Technically I’m within a month… my promise has been kept! ☺ I’m a bit pathetic, I know. I have a lot to update you on these days. First and foremost, my birthday is in 3 weeks! Chamuka!! Yes, that’s twenty-one days, which means that you better get mailing!
Yes, I said mailing, which means no, I’m not going to be able to come home for Christmas like I had hoped. It just didn’t work out financially, but please believe me when I say I’m heart broken that I won’t get to see all of you. It would have been a nice refresher for me, but alas life goes on. I’ll be spending Christmas with people I love and that’s all that matters right? It’s amazing how God brings the right people into our lives at the right times. It is going to be very difficult for me to be away, but I’m lucky to have great friends here.
Another Lino update is in order. He came back to school a couple days two weeks ago, much sooner than we expected. Then last Monday (Dec 1) Lino was in class and things got bad again. Luckily we got him home before he got too bad. He spent that day not remembering much of anything or anyone. It was so sad because the day before I took him and his brother to a pool and he seemed just fine. So anyways, Tuesday he woke up remembering again, but they took him to the doctor where he got new medicine. It is medicine for seizures, but no he’s been sick to his stomach and fainting a few times a day. It’s a very serious and scary situation. I’ve been lucky to be able to make the time to spend with him, but it’s heart breaking some days. He’s just so very depressed. Please be remembering Lino in your prayers. He is currently in Mbale, which is where there are some specialists. He’ll be getting a new CAT scan, an EEG, and a bunch of other tests. Pray that they find something and are able to treat him. Pray that he is cooperative with the doctors. I just want my buddy, Lino back.
Needless to say, I’ve still been really busy. The Christmas program at school was last week, so we spent much of the week preparing for that. I mainly helped with the choir, teaching them harmony with Francis, and doing some technical stuff during the program. Our WGM weekend-o-meetings was a long weekend! There was some fun mixed in with the meetings, but it was a bit tedious nonetheless. We were able to celebrate thanksgiving as a field and that was really nice. Our Arua team was down here and I’ve really grown to love them.
Speaking of Arua, Nick is heading up to finish his time in Uganda there, so I’ll say bye to him in a couple of weeks. Also, Billy and Joanna have invited me to come up to Arua for Christmas so that’s something I’m still considering at this point. Billy travels into Sudan a lot and much of his ministry is there. One of the missionaries here has offered to fund a trip for me to travel to Juba in Sudan with Billy and probably Nick to check out some ministry possibilities up there. I don’t know many of the details, but I know I’ve been called to youth ministry and Juba is the place where I’ll be able to work with youth. There’s a university that Billy works with and he loves the students there, so that’s a possibility. WGM has just, within the past month opened a new field in Sudan, so it is very possible for me to return to Africa after this trip and work with the youth there. It’s an exciting prospect and one that will require lots of prayer because of the situations going on in Southern Sudan, but at this point I would love to minister up there. I’m also praying about the Congo, but at this point no mission organization will send a single white woman in there. WGM doesn’t have a field set up there yet either, but there’s a good chance of it in the very near future. The Congo is even more unsettled than Sudan, so I’m thinking I need to consider that a bit more.
Teaching continues to be a challenge and it’s definitely not something I’d want to do for the rest of my life, but it seems to be becoming more comfortable. By that I mean, I can come to school on a Monday morning and plan lessons in about 5 minutes for the whole day. It’s a very nice thing… maybe not the best way to do it, but it works. I’m really starting to look forward to teaching the high school class three times a week next semester. It’s called “School of Rock.” Yeah like the movie and yeah, I’m just that cool. Last time I updated I wrote about what it will entail so you can check it out there.
I’ve said this before, but my time here is just flying. I have days when time drags on and it seems like I’ll never get to see you guys again, but most days when I get home it’s usually after 8pm and I wonder where the day has gone. I am almost halfway done with my time here… yikes!
I must say that I’m a bit jealous of the cold weather ya’ll are experiencing right now. It’s so darn HOT here right now. I mean HOT. Yesterday was a Muslim holiday so we had no school (a total blessing) so we went to the pool and hit the craft markets to get Christmas gifts for ya’ll. The pool was nice because at least we could cool off, but the craft markets were insanely hot. Even the locals were saying how hot it was. My skin is going to be as dark as Lino’s by the time I come home, I swear! I don’t think I’ve ever been this dark in December. ☺
Something I’m sure you’ve all been wondering is how I’m surviving with all the giant bugs. Well to be honest I’ve not been too bothered by them because they tend to run/fly/creep the other way. BUT last night I was relaxing and watching the latest episode of the Office (which only took 7 hours to download by the way!!) when right under my front door crept a cockroach the size of a bird! I’m not exaggerating. I immediately jumped up and ran out of the room screaming like I was being shot at or something. My roommate was able to sweep it out of the house, but of course after something like that I was jumpy and a bit freaked out!! So a few minutes later when the episode was over I went to the bathroom only to be greeted by a giant spider! So of course it was over the doorway and I couldn’t leave because it may have drop on me. When I screamed it did drop! And then it proceeded to charge me. Luckily I had put shoes and socks on because I was scared the roach was going to come back, so I jumped on the toilet and ran screaming from the bathroom. Once again my roommate went in to do control… well she couldn’t find it. So naturally I thought it was on me. She had to do a complete check of me before I could even move. When she didn’t find it on me she searched the bathroom again and found it hanging out behind the garbage can. She was able to dispose of it for me, but I was already so creeped out that I couldn’t relax. Yeah, it was Tylenol PM night last night.
