T.I.A. (This Is Africa)

What an exciting week it has been! Monday morning we packed the vans and headed to Niagobya. The team of visitors from Hillcrest CRC came to Uganda to visit with the Fishers foremost, but to also build a playground at St. Paul Primary School in Niagobya. The children's worship group from Hillcrest raised money for this playground. What an awesome blessing it is that children from Hudsonville, MI can help out the children in Niagobya, Uganda! We first visited the school last week Wednesday. The school has about 6-7 classrooms for 350 elementary students. There are so many students that some have to sit on the cement floor because there are not enough benches for everyone. This picture below shows a building with 3 classrooms, they are not very big. Also, they teach by the light of the sun. There is no electricity. 

When the kids have a break from learning, there is an open soccer field and a field that was previously used to grow sweet potatoes for them to play in. So you can only imagine how excited these kids are to have a playground! The playground is going up in the field. Here is a picture of the field before the work. 

As you can see, we had our work cut out for us! When we returned this week Monday, the workers had tilled all of the field for us! It was a huge blessing! This way we could get right to digging! Most of the playground consists of tires. The first day we put in the snowflake, the caterpillar, the elephant, the see-saws, and the tables. Later came the boda-bodas (motorcycles) and the matatu (taxi). 

The snowflake (the kids have no idea what a snowflake is, so I'm sure they'll come up with a different name for it) 

The caterpillar 

The elephant. (One of my favorites!)

Chloe by the boda-bodas (motorcycles) 

The next big thing to enter the playground was all the steel. The watch tower with a bridge over to the slide, the swings, and the rest of the see-saws. It was a huge event! This is where the phrase T.I.A.(This Is Africa) comes into play. Last week, Chris and Darwin had been making visits to our welder George. Making sure he had all the plans, money, and material to have things ready for this week. Everything was going smoothly, but here in Africa things seem to move a little differently than they do in America. We were hoping to have the steel delivered to the playground by Monday afternoon, but as the day went on we knew that wasn't going to happen. Tuesday was the day! We went out and were all anxious for the truck to come. We started the day by painting some more and touching up with second coats. The steel was on its way...at least that's what we thought. Turns out the truck wasn't going to make it till at least 2 in the afternoon (in Africa, that means maybe by 3 they will leave the shop). This was a problem because it takes us about 2hrs to drive out to Niagobya, so by the time they got there we'd want to leave so we could have dinner at a decent hour. The men from our group decided they would stay till the truck arrived and they would at least set all the pieces in the designated spots. The steel finally arrived later that afternoon, but then it rained and it poured. This stopped the whole process. They called it a night. So Wednesday rolled around and we were rearing to go! We were exhausted, but wanted to make progress. Then, we get a call and George, our welder, got malaria! :( there was no chance of him coming out that day to finish the on site welding. We were scrambling! Then we got ahold of a couple welders from East Africa Playgrounds. They specialize in making these playgrounds, so they were ready to leave with us. We headed out to Niagobya. Little did we know, it is a cultural thing to critique people's work to the point where things have to be completely torn apart and re-done. Most of us sat around all day because the welders had to re-do all of George's work. I have to admit, Wednesday was my hardest day here so far. I left Niagobya feeling discouraged and defeated. But at the end of the day we had to praise God for getting the steel delivered and standing in the ground, and for keeping us safe on our travels back to Jinja. 

The watch towers being lifted into place late Wednesday afternoon :)

The next day, Thursday, was a blessing and a heavy reminder to be patient and trust God. Most of the Fisher family stayed home to help Christian pack to head back to the states. But Sandy, Arry, Darwin, Sally, Bri, Michael, Chris, and I headed to Naigobya for one last day before they take off (the Dykstras and Holtrops) for home. We sanded and painted one of the swing sets. It wasn't much progress on the playground, but it was so nice to see some more color out there! Also, a lady from Hillcrest CRC made a bunch of dresses to be handed out throughout a village or two while the Dykstras and Holtrops were here. We had the opportunity to dress many of the girls in Niagobya. I wish you could all have seen their faces! They were glowing!

 A mother of one of the girls came up to me and presented me with 3 eggs to say thank you. She was SO grateful. I was overwhelmed with joy, but how could you not be when surrounded with a bunch of beautiful smiling girls?! 

After this busy week, reading the story of Jonah with the Fishers, Dykstras, and Holtrops, brought so much light to our experiences. Nothing positive comes with a selfish heart. We need to keep listening to God and trust His will. He will bring everything to light. He wants the best for His children. 

As for now, I need to remember that what I have in mind for my day might not be what God has planned, so I am going to try my best to take things the African way, slowly but surely. God will lead me where I am supposed to go :) 

Love you all! Thank you for all your continuous prayers and support! 

Grace & Peace

Kendall :)