Life Lately

Greetings from Uganda! 

It's been a while since we've posted and wanted to share a few highlights from the last few months, including Mom and Dad Dyck visiting us in April! We spent our time between the projects in Masaka and Kibaale and ended their trip in Jinja. It was a very relaxed visit, since they have been to Uganda so many times before they really were here to just spend time with us, which we loved! 

Palm Sunday is always a favourite day in Kibaale, we love seeing our whole staff and school march through town together singing songs and then having our own church service afterwards. 

Awana! Our kids love to join in and be part of helping out or just playing games with the students whenever they can. 

Lake Nabugao is only about 30 minutes from our home in Masaka and a great day trip on a sunny weekend. 

Our last few days were spent at the beautiful Saranac on the Nile, just outside of Jinja. We were able  do some kayaking, swimming and then also went into Jinja for some craft shopping and lunch at one of our favourite places, The Deli! 

Avin and Finn asked for money to go bungee jumping into the Nile River for their birthday this year, it was great that Grandpa and Grandma were able to watch them experience their birthday gift! Avin was especially freaked out just before but it was a good thing they decided to go tandem, Finn encouraged her on and she's so glad that she did it! 

It also happened to be our 20th anniversary while we were away, we loved having our kids there with us to celebrate! 

20 years!! 

Thanks Mom and Dad for coming to see all of us, we're glad we were able to give you a glimpse into how we spend our days, we loved having you!! 

Babies!!! 

The staff daycare that is steps away from our house in Kibaale is a favourite place for everyone in our family to hang out! Mazzy especially spends a lot of time there; she helps with feeding, changing, cuddling and entertaining! 

Sometimes we steal a couple of the babies and bring them to our house where it's just a bit quieter and we can enjoy them a little more. 

Maya is obviously one of our favourites! 

Abidjan Grace too, her smile is definitely our favourite.

When hanging out with the students in Kibaale we tend to mostly spend time in the Nursery school, which would be like preschool and kindergarten, since they have a bit more time to be distracted, and our kids can easily help out during PE class, centres or of course recess! 

Olive is one of the upcoming graduates at Timothy Girls School, we were able to attend their grad party recently. We have loved having her study here these last 2 years, she's an amazing young lady who we expect will do big things in Uganda! 

Our good friend Jon Imbeau who is the Executive Director of Awana Canada came in July with 2 of his children and 2 other staff from the Canada office. They spent their time helping out with the Awana program we are running in Kibaale as well got a few other churches and organizations started. Our staff in Kibaale started an Awana program with just our grade 2 students a couple years ago and they loved it! We added another grade this year and next year plan to run the program for the whole primary school.

Some of our long time friends from home were in Uganda in July and we had the chance to meet up with them in Jinja while they were visiting Ekisa. One evening was spent with a sunset cruise on the Nile River which we'd highly recommend! 

Enjoying the beautiful view on the top deck with Leighton and Sarah Friesen while the kids are down below having a dance party! 

Meeting your sponsor child is definitely a highlight for our visitors in Kibaale, we're so glad that the Friesen family were able to meet their sponsor children, Sharon and Dennis. 

 

Jeff and Jolene Van Huizen with their girls and sponsor child Kayima Enock. 

At the beginning of August there was a team here from Peace Portal Alliance Church working at their project in Mpigi. Joel was able to spend a few days working alongside the team; they helped build a brick house and put on a VBS program at a primary school. The team then spent a couple days with us in Kibaale, they paid for and helped us build a new mud house for one of the students in our school! 

Thank you Peace Portal team for coming to visit us in Kibaale and for all your work on this new home! 

Visitor Season Is Here!

With the new school year beginning in February comes a constant stream of visitors, volunteers, and groups in Kibaale, and we love it! 

We started the year with Gabriella returning, this is her third year with us which means that she jumps right in and is a huge help with our sponsorship office and hosting. As well she has become like part of our family over these past few years, so we're very excited to have her with us until the summer. 

A family friend from home Jayden arrived next, she will be with us for 2 months and has been great to have here! She is a very talented artist so aside from helping out with the students in Kibaale she is doing a few murals and paintings in different classrooms and at the clinic. 

Joel's best friend from home, Malachi is also here for a couple months! He has been a great help with setting up for groups and just helping out our family as well jumping in with all the activities going on. These two boys have lived a part more than together over the past 10 years but have kept a great friendship, this is a pretty amazing experience to share together! 

Gabriella's mom Sylvia Shury, her friend Linda Peters, and Erin Clark from Village Church with her 3 girls who are 6, 8, and 10 years old were just here for the past 2 weeks! Our kids love visitors, but when kids come they are thrilled, and these girls were especially fun to have around; they did amazing with all the travel, jumped into any activity we had planned for them, and played great with all the students in Kibaale!

One of the highlights for us is going with our visitors to meet their sponsor child, whether the students are super outgoing, or really shy, it's so fun to watch! 

 Not only did everyone in this group sponsor more children themselves while here, 25 of our nursery students got sponsored through their posts on Instagram and Facebook, that is huge!! There are only SEVEN Nursery students still needing sponsors, click here to start sponsoring one of them today! 

Linda and Pauline

Sylvia with Stecia

Erin, Sienna, Hayden, and Bella with Shanitah

Building a mud hut is also a favourite activity with groups, in 10 years this is the first time where it was pouring rain all morning, we delayed as long as possible but finally realized we were going to be mudding this house in the rain! It was very wet, very cold, but so much fun, everyone worked really hard and we were able to get everything done in the day.

This beautiful Mama was so excited to be getting a new house and was also out with us in the pouring rain all morning, she even tried to help out a bit, with a baby on her back! 

Over the past 2 weeks all of the visitors were also hanging out with the students, helping with the Awana program, and going on lots of home visits to give out gift baskets, goats, and new shoes!  

In Kibaale we are still feeling the effects of the awful drought, thanks to donations from so many of you we were able to give away much needed maize flour to over 500 families in our community! 

 Thank you so much to all of our visitors these past 2 months for choosing to serve in Kibaale, we have loved having each one of you!!