Tuesday 7/31 journal

It is Tuesday afternoon and as I told you that I had been fighting off an illness of some sort starting on Sunday. I tried to spend time with the students at the high school yesterday, but I could easily tell that I was still ill. So I went back to the primary school where I sleep to rest. Slowly word got around that I was not feeling well. It got to the point where I did not eat dinner. Since I was at the high school earlier in the day, I realized that it was not a good idea to eat. They always spoil me here with food, but I definitely did not enjoy that lunch. So when I went to evening prayers, many students had been praying for me. My stomach was upset, but I went to prayers anyway. Many students laid hands on me during prayers and I slowly could feel the pains in my stomach dissipating. After prayers were done, I felt healed, but me being the skeptic didn’t want to claim that just yet. However, I can truthfully say that God healed me due to the intercession of his servants – these children. I am so blessed to be here with them.

Today I had the opportunity to meet Rogers’ mom as she traveled one 1 and a half hours by taxi to be interviewed by me. What a blessing it was to capture her story. I can’t wait to finish it to share with all of you on the upcoming DVD to promote Buyamba and the sponsoring of kids here at God Cares School! Keep praying for me. The team from the south is leaving on Thursday morning…it will be a sad time of saying goodbyes for myself as well as all the children at the school!

Monday night 7/30

So I draw closer to the time that I will be returning to the states. It is Monday night and I have been fighting a cold/flu off for the past few days. Today, I didn’t do much because I felt so ill in the afternoon. Yesterday even at worship, I felt like I was going to pass out. However, God is good and the students prayed over me during praise and prayers, and almost immediately my stomach pains went away. Praise be to God for the faithfulness of his servants.

I have yet to sit down with Pastor Dongo about the costs of living here. There is a guest house at the school. This is where I plan to live when I come back to Uganda. It has two bedrooms, one of which will be mine, a living room, bathroom and a small kitchen. However, it is not like what we think of as a kitchen. Right now, it has a sink and a small counter, but that is it. The biggest benefit to living at the school is that they can cook for me every day. I haven’t really missed the food in the states much since I have been here so I think I’ll be okay. However, I do miss having a hot shower in the morning. There is no hot water unless you boil it. Therefore, no hot or even warm showers. I guess it helps to wake you in the morning.

Other things that I miss are my friends and family. It will be difficult to be far from them physically and not be able to hang out with them. I get to communicate with them online as in this journal, but it doesn’t always meet the need of first hand communication. I also miss baseball and if it was basketball season, you know I would miss my Tar Heels. Otherwise, I don’t miss television at all and I especially don’t miss being overly busy and running around town constantly.

Journal for Saturday 7/28 morning

It’s Saturday morning and I know that some of you are probably wondering where I have been. This is probably the fourth post you have read today because I haven’t been able to connect to the internet that could read my flashdrive. Well, everything is going well here. I am constantly bombarded with inquiries about whether or not I know someone from the states. Those of you who have visited recently or in the past, these kids love you and miss you. I am returning home in about a week and will be transporting many letters back to the states.

Much of last week the students at the primary school were taking exams. Did you know that they have national exams out here. In order to pass P-7 (the equivalent to our 7^{th grade) and move on to high school, they must pass a national exam. I’m not really clear on the minimum score to pass, but I’ve seen an example of a P-6 exam and I think that my students back home would have a very difficult time passing by our standards in the states.}

Because the primary school was taking exams, I spent much of my time at the high school. Those kids are a lot of fun. Finally, I know many of their names and can communicate with them. They taught me many different words in Luganda. I think that I have already developed strong relationships with many of them. They yearn to see me when I am not there. Thursday I walked home with them again. That is some of my favorite time with them because they share with me about Uganda and teach me about how things are here. I am going to miss them so much. Next week they are in exams, I think, so I won’t be able to spend much time with them.

Yesterday, I spent my morning working on interviewing Pastor Dongo and his wife Florence. I hope I’ve gotten their story clear for my video. I need to start working on capturing all the video onto my computer. Later in the morning, we went to the high school for chapel where three of us spoke to the students there. They also led some relay races for them and I’ve never seen high school students get so excited about winning a game….well, even just playing the game for that matter.

