Makhai

We visited the village of Makhai yesterday.   (see https://www.google.com/maps/place/0%C2%B057'04.3%22N+34%C2%B009'56.0%22E/@0.951191,34.1644678,357m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x0:0x0!7e2!8m2!3d0.951191!4d34.1655556 , although I think it has expanded somewhat beyond the current Google Maps satellite view I am seeing).   Makhai was the first village around Mbale that FH worked with, and they graduated out of the program 8 years ago.   With Marare's graduation coming closer and closer we really wanted to see this, to see that it was indeed possible for a place to continue strong even after FH formally left them … in other words, that the work was sustainable.

It is more than sustainable.   We saw that Makhai has not only continued what they had 8 years ago, but has gone well beyond.

(this next part is written with Naomi’s assistance….)

One thing they started 4 years ago for children with challenges, largely deafness but also some with mental and developmental challenges.  It was really great to see the deaf and developmentally challenged kids thriving and even interacting well and positively with the “normal” children at the school. 

Many in the program are from further away, as far as Northern Uganda, and some of the kids board at the school.   When we met the group they were eager to communicate with us, telling us their names in sign language.

There was one teen-aged deaf student, Rebecca, who particularly hit it off with Naomi on our team, who has some hearing difficulties and has learned to use sign language well.    Rebecca diligently taught Naomi Ugandan Sign Language (USL, which is partially different from the American Sign Language or ASL that Naomi knows).  (Rebecca clearly has great natural abilities as a teacher … may she be able to exercise these gifts in the future).

The dynamo behind this evidently successful program was Headmistress Lydia, who clearly works very hard and with much skill in this particular area.   She does everything from the overall organization down to cleaning up their messes.   She also evidently has taken in at least a few of the kids in the program who were desperately poor or had other significant family issues even if they did not have funding for them, essentially trusting that God would provide for them as they did what they thing He is calling them to do.

Another program that has taken root at Makhai since graduation has been their secondary vocational school (secondary is what we would call part of Junior High and then High School – essentially grades 8 on)   We saw the classrooms … they are offering tailoring, computer studies and hairdressing.     Something particularly interesting was them cutting up cement bags to give a cheap material to then practice making clothes with!

And finally we saw the normal secondary school.   In fact we ended up crashing a Secondary 2 (equivalent of 9^th grade) class.   We greeted them, introduced ourselves and sang them a verse of “O Canada!”   They replied with a rendition of the Ugandan National anthem, sung in thunderous fashion with the all the vigor the song deserves.  

I should mention that I did not actually count the students, but the class was BIG.   There is a lot of demand for secondary school in Uganda as many many children graduate from the primary schools that have been their emphasis until now, and they try to take as many as they can despite limited resources.   I have great respect for an Ugandan secondary teacher; the marking alone would take a lot of time.

We also met a number of members of the community.   One chap I walked with for a while was an older farmer who obviously was becoming reasonably prosperous and certainly was a leader in the area.   We were able to talk about their crops … one advantage I have, being a farm boy as I am, is having the universal thing to discuss with farmers here, who make up a huge part of the population.   Yup, you can always talk about rain and crops, and instantly have something in common.

The Makhai visit took up much of the day.  We were able to get in more home visiting yesterday … I’ll talk more about all this in my next posting.   We dragged our way home and passed out, exhausted but happy.