API

Here is mom! She's doing so great!

 API “A Perfect Injustice” is the ministry we go to on Monday evenings. I was really excited for this ministry because Rachel (one of the long term missionaries) said this was her favorite ministry that Rafiki works with! Last year we didn’t work with API so I was also excited to work with a completely new organization that I haven’t worked with last year. API is a ministry that works with boys who live on the streets in the slums of Kampala. We will get a full orientation to API in a few weeks but from what I understand on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays API does a program in the slums for 40-60 street boys who gather together and learn life skills, play games, talk about the bible, and at the end of it all get clean water and food. There is also a clinic that helps care for specifically these boys when they are sick and gives them a place to stay while they get well. On Mondays Rafiki will be the team to put on the program. This week Kailey started us off with a school lesson on letters, I taught games and Rachel did a bible lesson. It was really incredible. I taught them “captain’s coming” and “sink the bismark” both games were a hit! I loved the boys and seeing them getting a chance to be kids rather than trying to survive on the streets is an amazing privilege. They can laugh and play and race and just be kids for the 5 hours we have them! Some of the kids have some school education but many of them didn’t get the chance to have much schooling before they went to live completely on the streets for one reason or another so many don’t know english. But the language barrier was not a problem! We have translators to translate all of our lessons and directions and things but because they don’t have school regularly they love the chance to get to learn any and everything. Even though sometimes they seem inattentive I know that they are catching a lot of it and that it’s so important for them to learn math and other life skills to be able to survive. Some of the boys were really really young maybe 8 or 9 and then some were older teens.

Kailey and Rachel with some kiddos

 

The people that started this ministry are amazing and I’ll have more on that later but one of the Uncles (who translates for us and is also a kind of father figure for the boys) has an incredible story. He lived on the street for I think 17 years or something crazy like that! He was muslim and then came to Chirst because of a street organization and now he works with API and is looked up to so much by the boys. What a neat ability to relate to them in this way and be a mentor to them. Anyways API is my favorite ministry in Uganda that I’ve served in so far including last year simply because of the impact they make and how great a need they are tackling. I can’t wait to go back. We will be going back every Monday this summer and so I am excited to build relationships and see growth in these boys.

Here we are playing "sink the Bismark"! Its kind of like sharks and minnows but on land!

Auntie Jenny and some boys !

Here me and mom were being introduced to the boys! We do program under this structure unless we need more space for the games where we go to the clearing next to it.

Here the boys are playing "captains coming!" Its kind of like simon says mixed with a memory game! they were really good at it!

A word from mom:

I got to meet about 10 boys. They were very nice. The hard part was when I was passing out food to them I looked into thier eyes. They were so thankful for the food and water! There were more boys than food and water so we had to turn away some of them that broke my heart! Two of them tried to get in our van when we left. We stopped at a connivance store before heading home and the same two boys had followed us all the way. We bought them water and some food. The need is so great and the workers are few!