The Introvert

So one of the biggest things that I have been reminded as I am here in Uganda is that I am very much an introvert at heart. Take for example tonight. It's Valentine's Day (or as I like to call it...everyone's favorite Hallmark holiday or See's candies favorite holiday...anyway I digress). I am content at being here at home by myself much like every other night spent in Uganda.  Well technically, I live with about 160 students here at the school, but I can choose to be with them or just hang out in my guest house. Most of the time I choose to be in the guest house. So for my special night, I prepared matooke and g-nut sauce for my supper. Of course I had to have a Mirinda Pineapple (thanks Michael for introducing me to my new favorite drink here) with it. After supper, I played Wii (by myself) for about an hour. Then I took a shower, and now I'm writing this just before I will watch the newest episodes of Lost and The Office. Looks like the perfect night for me. I'm content with that.

On the other hand, my counterpart, Ashleigh who is here working at the school as well, went home and got ready to go to a wedding reception with one of the Ugandans from church. She was pretty excited. All I could think of was how I could be stuck there for hours with tons of people that I didn't know and many of which I could not communicate with. I mean I don't really much care for parties when I'm at home in the US unless I know a significant number of people there that will make it less awkward for me.

Don't get me wrong, I love hanging out with friends and family. And many of you would disagree that I am an introvert becuase I am so comfortable around you that I'm not really introverted at those times. However, I've seen it in me more and more during my stay here in Uganda. There are numerous opportunities to do things with other ex-patriots here, but often I choose to stay home and just hang out...me and my best friend, my computer. Some of you might be thinking how sad that is, but until God provides the right woman for me, I'd rather hang out with my computer...

Ugandan Food

This week was an eventful week as far as food was concerned. I've been yearning to learn how to make some Ugandan food since I've been here, but there were unfulfilled promises made by one of pastors' daughters for many months. Now I have a few new friends who were able to teach me to make some different foods. I was blessed by the mom of one of the boarding students with bananas for making matooke. The problem...I didn't know how to peel or prepare the matooke. My friends Brian and Thanx helped me to learn to prepare the matooke with meat. Although I'm not proficient in peeling the bananas, I was able to do it. Cooking it was super easy. The problem...after that meal, I still had over half of the bananas left (even after feeding 4 of us for lunch). Next step...g-nut sauce. I was just waiting and waiting for a few days hoping someone would come to help me prepare g-nut sauce. Finally, Teacher Deborah who stays at the school decided she would come and show me to make the g-nut sauce. So tonight another feast of g-nut sauce and matooke. Did I mention that matooke is my favorite thing to eat here in Uganda? So I'm left with learning how to make chapati and then my life as a Ugandan cook will be fulfilled.

On a different note, I may have mentioned what I normally eat when I eat with the kids: posho and beans. So I was talking with Pastor Richard and Brian and they explained to me that years ago no one ate posho. I didn't really understand how it went from no one eating it to now everyone eating it. However, they told me that posho was so cheap that it wasn't considered food for people, but instead it was what they would feed the dogs. So basically every day I eat the equivalent to Purina puppy chow! Pretty exciting stuff. The scary part, I guess, is that I actaully enjoy it many days during the week. I think what really gets me is having the same meal over and over again. So if the Westmont team is reading this...get ready for dog food lunch!

Adult Conference and Clean Feet

So I've been back living in Uganda exactly 8 days. It really seems like I have been back for a few weeks, but it's only been 8 days. This week was a pretty stressful week in that there was an adult conference being held here at the school, Monday thru Friday. Now, I'm not sure how I can paint this picture, but there were about 300 people here every day with most of them staying the night at the school. During the day, they preached almost non-stop. Well, I guess they stopped for meals though the timing of those meals was much later than traditional (eating lunch at 3 and supper sometimes at 9) In between those meals...preaching. Now if you don't know what it's like in other countries, they get a huge soundsystem and then blast it. They even had an outdoor speaker which made it sound somewhat like the Muslim prayer call at times. In the mornings, they would begin waking at 5:30. Not the screaming and yelling of children I am used to but instead a choir of babies crying as many mothers brought them to stay the night. I have a new appreciation for you new parents. All in all, we were blessed that they left Friday morning. Friday afternoon we basked in silence and praised the Lord for it!

