Saying Goodbye and other business

Today was a busy day.  My word it was a busy day.  But it was also a good day.  And also sadly my last day.  I am wishing I had more time.  Always I wish I had more time.  But I feel as though I've squeezed every last minute out of the short time I have had here and that has been a blessing.

They started drilling the well at Eagles Wings yesterday.  I am so happy I was able to be on site for at least part of it.  I was very impressed with the Living Water International crew and equipment.  I know they will do quality work. 

This morning I was down at the drilling site and also found the property boundary stones with one of the Eagles Wings staff members that also helped with the site survey when the eMi team came.  I spent a bit of time with the kids over lunch hour and before I knew it the day was almost done.

I attended my first Ugandan funeral today which was a very interesting experience.  It was for an older fellow from the village who had passed away yesterday.  I tried to blend in which is a very hard thing to do when you are one of three mzungus in a big crowd of people, and as the burial was taking place this line up of old ladies insisted on coming over and having a long conversation with me in Luganda right while the burial was going on.  I don't know most of what they told me but they all wanted to hug me and started jumping up and down when I said the few Lugandan phrases that I know to them.  One of them told me she was so happy I spoke Luganda! (which I most certainly do not:)

This morning Joan (the lady I stay with) and I found out about a young girl we know that was having to stay home because she wasn't able to afford school fees. So between the two of us we decided to pay for her term which came to about $35 each.  As I was walking along the road today I saw her on her way to school with the widest grin I have ever seen.  All because she got to go to school.  And I was reminded of all the things I take for granted. 

I went to youth fellowship for the last time tonight and it was so hard to say goodbye to all the kids.  Harder than it has been in the past because I know some of them quite well by now.  I hope I will see them again soon.

And so now starts the transition from being flung from one world into another.  In some ways it seems these 2 worlds couldn't be more different, and I will miss this place and it's people deeply, for there are many things I love and leaving will be hard.  My time in this place that is starting to feel like home has been richly blessed.  I feel so very thankful.

Until next time,

Jaimee

Few things make me happier than designing toilets in Africa, but drilling wells might be a close second.

The burial.  I wasn't going to take a picture, but all the locals were taking photos so I decided to as well.

Saying goodbye

I'm going to miss these girls

Love to Dance

Yesterday was busy.  I went to church out at Eagles Wings in the morning and then we went to visit one of the secondary students at a nearby high school.  After I got home I went to go visit Mama Florence the 24 former street children she looks after.  I have been so inspired by them and the work they are doing.  Some of their girls love love love ballet, so last year I was able to give them a ballet lesson.  This year, knowing how much they shared my love of dance, I brought them some ballet skirts, leggings, and t-shirts.  Brandon School of Dance generously donated ballet shoes for each of them as well.  They were so excited I can't even begin to describe it.  The whole room erupted when Mama Florence opened that bag of gifts, and pretty soon I was at the bottom of a 24 kid pile up as they screamed with joy all the way on top of me.  They had been praying for ballet costumes.  How precious is that.  They excitedly put on their new costumes and performed for me and it was so precious.

Today I went out to the Eagles Wings property.  I got to hang out with the kids over lunch which was so much fun.  I forgot how fun it is to be mobbed by excited school children.  I had so very much fun.  I attended an Eagles Wings staff meeting in the afternoon.  The drilling equipment was supposed to arrive today, but didn't.  It is supposed to come tomorrow, so hopefully that will happen.  I am looking forward to going back out there tomorrow to spend some more time with the kids and hopefully watch some drilling.  I have pictures for many of you of your sponsor kids, but will send them when I get home.

Here are a whole lot of pictures as I just couldn't choose.

Until next time,

Jaimee

Fitting Ballet Shoes

Ready for Performance

Aren't they beautiful?

They are so precious

At Eagles Wings today

I want to take him home!

Jotham is so silly:)

This is what it looks like when you get mobbed

Fun Day at the lake

Today was wonderful, but before I get to that I'll write a short summary of yesterday which was also wonderful.

I spent most of the day relaxing and hanging out with the boys here which was pretty great.  We spent the afternoon playing checkers and being silly and I simply just love being in their company.

For supper, I was going to meet Bill and Ann for supper at a restaurant, and since they were coming back from an out of town trip they asked if Elisha and I could take a boda boda (motorcycle) to meet them at the restaurant.  I said no problem.  So Elisha and I started walking down the street to hail a boda, and Elisha successfully flagged one down. As it turned out, the boda driver had never heard of the place we wanted to go, and Elisha piped up and said he would direct.  I wasn't too sure where we would end up with a 5 year old directing us, so I called one of my local friends to explain to the driver in Luganda where we wanted to go and we made it there without incident.

Today, we took all 72 Eagles Wings Family children out to Lake Nabugabo for the day.  It was so wonderful.  Everyone had an excellent time and I wish I could have taken even a fraction of that joy and captured it in a bottle. We went swimming in the lake which was so much fun.  Supervising 72 children that can't swim was a bit crazy, but I won't soon forget all those squeals of joy.  We also did relay races and the boys played a football (soccer) game, and then we gave each child a winners medal at the end of the day.

