MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 05-11-2010

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Greetings from Uganda! It has indeed been an interesting few days. Remember how I said we were swimming in mud? We decided to switch from that to actual swimming. On Sunday morning, thieves came onto our place and stole five of the angle iron poles we had placed for the fence we were going to construct this week. So, we had to move up our schedule a bit. Instead of going to church with my family on Sunday, I had to go down to the police station and file a report. We tried to get the K-9 unit to come and see if we could find the culprits, but they could not come. I got some more angle iron, and got some more poles made so they could be set in place and the mason could get to work installing the fence on Monday morning. My guard was much more vigilant that night, and no more poles were stolen. We then began installing the fence in earnest on Monday. As of now, it is complete, except for a small section near the wall our neighbor is building, which will be completed as soon as his wall is complete.

Now for the interesting part. I put one of my men to work planting some local cactus type plants around the perimeter of my compound near the hedge, which lies just outside the fence. This will have the effect of creating in time a natural thorny barrier that will be better than barbed wire. So, they were busy planting them, 117 in all as it turned out when something very unexpected occurred.

I'm in my room, taking a few minutes to read my Bible and pray, when I heard a sound sort of like the sound of a heavy rain coming, only louder. I went outside, and Anna too, to see what it was – no rain. Weird. Then we rounded the corner of the house and saw it, a 20 ft geyser spouting towards the heavens. One of the workers had broken the MAIN WATER PIPE which ran along the road there with his hoe. Thus began one of the longest Mondays of our life.

My new trash pit quickly filled with muddy water, and other less savory things. Then the torrent rushed down my hill, and slammed all that dirt up against our house. Muddy water streamed into our garage and into the house. In short order we had 3 to 4 inches of water running down the hall. The river quite literally ran through it. I'm frantically trying to contact somebody, anybody to turn off the water, while my wife ran up and down the road trying to figure out the same thing. My man Mordecai took off on a boda and fetched the water people, and finally got the water turned off. By this time, as it turned out, the water had streamed into our concrete septic tank and ripped out two walls because it was poorly constructed to begin with (more on that).

I was frantically grabbing things and moving them out of harms way. I shinnied up our water tower to turn off the water to the tank since I didn't know how long our tank full of water would have to last. Anna is busily sweeping water out of the house with a broom. The other missionaries rallied around us, and in very short order, a cleaning crew descended on our place and began the work of cleaning the mess.

By this time, I had gone to the water office to face the music. The cost of fixing the pipe was immense, and time was of the essence because water was shut off to half the town. As it turned out, my part amounted to about $200, which was the LORD, because the part they paid was much higher. The guy who did the breaking took off for parts unknown. We don't know where he is.

Well, the damage is fixed, the pipe is well covered now (someone had dug a drainage trench there, which caused the whole mess). We have cleaned up the worst of the mess. The amazing thing is, because of the how African houses are constructed, we are actually doing fine. Nothing was damaged, and because our stuff has not arrived, everything is safe.

The damage to the septic tank was catastrophic. There are actually two. The first, which was well made, is undamaged. The second, larger one was apparently constructed from spit and mud by some local idiot with his own three hands. This one failed. It was beginning to show signs of failure already, just from the rain, and had this fortunate accident not occurred, could have collapsed in the future and taken one or more of us with it.

Here's what we're going to do. The second tank is a loss. We're going to carefully break the concrete cover stone, preserving the part that covers the good tank. The rest of the junky one will be collapsed, and dumped in the hole. Into this hole will go all the remaining rubbish on our place, the four stumps, and anything else we want to get rid of. We will fill this with dirt from the hill out back, which is dirt we would have had to remove anyway to make a retaining wall in the future. We are in the process of digging a pit for a latrine, and this dirt can also go in the hole. So, we'll get a better, safer septic tank out the bargain, and a clean compound as well.

