Buhweju- Western Uganda

On Thursday, we left for the mountainous village of Buhweju. It’s located in the Bushenyi region of Western Uganda. One of the pastors I met in 2005, Pastor Israel Naba has planted many churches in this region, and most recently a school. It was great to see everything God is doing through him out there. 

We also brought this school soccer balls and they absolutely loved them. Our last night there, Taylor particpated in a soccer match, but it only lasted about 10 minutes because it started pouring down rain and everyone ran for cover.

My safe place in Africa- under the mosquito net nothing can touch me!

Listening to Kyalimpa's stories about his trip to the Netherlands- hilarious! Everything was so different to him.

Pretty easy to spot the Muzungu

Walking to the soccer field

Taylor tried to keep up.

We all stepped into someone's mud hut on the way back to get out of the rain.

This little guy didn't seem to happy. Probably  because Taylor realized he had been stepping on his bare feet.

On the way back to Masaka- travelling African style!

To Africa With Love

We got the chance to stop by a baby's home in Masaka. I don't know the name of it, but the website is toafricawithlove.org. It is run by a woman from Arkansas named Faye. The stories of how the children arrived were so sad. Some were left outside of hospitals. Some were left next to latrines. One little boy- Isaiah- was tied up under a bed for the first year of his life until a raid on his house. He was born out of incest and the mother did not want him. He was literally just bones and on the verge of death when they got home. But now he is 3 years old, chunky, and doing great. It's amazing to see how resilient these little guys are. All of them were either abandoned, or the parent couldn't take care of them/died.

They were very happy to have visitors.

I don't even remember his name but this little boy was so sweet!!

He came up to me and wrapped his arms around me so tight.

Dinner time!

The boy in the striped shirt in the middle is Isaiah.

Muko

Everyone has been so happy that I (Ashley):

1. Came back to Uganda and

2. Got married and brought my husband with me. 

They actually cheer when we introduce ourselves that way in churches. 

Pastor Kintu- one of the pastors in Masaka- calls me his daughter. On the first day that Taylor met him, he informed Taylor of the custom in Uganda. When a man marries a daughter, he must buy a chicken and give it to the father. Then he will be the “Muko”; son-in-law. So the other day ,we actually bought him a chicken. The whole chicken cost 10,000 Ugandan Shillings- about $4.

Pastor Kasozi, Ashley, Queen Betty (Kasozi's wife), Taylor, and Pastor Kintu

Jireh Children's Home/School

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Tim had meetings with some of the local pastors that he had trained in ministry several years ago. Taylor, Rebekah and I went to Jireh Children's Center/School- one of Pastor Kintu's ministries. Jireh is a children's home for orphans seated upon the top of a hill. It overlooks many valleys. It was really cool for me to come here because the last time I came there were only a few buildings and one of their main problems was that there was no water. The children would have to walk 7 kilometers down the hills, with steep, rocky edges, every day to get water and bring it back to the school. Now they have water so the children don't have to walk all that way every day! There are also a lot of new buildings. It has grown so much. In addition to the children living there, it's also a school, so they get an education. 

Part of Jireh Children's Center- I couldn't capture all the buildings in one picture

Every day before lunch, the children and staff have a noon-hour service. Taylor spoke at the service on Wednesday and we also taught them some songs.

 

Singing "Who's the King of the Jungle?"

using a child as a visual aid

We donated 2 soccer balls and 2 inflatable balls. They're playing volleyball with the inflatable watermelon ball.

The headteacher's son, Vincent. He's terribly afraid of Muzungus (white people)- especially men. I got several smiles and almost got a hug, but whenever Taylor or one of the other guys came around, he started screaming.

The other headteacher's son- Simeon, who is clearly not afraid of Muzungus.

As we were taking a tour of the campus of Jireh, we stopped by the nursery class. The sign on the door actually says "Baby Class." The children are about preschool age. I was trying to inconspicuously take a video of one of the children teaching the others but I accidentally stepped foot into the classroom which made them stop to say, "You are welcome, visitors!"

Masaka

This has been a busy week! Last Sunday, July 24, we met up with Tim and Rebekah Way. The Way family used to be missionaries in Uganda and that is how I came to meet them. I lived with them during the month I spent in Uganda in 2005. We met up with them in Kampala last Sunday left for Masaka on Monday. Of course we had to make the traditional stop at the Equator. It was Taylor’s first time to cross into the southern hemisphere. 

 When it came time to leave, the car had to have a little help getting started again.

We made it to Masaka and went directly to Pastor Kintu’s house, where we met several of his children. The baby’s name is Shaddai. Even though he is wearing girl clothes in most of the pictures, he is a boy. The next one is Blessed; she is four. The others are Shammer, Nissi, Jireh, and Becher. Jireh and Becher, the two oldest are in boarding school about 15 minutes outside of town.

Shaddai

lunchtime!

Murchison Falls Safari

Yesterday we went on a safari at Murchison Falls National Park. We didn't get to see the one thing I really wanted to see-lions. They are so hard to find. But we got to see some other pretty cool animals!

