I cannot believe that I go home in 2 days! This has been the quickest month of my life. I have made so many amazing friends that I already miss so much and I haven’t even left yet. Everyone has such amazing hearts and passions for life. I also decided that Africans are the most beautiful people in the world! Seriously, everyone I meet is like super beautiful, lol, it is slightly annoying haha :P. I am going to miss every part of my experience here, and am already trying to plan when I can come back! :)
This past week has been insane. I am trying to do so much, and see everyone before I go back! A huge challenge for me this week has been home visits. I have been going everyday with Patrick to visit the homes of kids who need sponsors, so that we can get their information and pictures in order to make them portfolios. The poverty here is completely overwhelming. Along with that, my heart breaks every time I hear the stories of these families. I think we all have a stereotype of Africa, and we’ve all heard the same stories about the people living here, but we never think twice about it. But, being here, entering the homes of these families, and kids that I know personally, and hearing their stories, is truly life changing. Yesterday, Patrick and I went to the home of a little boy named Peter. He is 6 years old and lives with his mother and 3 year old sister. His father died two years ago, leaving the family with no income, and the mother can rarely find work. Often the only food that Peter receives is when he attends school and gets porridge in the morning and beans in the afternoon. Both Peter and his mother are HIV positive. Because of his illness he is often unable to attend school, and often does not have any food.
I have visited about ten homes in that past two days and heard several stories both very similar and very different from Peter’s. The reason I wanted to briefly talk about Peter is because he was the only child we visited who was not completely thrilled and excited to hear about the possibility of getting a sponsor. He feels defeated, he feels like there is no hope for him and that nothing will improve in his life. Patrick told him that everything would be okay, but he has no reason to believe that. How many 6 year olds do you know with this fear?
Sponsoring a kid like Peter not only allows him to go to school and receive food, but it gives him hope and shows him that his life can change. I really hope somebody would be willing to sponsor Peter and give him some hope, along with all the other kids! :)
Friday, June 4, 2010
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Zana Community Childrens Center Project
Here are a few examples of some of the jewelry we have already made at the school....but there are tons more! And more variety as well! :)
--These are African Wood necklaces, and paper bead necklaces. The beads are paper and made from a specific tree here. They are hand rolled and dipped in varnish (for coloring) by the kids and then made into beads! :) Beautiful.
--These are African Wood necklaces, and paper bead necklaces. The beads are paper and made from a specific tree here. They are hand rolled and dipped in varnish (for coloring) by the kids and then made into beads! :) Beautiful.
Friday, May 28, 2010
I knew I was here for a reason ;)
Today quite possibly may have been the best day that I've had since being here! This morning I spent nearly 3 hours talking to Patrick (the principal of Zana school)He was telling me everything about the school....how it started, how they started housing kids there who had no where else to go, what they are struggling with, what their hopes are...etc. He said how they are really struggling for money because many of the kids cannot pay there school funds. I asked him if he had ever considered fundraising, to which he asked if I had any ideas for it. Pssshh YEAH! Lots of ideas! The art class at the school makes these hand-made cards from a certain kind of Ugandan tree. They are BEAUTIFUL, and so unique! They also make wonderful earrings, necklaces, bracelets, handbags! We are going to have the kids at the school make as many as possible of everything, and when I leave (in just over a week) I will bring them back to the U.S and sell them to raise money for the school!
I'm not sure of the exact price of everything yet, and I will try to post some pictures soon....but I'm really hoping to get a lot of support with this back home because this would really, truly change these kids lives!
Another thing Patrick and I are going to do is try to get funding for the individual kids (particularly the orphans who live at the school and cannot pay any school fees.) I think there are around 20 or so orphans who live at the school full time, (and many others who are there most of the time) and we would really like to see if we can get sponsors to pay their school fees, among other things. School fees for the year at Zana school are about 20,000 shillings- equivalent of 10 dollars! I believe additional money would go towards expanding the school, textbooks, classroom materials, construction on the church, dormitories, food, etc.
So, obviously, we are still mostly in the brainstorming and planning mode, but this will come together very soon, and I will have LOTS more details soon! :) I'm very excited about this because I can really see great things happening here and I want to give these kids every chance they can have to get the absolute best education they can get!!
well thats all for now, its been an exhausting day, and I'm off to bed!
