Mean Girls

Being from Nashville, country music makes me happy. When you live in the Capital of Country Music, you either come to like the music or, well, leave. I have done both.

So, yesterday, as I was washing dishes, I sang along to Sugarland’s “Mean Girls” song.

From being a teenager to teacher to youth group leader to mom, I have known my share of what the song talks about: “ Mean girls: It starts on the playground pulling your hair, Then in high school it gets worse from there.”

And in Uganda, there is no exception to the concept of mean girls.

At 12:45am, we awoke to a phone call from CSB asking us to pray as there were “riots” from the girls’ dorms. Basically, a few older girls decided to welcome the new female students by dousing their 27 mattresses with water. Of course, this did not go well with the new girls who complained to the teachers. Between the teachers in charge and members of student council, it was decided that the older girls should give the new girls their mattresses for the night. Well, at 12:45 am, the older girls were raising a ruckus. Fortunately, God has provided new leadership that is both strong and wise. The situation was handled well, though the details of who, why, etc are still being worked out.

So, what to do?

Please join us in praying for wisdom, for the head teacher, for the teachers, for the girls whose mattresses were wet, for the girls who were mean, for the girls who were not mean but are in that class, for this to be an opportunity for repentance-confession-forgiveness-reconciliation, for students to know it is not ok to bully, for the community to know that girls are valued, for CSB to fulfill its vision of “an academically excellent senior secondary boarding school producing servant leaders for the good of Bundibugyo and God’s glory.”

While it takes great tenacity to be a girl who makes it through school here, pray that we can teach them that they do not have to be mean to be successful.

And while you are praying, remember our one year old lab named “Bhootu” who went from a dog who could jump over our 7 foot tall fence to one who cannot walk. Travis is treating him for “tick bite fever” and he is getting lots of love from all of us.