Work Begins

Kampala is a very unique city. As you travel through the streets, you can't help but be amazed at the culture here. Kampala is very urban in places and extremely rural as well. One minute, you are driving on a dirt road, passing by street vendors, where there are butcher shops and markets, women sit outside, cooking over fires, their children playing nearby, and then the next minute, you are in a city atmosphere. There are high rise buildings and congested traffic. Uganda is roughly the size of Oregon and has a population of over 28 million.

The children run and play beside the streets. They break into a smile and run toward us, waving, as we pass by. Women walk through the streets with huge baskets of bananas on their heads. Men walk to work, briefcases in hand. There are bota-bota (motorbike taxis) on every corner, waiting for someone to hire them. I love the bus ride to and from the guesthouse each day. I love to just watch the goings on as we pass by.

The traffic is unreal! They drive on the opposite side of the road and there are rarely any stoplights or stop signs. Vehicles drive within inches of each other. There are no traffic laws like in America. Basically, the bigger you are, the more right of way you have. I could never drive here. I am amazed every time we drive through the streets. We are all very thankful for Godfrey, our driver!

God is doing an amazing work in Kampala, through KPC and Watoto! You can feel it everywhere. It is so wonderful to see His church hard at work in another continent. One of things I have noticed about the people here, is how happy they are. They don't have all the comforts that we do in America. You can see that they are poor in many ways, yet they are always smiling and happy. It's the love of Christ that is overtaking this country. They are rich in Christ Jesus!

Today was our first work day. We were all very excited to arrive at the Bbira campus. Little did we know what was in store for us! There was a team of 10-12 workers there, waiting for us. They would be working beside us, and teaching us how to lay the brick for the schoolhouse. I was amazed that there was such a large team of workers. 

We started by forming a line and passing the bricks to each other, to move them to different stations, where we would lay them. We got our first glimpse of just how hard these work days were going to be. The bricks were not light, by any means. Once we had the brick where they should be, the workers began to show us how to lay the muchanga(mortar) and brick. It was slow going at first, until we all got the hang of it. I'm not sure the workers knew what to do with the crazy muzungu(white people) from MVFC! We eventually got into a rhythm and the walls went up fairly quickly. As we worked, we could hear the children playing in the distance. That certainly was enough to put a smile on our faces. We were blessed with a visit from a few of the children, once school was out. It was a very warm and humid day, but we managed to survive it, with a lot of water and sunscreen. Before we left, a few doors were set and the windows were ready to go up the next day. We all boarded the bus and arrived back at the guesthouse, filthy and exhausted from the day, but very excited about what we were able to accomplish in just one day.