Day 25, 26, & 27: Kampala, odds and ends

December 4th, 5th and 6th (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday)

After leaving the Link bus terminal, we stopped at Joshua's sister's house to rest, eat breakfast and take a shower. It was nice to clean up a bit.

In the afternoon, we went to look for studio machines to buy because music production is Joshua's passion and ministry. He even produced a worship song (music and main chords) from scratch. He got his sisters and other family members to sing it as he recorded it.  One of his sister's wrote some of the verses for it.  It sounds really good! Even though it's in Luganda, I thought it was a popular Christian worship song when I first heard it.  He also made a song that was aired on the radio in Uganda. All that using mostly just a computer. Just imagine what he could do with real music production equipment!

There are several times during my trip I meet people who have extreme talent despite their financial position or social status. For example, Joshua's twin brother is extremely good with software and computer programming/coding despite having very little access to computers to practice on.  He even designed a clock app on the computer. Another person is good at electrical wiring and applied physics despite having no formal training in this area. It make me think.  God doesn't just give one person or people group blessings. He doesn't just bless the socially elite with talent, knowledge, and wisdom. I think He might even grant more talent to people who have less.

Along with trying to find the right equipment, I also worked on opening my suitcase- for 5 to 6 hours. Let me explain. I locked my suitcase with a small combination padlock when I left it at Joshua's sister's house.  I tried what I thought was my combination. Nothing.  I tried other favorite numbers of mine.  Nothing.  At this time I was truly embarrassed. I had failed to write down my combination for security reasons.

I started trying every possible combination. All 1,000 of them.  It took hours.  Nothing. So it's NOT that I forgot my combination because mathematically there is only 1,000 possible combinations for a 3 number lock.  I tried listening for clicks. Nothing. I tried picking the keyhole part of the lock.  Nothing. In the end we cut the lock off with a dull saw. So sad to see a brand new lock die like that but after 2 whole days of messing with it I just wanted it off.

On Wednesday we planned to leave for Buwuni but I was feeling odd so we went to the clinic in Kampala, where the clinics are better.  Oh.  My.  Word. That took forever! Something like 1pm to 7:30pm, about 6.5 hours, no lunch and I only ate a slice of bread in the morning. Waiting. Going in this line.  Paying for a checkup. Waiting for the doctor. Waiting for testing.  Waiting for lab results.  Paying for treatment. Etc.  My labs came back with Typhoid and Urinary tract infection. Yay me.  The treatment was 5 days of injections IV. In the hand.  Ouch! 

Day 24: Kasese, church and leave

Sunday, December 3rd. We arrived at church at 10:30am. I was worried because I thought church started at 10am. No worries though.  It starts at 9:30am supposedly.  No one showed until 11am I think.  Africa.

Church had a very long service of singing and dancing, two sermons, worship songs (think southern Baptist after a energy drink), tithes & offerings (two total separate things here), spontaneous praying of the whole church at once, introducing visitors (including me) and up coming events. Children randomly came and left the church during this time as well as a few adults. More like a family gathering.

After church, I gave out bounce balls which were supposed to go to the children but adult ladies snatched them up too. I had a few health care items, soap, dental floss, etc and other random gifts for people.

One little girl was chewing on a glow stick from the other night.  Those are toxic if ingested so I switched her and gave her a cute stuffed dog instead. She shrieked in horrible and tried to run away.  Oops. Thankfully, a lady grabbed her and helped her accept the gift, while telling the little girl to say thank you to me.  My guess is she never seen a stuffed animal before.

Then we walked up the mountain to Pastor Peterson's family to have lunch with them and meet all his extended family. I was a bit in a hurry to get done since we had planned to take the late bus to Kampala tonight.  We also took family photos.

At 5pm we were finally back to the hotel, where I hurried to pack my luggage and shower. We were told the bus leaves at 10pm with ticket sales starting at 9pm so I was confident that we would be ready in time.  At 6:30pm the usual visitors came: Pastor Nathan, Pastor Peterson, and Nickson. They went over the hand written receipt of the food for the party and finished up any left over details.

While they were there I casually confirmed the bus times for the night. It's a good thing I did because they said that because it was a weekend the only bus actually left at 8pm, with ticket sales starting at 7pm. I looked at my watch.  7:11 pm! And Joshua was still at the studio and not packed yet! Thankfully, he came just then and we were able to catch our bus out of Kasese.

The bus ride was long and not that comfortable but the nice thing about traveling at night is that it's cooler. Unfortunately, my restless leg syndrome was bothering me pretty bad. I felt like I HAD to move. It's like mosquitoes biting you constantly; so I really didn't get much sleep. 

