Day Trip to Gulu...Not quite

So talking to Dongo on the weekend, we went back and forth over whether it would be a good idea for me to accompany the upcoming team on their visit to Sudan. I was really unaware of the goals of this team from the get go. I guess they had someone coming to train leaders for children's ministry and were hoping that I would fill in. I wasn't really sure how since I had done youth minstry, but never children's ministry. In fact, I've never taught below 6th grade. In addition, I wasn't truly "raised" in the church so I can't really think of what goes on in children's programs. We finally decided that it was best that I stay behind, but that I could drive with them to Gulu and accompany Pastor Richard on the way back...a day trip right. I told Thanx that and he laughed telling me we would get back at the earliest 10 pm. I didn't really care, I was just going along for the ride.

So Dongo said he would be at the school around 7 and leave at 8 am from there. At about 7:50 am, I was getting my things together, went to go visit someone quickly before I left and what...Dongo was gone. He had already left for the hotel where the team was staying. Just the beginning of the journey...I had to walk to the hotel to meet them. We're on our way...right? Nope, Florence had to drive to the church where Richard was to switch cars. After more hustle and bustle...we're finally off. Dongo's car was loaded on the top with blankets. The only problem...the brackets kept falling off the luggage carrier thing (that's the best name I could come up with). With the potholes in the road, they just kept getting loose. That meant for many more stops as we, in Richard's car, saw them pop off. As we drove through the national forest or park, we crossed the Nile River...waterfalls...cool, but didn't stop there and then we saw some baboons walking along the side of the road. Actually the male was just sitting there staring at us. That's the first wildlife other than birds that I have seen since moving here. Finally, we arrive in Gulu.

We stop at a gas station there and wait for the Sudanese pastor that is escorting them into Sudan. In a nutshell, there are complications. A few of us are just standing by until a decision is made. Finally...nope...change of plans...nope...change back...nope... You get the idea. I don't know how many times plans changed before the team decided what to do, but it was getting late already (~4:30 pm) Richard and I decided to find a place to stay in Gulu. You might remember Gulu from the Invisible Children documentary. Well, life in Gulu has changed much from that time as the rebels are pretty much gone and it is peaceful there. Richard took me around showing me where the rebels would drive and where the children would sleep for safety from them. Crazy stuff. We stayed an a decent guest house that had a pretty nice breakfast (it's not the Speke, but what is?) and began our journey home...7 hours later, we arrive to the comfort of God Cares School...so much for the day trip to Gulu.

Plumbing!!!

So as I wrote my blog the other day, I realized that I left out critical information about my Thursday's experiences. We found out the hard way that there is a lot of fake stuff out here in Uganda.

Grayson was in the bathroom and I guess he got bored. So he decided to poke one of the flex tubing going to the sink. Immediately it sprung a leak. Now to picture this think of a cartoon. We tried to get it to stop, but nothing worked. Pastor Dongo told us that people make fake stuff all the time that ends up breaking soon after installation. Apparently that was the case this time. He said we would fix it in all his Ugandan sense of urgency...meaning none.

So we put a tub underneath it and moved on...well, not really, about a half hour later I went in to try to stop the leak again. Upon doing that, I completely broke off the tubing and water began to shoot out of the wall (remember think cartoon or movie). I yelled for Grayson. Luckily he heard me and ran for help. However, the bathroom began to flood with water. Finally help came, but they had to get a ladder to get up in the attic to shut the water off. By the time the water got shut off, the bathroom and living room area were flooded with water exiting the front door. Not very fun, but an interesting experience nonetheless.

Moral - be careful what you buy in Uganda

Another Adventure

So we're down to the last few days that Grayson will be here in Uganda. It seems like just yesterday that we arrived with our team, but I can tell that he's ready to go home and see family and friends. We haven't done much exciting the past few days. We were hoping that Pastor Richard would come up with some fun things for us to do, but as we talked with him, our idea of fun and exciting wasn't really what he was thinking of. So he decided that we should go to town and experience the "real" Uganda. We were supposed to do that yesterday, but it rained us out. Then again we were supposed to go with him today, but he got busy.

