School, School, School!
I'm ecstatic to report that through one of our partner organizations, Xavier Project, almost 20 of our regular participants received scholarships in February to attend school! Yes, almost TWENTY! We miss them in our SWB classes and around the center each day, but they belong in school, that's for sure! Here is a picture of a family of children (one of the sweetest and most frequent participants of SWB Uganda) that received scholarships, as well as two boys that received scholarships that we see on the weekends now. Seeing them in a school uniform gives me the chills. God is good!
International Women's Day
Isn't it awesome being a girl?! It truly is, and we can't stop telling girls that, especially in countries like Uganda where their opportunities are significantly less. We celebrated International Women's Day on March 8th with all of the girls in our program, as well as their mothers, sisters, aunts, grandmothers, and any important women in their lives. We had tea, biscuits, and danced and sang the (extremely HOT) morning away! It's so fun to celebrate what so few people acknowledge.. that girls are the KEY to changing the world!
The New Center
Just an update with our new HOME! Soccer WIthout Borders Uganda is thriving in the new center just down the road from the previous. Our classes have grown but each of them have a steady and great number. I have my own classroom with about 20 students, while Jill and Turner have taken the full load of English 1.. with nearly 50 students each day! Hats off to them. A sneak peek: future plans for the new center include creating a garden with the participants to celebrate Earth Day throughout the month of April, and a new outdoor pavilion fundraised by Jill and her Mom (who will be here this week)! We will be using the pieces from the old building that was used as a classroom, which was fundraised by Sara, one of last year's long term interns. LOTS going on in the months of April and May! Here is a picture of my classroom (goofing around) and a picture of all of the students in my class after we returned pen-pal letters to Ms. Parsons' classroom in Cullman, Alabama!
I was privileged to be able to travel to Jinja (East Uganda) two weekend's ago and experience a whole different kind of NGO world. Jill and I volunteered with an organization called Sole Hope. Their mission is offering hope, healthier lives, and freedom from foot-related diseases through education, jobs, and medical relief. An incredible weekend that showed me the endless ways that God is making moves around the world. On Friday we participated in a jigger removal clinic and shoe drop. I washed the feet of many children before they moved to the gracious women who were carefully checking and removing the jiggers from their feet. Washing feet was so simple, yet so humbling. Here we are, two people from such different backgrounds, living completely different lives so far away. Yet I'm serving these children just as I should be, just as God planned. It was a really neat experience for me and I couldn't help but see Him a little bit more through these children and through this organization. Wow. On Saturday we were able to visit Amazima Ministries, just outside of Jinja. Jill and I -- along with the help of the volunteers in with Sole Hope -- were able to run a quick yet fun session with a few hundred of the children! Smiling, laughing, beautiful, happy, gracious children. It was amazing again to see another organization making such a positive impact on the children in Uganda. Taking the 2 hour trip back to Kampala that evening, I was blow away by the Lord's grace. He gives and gives and gives. Both Sole Hope and Amazima are organizations that are both a testament to what can happen when ordinary people follow and really, actually, wholeheartedly, listen to our extraordinary God.
If you want to see a little about what goes on at Sole Hope, here is a link to the their website and the Blog Hope section that has stories and tales from the incredible girls who were working with Sole Hope while I was there. Really amazing stuff, check it out!
So basically, through all of my experiences so far in Uganda (and life in general), I've realized there truly is no gift like the present tense! And I am so thankful for that gift.
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