Catching Things Up

Catching Things Up

I suppose it has been a while since I posted anything.  Sorry about that.  This is the result of two things.  First being away from internet, electricity and civilization for a few days and when we had internet it was a poor connection.

Rather than try to remember where I left off what I will do is work backwards by events.

So we start with today, Wednesday, September 15, 2010.

We are now at the Fairway Hotel in Kampala, Uganda.  We are booked in until they take us to Entebbe and the airport for our flight on Friday.  This is the flight that will take us to Nairobi, Kenya and our final week.

We left Mbale this morning.  Our driver arrived at 8:30 and brought us to the Elgon Flyer Bus Depot.  Our bus was scheduled to leave at 9:30 am and was right on time.  We decided to do the bus since the cost of hiring a car just did not seem reasonable to us.  Our trip from Kampala to Mbale by car cost us 400,000 UGS.  Our trip from Mbale to Kampala by bus cost us 20,000 UGS plus an additional 15,000 for a short hire from the bus to our hotel. Certainly much less expensive.  The bus was also a lot more fun and more comfortable than a car would have been.  We arrived early enough to snag the front seat right behind the driver.  That seat gives you extra leg room and a great view.  The bus sits very high so the view was great.  The distance between Mbale and Kampala is about 200 km.  In Canada we would say 2 hrs. but this isn’t Canada.  We left at 9:30 and arrived in Kampala just after 1:30 pm.  We were actually early.  It was a little crazy when we arrived,  We were suppose to meet a driver at a particular spot but the bus didn’t end up stopping there.  The driver saw our bus and followed it.  What a blessing!  After the bus stopped and some very confusing moments the bus started moving again and suddenly we saw a man waving a CRWRC sign out his window.  We were so thankful that the conductor stopped the bus for us and our bags were very easy to pull out.  Another moment when we really sensed the hand of God in this too.  There was also a time or two on the trip where prayers were issued for safety and answered swiftly.  The only problem with the view from our seats was the fact we could see the close calls.  But those are now in the past!  Praise God for His care!  One other thing I must add about the bus trip its called a “Short Call”  The bus stopped in an area that is wooded on both sides of the road and then the conductor announced “Short Call”.  Those who needed to make a short call headed for the bushes.  You guested it.  Nature was calling!  Needless to say, we just hung in there until reaching our hotel later in the day.

Yesterday was our final day in Mbale.  I think we were at the point that we wanted to move on to the next phase of our trip but it was also difficult to begin saying goodbye.

It amazes me how deeply you can connect with people in just three weeks!  Some far more than others and that is what made it hard to say goodbye!  The school put on a small farewell gathering for us.  It was more formal than we would have liked and was first limited to the faculty and a few of the staff which left out some of the wives that we really connected with but we made sure we sought out those we truly needed to say goodbye to.  We had another heavy rain storm.  They have become an almost daily reality here as the rainy season settles in.  The power was also late in coming back on.  I will not miss the daily outage as they worked on the lines.  Off by 9 am, back on some time around 7 pm.  

One more thing about the gathering but I will write that after I tell you about our weekend since it involves a gift we received while on our adventure.

That takes us to Saturday since that is when our adventure begins.

We were up very early. In order to get the best spot in one of the taxi vans Willy, our host and guide, wanted us to be at the departure point by 6 am.  It is still dark here until 6:30 so we walked in the dark to catch a taxi.  Willy wanted to put us in the front seat so we would not get crowded in.  We didn’t get the front seat but we didn’t get crowded in either since Willy made sure they didn’t do it to us.  He was so good to us!  You need to understand how these taxi vans work.  They are mostly older Toyota vans, built for 8 or 9 passengers at the very most but converted and licensed to carry 14 plus the driver.  That makes 15.  Yeah, right!  During various rides in these things I think we topped out at 22, plus luggage and chickens.  Never forget the chickens!  But do forget shock absorbers!

We were off to Willy’s home.  Willy lives in the north, between Lira and Gulu, in Apac region.  Until a year ago this was still a conflict zone involving the LRA.  If you don’t know what those letters stand for please Google Lord’s Resistance Army and give yourself a very important history lesson.

We traveled to Lira by taxi van then after some waiting time we were off again in a Toyota 4X4 pick up.  Paved road for the first 20 minutes or so, then on to a clay/gravel road about 1 Canadian lane wide.  We drove on this for about 15 minutes more and then turned on to what can only be described as a cow path.  We have no idea how our driver determined the best route but he did an amazing job.  We were now in the real Uganda. Much more than 50% of the population lives in locations just like this.  We had left real roads behind and along with them we left power lines behind as well.  You never leave telephones behind here though since it is almost all cell phones.  I suppose we were about a KM down the cow path and the last possible place the truck could reach.

Willy and his wife Mary

Willy's house

Our room

This is where Willy lives along with his wonderful wife and four daughters.  There compound consists of a central brick house and assorted out building.  If the pictures load you will see the reality of a brick house and what I mean by out buildings.  One of these out buildings was our room.  Mud walls and floors, thatch roof.  We had a vinyl on the floor and a real bed, even though it was a single bed for the two of us.  An amazing experience.  Honestly I am having a difficult time putting this into words.  I do not want to give a false impression of this experience nor do I want to make light of it.  Conditions are very primitive by our standards but Willy and his family keep things cleaner than many less primitive settings.  

