I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving Day and weekend! We had a wonderful time with our Peace Corps friends, Aubrey, Ryan and Caroline. We had turkey (killed fresh and dressed for us Thursday morning), mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade rolls and butter (REAL butter!), green beans sauteed with garlic and hummus and veggies. Then, for dessert we had pumpkin pie...complete with whipping cream (not real, but close). We played games, talked and laughed and generally enjoyed being Americans together in this foreign culture.
Here are some other highlights of the week:
Saturday - Parents' Day at School
There is always a final program to show the parents what the kids have learned, give the parents the report cards and have local officials (and some key staff) make speeches. It was supposed to start at 8am, but of course, it didn't start till 10am. The program went well. You have a couple of pictures from it. The first is of Magdalene and Doreen, who were representing Baby Class (Preschool) and doing an interactive drama with 2 of our other Baby Class members. The 4 had memorized several lines to say to each other. They were great - confident and cute. That's their teacher, Rosemary, who is holding the microphone for them.
You also have a picture of Natasha, who did about a 5-minute monologue on the digestive system. She and Ronald both did presentations like this - Ronald's was on the heart and its function. I was amazed at their poise, ability to memorize and the clarity with which they spoke. The teachers have done a great job with them this year, and the children have done well. Our Cornerstone kids were the top of their classes in 3 of the 8 classes. So proud of them!
The whole thing ended about 4pm with lunch for everyone.
At 2pm, I had to leave the kids' program to attend a graduation party for a woman in our church who has just finished her bachelor's degree. Pastor Rogers and I split up the pastoral duties - he stayed with the kids and I went to the graduation. This one lasted till about 7pm. I didn't realize I was on the program, but got to give a sermon almost immediately after getting there - nothing like thinking on your feet! You have a picture of Mary - she's the one with glasses on in the middle of the 3 graduates. She's a very sweet sister in Christ. Funny thing from this function - her husband's family is Anglican and they had the priests there who followed me on the program. They announced that now we were going to have a service, and indeed they did a whole church service, including the baptism of her youngest child, Zoe, who is 1 month old. I might add this was against Mary's will, but the extended family holds rank on this kind of thing. So, Zoe was baptized and then Sunday morning, Mary brought her for dedication to Cornerstone. Oh, we Christians!
Mutwahiru
Mutwahiru is doing very well and will be coming home today (Tuesday). Our nurse, Tom, has gone to Entebbe to pick him up and learn how to adjust the leg lengthener. We will all be so glad to have him home!
Bakery
We spent yesterday (Monday) in Mbale working on the details of opening up the bakery there. We had our new employee, Gerald, clean and paint last week. He came and met with me yesterday so I could talk to him about his hours, job description, etc. Rogers went and got the licensing with the municipality, got the electricity turned back on (the last person in this place had not paid her electric bill, so we had to pay that - about $300 - in order to get the electricity turned on) and found a glass counter. We went together to find a curtain (the room is quite long, so we decided to split it with the curtain), calculator, ledger book, trays for the products, etc., etc. Who knew starting a shop was so much work? (OK, I know lots of you do...but I didn't ;)
So, we are looking at opening on Monday, if all goes as planned. We actually had targeted today to open, but the man who promised the glass counter didn't show up (in Uganda they say he "disappointed us" - indeed!) and we can't open till we have a place to display our products. The Peace Corps friends have volunteered to stand on the sidewalk and promote our things, giving out samples when we open. They are very excited about what we're doing!
School is over for the year now, so the boarders have gone home and now it is just our Cornerstone kids for a couple of months. We're so excited to get to spend individual time with them again. Because they go to school Mon-Fri 7:30-5:30 and 7-8:30pm, and Saturday 8am-1pm, we have very little time to just hang out with them.
Thank you so much for your support and love for the work here in Budaka! God is doing amazing things through all of you. Have a wonderful day...talk to you next week!
Mutwahiru is doing very well and will be coming home today (Tuesday). Our nurse, Tom, has gone to Entebbe to pick him up and learn how to adjust the leg lengthener. We will all be so glad to have him home!
Bakery
We spent yesterday (Monday) in Mbale working on the details of opening up the bakery there. We had our new employee, Gerald, clean and paint last week. He came and met with me yesterday so I could talk to him about his hours, job description, etc. Rogers went and got the licensing with the municipality, got the electricity turned back on (the last person in this place had not paid her electric bill, so we had to pay that - about $300 - in order to get the electricity turned on) and found a glass counter. We went together to find a curtain (the room is quite long, so we decided to split it with the curtain), calculator, ledger book, trays for the products, etc., etc. Who knew starting a shop was so much work? (OK, I know lots of you do...but I didn't ;)
So, we are looking at opening on Monday, if all goes as planned. We actually had targeted today to open, but the man who promised the glass counter didn't show up (in Uganda they say he "disappointed us" - indeed!) and we can't open till we have a place to display our products. The Peace Corps friends have volunteered to stand on the sidewalk and promote our things, giving out samples when we open. They are very excited about what we're doing!
School is over for the year now, so the boarders have gone home and now it is just our Cornerstone kids for a couple of months. We're so excited to get to spend individual time with them again. Because they go to school Mon-Fri 7:30-5:30 and 7-8:30pm, and Saturday 8am-1pm, we have very little time to just hang out with them.
Thank you so much for your support and love for the work here in Budaka! God is doing amazing things through all of you. Have a wonderful day...talk to you next week!
Laurie
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