Hey Everyone!
“Oliyo Otya!!” (Hello)
I know I just wrote a couple days ago, but I had a few free minutes this afternoon, so I thought I would put up a quick update. Hopefully the power stays up long enough…The thunder is getting louder and I’m sure we’re going to get a downpour of rain here pretty soon…
Today was the first day of school for me. Considering I don’t speak Luganda, and the Kids don’t speak English, I think it went pretty good. The school has come such a long way from when they started it 2 years ago. It started with only poles for the structure. Then plastic bags and tarps were put up for walls. Over the course of some time, families within the village saved up and donated Metal/Tin Sheets for the Roof and boards to replace the plastic bags on the walls.

The teachers have had small handheld chalkboards to write lessons and teach the kids with, but yesterday we were able to make BIG Chalkboards made from Plywood and blackboard paint. Now all of the kids can see the board even when it is at the front of the classroom. We still need  Chalkboard erasers, but for now we are using rags and toilet paper.  :o)

The kids now have benches to sit on, and hopefully one day maybe we will save up to make some desks. I’m hoping to pick up some pencils in the morning on my way to school. There are 8 pencils in my class, but 5 of them are broken, so they are stubs and the pencil sharpener is broken so the kids are trying to push the wood of the pencil down far enough that the lead will be able to write. Only one of the pencils has an eraser, so they have to pass that pencil around and share the eraser between them. When it gets too hard to write in their book using their lap as a desk, they kneel on the floor and use the bench as a desk.

Only about 1/3 of the kids have shoes to wear, and many of their clothes are torn. Most of them have hard home lives, and “caining/beating” is a common occurrence in many homes. Those kids seem very nervous to make mistakes on their work because they are used to getting punished at home for mistakes that are made. Despite this, they are eager to learn and they love to laugh, sing and have fun. They are very smart and catch on to things quickly. Some of the kids yesterday were repeating every word that I said including my laugh! :o)

At the end of the school day, each group has to clean up their classroom and get it organized for the next day.

The village has no running water and no electricity. Global Hands of Hope raised enough money last year to drill a well down the hill from the school. It goes 80 meters down to ensure that the water is clear and safe to drink. It is such a blessing to this community to know that they won’t get sick from the drinking water. The only downfall is that because of finances, they have only been able to drill one well. Many of the kids live between ¼ of a mile – 2 miles away. After school, the kids go home, have lunch if food is available at home, they do their chores and then make the long journey back to fill up their jerrycans with water.

Ronnie and I went down to the well yesterday while 15 kids were there filling up their jerrycans. The small cans are 10 liters and the big jerrycans are 20 liters. The kids carry the 10 liter ones, and adults carry the 20 liter ones. The kids enjoyed watching the “Muzungu” pump the water…. Muzungu means white person. I was barely able to pump the water long enough to fill ONE can…The kids took pity on me and would not let me do the second one. Well, it was either pity, or I was slowing them down… maybe it was both :o) It is a lot of work, but if there are many kids at the same time, they take turns pumping the water to help even out the work load. Once the cans are filled, they have to carry them all the way home again. Ronnie carried mine up the hill, but I thought I would try to see if I could do it... I thought I would do really good and impress them by carrying it a long way… yeah, no… Those things are sooooooo heavy!!!!! I made it about 20 feet. Very humbling to say the least…  :o)

Global Hands of Hope is trying to stand up on behalf of the children to help them have a better and healthier childhood. For a child walking alone to the well, there are many things that could possibly happen during the 2 mile walk that noone would even be aware of. Global Hands of Hope is looking to get a project started that will help make the water more accesible to the community so that the kids are not spending so much time fetching water and being away from home.
Prayer requests:
Pray for continued safety for teachers, staff and children of Suubi Childrens Center. That God’s love will show through each teacher and pour onto the kids. That the kids can go home each night and their parents will see the change, love and happiness in their children enough that they become interested in finding out more about God.
Please continue praying for the language barrier that we have. The teachers are very friendly and I think we communicate pretty well so far. The kids are so ready and eager to learn, and I am trying to learn Luganda, but we would all really appreciate your prayers.
Well, Sorry this blog entry turned out a lot longer than planned, but hopefully it helps give you a little bit of an idea of life in Bukeka Village.

I hope and pray that you all have a very Wonderful Week! God Bless!!
Love, Alicia

Taxi rides and clean water

Hi All! This is Nikki, Alicia's sister, posting an update on here. Alicia is starting her first week of teaching in Bukeka today! I copied and pasted two posts she wrote on facebook. Definately gives me a new perspective when I feel the need to complain about the long line at Starbucks- we are so spoiled. Let this be a reminder to us today and always to be grateful for the things we have!
   
