Monday Update

 Hello Friends and Family! I'm Mea and I'll be updating y'all on what our team did over the weekend. 

The past few days have been full of new experiences, painting, and soccer. Between school visits on Thursday and Friday, some members of our team had the opportunity to visit the Mirembe and Suubi houses. 

Youth For Christ's Mirembe house is a home for pregnant teen girls who either were kicked out by their parents or couldn't afford to have a child otherwise. There are currently five girls living there and receiving counseling, discipleship, and prenatal care. While we visited them, we got to hear some of the girls' stories. One thing that struck me was that in each story, the word peace was mentioned. Many of them spoke of feeling anger or hatred towards their circumstances, but how that changed after they were taken under the care of Sylvia and Miriam. Now they feel peace and God's hand in their lives as they transition into motherhood.

At the Suubi house, young mothers up to the age of 21 receive six months of vocational training in tailoring and other life skills to help them start their own businesses. Ms. Wendy Piehl gave a short talk on diligence and working honestly before we chatted with them and played an... interesting water bottle relay game and netball.

Saturday and Monday were spent painting the outside of the Suubi house with the Youth For Christ staff, and their Generation 21 (or G21) intern team. A job that would've been quite boring turned out to be quite eventful, and provided a chance for us to bond with YFC. We painted to Ugandan worship music, learned Luganda phrases, and may or may not have gotten paint everywhere. After painting, we headed down to the soccer field. Most of us (hint: not me) played soccer. I think everyone had a good time, particularly Ginger, as she tried to befriend the cows who wandered onto the field.

The team spent Sunday in downtown Kampala. We started the day with an open-air African church, then headed to Cafe Java's, an American-style restaurant for lunch. It was exciting to open a menu and see hamburgers and salads after a week of eating rice and plantains for every meal! After lunch, we got to experience an African market. Luckily, we had the G21 team with us, who helped us barter for decent prices on all of our purchases. This market specialized in clothing, artwork, and jewelry, so everyone found something they liked. 

With souvenirs out of the way, we took a tour around Kampala. We saw the King's palace (or at least the wall). In Uganda, the King is more of a ceremonial figure, but he kept his grounds and palace during British colonial rule. Miriam explained that he still has some rule- he has his own parliament and 'subjects' but no real influence in the grand scheme of the Ugandan government. We then visited the King's lake where we saw terrifyingly giant storks, and a hill where we could see almost all of the city. 

Everyone is exhausted but happy. This trip has been an eye-opening experience and pushed me to realize how amazing global ministry is, especially as we enter our last week here. Before we leave, we have a few more school visits, and then we leave for our safari on Wednesday!

-Mea Kelso