Purpose:
Share the word of God with the school children
Visit the different community's in the Buteba
district
The
Team:
2 South Africans 4 Australians 1 x England 1 x Scotland + 8 Ugandans from
the Buteba Church in Busia
Schools
we visited
07 Primary Schools
01 Secondary Schools.
08 Schools = 4380 schools kids and teachers in Buteba District
Stories
we shared:
·
Potter and the
Clay: How God moulded and made us in his image.
·
Armour of God: Ephesians
06:10 God’s protection over us.
·
The wise and the foolish
builders, Matthew 07:25: Building our house upon a rock, God is our foundation
in life.
·
Our Life :Illustration of
how God shapes our life (Illustrated by the making of paper planes)
·
Song and Praise: Our
God is so big, Song and illustration how God is in control of everything.
·
Bible teaching and memorization:
Leaders divided into teams of two and shared with individual classes.
Community
Visits:
07 Churches with each team member attending a
different church.
Free time: Was spend at Sipi Falls,
Lake Victoria, Climbing Tororo Rock and visiting a Gold mine.
Praise
and thanks for: Good Health and Safety in travel.
Pray Request :
·
Each member wants to
serve God.
·
Please remember each one in your prayers as we listen
to God as to where to from here in our.
·
Pray that the fruit of what God did among us as a
larger team will bring growth and have a lasting impact on the lives of the
children –
Uganda Outreach Personal Diary 2008
03 July/ 01August
03 July 2008 :
Day
started bright and early, said goodbye to the family at 07h50, met the Jackson
at 08h00 for a free flowing drive to the airport, met up with Brian and we were
on our way to Joburg, amazingly everything were on schedule, met up with the
Madagascar team in Joburg whose flight were delayed by 03 hours. My first
international flight left Joburg on schedule and we were on our way to Uganda,
we arrived at Entebbe airport at 18H55 and were met by a power cut as we
entered the arrival terminal. Lawrence our driver picked us up and we
left for the Aim guesthouse outside Kampala, the ride in was quite hairy
because of the power cut with lots of weird sights greeting us like Boda Boda’s
(motorbikes acting as taxi’s), met the British contingent (Becki and Tom) at
the guesthouse, we all stayed up till about 22h30 before retiring for the night
, I hope to have my phone set up for internet tomorrow so that I can keep up
with event back home. One Aussie arriving tomorrow.
04 July : Slept like a baby, got up early as per usual with my
day, had breakfast and met the rest of the Aim team working in Uganda during
their prayer meeting, went for a walk to the shopping centre with the team to
change some money, got the email on my phone to work and downloaded almost 30
messages, tried to get my hair cut twice today but to no avail, will go to
Kampala tomorrow to cut my hair, Leanne Leung arrived while's Tom and I were
out with Phyl, discovered during lunch that Becki and I share a birthday, we
played cards into the night, was surprised that Leanne stayed up late, rest of
the team will be arriving tomorrow, which means we may be up late again.
05 July : Day started bright and fresh, went to Kampala to
change money, what an experience!!, spend the morning dodging taxis and
people, had some trouble getting an ATM to get my card to work but got most of
my money after a long search standing in quees. Had lunch in town and
eventually got a haircut, sat in a traffic jam for about 10 minutes with sweat
pouring down my face, Becki and I drove on the back of a Boda Boda back to the
guesthouse, got home and went straight into the shower just before
supper. Becki and I spend the evening going through which movies to watch
for the night as we await the arrival of the Australians. Brian went to
the airport to meet them. Got a phone call at 23h00 to say that the Australians
plane had been delayed, everyone went straight to bed.
06 July : Got up at 03h00 am to welcome the rest of the
Aussie team to Uganda, they were all knackered and had to be up at 08H00 again
to go to church, we all had breakfast together and I got the team to clean the
kitchen before leaving for church at 09h30 in Kampala, spend the time helping
the Aussies to draw money for the month and then had lunch in town, decided
against riding on the motorbike home and walked back to the house, had a
relaxing afternoon followed by supper and a good shower, followed by pray
for our trip and packing for Tororo, we will have to take the postbus which
will take up to 06 hours. By 22h00 everyone was in bed except for Tom who
was downloading pictures on to Facebook.