So let's return to the fact that I've only been back 8 days. In all honesty, I had missed a part of the US that I think I never really appreciated until now: clean feet. For those that know me, they know I love my rainbow sandals and will wear them even when it's snowing outside in Tahoe. But I took a good look at my clean feet as we touched down on that airplane a week ago...and waved goodbye to that idea. You see here in Uganda, dust is everywhere. For someone suffering from a little OCD, that could do you in. For me, I am just reminded that much of the time I need to be a two shower a day kind of person at minimum. So there can be times that I take a shower, wipe off my feet and walk around my place for an hour only to find brown feet that are well on their way to the potential of being black. This picture doesn't do my feet justice. Because of the flash, it doesn't look like my feet are very dirty, but they are semi-black. Anyway, I can't help but think of the disciples when Jesus washed their feet. They had probably walked on streets such as I encounter every day, but for many consecutive days. Their feet and even legs were probably filthy. Yet Jesus got down and washed their filthy feet. I can only hope to be such a servant as i do my work here in Uganda. So clean feet, I bid you adieu until June when I will scrub and scrub and embrace you again for a week, but until I will use my dirty feet to remind me that I came here to serve as Jesus did.

Back to Uganda

So many of you know that I've been in the States for the last 6 weeks or so. I had an incredible time visiting family and friends. I traveled to SoCal, the Bay Area, Reno, Sacramento and many other towns in California. Six weeks sounds like a long time and it certainly felt like a long time. Honesty I was ready to return to Uganda after about 4 weeks.However, I regret that I didn't get to spend time with everyone that I wanted to. So to those that I was not able to spend time with and give you an update, I apologize. It was my heart's desire to see everyone. The problem: everyone is busy!!! There are just so many meals available in 6 weeks and only a select few that work for the schedules of both parties. Unfortunately, I may not get face to face time with many of you over the next 18 months. Although I will be back in June, it will be a very short visit only to see a few high schoolers graduate. So please keep in touch over email, facebook, skype, or whatever other means of communication possible. Thank you all for your love, prayers and support of the mission God has given me in Uganda.

To those who I was able to spend time with, thank you so much for taking care of me during my stay in the States. I am so blessed to have friends and family that love me so much. Many of you have become better friends during my time at home and I hope that distance will not separate the bonds that have been made. To my adoped family (the Aherns), I never realized how much I am a member of the family until I came back this time for a visit. I love you all so much and was heartbroken to have to leave that behind. Thank you for giving me a better picture of how much God loves me unconditionally. I will miss you the most. Thanks to my mom for being so generous and allowing me to use her car during my time in the States. You are a blessing from God.

I'll end with this. I have heard that so many of you enjoy reading my blogs. I had no idea. I'll try to write more so you can keep track of all the trouble I'm getting myself into. God Bless you all and I pray that 2009 will be full of His blessings.

Basketball in Uganda

For a while now I have been asking for one of the Dongo children to take me to a basketball game in Uganda. Since no one really helped me out with that, I had to find out myself when and where the games were held. I saw in the newspaper that there was a game on Wednesday in Lugogo. Although I knew where Lugogo is, I didn't know where in Lugogo the games were being held. I asked Thanx to research that and that I would take him to watch a game. So he figured it out from some friends and we went.

I really didn't know what to expect for basketball in Uganda. I had been told that some high schools had teams, and they were good. I didn't really believe them knowing that athletics in schools here is much different than in the US. Teams do no practice daily in Uganda. Ezra Dongo's soccer team might just practice on the weekends. Very different from the craziness in the US, but at the same time it's difficult to develop skills without practice. I had also played with some kids here and first of all there were very few who played and second, the ones who did weren't able to do much.

The first game we arrived for was the ladies matchup between Kampala International University (KIU which is just down the road from God Cares School) and Uganda Christian University (UCU). As I watched them get ready for the game, I realized that these girls can't shoot, but they are much more athletic than many of the girls I've coached. But after watching that game, I came to the conclusion that our Oaks Christian girls teams over the years would destroy these teams. They don't really have offensive sets and play a soft zone defense. While I was watching two American couples sat next to me. One of them was obviously a coach so I struck up a conversation with him. He ended up being the mens basketball coach at UCU. He told me that the players in Uganda were very gifted, but lazy and wondered what my take on their game would be. He also said most shots were layups or threes. Keep in mind that they have the international 3 out here.

