So far this was one of the best days that I have had here. I started the day by going to Shield Standard with Risa, Teo, and Lydia for the phonics program. Teo taught the class about the letter "I" and the sound that it makes. Teo does a remarkable job at teaching these kids something that is totally new to them and her! Then Risa and I went into town to Park Villa (a hotel that serves Ugandan food that we go to frequently). After lunch we waited at the office for Vicky because we were going to go with her to her empowerment program meeting in Mbiiko. Right before we were about to leave for the meeting, a girl with her guardian came into the office. She looked extremely weak and had just come from St. Francis clinic where they had given her medicine. We put her in the Director's car (she could barely get in there because she was so weak!). Then we got a ride in to town and the Director to her and her guardian home. She has medicine for malaria and typhoid. (I just about lost it in the car sitting there with her. She was crying because she was in pain and I thought about how horrible I feel when I have a fever. I can't even imagine how she must feel! As I started to tear up looking at her, I prayed for her and thanked God that we have medicine and that she is able to get medicine because she is sponsored!) We then went with Vicky to Mbiiko and sat with six women who showed Vicky the books they were keeping. We got to see one woman's store. With the loan that she received from COG she was able to purchase larger quantities of poscho and rice so that when she sells them she can actually make a profit. Every week Vicky visits these women and they are expected to pay back 5% of the loan. These women have become a team. One of them didn't have a big enough house to store logs to sell so another woman is letting her store her logs at her house! What a blessing this program is to these women and the kids that they take care of.
Next I had the privilege of going to Nakanyonyi Girls School with Mary and Vicky because the sponsored girls there wanted to tell them about issues they were having with the school. (I went for two reasons, 1.Because I wanted to see Jalia (she is one of the girls who left a forever impression on me the first I met her at the January 2008 camp) and I wanted to see Deana's sponsored girl, Eron, and give her Deana's gift. 2. Because I did really want to see how the meeting would go with the girls and what their concerns were.
We opened up our time in prayer and then Vicky asked the girls to tell her what they were unhappy with. None of them wanted to voice their opinions so we had them write their opinions. Then Vicky and Mary read through what they had written and the discussions began. Their lists included: electricity was out for three days so they were unable to work on their studies at night, there is not enough medicine in the nurse's station and they run out quickly, about 12 of them have not received sweaters that come with their uniform and they are cold, they are too squeezed in their dorm, and a teacher is not being very encouraging and helpful. We talked through the issues with the girls and told them that we would bring up some of the issues with the school administration. I absolutely loved how Mary and Vicky handled the complaints. They gave a lot of great responses to the girls and at the end I told the girls how blessed they are to have Vicky and Mary and just reiterated things that they had said.
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