Beautiful Day: We got another wife on Saturday 23rd!

In our culture, a wife is for the home or maybe I should write that a wife belongs to the home! You don't go get a woman alone and have her alone! Not at all. Getting a wife is a clan or family business. It is an affair that involves many people. By the way, on the day of 'giving away' the girl to her suitor, the father hands her to the father of the groom. And it is always a moment of joy where both families have their most close family, friends, and acquaintances present. There are some special songs, monologues, folks, brainteasers, some dancing, nice food and drink, and elegance. Anyway, we can write about this next time... I have taken some time without writing. Not by my own making. It has been a tough period. I hope to write about it soon. Dap passed on and it will take God-given courage to write about that. He was such a good friend of mine. Such a good man. That's a piece for another day. But I thought I would make a note. Today we stepped out as a family, as a group of friends as Kin for a function to receive a wife. She is the 4th wife joining our family: The Bikosa Family. We first got Cathy who is my wife, We got Sherrie who is Edmunds, we got Patience who Edson’s and today we got Angella who is Peters'. Isn't God good? We are a full house. to bond, love one another, and rejoice.

Angella comes from a very decent family. The Auncle who gives Angela's hand in marriage is a very good man. He is a retired head teacher of secondary schools and a very respected member of the community. He is Mr. Polly Turambure. I have enjoyed every bit of interacting with him on this journey of Peter and Angella getting married. Such men who are well respected yet down to earth are few here. God bless him. Angella's mum is a bit emotional. Joy fully. She spoke motherly at the Kuhingira function today. I am not sure Angella will forget a thing. Our mothers are special.

At the Kihingira function today, Peter and Angella were very smart. I have a strong feeling they selected their type of music for the party. I thought the decoration was exquisite! You will agree with me. Look at the background of the ladies’ photo here. It was some African blended touch with bright golden lights around. Who doesn’t want nice things? It was all gospel - some nice selection of trending gospel songs. See what the Lord has done! Graham Tugume The pastor from Watoto Church prayed for them. Before that, he preached. He exposed I Corinthians 13. "Love does not dishonor...because honor is the position of God's Children. God bless Graham for this exposition.

We had a good ride going back home to - Nyakareire in the evening. We drove thiking about the beutiful day amd the gain. The weather was excellent all day. The rains were hard in the previos days but this day was all cool weather. It would look like it would rain but only to keep a dull shadow. It was perfect weather for the day! We will have a wedding function on January 19th, 2024 in Kampala. God has been good, God is good, may the name of the Lord be praised.

The Kuhingira function was held the Palm World Hotel in Mbarara. That of course was reminiscence in all ways! I and Cathy hosted our wedding reception at the very sport on May 7th, 2011. And I had no hand in choosing this as the venue for Agella’s Kuhingira. I think it was a nice coincidence. Like some other nice things come to us.

Rain drops in an emotional full season!

Let me tell you something, God is amazing! Amidst all storms and being overwhelmed, God is present. This weekend was an interesting one! We have a good harvest of coffee after all. But then my Dad is unwell. In fact, we drove in an ambulance very early on a last Saturday morning for 5 hours to the city. The story can be told well by the air. Not by people. But we had spent a night at another hospital where we never met a doctor. Surprisingly the hospital has a name to the effect that it is an open area or square in a town for doctors. Because I think that is the definition of what a Plazza is. That's the name of the Hospital actually. But there was no doctor on duty at night or at least we did not see one that night. in the morning, the first doctor must have shown up at 9:00hrs. Oh, what a night it was!!

But anyway, I want to tell you that the drops of rain are soothing. at 14hrs. Amidst the emotional environment, the rain started in this part of the city. And so I felt so normal. Everything else goes on anyway. When we were young, I used to enjoy the sound of raindrops on the banana plantation near our house. I loved it. This memory takes me back to the days. Let it rain!! Thank you.

A book for every child in a remote village in Uganda

Dear Friend, March 2nd, 2023, is World Book Day! In Uganda, like in many other Sub-Saharan African countries, this is not a day that is celebrated a lot. yet we should. The Wordbook Day.Com states that ‘Reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success – more than their family circumstances, their parents’ educational background or their income.’ For us in Uganda and particularly in our village of Nyungu, children do not own books. As a matter of fact, some adults don’t own books either. They are illiterate. The adult literacy rate of Uganda increased from 56.1 % in 1991 to 79 % in 2021 growing at an average annual rate of 6.15%. We still have over 20% of adults who cannot read and write. We have 4 primary schools in our area each about 2.5 miles apart. None of these schools has a school library. None of the schools own a computer. Children start school and finish primary school level (grade 7) to join secondary school before they own a book. Before they take basic computer lessons. We are working to change this. Our family has set up the first village library in our entire district. The Nyungu Streams Village Library. The library is owned by the village and run by an elected village committee. The village library has a daily newspaper available for community members to read. We have over 250 books and magazines for children and adults. Our reading space accommodates 8 adults and 10 children at every single sitting. It is small but ‘enough’ for our village to use. We are excited about the contribution we are making. We want to do more. We want to conduct the mobile library for schools. We want to make sure that every child of 5-6 years in our community owns at least one good book. That’s the age at which the majority of the children start school in our community. This year, 304 children started primary school at the 4 schools in our neighborhood. Will you support us to hand them a book? Each good book will cost us about $5 in Uganda. We are also looking for $2,500 to procure a tricycle with a big metallic bookcase for our mobile library needs. This way, we will visit each of the 4 primary schools in our village once a month with books to lend out to children and teachers.

Our work is intentional and we are sure to make a great contribution to children's motivation to remain in school. Many children are dropping out of school. Data from the Ministry of Education shows that of the 1,880,000 learners who joined Primary One in 2016, only 832,659 completed Primary Seven. This means that 1,047,341 (56%) learners dropped out along the way. This statistic is appalling. Partner with us today to bring the change we desire! Lets promote reading together. Like Worldbook Day.com ‘’We want to see more children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, with a life-long habit of reading for pleasure and the improved life chances this brings them.’’ Send us an email: Streams Community at nyungustreamscommunity@gmail.com