August - september 2011 update

ONE WEEK, until we start work as SOHUG the community-based organisation. For the last few months it has just felt like a dream. Now it is a dream come true, for 5 years I Teresha have prayed about and dreamed of the day and dreamt of the man I would share it with. 2011 is the Year that God made it all come true!

For the last It has felt the dream was so far away, the work we have been doing has kept us busier than we could of imagined, paper work central our living room became an office and we have learnt a thing or two about publicity and the law of Uganda.  My addiction has been a website, I never saw myself as a web designer, but I do believe the Karahukayo team have made a good website have a look at www.springofhope.org.uk.

 

It has not all been work, work and work, we have had a little time to learn about chickens and had a little fun as well.

During our trip to the UK we wondered how we could serve the children in Uganda on the little support we had coming in on a monthly basis was not enough for our daily needs. Therefore, we started looking at how we could raise our income in other ways, so we used some of our wedding money to buy chicks to raise up to sell.  We are still looking into other ways to raise our support to live in Uganda, as the food prices are so high that the price of living is painful.

I never knew what was involved in raising a chick, I thought it was like raising a rabbit and all it needed was feeding once a day. As a child, I only ever had guinea pigs, rabbits, fish or a cat that is the only animals I really knew anything about, unlike my husband who has raised cows since the day he started walking. Anyone who knows me knows I am afraid of chickens. So chicken raising was never on the priority one list!

Chicks are like children or maybe messier as they need 24/7 care and can cause sleepless nights and I have never seen a child eat so much in 24hrs. In the first few days, Israel was waking 5 times in the night, one night I (Teresha) woke up one night at 2am. After having a bad dream about the chicks (yes this is became a type of parenting) and I saw that the charcoal cooker was off I tried to put it back on again by adding charcoal and it was smoking. I panicked and woke up my friend Ev who was staying and begged her to help, she didn’t wake up but our house girl did we saw that the Chickens weren’t having enough feathers on them by this stage 3 had died and didn’t want any more to die. In the End, the whole idea of allowing Israel to sleep was pointless, as he had to wake up to see why the chickens were losing so many feathers in the end it was all because of the chickens becoming fat.  I never knew how quick chickens to could grow.

 We have now had the chickens for 4 weeks and a week on thursday we will be selling them.

WEEK ONE

There new house week 3

Incubation time, they would of died without heart

Week 4 in their new house

September brought  my best friend Amanda’s birthday, a girl who has kept sain and me accountable over the last three years since she moved to Uganda.  This was a great to go to one of the most beautiful places in the area to have brunch with her and have some girls talk. Seven years on, I still often amazed by the beauty of Uganda, we were lying on a hammock watching the rain come in over the Nile, waiting, waiting for the rain to come to main land and it came 1hr later just when we reached the taxi. This was a strange and beautiful phenomenon.Sadly she leaves on the 4th of October, her dream is to come back to Uganda but when we do not know. To loose a dear friend is hard especially when it is not your own nation. She will be surely missed and my Prayer is that God will bring her back soon.

The beauty of friendship,

The mighty Nile

A introduction with a difference, a friend of ours called Susan recently got engaged after 20 with her “husband” who is the father to her four children. This was a true celebration of the couples love for each other; many people have to save money for years.  The start of the introduction was where the man side came in, a nurse greeted each one, and a doctor who acted as if they were going into inoculated the person before entering.  

incolulationating visitors

Beauty of culture

Home is where the heart is!!

We often asked ourselves a question, where is home? the truth of the matter is home is where the heart is. For the first four months of our marriage it felt we were nomads who had bases but not a true home of own. Apart from the home we have found in each other. What is a home? a place where you can be sheilded from the word and run away into a safe haven. We have now found our home in a village or should we say a place which is about to become an up coming town called Bukaya.