As it turns out, my internet has been down the last few days so I decided we should go and find out what is wrong with my modem. So we started walking to Ggaba Road to get a taxi. As we waited, all of the taxis were full so we began to walk. Much later we finally boarded at taxi to town. I hadn't yet taken one to town without a Ugnadan so I was hoping that it would take me to a place I was familiar with to get off. As I saw the Shoprite, we exited the taxi and inquired as to how much a boda boda would be. We bargained them to 1500 shillings (about $1) to take us to the Uganda Telecom office. My boda boda driver knew exactly where we were going but I wasn't sure about Grayson's as his driver followed mine much of the way. When we finally got to the UT office, Grayson was no where to be found. "Oh no, I hope his driver knows how to get here!" I waited a good 10 minutes before seeing his driver bring him there.

Next adventure...stand in line for service. I think we were there about an hour before I even got helped. Then they questioned what I was telling them. I believed that my modem was bad and they just kept telling me to try again. Finally, I got to the front of the line, but customer service in Uganda is much different than customer service in the US. The man took my modem and began working on it. About 40 minutes later, he showed me the internet and said there was no problem. I turned my computer on and welll....no problem this time. However, the transfer rates are still slow (max 16kb/s)  I might have to go in again next week to see if they have fixed the problem!

Next adventure...find a restaurant owned by a Ugandan friend at Calvary, Julius. We knew it was near the Sheraton and the State House. A guard outside the UT office bulding directed us toward the Sheraton. We didn't see any signs that would help us so we began asking people. Finally we were pointed in the right direction, but we still needed to ask a few more people. After about 30 minutes of searching on foot, we arrived at Pearl Restaurant...I think we were a little underdressed. This was a pretty nice restaurant. It was a buffet and very good at that. I requested to meet the owner, but she was eating lunch. Before we left, she came over and greeted us and we talked for a while. I will defintely be going back there in the future.

Another adventure. After that, a boda boda driver found us...Imagine that a boda boda driver finding mzungu!...we asked if he knew where Kenya AIRways was...he talked about some road, but I didn't know that name of the road so I just said okay to a 2500 shilling ride for the both of us. Unfortunately, he took us to the Kenya Embassy. We had to explain "Kenya AIRWAYS". He had no clue and had to ask several people before finally dropping us off.

Great story at Kenya Airways. We walked in and they had a ticket counter where you take a number and wait for it to be called. By that time, I think Grayson was done waiting for help (after the UT office earlier), but I said to him TIA. When they finally called his number about 30 minutes later, he yelled "Yeah!" and everyone just stopped what they were doing. I don't think they knew how to react, but I was cracking up. Everyone started laughing after that.

The rest of the day was an adventure back to find the taxi park and make our way home. Moral for the day...in Africa, don't expect to get served in your time. That's all for now!

Praise report and more

First of all, I want to announce to everyone that after much hard work and restoration, my house has been rented. I am blessed to not only have it rented but also have friends that I know and love renting it. It brings peace of mind that this whole process has been completed. Thanks to Debbie for taking care of everything while I'm away. All the time, I knew the Lord would take care of this for me. Thank you Lord and continue to increase my faith and trust in you every day.

On a lighter note, Grayson and I went to take some pictures of more places where the student's live. You might remember reading of a good story about Grayson going to take a picture of the bathroom. This time we were in a house and they were so overjoyed that we were there that they bought us some food and drink. Of course before we could partake in that, we had to wash our hands. Denis, the teenager there, brought over two small buckets of water toward Grayson to wash his hands. Grayson didn't know what to do so he began to stick his hands in the bucket with water as I tried to stop him. The way you wash hands here is put them over the empty bucket and pour water over yoru hands. It might not be that funny to you, but Worship, Oliviah and I were cracking up!!! Now Worship asks Grayson about bathrooms and washing hands all the time!!!

Since Grayson and I are most likely not getting to go on a safari adventure, we have been trying to be more adventurous in the city. Yesterday, we went with Pastor Richard to town to try to get my "real" visa versus just a travel visa. We were there much longer than planned becasue the Ministry of Internal Affairs is where Richard used to work. Richard had the responsibility of taking us back to the school, yet he needed to be somewhere in the opposite direction and was running late already. I told him to just drop us off at Shoprite (the closest thing to a real grocery store in the US) and we would go to the taxi park and get a taxi back. He was very concerned as neither of us had done this without the assistance of a Ugandan. However, I was confident that we could do it. So we shopped at Shoprite then walked to the taxi park. It is difficult to describe the taxi park. It is basically a parking lot full of taxis, many trying to make their way back into the park. You have to look for signs for where each group of taxis is going and find a taxi home. I thought I knew where I was going...NOPE! Luckily for us, all of the people there were honest and helpful as we found a taxi that would take us to Kansanga. Unfortunately for us, we still didn't get on the right taxi because this one wasn't going all the way to Ggaba and ended up diverting up a side street. We exited there and took a boda boda all the way to the school from there. A cool little adventure...it made me feel a little more Ugandan to know that I could get back on my own safely from town! I'm sure there are bigger and better adventures to come!!!

