Shading? What's That?

About 60 children were quietly seated on their rocks when I entered the very small one-room school. The darkness combined with their deep brown skin challenged me. I explained through an interpreter that I desired their help in making beautiful cards on which to send thank you notes and they were happy to help, though they really had no idea what it meant to send a card to a friend.

Armed with a box full of markers, crayons, and colored pencils, as well as some note cards already outlined with the shape of Africa (which the children could not identify) I invited them to begin. Shading? They had no idea what to do with this stick and paper in their hands. After showing them how to shade, and how to do it in a train to avoid turning every card to the color of clay, they quickly caught on.

Teachers in remote villages rarely have a blackboard let alone supplies for themselves to use as teaching aids. Children who, in the city would be required to wear a uniform, wear black shoes, and have books and pencils to write with come to school even without lunch. But they come, praise God!

So, think of these children in Ojigu when you receive your Africa-shaped thank you card. Remember they didn’t know what crayons were or what it meant to color or be creative. And remember that because of you they got a taste. Thank you!

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My Man Bag

Why do I carry my bag across my shoulder? So it doesn’t get stolen off my shoulder or out of my hands. But yuck!!! How much more unattractive could this bulky thing be. Kudos to LeSportsac for making a bag for men that actually makes a woman look and feel ugly.

As for cleaning, well…the dust in East Africa requires an almost daily cleaning and this tightly woven nylon fabric resists that dust (or at the very least attracts it evenly)…cuz ya’ll know I don’t like to clean…anything.

The bag is certainly the perfect size for holding all I need for a trek outside the home. Though, I maintain this is a man bag…NOT a purse. I mean, look at this list of content…this is survival gear not girly gear. Okay, I have a nail file but that’s it!

  

Water to prevent dehydration

Camera to capture the moment

Pouch with ministry money

Pouch with personal money

Pouch with toilet tissue, business cards, ATM card, and flash drive

Notebook for pre-meeting prayer writing

List of things to do

Pen for recording expenditures

Hankie for mopping my brow

Copy of my passport

House keys

Insect repellant

Deck of cards for the wait, because we always wait

Though I know these are must-haves, I still can’t help but feel really ugly when I strap this thing across my shoulder. Until I remembered…Jack and Amy in action.

You see the resemblance, I'm sure!

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The Docks at Gaba Beach

The cockswain watches over the landing site.

Bags of charcoal coming from the islands to the mainland.

The wooden boat piled high with charcoal, a layer of fish,
and on top a layer of passengers.

Three guys heft these giant sacks of charcoal. The little
guy in red didn't need any help. Man these guys have
some serious muscles.

These guys lined up to stare at me.
Should have taken the opportunity to tell them about Jesus.

Poor little scooter.

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Indian Ocean

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Mimi na Wewe

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Fun and Games at The Sanctuary

I knew all the juggling practice would pay off!

I promised the children of the Sanctuary Babies Home, the ones who memorized the numbers on the back of the Memory game cards rather than the pictures on the front, a new game the next time I came. I was surprised to find the number of children at the home had nearly doubled. It’s a good thing that this time I brought two new games.

Bean bag tossing.

For sewing practice, the ladies of Konoweka finished filling and sewing up some beanbags my mother made. With a handful of these heavy things, I wowed the children with my juggling skills (it doesn’t take much). From there, though, we played beanbag toss as well as a simple form of catch. The children came up with all kinds of creative ways to play with the beanbags.

Dennis, the leader of Shelemiah Orphan’s Home, gave me a bag of giant pictures with detailed Bible lessons printed on the back. I brought these lessons to Michael at the Sanctuary and started the children off with a lesson about the Bible as God’s word and as one way we can know who God is. The lessons are geared for children who are a bit older but with little effort they can easily be adapted for these younger children. I love when people share their resources for the benefit of others.

Time for the real new game…Chutes and Ladders. Only four players at a time can master this game so it was great to have a few new toys and games to keep the others busy. It took a while for the children to learn what to do at the top and bottom of chutes and ladders but the oldest finally caught on. He was tasked with ensuring he helped the other children understand too.

Just before we said good-bye, Heidi read the children a story and sang a song. They loved her fun activities and were quite happy to snuggle up and listen.  Bye-bye kids, see you next time, we love you.

Chutes and Ladders. Only the oldest boy here really understood the game.
I charged him with teaching the younger ones.

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A Pet Giraffe

Squeek, squeeeekkk. The sound of latex rubbing against latex is a bit like nails on the chalkboard. Yet I could hardly avoid the sound as I demonstrated the making of the one and only balloon animal I learned to make from a YouTube video. The Hassett family left behind a few balloons for making animals and I knew the children in Bugembe would love the silly toy. I decided to practice with Robert’s children, Stephen and Mary. They hardly needed any teaching as they quickly twisted the balloon parts into place. They were squeaky too. In the end I tied a knot for Mary and managed to help her make this giraffe-dog. Okay, we didn’t blow the balloon quite enough for a giraffe so the compromise was a shorter neck and body…thus the giraffe-dog. The children said that tomorrow they want to make a monkey and an elephant. Um…I’d better get busy.

We decided we were ready to gift the children of Bugembe with our works of art…right up until they crowded us so much that we couldn’t even work. Dozens, though, came away with some kind of animal that had ears and four legs…usually a long neck too. It was fun while it lasted but we were about to be trampled so we ran for our lives as the children trailed behind us.