Pray for us. By doing it this way, it reduced the cost to maybe about a $1000, but this is certainly not money we expected to have to pay. God has already taken care of some of the cost, so we should be fine for the remainder of the month. Just pray nothing else goes wrong. It has certainly been an eventful time here so far. God is good. We're not discouraged, and we have our work cut out for us in the future as we attempt to learn the language here and begin to minister to the Runyunkore people in their own dialect. It would be nice to get all the major stuff done, however, so we can focus on the other.

More adventure than a body can stand

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Today was really overwhelming in many ways.

Early this afternoon – before I’d had a chance to finish lunch and feed everyone – a worker that was helping plant some cactus like bushes outside our fence around the property broke a water main. I’d just finished putting some clothes on the line and starting another load of laundry when I heard a strange noise. It sounded like really hard rain – only it wasn’t raining outside. Then we looked up the hill behind our house and saw the plume of water. Water was shooting into the air for 25 or so feet by the road. I ran to our water shut off and tried to turn it off. That did nothing. So I ran up the road to see if they knew how to turn it off. No one seemed to know. Finally one lady said that they had to turn it off at the water office in town.

By the time I got back to the house there were several inches of water in our house, running down the hill, through the garage and then into our kitchen, hall way, bedroom (though not as bad there) and living room. It was also running up the hall and into the other side of the house that has just been finished. Thank God, nothing was sitting down that would get seriously hurt except for a few things in our bedroom and James was able to get them picked up really fast. Only a couple of our mattresses got wet and a few odds and ends that could either be thrown away or washed.

But the water was still coming. I started working at sweeping it out of the front door. But it was still coming. I’d barely make a dent in it but it would fill again. I went to the kitchen and just couldn’t get it out of there so had to stop. I worked and worked and worked and lost all track of time. I wished I could throw up because of the stress of it and because it just made me sick to my stomach. Finally, 45 min. later they got the water shut off. But the damage was done and I didn’t know what to do to get it all out. I called my parents (thank God for skype!) and got an okay connection, enough for them to be able to hear me. Then I called the only missionary I could find the number for on James’ phone. He said they would be here as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile I’d been bawling my eyes out, then gritting my teeth and working frantically, then crying again and on and on. The guard kept coming to the door and apologizing (it was a worker that he’d gotten that broke the main). I told him that it would all be fine and that I would be okay, believe it or not. Osbert came and told me he was sorry. I told him I would be fine. It was just so overwhelming! All that water and mud!

Finally, the several of the missionaries and several of the Africans arrived and started helping. In about an hour all the water was out and we could start cleaning and mopping. A couple of the missionary girls that are here stayed and helped me mop and clean and in a couple hours after that we were as done as we could get it.

I’m so thankful for all those that came and helped! It was such a blessing! I’m thankful that we didn’t have our container here yet because then we would have had so many more things in the garage and house and they would have been ruined. I’m thankful that the damage to the property wasn’t worse. It washed away a lot of the hill behind our house but not all of it and we can build it back up and level it.

The worst thing right now is that the huge volume of water coming past our house and into the road washed away some dirt around the septic tank and caused parts of two sides of it to collapse. It wasn’t very well built in the first place and I think that this revealed a weakness in it’s structure that would have come out eventually but this just sped it up. Now we have to get our septic tank repaired as it is sitting open and other sides of it could collapse at any time, if there is a lot of rain or something.

I’ve also been able to laugh about it – Here I was, the crazy white lady running up and down the road asking how to turn the water off, asking people to turn off the water to their house to see if it helped, splashing water out of our front door (it had to go over the sill we have for our screen door!). As we were mopping we got started singing “Showers of Blessing” and one of the verses seemed so appropriate:

There shall be showers of blessing
Precious reviving again
Over the hills and the valleys
Sound of abundance of rain.

LOL!

Yep, that was pretty much it – Sound of abundance of rain over the hill and the valleys. Not sure about the showers of blessing yet – but I know that God doesn’t allow things in our life just to make things hard for us. I know He has a blessing in there for us somewhere and we will yet see it. I know this. Because God is *always* good – even when water is pouring down your hill and through your house.

