Agande!
We are in a remote area of Uganda near the border of The
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for the next three weeks working with the
Diocese of Kinkiizi, an Anglican church. One of the Diocese programs we began
working with here focus’ on the education and prevention of HIV/AIDS.
120 people aged 15-25 from the surrounding villages that are
concerned about the threat of HIV/AIDS or are living with HIV/AIDS came to
attend the program. These types of programs in Uganda have helped decrease the
percentage of people with HIV/AIDS down to 7%. The education is essential to
their survival, so the church received a grant to start this program.
We had a question and answer time with the youth, which brought many interesting and detailed questions. We have found that in Africa, they talk about everything openly. Very different then American culture. What we found during this time is that many youth want to figure out how they can play with fire without being burned. Many people go thru life trying to figure how they can do what they want without getting in trouble or still just trying to get into heaven.
We’ve also been painting the interior of the newly built
Kinkiizi Diocese Cathedral with some of the youth from the HIV/AIDS program. It
was fun to get covered in paint and get to know them better. They’ve been
teaching us their local dialect Rukiiga, a very soft language compared to
Kiswahili that is a very phonetic language. Rukiiga is specific to only the
region of Uganda we are in.
Noruga Nkahi Wabarre
Manonga (Praise God & Thank you very much) for all of your continued
prayers and support!
