Otino-waa!

We made it to Lira and were driving through the streets. Most roads, besides the handful of city roads, are not paved in Uganda. In Lira, we saw some military officers, who were carrying guns. Gift asked if I had ever shot a gun before, and I said that I had. He said that it's illegal for any nonmilitary person to carry a gun, and if an officer loses their gun, they will go to jail. I told him that when he comes to the US, dad will maybe take him hunting or at least to a range, so that he can experience shooting a gun. 

The night before, dad had asked what my top five strengths were, and so we discussed them right before we made it to Otino-waa, which is a Christian ministry with a hospital, orphanage, and school, like that of RG. My top strength (according to the strengths assessment I took freshmen year of college😅) is individualization. I don't remember the order of the next four, but they are competition, learner, achiever, and activator. Here is a link to the list if you'd like to guess your own or take the assessment yourself: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/245090/cliftonstrengths-themes-quick-reference-card.aspx

We pulled into the Otino-waa Tower Cafe, which is a little restaurant that Otino-waa has in the town of Lira to generate some extra cash. Here, we met a few of the people who are in charge at Otino-waa and the Meyer family! I don't remember all the names of the directors, but I do remember the head guy was Moses. The Meyers are from Will's church in Indianapolis and are traveling the world. "Seven continents in seven months" is their theme. I would LOVE to do something like that some day. Charlie and Meredith are the parents, and Sabrina(11), Trey(10), and Crosby(7) are the kiddos. 

One thing that Moses told us was that public schools can sometimes have 200 students per class, which can be really crowded and not give the students the best education. In some of the private schools that Otino-waa is affiliated with they limit classes to around 30-40 students.

After having breakfast and getting to know the Meyer family and the directors of Otino-waa, we went to the site where the orphanage, school, and hospital are located. We only stayed for a little while before we got on the road to go see Legacy Christian School, where some of the Otino-waa kiddos go and are sponsored. The rest of the students there are local. 

Each class that we went into recited some sort of welcoming passage that included that their class was the best. Then, we introduced ourselves and talked to each class for awhile. We got to meet each of the teachers and see what the students were learning about on the chalkboards. Dad and I were pretty excited when we saw some algebra and physics.

This smiley little sweetheart's name was Abigail, so I had to get a picture 😊.

These are a few pictures from the classrooms. They all knew a number of little chants, and were very, very well behaved. 

Dad really liked the p6 teacher. When he introduced himself, he said, "I am retired but not tired".

After we went into each of the classrooms from p1 to p7, we went outside for break time. The little little kiddos came outside to greet us, and they were ADORABLE!

COVID really hurt Uganda in many ways but especially in terms of education. Most kids didn't go to school for two years, and some did not return at all after that.

Once we returned from Legacy, we took a look at the BUVs. The mechanics were super excited to see Will because he brought parts for their BUVs that needed repairs. Will was very excited to see them as well because he got to see the BUVs get put to work. Probably the highlight of his day was following the BUV as the workers took it for a garbage run 😂. Since the BUVs were not working properly for awhile, the workers were using wheelbarrows, which made the process of hauling things more tedious and time consuming as you can imagine. 

Dad and I had the privilege of having lunch with some of the girls ranging from 15 to 19 years old. We ate with them in their shared house, and their pod mom cooked for us. They told us their names and their hobbies and what they wanted to be when they grew up. One girl, Betty, told us that she liked to sing, and when dad asked if she liked to sing in front of people, she said yes. So, she sang for us as we were eating! Her voice was really pretty 😊. One girl told us her name was Juliet, and dad wanted to make sure he heard her correctly, so he said, "Like Romeo and Juliet?" and the girls just giggled😂. Another girl told us she loved to read and that her favorite book is "The Grief Child". It is now on my list of book recommendations! The girl sitting next to me mentioned that one of her favorite hobbies is playing soccer. I looked at her really confused and asked if she just called it soccer because I'm American and that would help me understand, and she nodded😂. In Africa, like in most every country except the US, they say football instead of soccer.

After lunch, I had the best tour guide, Gloria (pictured below), take me around Otino-waa. She told me all about the children and where each of their daily activities are. She explained the grades to me and how high school and college work as well. After preschool and kindergarten level, they go to p1. P1-p7 are like grades 1-7 in America. During p7, the students take a test to see if they can go to secondary school. Secondary school is similar to high school. The first four grades of secondary are senior 1, senior 2, senior 3, and senior 4. Then, the students can go on to the advanced secondary level classes if they wish, which are senior 5 and senior 6. After finishing the advanced levels, students can then go to university. The only college that the students must test into is law school. No other school requires a pre exam.

One of the coolest places Gloria showed me was the lab in the hospital. We walked in and Janan greeted us with a big smile! I saw some microscope slides and asked if he was looking at tissue samples. He responded, "No, I am looking at malaria parasites! Would you like to see?", to which I replied, "Absolutely!!"

To end the day at Otino-waa, we were looking all over for Gift. Finally, we found him talking with a group of girls, who were probably the oldest girls in the orphanage. Gift said that they were asking him for relationship advice 😂. He had told them not to worry or stress about finding the right person because in Philippians 4:6, we are reminded to not be anxious about anything and that God gives us peace. He also pulled from more scripture and said, "Do not be conformed, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Don't look for qualities in a person that are accepted by the world. Look for qualities in a person that are pleasing to God. The person you marry plays a big role in your life, so make sure they don't hinder you in your walk with God but help you". Then they asked Gift how he knew his wife was "the one", and he told them that it's beyond human understanding. He said that he had dated people and had loved them a lot, but somehow he still felt fearful and could feel it in his heart. Now, I'm not married, but it seemed like some solid advice🤷.

We went home that afternoon, had a spaghetti dinner with the McCalls, and listened to some stories from Experito, who is a pastor at RG and long time friend of the McCalls. I will write about his stories at some point on the trip 😊.