Our Safari group- David, Taylor, Ashley, Grace, Rachel, Mary, Constance, and Susan

Hippos

This elephant was obviously the leader and he was very good at guarding his pack. He was prepared to charge our car.

The elephants were too close to the road for us to drive past, so we had to patiently wait for them to move- especially the big guy.

lots of anteloupe

The past few days in Gulu, Uganda

We have spent the last 5 days in Gulu, Africa. I (Ashley) am so excited to be here because I was not able to come to Gulu the first time I came to Uganda. Since around 1986, Northern Uganda was  in a war with the LRA Rebels. They have terrorized the people of this region for far too long. If you have heard of the U.S. based organization called Invisible Children, then you are probably aware of the war that went on in Northern Uganda. Invisible Children raised awareness of the plight of children in Northern Uganda. They would walk for miles and miles every evening to get into the town of Gulu where they would be relatively safe. The villages they lived in were completely unsafe. During the night, the rebels would raid the villages and take the children, forcing them to join their ranks and become child soldiers. Before abducting the children, they would often make them shoot their parents in the head, or sometimes even kill them with machetes. These children have been through horrific trauma. So, many children would walk for miles and miles, often barefoot, to get into a relatively safe place- the town of Gulu. The rebels usually stayed in the bush and would go into villages so the children would come to the town for safety. As we drove through town our first night here, our driver pointed out many places that children could be found sleeping.

It is safe to assume that every single face we look into here in Gulu, has either directly been affected by the war, or knows someone who has. A man who has been driving us around Gulu, David, said that he and his 3 brothers were once hiding in a room from the rebels. The rebels came into the room and took one of his brothers and kept him with them for a year. A woman named Grace who has been showing us around said her father was killed by the rebels.

David playing a traditional Ugandan instrument

 Everyone here has a story. We have been working here with a ministry called Favor of God. They have been doing incredible things. The founder, Carole, started this ministry out of prayer. She came to Uganda in 2004, believing that God was going to move in  Gulu. Despite the danger and instability in this region at this time, she came, saying, “If I die, I die serving God.” She and another couple began praying for this town. Out of that, Favor of God was started. Today, they have a children’s home, a school, a Bible School, a medical clinic, a house of prayer, and many other things. I believe that is because of the prayers of believers around the world, that peace has come to this place.

It is amazing how things have changed in Gulu in the past several years. Today, there are a lot of aid organizations here- the U.N., World Vision, and many, many other Non-Govermental Associations.

Yesterday we visited one of the old I.D.P. (Internally Displaced Persons) camps- basically a refugee camp.

I.D.P. Camp near Gulu town

When the rebels invaded villages, they would often set fire to them before leaving, so thousands upon thousands of people were left homeless. The villages were unsafe to remain in and rebuild at the time, so these I.D.P. camps were set up. Today, all of them are empty, praise God. People have returned to their homes to rebuild and peace has come!

The roads here are not good. Think of the worst pothole you have ever seen in America and multiply that by at least time. First of all, most of the roads are not paved, just dirt. As for potholes, we’re talking crater-like holes! Our driver, David, is really talented. He knows how to maneuver these roads at a very high speed. We were joking with him about his speed the other day and he said everyone in Gulu drives fast. They had to learn because the rebels did sometimes come into Gulu town and they would start shooting. In order to avoid the bullets, you had to drive fast everywhere.

I can’t imagine such a way of life. Korea is similar to America in that both countries are so blessed with so many luxuries that others from around the world cannot afford or attain. Every night our power goes off here. We were told yesterday that if the power is off during the day, we’ll have it at night and vice versa. Also, if a storm is coming, they just shut the power off. Sometimes we have a generator. But when we run out of fuel for the generator, we only have candlelight.

Today we visited the Favor of God Primary school. The average class size is about 60-70 students. Teachers- can you imagine having a class of 70 3^rd graders? How about 6^th or 7^th grade? The class size can go up to 100-150 even. And they have such limited resources. Taylor and I each had the opportunity to teach a class today. I had to avoid major holes in the board and just write around them. There wasn’t even an eraser to wipe away the chalk on the board. Such a contrast from Korea where we have white boards with dry  erase markers, computers, and a tv to connect to the computer for powerpoint, videos, pictures, whatever we want! Here, the teachers hardly have books to teach from! They come up with their own lesson plans. Sometimes they have about 3 or 4 books to work with, but that’s not even enough to break into groups and share a book with a class size of 70! So, the teacher has to write everything on the chalkboard from the book, and the students have to copy it down into their handmade notebooks.

Taylor teaching about the states of the U.S.

Ashley teaching about articles-using a story about a man buying an anteloupe and selling it at the market.

Despite the scarce resources and often poor living conditions, Ugandans are such a happy people. Despite all that they have been through, they still smile, and when asked “Kopagno” (How are you), they always answer, “Kope” (I’m fine).

Please pray for Uganda. Pray for Gulu. So much healing still needs to take place. There is a World Vision camp here set aside exclusively for former child soldiers. They are separated from all the other children and go to a special school, along with going through serious counseling and rehabilition. We hope to visit that camp before we leave.

Sorry there aren’t many pictures. Each picture takes about 5 minutes to upload.

passing out stickers to the children at school