So as the UCU Canons and the Sadolin Power warmed up, I watched intently. I noticed first that almost everyone out there warmed up by attempting and/or completing crazy dunks. Already something I'm not used to because high school teams in the US are not allowed to dunk in warmups. Then as I watched them even shoot free throws, I saw poor form and many bricks. (I could have built the whole God Cares High School if I could have collected them!) Finally the game began. There was no rhyme or reason to the offense for each team. It was one on one basketball much like "Street Ball" or "And1 Mixtape" without the flashy dribbling. I think the Power must have shot about 80 threes and made about 10 at most. And when the center for UCU dunked, he danced all the way back to the other side of the court. I have to say I was very entertained and the UCU Canons won a close game.

I'm glad I got to watch the game and dreamed of what it would look like with some discipline and increase in practice time. I was hoping that UCU Canons would win, but the playoff series is now tied at 1-1 because they got demolished Friday night so today I'm going again hoping that they can pull out a victory.

Thank God for the Free Gift

As you can see, I've again lost track of time in my blogs/journals. However, it has been a difficult task getting online these days. My internet service has continued to be shaky and I'm looking to possibly change service when I return from my trip to the states.

On a completely different note, let me log my some of my adventures over the past few weeks. As some of you know. Pastor Dongo's daughter was not accepted to any university to which she applied in Uganda. She was devastated to say the least as she loves her country and especially her family. However, mzungu to the rescue. One of my acquaintances in the US was visiting Uganda for a trip to Sudan with Pastor. When she found out that Worship did not get into any universities here, she offered to pay for two years of education at a city college near where she lives and be her adopted mom over this time. So the first daunting task was the test she had to take for showing her fluency in English. We didn't know what her scores needed to be, but by faith, I bought her a book and signed her up for the test. We were disappointed to find her results being low in reading due to the proctor suggesting that they don't "waste" time reading the passages, but just guess on the answers. We thought for sure that she would need to retake the test. However, Moorpark College had received her scores and accepted her for admission. The most intimidating task was then to go for her visa. There were many documents that we needed to obtain so we gathered what we could and made an appointment. On that day, Worship went to the appointment and came back telling me that she didn't have enough strong ties to US. That was the weirdest thing I had heard. A frenzy ensued as we looked for people in the US to write letters of recommendation for Worship. In the meantime, I sent an e-mail to the embassy asking for clarification and booked another appointment which by the way cost an additional $131 (the cost for each appointment). Why would she need strong ties to the US? The lady asked specifically for a letter from the person sponsoring Worship in the US. We received about 8 letters to support her stay to further her education. Then i emailed back and forth with the embassy a few times and they kept talking about "strong ties to Uganda" They must be crazy there seeing as we sent many documents showing what Pastor Dongo was doing in the states, but apparently the lady there refused to even look at them when Worship attempted to show her. So now panic mode changed into getting as much information to show that she would return to Uganda upon completion of her studies. The morning of the appointment, Pastor Dongo and I drafted a letter talking about his ministry, his family and all he is doing here in Uganda. Then Pastor asked me to escort Worship to the appointment. We thought that since I was a US citizen, they would let me wait in there for her. Instead, I was denied entrance to the embassy with her and even chased from the waiting area in front of the entrance. I waited and waited and waited in the car. Praying, praising, interceding. Finally, after almost 2 hours, I saw Worship approaching the car with a big grin and yelling "I got it!" What a relief.