I took several hundred pictures and haven't yet started sorting through them, but I'll try and post them eventually.  For now, here is one of my favourite.

Playing Relay games.  I enjoyed watching Mama Sarah (middle left) as much as the children.  She exudes this radiant joy and was cheering louder than many of the children.

Ballet or Barley?

How do I even put these last few days into words. Yesterday the boys here and I played with some enormous bubbles and they loved it.  It was so special to be right in the middle of all that joy.  Some of these boys grew up on the street so for them these moments are part of a childhood they never had. The road to redemption is not an easy path for these boys and despite the many challenges I have been so encouraged by the work here.

Last night as I was up at Youth Fellowship and sitting between two boys.  Here is how the somewhat humerous conversation went.

Boy 1: "Do you have ballet in Canada?"

Me: "Why yes, I did ballet for many years, who told you?"

Boy 1: "I studied it in school, I studied about many of those crops.  Is it related to wheat?"

Me:  "Oh you mean barley, yes we do have barley in Canada"

Boy 2: Starts doing pirouettes. "It is very nice you have ballet in Canada."

Me: "Can we please clarify if we are talking about ballet or barley?"
 
This is just one moment that makes me realize how much I love the challenge of being in another culture. In the end I concluded that one of the boys was talking about barley and one about ballet.  And then after one of the rough and tough street boys, who is a very talented break dancer asked me if I would please come give him ballet lessons.  So I am scheduled to go give ballet lessons next week, to a demographic far different than anyone I have ever danced ballet with.  I love it!

That is all for now,

Jaimee

This picture is a few days old, but we got to go visit Batcher in Kampala.  It was so nice to see him again!

Fun with bubbles.  I had such a wonderful time with these boys.

Welcome Home

It is so good to be back here in Masaka, it has felt like coming home.  I have loved seeing all these people again and yesterday was so much fun. I spent the morning here at Joan's and we tried out the childrens parachute I got and the boys here had so much fun.  At least some of them did.  A few others may have thought they were too cool for such a thing, but I think they had more fun than they were willing to admit.  And I'm glad we got to test it out before all the Eagles Wings Children arrive.  We are taking all the Eagles Wings kids to a nearby lake on Saturday and it's going to be so much fun.

Already, my time here is going by too fast as it always does.  It is going to be a busy week and a half.  The well at Eagles Wings is being drilled early next week, and I'm looking forward to spending some more time here with Soweto Youth Fellowship as well.

I got to be there for the twins first experience with ice cream. They loved it!

Running the race with endurance

Well I really did it.  I ran a race in Uganda.  And in some ways it was better than anything I could have ever dreamed of.  I arrived late on Saturday night, got a few hours sleep and then was up early to make it to the race site in time.  I was so thankful for friends to drive me there and cheer me on at the start and the finish.  As I was walking over to pick up my registration kit these three Ugandan guys passed me, and I’m not even joking they looked like they could have won the Olympics.  And I was wondering what the heck I got myself into.  I was very impressed by the level of organization displayed by the run organizers and it was such a blessing to be part of such an event.

The weather wasn’t too hot with some rain showers, so it actually ended up being quite ideal for a morning run.  I was worried I would be last across the finish line, but I actually think I was somewhere in the middle of the pack.  Although there were a lot of really fast people in front of me.  There were a few hills that I thought might do me in, but I was sure happy that I had ran a 10 km a few weeks back in Birtle with some nasty hills, because that helped prepare me mentally.  Both times, I refused to walk even one step up those hills even though my body and my mind were battling with me to quit.  I was reminded what it means to run a race with endurance and the kids I was running for inspired me to do my best.  It was almost dream like to be running through mud huts and red dirt roads along with other people.  Usually at a race there are people along the way cheering the runners on.  And to be honest sometimes these people give me the inspiration I need to put one foot in front of the other when all I want to do is lie down and quit.  This time, there were village children in tattered clothes jumping up and down as we passed by saying things in Luganda that I couldn’t understand with excited eyes and happy smiles as they put out their hands for high five’s as we ran past.  What better inspiration could I have asked for?

After the race I was able to take a boda boda (motorcycle) over to visit one of my favourite eMi families.  It was such a blessing to be able to spend a short amount of time with them.  As I was on the boda on my way over, these guys on this other boda kept on racing up and yelling things at me, and I realized that as I was riding in a skirt and it was windy out, perhaps I was showing a bit more mzungo thigh than was appropriate in this culture.  So I tried to tuck my skirt in a bit better, ignored them and carried on.  I love riding on bodas, they are so fun:)

So in closing, it was one of my favourite runs to date. I hope it will not be the last in this place I love.  Today I am off to Masaka and am so excited to see all people I love there.