A recap of the top ten moments (in no specific order) of our amazing first month in Lukodi, Uganda.
1. Washing the girls’ feet and praying for them individually on our last day at CVI.
2. Spending an evening listening to one of the amazing staff tell us her testimony of her life throughout the war and her amazing faith that existed both then and is even stronger now.
3. Having a random dance party with the girls which included teaching them the wobble, the Macarena, the Cupid shuffle, the chicken dance, the cha cha slide, the hokey pokey, and father Abraham (where we were the jukebox).
4. Acholi worship every night and morning, with lots of dancing! And our favorite song- “I am a winner (pronounced wiener) in the Lord”
5. Haley playing the drums while the girls were getting water and making up songs for them along the way and seeing them laughing, while also playing with the adorable little kids.
6. Teaching the kids and some of the girls (who had babies on their backs) how to play baseball using a long reed and a plastic water bottle as the ball.
7. Attempting to teach eight 3-9 year old children who didn’t know English, while they were running around the classroom peeling apart dead birds with their hands and stacking chairs and sitting on the top. Meanwhile, when their teacher is on her way back, the kid on lookout shout, “Teacha, teacha!” and all the kids put the chairs back and are sitting nicely when she enters.
8. A spur of the moment Bible study/ discussion on spiritual warfare with the amazing American interns who turned into great friends and feel like part of our team, Megan and Petek. As well as dinner in the hut during a windstorm, watching Machine Gun preacher, worship jams, and Spirit-led prayer time with them.
9. The prayer walk that we did around the CVI compound, ending by praying around the tree where Kony had one of his first meetings with the commanders of the LRA as it was first starting.
10. Teaching the girls to sing “This Little Light of Mine.” They especially loved the motions to go with “Don’t let satan (blow) it out” and “Hide it under a bushel. No!”
Honorable mentions:
– Seeing the kids catch a bird and tie it on a leash. Seeing Christina then try to save the bird and it then flying into a tree with the leash trailing behind, getting stuck, and one of the moms “rescuing” it and giving it back to the kids.
– Later in the day, seeing one of the kids tossing the bird in the air. It didn’t fly and fell to the ground, so he tried to toss it higher (as you can imagine, this didn’t work either).
– One of the kids eating my 7 of hearts when he got mad during a card game.
– The stray cat almost giving birth to kittens on Christina’s lap
– Volleyball games. It was like a version of street basketball, only on a volleyball court. All the girls went wherever the ball was. No rotation or positions exist.
– One of the adorable little boys visiting us at every mealtime and deciding to pee right in front of our breakfast table 🙂
