Uganda week 4

Before I forget to mention it, several of you have mentioned that you would like to help out financially here in Africa. The best way to do that is to go to the website

https://www.ywamconnect.com/uonlinegiving.jsp?siteid=36277&pageid=398604&urltype=networkurl
This site allows you to donate to this base here in Jinja, Uganda. You can specify if you want to donate to specific things like preschool, or VTS, or a specific person. There is much need, so pray about it and go for it.

One more thing: We are leaving to go to Soroti this wednesday. There is an orphanage there that we plan to stay at for a week. Pray for God to use us. Pray that we can help the needy kids. Pray for safe travel. Also, I'll probably not have email until next wednesday Oct 26, so don't expect too many replies.
Above: sunset at Bujagali falls over the Nile
Below: we went boating in the Nile for 2000 shillings each in these boats..it was awesome.
Below: just some cool bugs...I've seen flys here that are bigger than my thumb.

Day 102– Oct 10, 2005, Monday: Bujagali Falls

Boy, did I sleep bad last night. I’m starting some kind of head/sinus cold that kept me up. Luckily we brought every sort of medicine known to man (thanks to our two team nurses), and I was able to take some sinus stuff all day.

Ruth took the kids to the preschool this morning and taught in the class. She’s so good at it. The kids just love her. They all call her “Teacher Ruth”. She’s starting to talk like a local. While she was there I was checking on flights to get to Zimbabwe. This is turning out to be quite a pain in the neck as many of the flights only go once or twice a week. I found the perfect flight, but it was 5 hours late or 5 days early. Sigh….Africa. At 11:00 the whole team went up to the preschool and we acted out “The Good Samaritan” as Ruth read the story. It was fun. Those kids just love to see our faces and hold our hands. Then we sang a song with them and class was done. Almost all of the kids walk themselves home from school. That is just crazy to me. They are so young.

In the afternoon we went to see Bujagali Falls. This was quite cool. It’s the first significant rapid in the Nile. There are class 5 rapids there that are just plain gnarly. We could have rafted it for the bargain price of $95 each. Instead we went and watched a few kayakers brave the rapids (the call them falls, but they’re just big rapids). You can also pay a local guy 5000 shillings ($3) and he will jump in and brave the rapids with only a plastic jerry can to keep him afloat. I guess one local actually died earlier this year doing it. But it is quite impressive. We saw one guy do it…CRAZY!!! Then I saw a big wooden boat just below the falls and talked to the guy and he took all of us out and about for the bargain price of 2000 shillings each. I (being dutch) was quite proud of the difference of $1.15 from $95. We had a great time paddling around the Nile. Now we can at least say that we have boated on the Nile. We kept joking about cruising down (or up rather) to Egypt…only a few thousand miles. We had a nice relaxing time there though. The kids played like crazy and fell asleep in the taxi on the way home. We also had some French fries there because it is a tourist trap. French fries…hmmmm.

Day 103– Oct 11, 2005, Tuesday: Ruth at Health Center

Today was my chance to go help at the clinic. I have otherwise been engaged in the preschool and busy with the kids. It was nice to have the day off the base and doing something new. I mainly went “undercover” to spy out the office and nursing staff. Wendy, the other nurse on the team, has been at the clinic a lot and is actually thinking of coming back to Uganda full time to help at the clinic. She wanted to get my opinion on how things are run at the clinic. She is hoping to help implement some change. The strange thing is that the staff seems happy with how it is run, but it is so different from what we are used to in Western culture medicine. They do good work there though. They really work hard to reach each patient on an emotional and spiritual level, along with the physical. They have counselors and pastors present all the time to talk with people.

For lunch we ordered chipate for all of the staff. It cost 200 shillings each, which is about 10 cents. I walked into town with a girl from the office named Josephine. It was nice and sunny out. We talked about cultural differences and how funny Africans think we are for wanting to come here and see the animals. “Don’t you have animals in America?” she asked. She just didn’t get why we would spend money and waste a holiday to see animals. We also talked about strengths and weaknesses of our cultures, like how Americans tend to be in a hurry and take less time to get to know each other, but are very driven and productive, and Africans tend to be very talkative and less worried about time and more relationship focused, but less driven and productive. Both cultures can learn a little from each other. The highlight of the walk for me was when we passed a house and a lady talked with Josephine in luganda (the local language). It turns out the lady said “How is your sister (meaning me)” Josephine explained to me that when you walk next to someone they are considered your sister or friend. Their warmth and hospitality here constantly amazes me.

