We have been able to experience a variety of ministries in Uganda this past week. I will go day by day and give the highlights!
Tuesday – Rugarama Health Center
We visited with the patients and prayed over them. The hospital has several buildings – maternity, C-section recovery, general ailments, and outpatients. We met and prayed over day-old babies and their mothers, two women in labor, people recovering from malaria, people with stomach ulcers, people with diabetes, and nursing students. Isabella went with us to translate, and we also met her 22-year-old brother, who called what we were doing “spiritual therapy.” When we asked people if we could pray for them, their response was usually, “That’s what we want!”
Wednesday/Thursday – CBTC (Canon Beatrice Training Center)
This is a vocational school for young women. The girls are mostly 16-20 years old. Many are orphaned or needy and did not have the funds to pursue higher education, so this school gives them the chance to learn a trade and make a living for themselves. They choose to learn salon or tailoring, and then everyone learns knitting, weaving, crocheting, and beading. In salon on Wednesday, they taught us how to twist hair! It was a challenge and I could feel myself starting to get frustrated…I had to remind myself that the point here was to build relationships with the girls, not master the twist! On Thursday they showed us how to knit using a knitting machine. It was so interesting! I got the chance to talk to the teacher, a man named Antony around age 60. He used to teach driving and repair knitting machines before being asked to teach at the school. We talked about his family and a little about me, and he informed me that in Uganda at my age I would have a ten-year-old by now. 🙂
Friday – Chilli Children
Chilli Children is a program that reaches out to children with disabilities. We went with Evas, a physical therapist, to meet a couple of young men who have aged out of the program. First was Arnold, who is autistic and has some brain damage. His family was very sweet. His father is a photographer (I think he had the same camera my mom used to use when I was little). Then we met Abdul, who has severe cerebral palsy. He is orphaned and is cared for by his grandmother, who is in her mid-70s. He basically sits in the door frame of the house all day. His grandmother struggles with transporting water to wash Abdul. This was a tough experience to process because it doesn’t make any sense, why some people have to struggle this way. Evas has dreams of building a center in Rukungiri where adults with disabilities can go to give their caregivers a break. There is such a place in Kampala, but that’s an 8 hour drive, and Evas wants the families to be able to be nearby. Pray that this comes to pass.
Saturday – Cherished Life Ministries
This week was much better than last week. Everyone felt more at ease. We did some singing and coloring, and I got to lead the devotion using Psalm 139. We still wish we could communicate with the teen moms better, but we are hoping that just our presence and interactions with them gives them a sense of community and acceptance that they may not otherwise receive.
Sunday – Church
We got to help lead Sunday School yesterday (for about 100 kids!). We taught/acted out the story of Zaccheus, which the kids already knew, but it was still fun. We also taught them the song, and then they also sang their own Zaccheus song for us. It was cool for me as a teacher to watch the strategies that their teacher use to provide order and structure and to help them learn – lots of repetition and clapping patterns! The kids here are so respectful. After Sunday School we walked back up to the church, and I ended up having a neat chat with a group of children. They tried teaching me some more words and phrases in their local language (which I will never remember.) We also talked about some of the differences between America and Uganda. I told them that in America, most families have only one or two children (here in Uganda, they average 6 or 7.) The kids wanted to know why only two or three. Unsure how to respond, I told them that that’s all the parents in America can handle! They decided that the children in America must be “undisciplined.” Well, some, but not all!
Guess that’s all for now. Stay tuned for more updates from Uganda!
Love,
Debbie
