Praising God for Colds & Delayed Flights

So this past week I’ve been in South Africa with a couple fellow staff ladies at a retreat for missionary women. As I type this, we’re in the air over Johannesburg on our way home to Kasana.

God’s timing is always so perfect – earlier this year when my friends started talking about this retreat, I thought it sounded like a good idea…..and then in the past couple months things have happened that have shown me just how much I really did need a time of renewal.

The past year has been filled with a lot of ups and downs—and for that matter so have the two years before that! Over the last few months, I’ve begun realizing that I’ve let those challenging circumstances affect me, putting layers of hardness around my heart.

On Sunday night when the retreat opened with a time of worship, we weren’t two lines into the first song before I had tears running down my face. I know without a doubt that people were praying over the retreat, because I felt the Holy Spirit honoring their prayers by breaking through the inner walls I had been allowing to build up.

God spoke to my heart that night more directly than I have felt Him speak in some time. Calling me to repentance—and reminding me of His forgiveness and love. That night I spent a chunk of time journaling it out so that I can remember and look back at it.

But I wasn’t feeling so well. Saturday as we had traveled to the retreat, I had felt myself coming down with a sore throat, which continued on Sunday. All day Monday, my nose was almost constantly running. And so while others went through Kleenex from crying, I was using them up to handle my cold.

I let myself be miserable about how I felt—wallowing in self-pity. Because I didn’t feel well, and I was annoyed about it. Justifiably so, right?

I made a comment to someone that day about how I was thankful for how God had been speaking to me during the retreat, but a bit apprehensive about whether the effect would “stick” after the ‘high’ of the retreat.

The next morning, I got up still feeling unwell—particularly because I hadn’t slept very soundly. As I was dragging around my room trying to get ready for the day, God gave me a much-needed slap in the face.

Our speaker for the retreat was talking about how we deal with suffering based on the book of Job. On Monday morning, she had talked about how people form different views of God in the face of suffering. Some become cynical, some think they know the answers, and others (like Job) choose to trust God’s sovereignty.

On Tuesday morning, the Holy Spirit showed me that I wasn’t having a very Job-like attitude. I was behaving selfishly, and letting my physical circumstance dictate my heart attitude. Which is the same choices that had kept me stuck in a pit of apathy for most of this year.

And so I had to again repent for my behavior. Even a silly little thing like a cold at an inconvenient time is NOT out of God’s purview!!! He allowed it for a reason—and my responsibility is not to mope and question why, but rather to accept it with thanksgiving and worship!

As I accepted that in my heart, the Holy Spirit filled my mind with verses from the Psalms and songs. I left my room singing worship to God. Because He totally changed the attitude of my heart!! Instead of being frustrated, I suddenly became thankful for the cold. It gave me just the practical test I needed to keep me humble and yet also show me how simple obedience really can be.

I told my small group this—and they could even see the difference in my face. Yes, I still felt a bit crummy—but when God turned my heart attitude around, that made a huge difference. And so I was able to enjoy the last two days of the retreat even more, as well as learning a valuable lesson in practical application!

Today my fellow staff member and I have had another test. We woke up at 3:30 this morning to go to their airport for our 6 a.m. flight (first of three) on the way back to Uganda. But, instead of leaving at 6 a.m., that flight didn’t take off until 11 a.m. (long story, believe me!!).

We were scheduled for a four-hour layover before the next flight—but obviously even that wasn’t long enough for a five-hour flight delay. Worse yet, that first leg of our trip was booked separately from the rest because it had been cheaper up front that way. But with the delay & missed flight, we were on our own between airlines.

Of course, it all worked out….but instead of arriving in Entebbe at 11 p.m., we will now arrive at 3:30 a.m.—and possibly be charged extra money. We’re still not quite sure on that point. We were quoted a price, but then not asked for payment.

Through it all, it’s been an opportunity to once again choose to trust God and not just be angry about what He has allowed. I felt especially bad for the flight crew of that first flight, as they had a plane full of mostly annoyed people (some who were rather vocal!!) sitting on the tarmac for three hours.

But God has a plan even in this, one we may never understand. But it’s all part of our sanctification process—because God is so good at what He does that **nothing** is wasted – He works ALL THINGS together for the GOOD of His beloved children!!

And *that* is why I’m thankful for a cold & a delayed flight.

{Now as I post this we’re waiting in Nairobi – our next flight boards in just about half an hour! Almost back to Uganda….!!}

A Ugandan Celebration

Last weekend, two of my colleagues who are cousins (S & G) lost their grandfather. They are from the southwestern corner of Uganda, almost all the way to Rwanda. As is normal here, a group was organized to go from New Hope in support of our sisters. I decided to go with them, because S is one of my closer friends here.

I'm glad I went for the funeral. I wanted to be there for S and G, and I’m glad I was. But I’m also grateful simply for being there and being able to experience the testimony to this man’s life. And I wanted to share the experience with you.