Peace! :)
I'm not sure of the exact price of everything yet, and I will try to post some pictures soon....but I'm really hoping to get a lot of support with this back home because this would really, truly change these kids lives!
Another thing Patrick and I are going to do is try to get funding for the individual kids (particularly the orphans who live at the school and cannot pay any school fees.) I think there are around 20 or so orphans who live at the school full time, (and many others who are there most of the time) and we would really like to see if we can get sponsors to pay their school fees, among other things. School fees for the year at Zana school are about 20,000 shillings- equivalent of 10 dollars! I believe additional money would go towards expanding the school, textbooks, classroom materials, construction on the church, dormitories, food, etc.
So, obviously, we are still mostly in the brainstorming and planning mode, but this will come together very soon, and I will have LOTS more details soon! :) I'm very excited about this because I can really see great things happening here and I want to give these kids every chance they can have to get the absolute best education they can get!!
well thats all for now, its been an exhausting day, and I'm off to bed!
Peace! :)
Monday, May 24, 2010
The simple things in life :)
Ok, this will probably be the most random post ever, but I am so excited right now, I am just going to type all of my thoughts! :-P
So, first of all, my bible study is amazing! The girls are so excited about it all the time, and love reading the bible. Everytime I ask them a question they all want to answer! It's so encouraging to see these girls who have been through SO much so excited at a simple bible study! A couple days ago, we finished and as the girls were walking out of the room one of them started singing, " It's the start, of something new, it feels so right to be here with you...." I immediately got very excited, recognizing that they were in fact singing High School Musical! :-P haha. Normally, I am not the biggest fan of High School Musical, but I make exceptions when I'm in Uganda ;-) So long story short, we broke out into singing and dancing to High School Musical, it was great!
Something else that is really encouraging is when the teachers start fighting over you because they all want you to come teach in their classes! haha. Makes me feel good :) My last class was with Primary 7 (7th grade)... this week I am working with a Primary 6 class! It makes my day everyday to go to the school and teach them, cause they feel so accomplished when they understand the material, and I feel so good, when the get it too.
I've made so many great friends here as well who I know I will miss SO much when I leave :( Almost everyday after school I go to my friends Jackie and Ida's house and they almost always insist on cooking me lunch! :P I go to a bible study with them on Tuesday and Friday nights. I've gotten really close to Jackie. She is my age, and just finished our equivalent of High School...so we can relate in many ways!
I believe sometime next weekend we are going into Jinja, and that is where I will go white water rafting on the Nile! I am sooooooooooooooooo excited, it is gonna be crazy. Hopefully I won't get thrown out of the raft and run into any hippos or crocs!
Ok, I will stop rambling now. Miss everyone back home! Can't believe I'll be home in less than two weeks though! Ayayay! Crazy.
Peace :)
So, first of all, my bible study is amazing! The girls are so excited about it all the time, and love reading the bible. Everytime I ask them a question they all want to answer! It's so encouraging to see these girls who have been through SO much so excited at a simple bible study! A couple days ago, we finished and as the girls were walking out of the room one of them started singing, " It's the start, of something new, it feels so right to be here with you...." I immediately got very excited, recognizing that they were in fact singing High School Musical! :-P haha. Normally, I am not the biggest fan of High School Musical, but I make exceptions when I'm in Uganda ;-) So long story short, we broke out into singing and dancing to High School Musical, it was great!
Something else that is really encouraging is when the teachers start fighting over you because they all want you to come teach in their classes! haha. Makes me feel good :) My last class was with Primary 7 (7th grade)... this week I am working with a Primary 6 class! It makes my day everyday to go to the school and teach them, cause they feel so accomplished when they understand the material, and I feel so good, when the get it too.
I've made so many great friends here as well who I know I will miss SO much when I leave :( Almost everyday after school I go to my friends Jackie and Ida's house and they almost always insist on cooking me lunch! :P I go to a bible study with them on Tuesday and Friday nights. I've gotten really close to Jackie. She is my age, and just finished our equivalent of High School...so we can relate in many ways!
I believe sometime next weekend we are going into Jinja, and that is where I will go white water rafting on the Nile! I am sooooooooooooooooo excited, it is gonna be crazy. Hopefully I won't get thrown out of the raft and run into any hippos or crocs!
Ok, I will stop rambling now. Miss everyone back home! Can't believe I'll be home in less than two weeks though! Ayayay! Crazy.
