Goodbye Teacher Kenneth!

As promised this post is dedicated to Ken who left Uganda on Monday and is currently enjoying sunny England! He has served here for 6 months alongside Kathryn and I, and he has been truly irreplaceable. He has been so supportive and hard-working, as well as funny, thoughtful, and brilliant all round. He also has been the one who has took to the local language really well, which is pretty impressive and always got a double take out of the passers by!

Last Friday was Ken's last day at Ruth Mother Care and they had a lovely time of games, songs and dance for him. They also gave him a banner to say thank you for all his work. On that day we gave the school the textbooks which we have been fundraising for which was lovely to do before Ken left.

The link below takes you to the video of the children singing their song "Goodbye Teacher Kenneth"

https://youtu.be/abZSakcIaHA

On Saturday we had a celebration day at church and as part of it we said goodbye to Ken, and a song was even sang for him, again!

On Sunday we had a lovely meal out at Cafe Javas where Kathryn, Ken and I all had a curry for the first time in months, it was amazing. We had a great time and said goodbye to Ken and a Smile Family.

Monday was Ken's last day in the slums where he said goodbye to the children and his favourite (not that we have favourites of course) Becca.

Becca and Ken

Then in the evening we took the sad trip to the airport with Alex, Beni and Moses. We said goodbye at the gate which was quite emotional but probably a bit of a relief for Ken as he can rest when he gets home! We will miss him so much, it is already strange in the house without him. We wish him all the best and look forward to seeing him again when we get back to the UK!

Katryn, Moses, Ken, Me and Alex

Our little family

Lots of Love Ken and God Bless. xx

Trips and Team Changes

Sorry I haven't blogged for a few weeks! We have been continuing our routine (as I wrote in the last post) and it has been going well. A few new things have happened which I will catch you up on.

Last weekend Kathryn, Ken, Innocent and I took a trip to the equator which is only a two hour drive away from the Smile centre. Explains why it is so hot all the time! We had a nice day out and visited lots of shops with local crafts and gifts in them, which I enjoyed a lot as I am a shopper at heart! We also ate at a cafe called AidChild where all of their profits go to orphans with AIDS. And of course we took some photos...

Me, Ken and Kathryn

On both sides of the world!

Another new thing, this week a container of aid has arrived from the UK which has all been unloaded and is waiting to be sorted so we can distribute clothes, school supplies and other items to the people supported by Smile Charity Uganda. This includes school children, people in the slums and women at the sewing centre.

Also, we have had a new arrival and a great addition to the team! Tasha arrived from the UK on Saturday night and has been working with us gappers this week at Ruth Mother Care and in the slums.

Collecting Tasha from Entebbe Airport

She is here for 3 weeks and has some brilliant ideas for the work here. She has brought a lot of practical lessons to do at Ruth Mother Care, for example on Tuesday we did a lesson on plants with the older children (Primary 1-3) and they have all been able to make their own plant pot which they loved. The hope is the children will see them grow in a few weeks, but unfortunately it is the start of the wet season so there is too much water and no sun for them! Tasha also brought some rulers which the children could personalise, and then they could keep their own ruler which was a lovely gift for them. Most children don't have anything of their own so we feel this was a really good idea to teach them about looking after their belongings and also a nice gesture to make them all feel special, and proud of their ruler.

Tasha teaching at RMC

Tasha helping the children with their pots

Me helping with the plant pots

Kathryn helping with the plant pots

The finished pots

Primary 3 colouring their rulers

The children with their rulers

There's a mixture of emotions this week as it is Tasha's first week but also Ken's last week :'( Ken flys home tomorrow! Even typing that is crazy. Wow. He will be so missed by everyone here, especially Kathryn and I as we have been a little family of 3 for the last 6 months. He had his last day at Ruth Mother Care this week where we gave them the text books we have been fundraising for which was so lovely to do before he leaves. I will make a separate blog post next week for Ken's departure. 

If you could remember him in your prayers as he returns home and re-adjusts to life in the UK that would be great, thank you. And thank you all for keeping me and the team in your prayers, I can't say enough how lovely it is to have such a supportive church family behind me. 

Much Love to you all, and God Bless.

A New Term!

For the last few weeks we have been back to our normal routine after a long break over the new year. The school term commenced at the start of February and so we went back to school. Our routine involves three days of teaching and two days of outreach work. I love the business of term time, although it can get a bit exhausting after a while!

On Mondays we have started a "Catch-up class" in the slums. This involves the gap year team and a couple of local team members teaching English to children in the slums who don't go to school - because some can't afford school fees and others have learning difficulties so haven't had the chance to get an education. This is a really exciting project for us and is really beneficial for these children.

Kathryn and Moses teaching phonetics at the Catch-up class

The children learning sound "fffff"

Helping the children with their writing

Me helping with writing

On Tuesdays and Wednesdays Ken, Kathryn and I work in a school called Ruth Mother Care teaching children English. We work with children whose ages range from about 4-9, teaching them phonetics, sounds, writing and reading. We have been working in this humble school for about 5 months now and have developed such a love for the children and teachers there. I look forward to working at Ruth Mother Care every week, it has amazing teachers and wonderful kids. The school is growing but it is lacking in some resources and a big need for the school is textbooks. There are no English textbooks in the school and we feel this is so important for the students and the teachers, to really increase their English language skills, and improve their learning experience. Because of this need, the gap year team have set up a fundraising page to raise money for textbooks for Ruth Mother Care. I will leave a link to the page so you can find out more about our teaching work and even donate to this cause if you wish.
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SomeoneSpecial/ruthmothercare

Ruth Mother Care school building

Teacher Monica, me, Kathryn, and Ken with Primary 1 class

Kathryn teaching Top and Middle class

Primary 1 showing their colouring by numbers

Me teaching in Primary 2

Ken teaching in Primary 1

Me teaching in Primary 3

Teacher Monica, me, Kathryn and Ken with Primary 2

On Thursdays we take part in Community Outreach in the slum area - Nabulagala - with the local team. This involves going around peoples houses, talking with them, sharing the Bible and praying with them. Smile have developed good relationships with many families in this area due to the dedication of the local team members and work of the gap year teams over the years. Also, some families in the area benefit from child sponsership through Smile, and many kids here attend our kids clubs on Fridays. Community outreach is a very eye opening and humbling experience. The people are lovely here, they let us into their homes and are very welcoming and loving towards us.