At the end of the day I had a chance to pray over a very sick baby. The mom has AIDS and isn’t doing well. Since the mom is so sick she can’t nurse the baby, so the baby is malnourished and has pneumonia as well. It’s hard to see things like this since the resources are so limited. In the states there would be so much available for this baby, but there are no resources here, so often the result is just death. I just prayed for God to bring life to this baby and mother, and healing as well.

Above: the roads go on and on...this is traveling village to village on a relatively good portion of road. during rainy season this is not possible Below: Dave speaking at the pastors seminar..

Day 104– Oct 12, 2005, Wednesday: Pastor’s Seminar

Ohhh man, my screen saver just went on and flashed up a picture of Jessika and me on a boogie board in the ocean waves….hmmmm water. Swimming sounds so nice. It’s so hot and dirty here. But actually today was a great day. Ruth stayed on base with the kids while I went to the Health clinic to help with our pastors seminar. I still just have to laugh when I think of me speaking to a bunch of pastors. J

When we arrived at the health clinic I had about ½ of the day to help out because the seminar didn’t start until 2:30. So several of us went out to help with some of their hospitality meetings. Basically what they do is go help and pray for people who are sick and dying. We drove for a long while on some of the bumpiest dirt “roads” that exist. We finally arrived at a guy’s house (he had a Ugandan name that I’ve forgotten already). He is about 30 with a wife and 3 kids and he has had AIDS for at least 6 months. His wife is in denial and has basically left him, so his sister is taking care of him. Last month his father died (I think of AIDS also). He has several brothers and sisters, there were 15 in all (yes, that’s not a typo), and now 6 are still alive. There only means of making a living is by farming which is pretty tough work, so having the disease makes him unable to make a living. The question going through my mind the whole time is “what can I possibly say to this guy?” He was a Christian so we prayed for him. I looked around in the Bible and came up with the verse “For which cause we do not give way to weariness; but though our outer man is getting feebler, our inner man is made new day by day. For our present trouble, which is only for a short time, is working out for us a much greater weight of glory; While our minds are not on the things which are seen, but on the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are for a time; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

(2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

We then went to another man who was in even worse condition. This guy could barely talk. He was not a Christian, but his sister was and she was there taking care of him. We talked with him a little bit and prayed for him. When we left I gave his brother a little Bible that we brought from Hawaii because he said he could read English. He was very happy because he hasn’t ever owned a Bible. This counseling the sick is some tough stuff. I’m glad I was able to get a taste of it and help a few, but wow.

We stopped on the way back and got some chipate (like a thick tortilla) for 200 shillings (10 cents). It was so tasty, fresh from the barbeque thing that they cook it on. I was half way through it when I saw these two little kids staring at me so I gave the rest to them. They just mowed it down. I very much regretted only buying one. Hindsight.

At 2:00 we started hanging around the lean-to shack like structure that was to house our pastor’s seminar. We were told to expect somewhere between 2 and 160 people, so we weren’t real sure what to expect. By quarter after we had about 10 people so we started to sing some songs. Some lady got up front and started leading. All the songs were in Ugandan and then a guitar and a few drums came out of nowhere and all of a sudden we were jammin’. After a few introductions and such there were just over 50 people there and it was my turn to speak. Gulp. Here goes. I decided to give my favorite message (actually the only message I’ve ever given) about having the bible as our foundation. As I was speaking I realized that this applied so much to a bunch of pastors, especially this group of largely uneducated people from various African villages. While I spoke they were really taking it in, it was really cool. I guess God can use us in our weakness because this is not my forte. After I spoke we summed things up and passed around a booklet so people could right down questions that they want answers to. They wrote down several that we are planning to answer on Friday at the end of the seminar. Some were basic like “what is the name of our God?” and some were difficult like “In revelation it talks about a beast…how will I know the beast and recognize it?” So we have some work to do. But it went really well. The purpose of the seminar is really to connect the pastors with each other and with the base here so they have a way to learn more and be unified and accountable. I think God is really making something of this. It’s exciting. I was thinking today how cool it is that we are able to teach 50 pastors that are all leaders of churches in remote villages with people who we could probably never even find. God uses us in crazy ways sometimes.