S & G are part of a western Ugandan tribe, so they speak a different language than the one spoken in the area where I live and work. So I understood even less of what was being said than I would have if it were in Luganda (the language I know tiny bits of). But a couple other of my fellow staff who went with us are from that area, so they helped translate some of what was spoken.

The man (I didn’t even catch his name!) who passed away was 107 years old; he had at least nine children, and there seemed to be close to 20 grandchildren there. Funerals in Uganda are normally big community events. I’m bad at estimating numbers, but I think there must have been at least 500 people there by the end of the service.

The grandfather accepted the Lord at the age of 7, and evidently spent the next one hundred years serving Christ faithfully. He was part of the Church of Uganda, which is Anglican. They had at least six pastors there to take part in the funeral, as well as a small choir with some beautiful local instruments. Between each part of the service, the leader would spontaneously break into a short hymn and the choir and attendees would join in. I really appreciated that – it felt like such a joyful celebration.

It is evidently customary at funerals in Uganda for someone close to the deceased to relate the story of their last days/moments on earth. I’ve noticed this at three of the five funeral services I’ve been at – and the other two I wasn’t there for the whole thing. In this case, one of the grandfather’s two surviving daughters explained what happened. I didn’t catch much, but he evidently had been sick for a couple months—mostly in the hospital—and finally an infection claimed his earthly body.

For him to have lived to 107 is really amazing in Uganda, where the life expectancy is about half that. Evidently he has a couple sisters who are still alive; they were there but didn’t speak because of their advanced age. As I said, this gentleman is survived by two of his daughters. A third daughter, S’s mom, died some years back. He also had six sons, but all six died before him (two in the past year, I think). Each of the sons' widows was there, though, and one of them spoke for the group. She told about their father-in-law’s generosity towards them – and she’s the one who got choked up while speaking.

The sister to S’s grandmother, who had also died before her husband, shared a bit as well. I think one of the things that especially blessed me was seeing the apparent unity in the family. Of course, I am not very familiar with their story – but what I saw yesterday seemed difference than what I often hear about here.

Last month, I listened to nine Ugandan women talk about their family background – and about half of them had a father who practiced polygamy. In a culture where bearing children (and lots of them) is considered “proof” of one’s manhood/womanhood, men often have children by multiple women – whether or not they are really married to all/any of them, and whether or not the man takes any part in raising the children.

During the car ride, we heard a radio talk show discussion about whether a person should let his/her spouse and “side dish” (a term that I eventually figured out meant a romantic interest outside of marriage) be friends. It basically took for granted that of course one would have such a “side dish,” the question was only if a man would let “his woman” (wife) be friends with her. It was such a demeaning conversation to have about women – as if they were just objects to be used as it pleased the man – especially in the way those terms were used.

That stood in such contrast to what I perceived about the man whose life we went to celebrate. There was no mention that I picked up on of other wives, half siblings, or similar family fragmentation. Instead, it seemed like this man was an example to his children and grandchildren – an example I saw fruit of as I watched them working together to prepare things for the service.

The grandchildren had shirts made with a photo of their grandfather, and under it were the words of 2 Tim. 2:7, about fighting the good fight. That’s also what the pastor preached on briefly. And the testimony lives on – one of S’s brothers is evidently a pastor, and he came and took the time to pray for our group before we started our long journey back.

The funeral service is often held in the family’s compound (their yard). In this case, the seating was in the open area between four houses – the grandfather’s house on one side, with three of his son’s homes on two of the other sides. Afterwards the body is usually buried in the family’s matooke plantation (an area where they grow a type of banana), including a cement topper.

I had been to three such burials already, and always I have been struck by the contrast between the family’s wailing and the hymns sung by those less deeply affected. At my first Ugandan burial, I wasn’t expecting the loud sobbing, and it really caught me off guard. This time, I was waiting for it – and it never came. The hymns were sung, the prayers were said – and I’m sure the emotions were there, but they weren’t given the same fierce expression I’ve seen before. This may be mainly because the other funerals I have attended have been for people who died too early' – in fact all three of the others were my age or younger. But it still seems a difference that I noticed.

S & G stayed there with their family. After a death like this, there are meetings to have and discussions/decisions to be made. So please keep them and their family in your prayers during the coming days.

Our group of 12 had left New Hope at about midnight and driven through Wednesday morning about 8.5 hours to reach the village where the funeral was. We were early for the service, which started at about 1 p.m., but it gave us a chance to relax a bit. Coming back took more like 10 hours because we made more stops. It was almost 2 a.m. on Thursday when I fell into my bed. So it was a LOT of traveling. I couldn’t help but notice the irony that my first three trips between Dallas and Entebbe each took about the same amount of time as the traveling we did yesterday. But as I said, I’m very glad I went. And, it is a beautiful area with lots of rolling hills - very different than our mostly flat area here!