After lunch, it was time for an adventure. The Georgia team as I have been calling them wanted to go shopping in town. I knew that I didn’t want to eat alone that evening so I went along. Ann who is the social worker went with us so that we knew our way around. However, she had a hair appointment at 6 and it didn’t look like we were going to be finished in time for her to get back. So we told her to give us the information that we needed to get home and sent her on her way. First we took a taxi to a pizza place. Now if you have never been to Uganda, you might not understand what a taxi is. They are like minivans that they pack with people. They usually drive along a route picking people up and dropping them off down the road. Sometimes in order to make room for more people, they will sit on the laps of the people already on the taxi. That was the case for us as a few of the girls were squished in the taxi. We made it safely to the pizza place and had a great meal there. Note that the pizza in Uganda does not have pizza sauce but it was very good nonetheless. Here comes the adventure part. We needed to find an empty taxi to rent to get back to Kansanga, the area where we were staying. Finding an empty taxi was not as easy as we thought it might be. Finally, we asked a man where we could find an empty taxi. He gave us directions (note: not really any street signs so we weren’t sure where we were going) and we began hurrying to the location of the taxi depot. It was beginning to get dark and supposedly it’s not good to be out at dark. As we walked we tried flagging down an empty taxi, but two passed without stopping for us. Finally, a taxi stopped that had 2 or 3 people in it. We told him where we wanted to go and he asked for 30000 shillings. Ann told us that we should offer 15000, but give no more than 20000. He agreed to 15000 and I guess kicked everyone off the taxi for us. Apparently one of the people that had to leave muttered something in Luganda about mzungu (the word for white people in Luganda). It seemed like we were in good shape, but they tried to get more money out of us. I agreed to 20000 and described exactly where we were going. I figured they decided to take a short cut around the traffic of the evening because I didn’t recognize some of the parts they were driving in. I started to worry when the conductor asked someone a question and I heard him utter the word Kansanga. Everyone thought we were lost, but then I realized where we were and felt a peace. They delivered us right to the school. An adventure, but one that I treasure in my heart because it made me feel like a Ugandan.

Time to take a shower…a few students are mopping my room…that is hand mopping it right now. I love them so much!

Journal for Thursday 7/26

It is now Thursday morning and all is well here. Today two of the girls from the Georgia team are leaving for home. It is so sad to watch the students grieve the departure of their newfound friends. Please pray for them. They love to see visitors come from America, but they hate to see people leave. That is one of the main reasons why I wanted to return this summer. I remember the look on some of their faces when I told them I would return. They didn’t believe. I’m sure so many before me had the same words so what reason did they have to believe. I have been thanked by a few students for returning as I had promised. Now he hard part will be leaving again; this time knowing that I desire to return to live here, but not really knowing what the future holds for me. If God wants me to be here, he will provide.

Journal for Tuesday 7/24

Today (Tuesday), I woke up when Ismail was knocking on my door at 5:30 am. I promised him that I would walk to the high school with him as I was going to spend at least part of the day there. He wanted to make sure that I was awake and getting ready. I quickly showered and went on my journey with him to the high school from the primary school. It was about a 30-40 minute walk in semi-darkness.

Since we arrived earlier than most of the students as well as the teachers, I sat and talked with them. I spend most of my time with the Senior 1 class (equivalent to our 8^{th grade). We talked about the U.S. and how things are different there than in Uganda. However, I needed to make it clear that things were not necessarily better there. The one thing I have noticed about Uganda is that they have a rich love for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.}

I sat in on their Math, Chemistry and government class. I got a little bored during the government class because most of the class was the students taking extensive notes on the qualities of a good leader. During and in between the classes the students helped me learn Luganda. So now I can say a few phrases in Luganda. I’ve got a long way to go and often feel left of the conversation.

School in Uganda is much longer than that in the U.S. The students are required to be at school no later than 7:00 am. If they show up late for school, then they are required to do some chores. Their classes can be 40 minutes or two 40 minute blocks equaling 1 hour 20 minutes. They start school at 8:00 am and go until their break at 10:40 am. They start again at 11:00 am until 1:00 pm when they have lunch. At 2:00 they start again until 4:40. Then they have to clean the school before they can leave at 5:00 pm. It’s crazy. I don’t know how they do it. I was dead tired at 12:30 pm.

Today was Ismail’s birthday so after school we stopped to get ice cream to celebrate his birthday. It was a fun time. When we arrived back at school the girls told me of a tradition they have of dousing anyone who has a birthday with water…kind of like we do with Gatorade when a team wins a championship. It was hilarious to see the students chase after Ismail with cups and bowls full of water.

Most nights, the students who live at the school gather for what they call prayers, but it’s more like praise and worship then prayers. Remember that we’re talking about young students. Ismail is 16 now, but most of the students are somewhere between 8 and 13 years old. They cry out to the Lord like it’s nobody’s business. I am planning to video tape these worship times because there is really no way to describe them to anyone who is not a part of them.

Well, it’s time to rest as I am going to make an attempt to sleep in tomorrow until maybe 7:00 am. I hope all is well with you.