07 July : Today we
left Kampala early for the bus ride to Tororo which took 05hr17, arrived in
Tororo and chose to walk to the hotel instead of taking a ride with Eve, we
spend the rest of the day getting to know Eve and the town. We bumped in
some loud mouth Americans, Everyone went to bed at about 21h45 pm.
08 July : What and end to the day, a flooded hotel room, it has
been fun staying at the hotel so far, nice staff, went to the school with
pastor Oridi, went down a road which is also the border between Uganda and
Kenya, we all jumped out of the taxi on hearing this to have our picture taken
in Kenya. met with the one school and the rest of the community of Busia,
Came back and had a planning session for the rest of the week, before supper
some of us met 1 lady and her daughter together with her aunt and we spend a
few minutes at their home, we had supper with Eve (power failure meant we only
ate at 21h000 Came back to a flooded hotel room, nothing wet thankfully, Brian
and I had to move to another room, tomorrow the outreach starts in earnest.
09 July : Today was a long day and everyone was tired, we
spend the day at a big school 950 kids, the morning went well and it was not to
hot which everyone was happy about, went for a walk through the village and
spend some time with the local folk. Everywhere we went we heard the word
Mzungu (white person) which always caused a laughter. The work day
starts at 09h30 when the taxi arrives to pick us up for a 24 km drive to
Busia. No one has gotten sick so far which is great and we are all having
fun doing the Lord's work with a Bible study every morning reading form Isaiah
61. Hotel staff are very friendly and you cant really blame them if
something goes wrong.
10 July : Today started off nice and cool, we went to the
Catholic school but was told before hand not to do any Evangelizing as the
school body wont like it. We all briefly spoke about ourselves and the
work we are involved in, before Brian told a story to get our message across
after which we interacted with the kids and were asked many questions varying
from studying overseas and improving school grades etc. Lack of
facilities seems to be a major problem at the school. During this time
Mel started feeling sick and the soccer game was called off. We had
supper with Eve at her house and the rest of the evening were spend relaxing and
telling silly jokes, before retiring to bed just after 22h00. Everybody
is beginning to feel the effects of the dusty roads, the sun and doing our work
flat out.
11 July : Another long hot day, but we had lots of fun with the
kids teaching then about God and drawing alongside the community, everyone is
pretty tired after a long hard week, knees are aching a bit, Mel is feeling
better and was able to partake in all the activities. It has now become a habit
to have a cool-drink the moment we walk into the hotel at the end of the
day. Ugandans seems to work hard during the day and party all night,
fortunately I am too tired to be disturbed by the noise level at night.
Everybody is hoping to have a rest day tomorrow. Right knee is aching
after playing soccer today, we were all told that each of us will be sharing at
a different church on Sunday, we are all nervous, but it's in God's hand and He
will guide us.
12 July : Today was our first rest day and we spend the day
chilling, some of us got our hair cut, hair braided and went to the market,
tried to do work on my sermon but could not put it together. Spend the
afternoon walking through town and playing cards. We were all happy
about the time off as all of us felt tired.
13 July : Today I spoke in the Hillsview Baptist church,
very unusual, and it went well I think, just before I was bout to speak my
phone went off as an sms arrived from Dave and I had to scramble to turn it
off. We all spoke at different churches some were more nervous than
others, spend the rest if the day playing cards, have to get up early tomorrow
(06h30) as we are climbing up Tororo Rock.
14 July : Today was another rest day, some of the team went up
Tororo Rock which took just over 30 minutes to reach the peak, coming down was
fun though, we down the mountain before 10h00- so we were able to have
breakfast, we also a cop car chasing after some robbers, we spend the day
walking around town and I manage to make a phone call home. Tomorrow we
go into the Northern zone of Busia going through up to Saturday with Sunday
being a rest day again.