Trekking with Rhinos

Last Saturday, I went on my first Ugandan “safari” experience. And it was certainly fun! (This is your "lucky" day, because for once it's a blog post with pictures!!! If you want to see the picture bigger, just click on it and it should open. Then you can hit your browser's "back" button to continue reading.)

We had several short-term visitors at New Hope at the moment, and so one of them wanted to go see some rhinoceros at a sanctuary nearby – and she opened it up to whoever else wanted to come along to decrease the per person transportation costs. There ended up being eight of us!

So Saturday morning we left dark and early (instead of bright and early, because at 5:30 a.m. it is still very dark here!!!). After we hit the tarmac (paved road) in Luwero (the larger town 30 minutes away), it started to rain – and it really poured for a bit of the drive. In the back seat, we (our team coordinator’s wife, myself, and a Canadian visitor) were pretty talkative most of the way when we could actually hear one another ;-)

Eventually the sun rose, though it was still really overcast. We got to the rhino sanctuary before 8.

The sign for the sanctuary on the main road; no, those are NOT real rhinos!

While we were checking in and paying at the main office, we got our first “wild” life sighting – a warthog named Pumbaa, appropriately enough :) But he was quite domesticated, not really wild at all. The staff were petting him, so some of our group did too! Very very wiry & bristly – certainly not like petting fur!

Warthog Pumbaa eating the doormats…I don’t know why…

Wild Ugandan rhinos were victim to a lot of poaching, especially during the civil wars in the 1980s. The last one was actually killed in 1983. So the rhinos at the sanctuary have been re-introduced to Uganda, and the staff are working on breeding them with the hopes of one day releasing some to other wildlife parks in Uganda. Currently, this sanctuary is the only place to see wild rhinos in Uganda.

The rhinos have personal guards who are with them 24/7 to make sure they are doing fine, and also to keep track of their whereabouts to make it easier to take tourists to find them. In our case, we drove for a few minutes deeper into the sanctuary, then followed our guide trekking through the grass on foot to where the rhinos were. Within an hour of arriving, we had our eyes on two rhinos! Bella, who I think is the founding matron in the sanctuary, and Luna, her 14-month old calf.

Meet Bella the Rhino!

It was kind of hard to get good pictures because of all the grass (it is certainly still rainy growing season!), and because rhinos don’t hold their heads up very much (too busy eating, and their heads are very heavy!).

Bella is currently pregnant (baby rhinos stay in the womb for 16 months!), but still nursing Luna – which we got to see for a couple minutes! 

Luna nursing from mother Bella

It was rainy (just lightly sprinkling) and chilly, which initially seemed like a downside…but it was actually good because otherwise the rhinos may have just bedded down for the day. The guide told us rhinos usually eat most of the night, when it’s cooler, and then in the heat they sleep.

We followed Bella and Luna as they meandered along, chomping away at the short grass. We stayed at a respectful distance, though, of course! This pictures shows about how close we were. Sorry it’s just the rhinos butts! ;-) 

Safari Esther & the Rhino Butts

Here’s the best picture I got of this first family group, this is Luna the “baby.” She was standing still because she had just been peeing. I got a picture of that too, but I was laughing too much and so the picture is shaky because of the gray skies. 

Luna Posing

We went back to our car and drove to another spot to see a different group of rhinos. This one was two of the “teenage” girls (Malaika, age 4 and Laloyo, age 3.5) and Moja, the dominant male in the herd (there are 14 rhinos currently living on the sanctuary). We followed a trail the rhinos had made through the grass that was taller than we were (but not thick, so we could still see), and found them feeding.

The Teenagers Feeding

We moved to one side, and as we watched the three rhinos started moving back towards the road and our car. The guide said they could smell the fuel from the car and were curious about what was going on. Sure enough, when we got to the car they were just standing on the road looking at it from a short distance away. The guides had told us that rhinos cannot see very well, they have much better hearing.

We stood at the front end of our vehicle, and the rhinos were just standing there looking towards us from behind the rear of the van. It was pretty amazing! 

Curious Rhinos - note the mirror of the van in the foreground!

It made the guide and the guard a little nervous, so they told us to get in the van. We did, and being in the back seat I was only about 8-9 feet away from these massive mammals. Thankfully with glass/metal between me and them! Here’s a video I took at that point (sorry for all the noise, my camera makes a lot of focusing noise as it takes video).

After a few minutes, the girls got bored and headed off into the bush on the other side of the road. Then Moja came and stood behind the van. He has had his horn sawn off, because just a couple months ago one of the young males had died from an injury in a fight. Anyways, Moja took several steps nearer, until finally I’m sure he was no more than 6 feet away. Then he backed up a bit and turned to go parallel to our vehicle. When he did, I realized by my sudden panting that I had been holding my breath a bit! :D

Moja lumbering towards the front end of the vehicle

He then went towards where the two guides were standing outside of the vehicle. He turned and faced them, and they moved quickly to the back end of the vehicle. When they did, Moja took a step towards our vehicle, but then changed his mind and “ran” (for about five steps) off into the bush. Our heart beats were all a bit higher after that! It had looked for a minute like he might charge at either our guides or the vehicle. I never felt actually in danger, just had a very healthy respect for these large, wild animals!

