Village Blog

Let the sun shine in, and meet it with a grin.

Posted by Kate Duff on

Finally, after lunch, the rain stopped and the sun was shining brightly!  It was time to deliver our packages!

First stop:  heading back up to the high school to deliver packages to Jonan (sponsored by Rich and Laura Wood) and Gerald (sponsored by Barry & Diane Smith).  Jonan enjoyed the new pictures of his sponsored family and gifts like school supplies and toiletries.  I giggled through my demonstration of how to use deodorant!  Heehee!  The Smith's wrote a beautiful letter to Gerald, causing tears to come to my eyes as I read over his shoulder.  Thanks for loving him and really making him a part of your family as you offer to help him further his studies now that he finished high school in December!  Your support is clearly an amazing blessing to him, not to mention he seems to want to follow in your footsteps, pursuing further education in agriculture.

We drove down the hill, heading into the village, and found several sponsored children, their families, and people from the community gathered at a bench along the road, waiting for us.

Here we found Trust, who is sponsored by Joyce Wiersma.  She opened her package and Lisa and I were just as excited as she was to see her beautiful new pink flip-flops that fit perfectly!  She didn't have to change shoes to try them on, because she didn't have any on (even though she had walked up and down mountains to find us at that bench).

Baker was next to find a seat on the bench, proudly wearing his Chicago Cubs jacket. This little artist will love using his new sketch book sent by the Conley's. I wouldn't be surprised if he has pictures to send back with Melissa when she comes in June...he is excited to meet her!

David and Emily Wood met their sponsored child, Julius, when they came to Uganda in 2011.  When he found us on the bench, he read their letter aloud to all of us gathered around, and grinned wide with glee as he looked at the pictures of their family, especially of baby Piper!  We met his mother, and when she looked at pictures that we had just snapped of the two of them, she was very particular about how the sun was shining on their faces, and made Lisa retake it in different places several times.  We laughed!

After Julius, we met little Benita, who is sponsored by Al & Karen Fickau.  They sent a flashing light button with their letter that made her face light up!  She kept pressing it as Kate read through the letter with her.

The Solberg's little guy, Alexander eagerly waited on the bench...possibly more excited to give us his gift for them than to receive the package sent to him.  We showed the crowd the card with horses on it, and shared that Mary has a love for horses.  Alexander's interest in art is certainly being encouraged by the supplies that were included in his package!  He will love playing with the little balls too!

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