Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Dissan

I just found out that Dissan (read about him on Catriona's blog) passed away today. Please pray for Auntie Kate, the special needs teacher, Uncle Stu and Auntie Sarah (Hope Family parents), and his father. They were all with him. He was much loved. Another little baby passed away this morning. The baby's father went to school here. The baby was born yesterday. Please also pray for this family.

Monday, July 23, 2012

David Family

Me, Agnes, Annet, Catriona Baking Bread
We have had lots of fun reconnecting with David Family over the past three weeks. (I can't believe it has been that long) New Hope puts all the kids into family groups with a Ugandan "father" and "mother". We have had so many good times with our Ugandan "brothers and sisters" already. Catriona and I have been baking bread with Agnes and Annet on Saturdays. It is a lot of work but we enjoy it a lot. We have also gone for devotions several times and my parents will be leading on Fridays. Everyone has been so welcoming and we are glad to be back.
In the David Family "central banda."

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Sports Day

Yesterday, (written on July 13) my family rode to Katooke to go to the primary school sports day. The boys were playing football (soccer) and the girls were playing netball. But we were waiting until 1:30 to start instead of 10:00. Everyone who was playing had to line up and be weighed and measured before they could begin. You had to be in the range of height and weight to play.

Our girls playing. (Lime Green)
So when we finally got started, we were getting pretty hungry. We bought some chapatis to tide us over. The girls started to play at 1:30. They played well, but unfortunately lost all 3 of their games.

Our Football Team
Then the boys started to play. Our team was not playing first so my mum took a few pictures of the team. The ones with orange pinnys are the substitutes and the ones with the teal jerseys are the ones who played. Junju, in David Family, was on the team. They lost their first game 1-0 but tied the other two.
Being out in the village, reminded us of the situation of so many children here. At Kasana, we see children being loved and cared for and we sometimes forget that outside the compound there are children who have not had a meal to eat for days. We got some pictures of some of the kids.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Giving Thanks

On Saturday, July 6, 2012 if you lived in Kasana, Kiwoko, Kabubu, and anywhere in between you could hear the excitement rising at Kasana Children's Centre as the people prepared for one of the most anticipated events of the year. Throughout the day you could hear children and adults singing in many different languages, shouts of "Hallelujah!", and feel the ground shaking with so many people dancing. What could cause so much excitement?
The answer is simply Thanksgiving. In Canada, many people celebrate Thanksgiving. But what do many of us look forward to the most? The delicious turkey meal or the time of giving thanks to God. Here at Kasana, you can tell that the people wanted to give the day to our God. Only after a 4 hour program honouring God, was any food was served.
The program was full of singing and dancing and jumping and clapping. All 3 music groups at Kasana sang. Testimonies were given where several people expressed their thankfulness to God. A school for the deaf in Kampala danced, and the First Lady of Uganda gave a speech. Yes, that's right the First Lady. Janet Museveni (or Mama Janet as she is called here) is a Christian and it was very powerful to hear the testimony of a Christian who was so high up in Uganda's society. For our family and family group it was wonderful to see Nabukeera translating for her. Nabukeera has translated for our own family before when we went to visit Sam, our sponsor child. 
Everyone in our family group had an important role. Many sang, some were security and officials, some were drumming, and some were just dressed in  school uniforms and singing, dancing, and clapping.
When it was all over, we had a delicious meal of rice, matooke, meat, cabbage, and potato. It was a wonderful day of giving thanks to God.

Rain, Rain

Rain, rain, go away, come again another day.
In Uganda, no one would think of singing that song to their kid especially during dry season (the season we are now entering).
Last night, my family saw lightning and heard heard thunder that was probably in Kiwoko, a village about 5 miles away. But we hoped it would actually rain instead of just a light and sound show. When the rain started pounding the roof we were excited. We needed some rain to fill up the cistern. The only disadvantage is that there is another power outage. There was hardly any power yesterday and I doubt there will be much today.
But we are still thankful that the rain has come!
-Pictures will come-
Christina