Wakawaka

The last 2 weeks of Uganda were the most eventful for me in terms of God blessing our hands. After we received funds from Chris, we spent one more week at the orphanage hanging with the kids.

Their health was improved, they now had food for the rest of the term, everyone was so happy. We had a big celebration for the P7 kids who had just finished all of their exams; so god willing they will be going on to Senior 1 next year. Their secondary school is a muslin school that is at least 4 km away.

So this year we are trying to raise money so that they kids can have enough bikes to make it there without walking! The kids were so happy about the party, we made a huge sign, balloons, each P7 student got a soda along with Kyesu and Acetch who are already in Senior 1 but didn’t get a party last year! We let all the P7 kids sit in our room to each the beef that Sarah cooked, along with Rice, Matooke, Gnuts, it was a feast….

They ate so much in fact Jamile the biggest boy in the orphanage was so funny he ate so much he could barely talk. In addition we had 13 people in our small room while eating, so it was a little hot.

The night before I left the kids has their drama performance for school so the playing and snag and performed for hours. It was great; we gave the dancers a few coins for tip, and celebrated. The next Carl came for us around 3 and the goodbye was quick. All of the kids were in tears, but I assured them I would be back next year to visit!

I have decided not to volunteer with Peter Mutebi ministries any longer, so I will still be helping out these kids, but I will not be staying at the orphanage. God-willing I may have an internship lined up with The New Forests Company this fall where I will be helping with a fruit tree project. This project will be not only aimed at broadening the NFC, but it will be providing many trees to surrounding areas to diversify the diets of children in schools and orphanages.

Carl, who is working for NFC took us one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in Uganda, on the Victoria Lake in Bugiri district. The Kirinya Plantation is the location, but the small coastal village called Wakawaka just took my breath away. It is a fisherman village and it is where NFC is helping to fund the building of a school for the kids that are orphaned in that community. The kids there had absolutely nothing, barely even clothes, and the had almost 20 kids living in one small hut together.

Carl who has started an NGO called Combine Harvest Ministries has a big heart for God has a particular interest in helping NFC reach these communities in need. I was so impressed by the sustainability of this company and it’s political ecology.

So we will see how God directs my plan, although some really amazing web of connections have been happening. For example the Corporate Responsibility Manager of NFC knows Barrett Ward from African Leadership, she is the woman I met with about the internship, I went to a church dinner with a guy David Kirabira that I met on the plane to Uganda, who has a ministry of reaching out to youth and he is such an interesting wonderful guy. I know that his ministry will help us in building these communities in a Christian way. He gave a very ‘catholic or universal’ speech about the question Jesus asked his apostles, “who do you say that I am?’ and how Jesus could never have been just a good man, he was either who he said he was, or he was one of the biggest blasphemies that ever lived.

So from now on my fundraising will go to helping Carl on the ground and from the states. He is a man that God brought into my life and someone that even in this little amount of time has gained my complete trust. He loves and honors his family in South Africa constantly and is just a great man of God.

At his house Sarah and I stayed for just one night in a beautiful guest room, we cooked a tilapia as big as my leg that cost only $2.50 that was fresh out of the lake, (thought of you Amber) with Lemon Grass straight out of the ground and Carl made this ridiculous garlic lemon butter, it was the most amazing fish I have ever eaten in my life....

Tell you guys about the rest later…still jet-laggin.
Thanks for your prayers and for listening…-god’s peace
jes