Birds in our new garden

Teresha N our playful dog matooke

Bukaya, a place of silence and peace away from places which cry out at the lark of dawn. Away from the discos of drunkness. The only noise you hear is the noise of the dog bark or of the singing of the birds. The view of green and brown, the greens of rolling hills and the browns of the road coming down to our house. The noise of the squelnce of the mud of the road when it rains, but we love of dear old muddy road which takes us to our sweet home an to a dog which dances wth excitement when it knows its us who is home. We never really understood why the dog was named matooke, until we gave him matooke one night for supper. The dog who brings his bowl back to the door for more when he likes his food. That night he never brought his bowl back to the door and he never finished his food. Many people become confused with matooke and matatu. What is the difference, if i eat matatu i would be sick in hospital, if i eat matooke i would nicely satifised. Matatu is the taxi we go in every day to work, matooke is the food which is in the banana family.

life is like a roller coaster which has its ups and downs, since returning from the UK to Uganda we have been on a fast speeding roller coaster with frills and screams. Sometimes its been out of control and we had no other choice but hold onto for dear life!! 

One loop  was when we came back on the 29th of June, we had no house and 12 days until a team from Germany came. Israel a man of many talents pulled this off with two days to spare!! 8pm thursday the 7th July,2011 we moved into our house.

On the 10th of July, a team of 5 girls came from Germany. These girls were amazily patient with us who were slowly sorted our house out and brought in new futurniture (thanks to everyone who gave us wedding money you really blessed us) and when the vehicle was always late by 2hrs on a daily basis. Israel and I who had years of experince of this where shocked by the driver who never turned up on time, it taught us that we need a vehicle as soon as possible for spring of hope. We were saddened by the fact that this took time away from our children with the volunteers.   These girls, brought joy to our dear children and creativeness in a new way into there lives. They experienced things they had never experienced before, they enjoyed craft and art work, they made footballs out of paper!! Craft is something that children in Uganda do not experince enough, it teaches them to think outside of box. These children learnt how to do something in a new way, they learnt to make boxes into puzzles!!

the craft experince at mount zion

As a couple we are open and willing to whatever the holy spirit tell us to do. God made it clear that we were to open our doors up to SoHUG volunteers. we would love young people to come and experience Uganda and get to know a different kind of life in a loving enviroment. We are currently waiting for more doors to receiving more volunteers and visitors to our home Uganda. Visitors are like angels in our home so we love them so much. In Ugandan culture it is said that visitors are angels, you never know who will step up on your door.

The good loops and the bad dips of a roller coaster

As I mentioned befoe life is like a roller coaster, it can often hit some dips, we have recently hit some great big dips,we know that when a break through is about too happen often a dip comes in. Israel's son Emma (our first born) has been staying with his mum. Recently we have been hearing how hard things happening in his life. and no matter how hard we find where he is. His mum  moves him from one place to another and with not allowing Israel to know where Emma. In january Emma said to a pastor can you please pray for me that people stop hitting me. A five year to ask for that prayer, i had no choice but to cry. My baby boy asking for prayer like that its like pulling our heart out of our chests.

We know that God has many amazing plans for Emma's life and knowing this gives us hope and peace. Trusting God for Emmas life has been one of the biggest tests of faith we have ever gone through. As we just want to see Emma studying and living a normal life and not being beaten but being loved in a way that christ loves his church and his children. I love the scripture which says:

“Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.Matthew 18:10-14

Good times come to, one of the members of the spring of hope team recently got enaged and we are currently waiting for him to join the old married couples club in November.people consider marriage as a university where no one graduates. We were so excited when we had the priveledge of attending his "kwanjula"(introduction) enagement party on the 23rd of july. We are so happy for Gladys and Charles!!

Charles  N Gladis at their introducton- enagament

Us wearing our tradtional Ugandan (buganda tribe) clothing

 We are a Christian family currently raising funds to live and serve in Uganda.  

In 2004 Teresha  from UK started a project called spring of hope to look after the children with disabilities.Together we feel God is calling us to work within seeing that children with disabilities and young people are enabled and empowered to become what God has destined them to be. 
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