Still singing in the rain....

This week was such an awesome week, its hard to put it into words. On Monday I taught school in the morning by myself-Jess wasn't feeling the best- and I'm very very proud of myself :) We also had a meeting this week-on Sunday- with the board of directors from UMOJA and got to hear about their plans for the new building they are constructing, including a fund raiser on the 17th of August. We were also informed/shown a bunch of donations that came in from Feed the Children of exercise books, seeds to plant, pens, pencils, clothes, and text and children's books. It is sooo amazing; such a blessing.

So Jessica and I have spent the week going back and forth from school and the office sorting all the donations and have already given out the exercise books to the children at the school- a big help to their parents who can't afford to buy them new books.

This week we also met another member of our new extended family-Oscar...who is probably one of the funniest people I've ever met. He stayed with us in our house for 2 days only, but we had a great time with him.

This week at school we've also had 2 days off-Wednesday and Thursday- so the P7 classes could write their district mock exams, and well, the rest of the school isn't very good at being quiet for them to do this-and most of that noise can probably be contributed to Jessica and my presence...haha. So we've spent the last two days doing some grocery shopping in town-yes its an adventure every time, but we have wonderful friends here who help us accomplish what we need to- doing more sorting of the donations and having some of the students over at our house. We are getting all the donations organized for Saturday and Sunday when we will be visiting about 60 homes in the villages of the poorest people-thus we are bringing clothes and seeds- and even some of the homes of our students. Many of our students are partial or total orphans, and they are living with relatives that have taken them in on top of their own children. While I have loved working at the school-especially getting to know the kids- I am really looking forward to this opportunity to move deep into the village- places where the bodas can't even reach- and meet and try to help some of these people.

This week has been a week of pouring rain here in Kyema, Masindi. Sunday we had a downpour like no other, during which our friends who live with us; their little sister locked the key in their house. All the windows here have bars on them to keep out robbers, so you can't climb through a window and get the key back, so in the pouring rain we stood trying to help them get the key-which was on a massive table- and i thought, ah yes- this is where in Canada we would use a hockey stick...haha....however they had a passive hook that they used to pull the furniture and we got the key.

Then on Tuesday it down poured at school-while i was in the office down the road from the school. I tried to wait it out, but ended up having to try to run down a washed out clay road-fairly unsucessfully towards the school, getting drenched.

Then today (Thursday) it poured rain while we were attempted to meet someone to visit a cemetery, stranding us for 2 hours, looking at someone's pictures who we had never met before...oh life here is interesting...haha

Our time here is starting to wind up-though there are still many many things to do- and its very sad to think about returning in only 2 weeks; however we are also very happy to come home and have our food and friends from Canada around us again...however there are some moments here where i almost think i'm in Canada-like last week I left Traveller's corner (the internet cafe) and heard Garth Brooks playing on a radio from a shop...very surreal.
please continue to keep us in your prayers as we will be very busy in the next two weeks and must begin saying goodbye to friends of ours who are going to university next week
Thats all for now,
Tash