Now I have a stack of laundry a mile high (mostly dirty rags and clothes the kids were wearing that got covered in water and mud) but my house is pretty much clean. I’ll probably have to mop a couple more times to get it completely cleaned up but that isn’t going to be as hard as it would have been. I just need a couple dry days so I can get all the stuff dried on the line. It was nice this morning and the rained most of the afternoon – ironically, it was pouring rain *while* the water was pouring down the hill. God does have a sense of humor.

And now for a roach story

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Today I was *finally* able to get to the market. It rained Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday last week. I was able to get some things on Friday at the market and then Sunday we stopped by Vicky’s (another story for another entry ;-D ). Monday was nice so I got as much laundry done as possible and hung it to dry. Tuesday, Wednesday and yesterday it rained again and then it rained in the night for a long time. Needless-to-say, I was to the point I didn’t have enough related items to put together for a meal other than peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which really get old fast. So I took a trip to the market. I had a list of the many things we needed and began working my way through it a little at a time.

The last thing on my list was eggs. I’d gotten eggs from one lady before so I asked if she had eggs. She had none. I asked at another place and they wanted much more than normal for eggs because they were “indigenous” – which, the man explained, meant they came from the village and weren’t imported. And I suppose was as good a reason as any in his mind to make them almost 2000 shillings more than what you’d pay anywhere else.

Finally, I found a lady with nice, big, eggs for 5500 shillings for a tray of them. I asked for two trays and handed her my lovely green plastic trays that James and Osbert found for me so she could fill them. (A tray of eggs is 30 eggs or 2-1/2 dozen. 5500 shillings is just about $2.75.) As she picked up the first egg to put it in my tray I saw at least 5 roaches scurry out from under where it had been. Every single egg was like that. :shudders: But I was committed. Those were now my eggs. I also got a little bunch of garlic cloves from her.

So I came home with those eggs, knowing I was going to have to do battle with roaches as soon as I got home. I was careful where I put the eggs so I wouldn’t get any potential roach eggs on anything. I put all the eggs in the sink and filled the sink with hot water and disinfectant. Then I let them soak.

Meanwhile, TWO roaches had made it alive to our house. :gag: :shudder: They both scattered one way and another and I went after them. They were not leaving my kitchen alive.

“James!” I yelled.

Whack. Whack. I smacked at the roaches.

“James! I need you!” I called again. He was close, in the garage but couldn’t come right then.

Whack. Whack. STOMP. One of them was dead. Jamie came to the kitchen. I told him I needed his Dad and a flashlight. I’d lost the other roach. Elizabeth brought the flashlight and I went looking. It scurried across the wall and behind the transformer sitting on the counter. I moved it. SQUASH. The other one was dead.

Then I had to deal with cleaning the eggs. The disinfectant has worked and I didn’t find any eggs or anything. Then I pulled out the garlic. Four tiny roaches were on that. So I’m going to freeze the garlic just in case. That should kill any other eggs that might be on those garlic cloves.

Mom, I was thinking of you as those roaches scurried everywhere.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 05-07-2010

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Greetings! We've been on the field for over a month now, and we're doing great! I've been so busy that the time has just flown by. My principle job has been getting my family settled in a house, which we have done. There was a problem with a property line dispute that slowed things down a bit, but now that's resolved, and the neighbor is putting up a wall around his compound. I have several meters of 7 foot chain link sitting in my garage, and as soon as he is done with his wall, I will be attaching my fence, and running it all the way around my compound. The poles are in place, and all that remains is the wall to complete on our side so we can attach and finish OUR project.

