Hello everyone! This month, my team (Alawei) and team Phoenix are staying outside of Lira, Uganda. We are working with LightForce International. Four people (2 from each team) are paired up in green smaller teams. One does 7-9, one hour PE classes with the kids at the nursery and primary schools LightForce has (a number of the kids also stay on the LightForce compound where we stay as well). Another team has been doing pretty intense physical labor (shoveling and carting dirt for projects on the compound). Finally, we have my team.
We’re doing community work. Honestly, I was disappointed to not be doing sports with the kids (two things I love). But per usual, God knew what He was doing. I had been feeling a bit down and a number of other things. One of the reasons for that is for the past two months, we have been staying in compounds. I don’t do very well with being walled in and unable to see the outside. With the community team, we stay outside of the compound for 8 hours each day. Eight wonderful hours walking to houses over dirt roads, through fields, and trees and just so much vibrant vegetation. It’s good for my soul.
Community. We do a lot of visiting. We’re able to sit with and talk to the families in the community- especially widows and orphans. Annette, our friend, translator, and the woman who knows the needs in the community, has been working on planning a few projects with three groups of widows. The women in these groups have HIV and are trying to find new ways to make money. We have spent time sitting with a number of these ladies as they are planning ways to raise chickens. One relationship in particular that we’ve started is with a beautiful woman named, Margaret.
Margaret is 54, has a number of kids (I’m thinking she’s the one with 6, 2 boys and 4 girls, but we’ve met so many people, I’m not sure). She is completely blind in one eye and can’t see words with the other. The first time we met her, she asked us to bring out Bibles the next time to read with her. So we did. We read and discussed a number of passages together. It was the sweetest time.
Work. We get to go around and help people with anything they need. Yesterday, we fetched water for a family. We carried their 5, 3, and 1 gallon, yellow jugs to the closest pump and pumped water into them. I have gained such respect for the women and kids that do that every day. Those things are heavy and they carry them on their heads, along with babies, etc. We also sat and shelled beans for a few hours in the morning and removed ground nuts (peanuts) from the roots of plants in the afternoon. We also got to dance with some 95 year old women and take food to some boys. It’s been one of my favorite ministries so far.
I decided not to get data this month in order to stay present in these last few days of this adventure. That being said, I might get wifi next weekend, but it is likely that the next time you all will hear from me is when we are at FINAL DEBRIEF!
