October has come and gone very quickly! It’s been a busy and good month here in
Uganda.
September ended with me attending 12 budget meetings – one
with each major department at the center.
Though not exactly thrilling, it was a good way for me to get to know
each department, what they do, and who is part of each. It also gives the employees an opportunity to
be heard by the administration, so we get a better idea of what is working well
for them and what can be improved. We
have such a great group of staff here who are so committed to serving the kids
and families of the surrounding communities.
I had the opportunity to do a very interesting home visit at
the beginning of October. We drove quite
a ways past Kibaale town, and then got out of the car and hiked through banana
plantations and then up a hill to visit this family. A single mother with eight children living in
the home, this woman owned no land and had no permanent home. Someone in the village allowed her to build a
temporary shelter on the side of the hill; the shelter was definitely not big
enough for nine people and it did not shelter them properly from wind and
rain. Thankfully, with some generous
donations, we are able to buy her a piece of land close to town and build her a
mud home on it. This is a huge relief to
this mom who is trying so hard to support her family and give them a safe and
permanent home to live in!
The last two weeks of October we had a team visit from
Village Church in Surrey. The first half
of the month involved doing quite a bit of prep for them, such as shopping for
groceries for meals, planning out an itinerary, and planning for home visits
and other activities. It’s always a lot
of fun to have teams visit, as there’s always a lot going on. It was my first experience helping to host a
team, and it was a great experience! I
had the opportunity to join them on a variety of activities and introduce them
to their sponsored children and families out in the community. We also built a mud hut for the single mother
mentioned above, which was my first time participating in a mud hut
construction. It was definitely a dirty
and tiring job, but everyone working together and building this new home for a
very deserving family was well worth it!
It's just over 5 weeks until I head back home for Christmas. I'm really looking forward to seeing family and friends, and doing some fun Christmas activities! I'm also excited about cold weather, and wearing jeans and hoodies - winter is my favourite season, so I'm definitely missing that here! December and January are summer break here, so the students and most of the staff are gone for most of that time, which makes it a perfect opportunity to head home for a bit. When I return, it will be a busy time of welcoming a new Canadian family to Kibaale, preparing for the new school year, and prepping for the many teams that will be coming starting in February.
