Thieves in the night, class room fun and visa troubles

It has been a while since I last wrote a blog post, due to having lots of things to sort out and being busy here in Uganda (which seems to be the case all the time).

The tailoring class has been running great, the young women are all so enthusiastic and continue to come to class half an hour early, cleaning the office space. During their one hour lunch break they tend to hop back onto the machines to keep practising, it has been amusing to see how much they want to learn. Farook and I joke about having to drag away the girls form the tailoring machines once the class has finished up.
On the first full day of class we had four extra girls turn up to the office asking to join. We had to let them know that we are full and not beginning a new class until April next year, and since then we have had so many requests from young women. It seems word has gotten out around Wairaka about the class, and many young women are keen to get in on the action. There has been some amusing confusion, where people have approached us thinking we are running some sort of trade school, asking if they can enter into a driving course, hair dressing course, computer skills course etc. After some explaining they realise (somewhat disappointedly) we are not a school institution and we only have this tailoring class running. It can be funny how rumours can spread throughout the villages around here.
All in all it does show the willingness for young people to learn a trade, and it shows the lack of opportunities that they have, I pray that God will be able to use YSU to be able to address some of these needs. God has been so good already in helping out these nine young women to be empowered.

Last Saturday night I had an interesting situation happen. I awoke early in the morning to the sound of walking around on the front porch right outside my window. I was a bit groggy from waking up and it didn't really register that people were outside so I rolled back over to sleep, checking my phone and seeing that it was 3 am. About one minute later I heard the night guard yelling and running up to the house, and then calling out for me.
After nervously unlocking the front door and walking onto the veranda, I noticed my nice blue sports bicycle, that always sits under the light on the front porch, was missing. It seems a number of thieves had surrounded the property on the outside of the fence, and had played around with the night guard, by throwing rocks and flashing torches at different points around the compound. They managed to lure the night guard to the furthest point of the property, and then jumped the fence close to the house I am staying in, grabbed my bike and threw it over the fence, and then were gone. I have to admit they were very clever about it, and were very stealthy and fast.
The night guard certainly seemed more upset about it then me, feeling like he was a failure. It took a few days of reassurance that he did his best and he did nothing wrong. The night guard really takes his job seriously here, and I know he doesn't sleep on the job because I often wake in the night hearing him walking around the house at one, two or four in the morning.
So my lovely bicycle was taken. Many people here have suggested that the thieves would of been watching me for well over a week, stalking me and timing everything to be right.
I do have a new bike now, and I have learnt my lesson .. the bike gets locked in the store room every night.
The other day a few little children that I sponsor here were asking me what happened to my bike. After I explained to them what happened they told me that "You forgive those thieves, Jesus tells us to love and forgive", to which I told them I certainly had forgiven them, and even prayed for God to bless them the next day, after it had happened. After hearing different reactions, even suggesting that "those thieves should be killed", I love that it is little children that are preaching love and forgiveness (Jinja Christian School, you seem to be doing a good job with them).

All other projects have been going well and I have started to finish up the social education programs in the schools here. The students have been hassling me to sing them a song throughout the program, so I promised them on the last session I would bring in an instrument to play for them.
So my instrument of choice was my didgeridoo (that won't surprise those who know me). To squeals of delight I played the didge for this class of high school students .. often having them in hysterics to the strange new sound that was coming out of this weird instrument. It would of been a great sight to see 50 Ugandan high school students banging a drum beat on their desks and clapping their hands, while I stood in the middle of them playing along on the didgeridoo. A few of the other classes and teachers heard the commotion and all inquisitively came to peek through the windows to see what was making this strange sound. I guess I caused a bit of a stir.
It was really sweet to be able to tell the young people at the end of the sessions that I really care about them and want them to make wise decisions in their lives, sharing a little bit of my own journey with them. It is rewarding when afterwards they all yell out thank you and that they have loved the classes so much, asking me to please come back to talk to them. Often after the classes young guys and girls have come up to me in private asking personal questions around things in their, or their friends, lives. As much as the micro finance side of things is of huge importance, it is quite clear that the guidance on the social side of life here for young people, is extremely important as well.

I went to Kampala the other day to try and obtain my volunteering visa. I didn't really know what to expect, I was trying to go exactly by the book, and doing everything that I had been told to do, but you can never really know for sure how it will work out.
It ended up going very badly, with the immigration officer yelling at me saying that "I am lying about my intentions for being in Uganda, and that I have jeopardized my chance of getting a visa extension". It is a lot of detail to explain but basically the frustrating thing is that as much as I can enquire before hand about getting the volunteering visa, and following all the directions I get from the emails I got back from the immigration office, and also the Ugandan embassy in Australia, when I get to the immigration department in Uganda, I get told I am doing it wrong.
Sometimes it all depends on who you know, or what kind of a mood the immigration officer is in at the time.
It also is annoying because I could of easily lied and said I am not volunteering, and easily got an extension on my tourist visa, saved myself $200 and made things a lot easier for myself, but I thought I would do things the right way .... which doesn't always work out in Uganda.
So after feeling very flat and coming back to Jinja, I revaluated everything with some guidance from friends here and in Australia (thanks Andrew and Robert K).
Basically I will try some different tactics, and this time going with Ugandans with a bit of pull and authority.
I have faith it should be ok ... and whatever happens I trust God is good and in control, and what will be will be.

Robert Kafeero (director of Uganda HopeBuilders) was explaining to me that immigration officers are very tight and stressed at the moment, as there has been a lot of problems with foreigners working here illegally. Especially amongst the Pakistani community, including a horrific incident of illegal Pakistani workers, kidnapping and gang raping a young Ugandan women for a few days, leaving her in a wheelchair and with a fistula .. it has been all over the news, and the immigration department have been copping all the blame. Robert suggested this is why they have been very tense with people coming to Uganda to work, even if it is volunteering, and it really is a case of going with Ugandans who have a bit of pulling power.

Things are never really dull here, there are always challenges, stories that you hear that can make you cry, moments that can give you a bit of a fright, and the risk of theft or worse. On the opposite side there are great moments of joy and beautiful moments where God shines rays of light onto situations and people here.

Thank you for all those who have been praying for me, it is most appreciated and I really feel the love.

I will leave you with two photos I took when I rode my bike down to the lake yesterday (to sit amongst all the rasta's and youth gangs blazing up on weed while staring at me suspiciously with bloodshot eyes, and then cracking big smiles when I waved to them warmly).
It started to rain as I rode back on my bike, and on one side the sun began to set while on the other side a big storm cloud rolled in causing a rainbow to form from the sun shining onto the clouds.


God is good.