Settled in the House

Finally I have an opportunity to post!

I am happy to report that Megan and I moved out of the WorldVenture guest house and into our own house on Tuesday of this past week. We are located in an area of Kampala called Mutungo. It is very nice to finally be at a “permanent” residence instead of living out of a suitcase. Below is a picture of the house and then is above a picture of Megan and I standing on the front veranda.

I have slowly been adjusting to life in Kampala and learning about the organization and operation of Children of Hope (COH). The main project office is located in rented rooms at a small church in town called Logogo Baptist Centre. There are three main people who run the office: Catharine, who of course manages the entire project; Francis, a Ugandan man who is the site manager for the Kampala area; and Muhindo, a young Congolese man who serves as the financial and administrative assistant in the office. Besides these three, there are also a few mentors (mainly Ugandan university students) who also come and help out at the office several days a week. The mentors each have about 10 children from the project who they are responsible to visit and check on each week.

So what have I been doing since I’ve been here? A major portion of time has just been spent learning how to get around in Kampala, to adjust to the way of life here, and to get settled in the new house. But also, Megan and I have been helping to organize an event for the children called “Breakaway”. The Ugandan school year is divided into three semesters with a month of vacation, or “holiday”, between each semester. The children are on holiday now, so COH tries to plan activities for them to attend while they are not in school. The children come to “Breakaway” three times a week for games, crafts, bible studies, tutoring, and other activities. We are also trying to show them a movie every Friday. This Friday they watched “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”. Although I have already seen the movie twice, this was the best viewing I’ve had yet! Imagine these underprivileged Ugandan children who rarely get to see movies. Now imagine them watching a movie with mythical characters and talking animals! It was like nothing they had ever seen before. They were so intrigued by the movie and laughed especially hard at the animals who talked. It was so much fun to watch their reactions. And after the movie, many of the children were able to draw the parallel from Aslan’s sacrifice on the stone table to Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

Some other things I have done in the past week:
1. Played a game of two-on-two basketball on a dirt court with a not-so-standard backboard and rim (my team won!).
2. Visited the homes of several of the children and their families… often one room shacks with no running water.
3. Rode on a boda-boda – a method of public transport where you ride on the back of a “motorbike” (scooter) while the driver navigates through the oftentimes crazy traffic.

A special prayer request that I have is for safety as we travel around in Kampala. Not only is it different since driving is done on the left side of the road, but also the traffic here can get very crazy and people do not really follow what we would call normal traffic rules. It is not uncommon to see people driving on the wrong side of the road, for cars to pull out into oncoming traffic, or for people to pass you on either side of the car (many will even pass on the right when you are about to make a right-hand turn). Please pray for safety as I travel whether it is by car, motorbike, or on foot.

At the top of the page is a picture of the first visitors to our house. Their names are (L-R) Jimmy, Sheila, and Carol. Jimmy and Carol are twins and they are both in secondary school. Their younger sister, Sheila, is in primary school. They live close (10 minute walk) to our new house, thus we have made several trips to visit them and vice versa. Their family moved to Kampala from the North many years ago to escape the civil war. Their father passed away a while back and their mother, who has AIDS, works a job that brings in only about $50 per month. Without sponsorship, these kids would never have the chance to complete school. Jimmy told us that he would like to be an engineer. This is just an example of one of the families that has been given new opportunities due to the aid of Children of Hope.

In the next few weekends, I will be traveling across the country to Children of Hope’s other sites: Masaka in the south, the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) refugee camp at Gulu in the north, and the Sudanese refugee camp even further north at Adjumani. We will also be continuing “Breakaway” for the next two weeks until the children start back at school.

I am hoping to have regular access to the internet soon. We are waiting for the phone line at our house to be set up. The Ugandan phone company told us they were “working on it”, but things never seem to happen very quickly around here. So, it may still be a while before we get the phone line, and thus the internet, up and running. Hopefully, I can share more with you soon!

Until next time…

Holly