Above: taking a bath in the buckets...the only way to get hot water...

Above: a chipate stand on the street. the yellow jerry cans are thier water supply. They cook mostly over charcoal. the chipate is soo good. like a thick tortilla. below: just a nominal load of sticks to carry on your head.

Day 105– Oct 13, 2005, Thursday: Sickness and rest

Luckily today neither Ruth nor I planned to go to the Health Clinic as it is an all day affair and she and Jessika both woke up with sore throats and stuffy noses. So Ruth and Jess stayed in the house and I brought Jonny off to school. I was wondering how I would get to town (as we are not supposed to take go by ourselves as it’s not totally safe). On the way to bringing Jonny to school I ran into a good friend named Jerod. Jerod has come by many times and told us his story of being dedicated to witch craft as a child and all kinds of crazy stuff. God has worked miracles in his life. He is an awesome man of God. He presently works with the Vocational Training School here, training people how to live and be responsible and love God. He said that he had to go into town to by chicken feet, so we went together. I had to buy some cookies for Jessika’s birthday party at class tomorrow.

In town we stopped at the Source café and I bought Jerod his first Latte. He enjoyed it, but is still getting used to coffee, he’s mostly a tea drinker. We had a great time talking. We then finished running our errands and I was dying to know why he was buying chicken feet. When we got to the store it turned out to be chicken feed, 150 kilos of it. Which is 330 pounds! He had a man carry it on a bicycle (of course). I was wondering why all of the bicycles had reinforcements welded on made of rebar, apparently it’s to help carry the loads these guys put the bikes through. It was quite an adventure. It’s much nicer cruising through town without the kids because it is so dirty and there are so many people it’s just nerve racking trying to keep track of them.
Above: Rod and Wendy ministering to a man with HIV. On the right is Lavisa, she works often, helping people cope with thier situations and diseases. Below: two kids that I just had to share my chipate with...

Day 106– Oct 14, 2005, Friday: Tiring day

Today was a very full day for all of us. We woke up just barely in time for breakfast and then I had to run off to Konglimura to the health clinic. Today is the last day of the pastor’s seminar. I spent most of the day doing more home visits to AIDS infected people. This mercy ministry stuff is tough. We saw so many people that seem to have no hope. They can’t afford anything. They can’t move to get to the free clinic. They have kids with them that practically raise themselves. Most seem to have a sibling that is willing to watch out for them and their kids. One family had both the grandmother and the father infected. The mother took off. There were 5 kids. So the 13 year old was pretty much watching after everyone. This kid was a trooper. We prayed for them and so many others. It just drained me though. These people lead difficult lives in these villages as it is, let alone when they get sick.

The end of the pastors seminar went well. Rita answered a few of their questions and then talked a bit. There weren’t as many as the days before, I think because of the rain and because most have to walk about ½ an hour to an hour to get there. Also someone had died, so several were at the funeral. But it was good. Afterwards we had tea and roasted ground nuts (peanuts). They are really good when they are still warm off the fire. By the end of the day I was just drained of energy.

Ruth led preschool and had a party for Jessie’s birthday at class today. It sounds like it went really well. They had cookies and juice and gum. Jessika enjoyed it. She got to pass out the cookies.

In the afternoon Ruth and the kids went around to different homes of the preschool kids. I’ll let her tell about it….