That ended our rhino sightings for the day – but not our experience! We drove some good distance (still within the sanctuary) to the lodge where we would have lunch. On the way, we saw monkeys, mongoose, bushbuck (like dear), and birds! Sorry I didn’t get any pictures of the first three, our driver wasn’t the slow down & stop for every moving creature type…. But I did get a picture of this family of Helmeted Guineafowl as they ran to stay ahead of us on the road. 

Helmeted Guineafowl, 2 Parents & 3 Chicks

We got to the lodge early, so I lay relaxing on a hammock and ended up falling asleep for a bit! The lunch was amazing, such delicious food!!! Then it was time to head back home to Kasana.

But on the way, we did convince the driver to stop when we spotted a large swarm of butterflies!!

Butterfly Cluster!

I think there must have been a carcass or some small mineral area or something to attract so many. In an area not much more than one square foot, there were dozens and dozens of butterflies, of probably 7 or 8 types!

Zooming in on the smaller ones

By then the sun had come out again, and we had an uneventful drive back to Kasana – taking exciting memories with us!

My next post will be about some recent interesting insect incidents!

Regarding Wedding Feasts

I just got back from my third Ugandan wedding. Unsurprisingly, weddings here are somewhat different than in America. For one thing, there are usually two parts to weddings here. One is the culturally Ugandan “introduction,” where the bride price is decided and paid. I haven’t been to one of those yet. The second is the “church wedding,” which borrows a lot from the traditional western ceremony.

A major difference, though, is that frequently the wedding ceremony is combined with something else. Both of the weddings I have attended at Kasana have taken place during the church service. The wedding two weeks ago in Kobwin occurred as part of the school’s end of year ceremony. My understanding is that this is done to save money.

Weddings are also a much more open affair here. In every wedding I have heard about, an open invitation was extended to the whole church and/or the surrounding community. This goes along with the more communitarian lifestyle here. So at a wedding, many of the guests may not know the bride or groom personally – certainly not in the same way as at American weddings where each guest is individually invited.

The receptions (and meals) are also usually open to whoever wants to come. So far I have only been part of one of those, so my experience is fairly limited. But that is what this post is about.

As I wrote in my post about my trip to Kobwin, I helped a bit to prepare the food for the wedding there. The ladies on staff at Kobwin spent hours preparing a feast for the wedding party and special guests (community leaders, plus members of the staff who came from Kasana for the wedding). These VIPs had matooke (steamed banana, a traditional food) with g-nut (peanut) sauce, rice, beef and sauce, chicken and sauce, and sautéed cabbage. That is a fairly typical “special meal” here.

For the general public who were going to come, the cooks prepared pilau, flavored rice with some beef mixed in. This was the very first wedding to take place at Kobwin, so everyone was excited about it. But that also meant that we really didn’t have a good way to know how many people would show up.

In the middle of the wedding ceremony, I tried to estimate how many people were there. There were probably more than 100 children sitting on mats on the ground in front of me, probably at least 250 people sitting on chairs or benches under the awning on one side, plus more people behind me. A few people were still arriving as the wedding ceremony was wrapping up, even though that was more than five hours after the event had been scheduled to start.

I had offered to help serve the food to the community, so as the wedding party and VIPs headed over to another area for their meal, I went over to the area where we had cooked the food. The pilau was staying hot in a huge pot. Here is a picture from earlier in the morning to show you just how big it was. I don’t know how they managed to pack so much food into that pot, but when I went to help serve it was mounded high.

The first thing we had to do was use bowls to scoop the rice/beef into somewhat smaller (but still two times bigger than anything Americans have at home!) pots so that we could serve food from multiple locations to different groups of people (the extended family of the bride/groom, the other guests—men first, and the children). We had what seemed a big stack of bowls for people to eat out of….until we started splitting them up and looking at the crowds.

As I said, there were more than 100 children there, and those were just the ones under the age of 10 or so! The lady in charge had the children all come sit on the ground under a tree. We had one washing basin full of food for them, and maybe about 20 bowls. There was some food still on the fire in reserve, but it was easy to see that there was not an overabundance of food.

I could feel the tension and frustration level increase a bit among those who were preparing to serve the food. Ugandans tend to serve very substantial portions of food, two or three times the portion size I typically eat. But there was no way the food was going to last like that. So with the kids, we were serving up a typical Uganda portion, but then trying to have three kids eat from that bowl.

The kids crowded towards the food….they had been sitting for hours and hours, and I’m sure they were very hungry. There wasn’t much I could do to help, there were several of us standing there trying to keep the horde somewhat orderly and figure out how to make things work. We took a big serving tray and had seven kids share from the food we put on it. Slowly the crowd of hungry children began to diminish. But by then it seemed we really were out of food, guests from the other groups were even coming to the cooking area trying to get food.

