Easter week

The main event of this week has been Easter! It was a great to experience Easter in a different culture. Things that people have come to associate with Easter in the UK, like chocolate and Easter eggs are not a tradition here so it is easier to bring Easter back to its true meaning: the cross.

A friend shared a quote with me last week and it is the one that resonated me the most this Easter so I thought I'd share it here with you too. It reminds us of the fact that Easter is not just another event on the Christian calendar but the pinnacle of our faith because Jesus is the centre of it all.

"Two donkeys were walking down the road in Jerusalem one day. One of the donkeys said, "Wow, Yesterday I was carrying Jesus on my back, people were hailing me, screaming and shouting, 'Hosanna!Hosanna!!'

People even kept their clothes on the ground for me to walk on, and those who did not have any clothe had to put down palm leaves for me to walk on.

But today, when I walked through the same road, nobody recognizes me, and no one even said anything to me."

The second donkey smiles and said, "Hmmmmm.... Don't you know that you are nothing without Jesus?"

Monday catch up class-

Playing with the globe ball

Today we did an exercise with the children where we wrote out letters in their exercise books and they had to circle the letters ‘a’ and ‘A’ to increase their recognition and identification skills. The older children who had been to school before and dropped out did an exercise where they had to write the letter before and after a given letter of the alphabet.

The best part of the class for me this week was when we got out a giant inflatable globe for the children to play with. They were so excited to chase it round the church and bounce it everywhere and I was just as happy to join in whilst carrying children on my back!

Tuesday and Wednesday- I ended up spending these two days getting dental treatment. Thankfully it’s all fixed now. I also enjoyed practising with the youth on Tuesday evening. 

Thursday-  

We visited our usual families on community outreach. We spent the most time at Mamma Esther’s house with her husband and two of her children. It was lovely to spend longer praying with them. Please pray with us for this family as Mamma Esther moves from selling corn to avacadoes as their main source of income.

Good Friday-

In the morning, I went to the Good Friday service at Watoto Church. I would describe Watoto as a bit like the ‘Hillsong’ of Uganda as it is a very modern church. The worship and readings were great and helped me to reflect on the meaning of the day. Later in the evening, I also got the opportunity to go to a praise event at a university Christian fellowship hall, which was an amazing way to end the day.

I also enjoyed eating Kate’s cinnamon cross biscuits. What would we do without her occasion themed baking? 

Easter Sunday-

On Easter morning, we got bodas for the KBC service, which was very joyful and we all had a wonderful time celebrating our Saviour’s resurrection! After the service, we had a lovely time at the Smile house with Alex and Bennie, Joe (one of the previous gappers), Gabit and Olivia eating Gabit and Olivia’s delicious chicken, matoke, potatoes, passion fruit and ice cream.

Egg nests

Homemade Easter eggs- thank you so much Kate

Easter lunch

My yummy lunch

In the afternoon, Kate and I went with Olivia to watch an Easter performance at a church called ‘I am.’ The singing and dancing was amazing and it was fantastic to see such passionate praise on a day when we celebrate that Jesus rose after dying for our sins.

The 'I Am' performance

The 'I Am' performance

Please pray for:

-Smile UK board members Jane and Garry who are visiting Smile Charity Uganda this week.
- For the mid term exams of the children at Ruth Mother Care this week
-For the national water to remain on as there have been some water shortages where our tank supply has ran out as there is water maintenance work going on,

Stickers, Nutrition and a hot Sunday

Tuesday and Wednesday- Ruth Mother Care

On Tuesday I was in P1 in the morning and taught about vowels and how they can determine whether to use the article ‘a’ or ‘an’. They seemed to grasp the concept well but the most exciting part of the lesson for them was getting to choose one of the fairytale stickers I took with me when they managed to circle one of the vowels hidden amongst the consonants on the board. You can see how happy they were from the photos and their smiles were accompanied by cries of ‘we love stickers.’ It was lovely to see them discuss with their friend which sticker they should choose saying things like, ‘The castle or the fairy?’  I had a quieter afternoon in P3 reading them stories and particularly enjoyed reading ‘The Railway Children’ to them as it is one of my own favourite classic tales.

On Wednesday, I was in P2 all day. In their morning English lesson, I taught them about how to make words with the letter ‘f’ in them plural. In their afternoon reading lesson, they practised after reading words with the letter ‘A’ sound in them and then I read ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’ and ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ to them. They particularly love the bear hunt sound book and getting to press the sound effect buttons.

