First weeks

It has been so wonderful be back and see my friends. I have returned home . When I first arrived at the airport, it felt so surreal. I couldn't quite believe that I was actually in Uganda! The best way I can describe it is that my heart sang for joy. That sounds really cheesy but I think it encapsulates how I felt. I can't wait for the next 2 months!

I arrived safely on the Monday and was greeted at the airport by Silver, Gabit and Reagan. It was lovely to come back to a house full of the Smile team before I had some much needed sleep after the long journey.

Lois, one of the girls on my gap year team, also arrived on the Wednesday and I've really loved having her here too. We've really missed the third member of our trio, Kate!!

Tuesday 11th - I went with the SCU field team to help run the children's catch up class. Most of the children who attended year are no longer part of the class. That is a really great thing, because it means that they have returned to school or started going for the first time a few years after usual school enrolment age. I missed them but I am so pleased they have the chance to get an education and I hope that

what they learnt in the class has been useful for them starting or resuming school. Some of their younger brothers or sisters are now part of the class and it was lovely to spend time getting to know the children.

Wednesday  12th and Thursday 13th- Ruth Mother Care School- it was so amazing to have a chance to go back to RMC. RMC school is a school for disadvantaged children that I worked at during my gap year. Many of the children come from families who can't afford to pay school fees, so Ruth set the school up so that these children could still have access to education.

It was such a joy to be reunited with the headmistress Ruth and the other teachers that were here before. There was much hugging and smiling! Teacher Stephan Teacher Stephan (I get called Stephan here) There have been a lot of changes to the school in the last year as there are new teachers and some of the children we got to know and love have loved on to other schools or moved away to families in the village. I had the opportunity to have a good chat with Ruth about how the school is doing. It now has a piece of land some distance away where Ruth is growing maize to help their meals become more financially sustainable. The maize will be ground into posho flour. Posho looks a bit like mashed potato but whiter. I am so happy to see the school continuing to go from strength to strength.

Crafts at RMC

Sorting maize to make posho

 Family Believers Church children's club- On Friday we got to see many of the children who were previously in our catch up class come to the Bible and fun club after school. I love them so much! I led a session on the parable of the Good Shepherd with the older children and we made sheep masks out of card and string.

Kampala Baptist Church- I have loved catching up with friends at KBC. KBC is such a supportive and friendly church family and I feel so lucky to be part of it.

Gabit

 

Prayer requests:

-For general health- I was ill in the first week.
-For safety on the roads, especially when travelling on boda boda motorcycles.
-For starting work next week at Wakisa Ministries (see previous post)
-For my family and I as my maternal grandfather Bryan passed away this week.

Back in Kampala!

 

This summer I have the privilege of being back in Uganda for two months. I have missed it so very much this year since I returned from my gap year with Smile Charity Uganda. I am so blessed that God has provided for me to return just over a year after I left.

In addition to wanting to visit the projects I have worked on before and see all of my friends in Kampala, I want to use this time to consider God's calling on my life and work in different areas of ministry. My work with SCU was mainly focused on children's ministry and whilst I love working with children, I also have a heart for addressing the challenges that face women in Uganda. Therefore I decided to apply to work with Wakisa Ministries and the women's outreach groups that YWAM Jinja organise.

I am so excited for the next two months!

What I will be doing in order:

2 weeks work with Smile Charity Uganda working on the projects I worked on previously (see last year's blog posts)
2 weeks with Wakisa Ministries- a pregnancy crisis centre for teenage girls
2 weeks with Youth With a Mission based in Hopeland, Jinja
1 week with Wakisa
1 week with Smile Charity Uganda



What is Wakisa Ministries?

Wakisa Ministries is a crisis pregnancy centre for young women who have unwanted pregnancies, often as a result of abuse, who have been abandoned and rejected by their communities and families due to this. Wakisa provides accommodation, counselling and vocational training during the girls' pregnancy to help them recover from trauma, gain skills they can use to earn a living after leaving Wakisa and learn about Jesus.

I will helping in different classes, for example in English and life skills. I am excited to spend time getting to know the girls and showing them Jesus' love.

What is Youth With A Mission Jinja?

YWAM is an international missions agency with many bases around the world. The base is in Kakira Jinja is called YWAM Hopeland and overlooks Lake Victoria. They have a number of different ministries, including a school, prison work and evangelism. I will be helping at support groups for HIV positive women in Bible studies at the base and the surrounding villages and with children with disabilities at Home of Hope. I worked with children with disabilities at a holiday play scheme as a summer job for the last two years, so I hope to use the skills I have learnt through that work at Home of Hope.

I decided to spend this time in Jinja because I want to see and serve in a new part of Uganda and see how different ministries are run.



I have worked with YWAM in England before when I went on a two week mission trip with them to Romania four years ago . I am looking forward to visiting another YWAM base and serving in a new part of Uganda. I visited Jinja on a day trip last year, but I am looking forward to spending more time there and making new friends there.

Please pray for:

- Safety, especially on the roads as I travel using taxis and motorcycles.