I think there were about 20 children left who hadn’t had anything to eat yet. I’ll never forget their eyes and their faces. Hungry eyes, somewhat desperate expressions on their faces. I felt like we had failed them. Even the ones who had gotten some to eat probably hadn’t had as much as they wanted.

Feelings and emotions started clashing and flooding my heart. Frustration over the cultural norm that meant so so many people came, some who I negatively assumed had come only for the purpose of eating the meal. Pain when I thought about these kids who weren’t getting the meal they had hoped, for whom—as far as I knew—this may have been their best chance at a good meal for the day. Helplessness that there was really nothing I could do. Recognition of the orphan heart that New Hope talks about in these kids—the orphan heart that always wants/needs more than is given.

Any joy and celebration of the day had left me. I could feel a flood building, I knew my inner dam would break soon. I turned and left, walking towards the rocks to escape and vent. As I went, I met the bridal party coming back from their feast to rejoin the guests for the rest of the celebration reception. Honestly, deep inside I was angry…..so angry…..but, either by God’s grace or plain hypocrisy, I was able to greet and congratulate the bride and groom, and my two good friends who were the best man and matron of honor. Once the interaction had passed, though, I was only closer to tears.

I attacked climbing the rock as the sobs started coming. I didn’t care that thorns were scratching my legs, that tagalong seeds and burrs were catching onto one of my nicer dresses. I finally felt myself out of sight, and I let it all go. The tears streamed down my face as I thought about the children’s hungry eyes.

I should point out that I was pretty tired from having woken up very early to help fix food. I was also overly emotional that weekend for other reasons. Now as I look back from a more rational mindset, it does not all seem as dire as it did then. But it is still something I will always remember—my first experience seeing the expression of hungry children who feared there would not be enough for them.

In the midst of the stormy tears, all I could do was pray for those kids. I knew God loved them, I knew God could see them….I knew they were important to Him. My mind flew to the future wedding feast of the Lamb that we are told about in Revelation. I couldn’t help but think about how that wedding too is open to all who will come through faith in Christ—but there, there will be no running out of food. And so I prayed that somehow those precious children would know the gospel of Christ so that they may join us at that feast.

I lay on the rocks until I had calmed some, then went down to the house where I was staying. I was still emotionally raw, though, and I couldn’t bring myself to eat any of the food Constance said was left over from the VIP’s meal since all I could think of was the children who hadn’t gotten food. Hearing her comment to someone else that the large bucket for food waste needed to be emptied for the second time (leftovers from the VIP’s plates) just set me off again.

I retreated to music on my tablet, to anything to get my mind off of being stuck in what I had felt. Two of the foreign staff ladies could tell something was wrong, and one pushed gently to get me to talk. I explained what had happened through heaving sobs, and she was just there with me in that and prayed for me. After some time alone reading, I was finally able to move on.

On Monday evening, we had dinner with the Kobwin staff member who had been the one coordinating the food for the community. She mentioned the fact that I had disappeared from the wedding, and I asked about how things ended. She said that everyone had gotten fed, that as the rain storm came in everyone else was leaving and so she took the last of the food for herself to eat. She even said she had invited some people to come have seconds once everyone else had gotten some.

So I have chosen to take her at her word on that, even though I didn’t see on Saturday how in the world that outcome could be possible. Maybe some of the leftovers from the VIPs were used to serve the community. Maybe they had some extra rice they could cook. I don’t know how it worked. Part of me wishes I had stuck it out to see how it ended. Most of me just takes it all as a reminder that we in ourselves can never truly satisfy the needs of others. Only God is enough to do that. Praise Him that His goodness never runs out!

The Beauty of Kobwin, Part 2

Well, it’s nearly a week later and I’m finally getting around to writing more about Kobwin!

On Friday morning, I got started taking pictures of the students there for the prayer cards we were planning to have them do for sending to prayer supporters in the U.S. I was a bit unsure of myself at first, but the family parents (our staff members) welcomed me in and encouraged me “be free!” and to not be afraid.

Soon their young twin boys and one of the younger students from the family group were helping me by pulling in the students I hadn’t gotten pictures of, finding them on my list, and even copying what I told them to write as the description so I would know who was who later! I really appreciated those three young fellas helping make me feel more at home :)

Around lunch time, Constance and a couple of the staff members got busy mixing lemon juice and powdered sugar to make the typical Ugandan cake frosting. One of the ladies had amazingly baked the cakes on a sigeri (charcoal-burning small round stove) since ovens are not common household appliances. (As I think I mentioned in my previous post, there was a wedding coming up the next day!).