On Sunday:
Getting Situated at the Guest House near Bukeka. Tomorrow is my first day teaching in the Village. I'm a bit nervous since there is such a huge language barrier, but I know it's going to be awesome! Helped pump water from a well today and attempted to carry 2 jerrycans of water up the hill to the school... I only made it about 20 feet... LOL I need to practice I guess... Hard to believe that this is part of these Kids' daily life...carrying water for such long distances to their homes, and this is really the only clean well that is in the area, so they travel farther because it is cleaner... Wow...

   On Monday:
This morning on the way to Bukeka, there were 2 babies and 23 adults in a 15 passenger taxi...! 25 people is probably not record here, but It's the most I've had in a taxi before :o)

Safely arrived in Africa!

Hi Everyone!
Thank you all for your prayers during my travels. All of my flights went well and only one of them had bad turbulence. For those of you who don’t know, I really do not like to fly very much. I think some of my most concentrated and panicked prayers happen while I fly…. Ha Ha Ha!
I had called my mom from the London airport in a panic… through all of my travel plans, I had forgotten to print out a bank statement to show at Uganda Customs to prove that I had money to cover my length of stay in Uganda. I was so mad at myself that I had forgotten this detail!!!! Ugh! My mom and sister emailed me the information, which was amazing that they could do that for me… but unfortunately my flight had to leave before I was able to find a spot that had wifi long enough to get the email. So my mom, sisters and I were all praying and praying so hard that I would be allowed through customs without the bank statement… And God is so awesome, because when I went through the customs line, I was one of the last people to go through, and the guy was in a hurry to finish the line, so he only asked me 2 questions. Who I was staying with and for how long. Didn’t ask for the bank details, for my return ticket or my immunization chart….. I was so relieved!!!!!
Ronnie picked me up from the airport and we drove back to his house to see his wife and kids. It was so nice to see his wife Ritah and meet his 3 kids! Slowly over the last couple days I have gotten to see a lot of friends and catch up with how they are doing. It’s so good to be back. It has been very hot… even to the point where everyone here is noticing the heat!

Plans for the school have changed a little since I arrived. I will be working at the school 5 days a week to start off… later we might go back to the plan of 3 days at school and 2 days at office, but for now I will be there Monday – Friday.  There are 4 of us teachers for 3 groups of kids. I have “Top Class” (6-7 year olds) but it is a small class of about 10-15 kids. The “Middle Class” (5 year olds) has 19-25 kids and “Baby Class” (3-4 years old) has about 40+ kids. The baby class has 2 teachers since there are so many kids.

So, I will be the teacher for the oldest class. Teaching in all subjects, not just English. It will be a time of adjusting since I’ve never taught all the subjects before, but I know that God will show me what to do. I’m very excited. I start work on Monday, but we visited the village on Wednesday this week so I could meet the teachers and the kids and see where I will be staying.
The village of Bukeka is about 1 ½ hours from Kampala. There are lots of little towns along the way and the scenery is so beautiful and green! I will be staying at a guest house/motel for a couple months until the teacher cottage can get the roof finished on it. The town I am staying in is 5 kilometers away from the road leading up to the village. From that road, it is about 2 km through main part of the village to the school. As you go further into the village and head to the outskirts of it, it looks more and more like a village setting. Some small concrete houses, then houses made of brick and mud, and some huts with straw roofing . There is an average of 5 kids per household. I had been told the statistic of the number of kids, but seeing it for yourself is different. There are kids everywhere! In that Village community, there was a poll taken to see how many kids were there…..They only counted the kids in the poorest families… the result was 982 kids under the age of 5….That wasn’t even ALL the kids, that was only the amount of kids in the POOREST families! Out of those 982 kids, our school can only take 80-90 kids because of teachers and resources.

The kids were very shy when we arrived at the school, but I think they will warm up quickly. Some of them recited the ABCs and they all sang a song. They are adorable and when you see them all together, you see a room full of Potential and God’s Love! I’m so excited to get to know them!

There are so many needs at the school, but they are doing what they can with what they have available. They now have wooden benches so the kids no longer have to sit on the concrete floor. We just purchased Chalkboards and poster size paper to make charts for the kids to have on the wall. At the moment there are 2 small charts in each room and they have pieces of cardboard cut into squares with drawings on them strung up on strings like flash cards.
Please pray that God will show me how best to teach these kids in a way they can understand, learn and grow. Also pray for the teachers and the kids that have been there to adjust to having 2 new teachers (Myself and another teacher from Kampala). Please pray for continued health as I adjust to a new country and for safe travels back and forth from the Village and Kampala. Above all, please pray that through all the activities, changes, developments, and friendships,  that it will all be for God’s Glory. Yes, we are giving them a chance to go to school, get an education, and help them see a brighter future…But at the end of the day, we are ministering to these children to show them the Love of Christ in a world that has only shown them hardships.

Thank You so much for your prayers! I pray that you all have a wonderful day! God Bless!!