What started out as part of the requirements for the Institute has become one of the parts of being here we love the most. That is spending time with Samuel Family, one of the 7 family groups of orphans here at Kasana. We were assigned to Samuel Family because their compound is right next door to us and the kids walk by our house all the time. The family father there is Uncle George (Opuche George) who is also on staff at the Institute, and his wife is Esther. Their 3 oldest children are similar ages to our kids and have become some of their best playmates. George and Dave are the same age (only a few weeks apart) and we’ve really enjoyed getting to know him and the family.
We’ve spent several days working in the gardens with Samuel family. One Saturday morning, I (Andrea) found the family planting maize and joined in. The process looks like this: the oxen plow a line, we walk behind dropping seeds and covering them with our feet. I started out wearing flip-flops, but when they were completely caked in mud, I resorted to bare feet like everyone else. The kids just laughed at seeing “muzungu” (white person) feet planting!
As part of our institute training, we all have to get behind the oxen and do some plowing. We guide the one bottom plow as someone else drives the oxen. It wasn’t much of a challenge for Dave, nor was it that unfamiliar. They even allowed him to drive the oxen at his request. I can’t say I personally enjoyed it, but it was certainly a new experience for me. I’ll stick to harvesting and cooking it.
Another time we helped the shell “g-nuts” (or ground-nuts, which are peanuts) by hand. It was funny to have them ask us if we’ve ever shelled peanuts before and if we eat them in the states. Their understanding of life in the U.S. is so far off so much of the time and the cultural world view difference really come out when you’re in the families with the kids. It was a great morning though, you get some interesting conversation when you shell peanuts by hand for 2 hours. That was the day Dave learned to count to 10 in Luganda. His teacher was a 10 year old girl named Anna (pronounced “ah-nuh). She was just as excited as Dave when he finally got all the way to 10…emu, biri, satu, nnya, tanu, mukaga, musanvu, munana, mwenda, kumi! Ugandans love it when muzungus speak Luganda!
Saturday morning we went out to find them weeding the cassava and joined in with our hoe and some muscle. The kids in the family spend an hour after school every day and Saturday mornings working in the gardens. Much of what they eat has been grown in these gardens. Our time in the gardens with them is one of the best ways to build relationships with them and find out what’s really going on in their hearts.
Later that afternoon, I had fun with all the girls from the family in my kitchen, baking cookies. They don’t have easy access to the amount of sugar and flour it takes to make the sweet stuff, so it was a treat for them and fun for me. Some of the girls in the family still have some real walls up internally and it’s good to just spend time with them and get to know them. Each time we’re with them we just pray that God would use us to reveal himself to them.
Every Monday evening we teach evening devotions for them. It’s challenging to know what to share as the ages vary and it’s so hard to know where the kids are at spiritually. Pray that they would truly experience God through our interactions with them! And pray that we would be experiencing God to be able to pass it on to them! They have family devotions each not, and we’ve found out that many of them never do their own personal devotions! So we’ve really been praying about what the best ways to share with them would be on Monday nights. The kids get a lot of biblical teaching and lecture, so we’re trying to make Monday nights more interactive and personal.
Once we go to the camp, we won’t see these kids very much, and we’re realizing just how precious this time with them is. They truly are starting to become our family!
Laura Hoffert said...
1So great to hear a glimpse of what you guys are up to…sounds like sweet times walking along side others and simply sharing life.
03/29/10 8:34 AM | Comment Link
heather said...
2Wow! I love reading your posts! You make me feel like I am there pushing the dirt over the seeds right along side of you. Love you guys. Thanks for the updates and pics!!
04/2/10 4:15 AM | Comment Link