Week Four

Home sweet home. Sort of. From Tuesday to Sunday we spent time in the village of Rakai (about a four hour drive away) building a home and visiting schools. Now, I'm back in Kampala, back to my room and it really feels like I'm at home. It is funny how quickly we adapt to new situations and long for familiarity.

Before I get into the details of the village, I want to share my experience on Monday. We spent the day at Kids In Need. Usually when we go to the projects we either do our program of praise and worship or we help out with chores around the facility, but we rarely do both at one project. But this time, we spent the whole day at Kids in Need and the experience was incredible. In the morning we helped the staff out with clean up and some chores and had a blast. The kids helped us and sang and dance with us while we worked and the relationships built in that time far exceeded the relationships we build doing the usual program. Then we made them lunch and did our usual praise and worship program which was such a celebration as usual. Lastly, we handed out brand new clothes to the kids along with some supplies and then headed out. When the kids switched out of their torn up shirts and shorts and put new clothes and shoes on their feet they literally stood taller with pride. When these kids are living in scrapes for clothing and with such little attention, it is very easy to see the toll it takes on their self esteem. Conversely, it is easy to see how much of an impact we are making by serving the kids. It was an awesome day, but it did not even compare to my time at the village.

Oh the village. I do not think it is possible for me to explain how life changing of an experience it was. We stayed at a small house about thirty minutes outside of the building site which was quite an adjustment, but in a good way. We slept twelve to a room, with six mattresses in each room (which if you do the math is two to a single sized mattress) and did not have running water. But the close quarters and less than ideal conditions just made us closer as a team. At the village, we built a house for a widowed mother of four who had been living in her cooking hut. Her original hut was about the size of a laundry room and one mattress probably could not have fit in it. Biologically, she had only two children and the other two she took in when a family member died. However, she was so loving that it would be impossible to tell the difference between her biological and adopted kids. She deserved that house more than anyone I have ever known. It was a humble two room brick house, but to her, it was a blessing beyond belief.

The week consisted of exhausting physical labor and long days, but every ounce of sweat dripped with compassion. I thought we would be building a house to make a difference for one family, but I am beginning to realize the impact our actions had on the entire community. For instance, because the family lived off a path of the main street, the truck delivering supplies could not get very close to the house. So instead of just building the house, we first had to haul 4000 bricks and huge piles of rocks, sand and gravel to the site by hand, wheelbarrow and bucket. Faced with this daunting task, we were originally quite discouraged, but after a few minutes, a swarm of kids from the neighborhood came to help. Thirteen year old girls balanced bricks four at a time on their head and even the youngest kids in the group were willing to take a brick down. While part of me felt the alarms of child labor going off in my head, the other half of me realized the kids just wanted to be a part of something bigger than them. We showed them love and taught them the value of serving others. In Uganda, doing service for people without compensation, especially for someone you are not related to is very uncommon and so many many residents of the village stopped by to see if the rumors were true. Many just could not understand why the crazy Christians would do this, but at the same time, it was obvious they respected our willingness to help.

Since we had such a large team, the entirity of my stay at the village did not just involve physical labor, but also playing with children and visiting schools. The schools were an interesting experience to say the least. At one school, the entire student body welcomed us with song and dance and the other school was a school exclusively for orphans. I enjoyed both thoroughly. But the real memories came from the neighborhood kids, the same ones who helped with the bricks. While most spoke Luganda and very little English, with the help of the Ugandan staff and frequent gestures, we managed to grow quite attached to the kids. We tickled them and played games with them and held them and showed them love. I would not trade those moments for the world.

Which brings me to my story of the week. This time his name is Brian. I met Brian on Thursday when I saw him peering behind a tree at me shyly. I gestured at him and said "Jungu" or "Come" and I started to talk to him. He was a 12 year old currently in school with fairly good english skills, but the conversation was still strained from a language barrier. I found out he liked football (or soccer for my American friends) and beat boxing and wanted to be a pilot. The next day, Friday, I was at the schools so I did not go to the worksite, but Brian was looking for me. He found my dear friend, Emily and told her he wanted to see me because he had brought me sugarcane. She promised him I would be there tomorrow and passed along the sugarcane. Saturday, our last day at the site, Brian was back and excited to see me. I told him I loved the sugarcane and we chatted and did our secret handshake and he asked me if he could bring me maize (aka corn) the next day. I told him we were going back to Kampala and then I would be going to America two weeks later and he began to get teary eyed. I learned more about his story with the help of Sheila, one of the Ugandan staff members and found out both his parents had died and he was living with a relative. Brian was longing for love. He really wanted to give me another gift so he left and ran the fifteen minutes back to his home, changed out of his schools clothes, grabbed three stalks of maize and ran back. Meanwhile, we were blessing the house and gathering our supplies to leave and all I could think was if Brian does not make it back, I will have broken his heart. But as I was walking up the hill to the van I saw him jump out from behind a tree and I gave him the biggest hug and kiss on the head and we both cried. I also got Sheila to get his contact information, so hopefully before I leave I can find a way to give him a small gift, like a pair of shoes and a note. This boy absolutely changed my life. I have just as much love for him as I do some of my closest friends in the world, and I don't even know his last name.

Well I have so many more stories yet again, but I do not think all the stories and memories can ever be shared, so I will leave you with just this. I have been here for a month now and I have exactly one month left and I just feel so thoughtful. I am discovering so much and God is teaching me to love and serve in a way I've never known. I wish every single one of you could be in my shoes experiencing this with me. It truly is life changing. Please keep me in your prayers. I love and miss each of you more than you could know.

And here's the verse of the week from me. Enjoy :D

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility, consider others better than yourselves." -Philippians 2:3