This day felt like it dragged on a bit at first (I'll explain why in a bit). Joshua and I had planned to visit Joshua's grandma (his father's mother) today. He barely this grandmother because his mother didn't let him associated with her because she was poor. Messed up, huh. Anyway, Joshua wanted to visit her because she was old, had been sick and was in need of encouragement. I couldn't think of a better way to spend Sunday then this. Jesus loved the poor, widows and elderly and she was all of those.
What took the time is that once Joshua explained to his family what he wanted to do they all wanted to come but no one wanted to help pitch in with transportation to visit the grandma. Well, I should said Pastor Margret and the two sisters who just got married didn't want to help pay. The others gave what they could. Funny how that works out; people who have more money are less willing to help then people who have less. Anyway, we would need to rent a van because individual taxi fees would be too high for the 3 hour drive.
I was tried of paying for other people's transportation so I put in my portion only and I just sat back and waited- something I am not great at. We were suppose to leave at 10am, then 1pm, then 3pm, I think we finally left at 4pm. All this time Joshua was arguing with his family saying that if they wanted to come they should help out with the cost and that this was their grandmother not Myra's. I was so grateful to have someone standing up for me in situations like this. His perseverance won out in the end and we piled in the van with his parents, the driver, 3 sisters, 5 children/babies, Joshua and myself. I am not sure that was any more comfortable that the crowded public transportation, that's for sure!
We traveled on the main road to Jinja, towards Kampala, then on a red dirt road towards a tiny village in the hill country for another hour. (see photo) Along the way we stopped for some food supplies to give the grandma; Joshua's idea, but his mother did purchase half the supplies. We almost got stuck on the road up a hill that was washed out. We had to all get out of the van until it made it pass that part. (Wish I would have took a picture of that, but I was holding a baby at the time.) When we arrived at the grandmother's house in the village it was almost dark. The tiny 12' by 12' house was empty. I feared the worst but Dorcus explained that the grandmother was probably out gathering her goats for the night.
Sure enough, the grandmother came after 15 minutes. It was very dark by this time so no pictures but I wish you could have seen how grateful this grandmother was for our visit. So happy to see her family! It must have been ages since she seen them last. She was also glad to see me, a white person, but I was not the center of her attention which I was so happy about. She greeted and hugged everyone and the girls all gave her the traditional greeting of kneeling down. Then we filed into her tiny house for a prayer and gave her the food gifts. Pastor Margret said the prayer and then presented the grandma with the food, taking credit for all of it and the whole visit! So upsetting! Later I asked one sister to go back to tell the grandma that it was Joshua's idea for the visit but I am not sure the grandma believed it. I was upset about this but Joshua was just content to be able to visit his grandmother.
From there most of the family went home but I would be heading to Kampala in the morning so we need to find a hotel in a near by town. Unfortunately the hotels there loved to double the charge for white people. Pastor Robert (Joshua's father), another relative, and Joshua took off to look for a good, cheaper hotel while I sat in the van. I had stated to feel sick while we were still in village and now it was all I could do not to vomit. Once we finally got a hotel, I did. 5 times. Nasty. I think I had malaria again so I took some anti-malaria pills which is partly why I was vomiting (they are hard on your stomach). So yeah, a great day; a not so great end.
But what a blessing to bless other people and to watch others share God's love and blessings!
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