October 12, 2010

First of all, let me clarify something for everyone. I DIDN’T USE MY RAZOR THAT APPARENTLY MY UNWANTED GUEST USED!!! Apparently I didn’t make that clear enough. J Sorry. I took the used razor down to show the missionaries, because I thought it was so funny and then I threw it away. Haha

Anyway yesterday I had the opportunity to go with Adam and Betsy Greer (new missionaries here) into two different villages and give two families, two bags. One bag had food, consisting of flour, sugar, salt, matches, and a type of grain. Then the other bag had some clothing in it. Even though this has been my fourth trip here to Uganda, I have not experienced anything quite like going into the villages. What an amazing thing to be a part of. Word was sent though the kids to this one woman to let her know we would be coming. When hearing this, they will wait at their houses all day waiting for you to come. The first family consists of a JaJa (grandmother), her three daughters and then their kids. The women work there land to sell coffee, they have gardens, but there are a few essential things they need. So we try to help however we can. This family has three children that come to our primary school on a scholarship program. They walk about 45 minutes every morning to come to school. They probably start walking around 5:45 every morning to come to school. The women really show these kids love and really work hard. The next lady we went and saw has her own little hut. She invited us in to sit and talk with her. She wanted to greet us all and say thank you. She keeps around 9 children in her house. Not all the children are hers, but she takes care of them and feeds them. Non of the children go to school, so they just play around all day. Our primary school here on our compound is at a max for the amount of children that can attend. We are hoping to be able to build another school building, so more of these villages kids can attend school.

Mercy Ministries is an outreach that the orphanage has to the villages. Adam and Betsy are really a huge part of this ministry. They go and visit different families each week. Some of the families have children that attend school here and others are just families that we reach out too.

The other thing that I got to see was every Thursday we offer a feeding program down at our clinic. Basically women and babies from some nearby villages come to the orphanage and get food for their babies. Our social worker is the one who goes into the homes to find out If the family meets our criteria. I think they can stay on the feeding program until they are healthy. We are at a max in our feeding program as well. Some of the kids that I saw on Thursday were so little and some the children came when they were very sick and now they look for “fat” and Healthy. By the way, here in Uganda when you say someone is fat it is a compliment.

Things here are going well. I can’t believe I only have one week left. I have had so many first experiences here which have been good, but some hard times as well. Thank you for all your continued prayers and support.

Debbie