We had fun frosting the cakes, wrapping them in ribbon, and then trying to add more frosting since we had a lot of extra. The problem with the latter was that we didn’t go slowly, letting one layer of frosting harden before putting on the next layer. So it ran all over and we spent some time frantically trying to shore up the “dams” of the ribbons….and pretty nearly just ended up with a big mess! But it all worked out :)

After we had got that straightened out, I went down to the school to start helping prepare food for the wedding. We peeled matooke, sorted/winnowed pounded ground nuts (peanuts), and chopped up several cabbages. The first two were new experiences for me! The ladies also had some young men gather large rocks to build fire pits of sorts for cooking the food. By then it was dark, and so lack of electricity sent us all home.

The next morning, the day of the wedding, at least a couple of the ladies woke up at 2:30 a.m. to start preparing the meal for the wedding. By the time I got there around 3:30 or 4, there were about a dozen people working by flashlight, and five or six fires going under massive pots (I’m talking two to three feet in diameter!). At first most of them were butchering the meat (cow and chicken) that I think had been slaughtered the night before. I thankfully missed the slaughtering bit! But the rest about the wedding feast will need a blog post of its own.

By 7 or so most of us went home and showered to try and get the smoke smell off before getting dressed up for the wedding. The ceremony was scheduled to start around 9—and I think it did start pretty close to that. The first hour or so was taken up by the two processionals of groomsmen/groom and bridesmaids/bride. It is evidently the tradition at least in that part of Uganda for the processional to be very very slow. I guess it helps make sure people arrive before things really get started?

Anyway, we had the school’s end of year ceremony, complete with speeches, musical numbers, etc. The crowd steadily increased as time went on, and between every couple of pieces of the program the MC would again welcome those who were just arriving. That’s just part of the “African time” culture here…..(my friends’ youngest son slept in my lap for an hour).

Then we went straight into the wedding, including more singing and dancing. Vows and rings were exchanged, a culturally acceptable (though exuberant) hug took place instead of a Western-style kiss. Then Uncle Jonnes preached a short wedding message that even I as a single appreciated…about how 50-50 isn’t sufficient for a marriage…God calls a husband and wife to give 100% to one another as an example of how Christ held nothing back but gave 100% of Himself for us!

Finally, at 3:30 I think? It was time to serve the wedding meal. I was helping with that also….and as I said above that will be the subject of another blogpost. Quite a bit later, a threatening rainstorm blew in, putting an end to the wedding festivities. We enjoyed simple rice & beans for dinner, and I went to bed early!

Sunday was a very chill day, everyone just needed to recover from the wedding! Church that morning was an interesting experience. Lots of dancing and clapping from the worship leader…he had to have two handkerchiefs to try and keep up with the sweat of his exuberance! Also, here at Kasana, we do the service in English and it is translated into Luganda. But in Kobwin, the service is carried out in Ateso and then translated into English sentence by sentence. So it was my first time here to be understanding the translated sermon rather than as originally spoken.

In the afternoon I worked on sharpening three gallon bags of colored pencils for kids to use the next day on the prayer cards. Thankfully the three little musketeers, my friends from the day before, showed up and pitched in to help me with that!

That evening we attended devotions with the first family group at Kobwin, and then had dinner with the family parents. Oh my, such a feast she set before us! I really enjoyed getting to know them better and hear bits of their story! A couple girls from the family had helped the mom cook, so they ate with us as well.

Well, I am falling asleep here on Tuesday night as I try to type this…so I think I better call it quits and finish another evening!

The Beauty of Kobwin, Part 1

I just wanted to put fingers to keyboard tonight (this was written Wednesday) to get this written, even though I am tired….because I know these next few days are going to be hectic and I want to grab this chance while I have it.

As you probably know, a week ago I traveled from Kasana (New Hope’s first and main location in Uganda) to Kobwin, our other children’s center in the northeast of the country. When Kobwin first started in 2010, our main focus there was working with young men and women who had been kidnapped or otherwise affected by the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels. Those kidnapped served as child soldiers and became known internationally as “Invisible Children.”

Now, four years later, we do still have some young people at Kobwin who are “returnees”—those who were abducted and then escaped or were released. Others grew up in IDP (internally displaced person) camps because their families were trying to avoid the atrocities of Kony and his rebels. All told, many of our students in Kobwin have come through even more intensely traumatic circumstances than our children here at Kasana.

At any rate – part of my job here in Uganda is updating supporters and prayer partners about the happenings at Kobwin, but until last week I hadn’t been there. Aunt Constance, our foreign staff member who has invested a lot of time and energy in Kobwin, invited me to go with her up to Kobwin for a wedding and the end of {school} year ceremony—and I jumped at the chance!

I was eager to see this location that I had heard so much about from interviewing three of the main guys in charge there. But I was also very excited to get to see two special people, their two sweet girls and their two adorable boys! :D So my expectations were high for the long weekend :)

The first day of travelling was kind of rough. But you can read more than enough about that in my previous post. The next day (Thanksgiving) was thankfully much less stressful. Watching a beautiful sunrise over Lake Victoria….seeing the Nile River (near its source) for the first time….enjoying a short passage through an actual forest! (I miss proper woods/forest while at Kasana)….observing Mount Elgin in the distance….just getting to witness more of this beautiful country that is my home for the next year. :) And that was all before we arrived at our destination!