The Last Few Days

So I mentioned to you that Grayson and I are looking forward to some adventures. We have already had many laughs and especially notable things happen in our time in Uganda.

One of the first days in Uganda, Grayson and I were walking down the road and an African was walking in the opposite direction. i could tell he was staring at us as mzungu (the name for white people or non-black foreigners in my case). As we passed him, he continued to stare at us. Then I heard a smack on the ground and looked back. It seems as during his staring at us he neglected to see the bump in the road and fell flat on his face!!! We were dying laughing, but tried to hold it in a little.

Another time, Dan, Ashley, Grayson and I stopped for ice cream after dinner with the high school team. We had decided to take boda bodas back since it was a long way from the school and walking by the bars at night was probably not the best idea. (Sorry, Lori, I gave into the pleading of yoru son! He's just too cute to deny.) We explained to the drivers that we wanted to go to the kasaawe which means field in Luganda. However, when Ashley and Grayson boarded the boda boda, Grayson told him Kabalagala which is where the church is, but in the wrong direction. As Dan's boda boda took off in the correct direction, Grayson and Ashley's went in the opposite direction. I yelled at them as I boarded my boda boda. I told my driver that they were going the wrong way, and he didn't even flinch saying, "They wil catch up." Eventually the driver figured out he was going the wrong way and they turned around eventually passing me as I detoured to the Olympia Hotel where the HS team was. However, I had the key to the room...Whoops!

Two days ago, Grayson and I decided to adventure. He wanted to see if he could buy some shoes from a place in Uganda. We decided that boda bodas were too expensive so we would take a taxi. Derrick, the gate person at the school, told us we should go to Ggaba market or town, but that Ggaba market was closer. We decided Ggaba, and he told us that a taxi would be 500 shillings. As we were walking through the field, I heard a boda boda coming up behind us. The driver had just dropped off someone and came to ask us if we needed a ride. He told us it would be 3000 shillings. We said 2000. He balked and we said okay we'll take a taxi. He then said, "Wait, I want your money!" So both of us got on the boda boda and started on our way to Ggaba. Honestly, we were hauling on that little bike. Then all of a sudden we started slowing down and the driver pulled over to the side. I thought he ran out of gas and was going to try to charge us more, but he said his boda boda was broken. We weren't convinced but then I saw that the back tire was flat. At that point, I didn't know what to say to him. He said we were almost there and could take a taxi, but we decided to walk. So I paid him the 2000 and we left. The rest of the day we just kept saying, "I can't believe we broke a boda boda."

That brings me to another good comment. Upon arrival to the school, a student came up to Mark Davis and asked him what he needed to eat to get like that, pointing at his belly. Hilarious! At least three people have told me that I've gotten fat since last year. I guess it's time to start running because breaking the boda boda was just evidence that it's time to get back into shape.

Last night, the child that Grayson's sister sponsors just came into our place and sat down with her cousin. To our knowledge neither of us invited her. However, she just sat there. We talked to her a little, but she's really quiet. We took some pictures and then after about hour Grayson started giving me a weird look like, "What should I do?" So I said we needed to go down to get dinner. Finally, she left with us. Then as we were walking around downstairs, she said to me that someone told her that we needed to take her portrait. So I told Grayson and we laughed. I guess that's the reason she was hanging out, but we knew nothing about that. We went up and took her picture and left again so she wouldn't stay for another hour.

This morning as we returned from church, we were walking with Patrick. When we told him that Grayson was 17 and going to university in the fall, He said something about him being so small and not mature. He could get kidnapped or abducted because he was not big enough to protect himself. I guess most students don't attend university until in their 20's. He said that even if a young person graduated no one would give him a job if he was so young.

Lastly and probably the most hilarious time since being here...today, we went to take pictures of some of the homes of students at God Cares. When we went to one home, Grayson walked aroung taking pictures while Worship, Namitala, Joanita and I sat and waited. All of a sudden, we heard a bunch of people cracking up. We came to find out that they went to show Grayson the bathroom to take pictures of it. As he walked around the wall to the bathroom, there was  girl squatting. Everyone was giving him a hard time all the way back to God Cares!!!