The kids and I went with Teacher Susan from the preschool to visit some of the students in their homes. It was a blast! All the women here carry their children on their backs with such ease. They immediately grabbed Jessika and Jonathan and put them on their backs while we walked (the kids liked this). We visited 4 of the students and were able to pray for them and their families. I was shocked by the living conditions of some of these children. Actually, all the ones we visited live in homes made out of mud and sticks. It is amazing! All of the homes have animals everywhere (which the kids just love). We saw chickens, pigs, cows, and dogs. There are people and kids everywhere too. I had a hard time figuring out who was with what family. I was also amazed at how different the children look out of school. They definitely dress in their best for school – which doesn’t say much for some. This made me love the kids even more. Everyone we met was so kind in greeting us. Greetings are very important around here. You would be considered a bad person if you just walked by someone without greeting them. I have learned a few greeting phrases and found that people were pleased when I used them. One strange thing is that many will get down on their knees and almost bow when they greet you. At first I thought it was just for us since we are white, but they did it to Teacher Susan also. We westerners can learn a lot from the warm and hospitality of the Ugandan people. Jessika even commented to me that she likes how friendly everyone is here. She then said, “What is wrong with the people in California?” Visiting these children was such a blessing to me that I asked Susan if we could go to some more homes next week.

Day 107– Oct 15, 2005, Saturday: Kingfisher

We went to a resort called Kingfisher today. It is located on Lake Uganda (which is huge, probably about as big as one of the great lakes). We took a bus there after breakfast. Of course, we were supposed to be picked up at 9:00, but we left at 10:00. This land will teach you patience. They asked if we wanted to be picked up at 5:00 or 6:00pm and we all said 5, realizing it was our only hope to make it back in time for dinner at 6:30. We drove for about ½ hour and ended up on an extremely small dirt road that just didn’t seem right. Then, out of the blue is this resort. It’s quite a cool place. The main reason we went was to hang at the pool. It is probably one of the only pools in the area. We were all hoping that we’d also get a hot shower out of it as well, we were very excited when we saw showers with two faucets. We assumed that meant warm water. NOPE. Just cold. Sigh.

When we first arrived it was quite cool out, with no sign of sunshine. Then we touched the pool and just shivered. Uh oh, this might be a bummer of a day. But Jonny and I jumped in anyway. They had a kiddie pool with a sort of tile slide going into a larger pool. It was quite fun. We also had some innertubes to play around on. After about a ½ hour the sun came out just enough to make it bearable and then was off and on all day. We had a nice western lunch with hamburgers and French fries and FRUIT! Man, we got these great fruit platters for about $1. That was nice. We also had several coffees throughout the day whenever the sun decided to hide. It was just so nice to be drenched in water. It was a bit strange to be in a pool without chlorine. There were a few mossy areas and some slippery steps. But it was water! It wore the kids out. On the way home Jonny fell asleep on the bus.
Above: All of us being spoiled thanks to Jessika's birthday. We had the most western meal yet....Chinese! it was very good. Below: Jess and Jonny posing at the restaraunt.

Day 108– Oct 16, 2005, Sunday: Jessie’s Birkthday!

Jess woke up coughing and hacking enough that she felt she would throw up. Ruth gave her a bucket and said “happy birthday!” It was kind of funny. We all seem to have a little bit of sickness. I woke up with a little montezuma’s revenge (don’t ask for more description than that). Ruth and the kids are all having flu type stuff, mostly stuffy noses with sore throats. It doesn’t help that everywhere you drive here you get so coated with dust and smog that you feel asthmatic. We had breakfast, did some laundry and had a team meeting instead of church. The kids had a tough time as they were both a little cranky from not sleeping well. Then we hired a car just for our family and went to Ling Ling, the local Chinese restaurant. It was our birthday extravaganza. It was probably the most western food we’ve eaten (ironic that it’s Chinese J). But it was really nice. We ate outside on a large lawn in the shade of a large hut type structure. It was so nice and cool and the food was so tasty. The kids finished it off with ice cream. They loved it.

Tonite we are planning to have popcorn with everyone to celebrate 7 years for Jess. I can’t believe it’s been 7 years! For some reason she’s taken to calling it her Birkthday rather than birthday. She’s had a good day though. She is being properly spoiled with a few gifts that we brought from home. It turns out that we had popcorn, kettle corn and cake. Jessika is so spoiled. Here the tradition is for the birthday girl to take the cake around and serve everyone. Jess did it. She was very shy and embarrassed when the whole base sang happy birthday to her. It was very cute. Right now, her and Jonny are at some new friends from New Zealand watching the Robots movie.