When we got there, most of the students and some of the staff were just eating lunch. We joined them (for the typical posho and beans) after being greeted by a hug from each of the young people there. I think that’s one of the things that most stood out to me about Kobwin. It is quite a bit smaller than Kasana (less than one-fifth the size in student population, even less as far as staff), and thus has a much more intimate feel to it. The two family groups are very close to one another, but each is enclosed with a wall (originally to help the kids feel safer).

That afternoon, the students were practicing musical selections they had created and prepared for the end of year/wedding ceremony. The whole student/staff community (probably about 50 people) gathered to hear them and to offer advice. I just enjoyed experiencing a new style of instruments and singing! And I also finally spotted my friends’ two daughters. Their dad was also there, though I had been able to see him a couple weeks before at Kasana. I had told him I was coming to Kobwin, but told him not to tell his family so I could surprise them!

Well, since the daughters had seen me the dad and I decided I should go home with him to surprise the mom before the girls gave her the news. Their home is a short distance outside of the center because staff housing is really limited there. As we walked, he proudly showed me the small square of land where his family grows a bit of maize and papaya, collards and sweet potatoes.

As we neared the family’s house, the late afternoon sun was shining into my eyes. So I knew the mother would be able to see me before I could see her. Sure enough, I hadn’t spotted anyone I recognized before I saw a figure running towards me. It was my friend!! She grabbed me in a hug, ending in a tickle as I had forgotten was her habit towards me ;-) I met their neighbors (also Kobwin staff) and was invited in to my friends’ home for some tea. But not before my dear friends spent a couple minutes praying and thanking God for bringing me to their home and reuniting us!

Their two boys were hanging about. The older one (age 6) gave me a shy grin of remembrance, but the younger one (age 2)—my piggy back buddy—didn’t seem to know who I was. A bit later, though, he started to remember—and as I tickled him, I got to hear his adorable laugh again!! :D The time with them was far too short, but I had to get back to Kobwin for dinner with the manager and his wife. Uncle took me back on his bike – it was my first time to ride side saddle on the back rack of a bicycle, so I was glad someone I trusted was doing the pedaling!

That evening, Constance, Allison (a visitor from America who had spent a whole year working in Kobwin a couple years back) and I enjoyed a wonderful meal with the manager and his family. His wife and a couple young ladies prepared atapa (aka kilo, aka millet loaf. I’ll have to explain it some other time….), chapatis (they take a lot of work!), rice, and a yummy sauce with pork. It was all so delicious that I went on to P2 (aka, I took a second helping)!

Their two young boys nearly fell asleep while eating, and it was interesting to notice them being bathed in basins in the middle of the living room as we finished our dinner and conversation. Later, after we had gone back to Constance’s itinerant home where we stayed, I was able to call my family and talk to the three of them for a little while. Which was a blessing, because I had heard that cell signal up in Kobwin wasn’t much good.

So that was my Thanksgiving day…..I’ll have to write about the rest of the weekend later. It certainly wasn’t a typical American Thanksgiving……but it’s where God has me this year, and I am grateful for all of the opportunities He is giving me!!! Towards the end of the weekend, I couldn’t help but think that, while most Americans use Thanksgiving as a time to visit family, God used this Thanksgiving to grow my family….to introduce me to members of our spiritual family that I hadn’t had the opportunity to meet before. That’s what my next post will be more about! :)

A Jonah Day

It’s Thanksgiving morning as I begin to write this, and I am sitting in a friend’s car in Jinja, Uganda as we stop to pick up some things on our way to Kobwin.

Last night we stayed at a resort on the shore of Lake Victoria, not far from the source of the Nile River. Yesterday was rather challenging….but through it all I am remembering to focus on God’s goodness and faithfulness.

It started in the morning. We were leaving Kasana at 9, but I had to run up to the admin office before then. I wasn’t planning to bring the sponsorship laptop with me, and I couldn’t sign in to access that email remotely. So I wanted to set up an automatic vacation response so people emailing questions would know it would be a couple of days. But I couldn’t find it anywhere in Outlook.

Made it home and it was time to go. In the process of trying to finish things up, I forgot to close my windows (hopefully it doesn’t rain too hard while we’re gone) and I forgot to grab my sleeping blinders. Neither of which I realized until that night.

We made it into Kampala, I got a few things I needed at one of the malls, and we had a good conversation with our driver. He is one of New Hope’s grown sons, now with a wife and a new baby, and we really appreciate him!

{It’s now Friday morning in Kobwin! I didn’t want to write as we drove, because I wanted to observe the new regions of Uganda where I had not yet been!}

So on Wednesday for lunch we went to a restaurant I had been to a couple of times earlier this year. It’s in Entebbe, not far from Lake Victoria. Sitting there looking at the lake somehow felt so restful and just what my soul needed. I had delicious chicken lasagna for lunch (and dinner, thanks to a takeaway box!).

