“Chance” meeting?

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Remember the young man from my last entry? Yesterday, Jamie and I went into town to do a little shopping. We walked down from the Stensaas’ house. It isn’t far, a little over a mile. We found the grocery store easily but I was having a little trouble finding the produce market. As I walked slowly along, looking for the correct alley, I turned around and there stood that young man. Humsa had seen us as well and we greeted each other. He asked if I had talked to James and I told him that I had. I told him that James still wanted to meet him and the best way would still be for him to come to church. He helped me find the market and then I showed him where the church here in Mbarara is. He promised to come to church. We parted when I needed to make one more stop in town.

We walked to church last night. Along the way we fell in with Florence, a lady from the church whose Muslim husband forced her to leave. When we got to church we looked for Humsa. He wasn’t there yet and church soon started. We sat toward the front and I wasn’t able to see those who came in late. But he came! Pastor Robert preached a good sermon that included the gospel very clearly in both English and Runyunkore. After church I introduced Humsa to James and our helper, Osbert. James talked to him for a while. What he really wanted was to have someone sponsor him into America. I shouldn’t have been surprised about that. But even so, we talked with him for a while, brought up religion and then made sure that he had a Runyunkore John and Romans and then got to talk to Pastor Edgar. We had to leave before they were done talking since we were walking home and wanted to arrive before dark. As it was, it was almost completely dark before we got home. I hope I “run into” him in town again to find out how it went. Or maybe he really will come to church on Sunday like he promised. We’ll see. 😀

Today I had laundry to do. It was bright and sunny outside so I got started early. The water flows in very slowly so it takes almost 2 hours to wash a load of laundry. Then I’ve been hanging the laundry on the line to dry. One load of laundry will be dry by the time the next is done in the washer. After lunch I put a load in the washer before cleaning up the lunch dishes. As I worked on the dishes I noticed that it was getting windy and that a storm was coming up. I stopped what I was doing and hurried outside to get the laundry off the line before it rained. Sometime in there, the electricity went out. But I didn’t notice that it had (there are many windows so we don’t use the lights until evening).

I went to check on the washer and found that it wasn’t filling. Hmmmm…. Mrs. Stensaas had told me that sometimes she had to fill the washer with a pitcher and water from the kitchen sink. So I found a big bowl and poured more water in the washer. But it still wouldn’t run. Hmmmmm…. What was going on? That’s when it occurred to me that the electricity was out! Ah HAH! 😀 So the laundry got to soak for a long time. Some of it really needed it. LOL. The electricity came back on just in time for me to clean up the kitchen from supper. So the load has been completed and tomorrow morning right away I’ll get it out on the line to dry.

Ah, the fun of living in Africa. 😀

Interesting conversation

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Today I had an interesting conversation with a young man. He came up behind the children and I as we walked from the Stensaas’ house to the house we are renting so they could see it. He greeted me like most Ugandans do “Hello, how are you?”

“I am fine” I replied, as is expected.

He told me that he wanted to be our friend and read to our children. I told him that we didn’t need him to do that. I read to them. He told me they were unruly and needed supervision. Um, yeah. I supervise them, believe it or not. (And surely they aren’t *that* bad!) He went on and on and we went around and around. I told him that he needed to talk to James. He asked me if I feared my husband. Not really. He also told me that my husband hates Ugandans. Hmmmm. Interesting. He’s spending most of every day with Ugandans and learning as much about them as he can. I told him that. Finally, I told him that he could meet James at church tomorrow night. I told him when the service time was and, to the best of my ability I told him where the church was. He didn’t quite have the service time correctly and somehow got the idea that he had to be our religion in order to “read to our children”. I tried to explain that coming to church was the only way to meet James and that there would be other mzungus there and many other Ugandans. I wish I’d had one of the Runyunkore John and Romans with me but didn’t even think about taking one on our short walk. Next time I’ll have to be more prepared.

Anyway, it was an interesting conversation. I hope I didn’t blunder into making some sort of terrible cultural mistake.

The work on the house is progressing. They’ve been clearing the land and today brought in sand for concrete. Tomorrow they will start digging post holes for the fence and will begin installing the gate. They will also be working on finishing the unfinished side of the house (ceilings and walls), and do things like installing hot water heaters and changing out the floor toilet for a “mzungu” toilet. 😀 Though I’m pretty sure Gaelin would have liked the floor toilet better. LOL.

I also went shopping with Mrs. Stensaas today. It was really fun. Having gotten a better idea of where things are in town, tomorrow I’m going to attempt a trip to Pearl (the local grocery with the best prices) on my own. We’ll see how that goes and how lost I get. It will definitely be interesting! 😀

Ugandan Cultural Immersion Day

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Yesterday, James took a trip to Kampala on the bus. The day started early for him – about 6 AM which is before sunrise here. He got up and dressed and then got ready to meet Osbert and Dennis – two Ugandan men – at the gate here to go to the bus. He arrived right on time and so did Osbert but Dennis didn’t show up right away. Finally, at about 5 after 7, Dennis arrived. Then they went to the bus. No need to have worried about time. Hehe. The bus driver wasn’t going to leave until every seat was full. So the bus that was to leave at 7 AM didn’t leave until 7:45.

