Today seemed long, but I think it was because it was our first full day with the children. Then again, starting at 6:30am and finishing at 10:30pm with being on-the-go the whole time actually IS a long day for me! :)
Anto led the Leaders' Devotion first thing and Morning Drills was done with the children for the first time. They actually seemed just as surprised by it as we had been so I'm not sure how wide-spread this concept is in Uganda. I sat with one of the boys' groups for breakfast and proceeded to eat my breakfast different to everyone else at the table... bread and boiled egg became an egg sandwich and soon most of them were having a go at it! :)
We had a lot of other firsts this day...
Praise & Worship was half an hour and we were led by voices and drums only. A lot of the children seemed to join in naturally though there were a small number that didn't. Most of the singing was in Ugandan so we couldn't always tell what was being said, but the faces of those which were worshipping spoke volumes to us. I was dancing along (well, moving anyway, not sure they would have called it dancing!) straight away but also just enjoyed watching the leaders and children praising God. There was one song sung in English and it was one which I knew... "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me". Now that took me back to my own days at bible camp so it was such a blessing to be singing it at this camp!
After Praise & Worship, the children sat down for the Bible Story, which Brenda led on this first day and was about Joshua. The half hour "presenting" of the story was followed by an hour of completing worksheets based on a key passage of scripture of Joshua's story. These exercises seemed though they might be boring to us, but they were a good way of really ingraining the scripture into their minds, which was the objective. We each joined in with one of the groups and it was nice to be able to help in that way.
Morning snack came next (we were actually fed 5 times a day while there!), followed by a further lesson time for the children where they discussed "life skills". We used this time to get ready for our workshops which followed. My workshop was making a large banner as a group... this went better than I had been worried it might though I did have to do some further explanation half way through, where I realised that I hadn't explained well enough the first time. At the end the children and their leaders were very pleased with what they had created.
Lunch followed and I decided that I was going to sit with a different table each meal rather than stay with 1. I had taken a few photos of the family and so used this to start conversation. I learned that not all Ugandans are fond of cats and they are thought of by some to be ghosts or demons! I also decided to clarify, when telling them that my husband is a Police Officer, that he is a nice and good one since I had also previously learned that the Police in Uganda has a reputation of a lot of them being corrupt and demanding bribes.
There was another time of organised games after lunch and the girls were the ones who got to take turns in the swimming pool on this day. Helping in the pool was another task that we had agreed to take on and the session was quickly renamed "Splash and Bash"... the majority of the children had never been in a swimming pool and so this was a time of excitement mixed with panic that led to limbs flailing in all directions and hands grabbing anything they came close to. However, the happy faces were wonderful to see.
After dinner there was a "talk show" which was based on the "life skill" lesson that the children had had earlier in the day, Social Etiquette. One child from each dormitory group was on stage to answer questions put to them about what their lesson and discussions had been about. I found it a bit difficult to follow and understand everything, but the children were all very enthusiastic and passionate about what was being said!
Breakfast - 2 slices of bread and a boiled egg.
Lunch - Boiled rice, Baked beans, Fish (again, every part of a fish was represented on one plate or another... the kitchen staff seemed sympathetic to us white folk and none of us were presented with a head), watermelon
Dinner - Boiled rice, boiled potato, chunks of meat (beef), spinach, chapati
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