Dear Friends,
First, thank you to those who responded back to us with words of encouragement and wisdom. We are blessed to know you and respect your input and appreciate your encouragements.
We have settled into a class of 15. We have 5 from various parts of Rhino Camp, the refugee camps for the South Sudanese. All are recommended and referred to us by former students and we are already finding that they chose well. From Uganda, three come from far Eastern Uganda where they are being impacted by the conflict and drought in Ethiopia. Some are from the surrounding communities, which is wonderful, but because they are close, they are also distracted with family issues which frequently keeps them from class. Two are here representing a ministry called Deaf Hearing United (DFU) to learn and multiply to the deaf community served by DFU. We have one young lady from the USA who is in our view, ‘made for Africa’.
You may remember in the 2019 school, we had two deaf students. A highlight last week was for Gene and Buroha to visit one of them, Herbert, at his father’s farm. What a joy to see him doing well. They were so encouraged by the change and enthusiasm in that young man! We had received a video where he shares his testimony of how he had nothing to do, no way to get a job, and felt hopeless after he finished his high school. He basically came to the Ag school because he had nothing else to do, but after doing the school with us, he began dreaming of possibilities and implementing on his father’s farm. He experimented with various things and found he really enjoyed raising pigs. He was able to get two sows and his last litter was 12 piglets. He raised them well, using a method we promote which is odorless, more affordable for feed costs and makes for very healthy pigs. What a gift to see him in person! During Gene’s visit, he shared his dream of integrating the piggery, both manure and through sale of the piglets, to continue improvement of his farm and life.
He basically came to the Ag school because he had nothing else to do, but after doing the school with us, he began dreaming of possibilities and implementing on his father’s farm. He experimented with various things and found he really enjoyed raising pigs. He was able to get two sows and his last litter was 12 piglets. He raised them well, using a method we promote which is odorless, more affordable for feed costs and makes for very healthy pigs. What a gift to see him in person! During Gene’s visit, he shared his dream of integrating the piggery, both manure and through sale of the piglets, to continue improvement of his farm and life.
With request to include ministry to the deaf again in this SAS and experiencing some of the unique challenges to include them in the school, we had an extended discussion with the DHU founder/leaders in the best way to empower and train the deaf (of which there are MANY in Africa).
Seeking advice from one of the sign language interpreters from the last school who knows the material and knows the challenges of teaching the deaf, he recommended that the hearing signing interpreters be trained first in the school so that they understand the material and can do better in their explanation and coaching. After exhausting 4 interpreters last school trying to understand the material and then give the information to our deaf students, we saw the wisdom in this. Dialogue with DHU resulted in them selecting Moses and Aaron, 2 interpreters, to attend that had a strong interest in both agriculture and empowering the deaf community with skills and a new view of life. They will be practicing signs and also creating some new signs where there isn’t one in the traditional sign language relating to the new material. One of our staff lead student teams, which visit their selected community once each week on Fridays for the duration of the school, will partner with Herbert and some of his deaf friends to begin giving these 2 experience in training the deaf communities in agriculture.
We have a ‘theme’ on the board ‘The Why behind the What’. In other words, whether it is our beliefs, our agricultural practices, our treatment of our spouse, our family standards, etc we all need to find what we believe and then know the Why behind that What.
Experience has shown that it takes time for the students to process the material and trust the staff enough to open up with their lives. However, with this group we have a couple students that are very open already with exposing and questioning the animistic beliefs they have lived with. JP has realized the fear his mother, a Christian influenced by traditional ways, lives in each day as she strives to appease the spirits and keep them happy. His face literally lights up when he has ‘ah ha’ moments and processes his revelations. He longs to see her live in peace and rest and free from the duty of sacrifices and superstitions. Emmanuel is a South Sudanese pastor in the camp. On Friday he stood up and said that his mind is being “blown open with understanding” on so many levels. One very sad story he revealed (and others in the class including some from Uganda) is that in the tribe when twins are born, one is taken to the bush for the wild animals. Then the family routinely will leave a bit of food around for the child’s spirit to be fed. As they processed the why behind the what, they realized it most likely happened because of hunger issues in the tribe and the witch doctor turned it into a fear of the twin and it became a superstition practiced even now.
Emmanuel, a natural leader, really blessed Gene and I on Friday too when he led the class in a time honoring us for coming to Uganda to run the school. He said that he has sat through many many trainings in the camps with people wanting them to get skills to move forward, but none so transformational as he is receiving now. In digging to find the ‘why behind the what’ and searching for transformational truths in the Bible it is transforming his mind and thinking and his future actions. He led the class in praying for us for strength, health, wisdom and since they know we have recently sold our farm, for a home and place to thrive. We were very honored and blessed.
We have had many humorous communications already in the class and with the students. We watch for perplexed looks on faces to realize they have no idea of what we are talking about. Gene was teaching through a story in Liberia about a young man wearing a heavy coat with the belief that it would turn him white. Their perplexed looks and questions showed they thought the man was wearing a goat! A coat here is called a jumper, so they heard and pictured a man wearing a goat. We have many laughs over the language confusions even though we are all speaking English. Our American girl was teaching on pollination and they finally said they couldn’t understand ‘her singing’ so we had to get another student who understood her accent to ‘interpret’. Laughter is good for the soul so we should all be quite healthy with the abundance of laughter in class.
Enough for now….
Love
Gretchen and Gene
Prayer points:
- Health for us all! We have had several cases of malaria and typhoid in the class and Julius (staff) has lower back issues that have kept him in bed. The doctors here have him on muscle relaxants to help him sleep but the x ray shows his lower vertebrae completely misaligned. They won’t do physical therapy for a month and he is in much pain. Nearest chiropractor is 12 hours away.
- Continued openness of the students and bonding with the staff. They will start working in teams into communities next week which will bring a new level of learning, team dynamics and focus.
- Energy! It is still dry and HOT here. They keep saying the rains “are coming” but so far they are delayed. Days are in the 90’s and nights finally cool into the low 70’s in the wee morning hours. The classroom is quite hot in the afternoons and often we choose to be outside than in the stuffy classroom where we all battle staying awake. The power has been very spotty so fans are not a help if you can even find one. I know the mud we will deal with when the rains come, but right now a cooling rain sounds wonderful.