I should have added to the end of my last post that the
family parents of the first family group are going to be coming to Kasana (our
main center, where I live) for the Institute of Childcare and Family from
January to May of next year. We will be classmates since I am also taking the
Institute during that time. Now that I know them a bit, I am eagerly looking forward
to this upcoming opportunity to grow in relationship with them!! :)
Monday morning marked the beginning of our last full day in
Kobwin, at least for this trip. The manager had announced at church that the
students needed to come to the school at 7:30 on Monday morning to do a project
with me. Unfortunately, not all of the day students were at church….so we
mostly just had the students who live on site.
But other than that it went pretty well. It took a lot
longer than we were expecting (three hours), partly because the students were
having so much fun coloring and drawing after they had done the writing bit!
Also because students didn’t all come right at 7:30, they kind of trickled in
over the first couple hours. Thankfully we had enough papers and colored
pencils to keep everyone occupied!
I had simply written a couple basic examples. Other than
telling the children to put their name, age, class, prayer requests, and
signature, I really didn’t give much instruction. Later that week, as I read
through the kids’ requests, I was mostly impressed. Sure, I chuckled at a
couple (“I want to be the next Obama”), but there were also some that showed
the students’ positive character (“Please pray that I would have a forgiving
heart”). There were also some that included bits of Spanish, since we recently
had our first ever team from Mexico and they spent most of their trip at
Kobwin.
Once the last student had finished, Constance took me on a
tour of the property there. She was taking some pictures of the community
outside for comparison. It was interesting to see a few houses and learn a bit
more about Ugandan culture in that area. For example, there are lots of large
gray rocks in that area, and the people there use them to dry potatoes and
things like that as a method of preserving food.
{Side note – since Kobwin is in a different part of the
country, the people are mostly of a different tribe and thus speak a different
language. I kept wanting to use my small bits of Luganda, and then remembering
that the people there may not understand it because they speak Ateso instead
(or sometimes also)!}
By then it was only 11 or so, but already so so hot that we
gave up on our walk, even though we had only gone part of the way around the
property. That was one of the unfortunate parts about Kobwin….it is much hotter
there than at Kasana, so activity becomes much less enticing pretty early in
the day.
{Kasana will be warmer these next couple months than it has
been, though, because we’re now entering one of the dry seasons. I got back
towards the beginning of the rainy season, and there have been a few times
where it has felt down right cold here at Kasana! But really that means it was “only”
60 degrees or so…..}
Later that afternoon I went and did a quick email check for
the first time in five days, then played a couple games with some of the kids.
First we tried doing dominoes, but we only had a double sixes set and we had
about eight players. So it didn’t work too well. Then we played cards for a
while, until a football {soccer} game started and most of the students wanted
to join that {when thinking about Kobwin, it doesn’t seem right to call them “kids”
or “children,” because so many of them are in their late teens or early
twenties! So I end up calling them “students” instead, even in non-school
contexts.}
My three young friends from Friday then wanted to take me up
on top of the rocks right behind Constance’s house. A couple of the youngest
staff kids decided to tag along, and my guides didn’t want them to come, saying
“they’re going to cry!” I had been up on the rocks just a bit on Saturday, and
so knew to watch out for 1) thorns and 2) cow paddies. But I was looking
forward to being led up to the top, since I had just kind of wandered around. I
figured I could help the little ones if needed.
Well, the wind started picking up…..sure sign of a storm
blowing in. We tried to go up the way the boys knew, but the two youngest ones
were scared…it involved climbing up onto one rock and then immediately scooting
through a narrow space from another rock on top in order to get higher. I
couldn’t quite figure out how to get up the rock, even though I was definitely
the tallest in the group. {Wearing a skirt and flip flops is a convenient
excuse, right?} The little girl proceeded to cry a bit, so I called everybody
back and helped the little ones down.
We tried going up another way, but it was too overgrown to
really get onto the top. The littlest boy cried somewhere along there too, so
the guide’s prediction proved correct! We had seen that the sky was getting
dark, though, and when we started feeling a few raindrops I said that we had to
get down before it poured on us. So down we went, none the worse for the little
adventure.
The storm took longer to really come in than I thought it
would, but my word, it really did POUR when it came! So the temperature was quite
a bit cooler in the evening than it had been in the late morning. There were a
couple girls in Constance’s house when I got back, so we shut the windows (to
keep the rain coming in) and then used solar battery lanterns (because there’s
no power there) to see enough to play cards (since we couldn’t hear one another
talk because of the rain pounding on the roof!). It was a fun day :)
Then that evening, we three muzungus (Lugandan term for
white foreigners) went to the second family group for devotions and dinner. And
this family mother fed us a small feast! She makes me chuckle even as I think
back about it – she is definitely the mothering type!! She kept urging us “You
eat! Be free! Drink your tea!” And she insisted on sending me away with some
homemade peanut butter, the best I’ve ever had!
Both of the sets of family parents were just so welcoming
and so ready to open their homes, hearts, and families to include us. It was a
special time getting to know some of the special members of our extended
spiritual family!!! They accepted me and loved me and encouraged me, even in a
short few days. I was definitely blessed, and I look forward to seeing them
again whether here at Kasana or on future trips to Kobwin!
The next day we left Kobwin by 6 a.m., and in Kampala I bid farewell to Constance and the others and headed to the mall to print pictures, then on to public to go home on my own. It all worked out, thankfully, and I was back home to Kasana by about 7 that evening. {Constance needed to take a young boy to Entebbe--south of Kampala--for a surgery. Keep him in your prayers, please! He has now had a second surgery, and is in a cast for a while.}
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