Books for the children in Uganda

I collected many beautiful children’s books prior to traveling to Uganda last week. I filled a rubbermaid tub with books and paid two hundred dollars  to get them on the plane with me. I whinced slightly at the cost, but it never occurred to me to leave them behind. I believe putting books in the hands of children is priceless, especially for those children who haven’t seen any. In fact it is so important to me to have as many children as possible to have access to these books we have decided to establish the library we hope to build in a primary school. Robert and Rose Nabulere are not only good friends of ours, but Robert is also our Pastor for the times when I am in Uganda. He is completely unaffiliated with any of the work I do in Uganda, and he’s been a wise source of spiritual and cultural counsel.

Just before I dashed to the airport to come home we were having a wonderful dinner at the Speke Hotel with all those who had helped me during the week with the case against Adams Ssensano, in regards to having lied and stolen from the orphans. I had to leave for the airport before many of them were finished with discussions. In the parking lot I gave the box of books to Robert and Rose. We agreed that Phiona can come and borrow what books she’ll need for her evening lessons for the children and when they are finished return to exchange for more.

At Miracle Destiny School Jack sponsors  four of their children with his pumpkin bread selling enterprise. I peraonally, as a friend, before I ever met the children’s home we support, or began Kirabo Seeds, helped Rose find a total of eleven sponsors, and many of you participate there. Their school is a high quality school and yet they keep the costs as low as possible because it is located in Kawempe among some of the poorest families. Robert and Rose share my vision to see all children get a good education. They have a room in the school for books, but there are only a small case of them. I have some funds set aside to help fill that room with books and build the necessary shelving. I’ll be collecting books all through the year if you want to participate.

If only Kawempe and Kyengera were right next to eachother then our children could benefit from such an excellent education. For now, they can just enjoy sharing books.

This is not Robert and Rose's school. This is the government school.

Yesterday I wrote about walking home from school with the children. On the way we passed the government school where four of our children attend. Fred goes there because he cannot walk any further on crutches. I’m not sure why the other three were kept there. I discovered their fees per term are seventeen dollars. Yet, 275 dollars was collected from me to send them to school. In Uganda one of the ways to determine the quality of a school is by the price per term. So this one is the worst because it is the cheapest. I had heard they chased Fred home one day because he fell while using the latrine and he was a bit soiled.  Then the next day he wasn’t allowed to go to school because he didn’t have a new notebook because he had filled up the first one. This made me so angry I decided to stop in and look the administrator in the eye and tell her I was looking out for Fred and the others from that home. Phiona reported there were whisperings of “ohh they have a mzungu”. Next term no one will be attending that school from the children’s home we support. The lingering students went crazy when I went in to look around at the school, and Phiona believes a mzungu had never been there before.

After this trip of discovering deceit and crime some would think I’d run as far away from that mess as possible and turn my back on trying to help Uganda. That’s not how I feel, instead, I am more committed than ever to seeing these kids realize their potential. I’ve just sunk myself in deeper no matter what the cost. I very simply believe it is what God wants me to do. So I’ll keep on doing it until He says stop, and all the roadblocks the enemy puts in my way, I will find away around those. He’s not as big as our God. I think we proved that last week.

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