Creativity

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2015

 

Today was a good, calm day. We had a chance to sleep in a bit before breakfast, and later went down to Florence's office to get the paint supplies. I would say that we did a lot, but really the artistic abilities fell on Hannah. She began working on painting a mural for Musana's clinic while Sue and I went with our boda boda driver, Richard, to buy more paint, brushes, and sodas. We looked like locals carrying our paint cans and bags while riding effortlessly on a boda. Meanwhile, Hannah had begun creating a masterpiece on the wall of the clinic, which she finished later that day. Sue and I set out on our art project, meaning we had to straighten out and repaint several motivational/signs around the cafeteria. We were able to get the signs repainted with a couple of coats, so that we can finish the writing tomorrow. Sue and I helped tutor some of the students for about an hour, working on their spelling. In case you are wondering where Hannah was during all of this, she was being Hannah and creating beautiful art! Around 5 o'clock it began to rain, so we put away the paints and headed back up. 

 

During the day we had several fun moments with our friends here at Musana. At one point, Denis came up to Sue, Edward, and I with a scale and made all of us weigh ourselves…apparently Ugandans don't aim for small numbers like Americans tend to do, so Denis and Edward's compliments weren't as flattering as they hoped. Since Hannah wasn't there, we convinced Denis to bring the scale to her so that she could share in the fun. Don't worry, Sue explained to Denis and Edward that they shouldn't pull out the scale for Mzungus next time. There was a small moment where I got a small cut from the metal signs, quite a bit of blood gushed out, and got my wound cleaned up by sweet Florence in the clinic. Unfortunately I have a tendency to feel lightheaded at my own blood, so I took a short rest in the clinic before getting back to work. Before you ask Mom, I am up to date on my shots, was fine within fifteen minutes, and have been taking care of the cut since. Thankfully G-d gave us a cloudy sky and cool breeze while work. Throughout our painting, several students would hang around to watch us paint or, in Hannah's case, try to paint themselves whenever she wasn't looking. Overall it was a very fun day filled with paint, joy, some rain, and G-d's beauty in Hannah's creativity and the children's enjoyment of the variety of colors to put on each other. 

 

Since I haven't had a chance to blog since the first night of our trip, I'll add a small update from my perspective here. G-d has been really good to our team and is very present here in Uganda. The people are amazing and so loving to us, whether we are friends or strangers to them. We have had some incredible opportunities to serve and to continue/build relationships we have established here. I feel extremely blessed that G-d chose to call me here to such a beautiful country. It has been amazing getting to experience Him through these wonderful people and witness their passion and devotion to G-d. I'm excited for whatever He has next! 

 

~Samantha

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