Dongo returns

So it seems that I'm not very good at keeping this journal/blog up to date. Maybe because I just wonder sometimes if anyone reads the nonsense that I post. Well, I guess I just can't worry about that and just keep posting as i feel led. I am going to try to get a post every few days. Maybe someone will help to remind me to do that.

It has been somewhat quiet with Pastor Dongo gone in the US. Ismail told me that it has been almost a month while I was thinking it was only about three weeks. A month! No wonder I'm bored. The one person who checks on me constantly and drags me to at least a quarter of the places he goes was gone for a month! No wonder I felt lost with too much time on my hands. However, just as I'm getting used to him being gone and finding ways to be productive on my own, Pastor Dongo returns in about 2 hours. I can't lie, I missed him a lot. He is very much my dad here in Uganda. But tomorrow I will hear those familiar words...."Darren, Darren...what are you doing?" It will be a blessing, I love this man who has such a heart of a servant, a heart of a father, a desire to see that the kids here in Uganda have a hope and a future.

On a side note, Pastor Dongo's trip has been reported as a huge success. Although he did not speak at any churches (that I know of), he was able to make valuable connections with people in Northern California. In fact, there were almost 100 children sponsored on his visit to California and Texas...Praise God. I don't think there has been any trip that I know of where that many children were sponsored. Thank you to the faithful people who were praying for Dongo's trip. However, we still need over 100 children to be sponsored for this year and even more as we bring in new students to the nursery section of the school in 2009.

Missing the US

So inevitably this was going to happen. I knew that at some point I would miss the US and question why I came to Uganda. I think the most difficult part of being here is being away from friends and family. As a result, days and nights can lack the excitement and fun that I experienced every week in the US. Although I know many people in Uganda, they don't have the means to go and do fun stuff every once in a while. If I want to go out most of the time I can take someone knowing that they cannot pay for themselves. That obviously limits where you can go and how often you can go. Most of the time I can't even hang out at my place with the kids who are boarded at the school because they have a strict schedule. They eat at 6pm followed by studies at 7 pm and prayers/praise & worship at 8:30. Their bedtime is 10 pm. Doesn't allow for social time. So I'm bored and was a little depressed for a while.

However, this time has given me the opportunity to thank God for all that He has done for me these last few years. I have awesome friends in the US and family that loves me very much (even adopted families). I know that He even has a purpose for me here beyond what I can visualize. I had to kind of kick myself in the pants this week as I began to get super lazy and not do anything. Now I am really seeking the Lord and not allowing Satan to put doubt in my head. I know that He is all I need to sustain me through my time here in Uganda.

Please don't feel sorry for me. That's not the purpose of this post. However, do pray for me as I seek Him and He changes me. It would be a good time when I return if people ask "What happened to you in Uganda?" "Why are you so different now?" Hopefully I can be changed as God molds me and shapes me in His image and I choose to be obedient to His call.

The Car Game

So seeing as I now have been driving for a while I wanted to account for all the mishaps to my van so far. I thought it would be fun to play a game of who has inflicted more damage to the van. Obviously I'm contestant #1 and if you hadn't already guessed, Pastor Dongo is contestant #2. Well, let's get this game underway...First I need to explain the scoring. Any mishap resulting in no visible damage to the car is worth 1 point whereas visible damage can score anywhere from 5 - 10 points depending on severity.

So when I received the car, I took my first trip to Pastor Dongo's house. Actually, I took Glory for ice cream for his birthday and were driving them back to the house. Let's just say the road to the house wasn't the most "van-friendly". I had been there before in Dongo's car as a passenger without any problems so I thought...no problem, it should be a breeze. The first part was easy, but then...as we got closer to the top of the hill....BANG...bottomed out once...BANG... and again...BANG...I was a little embarassed it being within my first few driving adventures in Uganda. Score - Darren 3, Dongo 0

Second day of having the car, I had to drive to pick up a visitor at the local hotel. She was going home later that day so I needed to pick her up and all of her luggage and get her to the school so she could meet one of the kids her friend sponsors. I got up the hill fine, but as I turned to go down the hill, they had been working on the road. There were some rocks there to block off part of the road that they were working on grading. And on the other side was a man walking. I thought that I had plenty of room on the side with the rocks and obviously didn't want to hit the man. I ran over one of the rocks and.....PPPSSSSSTTTTTT (actually it didn't that long, but was pretty quick)...blew the left front tire. Luckily I was almost at the hotel and was able to roll in and park there. Oh and by the way...found out that not all the things we needed to jack the car up and release the spare tire underneath were present...joy of buying a used car in Uganda. Fortunately for me, we were planning to buy new tires anyway as three of them were one size and one was a different size! Score - Darren 8, Dongo 0 (I would have given more points if we weren't planning to buy new tires!)

