Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this : to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. -James 1:27

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Mzungu in the garden

Ha. Just thinking about this past week makes me laugh. Especially thinking about the faces on the villagers who would pass by and see me, mzungu, digging in the garden. That is right my friends. I spent 2 afternoons with the P5 class and some other kids hoeing, raking, planting, and watering many little seeds. Hopefully the biblical principal, "you reap what you sow" will be very true in the practical sense.

Day one was very funny. The kids were out in their school uniforms and flip-flops acting busy at first until Teacher Jimmy and I put some order to the madness. We had groups picking trash, groups raking, groups making little hills to plant the squash. The rest of the kids were very eager to get their hands on the seeds to actually do the planting. So, imagine me in my pink dress, out there with the kids, passing 4 seeds out at a time as each kid stood by their designated "hill" to do the planting. Once the seeds hit the ground there were at least 2 kids "fighting" over who would be the first to cover the seeds with dirt. I had plenty of helping hands, that is for sure.

Well, rainy season has begun and so it usually rains after lunch for about 45 min and then stops. But this day the sky was clear and the sun was hot. BUT all of a sudden, huge raindrops started falling from the sky. It was a sneak attack and so comical to see how fast all of us gathered our seeds and ran inside to take cover.

Writing this out it sounds a little stupid, maybe you had to be there. But it was definitely a point of the week that brought joy to my heart.

Otherwise, I am good. I love teaching my little phonics classes. I get the kids from their main classroom and they run to my class and wait for me to arrive so they can say, "Good Morning Teacher Natalie". I love these kids. And I have been making friends with some Americans who have been here a while. THere is a big group of them working together and they do fun, familiar things like Friday night pancakes, so last night i was there, eating blueberry pancakes and watching a movie. After I spent the night with 3 of the girls. SO, it is good to have Ugandan and American friends in Uganda.

That is it for now. Love you and thanks for praying.

2 comments:

Kimo said...

Nat! I have a shirt that Sarah brought for me that says "Mzungu" so I couldn't help but laugh. You are missed terribly and prayed for! You amaze me! Any chance you can get Skype and skip over these other messengers?!

Anonymous said...

I can only imagine all those kids planting seeds...I am imagining trying to hand out to my kids in my class and it just makes me laugh:) I bet that was so fun:) Made me smile love you and praying for you everyday
Ash