Peace :)
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Snaps :)
Me, Sarah, and Ben! :)
The VBS that we ran at Westminister College.
And Me and Michael-- the cutest, most rambunctious kid in the whole world! :)
The VBS that we ran at Westminister College.
And Me and Michael-- the cutest, most rambunctious kid in the whole world! :)
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
T.I.A
For those of you who don’t already know…the power here just decides to turn off whenever it wants to (which is quite often and sometimes for days at a time) so, don’t think I’m ignoring your emails, or forgetting these updates :)
So anyways, another insane start to the week its been. The kids are on “holiday” this week, so I am just working with the kids who live at the school full time. Yesterday I had only 5 students in my class…which actually turned out to be quite a good thing. At first I thought, “How can I possibly make any kind of impact with just five students?” But, God really opened my eyes(that is happening a lot here!) and showed me how he works in even the most unexpected of places! I knew that these five students were in my “regular”, larger class but I didn’t know any of them personally, or even their names. I made it a point first thing to learn their names (except I cannot pronounce the name of one of the boys, lol.) So then I put up a few “warm-up” problems on the board to start, and one of the boys called me over to his desk. He said, “teacha teacha...I have a problem, and cannot see the board, can you please write the problems down on my paper?” As I looked him in the eyes, I realized that he is permanently cross-eyed and mostly blind. He told me that he usually tries to copy off the other kids papers in class so he can keep up because the teacher does not stop for him. It is mind-boggling to me. In the U.S, I can’t think of a single teacher who would deliberately expect a kid with a CLEAR disability to find a solution for keeping up on his own! But, I am not in the U.S. This Is Africa.
Anyways, I got to spend a few hours working with these kids yesterday, and got to find out their strengths, and weaknesses, and by the end of the day, felt as though I had actually helped. It’s the greatest feeling in the world.
Unfortunately, after that my day took a bad turn :( ...please bare with me as I vent ;) We drove into Kampala to drop off some of my new friends at the bus stop who are headed back to Kenya. Made me really sad to see them go and also reminded me of everyone back home that I miss. We did a bit of shopping in the city and I drank some sort of sketchy coffee drink that made me sick. I also got bit by something on my elbow that has turned bright red and swollen to the size of a golf ball! Ayayayay! Lol. So, last night I was dizzy, had a fever, and didn't sleep too much, but am feeling much better today and still happier than ever to be here! :)
Peace!
So anyways, another insane start to the week its been. The kids are on “holiday” this week, so I am just working with the kids who live at the school full time. Yesterday I had only 5 students in my class…which actually turned out to be quite a good thing. At first I thought, “How can I possibly make any kind of impact with just five students?” But, God really opened my eyes(that is happening a lot here!) and showed me how he works in even the most unexpected of places! I knew that these five students were in my “regular”, larger class but I didn’t know any of them personally, or even their names. I made it a point first thing to learn their names (except I cannot pronounce the name of one of the boys, lol.) So then I put up a few “warm-up” problems on the board to start, and one of the boys called me over to his desk. He said, “teacha teacha...I have a problem, and cannot see the board, can you please write the problems down on my paper?” As I looked him in the eyes, I realized that he is permanently cross-eyed and mostly blind. He told me that he usually tries to copy off the other kids papers in class so he can keep up because the teacher does not stop for him. It is mind-boggling to me. In the U.S, I can’t think of a single teacher who would deliberately expect a kid with a CLEAR disability to find a solution for keeping up on his own! But, I am not in the U.S. This Is Africa.
Anyways, I got to spend a few hours working with these kids yesterday, and got to find out their strengths, and weaknesses, and by the end of the day, felt as though I had actually helped. It’s the greatest feeling in the world.
Unfortunately, after that my day took a bad turn :( ...please bare with me as I vent ;) We drove into Kampala to drop off some of my new friends at the bus stop who are headed back to Kenya. Made me really sad to see them go and also reminded me of everyone back home that I miss. We did a bit of shopping in the city and I drank some sort of sketchy coffee drink that made me sick. I also got bit by something on my elbow that has turned bright red and swollen to the size of a golf ball! Ayayayay! Lol. So, last night I was dizzy, had a fever, and didn't sleep too much, but am feeling much better today and still happier than ever to be here! :)
Peace!
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