Through the eyes of Naomi and Quinn . . . . .

We had a lovely surprise from our team this year when the whole group committed to making our children’s cross cultural educational experience more satisfying. Our kids have been going part time to a local Ugandan Catholic school since last year. This year, Pat volunteered to attend and teach with Quinn one morning a week, spending time in his classroom and another and doing some art, storytelling and games to emphasize a sense of fun in learning. I have heard rave reviews from multiple kids at the school but none so happy as Quinn whose view of Ugandan school has turned totally around. He is repeating 1st grade there this year and is in a much better match with his writing skills. He also has a good friend from CSB in his first grade class or Primary 1 as they call it here.

Naomi is in Primary 4 this year, her real grade (last year I had put them in a class together to help with their fears which seemed to make things very hard for both of them, Quinn who was overchallenged and Naomi who was very bored.) Ashley attends with her twice a week and also does some much-needed teaching at the school. Naomi also has a good friend from CSB, Ephraim, in her classroom. And “NINE GIRLS, MOM” as she frequently reminds me. She loves the classroom atmosphere and the people watching and cultural learning involved. She sometimes even learns academic things in school! My favorite example of her learning came this week. In science the class studied the spread of disease through rodents (very key information here let me assure you). The information was mostly quite sound, interesting and appropriate. English pronunciation was another matter completely. It took Naomi some time to figure out that “flee -ahs” were fleas, and “plag – oo” was the plague. Of course by now she is already familiar with the usual pronunciation of “lat” for rat. So in the usual Ugandan teaching style, the teacher spent much of the lesson repeating over and over: “Fle-ahs, they live on the lat and they give you plag-oo!!”

And in their American schooling I continue to be impressed by Miss Ashley and Miss Sarah’s efforts with their small flock of needy missionary children. Today Quinn came running into my office at school to report:: “today I was an archeologist!!” For a kid who loves Egypt and recently named a doll Tuthenkhamen, this was a very great adventure. Add to the title the chance to paper mache a mummy, follow a real map and actually dig things out of the ground with toothbrushes . . . . Well, it’s the stuff you don’t forget. And I am eternally grateful to qualified American teacher Ashley for taking the time for one small child’s interest and learning in the African bush, today. Your reward is in heaven, my friend.

Nathan, Alex and Ajaku coached Christ School footballers through their first win of the season. A marginal win, but still a win. The team is very young this year, almost half of the students are freshman, chosen during last year’s football clubs as promising players. Young teams are good, putting emphasis on sports earlier in the student’s life, before they must focus so very hard on their academics. But this young team panicked when they hit the field in front of hundreds of local fans. They played poorly, disappointing their coaches badly, and giving new direction for future practices. You can see Nathan pictured, with game face on, during the pre-game talks and prayer.

The campus was packed with local people who had found the small fee to get through our gates. Campus security had to be beefed up mid game as some fans threatened violence but all ended well. The Christ school girls formed their usual cross between cheerleading squad and choir; beating drums frenetically and dancing traditionally while belting out worship songs at the top of their lungs. When you’ve got a hundred girls singing “let the power of the Lord come down” at high volume, what do you really have to fear?!

I soaked up a little team time with Sarah (pictured with staff kid Ingrid) and Pat.

Football season promises to be interesting. Our players are young and inexperienced, we have lost two of our best coaches and footballers aren’t quite the “big men on campus” that they have been in previous years due to a greater focus on academics. Football in Bundibugyo promises witchcraft, cheating, lying, mercenaries and violence. But we look forward to the coming month with its’ four games a week schedule with enthusiasm. It’s one of the highlights of the year for students, and for most of the team too.

As anticipated, our weekend away with the team was full of community, beauty, good food and rest. Naomi and Quinn spent crazy amounts of time with Jonathon and Rebecca, their Ched-buddies. And I got to have some good talks with their mom, Jennifer. What a blessing.

The big safari game drive through Queen Elizabeth National Park was a highlight as usual. We had two sightings of different groups of female lions ( how many children have eaten a picnic breakfast on their Land Cruiser rooftop a hundred feet from seven female lions!) and saw elephants as well as all the usual wildlife. We also saw a big monitor lizard and a huge dead hippo that was still stinking (check THOSE dental records!)

My favorite part was the four hours spent on the roof with Pat and a myriad of small shouting children. Quinn relaxed into my arms in a fully horizontal position with his bare toes hanging out over the edge of the vehicle as we powered along through beautiful places looking for the next exciting discovery.

Thanks, God.

Fourteen giggling girls joined me on Tuesday night for some fun research into the cultural changes in gender and sexuality within our local area.

Working from the request of my friend, Yvette, who is completing a PhD in education with a focus in cross-cultural issues, I created open-ended questions and a brought in a variety of media to create opportunities for the girls to express their opinions on the effects of education gender and sexuality for young women in rural East Africa.

What fun we had!! I am reminded that this is the work I love . . . . We attacked beauty with the question: “please draw a picture of the shape of a woman that you find most beautiful.” This was interesting in a culture where traditionally women who are “fat” are considered beautiful here (actually being called fat is a compliment here) but in the city where our girls go post-school and more and more within the school itself, being thin is in (thanks to Western influence.) It was great to have the girls go to their focus journals and draw their perception of beauty.