Journal for Mon 7/23

Today is Monday and I’ve been here living at God Cares School for almost 4 days now. It was really difficult at first being here alone. My room is huge. Well, it’s more like the size of the classroom I teach in at Hillcrest. There’s just a bed and some plastic patio chairs for me to sit on. It’s a little bit lonely, but on the first night here alone, Ismail came to my room to chat with me. It reminded me of the reason why God has called me to come to Uganda. We talked and he really encouraged me. I showed him and Rogers the video that I made for Buyamba since they both speak in the video. They were really excited. So I am all settled here now.

On Saturday morning, I had to do laundry so after eating a small breakfast, I filled two buckets with water got my clothes and soap and went to wash. As I was washing some of the girls came and offered to help. Eventually, they were doing all the work and I was just watching. What a blessing from the Lord to have such a loving group of students around. It really encouraged me as I was missing my friends.

Later that day I took a trip with the girls who are staying at the school to Jinja where we were able to see the source of the Nile. We took a boat to the specific place where the Nile River begins from Lake Victoria. I have some amazing pictures from that trip. On the way back from Jinja, Dongo took us to some waterfall sites along the Nile River. It was awesome just to listen to the water pounding down. I have never been to Niagara Falls, but I can only imagine after seeing these small waterfalls. It was a long day, but so worth the trip.

Sunday we went to church and the students from Awana were leading worship. It was amazing to watch them lead the congregation in singing. They have a gift and a love for the Lord that is rarely seen in the United States. I also had the opportunity to teach the 5, 6 and 7 Sunday School class. I taught about the importance of first living a lifestyle that pleases and honors God before preaching the Word. I hope they received the Word spoken to them from the Lord.

That brings us to today where I didn’t do much. I woke early with the students as they do every day, but found myself a little lost. I spent some quality time with Robert, the tech guy, setting up the power outlets in my room. I also watched Jacob teach and discussed that with him later. I realized that my calling here in Uganda may not be to teach, but instead to help students that are struggling since there is so little personal attention due to large class sizes and to mentor the students who want to draw close to the Lord. I am continuing to pray about what God has for me here, but I definitely feel the call and the connection with this ministry.

Farewell for now.

Friday's journal

It is Friday tonight and I have not been able to post my last few journals. I have to try to make it to an internet café where I can attach a USB device in order to upload the journals that I am keeping on my computer. It has been an eventful few days.

Thursday I decided to take a journey on my own. I asked how to take a taxi from the primary school to the church where the high school currently meets. So after meeting at the primary school for prayers and watching some of the teachers, I ventured over for lunch. I must note that as my supporters, you played a major role in the meal the students were about to partake in. The main reason I wanted to go over to the school was because through the support of my friends and family I was able to buy a meal of meat (beef or fish) matooke (bananas that are somewhat like a thick mashed potato when prepared) and rice. The students there were overjoyed by the meal. They usually eat only rice and beans or maybe rice and a peanut sauce.

Today we went shopping at the African village. We spent about 2 hours shopping for different items. My big item was an African drum. I wanted one for so long, but was only able to take a small one home last time because my luggage was too small. I knew that my purchase might not fit in my bag, but I tried anyway to no avail. Fortunately for me Pastor Dongo rescued me from having to leave my purchase behind by bringing me a bag to take the drum back in. You might be asking me why I needed to pack it up today since I am not leaving for another two weeks. Earlier tonight, my friends (Julie, Degna, and James) left for their return journey home to the U.S. Since I can’t carry 4 bags by myself through customs, I asked them to take it since they are three. It was difficult to watch them leave. They are so dear to my heart and they were my comfort being here. Lucky for me, I still have my friends from Texas and Georgia here to keep me company. It makes me wonder if I could really leave everything behind to do work out here in Uganda for a few years. Do I really have the personality to survive? This will be the biggest challenge for me on my trip to find out more about myself.

In spending time with the students and teachers here, I often wonder what I have to offer to them. They are so rich in their hearts. Pastor Dongo wants us to come and help the teachers, but they have much more difficult jobs than I have in the states. When I hear them pray to the Lord, I hear their hearts and often am embarrassed that I don’t have the faith and love for my God and Savior in the manner in which they do. I think that I am more blessed by being here with them than what I can offer to them.

Last Wednesday's Journal

So here I am..day 6 (Wednesday) and we are quickly approaching the day in which my team will leave me behind. We have been staying at the hotel since I last wrote you about our accommodations. It is much more convenient for Pastor Dongo and us as well. In addition, Karlene, the teacher from Texas that has been here almost 4 weeks now, stays at our hotel. So it gives her Americans to relate to and bond with…just a feel of home and comfort for her.