15 July : Start of the second week, went to an other Catholic
school today and spend a long with the kids, who totally overwhelmed us.
Played soccer with the one school which we could not do the week before. Got
home at 18h00 and discussed a request made to us earlier to talk at the
churches again on Sunday which is suppose to our off day. I am keen to go
back and speak at Hillsview. Everyone seems to be getting tired now and
is going to bed earlier this week. Had some rain today which means my
nose is blocked. Knee hurting from the soccer. Read my bible on
servant-hood. Nose running a bit.
16 July : Today was probably the best school we went to in
terms of kids participation, we were well received by the school, but we were
becoming weary of the type of questions the students asked us after every
performance and the answer we gave were not the once they wanted to hear and
the word money came forward strongly today in terms of asking for support,
whether it was for a school project or upcoming church fundraiser. After
the school we went to an African funeral which was a new thing to most of the
team. Had a massive cloudburst which went on for quiet a while.
Some of us went to see Emily and her mom just after 22h00 pm as she
wanted to see us. Tomorrow is a rest day which as we swopped our rest
days around in order to go to church on Sunday.
17 July : Today was a rest day and we spend the day at Sipi
Falls which I would rather forget as I fell flat on my but quiet a few times,
the drive back was a bit hairy to say the least.
18 July : Today program was cancelled due to the fact that
everyone was tired from the day before, we spend the day having a quiet time
with ourselves. I bought two new Bibles( Study Bible and a smaller
Bible), we went to Eve for a braai and learned something about what the Aussies
like at a braai. Tomorrow we going to visit some community centres.
Decided on a pray theme/Bible study for Sundays service.
19 July : Went to the health clinic today in
Buteba and climbed some of the rocks nearby with monkeys all over the place,
it got pretty hot though. Spend the rest of the day trying to put
together my sermon for Sunday, playing card games and watching the early night
movie.
20 July : Spend the morning at the
church, spend about 40 minutes talking about the rich and the poor, and another
10 at the end, church finished at 14h00 and we had a late lunch at Buteba
Baptist church as I was the last to arrive back from the service, today we changed
hotel rooms and I moved in with Tom, slow internet is a pain but I got to read
some emails, spend the rest of the afternoon watching movies at the
hotel. Tomorrow we go to another primary school and then maybe the market
in Buteba, maybe pop into the Kenyan/Ugandan market on either side of
the road.
21 July : Long days in the field are beginning to effect
the team as we are beginning to feel more and more tired. Today we went
to the Baptist primary school for a morning session and an afternoon of playing
soccer and visiting two widows in the village with hordes of kids following us
around. Only got back to the hotel at 18h30. Send an sms to Sam
regarding my glasses, tomorrow night we will sleep over at the Oridi’s house,
by now we have gotten used to the daily power cuts.
22 July : Today we went to another Baptist school where we were
warmly welcomed by the kids in the warm blazing sun with no protection.
Afterwards we went to the local gold mine . Spending the night at the
Oridi’s house to get the feeling of the local lifestyle. The girls helped
with the preparation of the food, while the guys did chores around the
house. Everyone seemed to be having fun which was great for all
involved. It’s amazing how quickly Peter fell asleep.
23 July : Everyone was up early and
about. Today we finished off by spending time with our based school
and having a meeting with the different classes. Peter and I had the a
good session with the higher grade classes , we finished off by
playing soccer with them. Tomorrow is a rest day and we going to Lake
Victoria for the day before we have our last evaluation for the trip on
Friday. Mel is not feeling well and hopefully it is nothing serious .
Irene may have malaria and is going to see the doctor tomorrow. Everyone
in the team is thinking about having a good break in Kampala.
24 July : Today was a rest day and
we went to lake Victoria to relax, on the way it started to rain, we stopped
over to see some baboons which did not really appeal to me, we had a bit of a
wait for our lunch which did not appeal to us as we were pretty hungry.