I can just see some of your faces and hear your laughter as you read these words, but truly it was awful! I’m told that the roaches are coming out because of the rainy season. I might add that the “rainy season” is just as dry as the other seasons, so I’m not sure I’d call this the rainy season. When it rains some days around noon, it down pours for maybe a half hour to an hour and then the sun comes back out creating a sauna on earth, and crazy, frizzy hair for me. It’s just a lovely sight. Maybe I should get my hair braided, what do you think?
My hope is to get prayer letters out to you all by the end of this month. You should be receiving them in January… I hope. It should include some pictures and give you a good idea of my life here.
I realize that I haven’t done a good job of letting you know what my daily life is like here so I’m going to try to do that right now. Before I do though I would encourage worriers not to read on (Mom and Dad) because it may seem like I’m unsafe, but I have never felt like I was in danger. Let’s start with the driving. I share a car with my roommate and with Nick. We drive on the left side of the road, or whichever side has fewer cars at that particular time. It’s kind of a free for all, meaning as long as you’re not holding up traffic you can go anywhere. Now, technically there are laws, but they are generally not enforced unless you’re a Mzungu (white). If you’re white you tend to get pulled over a bit more than the Africans because the assumption is that we can afford to pay high penalties. The system of law is quite corrupt. Cops ask for bribes when you’re pulled over and sadly, most of the time it is easier to bribe the police than handle all the hoops you’d have to jump through if you go to the “station.” Now, the roads are another story. Much of the time you’re being thrown about your car because the “roads” are crazy. In fact the road I live on is one of the worst around. Don’t drive here if you have back problems! Driving stick shift here can be a bit of challenge thanks to the steep hills and crazy bumps. It is a bad idea to stop on a steep hill to let others coming the other direction pass (because the road isn’t wide enough for 2 vehicles) because chances are you’re going to roll back down the hill. Some of the hills really do force you to use the emergency brake in order to make it up them. The cops have a tendency to make traffic ten times worse than it should be because when they “direct” traffic it just doesn’t make sense.
As far as language goes, there is not a huge barrier here in Kampala, but when we go out to the villages it’s much more of challenge. Something I learned a few weeks ago is that the word poop is VERY offensive. One of the Ugandan teachers at the school had a baby and brought him in during our last staff meeting I was holding him when all of a sudden it was very evident that he needed a diaper change. So I said, “I think he pooped.” Immediately all of the Ugandan teachers were cracking up. Apparently poop is the equivalent of the “s” word in America. Oops. In fact saying the “s” word is very acceptable and encouraged here. Other than that I’m a little sad that I’ve not made more of an effort to learn more Luganda or Swahili. I know a few things here and there, but I really need to be better about learning.
I know I’ve written about the roads and the amber dirt that makes up the roads, but the roads are really pretty when they’re wet. They’re slippery and dangerous, yes, but pretty. It is actually against the law to splash people when you’re driving… so even if it’s an accident you could be chased and fined. The problem is there is a pothole every few feet, so it is impossible not to make a little bit of a splash. Flat tires are a common thing here thanks to the roads. We have had one flat tire in our car, which is amazing considering how crazy the roads are.
I live in what we call a compound. There are four apartments total in our compound. We are fenced in by a huge brick/cement wall that goes all the way around the compound and there’s a gate with an entrance big enough for a vehicle. There is also a “doggy door” in which you can go in and out of without the guard opening it. There is supposed to be a guard on all compounds for WGMers because realistically mzungus are singled out and are a target for robberies. Most mzungus in Uganda have a guard. There is a guard shack on our compound and our guard is here 24/7. Well he’s supposed to be here 24/7… recently he has been in and out and now his 3 year old son is living with him, so he’s a bit preoccupied. I spoke up to WGM because people on the street have seen us having to let ourselves in and out of the gate at night numerous times without a guard… in other words we’re white, we have money, and we’re open game. Now we have a guard that WGM pays who comes from 7pm to 7am, which has been a bit of a relief.
Something that took me a very long time to get used to is having “house help.” Susan is a very trusted Ugandan woman who comes to our apartment on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She comes to clean, do our laundry, and wash our dishes. She washes our clothes by hand and then hangs them on a line to dry. She makes our beds, cleans the bathroom, mops the floors, and even washes our fruit for us. When I first got here I was VERY uncomfortable with this because I did not come to be served by a Ugandan, I came to serve. However I’m learning more and more everyday how much these Ugandans need the jobs we provide. I still don’t like it because I feel like a total snob, but even Ugandans who are a bit better off have house helpers. It is considered rude and arrogant if you don’t have someone helping out. The Ugandans see it as a way to make money. It’s very interesting to me. Susan is sweet and we haven’t had many issues with her at all. She even “Doomed” (it’s the brand of bug spray here) my mattress for me because I was getting all kinds of crazy bug bites on my back and stomach for no reason. They would just appear when I woke up and they were itchy! They’re gone now though, no worries. ☺
Right now that’s about all I can think of and I think you guys have enough to read for now. I love you all and think of you often. Please be in touch friends.
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