When talking about primitive I suppose I do have to mention pit latrines.  Some of you immediately know what that means.  If you are thinking out house though, forget it.  A pit latrines is a rather low mud hut building with thatch roof and a hole in the floor.  Yup, that’s it, just a hole.  Can you say squat?  Enough said.

We arrived at Willy’s home late Saturday afternoon.  Willy had observed what we like to eat and what we didn’t like.  He also asked many questions so we knew we would be treated well.  Mary, his wife, did such an amazing job at making us feel honoured.  And believe me it is the custom of everyone in their area to honour guests!  It was overwhelming at many times.  Women kneel when they greet you and serve you.  You are given water for hand washing before and after meals.  As guest you usually eat before your hosts and gifts are often given.  More on gifts and chickens later.

After a brief rest we took a walk with Willy and a friend before dark.  We felt like we were with a major celebrity.  For once all the attention was not focused on us.  Willy is a much loved and respected Pastor.  As we walked along everyone, and I mean everyone waved and shouted greetings.  We waved back many times but it felt like it was all about Willy and we were glad.

We were a little more than a KM from Willy’s home as the sky grew dark.  At first our hosts thought it would pass without rain but they were wrong.  When it became clear rain was going to fall Willy managed to contact a friend with a motorcycle.  He quickly came to our rescue.  As guests we could not be allowed to get wet so we got our first boddabodda ride. (that’s the word for a motorcycle taxi).  We got to Willy’s home before the rain but Willy got quite wet riding a bike back which he had borrowed.

We slept wonderfully well in our little hut!

Sunday dawned bright but the ground was quite wet.  

The Church inside 

The Church, outside.  Note veranda

The plan was for an Assembly.  That means the ten branch congregations that are part of the one Assembly would be coming together at the central church.  The gathering point was right in Willy’s yard, or was his home in the church yard, hard to tell.

The plan was also to meet outdoors but there were not enough tarps for shelter from the sun and as I said the ground was rather wet so the decision was made to try to get everyone into the church building.  The church is also a mud building with a thatch roof.  Since they are working on building a brick church repairs have not been done so the building was getting a little rough.  If I had to guess how many it seats comfortably I would say 200.  The total number of members in the Assembly is 1,120.  The expected attendance was 400-500.  I think a little over 500 came.  We probably got 400 of them in the building and the rest on the “veranda” around the outside of the building.  Again I hope the pictures load.

The Spirit was most definitely present!  Worship was beautiful and sharing the word of God with these wonderful people was a true blessing.  Once again I preached in English.  Willy was my translator but he did far more than just translate my words, he transformed them to fit with his people.  There were two preachers and the result was a true blessing.  Praise God!

When the offering was taken we experienced something very unique.  Some of these dear people have no cash what so ever.  Their offering comes in the form of produce and other items right down to a single egg.  Talk about the widows penny!  After these gifts are presented they are converted to cash by means of a quick auction.  Yup, right there and then in the service!  What a unique experience!  Susan, was asked to close the service in prayer.  What a scary but honouring moment.

Following the service we were overwhelmed by greetings from old and young.  Lots and lots and lots of young!  Susan then got to speak to a group of women, mostly the wives of the pastors.  Just a simple, from the heart talk about sharing in ministry.  Then more greetings and more gifts.  

We got to retreat to our hut for a while as Willy got pulled into various ministry situations.  This gave the rest of the people a chance to disperse and Mary a chance to make lunch.  We saw a chicken arrive on a bike (no she wasn’t riding it, but was tied to the handle bars) and we had chicken for lunch.  Very fresh!

The afternoon went by quickly and we enjoyed another walk.  This time the rain held off until after dark.  On our walk one more gift.  A lady came out to us, knelt before Susan and extended her hands to present three eggs to her.  A very traditional gift, next only to chickens.  If they were not told that we could not take chickens back to Canada we would have had a flock before leaving.  In the end we only had to take one back with us.  It became the base for the chicken stew we made on Tuesday.

Monday morning our lift back to Lira was suppose to arrive early so we could catch a bus back to Mbale.  That didn’t happen.  It was 11 by the time our ride arrived so we had to use the taxi’s again and didn’t get back to Mbale until 6:30 pm very, very tiered.

The only benefit to the late pick up was being able to briefly see a couple of the monkeys that have made a home in the trees near Willy’s home.  What a thrill!  We also got to see a crested crane on the trip to Apac!  

Are you tiered of reading yet?   

After telling you about our weekend it seems like a very significant step down to tell you about last week.

The best way to describe the week is relaxing because that is what we mostly did.  The fact that the power was out all day every day prevented us from doing to much as far as work was concerned.  Staff was in the same predicament.  I completed my time teaching on Monday.  Did I tell you how amazing that experience was!  

Susan couldn’t do much as far as the library was concerned since the lack of power meant no printing of labels.  So our days were filled with relaxing, conversations and walks.  All very good.  

We are convinced that everything we have experienced has been exactly what God wanted for us during this time.  It may not have always matched our expectations or desires but every detail fit with God’s plan.  Of that we are certain and for that we can only praise him!  

We once again want to thank all of you for your love, prayers and support.  Just a reminder about support.  Its not to late if you want to make a contribution!  Also a reminder that our time in Holland and our two days here are at our expense and not covered by your donations.  We are very thankful that we can combine a bit of vacation time with the service portions of this trip.

Well, more than enough for now.  Thanks for reading!