Pink!

     Greetings from Uganda! You are most welcome. This is a phrase we are greeted with many many times each day. Today traveled to Busujja - a village about 2 hours away. One van had lots of conversation with Tim about history, financial planning, the cloud, and family. The trip was pleasant and thankfully the traffic on the way home wasn't too terrible.

     At Busujja, we threw a party for the Jja Jjas unlike any other Jja Jja party we have thrown before! As is typical for the culture, we commenced with a service of greetings, introductions, and presentation of songs by some choirs. The songs the children sang were particularly moving. The beauty of the children is hard to express with words. The amount of gratitude to God that is continually expressed by the people we encounter is humbling and inspiring. I must share one testimony that stood out to many of us. Rose, a teacher at Busujja, shared her testimony of being a child sponsored through the Children of Promise program. She told of her experience and gratitude for the program and what it brought to her life. She was sponsored in 2002, completed school, and trained to become a teacher. Rose thanks God and Children of Promise for the success of her life. "It got hard, so I tried harder and pushed through (insert strong upper-cut motion)." And now she is giving back to her community as a teacher. We are so sad that no one recorded her testimony to share. It was such a powerful story and reminder why the Children of Promise sponsorship program is so vital! We can't plug this program enough!

     On to the main event: the party! I must take a moment to note how much Colleen's presence was greatly missed. The Jja Jja parties and programing is a great love of Colleen's. There were comments on how she would love to be there dancing along side the Jja Jjas and Annette. The people's love for Colleen (and Tim too) is so evident! The kids shirts at school even have "Tim" and "Colleen" printed on the backs. There was another prayer time for her healing, and the faith in the Ugandan people is strong. There is power in prayer! Amen! Amina!

     After the introduction service, we served the Jja Jjas lunch. Denise and Caleb went around washing each of their hands. As an onlooker, I commented how the process really reminded me of foot washing - during debrief Denise shared the same sentiment. After lunch we had activity stations. There was a salon for hair, makeup, and nails, a craft station, a massage station (thankfully we have a therapist - Angie has become all the types of therapists :) that we have needed), and a studio for photos. During debrief we discussed how several of us ended up in a job that perhaps wasn't what we really wanted to do - it was uncomfortable for us - like washing hair and painting toe nails, but something changed during our service. By the end, there was a shift and I believe it is safe to speak for the whole group in saying that each person felt honored to be serving in the position they were placed. We had a blast! There were a few accidental drownings at the hair washing station, an impromptu dance party with Jja Jja George, and emotional connections through the physical nature of massage. While painting nails, many didn't speak English, but everyone knew "Pink!" Of course we had many shades of pink and our nail techs did a great job of helping the women select their colors. Denise had a conversation with a younger Jja Jja that was speaking very good English. She had not made it very far in her school education. Denise told her that intelligence doesn't have to do with your level of education and affirmed the woman that she is very smart! She had a strong desire to learn. With the help of others, even her grandchildren bringing her books, she learned to read and speak very good English. "I have so much more to learn!" she exclaimed. Many stations experienced difficulty with communication, but we saw first hand the creative communication God gifted us with. There are so many ways to communicate with each other and we often get caught up in the one that seems to come easiest to us - talking. We spoke to each other through smiles, gestures, service, and with the help of our Ugandan brothers and sisters. God is good! Another cool thing to come from the party was the craft. We helped the Jja Jjas make tissue paper flowers. The TAPP leader from the area approached me and asked for a lesson to make the flowers. She believes that the women will be able to make these and sell them as part of the TAPP program. It was such a blessing to us to be able to pamper the women (and a few men) today. You could tell they felt young and beautiful as they went around with huge smiles, showing off their nails. Deb took a photo of each Jja Jja. At first it was a challenge to get them to smile, but later they came back asking for another picture with their hair and makeup, even displaying their freshly painted nails in the photo. Big smiles!

     During the party, Greg was pulled to be taken to see a well. This is a hand dug well that is 150 feet deep. There was a brick wall built 12-15 feet down. Below this, rods are added every few feet to be used as foot holds for the workers as they dig. They climb down, dig, and a tripod with a pulley lifts and lowers a 5 gallon bucket that gets filled with dirt as they dig lower. I am thankful for the advancements that allow us to have access to water, but there is something really fascinating and amazing about the manual labor completed to bring a water source to this village. Greg also had some time to play with the school children, and had the honor of visiting and praying with Tim's namesake.

     As we used the restroom (in villages, this means stall with a hole in the ground) and packed up to head home, Carma and Denise were shown around a bit by Pastor Samuel. They saw some of the boarding rooms. The school has about 360 students and 160 of them board at the school. This is limited by the amount of space they have available for boarding. It was a solemn sight to see how many students live in one small room (38 girls in a room and 67 boys in a room)- three level bunk beds packed in. While it may seem unacceptable to our standards, these students have a bed, food, and they are receiving an education. Knowledge is power, a chance for a job, and income, and a better life. There are many ways we are reminded of how vastly different we live from many of the Ugandan people. We also experience many ways that we are the same. Different isn't bad. Different is different. There is beauty in difference, especially when we can recognize and appreciate our differences, piecing together a beautiful, colorful puzzle.

Many blessings,
Uganda Team 2018