November

As I wrote briefly in my last post, since being back from the village we have had a new weekly routine. Throughout November we have been helping at a school called Ruth Mother Care on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, doing community outreach in the slums in Thursdays, and kids clubs on Fridays. It has been pretty tiring but very enjoyable.

At Ruth Mother Care the school term has just ended, so this month we have been helping out as they finish lessons and complete exams. We have been teaching some R.E. and English/sounds lessons. The kids there have better English than those at the village school and even the baby class can do their phonetic alphabet well which was introduced to them by last year's gap year team. We have got to know the kids and the classes over this month and look forward to getting into the new term where the timetable will be less disrupted due to exams.

We also really enjoyed the end of year graduating ceremony which we attended today. The children put on performances - singing, dancing and acting - for the parents and visitors which was really fun to watch. We had a great time and now the school term is over we will be starting a new project on Mondays to Wednesdays in December which I will tell you about soon.

Baby class dancing

P2 ballet

School choir singing

Top class graduating to Primary 1

Ken with some children from the slums

On Thursdays at community outreach we visit a slum area in Kampala and go around visiting families and children who live there. With a few of the local volunteers and previous gap year teams, Smile have developed connections and relationships with people around this area so we are welcomed by many people into their homes and we talk with them, pray with them and share the gospel. We also seem to collect a following children and babies as we go around the different houses! The area is densely populated with adjoining houses everywhere, small passages, open sewers and streams which smell strongly, and broken glass and all kinds of rubbish on the ground. We enjoy going there but it was very hard-hitting at first - and still is - especially seeing the children running around in bare feet and rags, and seeing some of the homes the people live in. 

This slum area is the same place that we hold one of the kids clubs at a church called Family Believers Church.

Slum area around FBC

Between the houses in the slum area

Moses, Kathryn and me with some children from the slums

On Fridays we do kids clubs one is at a church called Blessed Word and the other is in the slum area at FBC. At the moment I am working at FBC kids club which usually has about 60 children and is crazy. The ages range from babies to about 12 years and some of the children go to school and others have never been to school so it is quite a mix. Although it is a bit manic at times it is a lot of fun! We do songs and games with the children and then tell them a Bible story - this season we are doing parables - and sometimes act it out for them, then at the end we give them all biscuits.

Teaching

Drama

Games

At FBC one of the women's empowerment projects goes on while we run the kids club. The women are taught to make baskets and jewellery and later they will sell them. This gives the women from the slums a skill which they can use to make extra income for themselves and to help support their families. It is also another way Smile builds relationships in this area.

Women's club - basket making

Basket making