Our first official day...

This is Kim writing to you a little after lunch. And what a yummy lunch it was. They made us spaghetti today! Add to that pineapple and vegetable medley, and you’ve got yourself a fantastic meal. 

I know that Tamra and I writing an entry at the same time, so I'll try to keep it short since I'm sure she'll go into more detail than me. I just wanted to give you a brief overview of our first day here and send you some pictures. 

We had the official tour this morning of the New Hope property, and it was so exciting to see what God is doing in this place. The property looks like a wheel with the primary school and church at the center, and each of the “families” are spread out like the spokes of a wheel. 

 

This is an example of one of the family areas. There is a central building where the family meets for dinner, and then several huts where the children and parents sleep. Each family grows various crops to eat such as cassava, sweet potatoes, and maize. You also see bananas, mango, papaya, jack fruit, and pineapple growing all around the property. From my previous trips, I already knew that Uganda was beautiful, but the property here at New Hope is so peaceful, and I’ve enjoyed just walking around in the quiet enjoying God’s creation.

 

 This is the duplex house we're living in right now. We will move to the guesthouse as room becomes available.

Tamra and I were able to meet with the primary school’s headmaster today to talk about how we can help while we’re here. Tomorrow she and I will observe in a classroom (Tamra will be in a P7 class and I’ll be in P4). Beginning next week they’ve asked us to tutor some students. Both of us will work with student who struggle in math. I’ll be working with the headmaster’s son…so no pressure there! Raegan, Troy, and Tyler will also go to school with us as a way to meet some of the children. We are looking forward to loving on these kids and learning about the education here over the next few weeks.

 Here is a picture of some students playing on the playground right outside the school building.

What a different it would make if our schools followed this same motto!

One of the things we really wanted to do during our time here was learn how to do our own laundry and cook for ourselves. Well, we weren’t much help today, but we were able to watch the women wash our clothes. We told them that tomorrow we would like to try it on our own while they supervise us!We’ll see how we do. They made it look so easy but I have a feeling we will have many spills and much laughter trying it for ourselves tomorrow. Be sure to look for the pictures documenting our attempts (smile).

More to come....