Wow it has been a busy few weeks jam packed full of people
and activities round the community. Grasshoppers are in full season and off
course we had to learn how to prepare and cook them in the school. Amazingly
the students had eaten them but did not know how to prepare them ready for
eating. So we asked one of the lovely ladies from the wellspring office, Jackie
to teach us. We had bought a huge bag of them and were there for quite a while
tearing off their wings and legs ready to be fried. Surprisingly they are very
oily creatures and I’ve actually changed my mind on them; they are quite tasty
with a bit of seasoning!
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The bag full of Grasshoppers!
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Preparing to fry
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Last Saturday was Wellsprings Community Day and wow what a day! The community day is put on every year to bless and put back into the community.The day began by going round the streets in a van calling
out on a big sound system what was going to take place that day. I was asked to
call out on the mirciphone around the streets in Luganda, this was a challenge
but was pleased to say after a little while got there and I hope people started to understand this ‘Mzungo’
calling; ‘Abuntu Mwena, Lelo co
Wellspring, no Longonso, Okekeebera Omusayi …’ It was fun and a great
opportunity to practice the language in public!
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The van that we drove through the village telling people about the community day& what was being offered.
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Telling all the people in the village about the Free health care
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Then it was our go on the 'call out..!'
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Once the call out had been completed a team of people went
out to pick up litter from the streets for a couple of hours.Throughout the day
the health centre was open for free HIV testing, blood testing, free vitamins
and medicines given out to children, testing for heart conditions, stomach
issues and dietary advice . The people came in the 100s and it was incredible
to see the people line up and wait for treatment and care they could not
otherwise afford.
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Litter picking around the streets of Bweyogerere
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The team
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Free medical tests, care, help and support
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Waiting to be seen by a medical professional
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Whilst this was going on the people who have been on
various courses around the community graduated. Wellspring and the people here are having such an impact in the community
here and there were countless stories of women who have learnt new skills over
the course of the year they can use to work in their community. Some ladies
learnt to read and write for the first time, some have learnt to create their
own hairdressing and craft business thus helping them to have skills which will
help them to gain employment in the future.
It was a really inspiring and moving
day; in fact I found myself at the kitchen sink washing the pots crying and just so moved because
of the impact and life transforming stuff that is happening – the Kingdom
of God has defiantly gripped people, is in action and evident here!
The school has now closed for
Christmas. The students were very ready for a break and looking forward to the
Christmas holidays. As a celebration of the end of term, we went swimming. Stupidly I completely
took for granted being able to swim and realized quickly that a few of the
students were scared of the water and could not swim. So was challenged to
think back to being young, at swimming lessons and think about what could be
done to teach the students that were before me! There was such a range of
abilities between the students and so the excellent swimmers within the group
banded together to help teach the students who could not. After a couple of hours
the students were all in the water paddling at least.
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Enjoying the pool!
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Amazingly I just received a
very generous gift of a flight home for Christmas! So I’m now looking forward
to celebrating Christmas with friends and family in the UK. It’ll be nice to
catch up with people face to face over the holidays, not sure how I will manage
the cold however, It is 10:30pm here and it is still hot, hot, hot!