 After returning from school, we went to youth fellowship where we watched an inspiring film called ‘Do You Believe?’ following different people and families and how they were impacted by God. Our favourite quote from it is  'If you were accused of being a Christian would there be enough evidence to convict you?' because it’s so thought provoking.

Thursday- Nutrition workshop

This week our community outreach took a different form than usual- we ran the first of a series of workshops for those living in Nabulagala. Today Silva ran the workshop on nutrition, which went well as there was good participation and interaction from those who came, especially in the form of the question and answer session at the end. I am looking forward to the workshop next month as it is good to be able to do something more practical to help the families we visit.

Return Ministries

On Sunday, Smile were asked to help at a crusade event locally run by Return Ministries Uganda, so we ran the children’s activities for the day there. It meant that our Sunday was a little different to normal as we had to set our alarms for 6.30 because we had to be there by eight o’clock. In true ‘African time’, people didn’t turn up till much later so it ended up starting around eleven o’clock. Meanwhile, we found ourselves with sleeping children on our laps and our hair being played with. For the morning session, I was in charge of running the session for the forty two to four year olds and as we had an uneven number of people helping, I was the sole leader. At first that was a real challenge when they are too young to know English and my Luganda is limited to a handful of phrases but thankfully an older girl came to help me translate. We were all teaching the story of creation to different age groups so I taught it by reading the story using the Beginner’s Bible with actions to go with it and then getting them to draw something God created. Later on, we ran games for the children with balloons, bats and obstacle races which was good fun for them and us. Whilst at the end of the day at 5PM we were all exhausted, it was definitely a day to remember!

Another busy week

We've had another fantastic week working on the projects and enjoying ourselves. Here's a recount of the week :) .

Sunday- 

In the evening, I went to the youth event Meltdown at church, where they were talking about the achievements of women in Uganda to commemorate International Women's Day.

Monday-

We continued with catch up class, recapping the alphabet and practising writing the letter 'A' again to see how they had progressed. In the evening, Lois and Kate went to voice class at church but I stayed in. It was strange to be the only one in the house since I am nearly always at church in the evenings or the girls are in with me. I had a lovely evening talking to my Girls' Brigade back in England company through Facetime. It was so great to see them!

Tuesday-

On Tuesday there was a public holiday for International Women's Day so we had the day off from teaching at school. I went to church in the afternoon to practice for leading worship in the student fellowship TGIF on a Friday and then went with a group of us from church to a Bible study fellowship at a girl's hostel. It was nice to meet some of the girls at the fellowship and I hope to be able to go again soon.

Wednesday-

After the holiday, we were back to teaching at Ruth Mother Care on Wednesday. In the morning lesson, I taught P3 maths and reading. They loved re-reading the 'Five Minutes Peace' book about a family of elephants and talking about all the objects in their house in the pictures. In the afternoon, I taught P1 literacy, continuing on the subject of school. I got them to sing the school anthem and practice drawing the school logo.

My highlight of the day was visiting Teacher Monica, who has just given birth to her baby son Emmanuel. Congratulations Monica! Emmanuel was a few days old when we visited and he is so beautiful and adorable. We all enjoyed having a cuddle with him and it was so fantastic to see Teacher Monica again after the holidays. Both mother and baby are healthy :).

Isma and baby Emmanuel

Kate with Emmanuel

Thursday-

On community outreach, we visited our usual families to see how they were doing and it was good to catch up with them. One of the ladies we visit regularly is Mama Rose and we collected jerry cans of water from the pump for her to help her with her clothes washing job, which she does to provide for the family. It was good to be able to support her practically because it can be hard to listen to problems that people are experiencing without being able to do anything practical in addition to praying,

Friday-

At kid's club at FBC, I taught about 'joy' to continue our teaching on 'the fruits of the spirit.' I explained the difference between happiness and god given joy through a drama and the help of Kate teaching about the joy that Paul and Silas had whilst they were praising God in prison. At the end we taught the children the song 'I've Got the Joy Joy Joy Down in my Heart' using lyric cards, which they loved. Meanwhile, Lois and Innocent helped the younger children to colour in a picture related to joy.

Games at the beginning

In the evening, I sang at TGIF with some other members of the youth band. I was quite nervous because I hadn't sung in a microphone with few other singers before but it was a great evening to connect with God.

Me reading Psalm 139 

Singing

Saturday-

The pool-a lot sunnier when we were there!

On Saturday, us three girls went swimming with Innocent at an open air pool at Kavumba Recreation Centre. Apart from being thrown in the pool at youth camp, we hadn't been swimming since we arrived in Uganda so it was great fun to have the opportunity to do it. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed making the most of the sunny weather! Unfortunately, despite covering ourselves in 'very water resistant' suncream, we all still got very sunburnt. It was definitely still worth it though!

