Victor and Chantal

Christmas 2010 through 2011

"May the good times and treasures of the present become the golden memories of tomorrow. Wish you lots of love, joy and happiness. MERRY CHRISTMAS."

Victor Nalubega to Chantal Durgana

Buon Giorno Chantal,

I learnt that when one says the above, means hello and I only need to learn how to pronounce it. Are making great improvement with your Italian lessons? How do you find it? I also need to learn one other language a par from English. Do you have any other language you think is easy to learn? I love football. How many meters do you run? You are blessed to be naturally gifted in maths which is very rare. Practice makes perfect and therefore we need to keep practicing son that we end up getting the solution for it. When I find a challenge in any of my lessons, I ask a friend and when a friend fails, and then I consult the teacher again.

Lovely life,

Victor

Reply from Chantal Durgana, Christians Under the Stairs, Deer Park, New York, USA

April 2011

Dear Victor,

Buon Giorno is pronounced (bwon-jor-no). I don't know if that helps, but that is how I would attempt to learn how to say it. I love speaking Italian, and I also enjoy learning it too. I practice speaking the language with my friends, it is a lot of fun. When you say you play football, do you mean soccer or American football? Because they are different in our country. I am a long distance runner in my school, so the least I run everyday is about 5 kilometers and the most I run is about 6 kilometers. I enjoy running very much, it is a great stress reliever for me. How are you doing in school? I hope everything is well!

Until next time,

Chantal

Correspondence March 2010 through December 2010

My name is Victor Nalubega . I am 12 years old and a member of the Sounds of Hope youth program in Uganda. I am in the seventh grade and live with my parents, two brothers and two sisters. I share a room with my siblings and we are between the ages of 9 and 13.

My chores at home include: cooking food, washing clothes and utensils, cleaning the house, gardening, and fetching firewood and water. I really enjoy music and one of my favorite songs is "Angels of Hope". I have to walk a half a mile to and from school. It is not very far.

I attend church regularly with my family. My favorite hymn is: Jangu Eno (Come, Come This Way). I hope to grow up to become a nurse.

Reply from Chantal Durgana, Christians Under the Stairs, Deer Park, New York, USA

"Hi Victor ... My name is Chantal. I am 14 years old and in the ninth grade. I also enjoy music. I love listening to music in my free time. That's insane that you have to walk a half a mile to school. But I am glad to know that you want to become a nurse. It's good to know that you want to help people in the future. I also attend church regularly with my family. It means a lot to my dad so I go for him.

(Back) Chantal, Daniela, Rachel; (seated) Julianne, Linda

What I like most about youth group is the trip we take to feed the homeless through the Hope for the Future ministry. I like being able to connect with the homeless and give them not only a meal but our friendship.

My favorite hymn is "Here I am Lord" because everytime I hear it, I think of my dad. It is his favorite hymn. It was nice to get to know you. Love, Chantal"

[Note: At Hope for the Future we prepare for an on-the-street revival meeting by distributing a hot meal - note: served on the streets of New York City.]

Reply from Victor Nalubega, Sounds of Hope Youth Group, Uganda

Hey Chantal Durgana,

Joy is with me because of being your friend. My dad is John and mom is Robinah. Both parents are still alive and that is why I praise God so much. They are both gardeners. I am living with them at our home. Praying and practicing Bible reading is what I learn from meeting other people.

My best subjects are Social Studies and English.

Your friend, Victor

Comment and Challenge from Lindsay Ullmann, United Kingdom

Hi ... my name is Lindsay Ullmann. I started to write poetry when I was your age and it helped me to learn more about myself as a person. I grew to understand that I had to search to just find myself . I am in my 20's and now am a professional songwriter and singer. So if we turn our thoughts around into something positive we can accomplish almost anything - through creativity and spirituality.

Victor and Chantal, do you feel that you have had a wake up call in life like I had through poetry, when I was your age? If so, would you care to share? Would you agree that creativity and spirituality can help us and also those around us?

Reply from Chantal Durgana, Christians Under the Stairs, Deer Park, New York, USA

Hello again, Victor.

It's nice to hear back from you. I am so happy to hear that your parents are still alive and are gardening. That sounds like a lot of fun. I'm not too good at it, though. It's funny because your best subjects are social studies and english while mine are math and science.

Our youth group program is taking a break for the summer with a mountain hike the only activity and it is in August.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Chantal

Reply from Victor Nalubega, Sounds of Hope Youth Group, Uganda

Hi Chantal,

I believe you are doing well over there. How is your family doing ? Have you ever tried gardening? When you visit Uganda, you will try it at least. How do you find Maths many people say it very hard including me? How are the teachers teaching it? Is Maths compulsory for all students? Here it is compulsory for us all regardless of the score we get.

Say hi to your friends and family members.

Victor

Reply from Chantal Durgana, Christians Under the Stairs, Deer Park, New York, USA

Victor-

Buon Giorno Victor,

I said "hello" in Italian because that is the second language I am learning to speak. I enjoy it very much, it's difficult but a lot of fun. I am doing pretty well right now, I cant complain. I have actually never tried gardening, I'm not too fond of the outdoors, except for sports, which I love. I'm a runner at my school, and I love it! Do you play any sports? For me, I find math pretty easy, it just comes naturally to me. I guess it's because I understand it better than most things. I learn through repetitiveness and just performing problems over and over again until I understand the concept. How do you learn it?

Until next time,

Chantal