Monday, November 15, 2010

Sis. Tolstad suggested that I go to the National Theater on Saturday.  They have all kinds of booths there filled with native arts and crafts.  Ugandans are amazing artists!  But she had to go to the doctor, and Bro. Tolstad was out of town, and they will NOT let me go anywhere by myself, so she had me chose one of the teachers to be my chaperone.  I took the other sports coach, David.  I was completely amazed by him that day, because I've been shopping with men before and they quickly get cranky and impatient, but David was just the opposite.  He was extremely patient and he helped me pick out gifts for my family.  He even negotiated prices for me.  If the shop owner said 20,000 shillings, David would gruffly answer, "We are giving you 10!  Donna, give him 10."  At the last shop, the owner asked David something in Luganda and he laughed and answered her.  When we left I asked him what they had said, and he told me that since I was greeting and thanking them in Luganda, they assumed I was married to him.  So they asked if I was his wife and he had answered, "No, she is my sister."

I taught Devotion at Primary for the last time last Thursday and Friday.  I love teaching at Primary!  They kiddos are soooooo cute, and it always takes me forever to leave because all 500 want a high five and a 'bump.' I told them that our memory verse was one of the most important verses in the Bible, John 3:16.  Then I told them all the Christmas story and that Jesus came so that we could go to heaven.  I emphasized to them that God loves them so much that he sent his only Son to die for us, so that we could go to heaven.  I told them that it does not matter what your skin looks like or what country you are from (this produced a fun few moments of letting them tell me all the countries they knew.  I found out that San Francisco and London are countries!).  I said that none of that matters because God loves everyone more than we can understand.  Then I helped them learn the memory verse and I gave pencils to anyone who could stand up and say the whole thing from memory.  I was impressed with the effort of some of them.  I kept emphasizing the Love of God to the point that I probably over emphasized it.  But there are so many Muslim and Hindu children in the school that I want them to remember that specifically.  I gave them all a color sheet to take home with the verse written out, but I had to explain to some of them what a color sheet was.  Oh, how I will miss those sweet little darlings.  Whenever an adult walks in to the room, the students all stand up and greet that person in unison.  They do not sit down until that adult gives them permission to do so.  I wish there was a way to implement the same policy in American classrooms. 

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