Busy Last Few Days

This post is going to contain a bunch of random things about the last few days.  This is something I, Anthony, like doing from time to time.  There are always so many fun cultural tidbits to share, and they don't always fit together.

On Saturday we moved from Kampala to Soroti.  We were worried that our furniture and luggage wouldn't fit in the truck but it made it just barely.  Things were scuffed badly, but most things were still working when we arrived. 

We drove in another vehicle ahead of the truck with Jim and Josephine.  Sara and I drove for 1-2 hours each, but Jim drove through the difficult parts.  It was a lot better than I expected.  Sara even successfully navigated through a couple cows who didn't want to leave the road.  We both grew a lot in our confidence, but both have great fear still of ever driving in Kampala.  In a few days we'll receive the vehicle from World Renew that we will be using.  We'll get plenty of practice as most of our work will be in Amuria and Katakwi, each about a 45 minute drive away when the roads are good as they are now.  During the rainy season it might be a two hour drive.  Below are some pictures from driving to Soroti from Kampala.

On Saturday night we stayed in a guest house with a plan to set up our bed and move in on Sunday. Sunday we went to the PAG (Pentecostal Assemblies of God) Soroti town church.  It's very big with multiple services.  We met some Korean missionaries there and saw our friend Emmanuel, who was a student at Pentecostal Theological College when we taught there in 2009.  Here is a picture with him.  He is now district coordinator of ministries for PAG in Soroti area, an important position.  It's a very nice feeling to run into friends almost everywhere we go in Uganda.

We tried very hard, with Jim and Josephine, to sneak into the back of church and not make a big scene.  That didn't work.  People knew us from our November 2012 trip, and Jim and Josephine are really quite famous in this region.  The church leaders soon moved us to the front, and we also were brought up during the service to re-introduce ourselves to the church, and tell what we will be doing in Uganda.  Here is a picture and video from the service below.  Also, at church we met a man with three sons, named Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Here below is a picture of an Anglican church we passed by that morning.  Notice how the church was so packed that people had to listen to the service from outside.  You don't see that too often in the US.  On a similar vein, it was interesting to watch a segment on the Ugandan news about an 80 year old woman going to primary school in order to learn to read, so that she can read her Bible.

After church on Sunday we spent all day unpacking and setting up our home.  It was quite overwhelming at first.  Sunday night we went with Jim and Josephine to see Steve and Tanya Tiesenga and their family.  They work for International Teams.  We have already gotten to know some of their other teammates that are around the Soroti area from other trips to Uganda.  The Tiesengas welcomed us so warmly and fed us excellent pizza.  I ate literally something like twelve pieces.  My appetite is all messed up.  I haven't had jet lag sleep problems, but more of jet lag eating issues.  I wake up at night hungry, and by dinner time each day I can eat almost without stopping.  I also very much enjoyed seeing their pet monkey, and having her take leaves out of my hand to eat.

We spent Monday unpacking and organizing and shopping all day.  This is something that always stresses me out and overwhelms me until it is done.  There were frustrations and honestly I had a hard time staying positive.  My bicycle was all messed up from the transport, we couldn't get the stove set up, our phones aren't working right, etc.  But Sara reminded me that we are blessed and helped me to stop complaining and by the end of the day many of our problems were solved and our house was starting to look like a home.  I even repaired my bicycle myself.  We'll do a post with pictures of our house and yard soon.  There is still MUCH to do, to buy, to organize, to set up, hiring of guards, etc.  We will be busy for a while yet.

While out shopping on Monday I bought some parts from a hardware store.  When asked for a cavela (a bag), I said I didn't need one.  The shopkeeper said, "why do all of your people (meaning white people) not want bags?"  I explained that we don't like all the trash and want to take good care of the earth.  This little conversation reminded me of how much small things can make a difference.  We don't think about it, but people notice how we live even in the small things each day.  It was utterly depressing entering Soroti on Saturday night.  You would not believe the amount of trash.  Thankfully it is only really bad in certain areas, but it's just really sad.  Picture 1000 plastic bags and other pieces of rubbish for every twenty feet on the side of the road.  We'll take pictures sometime of the trash, but here are some more pleasant pictures of Soroti.

Monday was also exciting in that we cooked our first meal, sweet potatoes (achok).   While cutting them up, I used our really sharp knife we got for Christmas for the first time and sliced into a couple fingers.  But Sara bandaged me up nicely and by now I'm even able to use my fingers to type this.  (Sara says that I was warned about the sharpness of the knife and should have been more careful!) Today, Tuesday, we had meetings in Amuria with the pastors and Ugandan development workers, and Sara has a post about that.  The next couple days we hope to get much accomplished in our house and get ourselves organized for our new work.  Thank you for your prayers!

Food Post

Last time in Uganda, we shared a lot of food pictures through my cooking blog.  So we'll try that again.  Here is a link to the food post I did: Sara's Global Cooking

Talking to a Muslim Bike Repair Man

Today was a full day of shopping.  Shopping here isn't easy; it's a lot of driving through bad traffic, narrow roads, and few parking spaces.  Thankfully we did not have to do the driving today (that would have been crazy stressful).  We are thankful for our patient driver, Fred, who waited around for us shopping all day and drove us through the stressful Kampala roads.  He's one of World Renew's drivers and he's got mad skill and a gentle, caring personality.  Below is a video that gives you some idea of the driving, but this is far from the craziest traffic we saw today. 