We also did a group poster on polygamy, drawing a polygamous man and his five wives and giving them thoughts via “thought bubbles”. The girls responded quickly and honestly through art. And I got a good laugh from some of the captions!

The focus journals came back into play again as they wrote: ” five things that make you feel good about yourself.” My personal favorite started with 1) I am black and a bit brown, 2) I have a wonderful figure and 3) I am clever at EVERYTHING and ended up with 5) I am very humble. Gotta love it. I also asked girls to relate what a man or boy could do to make them feel good about themselves, a very revealing question.

We ended the evening with an impromptu drama on the perils of being an uneducated woman. There was lots of laughter!!

Many thanks to Yvette for giving me a chance to have a bit of fun in a busy and demanding schedule. Maybe I need to work on my PhD some day too!!

This morning I will fly out with Naomi, Quinn and Ashley for a brief day of medical tests in Kampala before driving back out by private hire tomorrow. We will meet David in Fort Portal tomorrow evening with the rest of the team and spend the weekend in Kichwamba, enjoying the beauty of seclusion, the pool and the animal park. We are saying goodbye to the Chedester family who have lived and worked in Fort Portal for many years as a support to our team. They are the ones who send us mail, veggies, and anything else we need from over the mountains. Before cell phones they were our radio contact with the rest of the world. They have met a huge need and blessed a tremendous number of lives. Naomi will lose another friend in their daughter, Rebecca, who is just a year or two younger than her and a kindred spirit. Rebecca is an adopted Ugandan and a real sweetheart, we are looking forward to the weekend with them.

Pray for clear results from my and Naomi’s medical tests that will help us move forward in decision making about whether to hang tight or look for more aggressive help. Thank God with us for airplanes, making this possible. We have not flown out since our first trip here over three years ago, but boy, in an emergency, it’s a real blessing.

Yesterday I gave the chapel lesson to students. It was my first time speaking to the entire group and many said the first time a woman had preached the chapel message (though I suspect Kevin may remember differently!) I talked about Albert Einstein’s quote: “God does not play dice.” It was a message on purpose and vision, the first of this year’s themes of discipleship. Students listened BEAUTIFULLY, there were so many smiles and engaged faces. We did dice games in the classroom discussions afterwards, and it was wonderful to see students connecting with the lesson and their own lives. Would you pray that our students would see purpose in their lives and have hope and vision for their future?

After teaching chapel we went for our staff meeting where I led the book study on Parenting. This week’s topic was empathy which was a very hard concept for all involved to integrate. We had fun doing a number of role plays of discipline situations. Again, pray for our work in integrating, counseling, empathy as well as consequences into discipline here. Pray for the many staff who need ministry as much as the students.

And continue to pray for our solar power which has reached really difficult levels of malfunctioning. David will stay behind for the first few days of our trip to try to wrap up some of the most troublesome loose ends for the school. He’s still sick, so pray him forward.

God is with us. Our Deliverer is with us, our Deliverer is ever drawing -near. We trust him with ourselves, our kids, our health, our fears,our students. And He has never let us down.

It is evening on the CSB campus, students sit in groups on the football pitch, enjoying the quiet of coming dusk before heading to the drudgery and tomfoolery of evening preps. Red and black fabrics hang in clumps from the clotheslines and fences – girls casual wears out to dry. Even the colors on-campus are uniform. I have just walked in the campus after a few minutes in the town and the difference in the atmosphere is striking. Here at school there is no litter, no skin fungus, clean clothing, English and laughter. No babies screaming, no men yelling rude epithets, every body clean and fed. Thank you God. This is a measure of success, a foretaste of heaven in the midst of the suffering of Bundibugyo.

Before you think things are perfect . . . . David, still suffering from a respiratory flu and battling headaches, fever and sore throat/cough has just headed to the computer lab where students and staff have reported smoke and sparks coming from the battery terminal that provides the power for half of the school. The only thing worse than a breakdown in power for half the school might be if it was accompanied by a dangerous and destructive fire. Pray for our power, a nightly struggle still as more equipment fails and overuse continues to be difficult to regulate. It feels like a place of Satanic attack which means it can be beaten down through your efforts in prayer.

But the major demoralization of the week is the staff’s response to the news of finally having to pay income tax. The school somehow evaded notice by income tax officials for over ten years, but we were approached this year. Thankfully arrears were not required from our employees (or the school!) but we did have to start payments immediately. Since David was recently given a criminal court summons for late payments of another government plan (due to no money in the bank!), we are very aware of the importance of immediate responses. Two weeks ago we broke the news of the tax to our staff. Sadly their response has been less positive than we hoped. As is human nature, they look for someone to blame for their misfortune ( it is a sizable tax and will likely never benefit them). The tone in the staff rooms are tense. David is being accused of failing to protect the staff (through lying??) We even had a mini-mutiny last week when staff briefly refused to teach for an afternoon. The staff are angry. They feel hurt, unprotected and clearly we have somehow failed to empathize well, communicate well, or SOMETHING.