Each day we walk to the school from our hotel. We have to be very careful as we cross the street because let’s just say that no one is really going to slow down for you if you run in front of their car. They might honk though. Dongo has always warned us not to go out at night so usually he drives us back to the hotel after dinner if it is dark. However, two nights ago, all of us at the hotel ate at a restaurant that we walked to. By the time we had completed our meal, it was dark. There are no streetlamps here so it is very dark when you walk down the road. Gaba Road is not so bad, but to get to our hotel, we had to venture off onto a side street to get to our hotel. I know that Julie and Degna were a little scared since they have trouble seeing in the light (especially Degna) and were walking in pitch black darkness because the batteries to their flashlight were dead. However, they made it safely being accompanied by James. Karlene and I decided to take a venture to the internet café. Remember that Dongo always warns of being out past dark. We joked about him finding out that we went to the internet café, and as we turned the corner to the internet café, one of the teachers from the school was there and "busted" us for being out at night.

Yesterday, I saw Andrew, the student that I sponsor. I was able to give him the gifts that I had for him. He is shy and doesn’t talk much so it’s hard to tell what he is feeling, but later in the day, he was chasing me around the school and even dragged me somewhere to be with him. He’s a gem. I am making attempts to communicate with him so we’ll see how that progresses over the next few weeks.

I have made so many friends here and am attempting to remember all of their names. It is definitely a challenge. My favorites are all the students that I really remember from last time I was here. Rogers is an amazing student who loves the Lord and has an incredible story to share. Ismail was formerly a Muslim and converted to Christianity yet suffers persecution at the hands of his family because of his conversion.

Preparing my home

So the last few days have been spent shopping. Yeah, that probably sounds fun for most of you, and normally I would say that I enjoyed it as well. Let's start from the beginning though. I began my day yesterday by going to the bank to change a bunch of money from US to Ugandan shillings. Let's just say that I was a millionaire for about half of the day. I felt like a drug dealer because I had a wad of cash about 2-3 inches thick. I had to buy a few things because I forgot my tripod in the states and one of the girls needed a different type of DVD for her camcorder. I think I finished by 11:15 am, but Pastor Dongo decided it was time to shop for the school...a TV for the kindergarten class to use. Let's just say it's not so much fun bargaining when you're not a part of the bargaining and you can't understand a word being said because it's all in Luganda, their native language. After about 2 hours we had a new TV and DVD player. Then on our way home, we stopped to buy my bed for the next two weeks. Again, me watching him bargaining.

Today, James and I went again shopping with Dongo for a mattress, sheets, pillows and mosquito net. Shopping just isn't so much fun to watch. Anyway, that's a quick summary of the last two days...one minute left at the internet cafe...gotta go!

Telephone #

For those of you who may need to contact one of our team members, our phone number here in Uganda which will be my contact number until Aug 3 is 75-3448907. All incoming calls are free so enjoy calling us. Someone told me it is cheap if you use a service such as Skype (www.skype.com) I'm not sure exactly how much it is a minute though. I hope you are all doing well, and I will post what has been happening over the past few days.

First post from Uganda

Finally I have made it to an internet connection to give you updates on our trip to Uganda. For those who do not know my friends who are traveling me on the first leg of my journey, let me introduce them. First is my former boss and sister in Christ, Julie Dimas. Julie is the wife of David who previously traveled to Uganda with me in April. She and her husband oversee the day-to-day operations of Buyamba. It is her first trip outside of our blessed country. Accompanying her is her son, James who will be a senior at Oaks Christian High School. He was a student in my first class of 6^{th graders at Hillcrest back in 2001. Last but not least is Degna Horton. She was a former co-worker at Hillcrest and my sister/"mother" in Christ. Only she will really get that joke.}

On Thursday morning, we made the trek to the airport in two vehicles containing 8 checked pieces of luggage and 8 carry-on items, three of which were guitars purchased for Pastor Dongo. No major obstacles getting checked in or during our flights except the nail marks left in the armrest of Julie’s chair during our first ascent into the sky. One highlight of our flight was that I noticed some familiar guys boarding our plane…Bobby and Laren of Invisible Children. I had a nice chat with Laren in the Amsterdam airport.

We finally arrived in Entebbe, Uganda at approximately 8:10 pm on Friday evening, cleared customs in about 45 minutes and were greeted merrily by our friend and brother in Christ, Pastor Dongo. It was a true reunion of family. It seems like so long ago that we last saw Dongo, but the reality is that it was only 2 months ago when he visited us in California. That night, Dongo took us to stay at a Guest House where we were warmly greeted by George and Peter and some special friends from California: Hilary, Heather and Amanda. However, we were so exhausted that we went straight to bed.

