All Work and All Play

Dallas posing in front of our car - Joel got this for our transportation for the month.  It is a nifty little car and surprisingly can handle the 4x4 terrain all around Kampala.  The steering wheel, of course, is on the right side and driving in Kampala is extremely chaotic.  Alex and Javier have done most of the driving so far! 

Two of our favorite girls!  We don't know how to type their names, but we know every kid's name sign and identify them that way.  In Kenya, they all had English names, but here, they have Ugandan names so it is much more difficult to memorize.  Examples of such names are: Kooga, Kibiikuyu, Ssegane - and I'm not even sure if I spelt them right!  Unfortunately, we can't type the name signs here :)

Makin' popcorn!  It is a favorite of Alex and he is patiently waiting for the first kernel to pop.  Dallas and Rose are waiting too.

Naturally, the kids loved the popcorn!  We all watched a DVD and enjoyed popcorn.

This is the BDI school van!  It is extremely spacious and useful, as it is used to pick up the 10 residential students to bring them from their apartment to the school every day, and also to pick up around 10 other students who live in the Kampala area.  When we arrived, the van only had one front wheel and a spare for the other one.  With the donations we got, we were able to purchase brand-new front tires for the van! 

At the school - a project was to dig a six-foot hole for drainage.  We did some of the digging, but Joel had men work on most of it.  We did help to carry the heavy rocks from around 50 feet away - they are used to stabilize the hole.  Here is one of the students (we know his sign name but not written name)!

We noticed that many of the residential kids (10 of them) had tattered and old clothes - so we went to a market in Kampala to get them new ones.  They were very cheap - only cost just under a dollar each (2,000 UGX each).  Navigating around the market was a bit chaotic with many people pulling your arms!

Sorting the clothes to give away!

Hmm, does that color suit you?

Dallas wrote the initials of the kids on the shirt tabs.  

It was a hot Saturday, so we decided to go to a soccer field close by and play some soccer!  Here is us walking on a normal street.

A cute neighbor.

This is (signs her name).  She is the youngest of all the kids at BDI and extremely cute and she knows it! 

Another BDI student with us on the soccer pitch. 

View of our side of Kampala.

Splittin' up the teams.  In Kenya, Moises always did this - but he's gone, so Alex's got to do it!  We had a few hearing kids join us.

This is Denis - a 19 years old deaf man that Alex met at church.  He is a friendly and outgoing guy, and is very good at soccer!  He is on the Ugandan Deaf Soccer team.  

More BDI girls!  Two of the girls here are the oldest students.  (Again, we know their name signs but not written names!)

Exhausted, walkin' back home... Hmm.. what would be good after a hot, sweaty day of playing soccer?  

Go for a swim in the pool!  Joel showed us a place close by with a pool where we could get day passes.  All the kids loved it and we loved it as well!  

Every time the kids got out of the pool, they would shiver and chatter their teeth.  It is winter in Uganda, even though it sure does not feel like it to us.  When there are clouds blocking the sun, it can feel pretty cool, but once the clouds clear, its hot!  This boy prayed many times for the clouds to part and God likes this trooper because He answers his prayers every time!  :)

You looked at the F didn't you?  BAM!

Gimme that ball!

Finally, we know the written name of the boy on the right - its Alex, the same name as Alex :)   

Drying up in the sun!

We got everyone sodas and french fries (they call it chips here)!  Chips are very popular and very delicious!

Kat enjoyin' an ice-cold Coca-Cola.  

Sunday morning - we led church service for the kids!  We had fun.

Singin a song about Jesus

Javier reading scripture about the wise and foolish builders.  To read it yourself, look up Matthew 7:24 and then read the rest! 

Doing a drama.  

Praying at the end of our church service.


That's all for now!  We have been doing a lot of teaching at the school but haven't brought a camera, but this week we will so you get an idea of what we do during the weekdays.  We are enjoying ourselves here!  We only have two more weeks before we all go back to the States, so it is a mix of excitement to be back home with knowing we will really miss being here in Africa.  It truly is a special place here and we are very thankful to all of our donors and supporters for making this trip possible, and it is all to minister to Deaf children!

We love and appreciate your prayers and donations can be made at www.odeafo.com/donate!