The First Week

I apologize to everyone that I have not been able to blog in a very long time. There are many reasons including lack of an internet connection where I stay, the presence of the team of friends from Calvary and busyness with many things. I am beginning to get settled in my little place. I'm not sure really how to refer to it. It's not really an apartment, not really a guest house, but they refer to it as a guest house. Yesterday, we purchased a dresser and a desk for my room. That along with the refrigerator, stove and cabinets put the house closer to being completed. In addition, Robert installed a mirror and some other things in the bathroom. Finally, there is warm water to use to take showers. There are only a few things left to complete the place. Most importantly, I have internet access in my place now...guess how fast it is...64K/s. Archaic.

So let me give you an update on some of the highlights of our time here in Uganda. The team of 8 that I was a member arrived in Entebbe, Uganda on July 2, 2008 to a warm greeting by Pastor Dongo and Samuel. Unfortunately, we were missing one bag. Luckily for me, it wasn't one of my 6 bags to move me out here. However, it was a critical bag in that it held art supplies that Tracey needed for the project to raise money for the children's camp later this year.

Dan Auten, Grayson Kemp, Ashley Cordero and I settled into my new place while David Dimas, Patty and Peter Gilette made their way to the first five star resort in Uganda, The Speke Hotel. This hotel is where many diplomats stay and there were many meetings and parties while they were there. This was the place I stayed on my first trip to Uganda. It is also one of the main reasons that I had to come back last summer. It doesn't feel like Uganda there.

Our first days, some of us spent time going to classes to gather information for each student while others spent it taking professional looking pictures of every student. All of this so that we can better inform our sponsors about every child in Buyamba. David had the opportunity to fulfill part of his dream of going to places that former missionaries to Uganda did their work. He was able to visit the church that Alexander Mackay started as well as the well and cave where he shared the gospel with the native people. He also went to the site of another missionary's death. (Hannington?) Dan, Grayson and I all contributed to purchase a special meal for the students at the primary school that included rice and beef or chicken.(Feeding 600 kids = $300) David on the other hand spoiled the children at the high school by purchasing soda for them. Students at both sites were extremely grateful for God's provision for them. Tracey was able to get some really beautiful artwork from the students at the school. (Stay tuned in future months to see how you can purchase some of their work!) We also got to see some interesting cultural dancing including a ceremonial dance for the circumcision of a boy indicating that he has become a man.

It has been a blessing to have this team escort me to my residence for the next 3 years. On Thursday, six of them left to return to the States. It was especially difficult to watch Ashley and Dan leave as Grayson and I had spent the past 10 days with them almost 24 hours a day. We have missed them in the past few days as our place seems empty without them. Dan would make us tea every morning after cuddling up on the bed with his blanket with red hearts all over it. Ashley was like a little sister. I watched over her everywhere we went. What a blessing to have such loving friends see me off to begin this new adventure that I have embarked on.

A second team has also been here in Uganda during our stay. This team consisted of many students from my days as a youth leader in Middle and High School Ministry at Calvary. Their trip was the reason that I moved up my departure date to the beginning of July from the middle of July. I wanted to be blessed to be around them during my first few weeks in Uganda. I can tell you that I didn't make a mistake in this decision. I have been blessed to be able to spend time with them, serve with them, but most of all eat meals and fellowship with them. Our favorite by far was Fang Fangs. Who knew that there would be such amazing Chinese food in Uganda. Not cheap, but well worth the price for a splurge every once in a while! We would visit them at night after dinner and play games, and and just generally mess around. I will never forget Thomas (Reiten) saying "Yes, please" on the phone...hilarious! This team departed yesterday. They blessed me with their love, their laughter, their notes, their tears (when they left), but most of all, my former Bible study blessed me with a going-away "TPing". They TP'd my mosquito net and bed before they left. You may wonder why...I just know that it's a sign of their love for me!(There's also a literal message of their love - see the close up on the bottom left!) I'm going to miss seeing them every week.

Grayson is still here and we're planning to take some adventures, but who knows what those will be at this point as the safari we were planning on is booked next week. Stay tuned...

Arrived Safely

I just wanted to let everyone know that I have arrived safely with the team here in Uganda. I have been journaling the first few days, but have not had access in my house yet so it's difficult to post them. I am at the internet cafe today for a few more minutes. I miss you all. Remember there is a 10 hour time difference between CA and Uganda. That being said...incoming calls are free...my phone # is 011-256-077-578-7489. You might not need the 0 before "77" I'm not sure. I miss you all.

Darren