Sarah's Story - Episode 1!

Hellooooooo!!! I hope you are all well!!! I've been in Uganda almost a month now, so I have LOADS of stuff to tell you! (Warning: this post could be a bit long!) Here goes......

I had the most awesome welcome when I got here from the kids in the White Eagle Project, which involved loads of speeches, lots of cheering, and even being lifted up in the air above their heads!!! The girls had also prepared a whole load of welcome cards for me. So that was cool! (For those of you who don't know, the White Eagle Project consists of a boys' and a girls' home. There are about 30 kids who live in the two homes (and a few more who live with their families), aged from 11 months to about 19 years old - they are all vulnerable and underprivileged children (many are orphans) who are provided with physical, emotional and spiritual help.)

I'm staying in the girls' home, as a sort of House-Aunt. There are 7 girls, a baby boy, and another 2 Ugandan helpers who I'm living with. The home is nice, although some things are a bit different here... For example, I have bucket baths each day, and I had a little brown furry friend with a long tail visiting me every night for the first week. We managed to get rid of my rat room-mate, and a little lizard moved in (which I don't mind so much, as long as it doesn't crawl on me at night!). We also have an abundance of all things creepy crawly, and I regularly find cockroaches around the home, and there are ants everywhere! They don't have washing machines here either, so it's hand washing only... but all the staff pay someone to come and do their washing, which I think is a wonderful idea, so I'm doing that too! We have power cuts on an almost daily basis, so you have to seize any opportunity that arises to do your ironing, charge your phone, etc. The food here is quite basic and doesn't vary much - I have cabbage with either rice, potatoes, matoke (savoury green banana) or chips every single day for lunch and dinner. (The kids don't get chips - they make them specially for me because I can't have the beans that the kids have on those days because my stomach isn't strong enough - so I'm very lucky!) There's also occasionally a slice of pineapple or avocado, and sometimes the cabbage has other vegetables in with it. So life is somewhat different!!!

There was a team of Muzungus (that's what they call white people - wherever I go, little kids call out "Bye Mazungu!") here from England at the beginning of January, and we ran a week long children's holiday club, which attracted about 85 children each day. It was so much fun! We played games, did loads of art and craft, learnt action songs, did little talks, and generally had a fab time!

During that week, we visited a local orphanage called Nazareth Orphanage which the White Eagle Project kids support through doing practical things like entertaining kids, washing babies, cleaning floors, picking coffee beans, etc. I had visited it 15 months before when I was last here, and at that time there were two desperately ill babies, Babiyire and Josephine who were close to death. We took them to hospital and got them admitted, and then we came back to England (but with arrangements for River of Life to sponsor them so that they had enough food and medication).... Then when we visited the orphanage a couple of weeks ago, I saw them again....It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO amazing to see them looking fat and well!!!! I couldn't believe they were the same babies! It was really special! At the end of the holiday club week, we went to Lake Nabugabu (a gorgeous lakeside place where we take the kids every so often for a day out - usually when people visit who can fund it!) with all the kids from the holiday club and all the church members, and I had the awesome privilege of baptising a whole load of people (including most of the girls from the girls' home) in the lake, John-the-Baptist-style!

Since the team of Muzungus left, I've been settling into life here in Masaka. The kids are all on school holidays until the end of January, so we all spend the day at the boys' home (where there's more room), and we follow a weekly timetable. The timetable involves loads of different activities - discussions, debates, indoor games, outdoor games, life skills talks, and small group discussions (each member of staff has 3 or 4 kids that they meet with and mentor on a regular basis). In between the scheduled activities, the kids just chill, and I chill with them, playing cards or chatting to them about their lives, school, etc. I've been given some specific things to lead, so for the last few weeks, I've been helping lead a Youth Group on Saturday afternoons, giving a "preach" to the kids on a Monday night during their fellowship time, leading a discussion time with the kids on a Tuesday morning, giving training to the staff on a Wednesday morning, and doing a dancing session with the kids on a Thursday. We have staff prayers every day at midday, which is really nice to help us focus on what we're here for. I've also been having Luganda lessons for an hour each afternooon (Mon-Thurs), although so far my progress is limited! I go to church on Sunday, which is absolutely amazing (especially the worship - you should see them all dancing!), and can last anything from 3 to 4 hours! Friday is my day off, and I've spent it at Bwala so far (at the house where the pastor and his wife live) just relaxing, watching DVD's, reading, praying, etc. - It's lovely to do nothing after a hectic week!

A week ago, another Mazungu arrived - a Dutch girl called Thirsa, who is staying in the girls' home with us. She's here for 6 months, and is really nice - we get on well, and it's great to have someone to talk to from a similar culture to mine! (Before I came, I was advised to pray for another white person that I would be able to be friends with, talk to and share with, so it's really cool that she's come within a couple of weeks of me arriving!)

Anyway, I'm sorry if this post is too long and takes you forever to read!!! It's just that I'm very excited, and really enjoying myself, and wanted to tell you all about it!!!

I hope that you are all well, and that you're not too cold over in chilly England (hee hee!!!).

Loads of love,

Sarah

Sarah is originally from Manchester, UK, and is currently our Girls Home Aunty in the White Eagle Project. She's very kindly agreed to us publishing her newsletters on our blog to give a taste of life as a missionary at River of Life