My life has been but anything but boring here. Two weeks ago I went to the annual worship
night, which is a night where tens of thousands of people pack a stadium in
Kampala (capital city) and worship the Lord from 6pm-6am. We sang and sang and sang and danced and
danced and danced for hours and hours.
And surprisingly enough, it didn’t get old as I expected it would (but I
must admit that I was not dancing at 4am…). It was such a privilege to go and
literally worship with the nations for an entire night. I remember at around 2am or so I glanced
around me and saw people everywhere praising God with their entire being. I cannot even explain the rush I felt!
We got back to Mutungo at around 6:30 so I just slept there
and stayed all of Saturday since there were rehearsals for the school’s speech
day. Speech day was Sunday and oh. my.
gosh. SO fun! Speech day isn’t as it
sounds…it is actually a day where the kids put on skits, songs, and dances for
their parents and anyone else who comes.
They were so excited! They put on
their little African costumes and got jiggy with it. It was a bittersweet day for me, because it
was the last day I saw all of them (holiday started the following day for 2
months). Nevertheless we had so much
fun. I taught the teachers and some of
them the cha- cha slide and they decided that they wanted to include it in the
performance, so we did! Something that
is different here: when someone performs a song or dance and someone in the
audience likes it, they walk (or dance) up to you and give you money. It is usually just a coin, but the children
love it. More money for sweets! Well
when I danced all these people came up to me and gave me money haha. It was a new experience for them to see a
muzungu dancing. Oh the money I would
have reeled in if I had danced Baganda(the booty shaking dance I was talking
about)! Regrets regrets…
The young ones had a fashion show
A few students about to do a tribal dance
So I have a lot to blog about…hope you aren’t getting
bored! Next item on the agenda: my trip
to Western Uganda. I kinda tagged along
with the pastor, Sylvia, and Godfrey.
The pastor went to visit his mother who lives deep village, and Sylvia
went to visit her sons (a long and sad story of why she cannot be with
them). It was about a 6 hour drive, and
I learned that Ugandan road trips are much different than American. First of all, there is one road, no exits, no
bathrooms. When you have to go to the
bathroom, you stop on the road and find a bush (better than the hole that
we usually have to use). Next, when you
stop for fast food it is really fast. So
we are driving through middle of nowhere Africa when we pull into a small town
of shops and such. I see a bunch of men
in blue shirts with numbers on the back rush to our car and throw their hands
in our windows with food. You pick what
you want, pay them and then go on your way.
The food is usually grasshoppers in a bag, corn, or chicken on a stick
(like a stick from the tree). Saying the
food is sketchy is an understatement but for we were so hungry that shoot we ate
it! I am happy to say that it was okay and all is well with our stomachs:) Lastly, it was absolutely beautiful and
simply breathtaking. There was green
EVERYWHERE. All around us was nature-
hills, trees, grass, and animals.
Throughout the ride I saw chimpanzees, zebras, monkeys, and birds I had
never seen before. Might as well have been
a safari! I popped in my Ipod to add a
soundtrack to the beauty around me and felt like I was in a dream. Music seriously takes anything to a new
level.
A snap of Western Uganda A Chimpanzee(baby underneath)
Our first stop was in Fort Portral to see his late brother’s
wife and children (his brother passed away about a month ago). It was cold!
We are on the equator and I had to wrap up in a blanket, say what? Ugandans are some of the sweetest people, I
love meeting more and more of them. We
slept there and then in the morning we headed to Mabaale to visit his
mother. His mother seriously lives in
the village. All those African pictures
you see of people getting water from wells, living in mud huts, carrying babies
on their backs and things on their heads- yep that was how it was here. Such raw African living. I loved it.
His mother and those who live with her don’t speak much English, but I
was one of the first, if not the first white person they had ever seen. So despite the fact that we couldn’t
communicate much, we loved being around each other! We went to the well to wash the car (which
had gotten quite muddy at this point) and people walking would just stop and
stare at me. I of course, in turn, would
just smile and wave at them. They got so
excited that muzungu waved at them haha.
The next day they wanted to take us to the village market so we went and
once again I was the center of attention.
One guy even shouted out that the market was just upgraded because a
white person came. Haha oh the thrills of being white…
The next day we went to visit Sylvia’s 2 boys who are 10 and
11. I would share the story of why she
cannot be with them, but she shared with me in confidentiality so I don’t think
she would appreciate it if I spread it on the World Wide Web. It was sad because I don’t think she has seen
them in at least a year, and she only got to spend a few hours with them. After that we headed home and knowing that it
was hard for her to leave made my heart so heavy. When we had been driving for a while she
pulled me over to her and said that she was so sad to leave them but was
reminded of God’s goodness and found joy in that. She is literally the strongest woman I know.
Yesterday when I came to church I found that one of the
orphans has malaria. He is so so sick
and I found out that he had no medicine because Sylvia couldn’t afford it. The medicine was 25,000 shillings (ten dollars). Your donations really do make a
difference. Even the smallest donation
of ten dollars can help in some big way such as that. Because the donations I have received I was
able to provide sweet Rodrick with medicine.
Please pray that he would improve.
Also please continue to share with others the need here and donate what
God has placed on your heart so that we can build the teachers housing. Thank you to everyone who has selflessly
given so far, God bless!
We love you, and we'll keep praying!
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