Fighting for Survival

This morning, I came home from the Resource Centre and thought I should see if there were any eggs in the chicken coop. Well, instead of eggs I found Isaac. I think we both spooked eachother. This two foot long monitor lizard went scrambling out of there so fast. I just stood there, even though he probably could have given me a good beating with his tail. All I could think of was, "You stinker... you are the one stealing my eggs... I thought the chickens were lazy!"

Well, I needed eggs for baking, so I decided to bike to town. I stopped at a few places. The bank, Peter's tailoring shop to pick up some more sewing, and OM Supermarket. As I was hopping off my bike at OM my foot twisted on uneven ground and I dumped myself in the gutter, with my bike on top of me. Ah Yi Yi!! Embarrassing more than anything. I quickly got up, brushed off the mud (and didn't realize I had cut my shin until a half hour later). Everyone at OM was concerned about me... so when I bought my eggs and a roll of candy, they gave them to me for free. Yeah!! I was starting to feel better already.

Then, this afternoon I went to go check up on some friends of mine. I visited two blind ladies and made an appointment to meet with their whole group on Friday... I want to help them with their knitting crafts. Then I went to visit two other friends, Carol and Susan, who really need some encouragement. (I invited them over for shepherd's pie for tomorrow - we'll see what they think.)

When I got home I found the sweetest note on my table, on top of a bunch of fresh bananas. It read: Dear Aunt Karen
A small gift for you just to say;
thank you for loving me
thank you for giving me clothes
thank you for visiting me always
and I love you too.
Baby Esther
Wow, so precious, especially since she is only two months old!!

So, I have had a full weekend. On Sunday I had to teach close to three hundred children at a "General Assembly" service. Thankfully I didn't have to teach the children the whole day, just the first two hours. We started off by singing and playing games outside, and then I did a super fun story with Rahab and the Walls of Jericho. I tied a red sheet to the window of the classroom, and walked around the front with a huge cows horn... blowing my head off. So much fun and the kids loved it. I think the teachers from five other churches also found it interesting!

This was taken at the very beginning of the day when the children first started arriving. The number kept increasing all morning.
This is one of the sweetest boys in my class. He always smiles and draws some of the best pictures. I sometimes worry about his future because I don't know how advanced Soroti is on skin grafting, but he seems to be dealing with his burns just fine.

Here is another sweet boy that I met on Sunday. One of the ladies told me I shouldn't spend too much time with him because he isn't right in the head. Wow, that got under my skin and I ended up spending more time with him. We couldn't understand eachother at all, but we played games and giggled together for twenty minutes. He is only the second person in Uganda that I have seen with special needs, and I pray that he will be able to learn and grow just like all the other children around him.

When I finished teaching on Sunday morning, I joined the ladies in an outdoor kitchen. You see, five churches had gathered together for a day of prayers and worship. We needed to provide food for all of these people. The pots of rice pilaf and beef were the biggest I have seen yet. (Thankfully today I was able to serve instead of sitting up front with all the leaders and other mzungus!!) I dished out plate after plate of rice and meat and laid it on a tarp. When it was all ready, we set up a chain of youth to pass the plates down until the whole congregation was fed.

Lining up the food... for a very enjoyable day. I am actually surprised to say that, because I thought it was going to be a very tiresome and culturally stressing day, but once again I realized that I love my church family.

Then yesturday I was able to travel to a new district with Fida. We munched on mais, (which is cow corn in my opinion) and chatted for two and a half hours until we reached the northern district of Abim.

The view was spectacular. I think I really enjoyed it because the villagers were really friendly and the scenery was gorgeous. It was no longer the flat savannah that surrounds Soroti.

Fida was there to help start up new support groups for children affected by armed forces... either from the Karamajong tribal raids or from the LRA and Kony's people. The need spreads across all of northern Uganda. But being there sort of reminded me of the chickens eggs. Who has the greater need for survival? Who really needs the egg? You see, Fida (praise God) only supports those affected by war, but there are also children there who are suffering from poverty, HIV/Aids, Orphans, etc, and they also need help. Who will come and provide and advocate for them as well. Such a difficult task to provide a ray of sunshine for some and discourage others. I continue to pray that the Lord will look after his children in ways I can never even imagine.