Music and Dance Everywhere!

We have musicians in our preschool! During music time, the children played drums, xylephones, jimbe, triangles and sang.....well......okay, it wasn't exactly in tune or even all together to a beat - but they had fun and made a joyful noise unto the Lord. It must transfer somehow more joyously when it lands in Heaven!

And the three "genius littles" are.........William, Benja and Matthew. They received the most stars this week during preschool so they got to go to town for ice cream........and yes....town did notice them! So maybe taking "three" wasn't such a bright idea but they certainly had fun and made people notice them everywhere we went!

I hear music everywhere here. I can hear African drums out of my windows sometimes at night. I hear ladies singing everyday. They teach the children songs and dance. I had dinner with a friend and her 13 girls and was entertained before dinner with singing and dancing. I watch hard workers like Mama Cook and hear joyful singing daily. Even the preschoolers love to sing and dance outside. I think one of the reasons that so many people fall in love with Africa is because it is so joyful. It is full of joyful sounds and the joy is contagious.

I also had a couple of meetings this week that were enlightening. I talked to an official and a social worker about the needs in Uganda. Part of the reason that I am here (besides having so much fun with the children) is to research the needs. This is what I heard................

Families need help. They need to know how to learn to to make it and stay together. Pregnant teenage girls (very young..... 14, 15, 16) need a place to go and need assistance in learning how to deal with their struggles. There are many places that take care of babies (birth to five) but not many places that are willing to really care for the older children, for the street kids, for the babies having babies. It is known as a cultural curse to be pregnant at such a young age. Sometimes it is rape. Sometimes it is incest. Sometimes it is poor choices. MOST of the time, they are kicked out of their villages with nowhere to turn.

Street Kids need to be in school. They need a place that will care for them and teach them a trade. Abandoned moms need training. They need assistance in getting on their feet and they need to learn how to make money. There are alot of elderly grandmothers taking care of babies.......many are widows.

I learned that you don't have to go very far in Uganda to find out about needs. There are needs everywhere. I talked with an official that told me about many needs and suggested for me to meet a particular social worker that lived in Bugembe with an organization that helps get kids in schools. The very next morning that very man showed up at Amani Baby Cottage to check on a little boy and I was able to talk to him. He had no idea about me or that I was told that I needed to talk to him. God is at work. This man and I agreed that God had a bigger plan than just checking on a little boy.

I am excited to see what God does on this journey.........scared, because it seems bigger than me.......but excited because God is bigger than any of these needs. I don't feel equipped at times and He reminds me that He calls people and THEN equips them. He just tells me to stay tuned.......and let Him do the work and THAT is music to my ears! And in the meantime, I'll keep separating light and dark on construction paper with preschoolers and researching and visiting and seeing and listening.

“Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more." Mark 4: 24