Pray for us to face opposition with the heart of Jesus. I have always thanked God for giving me a man of integrity to be my husband. I know that David is a faithful, true and just human being. And I trust that in the end, his love, care and faithfulness to the staff will show them the gospel. He is Always Enough.

Isn’t he CUTE!!

The A-level scores have just came out and students have streamed in today to pick up their results. Some have scored beautifully (overall our school has given it’s best performance ever with three times the principle passes of last year) and others have failed dismally. This leaves us with two groups of people: those who have succeeded but have no money for further studies that they have qualified for and those who have failed and have few further option. Hardest to face are those in the first group; students we know and love, students who needed to succeed, who have not.

Master Were has the wrinkles and wisdom of a little age, he’s been a teacher here for a number of years, and He is a spiritual leader in the school and the community. I see him today, standing on the veranda of the school, his face solemn and hopeful, his hand holding tight to the one before him. He faces Aguma, a young man who has just heard his failing scores on the biggest test of his life, the one which will determine his future. Were’s hand is out-stretched and so is his heart; He is Jesus right now to this young man. . . .

A few minutes earlier, after receiving his scores from the A-level DOS this week, Aguma sat before my desk, breathing hard, trying not to cry. When I asked him how he is feeling about his results, he gestured for a pen and paper before breaking down in sobs while he wrote:

“Mum, Am very sad and disappointed. I can’t believe what I have got. Am scared and worried. I can’t see anything in future. It’s hard to make some decisions right now, but what I have in mind is I do NOT want to let go of my dream. Sometime in future I want to help my community, I want to help me. Maybe soon I will need to talk to you when I have a clear mind; I do not want to let go of my dream. Love, Aguma

I share these sacred words (what a future could lie before this young man who shares his feelings so quickly, so vulnerably and so articulately, a rare gift here!), to share the depth of human hearts and needs in this big and overwhelming world of ministry in Bundibugyo. Aguma is a an orphan who lost his father at a very young age. He holds together a small household with an impoverished mother and several younger brothers. He doesn’t eat much when he is not at school. He walks for miles to see a friend. He holds out hope when things look hopeless.

Pray for hopeless former students to have hope. Pray for us to have wisdom about guiding students to the next step. Pray for God to meet His kids both in the place of brokenness and in the place of success. I don’t know how exactly you should pray, but pray . . . . . For us who appear to have answers but don’t really, for them who are so desperate. For Uganda’s future.

Christ School’s newest bunch of Scholarship Orphans showed up for their briefing on Monday. Most are Senior 1′s, freshman, but a few are older students.

Out of all the sponsored students, my heart was most taken by Amesi, a 14 year old peanut who clearly put his early childhood nutrition towards brain growth rather than body growth. He’s slightly bigger than Naomi and awfully cute. My first thought on seeing him was that he is going to get SQUASHED by the bigger boys, but so far he seems to hold his own with the right mixture of deference and humor. I’m sure it’s not an easy thing.

As part of the briefing we have our orphans fill our forms including their hobbies, career goals and biography. We send this information to sponsors so that they can know their child better and pray for them well. Another student, young Friday’s biography particularly caught my heart as I typed it up this week. His father died when we was only four; an accidental drowning while drunk. If that was not enough, his mother died a few years later due to lung cancer from highly toxic local cigarettes. In Bundibugyo, the land of improbably high mortality, having two parents die from self-abuse seems a little too much. Seems counseling will be needed for this kid.

Loreen on the other hand, lost her mother to AIDs and her father, a soldier, to malaria in Northern Ugandan where he was fighting the LRA rebels. A sweet, soft-spoken and humble girl; she is determined to continue her education and while not a genius she is certainly bright enough to make it. She’ll need boosts to her self-confidence and injections of wisdom to keep her naievety from landing her in trouble with boys.

What a great bunch; some sweet, some strong, some just scared . . . . . I feel so privileged to walk beside them for a few years and call myself their “mum”.

So that we can all proclaim His fame among the nations of Uganda, America and everywhere in between, this is what God has done for us financially at Christ School since December:

1) The latest . . . . . A funding proposal sent out months ago finally came back approved. granting us $50,000/year for three years for capital projects and some student scholarships. We don’t even know what to say . . . . . .

Coming on top of:
2) WHM forgiving our full debt of $80,000 and YES they finally posted it to the books so this week we will get our first not-in-debt financial statement from World Harvest Mission!!
3) Two donors coming through with enough money to pay our student subsidies for the year, alongside the donations we already have coming in . . . . . This means that for the coming year if donations stay the same we will not have an operating deficit!!!
4) Plus all the generous donors who gave in December and January for any urgent need allowing us to pay salaries, start school projects and basically make the school what it is to date. We are still spending this money on some pretty amazing projects like PAINTING (novel concept) and furniture. Sadly I do not have before pictures, but I will post after-pictures soon!

We feel like we’re swimming in a river of God’s grace . . . . Praise Him with us!!