Daily Life

It has been a while since my last post, so I thought I better get onto it and write up a blog post for everyone reading back in Australia.
It has been over a month since arriving in Uganda, and I have been keeping busy and getting ready for programs to start running.
At the moment I am now house sitting for good friends Ron and Anne who have been a part of building a school here in Uganda. I do admit it feels rather comfortable eating freshly baked bread, having internet access, warm showers and sodas. I am enjoying the blessing of it all, and its good fun being on a school ground with a community of friends around me to greet me every time I walk out of the house.

I have also recently got my hands on a bike, it needed new tyres and a touch up, but after getting the mechanic to fix the bike (twice, because he put dodgy tubes in the first time) I have been enjoying the freedom of riding around everywhere on a bike. It makes it easy to go to meetings as I am doing community development type work. I seem to be moving everywhere around the community, and the walking seems to take up a lot of time. This morning I rode along African village roads to sit by the shores of Lake Victoria to read and pray, which was a beautiful experience.

 

Recently I have rented a large office space here in Wairaka, which I will use to run projects out of before a youth centre is built. The first program running out of this will be a sewing and business class for young women who are vulnerable in the community and need a source of income. Most of these young women will be single mothers who are really suffering in the community. I have met a few of the girls we have chosen and it is exciting to know that they will be joining a class that will empower them, give them self-worth and allow them to be making money for themselves.

The room I rented is next door to where farook (my best friend, brother and partner in helping youth) will be living with his wife and newborn baby. Farook and I have been working hard to get this sewing class up and running, and his wife Beatrice who is a sewing teacher will be teaching the tailoring class, while we have another good friend and professional teacher lined up to teach the business side of things.

                                     

This weekend I will be starting a two month program for teenage boys in two different locations. Saturday mornings will be in a place called Njeeru with a project called Divine Holistic Ministries, run by Fred and Judith ( A lovely local Ugandan couple ). On Sunday afternoons I will be running the same program with a group of boys here in Wairaka.
The program goes for two months and will be focussed around getting the boys to come up with a creative project, most likely a film or a number of short films. Each lesson will also look at social issues in the community like H.I.V, drug and alcohol abuse, poverty or sexual abuse. These topics will be covered in engaging and creative ways and at the end of the program the group will present their project to people in their community. 

I will also be starting to run some programs in school next week. I have been talking with the headmaster of a school called Wairaka Modern. The school has been struggling with high rates of H.I.V and sexual issues, as well as drug and alcohol abuse, so I will be running 1 hour sessions on both Mondays and Tuesdays. The sessions will cover H.I.V education, making wise choices and drug and alcohol education. Often young people here have no access to information on these topics, and youth here can be very ignorant about issues, so by educating them we hope to be able to help in early intervention, and prevention.

I am beginning to see how busy I am already with these programs, and it has become apparent how necessary it will be to start training up leaders here to be able to take over and run these programs. I have been blessed to know a few trusted friends who are interested in working with the youth on these issues, and are looking for interesting ways to be able to educate them.

So all in all it has been a busy month, but it is always full of special moments of community, faith and love. I especially love it when a big tropical storm rolls in and seems to stop everyone’s schedule for about half an hour.
I have also been preparing for the day when my anti malaria tablets run out (4 days). I have heard that there is a local plant here that when brewed into a tea has anti malaria aspects to it. It is hard to get onto these things here as herbs and natural medicines have been heavily associated with witch craft (which is associated with things like child mutilation and sacrifice), so for the most part the Christian community here are very weary of using natural medicines. But there are a few older generation Christians who use different plants and herbs for things like common colds and malaria. My good friend Ivan has an older mother working at his community house who makes a tea for the children who live there, to help in stopping them from getting malaria. I have been getting some lessons from her on how to brew a tea. 

Otherwise I bought a bucket just in case I do get malaria and get very very sick.

                                  


God bless and thank you to everyone who has been praying for me and supporting me.