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