Ja Ja Margaret

Last Wednesday afternoon Peter took the KCM men to meet some of the local Kyampisi identities - one of these was Ja Ja (grandma) Margaret, a 90 year old lady who lives with her extended family and is blind. After we'd spoken with her for a while (in Lugandan) Peter asked me to pray for her family. Before praying, I asked Peter to ask Margaret if there was anything that she really needed and that would make her more comfortable. She asked if we could repair her leaking roof and provide her with a mattress, sheets and a blanket.

After I prayed, we returned back to the Kyampisi church where we've been working for the past week - building the roof for the new ministry centre at the back of the Children's Church.

Last Thursday after taking Sonia and the kids to 'The Surgery' a Mzungu (western) doctor's surgery in Kampala (separate blog) we drove home via Hardware World in Ntinda to buy roofing sheets and roofing nails. A very kind young man at Hardware World secured the iron sheets on the back of the KCM 4WD with rope.

Later that afternoon on our way out to Kyampisi, it was very wet and the rope managed to loosen sufficient to allow the sheets to fly off - in the Main Street of Kijabijo. I quickly stopped the 4WD. As I walked towards the sheeting I could hear the community cheering and see a taxi approaching. I'm thinking 'I hope he manouvers his way around the sheeting' but alas, he drives straight over them and they went flying in all directions.

To cut a long story short, two friendly men and I gathered together the sheets, bound them with rope and fastened them on the back of the 4WD. I paid them both 1000 schillings for their help. Within 15 minutes we were back on our way out to Ja Ja Margaret's home.

We left the roofing sheets with Margaret for erection the next day.

As a team we fixed her roof and gave her a mattress, sheets and a blanket on Friday. Unfortunately as we were at 'The Surgery' again on Friday morning I wasn't a part of this exercise, which was disappointing as I provided the materials and was keen to practically serve her in this way.