Visit to Gweri (Village outside Soroti)

This Saturday we left to go visit my student Emmanuel, who people call Emma. We waited inside a taxi for about 1.5 hours before we finally left town. It was hard to be patient. They kept driving around town looking for more people.

Emma lives in a village area called Gweri which is near the city of Soroti. Once we arrived in Soroti, he took us by motorcycle to a Christian resort in town there that he and his brother are starting. It’s called Desert Island Resort. It looks like a great place to stay. After our other visits to students, this was a big surprise that they could afford to build this without borrowing any money. They are even going to build a swimming pool there. We spent some time relaxing there watching satellite TV with him and had lunch there before heading to his village home. Some of it was hilarious. We watched some heavily sappy and cheesy Nigerian soap operas. Also we watched some Ugandan music videos which were very funny. Also, watched a bit of an NBA basketball game. It was fun but kind of strange to be watching TV rather than just talking. Here is a picture of one of the rooms you could stay in at the resort.


But this continued. Shortly after we reached his home in the village he hooked up a generator for his TV so that he could watch my movie, “The Mission,” since he missed it when we showed it at school. But he also put on other DVDs of Nigerian shows and Nigerian worship after the movie was done. Again some of the cultural things in the videos were very funny, such as a kids group that sang praise songs, with images of American Disney movies or teletubbies and Barney in the background.

Here is a picture of his home. The people at his church were very surprised that we as white people were willing to spend the night in a village.


Preaching went well at his church the next morning. The branch churches gathered and there were about 225 people there. Sara counted only about 35 men, so very few men compared to women in this church. There were also very few people who had Bibles. This is a video of a choir singing in church. They used some cool traditional instruments which you cannot see unfortunately. But they are sort of a cross between a guitar and a harp.


I preached a sermon about how as we look forward to celebrating Christ’s 1st coming at Christmas, we must also be looking forward to his 2nd coming which is the completion of what Jesus started at Christmas. Emma translated for me. The church appreciated my sermon. The tithe was interesting, as it not only included vegetables but someone gave a live chicken, which sat there squawking while the service went on. Here is a picture of me and Emma in front of the church, and a picture of the children watching me preach.



After church we ate outside under a tree with all the branch pastors and one women’s leader. It was a great meal. They asked us some good biblical questions and we had a good conversation. Below is a picture Sara took of us.


We remembered to ask them what message they would like to give to American Christians/Churches who are supporting us. Here is what they said:

They said that there are many orphans and widows in Uganda and they need a lot of help paying for school fees. They also said they could use help getting musical instruments for their churches. They wanted to thank all of you for supporting us to be able to come here. They said they need prayers for their region because when one challenge like rebels is resolved, they get a new challenge like cattle raids or famine. They request prayers for the nation and prayers for their people, the Iteso. Also, an older man laughingly said he wanted to send his greetings specifically to the old people that support us. Additionally, the women’s leader requested a penpal because she would love to have correspondence with a women’s leader to receive advice from. So please contact us if you are interested in this. Last, they said they will be ready to greet you in heaven and look forward to it.

The pastors guessed our ages, and they thought maybe 22 for me, and 21 for Sara. I’ll be 26 shortly. Not sure if it’s good or bad that we look so young :) On the way out, they gave us a big bag of very good fresh oranges from their orchard, and a black chicken which we have added to our flock. We thought we lost her for good when she disappeared the next day, but the neighbors found her and we tied her up.

Here is a picture of Emmanuel and his family.

Melchizedek

Mel is doing well lately, but he is still a troublemaker. He’s been chewing up everything still that he can get his mouth on. He spends more of his time outside these days. He is kind of a pest to the chickens, always chasing them around the yard, or eating their food in the mornings, or chasing them out of their chicken room. But we love him and have a good time playing with him. We often come out and feed cornflakes to the chickens and Mel, and they all fight over who gets what is dropped. It’s like a pecking order with a little dog included. Here is a little video showing it in a mild form. Usually the chickens peck each other more or go flying up in the air because of Mel.

Dry Season Coming

We think the rainy season is supposed to have ended, and the dry season begun. This is supposed to be the hottest time of the year coming up. But the weather has been very different these days and unpredictable, which is hard on the people farming. They say it is from global climate change. Although we are supposed to be in the dry season we have had some heavy rains recently, some much heavier than in this video.

But just for fun, here is a little video we took at the school of heavy rain during last term. We often got stranded at school when it rained, because we ride bicycles to and from school. The video is taken from the school office building, and looks toward the classrooms.

Food from Soroti

Check out the food we've been eating at: http://sarasglobalcooking.blogspot.com/