Baby Fashion Show

The children’s homes here in Mpigi house 52 kids. While the target age for the kids here is 3 and older, there is one baby who is about 14 months old who is living here as well. He was rescued from a difficult home situation, and the kids and the house moms here love having him around! His name is Zwa, but the moms have renamed him Mokisa, which means “fortunate one”. They feel like this baby has been given a second chance at life, so they felt that this new name was more fitting! It has been great to see Zwa grow and develop in the time that I have been here…he is definitely starting to thrive in this new environment.

However, Zwa didn’t have many clothes when he came here, and most of the donations that we get are for older kids. When I was in Kibaale, I found a bunch of second-hand baby clothes for sale at the market for 500 shillings each (that is like 35 cents). So I picked up a few shirts and shorts for Zwa.

I brought the clothes over to Suubi house to give to the house mother, Mama Rose. She was so excited! She made me go get my camera, and then we did a baby fashion show…she started putting outfits on Zwa, and then getting me to take pictures of him…it was hilarious! All the other kids were just loving it…they were cheering, and laughing, and just so happy for little Zwa. Here are some pictures of the fashion show…

Zwa posing in outfit number one…

Zwa and Mama Rose…and Zwa loving being the centre of attention…

All the kids cheering for Zwa!

Kibaale

I had a chance to spend a few days with my friends Jeff and Shannon Dyck (and family) where they live in Kibaale. Kibaale is about 120 kms southwest from where I am staying. In Kibaale I was able to visit the clinic that operates on the property, and also went on some outreach community visits. Outreach visits are when the clinic staff travel to a nearby village and provide immunizations for babies. They also go and visit people at their homes and make suggestions as to how they can improve their home and the surrounding area to help improve their health. Here are some pictures from my time in the village…

Handwashing station that they encourage all families to build…

Random guy showing me how to row a boat…

Immunizing babies!

Music Video

I got a great welcome back from all of the kids and house moms on the property when I returned from my week at Sanyu. I love living in community here – people are interested in everything that is going on, and are constantly checking in on how things are going. Pretty much every time I leave the property, even if it is just to go to the market to buy vegetables, someone wishes me a “safe journey”, and when I return everyone I see welcomes me back. I think this is something that I will miss when I return to Canada!

I spent most of last Saturday hanging out with the kids, and then at 5pm tons of people started showing up on the property. I asked what was going on, and they told me that we were going to watch some music videos in the church!

Let me backtrack a bit…when I first arrived in Mpigi, the church was being used constantly – people were singing and dancing in the church building all the time. I found out that one of the musicians from the church had written some songs and was making them into music videos. So one Monday, a producer and cameraman from Kampala came to Mpigi to film the music video. The church was packed, people were in costumes, they were dancing and singing, and trying (unsuccessfully) to convince me to dance in the video!

So last Saturday we had a chance to watch the completed videos! Everyone showed up at 5pm, and we were waiting…and waiting…and waiting…at 6:30pm we all moved in to the church to wait some more. People weren’t impatient…instead, they used the time that we were all waiting to start up an impromptu dance party! There was one little guy who was probably 4 or 5, and he was the star of the show…probably one of the better dancers I have seen in a long time! Finally, at about 8:30pm, the video arrived with the producer from Kampala and the show began!

It was great to see so many of the church community members in the videos…and whenever one of them appeared, the whole crowd of about 120 people started cheering! The videos were great…totally done Ugandan style, which is hard to explain in a blog post, but I am hoping to be able to get a copy of the DVD to bring with me back to Canada!

Music videos in Uganda…an unexpected but very fun evening!!

Here's a picture of Segawa picking up the dry laundry...

Sanyu Babies Home

Hello from Uganda!

Time is going by quickly now…I only have about two weeks left in Uganda (and then a week in Swaziland), which is hard to believe! I feel like I am finally just getting settled in to life here, and already I feel like it is time to wind down.

I spent a week at Sanyu Babies Home, which is an orphanage for babies and kids up to 3 years old in Kampala. (For those of you that know Jeff and Shannon, Sanyu is the orphanage where they adopted Mazzy from!) It was fun to spend time with the little ones, and I met a bunch of interesting people from all over the world who were also volunteering there (from Australia, the UK, Holland, Norway…)

Here are some pics of my time at Sanyu…

The little babies… Playtime...

Meal time…

Out with new friends…

A challenging word...

This past Sunday at church, I had the opportunity to hear a very challenging message from Pastor Geoffrey. Geoffrey is one of the full time pastors here at the church, and as I write this, he is spending the day in the church in prayer for the community here. Geoffrey, his wife Rose, and their three kids Esther, Isaac, and Praise live here on the church property. Here is a picture of Praise:

So this is the text that Geoffrey preached on:

2 Corinthians 8:1-4
And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints.

He also used a couple of verses from Proverbs:

Proverbs 28:27
He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.

Proverbs 21:13
If a man shuts his ear to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.

Geoffrey’s encouragement to the congregation was to give from what they had, following the example of the Macedonian churches that were joyfully giving out of their extreme poverty. Listening to this message in a church full of people, many of them unemployed, or single parents, or elderly and struggling to meet the needs of their grandchildren, or parents who can barely afford the rent of their dirt hut and school fees for their children definitely got me thinking!! It is one thing to hear a message like this delivered from the comfort of a North American church, but in this setting I found this word much more challenging to hear.

Here are some things I have been thinking about following this message…
-do I give joyfully?
-what does it mean to give as much as I am able, and even beyond my ability?
-is giving a privilege for me?
-how should I respond to the cry of the poor?

This message will definitely keep me thinking for a while!!

And just so you can see that I really am in Uganda…here are some pictures of me with the kids, playing...you guessed it…memory!!




And one more picture of the kids playing taxi...using some leaves and ropes tied together and some sticks!

That's all for now! Take care!