The next morning, we awoke for breakfast and chatted before Dongo came to bring us to our hotel. The feel of the hotel was much different from that of the Guest House so we are in limbo as to where to stay after tonight. However, it had a fan, which was pretty exciting for me as the night before I boiled!

Later we went to the school for lunch and met up with the team from Georgia. They are an energetic bunch of young adults, mostly teachers. We also met a young lady from Houston, Texas who is staying at our hotel. In addition, we were greeted by many students from God Cares as we arrived. It was great to see my friends from Uganda; I am looking forward to my time here and especially the last two weeks where I will be staying in the school with the students.

There haven’t really been any highlights other than watching James fall asleep quickly every chance he gets and Julie being a little freaked out on the plane. However, I know that there will be many stories as we begin our journey…next stop, worship services in the morning.

Almost Ready

Well, it's officially Thursday, July 12, 2007...the day I leave for Uganda. In about 12 hours, I will be leaving the country for 3 weeks. I'm a little flustered even as I write as I should be finishing up my packing instead of here on livejournal. However, I felt the need to write before I leave. Unfortunately, I don't have much to say. I am in a limbo state right now. Though I am a little saddened to leave my incredible high school student leadership team from Wildwood. I'm going to miss them a lot as we spent so much quality time together the last few weeks. Guys eat some extra pizookie for me while I'm gone! Anyway, I'm off...keep checking back...I'm not sure how often I will be able to update because I'm not sure about our internet situation, but I will be journaling every day.

First post

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd have my support letter for my upcoming trip be my first post to this journal...enjoy

May 2007

I write you today as a man changed by the people of Uganda. About a month ago, I embarked on a trip to Uganda to serve as a videographer for a ministry called Buyamba Inc. However, God had a much larger plan for my trip and my future than just visiting a foreign country.

Let me first tell you about the work that is been going on out in Uganda through Buyamba. In 2002, Pastor Bethuel Dongo and his wife Florence started an outreach to the children of Uganda by opening a school/orphanage. At that point, there were about 97 children in their school. Through the generous support of people in the United States, they now have a five-story building for their primary school with over 500 students in attendance. They also found a need for a secondary school, and although they don’t have a dedicated building for it, there are about 60 students and growing. The children at the school are in one of the following situations: both parents have passed away, one parent has passed and the other cannot pay their school fees for some reason (usually because they are sick and cannot work) or both parents are sick. In spite of these conditions, these children have a joy about them that can only be explained by a loving God.

One of the things that we realized while we were there was that most of the classes did not have books. I came back to the U.S. with a mission to raise money to help these teachers. I approached the students at my school and asked if they could spare a quarter every week as an offering to help the children at God Cares School in Uganda. The response has been overwhelming. At this point after 4 weeks of offering, the students at my school have donated nearly $1000. A couple of us decided that we could use this money to buy books for the school. We planned to have the books purchased, and we would take some American teachers to Uganda to support the teachers in Uganda in using these books in their classrooms.

Our team of four will be leaving on July 12. I will be staying in Uganda for three weeks (until Aug. 3) while the rest of the team will be there for about a week (returning on July 21). During the time that I am by myself in Uganda, I will be staying at the school instead of at a hotel. I want to live like they do and understand the costs of living in Uganda. At this point, I feel God calling me to teach out there in the near future. Please pray that God will clarify this calling to me if it is truly His will.

There are so many things that we want to accomplish while in Uganda, but we cannot do this without your help. The kids at the school get the opportunity for a meal with meat only about once a week. I want to be able to buy meat for them at least a couple of times while I am there. In addition, you may know that I’ve coached basketball over the last 8 years. Well, I would like to build a basketball court and bring basketballs for the kids to use.

Unfortunately, there is a cost involved in allowing this trip to be possible as well as for the additional things we would like to do while out there.  The approximate cost is $4000 for my part of the trip. I would ask that you consider partnering with me in my adventure. There are a number of ways that you can partner with us.

o    Pray for our safety as we work in a foreign country
o    Pray that we will be able to raise the support needed for this trip
o    Pray for our interactions with the teachers in Uganda
o    Pray for our assimilation back into the American way of life after being around such a joyous people who have very little
o    Pray that the financial need will be met
o    Consider a monetary gift (all contributions are tax-deductible)

I understand that you may get many of these requests every year, so thank you for listening and do not feel an obligation to give. However, your prayers are necessary for a successful journey.