good job! There was only one problem. Right after the class picture was taken the skies opened up. And it poured! And poured! And poured! Fortunately we made it to the classroom and ate while it rained. The interesting thing is that classes had to be put on hold because no one could hear a thing! The kids just sat in their seats and as soon as the rain stopped the teacher continued teaching!
After the rains stopped we started again. Jen photographed, Liz recorded and Vicki straightened all the collars. We looked like Lifetouch. They have absolutely nothing on us – except maybe professionalism and talent! Actually we did a great job. Tomorrow we will try to take the rest of the classes which include the individual Nursery pictures and P3 through P7. Meanwhile the men, led by John, cut all the wood and finished their first desk. May not sound like much but now that the model is completed the rest will just be a piece of cake. And they look great! The guys were so much fun to watch. What a team. And whoever it was from Bulubandi who was doing the sawing…I wish I had half his strength and endurance. He made it look like he was sawing a toothpick, instead of a 4” piece of wood! As expected they had a whole group of young boys standing nearby just watching. It was so neat to watch all the men working together. Later in the day Glenn pulled away and pulled out his guitar. This is a lot like a chick magnet –though in his case it attracts just about everybody.
Yesterday Irene had asked Paige if she would come see her home and so tonight on our way back from Bulubandi we did just that. She has a beautiful little home. She started singing and so we all joined in. Then we prayed over her home and then sang again. As we got ready to leave she told Paige that she was so happy that she honored her promise to visit. Wow. Sure am glad we did that!!! Then we dropped a few members of the team at Phil’s kid’s house so they could spend more time with their kids. The rest of us came back to the Mum for the evening. When it was time to go back to pick them up Judy Howitt and I drove back with Haji. I loved spending that time with him. He is such a great man and his sense of humor is wonderful. He has the team laughing all the time. This year for me has been so good because I have had time to sit and really get to know the Pastors. I love their commitment. Stephen Baidu cracks me up. He has me in stitches more often than not. And I love the heart that Wilson has. So in a nutshell that was our day. It was rich in love and I couldn’t be any prouder to be associated with a finer group of people. To my family I miss you terribly. To my WANA friends have fun this week. Love all of you.
Mom and dad anxiously wait your blogs , keep them coming and stay safe. Love and kisses Mom and Dad
ReplyDeleteLove how God is working through you. The smile on your face puts a big smile on my face. My dog understands:) BTW, snow on the mountains .
ReplyDeleteLove you,
Colleen
Pretty cool desks, Your stories are so fun to read, makes us feel like we're there with you. Take care, eat and be safe.
ReplyDeleteMiss you seester