August 30

August 30

I suppose I should be diligent and get back to writing and posting more to this blog. I haven’t been as good at it as I promised myself and some of you I would be. Please accept my apologies.

We had a wonderful weekend. I believe Friday was where I left off?

Saturday we chose a very simple way of exploring more of the area, our feet. We had the option of hiring a car and driver for the day and going to some more touristy areas but we decided we aren’t here as tourists. Even though we do want to see some of the country we don’t think it is proper for us to spend money like tourists.

Mbale is situated at the base of Mount Eglon, I believe it is the largest nonactive volcano in Africa. It is truly beautiful to look at at many different times. It can be shrouded in mist or, like today, the sun can be striking it in stunning ways. On Saturday we decide we would simply trek as far as we could up the mountain. We began walking from the campus at about 10 am. and simply headed toward the mountain. The first portion only goes up hill slightly and very gradual so you don’t even notice it. We stopped at the information building for the national park which covers the entire top of the mountain. There we picked up a map and asked about trails. We learned about one that would take us to the top, if we wanted to go that far and could make it that far.

We continued on. Soon we began to really climb. Although we remained on a road the entire time and there were “houses” all along the way, the climb was significant but the views we enjoyed were worth it. Sorry no pictures at this time due to slow internet.

Trust me it was beautiful. At one point we stopped to drink some water we were carrying with us and have a granola bar. Also trust me anything like a granola bar attracts attention. “Chocolate!” Three ladies who were also heading up joined us. They were pleasant company as we walked and they stayed with us for some time. They also wanted us to take their picture with Susan, which I did. They were campaigning for one on the many political parties in Uganda. The one to which the current president belongs. Primaries for that party were held today. They were going to have a rally in that area. They stopped at a community type meeting spot under some big trees and we continued on. We tried one way but it started to just go along the side of the mountain so we turned back and went the other way. We climbed for some time and thought we were about to reach the plateau but we turned a corner and all we saw was more road going up. We had gone as far as our bodies were physically prepared to go. We had been walking for two hours and had probably gone about 12 K. On our way back down our three ladies chatted with us again and asked if we had sodas or bottled water, or chocolate we would share with them. We only had enough for ourselves and we make it a point not to respond to these types of requests. It is very easy for musongos to give the impression that they are there to share wealth. Musongo is the swahili term for a white person. It is said with respect but we heard it a great deal all the way up and down the mountain. It is mostly said by children. In fact some of them even sang it. The phrase is “Musongo, how are you?” Repeat that several times and see if you can’t begin to sing it as well.

Time for a new paragraph since the subject is now coming down the mountain. Needless to say we returned to campus faster than we traveled up although once we reached the flatter ground of the town it was hard to convince our legs that they still had work to do to bring us home.

We took about 1.5 hours to return. I wish I could share some of the pictures. We certainly will when we return home.

When we got back to campus we could enjoy the final preparations which were being done for a wedding reception that took place on the front “lawn/field” of the campus.

It was interesting to listen to the music and later listen and watch the festivities. Many things were similar to our own wedding receptions but other things were quite different.

For those of you who are involved in catering for weddings you will love this. Preparations for the meal began in earnest the day before since there were 400 guests to be fed. Huge quantities of plantain (a green banana) had to be peeled. They worked till 1 am and then began again early Saturday morning. The meal was to be served at 4 pm. At 4 pm everything was ready but only a hand full of guests were in sight. Guest arrived mostly after 4 pm and the bridal party got there around 5:30. Dinner finally happened around 7. Amazingly the food was still warm and since we got to eat some too, quite good. We were fortunate, we got a fork and napkin with ours. Not so for the wedding guests. Food was eaten in the traditional way, with your fingers from a plate on your lap. No tables required. They did have chairs. More traditionally would have been on the ground.

One more interesting thing: By 8 pm the guests were all on there way home and by 11 mostly everything, including tents and chairs, was all packed up.

That brings us to Sunday.

We lazed around for the first part of the morning because we were told the service we wanted to attend started at 11 so we planned accordingly. We were going to the Presbyterian church since we were not quite ready for a full blown Pentecostal service quite yet. We will get to do that next weekend and the weekend after that since my students have asked me to preach in their churches. I hope they can handle it.

Anyway, when we walked next door to the Presbyterian Church there were still plenty of people outside so we thought we were on time but the service was already going on.

We learned later that Adult Sunday school and worship just flow into one another and the whole thing began at 9:30. The service was good. Some hymns were even very familiar to us although I have never sung “Christ Shall Have Dominion” quite that fast! or “Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow” quite as slowly as they did.

The preaching was good. Powerful even. The Pastor preaches in English but it is translated at almost exactly the same time into one of the many local languages. I’m not sure which one it was. I realized it is an art to Preach with translation going on like that. I pray I will be able to accomplish it without a) constantly losing my train of thought or b) boring people into a sound sleep. You may begin praying for me now and for the people next Sunday.

Our afternoon was restful. We planned to meet Mary (the young lady in charge of keeping us well fed and looked after) and Craig, (the person from World Missions in charge of the Farming in Faith program) and together go to a fellowship group that consists mainly of whites living or working in Mbale. It started at 5 so we were to meet at 4 in order to walk over. We got there at 6:30. This has not been typical. With all the talk of African time things have generally been on time or very close to it. We had a wonderful, although short, time of fellowship and met people from many different places.

Our hosts were a Christian couple who came from Palestine via Jordan some 26 years ago. They came here with nothing and gradually built a home and a life for themselves. Please pray for Christians who live in the middle east! Life for them is not easy and they are often forgotten including by other Christians.

Today was back to teaching. The only main difference was that the power went out during the night after our second major, and I do mean major, rain storm in less than a week. This is the wet season but these storms are big even from the perspective of the people who live here. They talk about climate change here as well. Other than these storms, both of which happened at night, the weather has been very pleasant. I would never say it was very hot nor have we had any need to close windows or put on additional clothing.

Our day without power did not affect my teaching any and it only made Susan’s day slightly less busy than her days have been so far. By 8 pm our power returned and we could once again feel connected.

Now if only we are connected enough so I can post this.

George.