Sorry...But Better Late Than Never Right?

Sorry I have not posted a blog in quite some time. The truth is that I have been a little lazy about it. Doing school from 8:30-3:00 every day is a little tiring, but I still should have told you guys what is going on with me lately. Now I have a whole bunch of news to catch you up on. Let me try to start as far back as is necessary. I’m sure you don’t want to hear all of the little details, but I can graze over all of the ‘important’ things that you missed.

In addition to the school that we do during the week we also do ‘Friday School’ (I may have told you this already). I teach drama to the kids 9 years and above. The week before last Friday I asked the kids if they wanted to do a play. With more excitement then I expected they said yes. Then, this past week I told them about my idea for a play about a road trip from Kampala, Uganda to a city to be decided in Nigeria. They were even more excited. My last idea was to not use any props. Instead we would use the other actors as our props! They didn’t really understand this at first. We then tried out a scene where the main actors ‘passed’ other vehicles on the ‘road’ as well as encountered ‘speed bumps.’ They then opened a ‘door’ and used a ‘payphone.’ It was really hilarious to see one of the boys dial the ticklish telephone as well as move in unison in their invisible car. So, if you wouldn’t mind praying that I would get the rough draft of the script done by 13^th I and the kids would greatly appreciate it. If we have a performance it will be on August 3^rd and I will be sure to record it.

There has been a lot of name calling and tardiness among the boys lately, so they have to do push-ups as punishment. It was an idea I took from my old youth leader Mitch as well as from a good friend Mr. Fair. It has been working really well for the tardiness, but the name calling is still pretty bad. Sometimes it is just them teasing and playing with each other, but other times it is really spiteful. For example one day the name calling was escalating without me knowing it because it was all in Luo (the language that the Acholi in the house speak). After it was done both of the boys looked really upset. Apparently the younger one was pestering the older more than he could stand so he said something to the effect of “Why don’t you leave me alone. Go and kiss your grandmother’s a**.” The younger one had lost most of his family in a fire some years ago and still has some burns himself. I assume his grandmother died in the fire too. So the younger one kept saying, “How could you say that? My grandma is dead.” I told the boys to do some pushups and tell each other they were sorry for what they said. The older boy refused and said he wouldn’t forgive the other (I’m being vague on purpose). I don’t remember exactly what I said, but I reminded them that Christ asks us to forgive even as we have been forgiven or something like that. Anyway, it didn’t seem to have any effect so I just sat down and whispered a prayer. Very shortly afterward the older boy said that he forgave his brother and then immediately did his push-ups and got back to his school work. There have been a few things like that which have been neat to watch.

In other news: we went and saw two soccer games of the Ugandan national team. One game was a qualifier for the 2014 World Cup which was a miraculous tie. Uganda tied the match in the last few minutes against Senegal. It was really crazy, fun, and LOUD. They take their football (soccer) very seriously. In fact, on the way to the game I saw a billboard that said, “This isn’t football, it’s war.” The following week Uganda creamed Congo 4-0 (not Dominican Republic of Congo, but the other smaller one). It was even crazier than the first game! The fans flooded the field, tore the nets off of the goals, and danced around like mad. It was so fun to spend that time with the boys. Two of them, Francis and Daniel (12 and 13 yrs.), both really love football. I taught all of the boys a game called ‘butts up’ which involves keeping the ball in the air for as long as possible and if you mess up you get a letter. Once you spell b.u.t.t. you have to let everyone shoot the ball at your butt. They loved that game so much that we wore out the very durable leather ball that I brought with me. So today I was looking for a more durable ball and actually found a neat organization that has invented an almost indestructible ball. It is called the One World Futball Project. The balls are made out of the same material as crocs (those rubbery slipper shoes), and it can even be punctured and still be played with. http://www.oneworldfutbol.com/about-the-ball/. There is also a rate for organizations to buy 10 balls at $19 each, which got me thinking that it might be fun to buy some for Ray of Hope. That is the school and aid organization in the slums of Kampala which hosted the medical team these past few years. I was asked by some of the ladies there to come and do like a bible study with the boys there sometime and have yet been unable. My plan today is to ask a few people if there would be any way to make it down to Ray of Hope every once in a while to play some football and read the scriptures to those kids. It would take around $250 to purchase the balls, and ship them to NC. I could then pick them up while I am home for a couple of weeks in September. Oh yeah! I’m coming home for a couple of weeks for my sister’s wedding! That is something to look forward to. I hope to see many of you while I am back.

Anyway, between the schooling, the Futball idea, and the drama I’m keeping pretty busy, but I will try very hard to make it a habit to write something down every so often. I also have some videos I would like to put on here but the internet won’t allow. And lucky for me the internet just turned back on and I can post this.