Life in Africa - Churches and Schools

So I have decided to try to do some posts more specifically about daily life in Africa. This week I am going to focus on church and school (along with some pictures of the kids because I cannot leave that out). Please let me know of any questions you have about life here and I will try to answer it in a future post. It can be anything from what household things do I use here that I never needed at home to what types of things I do in physical therapy with the kids. Just let me know what you want to hear!

Church
 Let me just start by saying that I think everyone should have the experience of worshiping in an African church. I would guess that 95% of Ugandans can sing well!!! So being in church is so great as everyone sings so loudly and passionately!

View from the balcony - I would say these benches are not any where near as full as usual.

I have been regularly attending Watoto Church. I tried at least 4 or 5 other churches before I settled here. My good Ugandan friend Phiona goes there, and going to church with her is a great way to make sure I see her every week. Watoto is very similar to Park Church in Chicago in that it is one church with many locations. Not only does Watoto have 8 locations E.V.E.R.Y service is packed, and each church has a minimum of 3 services. The central location that I attend has 6 services!!!! And you know those days in church where the Pastor asks everyone to scoot in because church is really full that day. That literally happens at every single service here except it is ushers who climb down your row and wont move until you squish into the very little room that you already have!

The sign outside my church

Watoto church was founded my a missionary couple from Canada, so the style of service is very western and all in English!!!!! I have visited many churches with my neighbors and even the English services are partly in Luganda so I get lost... or there is a translator and I still get lost! The struggle with churches here is that many of them focus on the prosperity gospel and many teach very loosely Biblical truths. Often in rural areas, someone will become a believer and then within a few weeks be pastor of his own church with very little Biblical knowledge. There is a reason AIM is very focused on discipleship, as many people claim to be Christians but there is not much depth to their faith.

One of my other favorite things about Watoto church, is as a local church they are meeting the needs of the orphans in Uganda. They have two large orphanages and they encourage their congregation to sponsor the children. They also have a huge Watoto Children's Choir that travels around the world - have you heard of them? If they are ever in your area, please go! They are SO GOOD!

All this being said I still miss church at home. Even going to the most Biblically sound church I can find, they rarely have a sermon that is strictly focused on the word. Ever sermon has been topical and very appropriate culturally, but I miss going through a book of the Bible!

School
Everyone here is strongly encouraged to go to school, but it is not like at home where you legally have to put your child in school. Most families can choose where they want to send their child as there are many schools in each neighborhood. While the schools are suppose to be government funded... the money never comes in on time - if at all - so parents have to pay school fees. Kireka Home as a boarding school charges 320 shillings per day. That is only $0.12 cents per day! However, it is very difficult for families to come up with this money, especially when they have 8 to 10 children to put in school.

All of the kids wear uniforms with black shoes. Each school varies in the color of their uniforms. As seen below:

Emily & Ronald

Doris, Jackie & Nakku in the Kireka Home school uniforms

Desire & Benita - this is not Benita's normal school shirt. It was cold this morning and so she has 2 additional shirts over her school shirt

John in his school uniform

The struggle for school teachers here is the vast number of students in their classrooms. Some teachers have almost 200 children to just themselves! Here at Kireka Home, even with our special needs kids, some of the classes have 17-25 kids to only one teacher! It is really crazy how the ratios change compared to home.

Pictures of the kids - of course I cannot leave you without pictures of some kids for this week. Next week, I will go back to highlighting specific kids.

Sunna

Shafik - I did a Valentine's craft with all of the kids I teach this week reminded them that Yesu loves them

Teddy working on her heart

Kato was very proud of his heart

While I was taking the picture of kids in uniforms this morning, Shimri was bound and determined he needed his picture taken... but at the same time refused to let go of my hand

Suzan - she always squats down when you take her picture!

Well, that is all for this week. Please let me know if there is anything particular about life in Africa that you would like to know about or see pictures of! I will leave you with part of Psalm 103 - I read it last week during my quiet time and then in church we read it outloud and then sang the song "10,000 Reasons". This is absolutely one of my favorite songs and if you don't know it, you can listen to it on Youtube here.

"Praise the Lord, O my soul,  all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits- who forgives all your sings and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle^,s"