And thankfully we found everything we needed in the time that we had!  It's hard on us to buy so many things at once.  Even knowing most of our purchases have to come right now at once, it's a constant wrestling match between knowing we have to buy stuff to be able to live in our house, and feeling guilty about buying so much.  And now tomorrow, we will have to transport it to Soroti from Kampala in a big truck.  It's tough figuring out how to live comfortably without looking like or being the rich muzungus (white people).

We purchased some Bibles today from the Ugandan Bible Society that we may give as future gifts at those times when gift-giving is appropriate culturally.  We believe it is best to support the local Bible societies rather than bringing Bibles from the USA (which is more expensive anyway).  For those of you who might want to give away Bibles in Uganda (please do so with care and wisdom because there is still the dependency issue), please consider this Bible society as an option.  The Bible society is easy to get to in Kampala, and the Bibles are not very expensive.  There are study Bibles, English Bibles, a few Bibles in regional Ugandan languages, and even some children's Bibles.

Today we bought bicycles and got an excellent deal on them from the store.  Sara was very disappointed when her bicycle turned out to be bright pink!  That was not the color on the box.  If you know Sara, you know that this is pretty funny and ironic. She may have to buy some spray paint.  The bikes were boxed up and not ready to use.  Thankfully we found some bike repairmen.  In about an hour four men put them together for us, and also added kickstands, horns, baskets on the front, a rack on the back, and mud splash guards.  Then they helped us pack them on our truck.  We'll be using these bikes the first few days in Soroti to go shopping for food and household supplies until we get our vehicle later next week.

We had some good conversations with the bike repairmen during this time.  Pluralism is alive and well in Uganda as it is in the USA.  One man was a Muslim and another a Roman Catholic and both stated that all that matters is believing that God exists and that the other differences of belief do not really matter.  It was a very friendly and relaxed conversation and we didn't argue with them.  But we were able to explain to the Muslim man some of the important differences between Islam and Christianity.  We talked about God's grace, how we are given salvation as a gift we did not have to earn.  And we also talked about how God's Word is available to all people and can be translated into their own languages, unlike the Quran which has to remain in Arabic.  I'm thankful that in the midst of hectic shopping and busyness, that God still gives little opportunities like this to share more about our Lord Jesus.

We thought it was funny seeing this guy hanging out with the bike repairmen and listening to music while sitting on that tiny bike.

And now at the end of the day Sara has still found the energy to learn from Betty and Jane how to properly cook Matooke (plantains), and smoked fish.  Betty and Jane are part of Jim and Josephine's family, the people we are staying with.  Jim and Josephine are very African in that they've welcomed Betty and Jane (and others) to live with them and they take care of each other.  It's wonderful to see.  Jim just finished as the country leader for Uganda with World Renew and is moving to Tanzania as the new country leader there for World Renew.

Scenes around Kampala

We walked down to Lake Victoria from Jim and Josephine’s house and saw people skinning huge piles of fish.  Those piles on the tables behind the truck (in the photo below) are just fish skins!




There are some big bats that live here in Uganda.  They like to hang out in groups like this during the day:



Below are the bats when they started going out for the night



Re-learning how to drive:




The World Renew team meeting:



In the World Renew office:



And then, here is just a little bit of what Kampala looks like:









So that you know our schedule, we are moving to Soroti tomorrow (Saturday) and will work on settling into our house Sunday afternoon, after church.  Throughout the week, we will be unpacking, meeting with people from KIDO to talk about our work plans, and participating in an evaluation of one of the projects KIDO has been doing!  It will be quite busy and so we have pushed back the village visit a little bit instead of having it right away March 2nd.

Arrival in Uganda

Praise God with us that we arrived safely in Uganda late Monday night, after many hours of travel.  It was exciting to get off the plane and smell the distinctive aroma of Uganda and feel warm, even without a jacket!  We are also very grateful that Anthony is almost fully recovered from being sick and I have not succumbed to anything so far.

After staying up very late (into Tuesday morning), we were able to drop off to sleep at the temporary home of our friends Jim and Josephine, in Kampala.  It was easy to sleep after being awake for almost two days.  However, the mosquitoes that made it into our room found Anthony without much trouble...

We spent today driving around Kampala, getting our phones set up, buying internet modems, purchasing malaria prophylactics, and figuring out what items we will need to buy before leaving Kampala on Saturday for our home in Soroti.  

Anthony also had his first brief, but exciting (in the many meanings of the word), taste of driving in Uganda - with a manual transmission, on the left side of the road and of the vehicle, with the turn signals to the right of the steering wheel, and shifting with his left hand!  Tomorrow morning is my turn.

Another praise that we have is that just at the time we need to buy furniture for our home, Jim and Josephine are trying to sell most of their furniture before they move to Tanzania.  So we are going to be able to help them out and save ourselves a lot of time shopping by buying important items (like a table and chairs and bed) from them.

While we were around town, we got a form of take-out for lunch (like buying food by the pound at a deli).  I got matooke (plantains) cooked with peanut sauce.  At first, I was thinking that I should get Ugandan food because I had the chance (and I like it), but then I realized that I live in Uganda and I can get Ugandan food whenever I want!

Above: Ugandan take-away.

Video of our New Hometown, Soroti!

In case you want to watch a video of what it is like to drive through Soroti, Uganda, (the town we are going to live in), here it is:



Someone else who is a missionary in Soroti made this video.  We'll be making our own videos and taking pictures soon, but maybe this will help you get excited with us!