A few days later, Pastor Dongo and I had to drive to his village to take pictures of kids that were sponsored there. He asked if I wanted to drive, but I told him he could drive my car. We were cruising around when a big truck came the other way and spit up a rock or something toward us. I watched as I saw this object in slow motion approaching the windshield. Then...CRACK. No big deal...but wait now there's a crack in the windshield. not just one of those pebble sized cracks, but one of those with cracks moving outward, although they were less than 1 in long each. Score - Darren 8, Dongo 6

When the visitors came in from the US, we went to the bush every day with Pastor driving the van. On the first day, we had just reached town and were going on a roundabout when all of us felt something bang and push the back of the van. We looked out the back to see a taxi driver looking at our van yet continuing on his route to a different exit of the roundabout. Pastor didn't even flinch. We thought that he just ignored it and didn't think it was a big deal...later we come to find out that he didn't even know that someone had hit the car. Score - Dongo 13, Darren 8

On that same drive to the bush, we ran into some of the worst conditions for road that I had seen. Pastor was doing a good job of manuevering around the large valleys caused by rain, but then KABONG. followed by a screeeeeeeeeeccccccccccc. One of the visitors said "the tire came off" I about pooped in my pants trying to figure out how that happened. You guessed it, the spare tire came out and the thing that held the tire there was dragging on the ground. After some time and what we thought was some MacGyver intervention by Pastor Howard, We got the tire and place and were on our way...until we bottomed out again and the tire came loose again. We decided to put the tire in the van and fix it when we got to the bush! Score Dongo 23, Darren 8...here's where I'm being kind with scoring because I think it got fixed in the bush only to happen again on the way back to Kampala.

Well, I'm no going to say I'm a better driver than Dongo, but let's just say one of our visitors enjoyed being in my car when I was driving rather than Pastor! Let the score speak for itself. If anyone thinks my scoring is unfair or biased in any way please comment and I'll make adjustments accordingly.

Missing in Action

Where has Darren been for the last three weeks? Missing? Not really...more like busy for one week hosting visitors from Connecticut followed by a five day blackout in the area of the school. So what have I been up to. Really not much.

I taught my first math class two weeks ago. I think it might have been the most uncomfortable I have ever felt as a teacher. For those of you who teach, it was like having an administrator or accreditation watching you. The biggest issue was not knowing their previous knowledge coupled with the language barrier. You might be saying "I thought they speak English in Uganda". They do! However, our every day words aren't the same as used here, or their pronunciation of words is different. I learned a lot about myself as a teacher from that short session. I also learned how gifted you need to teach here. No books so they rely completely on your ability to give them good instruction. I'm sure I'll give it a go again soon.

As I said we had visitors from Connecticut beginning two weeks ago now...they actually left on the past Monday. They are known in the states as the Bethel Bunch...well, not really, but they are from Bethel Christian Church. The team consisted of 7 members including the pastor of the church. For the first few days of their visit, they ministered to people in the bush. They actually went to 3 different villages to encourage the pastors and members of those churches. They shared the Word of God and blessed the people so much. I too was blessed by their visit. We had plenty of time to connect during those 1-2 hour drives into the bush. Hopefully some life long friends/brothers & sisters in Christ. If they are reading this, thank you so much for the love you showed me during your visit. Come back soon!!!

So as you can see...not much to write about...but I do have a wireless router in my room now so I can sit in bed and work on the internet. Stay tuned...I have a new topic to write about for tomorrow...

Jinja & the Bush...& a chicken?

Early on Friday morning, Thanx and I embarked on a trip to visit his mom's village. The task...to take pictures of sponsored and unsponsored kids in the village. We left Kampala around 6 am and arrived in Jinja to pick up his two aunts who knew how to get to the village. Thanx had never been to his mom's village before this trip. We actually ended up taking four people with us: Mom Olive, Mom Irene, and cousins Ben and Paul. I learned that in Ugandan culture, there really aren't any aunts and uncles. They are all called mom or dad instead. Therefore when talking to kids it's important to distinguish between their birth parents and other parents that are just relatives. About halfway through our trip (on a paved road), we stopped to buy some things to bring to the village: rice, matooke (banana), sugar, soap, and meat. I really didn't know how far we were on our trip at this point. But I soon found out that the rest of the trip would be on dirt roads. Take into consideration that I'm driving my "new" van and don't have much experience with driving in Uganda. They warned me that the roads may be a bit tricky. We were cruising along, when I began to see large patches of mud. Really, that wasn't the problem. I have driven through snow storms etc. with 4WD vehicles before. The tricky part was that the road wasn't much wider than the van...on each side...swamp. Luckily, I worked together with Paul helping to direct me through the best way to drive through the mud. We didn't have any problems, but it was a bit tricky and took us another 90 minutes to get from the main road to the village. However, we arrived safely and were warmly greeted by everyone. I was able to meet Daddy Ananias (Florence's birth father), Daddy Joel, and Daddy Andrew, but the blessing was being able to meet Florence's 99 year old grandmother. We took pictures of the kids and waited for lunch. In the meantime, one of the mom's of the kids we took pictures of came back and gave me a chicken.Wow! I didn't really know what to say. i was completely honored. Now I have my first pet...the lady's name was Mrs. Suubi so I named the chicken Suubi. I don't yet have a place for the chicken, so it's at the Dongo house...hopefully they don't mistakenly eat it. Thanx called me today to tell me that the chicken laid an egg. To me, eggs over the course of the week are more valuable than one meal of meat from my new friend.