On the way home we were stopped by the police as the driver did not have his
permit with him, most of the team were pretty tired by the time we got back to
the hotel, Mel went straight to bed and we only saw her the next morning again.
25 July : Today was the last day of the
outreach in Buteba, we had our evaluation which eventually went ok after a
change of action, all of us will right up a report of what we did while’s
we were in Buteba. Tomorrow is a rest day and on Sunday we will have the
fundraiser for the Baptist church. Some of the team may go on an Aids
outreach out of town tomorrow, while the rest of us will write up our reports
and do whatever they want to do, I will finish reading the book of Daniel
before next week Friday, on our way back to the hotel we stopped over at
Sylvester’s house in Kenya and met his family. This time next week I will
be back home in Cape Town. Time has gone by quite quickly and we are all still
in good spirits.
26 July : Today was a rest day and I went
for a long walk around the town including the war cemetery, we had our morning
meeting and then met in one of the rooms to decide how to distribute the gifts
some of us brought with us. Tom and Lara went off to an Aids outreach in
the afternoon and the rest of us spend the afternoon having our hair cut, going
to the market and playing cards, settling our hotel bill and basically just
hanging around. Tomorrow we meet with the Baptist church for the last
time, so we have two more 40 minute taxi rides on the dust roads ahead of
us. Had a good hour long session on the internet, seems I discover ed the
best internet café in town a little to late.
27 July : Today was the last day with the
Baptist church in Buteba and everybody was a little sad. The start of the
day was a delayed as we waited for the taxi to pick us up, all of us said our
goodbyes during the church service with a Bible verse and short talk before
leaving to have lunch with the Oridi’s and exchanging gifts, the rest of
the afternoon was spend packing up, and saying a final goodbye to George our
driver and a walk around town for me, very boring, Pete wanted to bye a
music cd and got me to negotiate with the bar owner across the road. I
finally went to bed at 23h00.
28 July : Today was our last day in
Tororo Chrystal hotel, we all met at 07h00 and had breakfast one last time
before leaving for the post office to catch the bus back to Kampala, which took
06h00 hrs, we arrived back at and Matoki Inn at 16h00 pm, unpacking and
going for a walk to the supermarket to get sweets and stuff. The
rest of the evening were spend reading and chatting to Nigel and Rowena .
Sarah Ayrton joined us for supper which was great as I was looking forward to
catching up with her. Most of the us went to bed at about 21h30.
29 July : Nothing much happened to day,
spend most of the day at home as we had a debriefing meeting with Phyl about
our outreach, Tom sorted out a DVD with all our photo’s on it.
30 July : Went to Kampala to get some
last minute shopping done, went with Laura to have her ticket sorted out with
Kenya airways, manage to beat the rain back home which was good as we got the
taxi driver to drop us off in front of the house. Brian and I went for
supper with Sarah at her place, Tom and Becky left for the airport at
21h15. Laura seems to be affected hard by the pending departures of
everyone.
31 July : Our last day in Matoke Inn,
Brian and I went into Kampala to meet Sarah who was suppose to meet us in
Entebbe one last time, we had coffee and then went our separate ways.
LeeAnne left at 12h30 to go home to Australia. The American team arrived
while’s Brian and I were out, said goodbye to Mel and Laura at 18h00 as they
were staying with Phyl at her house. I made contact with Chrissie Classen
after 3 years of looking for her contact info, spend the evening catching up
with Americans and watching tv, said goodbye to Peter and the Americans as no
one was going to be up at 04h45 when Brian and I were leaving, will wake
up at 04h00 to have a shower before leaving for the airport.
01 August : Good thing that Brian alarm
was set to go off at 04h30 as we would have overslept, left Uganda at 07h25 for
the flight home, spend three hours at Joburg airport and spend a further
3hours at the Cape airport waiting for my brother to fetch me finally arriving
home just after 20h30. Great to home again.
