Uganda - Village of Hope: Its been a while

It is quite a while since I have posted anything here - thats not because nothing happens, but more because so much is happening.

We have been a village of 32 children for two and a half months now, and life has certainly changed. The new children have learnt many new things, including "Aunt Anne, may I come in?" when they are standing at the doorway of the admin building wanting to enter to read, draw, do homework, do puzzles, or just hang out. They still have things to learn as well, like "LEAVE MY CAR ALONE" as they draw in the dust or play with the doors and windows and locks.

Seriously, the life of the village is totally different now and we can only imagine what it will be like when we have 6, 8 or 14 houses full of children.

At the moment the children are still on holidays from school for another 2 weeks. Despite this they are getting lessons most days in the admin building, and learning much through being able to write all over the blackboard without fear of messing things up in their books if they get something wrong. For many of the children who have not previously been to school, this holiday has seen them come on in leaps and bounds in things like learning the alphabet. Last week at the Sunday night devotions, there were great celebrations when all of the children, including the 3 year old twins, were able to sing the alphabet song on their own.

During the holidays, the children get to do some of the chores that there is not the opportunity for them to do during term time. For some this is preparing meals, for others it is helping out in small ways with the building project of the time. Last week a group of the older girls spent days in the garden digging and planting a crop of maize and other vegetables.

On the building front, great progress has been made on "Mission House". This is a house being built on another block close to the village that will function as a guest house to raise income for the village. Future teams that come from Australia will stay in this house. It now has a roof, and currently the internal walls are being plastered. In the next few days the plumbing and electrical work will begin, and then windows and doors will have it liveable in plenty of time for the team coming in July.

At the village, house 5 is still awaiting its roof that is in the container that is now only a day or so from being delivered (I really am a man of faith!) A slab for house 6 awaits the July team, and there will also be work on the kitchen slab in the next week or so to make sure that we have plenty for them to do.

On the 'mzungu' front, some personnel changes are afoot. Luke who has been here since June last year, is now in his last month in Africa. To the surprise of many here, he has finally booked a ticket home and will depart in early June. He will be greatly missed both inside and outside of the village. Trudi who has been with us for 10 weeks, departs on Sunday. She also has made a big impact during her time here, not the least of which happened last week when she accompanied a team from YWAM on an outreach to western Uganda. The mothers, the children, and even the dogs will miss Trudi when she goes! In June we have some new visitors coming, then in July we have a team so exciting times lie ahead.