Kayunga

This week the 5 of us gappers went to Kayunga where we taught at Mount Zion school which has links with one of Smile's volunteers. Mount Zion aims to cater for all children including those who are deaf or disabled in another way. The school is linked with a charity called Kisaakye (meaning "God's Grace") which provides therapy for disabled children, particularly those with cerebral palsy.
We stayed in the Kisaakye centre which meant that for the week we had our own house. We had great fun cooking on charcoal stoves which takes much longer than cooking on gas, as we used the time to sing together in the kitchen. We also enjoyed a packet of marshmallows toasted over the hot coals that we had been saving for such an opportunity! 

Outside the Kisaakye centre where we stayed

Toasting marshmallows

At Mount Zion school we helped the teachers with marking work, and we taught some classes as well when there wasn't a teacher present. We mainly taught phonics or reading lessons, but we also had fun teaching the children some songs.

Teaching was difficult in limited space - this is 5 classes!

Teaching a reading lesson to Primary 5 with Primary 4 in the background

As Mount Zion caters for deaf children they also have a deaf teacher. Clare and I spent every afternoon with Mary and 2 of her students and we learnt a lot of East African sign language.

Clare with our new friends

On Thursday Kisaakye had a therapy day at their centre, so Finch, Joe and I stayed at the centre to help out. Lots of parents brought their children for therapy. Most of the children who came had cerebral palsy, so their therapy involved helping them to stretch different parts of their bodies and to move their joints. This was quite painful for the children as their bodies aren't used to such movement, but is important for them to have maximum movement. The work that Kisaakye do means that they can educate the parents about how best to care for their children in order to enable them to live a better quality life.

Next week we're off to another village! We're going back to Kuffu for our final week of teaching there and to take part in a medical mission day.

Thank you, as always, for your prayers and support.
This week I would love prayer in the following areas...

- Health and safety for the whole team.
- Pray that we will be able to continue to spend good time together as a team and remain close to each other and to God.
- Pray that God will use us to do his work.

Thank you so much and God bless.

Lorna