Getting around in Uganda

By Sara:

How do Ugandans get from place to place, within their communities and from town to town?  Here are some of the ways:

The least expensive method is on foot.

For those who have to go a longer distance, a bicycle is very useful.  Here is a "bicycle parking lot" at a high school:

It is amazing how much one can carry on a bicycle:

Not only can a bicycle carry objects, it can also carry people.  This is called a bicycle boda.  You pay a small amount of money for someone to carry you on the back of their bike.

If you have a little more money, you can hire a motorcycle boda (especially when your bike is broken...)

Of course, no one really wants to ride on the back of a motorcycle for hours, so there's always the option of taking a taxi, at least if you're willing to share a 14-passenger van with 20 other people:

There's so much going on in this next picture, it's hard to know what to focus on: the guy pushing the taxi down a busy city road? The two guys sitting on fancy chairs in the back of a pickup, chatting with each other? Or the boda weaving in and out between traffic?

If you want your own seat on a long journey, a bus is a better option than a taxi.

 

Let's not forget boats (on which you can carry your motorcycle...) and cars, though most people can't afford a personal car.

Remember to drive on the left side of the road.  Blinkers on the right and windshield wipers on the left...

You can always catch a ride on top of a truck packed with stuff (not safe at all).

And then everyone needs to share the road.

Random Photos of 2023

By Anthony:

This post contains some old photos from all throughout this year! I planned to share most of these much earlier in 2023 but things got busy with our time in the USA.

First, here is a chameleon I found crossing the road while driving and I brought it back to our home to keep it safe, because there were people around and they would have probably killed it because many people hate chameleons, thinking that they are dangerous.

Next, here is a band which I heard at a traditional wedding (when the bride price is paid, before the wedding in the church).

Here are some photos from our Resonate team retreat which happened in South Africa in March:

Those of us at the retreat who live in Uganda:

Here is a meeting my colleague Stephen organized for several bishops and their wives. It was sort of a one day retreat, and he invited me to speak to them about forming deep friendships and finding people who will care for them. It is difficult for bishops, and even their wives, to find people who will not be afraid to have deep peer-to-peer relationships because of the respect for authority in this culture. The couples greatly appreciated the sharing together and some of them will try to be supportive friends to one another.

I and a team of about eight other teachers and translators continue to teach on the radio here. We have a lot of committed listeners. I teach about two out of every seven weeks.

A funny picture:

Sara the bird whisperer:

These are a couple of videos from when I visited a village church about thirty minutes drive from Soroti. When I arrived I found only a couple people there, but slowly the little church filled up. A lot of village churches are fairly small. It's not uncommon for a village church to have about 20 adults and then 60 or more children.

A photo of us:

An intruder to the yard who was pretty calm and friendly (not venomous), but we'd rather have no snakes....

This video is poor quality, but I really like it because it captures the enthusiasm and excitement of one our TLT graduations. This was a group that I did not lead any of the trainings for, but we sent facilitators to lead this training group in Bukwo, Uganda. They were marching down the highway.

This is my Soroti pastors book club. We read books together and discuss them and meet once a month. The discussions are engaging and sometimes controversial as we deal with very practical and real contextual topics facing our churches. There are about six to eight denominations represented in the group, but most of the churches are Pentecostal of some kind. We used to meet at our home, but now that we moved we have been meeting in churches in town.

Before we left for the USA, these pastors met at a local pork restaurant and enjoyed roasted pork and chips (fries). Pork is the popular food these days. I wonder if partly it's more and more popular now as I heard some people didn't eat it in the past because the Old Testament says its unclean. The pork here still has the fat and the skin on it, but it's really tasty.

This is what drilling a borehole (a well) looks like in Uganda.

When we moved, we transported our pigeons to the new house in a dog crate. If you are nice to us when you visit, we might let you eat them with us.  We started out with only 4 early last year and now we have 30 of them!

Beorn liked one of our moving boxes that we left on the veranda:

Sometimes I am in awe at the beauty of the sky:

As soon as we arrived in Soroti from our time in the US, some of our friends welcomed us back to our home with roasted pork! We felt really loved.

When we got back from the US, we were able to visit our friend Mackay at his village home. He is a pastor in Soroti that we know well. His wife Martha, one of Sara's friends that she used to visit who was struggling with cancer, passed away while we were in the US. We missed the burial and so we were glad we were able to visit with their family when we got back.

Soon after we got back from the US, our friend Nathaniel visited us. He is working in Uganda for two years. The last time we saw him at the farm we worked at in Texas, he was only 11 years old! We've kept in touch over the years and it's really fun now to be in Uganda together.

Here is our 2023 Christmas tree that Sara got for us from one of our trees in the yard:

This is me drinking coffee with milk during breakfast for the first time in Uganda since I'm not on medication to prevent malaria (you have to take the drug without milk). We'll see how it goes. If we start getting malaria a lot, then we can always go back on to the preventative medication again.

Last, and maybe least, here are some of the fun critters and insects from our house and yard: