Well my feet are dirty.

Well my feet are dirty. Covered in the red dirt from the sweet village of Zirobwe.

 It has been an incredible week. It really feels like coming home.

Many of the children did not even recognize me- many mzungus come and go and they are constantly having people come in and out of their lives. Shortly after a few giggle and whispers. They began cheering for Muwala Wamusumba!!!!

When we got settled we immediately went out into the homes to do “new skills” a program where we get the opportunity to connect with an individual family and teach them English skills. The family that I was with didn’t even know how to write their name or the ABC’s. While we were teaching I was playing with some of my kiddos and I had a runny nose so I went to wipe it with my arm and there was blood everywhere! It must have been the change in elevation. I took care of it.

It is amazing how many words in Luganda have come back to me, I feel like I am going to pick up on it pretty quickly or at least I hope so!

We did A LOT of manual labor this week. Which is good…and bad. Wednesday some people woke up at 6am to commit the day to the Lord and just watch the sun rise. Breakfast was at seven and we had bread and tea to start our day.

Day one of manual labor we mowed the lawn with slashers. They are long hockey like sticks that you swing and cut the grass with. Let me just say it is harder than it sounds.

In the afternoon we had person ministry time. This was my opportunity to spend time with my families and just enjoy their company. So I IMMEDIATLEY visited my sweet village family and gave Dora (my sponsored kiddo) a few gifts from America- including a #Ugandashan t shirt. She loved it and it was so fun just to spend time with them. Then we walked down to Mama Franks house and she greeted up and hugged me so much. Earlier Frank had come to the church and said that she didn’t believe that I was back. She had the kids bring out two chairs for Christine and I-and had us sit down to chat. She came to the chairs and kneeled in front of us and greeted us again and kept saying that she was so happy and that she loved us so much. She also asked why I never bring pictures of my family to her. She wants to be able to show people that come to her home that she has a daughter since she never gave birth to a daughter. I assured her that I would bring her a picture. She also refused us to leave until we ate some of her VERY LOCAL cooked food. It was very hard to eat because it was one of my least favorite foods in Uganda, and also a staple food.

We made our way down to mama Sundays house (She is the one who called me several times while I was in America) She was so happy to see me. It was kind of that stereotypical moment in a movie when you haven’t seen each other in a long time and you run to each other for a big hug! That is how it felt.  The people in Zirobwe are so loving and kind. She gifted me with some fresh cows milk.

Everyone that I saw told me how beautiful I had become- and how BIG I was! In Uganda it is positive to be fat. Kind of a weird concept to get used to but they were not shy in telling me I had gained a few pounds since I left! I laugh it off now.

In the evening we had a campfire for our devotion time and it was a beautiful time of praise and worship. We also had popcorn, bbq beef, and corn on the cob. It was a good night indeed. We played the piano and drum and then heard a testimony from one of the Ugandan volunteers.

We have devotions every morning and every evening and I think the one that stood out to me the most was the one this morning. Portia (UK who is doing our finances) shared Romans 8 and talked about who we are in Christ. She had us pair off into small groups and read through it and talk to one another about what we got from it. There is so much truth in that scripture about who we are in Christ. The part that stood out to me most was when it talks about the spirit dwelling within us and how we don’t know what to pray for without the incline from the spirit. It just is such a great reminder that we can’t do this on our own we have to rely on Christ.

All of the children are in exams this week so we would only see them while they were on their breaks, it made it really hard to spend time with them because they needed to study! After exams they have holiday for some weeks and some of the kids said they will teach me Luganda. I will let you know how that goes.

I am so excited to be back and excited to see all the programs that have been implemented in the last months that I have been gone, there is so much good going on! I cannot wait to see how I get to fit into this crazy life here.

I have so much I could say, but I am going to leave it at that. For now. J