Stephen shows off his first work of art.



Mary needed a bit of help but quickly got
the hang of balloon art.





You can barely see Stephen in the way back with the red shirt.

Mary is entirely burried. Poor girl.



Because the mob was too much, Stephen and Mary
stockpiled the balloons and then planned to give them away later.

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Memorizing the Memory Game

The Memory game was a gift to the children of the Sanctuary Babies Home during my last visit. I looked forward to playing with the children again this time so we hauled out the game, which was surprisingly still complete. The card titles were marked numerically to ensure all the pieces were there. Good idea? Elijah and Huntington, rather than remembering where the pictures are on the board, memorized which number matched which number. Right, why bother turning the card over when there’s a number on the card to indicate which go together. Seems like cheating to me but these boys were sharp, impressive, and they still had to memorize something. Silly boys.

Elijah and Huntington are the best, the children chant each time they make a match.

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How's Your Memory?

Snap, snap, snap. The children had so much fun punching the Memory cards from their original holders and then playing with the remaining frame that I almost didn’t tell them about the rest of the game. Yet, once we set that game up, they found some fun. I LOVED watching them learn to play as the game progressed. Once they got the hang of the goal to match cards, the girls really excelled. The boys preferred the “look at the same card with every turn” approach. With a bit more practice, they’ll be calling “pizza, pizza; flower, flower; sun, sun” and whizzing past my memory abilities.



Not sure I could remember anything if the board isn't set up in perfect lines.



Hannah was so proud of her first find. Way to go sweetie!

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Welcome Home Children

Fahrid, Sharon, and Rama show their faces at my door every morning and every time I arrive home whether having been gone for the day or for many days. Sometimes we have a simple greeting and I whisper a prayer over them for the day. Many times, though, we’ll sit on the edge of the porch and chat to the extent that the older children understand my English. Today we enjoyed slices of juicy watermelon with at least a million seeds in each bite. Seedless watermelon is, I maintain, the best invention since sliced bread.

Unknown Boy Name, Fahrid, Rama, and Sharon

One boy looked on from a distance and was invited to join us. Once the children and the veranda were sufficiently covered in watermelon juice and seeds – sure to attract every crawling thing – I pulled out the last of Mr. Bubble. As with most children here, these children stared at these bubbles unsure what to do with themselves. They finally figured out that they could pop the bubbles and thus the chaotic chase ensued until I was lightheaded from blowing so many.

The Berenstain Bears and the Forgiving Tree (thanks Krista) was next on the agenda. Samuel watched from the other end of the veranda while the children settled down to hear the story of forgiveness resulting from Brother Bear’s new bicycle getting smunched by a friend. I tried to talk with the children about the concept of forgiveness, but I think the combination of age and language lowered the impact. We’ll keep reviewing the story for just those times when the example might come in handy.

Now the singing began. A few traditional Sunday school songs were well known by the children, but they have their own traditional songs too. It seems as though every child in Uganda is trained to sing on demand. These children were no different. I was relieved to hear their little voices sing out to Jesus. I love my little brood of “welcome home” children.

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Games with Olivia

The wind howled and the single, rusty iron sheet covering the small family-filled apartment lifted so that the dark clouds could be seen outside before returning to its resting place on top of the cement walls. The air pressure changed; I wondered about tornados in Africa. The wind began churning the debris outside and the roof threatened some more. Just as we closed the door to keep out all types of flying things the power went out. With the door shut, the room was black. A small candle lit the midday atmosphere in the sitting room but the flame teased us relentlessly. The rains came.

Olivia, the reason I originally landed in Uganda, has come to expect that I bring some kind of game or book when I visit and she would not be disappointed. I love spending time with this bright young girl when she is on holiday. Children in Uganda tend to board at their school and visitors are encouraged to wait until visitation day to come. So, wait I did (except when I first arrived…I couldn’t wait). I pulled out the Skip-Bo game and she quickly learned to play.

Other family members joined us but struggled with some of the game play concepts. Olivia was by far the brightest and most worthy challenger. I love seeing the transformation in this young girl as she grows. When I told her I would not see her until December, her face fell. How nice to think that she might miss me as much as I will miss her.

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Bubbles and Balloons

Life is a serious game for children in East Africa. I see a six-year-old child with a baby wrapped on her back. I watch a girl of five doing her laundry in a basin filled with murky water. I walk by a four-year-old child straining under the weight of two water containers…I can’t help but carry her burden. On one hand, I see these children modeling the behaviors of their mother. They’re learning how to live life in their country and to survive. On the other hand, I wonder if these children have time for joy. The answer must be yes, right?

I hear the voices of screaming children wherever I go. Most of the time the screams are gleeful…on occasion I send one child running home in fear. I watch children pushing a round upright tire down a hill using a y-shaped stick. I watch children pushing empty plastic bottles around on the ground using a long stick inserted through the opening of the bottle. I see children pulling one another on jerry cans cut in half with a banana leaf rope tied to the handle…like a sled or skateboard.

Bubbles and balloons are simple fun for children, they’re new. Bubbles continue to render children motionless in wonder. I’ve yet to find a group of children who knew enough to chase after and pop those tiny bubbles without being told. They have fun. For a few minutes in their busy day, these children get a reprieve.

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