We arrived in Kampala at 3:30am on Monday but we were told before we left to wait at the bus station until 6am because of thieves and other dangers of moving at night in Kampala. I felt very dirty from traveling (trash and dust are all over public buses). I waited just to head out but we waited/slept on the bus until 5:45 am and then headed out.  

Day 23: Kasese, Kristi school party

The plan was to leave for the mountain bright and early at 8am on Saturday, December 2nd. Of course, this is Uganda.
We left at 11am because no one had told the driver which only they can contact.

Food preparation took much longer than I ever imagined. Joshua and I were in charge of the meats.  There was chicken, beef, matooke (cooked green banana), cabbage, fish, rice, porsho, and maybe something else.  Preparing the meat was not exactly the most sanitary. And for the beef there was no de-boning, or sorting. Basically everything was hacked in chucks and used. 

Still it was fun to see how the ladies made the other dishes on open fires and see how to make meat with curry powder and cassava flour  (Joshua's department). There was a lot of people, children and adults, in a make shift tent being entertained by music, dance, and games.  I provided some prizes for the games.

Mostly I was in the "kitchen" but I did manage to slip away from the cooking long enough to paint some fingernails. Those were the dirtiest hands I ever painted.  I was literally painting over the dirt that was stuck to there nails.  It just really struck me.  Regardless, the girls seemed to enjoy it.

Because there was over 200 children I didn't have enough glow sticks for everyone. So I lit a few up and they passed it around.  I wish we could have played catch or Frisbee with the glow sticks but they would just be a massive fight over them. I let a few older children have the lit ones to take home but Joshua pointed out later that adults were stealing them from the children to use for themselves.

That's another thing here in Africa. Adults here are often just as greedy about toys as the kids.  By numbers 47% of the population is under age 15. My guess is young parents  (pregnancy at age 15 or 16 is very common, average married age is 20) don't have a chance to grow up before they are raising their own kids.

We left the mountain under a bright full moon.  It was so peaceful and calm and the air so fresh. Beautiful. We reached my hotel around 9:30pm. A full day for sure.

Day 22: Kasese, 2nd house repair

Today, Friday, December 1st, we were supposed to repair a house for an elderly person. We climbed up the mountain, on the other side of the valley by the school, even farther up than before. (See photos)

But when we reached Joshua and I realized that the house they presented was way more than we could do in one day.  In fact this man would need a whole new house. (See photos of palm leaf hut.) It would take a week at least.  The man was described to us as mad or crazy or mental challenged but in our very brief encounter with him we discovered it was less physical problems and more spiritual.  He was fit but unkempt and obviously drank too much and liked his privacy.  Angry at the world and hating life. But not necessarily angry at Joshua or I.

We moved away from his place to discuss what to do.  Since it was so much of a spiritual problem we prayed for him and decided not to address his physical need for a house before another Pastor, Joshua's father, could perhaps talk to him.  Others shared about God with him before but he had rejected it.  I don't think, however, this man would be a open to our help with his house at the moment.

We spent a lot time discussing it so we didn't get much else done that day.  Tomorrow is the children's party so we worked on getting funds (technical issues accessing my account), buying food, and buying a microphone, pack of 2 actually, for the church. 

Side note: thank you everyone for your financial help.  Some of your funds used so far went towards the gift baskets for the elderly, metal roofing and a bed box (100,000 ugx or $28) for the 1st home repair, paper and pens for the workshops and school, food for the party (large expense- about $400), microphones for the church (150,000 ugx), and a small amount as a thank you for boda boda drivers who drive us up the mountain almost daily.

Day 21: Kasese, Congo & park

Thursday, November 30th.
Our goal for Thursday was to visit the Congo boarder so that Joshua, Pastor Peterson, and Nickson could get a stamp in their new passports.

We left around 9:30am and traveled for over an hour in a packed car.  At one point there were four people in the front seats and four people in the back seat of a our 5 passenger car.  Nickson even had to sit underneath another guy in the front seat when they went pass a traffic cop because they aren't supposed to have more than two people in front. It was a riot! I was laughing so hard.  Once passed they re arranged until the next traffic check.  Uganda ha ha.  No use of seat belts either.

During our travel I took many photos of the landscape outside the car.  There was a national park on one side of the road and Pastor Peterson explained that one portion of the road is dangerous to travel at night because of the elephants crossing. Cool!  But I didn't see any.