After returning to Jinja from the village, we went to meet with a friend of ours. His name is Emma and he works at the YWAM base in Jinja. Thanx knows him from his DTS earlier this year and I met him through Thanx and the Williams family back home. Emma is one of the most amazing men I have met in my life. He is a true warrior for the Lord. A man who values Jesus more than any worldly riches. Upon arriving at the base at about 7:30 pm, we sat and talked for a good three hours. I can't believe I stayed up that long, but his company was just too valuable to miss out on. The next day we toured (really just walked the streets) of Jinja which is pretty small, and talked much more. Emma is from Tanzania and we spent time trying to plan a trip to his homeland. November looks good...stay tuned!

Minivan

So on Saturday upon return from the camp, Pastor Dongo was able to pick up my new ride. Not as shnazzy as my pimped out VW Passat at home that Grayson Kemp now enjoys, but it's transportation for me and "my family". Yes, it's a minvan. I'm not one of those who's said, "I'll only get a minivan on my death bed" However, I never really expected to ever own one. After all, I'm single with no end of that in sight. What do I need a minivan for. But I find myself in a situation where I am a surrogate father to many of the children at God Cares School. The four boys and I here joke that I'm "dad" to them. And as much as that is a joke, there is some reality to it. To my knowledge, three of the boys do not have fathers and the other has a father who has pretty much disowned him. They have been living here at the school with me over the past 3 weeks and we pretty much do everything together. Sunday, we were able to drive to church instead of walk or wait for someone to pick us up. Amazing. Hopefully having a car won't make me lazy. I still find the need to walk to places close and only drive when there is a purpose beyond just a few people.

However, driving in Uganda as you know can be hazardous. I've had some problems in my first days of driving my own car. Previously I had driven an SUV around. They are somehow made for these types of roads whereas my vehicle is not in many ways. As a minivan, the engine resides underneath the car. That means...low clearance even though you seem high up when in the vehicle. I bottomed out at least 8 times going to Pastor Dongo's house the second day of having the car. On the third day, I was scheduled to pick up a visitor from her hotel so that we could put her luggage at the school for the day. I have driven these roads plenty of times. However, they are in the process of fixing the road and had somebig rocks in place to keep you from going where they didn't want you to drive. There was a man walking on the road and I kind of went wide around him and in the process ran over a rock which turned around and bit my tire! Death to the tire! Luckily I was close to the hotel, so I pulled up into the parking lot to fix it. Guess what? Used car = not all the parts to jack up the car and change the tire! So I called Pastor to help. In addition, some men from the hotel came to help as well. People are so friendly and helpful here in Uganda. The good news is we were planning to get new tires anyway so now there are five new tires! I'm a little worried about getting back on the saddle though after those first two rough days! I'll let you know what happens!

Camp

So yesterday afternoon we returned from the camp. We had expected about 650 students ages 8 to early 20's. However, we ended up with 788 students total. Talk about sticking a monkey wrench into your planning. We ran short of food on the first night and lacked enough beds for all of the students. Panic settled in and we had to return to God Cares School to pick up more mattresses for those lacking them. Although I went to be around midnight, I know that other people such as Pastor Dongo and Aunt Harriett did not go to sleep until after 2 am. Such is life in Uganda. You might be wondering why our numbers didn't match with the amount that attended the camp. Well in fact, only about 400+ students actually registered for the camp. The remaining just showed up on the day of the camp at the school. Imagine your youth group being ready to take even 50 students and then 80 showed up. In the US we would send them home because they didn't register in time, but here in our ministry, the camp is like Christmas for the kids (a statement that Pastor Dongo made). So how could we possibly turn away students.

The rest of the camp ran pretty smoothly. I don't know exactly how we served 788 people three meals a day without a hitch. And the fact of the matter is, we weren't just serving posho and beans. These kids were eating in luxury with matooke (banana) and meat every night. Otherwise camp was much like any other summer camp you might have been to. There were morning prayers, followed by breakfast. Praise and worship followed breakfast and then lessons were taught until lunch. After lunch the youth had small group discussions and then everyone went for games. I was blessed to be able to play basketball for the first time since leaving the US. Well, it wasn't the prettiest basketball that you've seen, but I got to run around and have fun with the youth. Following dinner, we showed movies or had other entertainment.

I don't know how the teaching went for the children as I was working with the youth, but our speakers were fantastic. They challenged them to discipline themselves and to look to the reward (Hebrews 11:26) that they will receive from the Lord. I think maybe 10 youth dedicated their lives to Christ at one session, but many lives were changed. The most significant was a boy named Ezra. Last year, Ezra, who is like a class clown, was sent home for being a trouble maker. However, this year, you could find him serving etc. and he made a commitment to Christ. Our God is Awesome and you can see the difference that Buyamba makes in the lives of these children.