They rode to Kampala and Dennis got the title for the vehicle we bought from him. James got some money exchanged. Then they went to Uchumi’s (pronounced “you chew me”) and got three of the appliances we need. But they could NOT find a stove or a dryer. They had the stove we wanted but the only one left was the display stove and they couldn’t find the oven racks anywhere. They found a dryer but it was half the capacity of the washer so would have required doing two loads in the dryer to every one in the washer. They looked in a couple different stores and still found nothing.

Then they drove back. It was late in the day and the roads are terrible. It also started raining and rained for several hours. Thankfully, the man whose truck they were using had a tarp over the appliances so the boxes weren’t completely destroyed by the water when they got back. On the way home the men got into a political discussion. It seems that the Muslim Bugandan man from Kampala whose truck they were using disagreed with the two Runyunkore Christian men from Mbarara. It got quite animated with lots of discussion. James said it was like being at a Spilger family meal where we discuss things and get louder and louder, even though we aren’t arguing. Finally, they switched to Runyunkore and lost James then.

They got back at about 12 AM this morning. Thankfully, the rain had stopped so they were able to get the truck unloaded without getting soaked.

The children and I went to church for the first time here, yesterday. It was quite an experience. The services are done in both English and Ruyunkore. It was fascinating to listen to the interpreter and I even figured out a couple words on my own, though I’m pretty sure one of them changes form based on usage. Gaelin didn’t know how to handle the whole thing. He thought he could wander in and out of the service as he wanted and found the pit latrine quite interesting. He made at least three trips over the course of the morning. Heh. 😀 Once, when he wandered off, I found him sitting in front of the church on a bench out there.

After church we went to a local restaurant where we had Ugandan food. We got to taste posho, matoke, sweet potatoes, beans, and rice. It was all good! I’m going to have to learn how to make matoke and posho. Gaelin thought the beans and rice were really good and ate it right up. The rest of us also tried their pumpkin and beef.

Finally in Africa

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We’re here. After many long months and years of preparation we’re finally here. 😀 A week ago yesterday we loaded our container and it shipped. Monday morning we drove up to Chicago and then flew out of O’Hare International Airport. Tuesday night we arrived in Entebbe, Uganda at about 11 PM. We were worn out from not sleeping on the plane but we were here. All our luggage made it there with us and in one piece. Praise God! We got our visitor’s visas and then got our luggage and then met Matt Stensaas. He had arranged for a driver to take our luggage to Mbarara and then he took us to a hotel in Kampala. We got there about 2 AM.

Early Wednesday morning we got up and got going. We went to Uchumi’s to look at appliances (you say that “you chew me”), picked up some groceries and some lunch and then drove to Mbarara.

The last couple days have been busy, especially for James. He’s been to class at the Bible Institute here. We also went around and found a house. It isn’t finished but it will be nice when it is. Then he has been going around pulling things together for that house – like mattresses to sleep on until the container comes and other things. He is off again to meet a man to look at a vehicle and is going to look at gates until he hears from him. Great times!

I’ll be glad to get into “our” house and be able to unpack a little. That will be nice. 😀 I found almost all the school books but can’t find the math books. Hopefully I can find them before we need to do school on Monday.

Ahhh…. Saturday; and yet, no rest for the weary!

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This morning started bright and early for James and the boys. East Side Baptist Church was having their monthly men’s prayer breakfast and they were planning to attend. At 6:45 AM James rolled out of bed and I got the three boys up at 7:15. They left at about 7:40 and Gaelin and Elizabeth woke up shortly thereafter. I tried to get those two still tired little ones to go back to sleep. Then I gave up and got them in bed with me and we snuggled for a little bit. That didn’t work either, so a little while later we were all up. I let them watch a video for a little bit and then we ate breakfast.

Today it seemed hotter here than it has been. It is probably because it was much more humid. When the boys got home they all went back outside and started to play, with frequent trips in and out for drinks. I was able to get a little school work from Friday gone over with James and John. Then I got their lesson plans made out for Monday.

We all ate leftovers from the hay ride meal last night for lunch today up at the classroom building. It was fun to sit around and visit with everyone again. Our boys are loving having kids their age with whom to play. James even played soccer with some kids and didn’t do too badly, either! The kids ended up taking naps and it rained for a little while this afternoon.

Tonight all my men had haircuts. It is always nice to have that job done so I don’t have to do it again for several weeks. Gaelin hates sitting for them but he is one of the ones who needs them the most. They were so dirty from playing outside that it left dirt caked between my fingers after I was done! Yuck! It must have been from the hay ride last night with all the flying dust and them sitting right in it’s path. But it was still gross! It’s a good thing it was bath night!