When we got to the Congo boarder, we found the correct office and tried to get an hour or day pass for Joshua, Pastor Peterson, and Nickson. However, the Ugandan immigration officer refused to stamp their passports. The reason?  Because they were new passports and had no stamps in it yet! Which left us wondering how does one actually get stamps if you have to have stamps to get them? Sounds a bit like credit cards and credit scores if you asked me.  Nickson was going to ask that question but he told me later he was afraid of being locked up (arrested). I thought, "why? Just for asking a very logical question?" But the government here is different.

Nickson took a photo of Congo from the Ugandan side (see blue box car and mountain in the background) and we made our way back to Kasese.

After that disappointing experience, we decided to stop at Elizabeth National Park. It was expensive. I would have to pay for all of them, even the entry fee for the car and the driver, if I wanted to go. A total of 300,000 ugx or $85.71 USD. That's the thing about Ugandan. Because it's a group and relationship based culture it would be very hurtful to leave someone out and they didn't have that money.  (300,000 would be a high earnings for a month).

Knowing this might be a special occasion, I decided to pay it. To be honest, at first I regretted it.  Why should I be the one to cover everything all the time? I was already covering all the transport to the border.  But they God's like, "yeah but I gave you that money". Sometimes I get so caught up in being a good stewards and responsible, I forgot that it's God who gives me what I have.  He shares so I can share, at least sometimes.

We ended up having a good time at the park and saw wild pigs, ugly big birds, cute m, a monitor lizard  (not pictured), cool cactus tree, Ugandan Kob ("cob"), but no loins or elephants which we were hoping for. 

Day 20: Kasese, Snowview College

Wednesday, November 29th. Today we only had one class in the afternoon for Snowview College, a technical school in Kasese.  I spent most of the morning preparing for it.  I also washed some clothes and read my Bible and devotional books. 

After I had prepared for the class I was asking someone about the class, how it was set up, class size, and how advanced I should go.  I was planning to teach on three areas: cross cultural training, personal finance, and business interpersonal skills.  As I was asking questions I realized that I was targeting way above my actual students heads.  Apparently the class would be just a few students, mostly village girls learning how to sew, who may not even know how to read and write. 

The class did turn out to small (only about 9 students). I re designed the class to only cover business interpersonal skills (a colors system personality test to increase individual self esteem mostly) and personal finance (3 ways to use money, setting up a spending dairy and a spending plan/budget). But I think they enjoyed it.

One interesting thing to note, when I shared a Bible verse in class all the students and their teachers scrabble to write the reference down, apologized for not having their Bibles with them but promised to look it up when they got home.  Such a different attitude towards Godly things here.  There is an openness. Many of the businesses have a Christ  based slogan or name. Even the hotel I'm at, Embassy Guest house, has a slogan of "Lord is Good All the Time."  Of course, that doesn't mean that all those places are Christian founded or even represent Christian morals.

Photo is of my food from a restaurant called Divine which is across the street from my hotel.

Day 19: Kasese, repairing 1st house

On November 28th, Tuesday, we repaired a soil house for a widowed lady who had over 6 children. We hope to repair another house on Friday. The hike up the mountain was quite steep. We are at a high enough elevation that my ears pop just in the motorcycle ride up to the school.  The hike to this lady's house was even farther up so I think I was getting less oxygen, or I'm just out of shape. ;)

The house needed new roofing for a section of it and to re-sod the siding. The repairs we made were far simpler than I imagined. Walls were repair with simple mud and the metal roof were attached with only a few nails. Construction here does not have to hold up to any sort of standard as weather is mild.

I hoed up dirt with the rest guys, often out pacing them to my surprise (they kept stopping to talk). Joshua, Nickson, one guy on the side walls and the guy who did the roofing were hard workers, and kept working the whole 2-3 hours we were there. The others - not so much.

One thing about the projects here is that they don't plan ahead so much.  For example, they waited until we got to the top of the mountain  (the house was located on the school Road but higher up) before sending someone into town (where we JUST came from) to get the supplies. An hour project back home can last a half day here just because of organization.  Plus we had maybe 8 guys plus me, plus two women drawing water from a river for the mud.  Supplies were cheap though, for which I was glad.

Once I was done digging dirt I played with some of the lady's children while the guys continued. (Too many cooks in the kitchen, if you know what I mean). I didn't bring any toys and without an interpreter I couldn't teach them any games. The children were young and shy so I entertained them with my phone.  They only seemed interested in the camera part so I taught them how to take silly photos. Lady in photo is th fee owner of the house. She was smiling almost the whole time I just happened to catch her in a weird moment. I would have taken another one but didn't want her to feel awkward.