- That plans will go smoothly.

- My health.

- To settle in quickly to my work at Wakisa and YWAM

-To build good relationships with the girls at Wakisa.
- To make time to spend with God even in busy periods

Leaving 'home' to go 'home'

Last Thursday I returned home after spending nine months in Uganda. I say that I returned home but really it would be more accurate to say that I feel like I’ve left ‘home’ to return ‘home.’ In the months that I spent in Uganda, my time wasn’t just a trip but was my life. The children we have worked with, the friends we have made, and the Smile family are all people that we have lived alongside, laughed with, shared with, cried with, prayed with, played with, eaten lots and rode bodas with. After getting used to the initial culture shock that comes from moving somewhere unfamiliar where you know nobody, I felt settled. Not only have I done lots of exciting, new and adventurous things but also all the usual events you might expect like celebrating birthdays and mundane jobs you would anywhere like washing my clothes, albeit this time by hand.  It’s small things like that that make you feel at home.

I have so many wonderful memories from my time in Uganda, a beautiful country not only for the beauty of its land but also for the people I have met and the culture I love. I am so grateful for being welcomed so warmly to the 'pearl of Africa.' 

Although it is very hard to leave a place which holds such a special place in my heart and where I have grown so much as a person and in my faith, I know that means I am incredibly blessed for everything I have experienced. I went with a heart to serve but have been richly blessed by and learnt so much from the people I worked with myself. There is a price you pay for the gift of loving people in more than one place but it is more than worth it. I thank God for bringing the opportunity in my life from putting the work and a passion for justice on my heart to providing financially to getting me through the challenges I encountered.

I am so thankful for everyone who has come alongside me. My journey to Kampala started a long time ago with all the people who have spent time with me growing up to nurture my faith and the examples I have seen of people serving God faithfully in many different ways, both through people I know and people I have read about. Thank you for the support I have been shown through prayer, words of encouragement, financially and many other ways. I could write pages of thank yous but here are a few:

-Thank you for the generosity of individual donors, to Gold Hill church mission board, Hazel’s Footprints Trust, 1^st Burnham Girls Brigade, St. Nicolas School Taplow, and the anonymous donor who  gifted me some money towards the extension of my stay.

-Thank you to everyone who came to my quiz fundraising evening last year and all those involved in organising it and helping on the evening.

-Thank you to the Smile 'family' and in particular Innocent and Gabit for helping us to get to grips with the field work and making sure we're always laughing on the projects and for Alex our project manager for checking on his 'three muskateers' .

- Thank you to the teachers at Ruth Mother Care for making us part of the team as Teacher Stephanie, Teacher Kate and Teacher Lois and showing us how you teach the children so lovingly.

Thank you to the children for never failing to make me smile and all your hugs and to their families for being so hospitable and friendly on community outreach.

-Thank you to my friends at Kampala Baptist Church for welcoming me into the church family and being there for me.

This is how I spent my last few days in Kampala and what it has been like since arriving home:


Sunday 24th- Our leaving party

On our last Sunday, a goodbye party was held for us at the Smile house. In the morning we went to KBC for the morning service, where we were called up on stage to say goodbye to the congregation and thank them for welcoming us and making us part of the church family.

Sunday morning KBC service

After, we headed back to the Smile house for our party and had a lovely afternoon spending time with our friends, eating our last meal with chapattis and taking lots of group photos. This was our last evening to spend with many of our friends who we knew wouldn't be coming to church the next day so it was difficult to say goodbye to them (or rather 'see you soon' as we preferred to say) but also a lovely send off for us.

Gathering for speeches

Playing cards

On our last day, we visited the teachers at Ruth Mother Care to give them the books and other resources like stickers that we had brought with us and to say goodbye to them. In the evening, we went to church to spend time with our friends there and share rolexes together (chapattis with omelettes inside them) . It felt very surreal to walk out the gate of a place that I've spent almost every evening in whilst being here.

On Tuesday morning before we left for the airport, we took photos with all the Smile team in the garden. It was a fun way to spend our last few hours and nice to have the photo memories. After saying our final farewells to the team, we set off with Alex and Innocent in the Smile van to Entebbe. Luckily, we were able to weigh our bags on the scales before we checked in and after some sharing between us, all three of our suitcases were under the 32kg limit!

We were trying to cheer ourselves up after
flying out of Uganda- English butter helped!

McDonalds at our stopover in Dubai

After being picked up from Gatwick airport on Wednesday morning by our gap year coordinator Emily and Smile International's CEO Clive, we drove to Operation Mobilization's guest house for returning missionaries in Bromley for our debrief. Luckily, we had Wednesday to sleep and then chat and watch movies with blankets and hot drinks. Thank you to Emily for buying us lots of yummy food to cheer us up! On Thursday morning, we had our debrief chats. It was weird to be in the UK but not to be able to see our families, but it was helpful to spend the first hours in the UK with Lois and Kate who were going through the same thing as me and be able to talk about our experiences together.

FOOD!!