Meanwhile, much has been accomplished. We got the last of the painting done. The tiles are finished. I have a man building screens and doors for the side that shall soon no longer be unfinished. There's a lot of stuff to do in the yard. Right now, we're swimming in mud. Mud, mud everywhere. I have gotten the yard level, and the grass is planted. Since it rains pretty much every day, it will grow quickly. I have removed 4 huge stumps from the yard, and all the trash from construction is gone. Yesterday, I had guttering installed to keep the water from washing us away. The neighbor is going to put a drainage trench (concrete) next to the wall, and this will carry water from my place and his to a drain by the road. I can then tap into that, and funnel all my water away from the yard. Otherwise, the place is a swamp.

It is taking shape, but the land requires a lot of work to get it to the place where my children can actually play. They have been confined to the house for weeks because of all the construction going on. Thankfully, it looks like the end is in sight. It will be good to have this distraction completed so I can focus more on language learning, which is really what I came here to do. I am painfully aware of how limited I am with my ignorance of Runyunkore, and am looking forward to alleviating that ignorance soon.

Pray for us. I am going to the capitol next week to meet with Dan Olachea and observe his Greek school and translation team. I am going to have to adapt the process for Hebrew so I can begin translation work on the Old Testament. He and his men have done a fine job, and are nearly finished with the New Testament translation into Runyunkore. While there, I can take care of some bureaucratic stuff, and possibly pick up our stove and dryer, if we have the money, and if they have them in stock (last time they did not). We have been line drying our clothes, and the stove the Stensaas' lent us is working well. So, if we have to continue as we are a while longer, it is not a problem. Pray for our health and safety, as always, and pray for the souls of Uganda!

Ratted Out

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Continuing the rat saga:

This morning it settled in to rain for several hours. By late morning it was pretty much done and the people building the wall next door got back to work as did others who are doing things around our property (mainly Mordecai, our night guard who has managed to get hired to do several other jobs for us, like planting grass and digging a compost pit among other things – I don’t know when our night guard sleeps except at night when he is supposed to be guarding).

Not long after the rain stopped Osbert came and got James. Turns out a rat had fallen into our compost pit! It was a bigger rat than the babies. Mordecai went into the pit to get it out. James kept telling him to kill it. But Mordecai didn’t want to. Neither did Osbert. But Mordecai was having trouble getting it out of the pit. James got video of the whole thing. It was crazy! Finally, Mordecai managed to lasso it, haul it out of the pit and take it down to the driveway area. They still didn’t want to kill it so James did the honors. *shivers* We got to watch the whole thing on the video James took. *shivers again*

Turns out, it was also a baby and the adults can be 3-4 feet long. *gasp, horror* They are a variety of pack rat. Sigh. So now I have TWO kinds of rat to worry about.

Oh, and there is a snake living in our hedge. So I have to watch for it when I go to hang laundry. Lovely. Snakes really bother me!

Funny story about that, too. Monday nights here they have a ladies Bible study at church. It starts at 5:30PM and is done by 6:30PM. I usually walk there and back. Monday night, Pastor Robert’s wife, Annette, taught (she is the usual teacher). She shared about the many snakes which have been coming into their house. I guess she doesn’t like snakes any better than I do! LOL. So then it was done and I walked home. At home there was a load of laundry on the line and I totally forgot about it until it was completely dark outside. I hurried out to get it, trying to be careful not to step in any of the “land mines” laid in our yard by the neighbor’s dog. Some of the things on the line were socks and I hurried to get it all in before getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. Suddenly, something soft and odd feeling landed on top of my foot. I screamed. Then I reached down and felt. It was some of those socks! LOL! Oh, how I laughed at myself! I had snakes on the brain and just thought that was what was on my foot. I heard someone else chuckling at me as well and it was the night guard, Mordecai, sitting in the yard doing something on his cell phone. He thought it was hilarious that I’d lost it so badly over a sock or two.

Addendum: After James read this blog entry, he admitted that he had been pulling my leg. It actually *was* an adult rat. I guess when Osbert saw that I was believing James he started going along with him and telling me about how they carry off large pieces of metal and shoes and things.

Oh and yes the word “gullible” really is written on the ceiling! 😀 And we shall continue to look for the ROUS’s – Rodents Of Unusual Size.