Sarah in Kampala: Jewelry and an Anglican Church

Hello, here is what I have been up to for the past few days.

Friday (August 22), I spent the day with Renee. In the morning, all of the children from Julianne’s school came over for a play date (I think there are 26 total). I helped supervise the craft project (turning vegetable cans into pen holders). After that, Renee and I spent quite a long time counting jewelry. One of the many things done by Hope Alive is micro-financing small jewelry businesses for two Ugandan women. Once we had a complete inventory, we went to the Hope Alive office to meet with one of the women…and count a few hundred more necklaces. The jewelry is absolutely stunning. Here is a picture of Renee holding one of the many bundles of necklaces.

Here is a picture of Jennifer (known as Mama Cici because her oldest daughter is named Cici, so Renee is known as Mama Julianne) and me wearing some of her jewelry.

Next, Renee and I went to the craft market and picked up pizza for Friday-pizza-movie-night! We watched Arsenic and Old Lace, which is the funniest movie I have ever seen.

Saturday (August 23), was very uneventful. I spent the day uploading and editing pictures and interview videos. Our next-door neighbor, Jack, came over for dinner. Jack is quite…eccentric. But he is really interesting to listen to. He had just returned from an eight day silent Anglican retreat in Nairobi. For one evening, I was not the only token Anglican :)

Speaking of Anglicans, Sam and Alice (from Focus) took John, Cindy, and me to an Anglican Church service this morning(Sunday, August 24). Unfortunately, it was the praise and worship service (no Eucharist), but it still gave me the feel of Anglican churches in Uganda. The sanctuary holds about 800-1000 people, plus there are two overflow tents outside that hold easily that much, if not more. The tents have projectors and screens so people can still see what’s going on in the church. We literally had to push to get seats in the sanctuary.

Jon, Jen, and Megumi came over for lunch after church…and they stayed until dinnertime. It was a really fun afternoon. It’s weird to hear Jon tell a story about his mother being a teacher and serving ice cream once a year as part of a fundraiser and realize that he’s talking about Tate’s in Wheaton. Sadly, I had to say goodbye to them because they are leaving for language training in Masaka at the end of this week. Here is picture of the gang outside the guesthouse next door.