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Graduation Day!

It is official now! Cap and gown and party!

I have been having bad internet service so it’s been awhile making posts. This was November ninth.

Congratulations to a very hard working young lady! She has already registered her community based organization – Redemptive Ministries so that she can give back to her community. It is community based so part of her work is to get people in the community involved in helping themselves as she helps them.

She is the first in her village to graduate college with a bachelors degree in Social work so when she got back home there was a big crowd waiting for her! She said there were so many people she didn’t even know and even the Chairman came and made a speech. (We didn’t stay very long – long enough to cut the cake she wanted me to make just for her!)

I though to was very cool that the graduates sashes were like a hood and when they turned them around people were able to put money into it. She also got gifts – including a rooster and two chickens! She was blown away at all the attention. But she definitely deserves it!

I did it! Now give me my cake!

Proud Mama!
Her oldest sister who only has two more years after internship to be a licensed midwife. She’s already gone for almost two and a half years.
Proud Uncle!
Proud Auntie and niece who have encouraged and supported her all along the way!
Cutest little girl!

The Spoon

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I want to tell you about the spoon you see in the boys hand. As we were getting ready to pass out boxes the head master asked someone to get water to wash hands. I asked if they needed us to get washing stands for them and he said that would be helpful. Then Salima said “no, there is a spoon in each box so their hands will not touch their food. The headmaster raised an eyebrow and said “Really? We will be teaching something new”! And because we have a good relationship with him I said “Yes, today they learn how to be civilized”. He laughed and laughed and said that was a good thing. About half (especially the little ones) have never used a utensil and had to be shown how to use the spoon. I’m not saying this with any kind of mean spirit, but in our village most people don’t use or have utensils. And that is a very real cause of the spread of many diseases when hand washing isn’t available or the hand washing is just well water poured over the hands. This doesn’t kill the germs. So there was more thought behind “the spoons” than teaching them to be civilized! (But we will be gifting them with wash stands and sanitizer that can be put in the water for them! Especially by the latrines).

I know I have followers on The Mandate Uganda FB page and some on Instagram and here so you will see some stories more than once. Some stories that are more personal I post here. I am thrilled to say that my post on FB on feeding the children reached 3450 people this week and over 300 clicks to http://www.themandate.com so we pray that out of those there were some donations made so that we can keep up the work God has for us here!

Lunch Success!

We fed the children at Global School. Everything went so smooth, didn’t even need the restless night of worry the night before! Everything was finished early, kids fed on time and God blessed us with extra – there turned out to be less kids than we were told – so we were able to take food to Ms. Joyce’s family! Just like I would say to every classroom as we went in to see them eating “God is good” and they would say “all the time”! And He is!

I am thankful also that my advice to the cooks about soaking beans overnight worked out. They don’t always think us Mzungus know much, and we do learn from them. And they were skeptical at first but after cooking they were so excited that it took half the time to cook them! I was relieved they saw the difference!

Ms. Joyce’s family

Happy Surprise!

One of the goats we gave a widow was apparently pregnant. I suspected she might have been but said ” she just gets a two for one special of it is!” And she did! She was thrilled and we are thrilled for her!

Our Sylvester is getting big – sometimes he looks like he’s pregnant with twins he eats so much! I am driving the workers crazy because I won’t tie him up, they keep coming and telling us that Sylvester is eating ALL the banana trees and ALL the mango trees. He has been eating leaves off the growing trees but he’s not eating the whole tree. I ask them “why didn’t you come and complain when you tied the bulls next to our big banana trees and they ate them down to the ground?” Or “why, when we tried to plant our own garden you tied up your own goats right in the middle and they ate all of our growing vegetables?” (Of course that was blamed on the dogs. I don’t know about you but I have yet to have a dog who eats black eye pea vines or carrot tops!) So when I’ve seen him tied up I untie him. Until he really starts being destructive he’s free to roam. The trees will survive without a few of their leaves, we have so many grown trees anyway.

He thinks he is one of the dogs and it is quite funny that he can be down the property and if I say “Maaaa” he comes running and yelling the whole way. He still wants to come on the house (he doesn’t) and would like it if we would give him a bottle still. He is quite entertaining and his mowhawk is growing. Maybe one day we will find him a wife and try again with the goat project. But this time we’ll do it our way and maybe keep more alive!

Goodbye

Today we had to say goodbye to our loved Doberman Athos. He was a very loving dog – even though I didn’t like 70 pounds of love jumping on me and knocking me down! He was diagnosed with cancer a little over a month ago and we thought he may have more time but he went downhill pretty fast and we don’t want him to get to the point of really suffering.

My favorite picture of him after eating rice!

He will be missed by his sister Lagatha and Bella the most I’m sure. They all run and play all day. And our night guard Muwaze favors him over Lagatha, Athos always led the way when they made their night rounds so he was sad when we told him a few weeks ago that Athos wouldn’t be around much longer.