The Community Outreach team

Me with some of the children during Community Outreach

On Fridays we help with two Kids Clubs, one in the Nabulagala slum area and one in Nansana (near the Smile House). In these clubs we play games with the children, sing songs, give out biscuits and tell Bible stories. The children always enjoy the clubs and it is very tiring but very enjoyable!

Songs during Kids Club

Games during Kids Club

Saturdays and Sundays are our rest days and we often go to church, help out with the music in the services, go to youth events or just sleep!

A big thank you for all the prayers and support. I am looking forward to another busy week, although the Gap Year Team are feeling quite tired and a bit ill at the moment so prayers for strength and health would be greatly appreciated. :) God bless.

Kuffu Mission

Last week a team of eight from Smile went on a mission trip to a village called Kuffu, to run a Bible study camp for the children in the area. We camped at Goshem community centre which was made up of Kuffu community church and some school buildings, as well as offering youth and family classes and a drop-in centre. We arrived on Sunday and were warmly welcomed by the people at the centre. We were straight into the camp on Monday which came as a bit of a shock as we were late arriving the night before! 

The routine of the day was, devotions with our team in the morning, then songs and worship with the children, Bible classes and activities, games and sports, porridge for the children and then home time. Every evening there was a Christian film projected in the church and there was always a huge number of people who came to watch, children and adults, around 150 maybe more at times.

Morning Devotions

Praise and Worship

Dancing

Teaching

The older class

Building blocks with baby class

Parachute games

Porridge

Evening film

Most of the children were of primary age so we split them into baby class and the older class. The theme for the Bible teaching was the parables which gave us a chance to be creative in our lessons. In the older class we would teach them a story, do an activity and memory verse which the children were so good at remembering. One of my favourite lessons was when we did the story of the lost sheep and we acted out the Shepard going to find the sheep, getting the children active and they enjoyed shouting "LARRY" as we were looking! Then, they had to look for Ken in the compound, as he was being the lost sheep, and there was great excitement when they found him hiding in the shower! On Thursday we also had a great lesson on the parable of the wise and foolish builders. We told the story of the wise man who built his house on the rock and the foolish man who built on the sand, with visual aids, and then we went out into the compound and split the children into 2 teams. In the compound there was a big pile of sand, some rock, and bricks lying around which was handy! So one team were building a house on the sand and the others build a house on the rock. They even used dirt and water to make cement and the houses looked brilliant when they had finished. Then, we used jerry cans to pour water on each of the house and sure enough the house on the sand fell down and the house on the rock stood firm! It was a great activity and the children really enjoyed it and learned the story really well. 

Building the house on the rock

The house on the rock!

The house on the sand!

The house on the sand after the water...

On Friday we did the parable of the hidden treasure and after the lesson we played various treasure hunt games. This was really fun and children loved hunting for sweets, doing blindfolded challenges, apple bobbing for sweets and putting their faces in bowls of flour to find the prizes! It was a boiling hot day but really fun.

Blindfolded treasure hunt

Faces in flour!

As Friday was our last day with the children we had a present giving time after games and porridge where we gave out school supplies, socks, tights, stickers, bags and various presents that people had donated to Smile. Some of the kids had been really amazing in the Bible lessons throughout the week and the little boy in the photo bellow had remembered every story from the whole week and he had a special prize.  

The children with their presents

Giving gifts

On Saturday we had a day of community outreach and fumigation where we spent the day going around the village and nearby area, visiting peoples homes, talking with them and fumigating the houses against the mosquitoes, cockroaches etc, I also had a go at fumigating which was a new experience!

Me fumigating!

Moses fumigating

We left on Sunday (25th) after a great week and it was sad saying goodbye to all the children. We went to the service at Kuffu community church before we left where we were invited to the front to tell people about what we had been doing, and they thanked us for our work which was really nice.

It was sad to leave but it is nice to be back in a house with mattresses and running water as in the village we had to collect water from a pump in jerry cans and I realised how hard it is to carry water even a short distance, especially in such heat! However cold showers weren't too bad as it was so hot it was quite a relief. We didn't get any parasites or 'jiggers' which are fleas which burrow into your feet! So I am very happy about that. We returned well and happy although tired.

This week we have been sorting out ourselves and preparing for the start of the new term, schools go back today and we start at Ruth Mother Care tomorrow. So we will be back to the routine of teaching Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, community outreach on Thursdays and kids clubs on Fridays. The only difference this term is that instead of being at Ruth Mother Care on Mondays we will be continuing with our English catch-up classes in the slums, that we started before Christmas  But this term we will be teaching only the children who don't go to school so very basic English, writing, reading and speaking. This is a new idea which we are excited about as it will be benefiting the children who have no education in the FBC slum area. 

Thank you very much for your prayers and support, it is really encouraging to us. My prayer request for the new term would be the success of this catch-up class in the slums and that the children would really benefit from the teaching and support we will be giving them.