After swimming I went straight on to church for Saturday service and had a nice meal out with my lovely friend Joanne at 2K restaurant, which serves local food.

Back on the projects

After a long break over the school holidays where we were away from our normal routine of Smile projects where we were in Rwanda, at youth camp, in the village and on safari, we are now back working on the projects in Kampala. After we came back from safari, we had another week at home and getting involved at church because we had to stay in some days over the election period for our safety.

I loved the different activities that we got to do during this break but I missed the children we work with a lot so I was so excited to see them again. Here’s an update on the last few weeks:

Catch up class

Helping Faima to write

On our first Monday back at catch up class in the Nabulagala slums, the key for Family Believer’s Church where we run it wasn’t available so we visited some of the families of the children that have been coming to the class to remind them that it is starting again. It was great to spend time playing with and carrying the children and get to see how their parents have been doing since we saw them last.

Writing

Last week we ran an introductory session for the new term, involving songs, games and a story. I bought a sound book version of the classic ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ and the children loved it! We had about twenty children there and it is so encouraging to see our class growing.

Ruth Mother Care School

On our first Tuesday back at school, we didn’t start teaching again because most of the children hadn’t begun to attend again because their families are still buying equipment such as exercise books for them. There were only about ten children there, mostly those joining nursery section, so we instead discussed ideas for the new term with the teachers and the idea of giving us a timetable for what we are teaching each week. Teacher Ruth also showed us the progress on the building work for the new classroom for nursery section behind the current classrooms and the prospective building that she hopes to rent for a boarding section for the school. The next day, there were local elections going on so we had a day off.

The next week, most of the children had returned to school and it was so lovely to see them again as school broke off in the middle of December. I also enjoyed getting to catch up with the teachers, who have become our good friends.

 On Tuesday, I taught P1 for both the morning and afternoon lesson. They have just graduated from the top class of nursery section to the primary section of the school so it was good to be able to spend more time getting to know them in a smaller group as there are many more children in the nursery section classroom. In the morning I started to teach them about nouns in their English class and they were good at coming up with words that are nouns to brainstorm on the board but struggled more with identifying nouns in a sentence. In an effort to be creative, I played a noun riddle game with them in which I had to pretend to be a noun and describe myself and they had to guess what I was.  Teacher Rachel and I couldn’t help laughing at some of their responses. One of the nouns they had to guess was ‘grass’ and I said ‘I grow in a field, I’m green, animals like sheep like to eat me, I need water to grow….’ and they guessed things like ‘snake’, ‘cow’ and ‘sky’, which was a reminder to me of how hilarious it can be to work with children. As the Literacy textbook was missing, I ended up teaching on nouns again in the afternoon so I had to think of new activities to help them understand and practice the same concept.

On Wednesday, I was happy to be teaching ‘my’ old class P3 who I know the best. I taught grouping numbers in maths and then read a story to them in their English lesson. In the afternoon, I returned to P1 to teach them about different roles in a school in their literacy lesson.

Community outreach

The first week of community outreach in Nabulagala I visited the family of Mamma Esther with Innocent. We have been praying with this family for a long time and one issue we have praying for is for healing for Tata Esther’s back problems. It was amazing to hear that the pain has been easing after hospital treatment and we are carrying on praying for complete healing so that he is able to work to provide for the family. The next Thursday us gappers and Gabit went to visit them again and continued to pray for this couple and their four beautiful girls.

Kid’s club

At our first kid’s club, Lois and Gabit taught on ‘love’ as part of our series on the ‘fruits of the spirit’ mentioned in Galations whilst Kate and I helped the little ones with colouring in. It was lovely to have the help of Mitch, who was visiting with her husband Spencer to plan their summer mission with Smile.

Finished colouring

Teaching on love

The older children 

Helping with colouring

Church:

I have continued to be involved at KBC, in the youth choir and have also tried singing in the main choir, which has been good fun. On Saturday we had a girl's fellowship hosted by Mrs. Kapasi from church where we had fun getting to know each other more and talking about the issues facing Christian young women. In Saturday service, I enjoyed watching the Bible trivia quiz on a few chapters from Daniel. Kate, Lois and I were supposed to compete in it but Lois and I got stuck in the house due to heavy rain so were late but it was still good to watch everyone else compete.

Please pray for:

• Our community outreach ministry as we are looking into holding workshops on topics like sanitation for the families in Nabulagala slums
• Continued energy for us gappers as we work on the projects and spend time at church in the evenings
• The building project going on at Ruth Mother Care