Another trip to a village

Yesterday morning we all loaded into the vans and headed out to another village just outside of Kampala to visit a well developed church, school, and health clinic. It was the kids' last day of school for a month as they are now on holiday. The kids here go year round, so their schedule is 3 months on and 1 month off. Unlike at home, however, not all of the kids looked like they were excited about being off school. In fact, as the top student's names were called to come up and receive awards for the academic achievement, some of them looked downright sad.

The school choir sang several songs for us and again did a beautiful job. All of their songs were focused on welcoming us as visitors. This, we have found to be most common, at least in the places we have visited. The head teacher and the pastor gave us a historical background on the school and then we had an opportunity to give out some more school and medical supplies that we had brought.

As we toured the facility we saw a very well developed health clinic, at least by Ugandan standards. They showed us a new incubator that the government had given them, and we saw a delivery room as well as some of the other rooms in this clinic. These clinics not only serve the school and church members, but it is a terrific ministry to the surrounding community to help meet the physical needs of people who are sick, need first aid, or who are about to deliver a baby. Because of the rampant birth rates, this clinic also provides counseling on family planning. One of the challenges is that in Uganda, a woman takes pride in her ability to give birth, especially to boys, and yet many will have so many children that they cannot possibly support them and therefore contribute to the mounting issue of poverty and malnutrition. That is why so many schools try to build boarding houses for the children, so that the kids have a place to live where they will be fed and generally taken care of. Colleen has pushed hard for the family planning piece wherever they travel, providing training and support. If children are going to have a chance to break the cycle of poverty and create opportunities that will enable them to get an education and eventually support a family of their own, they obviously have to have their basic needs met.

This community is a key piece in their village, providing services that many villages would give their right arm to have.

After we left the village, Tim took us back to Kampala for lunch at the I love New York Kitchen restaurant. Many of us had a hamburger and fries - yes I had my first french fries in almost 2 years. I won't fall off the wagon, just needed a familiar taste from home. It was brilliant on Tim's part as he sensed that we needed a taste of home to help us keep morale up.

Again, the group is doing well realizing that Tuesday is fast approaching, and then we will be on our way home. Please keep praying that the volcano stays calm and that we can get across the Atlantic into Newark. Just knowing that we are in the air towards Newark will be a relief after so many days of uncertainty.

Though we have been well taken care of here in Uganda, especially by the Stevenson's and all their employees, this has been a great challenge on many of us who had to leave family at home. Not only on us, but on our families. Please continue to pray that God will give all who are affected by this unfortunate change of circumstances the strength and grace to get through the next several days.

One last note: Yesterday was Anna's 16th birthday, which meant that we were planning to go the DMV so she could take her test to get her learner's permit to drive. Needless to say, she was pretty bummed that we wouldn't be able to do that. However, I made arrangements with one of our drivers to give her a lesson on driving a stick shift and then let here drive up and down the road in front of the Stevenson's (One of the few roads that is not busy). She was so excited to get to drive a vehicle with the steering wheel on the right side and drive on the left side of the road. As she pulled up in front of the Stevenson's house, Hannah Schwob presented her with a homemade learner's permit. It was neat to see the smile on her face as she may be the only student at Southwestern High who can say she drove a jeep in Africa!

We have celebrated several birthdays since we arrived, Molly Angelo's, Patsy Lindsey's, Norma Jean Angelo's, Anna's, and Dan Schwob's is the day after we return followed by Mike Angelo's on the 30th. Also, Mike and Norma Jean will celebrate their anniversary on our last travel day (28th). So we had Christy and Lancy make a cake to celebrate all these birthdays last night. It was a nice way to once again take our minds off not being home, and on the blessing of life.

Thank you for your prayers and comments as they provide great encouragement to us!

Love,

P. Roy