Water? Water? Water ...

We have been challenged over the past week or so with no running water. In fact any water has been hard to come by; it has been so dry with no rain for the past 3 months resulting in a complete water shortage. The tanks that normally fill up with rainwater in the rainy season are completely dry and the national water has been on and off. Each day that went by last week finished with many going to bed hoping that the water would be turned back on the next day but to no avail. After 6 days of no running water; collecting from any water supply/source we can, filling up and carrying the jerricans to use for washing, cleaning, cooking and bucket showers. It all became a hard dirty slog and after 6 days I felt so low. Then I was reminded how this is an everyday reality for many here in Uganda. Not just a reality for a week but what people live with on a day - day basis. There are many that live with no running water, no showers and live by collecting water from the nearest supply which sometimes can be far from home and there I was struggling with a week. Surely puts things into perspective!

Collecting water

In the midst of all this I have been challenged to think about the necessity for life to have access to a fresh water supply; water is such a source for life. Whilst going through the challenges of the lack of water I have been challenged to think about where I draw my life from in a spiritual sense. Do I go and draw from the true life source; (for me this is God) or do I wait until I’m desperate, until I’m nearly out of energy, feeling low and then go out of desperation. To put it pictorially; am I enjoying the full essence of Gods deep waters in my life or do I just desperately use up a little dribble of what is left in the tank of life?  If we truly believe God is the source of life it is so vital we draw from him daily.    

So to school, last week we had the excellent opportunity to learn how to make lovely African Styled material using Tie & Dye. You may think this is a throw back to the 80’s, using elastic bands and a bucket to create blue and purple T-shirts.  However I was so surprised to see the variety of different methods you can use to create lovely looking materials. How Tie & Dye has developed over the years! My particular favourite was the lost and found method using leaves and anything found on the ground to create your pattern on the material. The students loved being able to make their own materials and are now planning on creating various shirts, dresses and bags. 

Throwing the Dye onto the material

Making the materials with leaves

The finished materials

As part of the community work in Wellspring every couple of months they put on a kids club for the local children in the community. This is called, ‘Fun Factory.’ Last Saturday was this very, ‘Fun Factory,’ around 90 children from the local community came and we played games for the whole afternoon. The children absolutely loved it. It really is amazing to see and be apart of what Wellspring are doing here to help make a difference in peoples lives.

Children at 'Fun factory.'

Being English I decided to celebrate Pancake day with a few people here. However for some reason we couldn't perfect the making of the pancakes … I think there was something wrong with the pan. Chefs always blame the equipment right?! So in the end we went to buy the local Chipattis made on the side of the road. These chapattis are a very popular fast food, in fact the local Rolex is a favourite of the local people. A Rolex is a chapatti filled with scrambled egg and onions, it's a very tasty treat when you want something quick, fast and greasy!! Haha! So on pancake day we proceeded to fill these chapatti with all the various pancake fillings …a little bit different than pancakes but it was tasty enough!

Just want to say thank you to everyone for your continued support and to those who continue to keep in touch. It is so lovely to hear all that is going on with you; you are often in my thoughts!