Safari, graduation and chickens

It has been a long time since I last wrote a blog, due to being very busy and not finding (or putting aside) the time to sit down and write one.
So I apologise for the delay, today has been the first time in a few weeks where I have not had anything on.

Recently my sister Carlee has come over to Uganda after traveling around Europe and America. Carlee is visiting Aggie and I, while also using her skills and knowledge in childhood development to teach some classes to a range of people. This is a real need, as most people here don’t have any kind of access to learning about the inner workings of the development of a child, and we have many single young mothers who are struggling and frustrated with their children that are interested in learning more about what makes a child tick.

It has been great to have Carlee over, Aggie and I have enjoyed the conversations and time spent with her, and she is settling in well (even being courageous enough to ride on public transport)

The first week that she arrived, we actually went on a safari. This was a bit of a birthday present from Carlee and my Mum for Agnes’ 30^th last April.

It was great to have a bit of a break and enjoy a safari up in the northern parts of Uganda. What a beautiful country it really is, and so different from the south.
The north is your typical African savannah and dry bush, and we enjoyed a safari drive and a tinny ride up the river Nile, seeing lions, elephants, hippos, crocs, giraffes and more.

It is really wild country up there, and living in a highly populated area in wairaka it was really interesting to see parts of Uganda that is just land and bush with not many houses or people living on the land at all.

The first night on Safari was pretty interesting and funny, as we were sleeping in a big tent near the river Nile, and hippos where walking around our tent at night.
I was kind of freaking out, and both Carlee and I were laughing in the morning because we both had a sleepless night. When we did manage to find sleep, we both ended up having dreams of hippos barging into our tent …. Only to wake up realizing it is a dream … only then to realize that we were still actually in a tent in the African bush with hippos walking around our tents haha.

Aggie didn’t hear anything, and as usual, slept through it all (which is probably a good thing)

It was a great experience (although a long drive) and some other highlights included trekking on foot through the bush to get up close and personal with a rhino (to which the guide told us that if it charges we should climb a tree .. and which a pregnant Agnes didn’t seem too thrilled about)

We also saw a chimpanzee on the side of the road while driving through a forest, which is actually pretty rare to come across.

Another highlight from the last month was having our graduation for our tailoring girls. They have now finished their one year course, and have been sent off with their machines (which they have payed off about half of) to start their own small businesses. 

The graduation was filled with dancing, speeches, words of encouragement and a big feast.
This was a special occasion for many of our girls, as they have never gone through anything like it, and they were all thrilled to receive their certificates.

Agnes and I were even given some chickens as gifts of appreciation!

We have already been encouraged by some of the opportunities the girls are pursuing. With a few girls going to work for clothing stores, some wanting to work in the main town market, or some starting up their own small businesses from their homes.

We were both sad and happy to say goodbye to our young girl Eseza, who has been living with us for a full year while doing her course.

When she came into the course, she was a very shy, dejected looking young woman who could not look you in the eye. She left being a young woman with a lot of confidence (and sometimes a bit of cheek)

One of our other tailoring girls escorted her back to her home village, and she reported that the whole village came out to welcome Eseza when she returned to them.
Apparently a crowd of people had come running to greet her and hold their own ceremony for her when she returned. Many of the villagers where running around with joy, exclaiming how no one from their village had ever graduated from a course.
Someone who left the village as a nobody there, has now returned as the only person from the village to graduate from a course.
The village also has no tailoring services nearby, so she already has been getting requests from all the villagers.

Stories like this make us very happy to hear, and we only pray that we have given them the strength and confidence to know that they are valued by God. That as a woman they are valuable and not someone to be walked over! We pray that this encouragement will help them have a bit of strength in not allowing people (particularly men) to walk all over them.

Have a look at the difference in Eseza after one year.

Before

After

It has been a great time to invest in these girls, not just in teaching them new skills, but also investing in them spiritually, trying to show them and tell them about the love of Christ.

We thank all of you who contributed and sponsored these young women in helping them get through this course.

We hope to start up another tailoring course in the next few months, as they are such a great way to reach the community.

Another big project we have started up, is our chicken project.

Farouk and I picked up 300 small chicks two weeks ago, and they have been a lot of work!
They eat so much, and you need to be checking on them and changing water every four to six hours. This includes at night time as well.
So this means Farouk has been leaving the property at midnight, while I usually do the morning shift at around six or seven.
We have also camped out down at the property as well when our night guard went away to his village (just to make sure they were ok .. as they are worth a lot of money)

This chicken project will hopefully bring in an income for YSU, and my goal is to get it running to a point where we can pay the salaries of our workers with the profit.
At the moment we just have 300 chicks which are being raised for meat (sorry to all you vegans and vegetarians) but we also plan to house egg laying chickens in the future as well.

We also want to use this chicken project as a way to train up some young men, give them employment and new skills in chicken farming.

Farouk has been great in running and managing this, as well as doing his research, as this is his area that he loves (agriculture and animal rearing)

Otherwise we are well. Agnes is starting to feel the pregnancy now, with her big tummy and sore back!

We have also just applied online for a partner visa for Agnes. It took me five and a half hours on the immigration website to complete! But finally we have the application in.
Now we just have to wait nine to twelve months to see if she is accepted!
Please pray for us, as it costs a lot of money and it would be terrible if she was not accepted.

Lastly, I continue working with a group of boys from the community. I feel like I have my own little fellowship group of boys who are at my house constantly.
I continue to be amazed at their faith and their stories. Most of them have suffered some form of persecution from coming to Christ, as most of them have come from different religious backgrounds.
Some have been completely cut off from their family. One young boy and his mother came to Christ, only to have his whole father’s side of the family, who are Muslims, cut them off. That means no support for shelter, education or even food. 

Total rejection for changing their faith

Yet still they are unwavering in their faith! Even on their free time these school holidays, they decided to spend the time visiting local hospitals to pray and encourage the sick.

I have felt the need to do what I can for these young guys when it comes to their education. Especially because some have been cut off from their families after coming to Christ, I believe that they now belong to the family of Christ, and we need to treat them as fellow brothers and sisters in the faith.

So arranging some small labour work here and there, or contributing a little bit of money is the best I can do to try and push them through school. Usually if they pay a 50k UGS (about $20 AUD) to the school, it can keep them there for about a month before they get chased away again and told to find the remaining money. So each month we try and work out something to try and ‘push them though’ for a few more weeks.

The good thing is all the boys are hard workers, and do whatever they can to top up the money. I appreciate their efforts to contribute to their schooling as much as they can (including hard labour) and not just relying on others to sponsor them.

It can be hard because I don’t really have the money to get them through school. But again, we do what we can do for our brothers and sisters who are persecuted.

I want to thank everyone again for all their support and prayers over the last few months. Agnes and I want to say that we love you all very much.