Next story, we turn to the immigration building in Uganda. I had been planning a trip to Tanzania and knew that my visa was going to expire before I left for Tanzania. I wondered if I could just cross the border to Kenya with an expired visa, but the Christian man of integrity made me do the right thing and attempt to get an extension on my visa. So I prepared all the things that I might need for the visa. These were the same items I had to submit the first time around. However, a friend had inquired for me and said I didn't need any of those things for an extension. I knew that stories often change so I brought the materials anyway. I waited in the line and when I arrived at the front, the man asked for a letter from the place I was working with. I told him it was in the car. Then I specifically asked if that was ALL I needed. He agreed. I went to the car and came back, waited in line again, and gave him all my materials. Then he asked when was I leaving. I told him the date and he asked for proof. So again back to the car, wait in line, give him the materials. He asked where the NGO certificate was. I told him it was the one thing I didn't have and asked if I needed it. He just mumbled to himself something like I wish you had that. Then he told me to come back in 7 business days. So after that, I returned about a week and a half later. then the lady says she needs the NGO certificate. Now I'm only a week away from leaving. She tells me to come back in 3 days. Now I'm realizing that getting the visa before my scheduled date of departure might be impossible. So we tried to use connections to get help with the visa. You know how that panned out? With a lady asking for about $90 to speed up the process. That wasn't going to happen. The problem is that if I got my passport back 3 days later, it still wouldn't have an approved visa. You have to go to the bank to pay the fee for the visa then come back and they hold your passport for a few more days. So now to plan B. I should still be able to get my passport back, skip the visa processing and cross the border with an expired visa and deal with the repercussions. So I go to pick up the passport not there. Next day, not there. Third day not there. Now I only have 1 business day before I'm supposed to leave. Hopefully it will be there Monday because I can't even book the bus trip without the passport!

So there is a reason why I tell these two stories which by the way have more drama than can be said in this short blog. I was with pastor discussing Worship and my issues with the visa. He said, "Thank God eternal life is a free gift." Can you imagine if we had to do things to deserve our place in heaven as believers. I know I would fail miserably. That's why even through these little trials, I thank God because he has saved me from destruction. He has given me eternal life. He has made my broken spirit whole. If you don't know Jesus, He can do all of this for you as well. He loves you and cares about you. I hope you all know that!
 

Lake Victoria

So on Thursday of last week I was told that we were going for baptisms. The church has it set up that kids take a foundation class then are asked if they want to be baptized. So we prepared on Saturday to go to Lake Victoria. I was told the we were going to have an opportunity to swim for a little while. So I got out my swim trunks that were packed way back in my dresser and prepared for a new adventure.

We drove down toward Gaba then venturing off to Munyonyo...that's where the 5 star resort is here. It's a nice place, but how can you possibly come here to serve and stay at such a place? I've already asked to be forgiven of that sin as it is where I stayed my first visit...but it must be noted that I didn't make any of the plans or accomodations for that trip. Anyway, I digress. We pass there and go to a place where there was a gate to the beach we were going to. We were promptly met by a young man demanding 15000 shillings to enter; we gave him 10000. Then he disappeared somewhere... probably wasn't even connected to that land. Anyway, I digress again. We drove down to the beach where we found trucks being loaded with sand. Apparently small boats go to different islands to get sand to use on the mainland...interesting. Many of the kids began to change attire for going in the water. Was their a place to change...of course...the bushes...where else in Uganda. We went down and proceeded to watch kids get baptized. Hallelujah. I think about 40 were baptized. Awesome.

Now the fun part. I wanted to go swimming, but wasn't quite prepared for what I found. That water was more disgusting than the pond at Hume Lake and I NEVER go in the pond unless it's required during competition. You could see all kinds of nasties in the water. I wanted to swim, but at the risk of getting some crazy disease? I wavered. Finally, I gave in. Too bad few of those Ugandans can swim. There were a few small islands not too far away that I would have loved to swim to. Anyway, it was a fun time to see the kids get baptized and have fun in the water. Even traveling that far down the road is very unusual for them. (a few miles)

However, the story doesn't end there although I wish it would have. I'm not sure the incubation time of a virus that you contact in the water, but come Monday at 2am, pain in the stomach...gut wrenching pain. I thought I was going to pass out. Let's just say that I was in the bathroom a lot and didn't sleep from 2 until 7:15 am. At which time I got about an hour of sleep before someone came to ask me a question about something. Oh the joys and pains of swimming in Lake Victoria...maybe it wasn't from the lake, but I can't help but look at the timing and wonder!