Friday, April 11, 2014

Living in Uganda by Avin & Finn



My name is Avin Dyck, I am in grade five and I am 11 years old. I live in Uganda, which is in East Africa. When I first moved here at the age of 4 I lived in a place named Mpigi. In Mpigi we lived at an orphanage for 54 kids, I loved staying there and playing with all those kids. We still visit sometimes and I love to see my friends there.

Now I’m living in a place named Kibaale. In Kibaale we have a school for almost 1,000 needy kids. It’s one of my favorite places in Uganda because of playing with all the kids at our school, especially getting to be with my sponsor child and friend Stella who is the same age as me and also wants the same future as me as a Doctor. Also we live right by the staff daycare where I love to help out and to see one of my favorite babies in Kibaale, her name is Patience!  I also get to go on home visits to give students and their family’s gifts that they really need like goats, food, shoes, or a bicycle but the best is when they get a new house and we get to be part of making the mud house! I like to join in with the Kibaale school when the students go on outreach in the community, they sometimes help fix houses, give away school supplies to schools that don’t have enough or visit hospitals. 

Part of the week we also live near a town called Masaka; we stay at the Timothy Centre, a high school for girls. I love all of the space I have to play there and to spend time with our puppy Tipper that lives there. I love playing with her and cuddling her, with me she is very calm but with my brothers she is very playful. In Masaka I go to a school on Mondays and Tuesdays for missionary kids. I also have online school for English and French; I love my English course and am really enjoying learning French but am thinking of taking Spanish next year. I also have homeschooling with my mom, brothers Joel and Finn, and little sister, Mazzy. I get to help with teaching Mazzy, we usually do Math together, she loves Math so that is fun to teach her.


What I miss about home is my friends, my school, and actually my old house. But what I love about Uganda is my new friends, my new school, and my 2 new homes. I might really miss Canada but if I had to choose where to live it is Uganda, no contest! Some of the reasons Uganda would win is the way I feel God is much more with me here than He ever was before, I feel like He really tells me how to care for the people living here. I also love the heat every day and of course the lovely babies, I am so thankful that there is always cute babies around for us to cuddle and help take care of. Also every morning you’ll wake up to see the birds flying by chirping, and seeing the sun every morning shows me that today will be even better than yesterday!

Mpigi

Babies!!!

Primary students singing in front of our house in Kibaale

Hanging out with daycare kids in Kibaale

Home visit to give out a gift basket in Kibaale

Helping to build a mud hut

Stella and Patience, my favourites!!

Our puppy Tipper when we first got her

At my friend Hope's graduation

Christmas performance with my friends from school in Masaka

Gymnastics club in Masaka




My name is Finn Dyck. I am in Grade 4 and I live in Uganda. I first moved here when I was 2 years old to a place called Mpigi where there is a children’s home for 54 orphans that is part of our church at home, Peace Portal.

Now I live in a place called Kibaale, it is 4 hours from the city. There are 1,000 students that come to our school every day.  My favorite thing to do there is climb trees and play soccer with the students. I also like to play with the babies at the staff daycare. My favorite babies are Patience and Julia. We have two houses, Kibaale is in the village and The Timothy Centre with my parent’s offices and a boarding school for girls is near Masaka town. I go to a school on Monday and Tuesday every week, we call it Danish school because Danish people set it up but it’s a small school for missionary kids. On the other days I am homeschooled by my Mom, those days I love when I can do school work on the computer, like my math program or when I can type instead of write.

My favorite place to live is in Kibaale because there are families around and I love seeing all the kids come to school every day. What I love about being at the Timothy Centre is going to Danish school with my best friend.

My favorite Ugandan food to eat is rice and beans with g-nut sauce, there’s also matooke, which is like a cooked banana, but I don’t like it.  

One of the things we do for work is to go visit the student’s homes and see their families, we give away gift baskets and goats or water collectors and sometimes we build mud huts for people that don’t have a proper home. We get to actually make the mud in front of the new house and then put the mud into the wood frame. It’s one of my favorite things to do.

I have a dog, Tipper, she is a typical village dog that was a puppy from our security dogs in Kibaale. We named her after a truck in Uganda that would be called a dump truck in Canada.  She loves chasing other wild dogs and squirrel’s which is good because the squirrel’s wreck our gardens. We grow tomatoes, pineapples, lettuce and eggplant that we eat.

I love going on safari drives, I have seen lions, elephants, leopards, warthogs, crocodile, hippos, monkeys, zebras, giraffes, and hyenas, but not all in one day!  My favorite animal to see on safari is lions. Once an elephant tried to charge our car but my Dad was driving and he got us out of the way.

Some of the things I miss about Canada when I live in Uganda are my friends and my cousins, and I also miss Menchies and McDonald’s but a KFC just opened here which is really good.

On top of Kibaale Hill


Babies!!!

Julia is my favourite

Mud Hut

Soccer in Kibaale

Sports Day in Kibaale with the primary students

Tipper our puppy

Spotting a crocodile on safari


G-nut sauce for lunch, there isn't aways forks

Skip rope with the high school girls at Timothy Centre

Walking to church service at Timothy Centre

4 comments:

Kevin said...

This put a big smile on my face today,a lovely post!

Unknown said...

Avin and Finn you both have such big hearts for God and His people.
You are so lucky your mommy and daddy have given you the opportunity to be able to see others and life in this special way
Love u and proud of you ..♥♥♥

mrs. shulba said...

This is such a wonderfully written post, Finn and Avin! I told my students about my friends in Uganda and they're excited to send you some questions about your life there but you have written AWESOME descriptions here!

I was surprised that you would choose Uganda over Canada, Avin - and what a great reason why that you shared! And Finn, I didn't realize that Tipper was what dump trucks are called! I thought you just came up with a cool name for your dog!

Thanks for taking the time to tell us about your life there! You two are fantastic!

Jenny Nel said...

Wow Avin and Finn! What an awesome blog post. Your descriptions were so fantastic, I could imagine myself being right back there with you all again! Totally love your heart for Jesus and the people of Uganda! I am absolutely sure God is smiling everyday as you serve Him in the things that you do and the love that you show!!