Christian will miss his “rounds” when he goes to open the barn. The dogs are the best rat catchers and the barn is their favorite place to go catch them. When they see Christian heading that way Athos would always go first and make a run all the way around the barn and back to the door. If Christian didn’t have the door open by the time he got there he would make another trip around the barn and then in. He loved going in and searching through hay for rats! It was always funny to watch him do that!

We’ll miss you Athos.

Yay For Holiday!

The kids are home for their break before the last term of the year starts in September. They alerted so excited to see us and we are excited to see how happy they are. And growing like weeds! I got to hold Elisa (the youngest) during church. He fell asleep so he wasn’t really awake when I took the pic. I won’t be able to hold him much longer, he’s getting big, almost six. And he usually prefers Chris’s lap but he was preaching so I even traded one of the twin babies to hold him. He hasn’t had a mama to rock him, his died right after he was born.

They are all doing so well at school and seem to be developing more of a relationship with their father, which is something we have prayed for. It’s amazing to see such joy in children that have had it as rough as they have in their young lives.

Hope for More Girls!

 

This week we were able to visit one of the largest government schools in our village. Going in to it I did not know this. There was a big miscommunication and I was given the number of girls as ninety. Salima and I took one hundred kits “just in case”.  

They called the girls to come and they came. And kept coming. I start sweating it! After we were all in this thirteen by fifteen foot room we counted 260 girls! I had to run to the car and tell Christian to go to the house and get all the rest that we had! 

It is amazing what God does with us. How we are welcomed into what is mostly Muslim students and teachers, the school is right on the grounds with the large mosque. But they welcomed us and were not offended when I gave them the message that Jesus loves them and God has made us just the way He wants us. After I gave them a talk about how they are “wonderfully and fearfully made” we educated them about menstruation. They asked very good questions and were free about talking about things they’ve faced. Shame, fear, terror when they didn’t know what was happening to their bodies. Jenifer threatened them beforehand that this was a safe place and no one should leave that room gossiping about anyone else so I think that gave them the feeling of freedom to talk. We also talk a little about boys (pretty much stay away from them!), safety and self-defense. Salima is so helpful as she is an example of what staying in school and hard work can accomplish. She encouraged them to not focus on boys and sex but in getting an education that will enable them to have a better life.

It was a huge blessing to be there and give out the kits. And as always the boys were fussing that they had been left out of something so we gave the school two soccer balls for them. That appeased them! 

We are so thankful we are given these opportunities with open arms and the teachers tell us so many times how appreciative they are for the education part. I gave the head teacher our flip chart so that she and the other female teachers can educate the girls further. 

 

Thank you to all who have donated time and money to help us keep girls in school. A big thanks to ladies in Leesville/Anacoco, Louisiana for their contribution that allowed me to have the extras we needed with that large group because of course the teachers also asked for kits!

We now have two seamstresses that are busy each month making more kits! They are so happy to be receiving a good income every month!

If you feel led to help us help young women stay in school, learn how to defend themselves (which is really important here also) there can never be too many kits. 100% of your donation goes to the kits and to the seamstresses that make them go to https://themandate.com/campaigns/hope-for-girls/

And a great big I love you to Raelee who was my photographer for the day! She has a natural talent and I have been encouraging her as much as possible. She has moved up to an intermediate Nikon camera but still gets reigned in for too many selfies and pics of her kitten! She really stepped out of her comfort zone for this one – that many people makes her (and I!) very nervous but I had coached her beforehand of the specific pics I wanted her to make sure she got. She nailed it!

The Goat Project

Early on Raelee and I wanted to get a baby goat. They are “so cute and funny” when they are little. We got a male and female. Over the last two and a half years we have had babies and either the mother or baby or both died. We have had nine die over the two years. No one can tell us why. We believe that some of it is not from “natural causes”. Our whole goal was to have babies, enjoy them until they were old enough to then give away to widows. Finally we are at a point of seeing that this project hasn’t gone to plan. Maybe because that was “our plan” and not God’s plan. I don’t know. But this week we were able to finally give two females away to two widows who have no one taking care of them. They weren’t told they were getting a goat so they were a little hesitant as to why Salima was bringing them to our place. Once they were told they were amazed and so excited. Having a goat is like having money in the bank here. They will hold on to it until there is an emergency or are in great need of money. If they have friends or neighbors that have a male they can breed and have more in their “account”.

We have a male, but we are told it will be better for us to trade it for two females and give the females away. So we are in the process of doing that.

I’m not sure the orphaned baby goat – Sylvester – will be given away. When you’ve gotten up every four hours for a month to feed him, and he now feels he is one of the dogs, you get a little attached. A little – he is about ready to stay outside all the time. As for now he sleeps in our bathroom but when let out is jumping up one everything. No one wants to eat on a table a goat has pranced on!

After the joy of these ladies, I wish our project could have gone on, and maybe we will have another opportunity to try again. But for now, we can’t wait to give the gift of two more!