Dear Friends,
Thank you to everyone for your moral, physical and spiritual support. From The Heart House is emerging in the community despite the many, often frustrating, challenges.
We are blessed to have a van in our possession! It enables us to reach the areas to take our ministry, to transport food and other tangible items and to visit other ngo's which are doing similar work in the community.
The House is slowly, but surely, taking shape. The main source of frustration is electricity, or should I say lack of it? Grid power may only be available a few hours a day and sometimes not at all for several days. We bought an inverter for back up power, then a new battery for it......but it (as most things in Uganda) continues to give us problems. Water has to be trucked in and is pumped into a large concrete tank. When we are without power, we cannot pump that water to the elevated gravity tank and then the problem of no water in the house becomes an issue. I never thought I would say this, but we are blessed to have 2 outdoor toilets on the property!!! There isn't hot water available in the house, there is a constant stream of ants marching across the counters and tiny "mos-quee- tos" are ever present, along with many small pinkish green lizards. We purchased a stove and a refrigerator, but I am constantly discarding food that was only half cooked on the stove or spoiled in the refrigerator.
The heat is oppressive. Air conditioning is rare, only in a few stores, the better hotels and thankfully, IN OUR VAN! Sometimes after working in the field, we climb in the van and blast ourselves with the coldest air possible, soaking in the coolness. The locals say it has never been this hot before. A thick layer of red dust settles on everything.....the laundry on the line, the fruit on the counter and, it seems, especially on your skin and hair. It is ever present and reappears almost instantly after you clean something. Welcome to Uganda!!!!
I am blessed! Each day I make new friends and have been learning patience and appreciation. I sometimes find myself feeling like a zoo animal in a rare exotic exhibit, the featured attraction, a white woman, a muzungu. We often travel to villages where persons without color are not common. Sometimes people ask me to touch their children and I wonder if they think I bring good luck! Always the children run to greet me and take my hands to walk. It is the times when they reach up to be held that my heart soars and I know that God is present in this, oh so magical, moment.
We visited Highway Secondary School in Kiganda last week and presented dental care products to the 700+ students. They were so grateful. As always we were asked to speak words of encouragement to the children. The new Perfecting Faith Ministries classroom building was teeming with eager to learn students as one of Desana's scholarship recipients, Abdul Bisaso, was teaching a class on economics.
We had our first visitor at the House, the founder of Love and Care Home for orphaned children. We gave Joan Sanyu dental care products and promised to visit the children there next week. We will bring food with us, perhaps fruit, rice and beans.
This week we traveled to Naguru Remand House, basically a children's prison, housing 160 children, ages 12 to 18. The children have been charged with crimes such as rape, defilement, assault, robbery and murder. It is supposed to be temporary housing, but one of the director's told us that the children are often there for over a year because they lack the fuel to drive the children to their court hearings. They share dirty mattresses, are always hungry, have no studies to occupy their time....well, you can imagine it is not a facility where children belong. The children were assembled so we could talk to them and explain who we were. They were so happy by our gifts (dental care products, t-shirts and oranges, bananas and pineapple), that they applauded and smiled in a completely childlike joyful way. We will visit them every Friday with food and whatever else we are able to procure. They eagerly await our missionary, Tony Reid, as they are desperate for hope and love. Thewarden, Mr. Asiku Asher Nyakutar, is a kind, soft spoken and gentle man. He so appreciates our involvement. We all thanked God for showing us the way to Naguru.
Sometimes I almost have to pinch myself to feel if this life is real! I never imagined living in Luteete, Kampala, Uganda......! And what an amazing life it is! I miss everyone and all things American, but I know I am the luckiest person on the planet. If you are up for an adventure, eager to be loved and appreciated, ready to find God in unexpected places......join me next month....you will not be disappointed.
Much love, many hugs and a million thanks,
Kathy (and Andrew)
From the Heart House
Thank you to everyone for your moral, physical and spiritual support. From The Heart House is emerging in the community despite the many, often frustrating, challenges.
We are blessed to have a van in our possession! It enables us to reach the areas to take our ministry, to transport food and other tangible items and to visit other ngo's which are doing similar work in the community.The House is slowly, but surely, taking shape. The main source of frustration is electricity, or should I say lack of it? Grid power may only be available a few hours a day and sometimes not at all for several days. We bought an inverter for back up power, then a new battery for it......but it (as most things in Uganda) continues to give us problems. Water has to be trucked in and is pumped into a large concrete tank. When we are without power, we cannot pump that water to the elevated gravity tank and then the problem of no water in the house becomes an issue. I never thought I would say this, but we are blessed to have 2 outdoor toilets on the property!!! There isn't hot water available in the house, there is a constant stream of ants marching across the counters and tiny "mos-quee- tos" are ever present, along with many small pinkish green lizards. We purchased a stove and a refrigerator, but I am constantly discarding food that was only half cooked on the stove or spoiled in the refrigerator.
The heat is oppressive. Air conditioning is rare, only in a few stores, the better hotels and thankfully, IN OUR VAN! Sometimes after working in the field, we climb in the van and blast ourselves with the coldest air possible, soaking in the coolness. The locals say it has never been this hot before. A thick layer of red dust settles on everything.....the laundry on the line, the fruit on the counter and, it seems, especially on your skin and hair. It is ever present and reappears almost instantly after you clean something. Welcome to Uganda!!!!
I am blessed! Each day I make new friends and have been learning patience and appreciation. I sometimes find myself feeling like a zoo animal in a rare exotic exhibit, the featured attraction, a white woman, a muzungu. We often travel to villages where persons without color are not common. Sometimes people ask me to touch their children and I wonder if they think I bring good luck! Always the children run to greet me and take my hands to walk. It is the times when they reach up to be held that my heart soars and I know that God is present in this, oh so magical, moment.
We visited Highway Secondary School in Kiganda last week and presented dental care products to the 700+ students. They were so grateful. As always we were asked to speak words of encouragement to the children. The new Perfecting Faith Ministries classroom building was teeming with eager to learn students as one of Desana's scholarship recipients, Abdul Bisaso, was teaching a class on economics.
We had our first visitor at the House, the founder of Love and Care Home for orphaned children. We gave Joan Sanyu dental care products and promised to visit the children there next week. We will bring food with us, perhaps fruit, rice and beans.
Next week we will meet with the warden of Kampiringisa Prison, a facility housing serious juvenile offenders. It is located about an hour west of Kampala. We have only heard about this facility...have not met anyone who has ever been there...so we don't know what to expect. Also we are meeting a minister called Patrick from Raising Up Hope Orphanage here in Kampala. We will travel with him through one of the largest and most desperate slums in the city as he looks for the forgotten, neglected and abused children to rescue off the streets.
I am blessed that one of my new friends, Peter, is a documentary film editor/producer. He has volunteered to create a short film for Desana so we can use it to raise awareness of what we are doing here in Uganda. God is awesome!Sometimes I almost have to pinch myself to feel if this life is real! I never imagined living in Luteete, Kampala, Uganda......! And what an amazing life it is! I miss everyone and all things American, but I know I am the luckiest person on the planet. If you are up for an adventure, eager to be loved and appreciated, ready to find God in unexpected places......join me next month....you will not be disappointed.
Much love, many hugs and a million thanks,
Kathy (and Andrew)
From the Heart House
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