At the airport, we picked up a gal who had spent a year at Kasana and another at Kobwin. Then we really got on the road, back up through Kampala and then off towards Jinja. There was a good bit of traffic, plus tons of slow, big trucks. So the journey seemed long and a bit tense.

We arrived at the resort tired and hungry. Once we got a bit settled in our rooms, we went to the outdoor seating area for dinner. Thankfully Constance & Allison had called in to preorder their food, and I was just eating my leftovers…so we didn’t have to wait for that.

Within 10 minutes of being outside, I could tell the mosquitoes had found me and were having a feast. So I headed inside and counted seven quickly swelling lumps. :/ I had also found out there was no wifi at the resort, which was disappointing because I had been hoping to enjoy a Skype with my family.

I was pretty sore and tired, so I was looking forward to a hot shower Constance said they would have. Fought with the bathroom door a bit that wouldn’t lock easily and wouldn’t stay closed, then thought I heard someone trying to come into my room. I still don’t know what the latter was about, I was too nervous to come out and didn’t want to have to fight with the door again.

Got all ready for my shower, turned on the hot water, and it was cold. My hand ran into a spider web in the corner, and he ran away as I continued letting the water run hoping it would warm up. No such success……I gave up in frustration.

Let down the mosquito net (which had a small hole) and grabbed my tablet to read in bed for a little while. Fought with the confusing bedcovers….It took me a bit to figure out that instead of having a sheet and a blanket, two sheets had evidently been sewn together to make a sort of duvet (a word I learned in N.Ireland!) over the blanket.

This is when I realized I didn’t have my blinders, and the lovely porch light right outside my window would make it hard for me to sleep. Climbed out of bed and turned it off, and as I climbed back in something among the covers moved and all I could see at first was a tail.

“You’ve got to be kidding, please don’t let there be a snake in my bed!!!” was my first thought. Then I noticed a small foot near the root end of the tail and breathed a sigh of relief. It was “only” one of the common 5-6” skink lizards that I usually enjoy watching. But I was still definitely NOT amenable to him sharing a bed with me. He wanted to run away as well – so I untucked the mosquito net near where he was and he fell to the floor and scurried off.

At that point I curled up in bed and had a self-pity cry. It had all been a bit too many failed expectations and frustrations for one night, I guess. If I had been making the decision at that moment about going home for Christmas, I would have gone in a heartbeat. But the decision to stay had thankfully been made the week before on a better day, in a more reasonable frame of mind!

I finished the chapter on Friendship that I had been reading in C.S. Lewis’ The Four Loves, and then I turned to my current relaxation reading: Anne of Avonlea. The title of the next chapter was “A Jonah Day,” about a day when teacher Anne Shirley felt like a failure.

A toothache colored her day all dark, and she was irritated and harsh with her pupils. On top of that, assuming that a package contained a banned nut cake, she told the offending student to drop it in the fire….and since the package was actually fireworks it created no small sensation! Then her trouble-maker student put a mouse in her desk, and she actually whipped him for it….something she had said she would never do.

Wow did I ever identify with her that evening! It may not seem like God would typically use a fluffy fiction book to encourage a frustrated, somewhat weepy daughter…..but He did just that :)

“Jonah days come to everybody,” as Marilla reminded Anne, and “This day’s done and there’s a new one coming tomorrow with no mistakes {and no frustrations} in it yet.”

And so yesterday (Thanksgiving) my attitude and thus my day were very much better! Thanks to God’s unending faithfulness and graciousness even in those times when I get so frustrated when things don’t go my way.

On Thanksgiving, I had the privilege of worshipping God as I watched His lovely sunrise over Lake Victoria. I took a shower that, while still not hot was not as cold as it might have been. We arrived in the beautiful Kobwin safely. I was reunited to some dear friends and greeted warmly. We had a delicious dinner. And I had no problem with cell phone signal to call my family for a bit before I went to bed.

Through ALL of it—both a Jonah day and Thanksgiving—God is good :)

I'm Back

As I write this on Saturday night, almost two days have passed since I arrived back on Ugandan soil. A little over 24 hours ago, I arrived back in Kasana, which even after being here only five short months gained the place in my heart of a third home after Dallas (where I grew up and where my parents are) and Siloam Springs (my college home town).

I am so so glad to be back! I can’t even tell you what a blessing it is to be back in this place. And I am so grateful to each and every person who has enabled me to return here through their encouragement and support!

What “I’m back” means in daily life – the positives and the challenges.

It means I get to live with Deborah, a lady I knew some from my last time here, and two other ladies. Today I was able to visit with Florence and get to know her – she also kindly made me tea and helped me “lay” my bed! {And made me breakfast this morning!}

It means that power has been mostly off during the days. (This is because the power lines are being serviced to hopefully make them better! I actually saw one of the workers up a pole stringing some wire.) And in the house where I now live, we only have three bulbs that are solar power (bathroom, hallway, sitting room, and those are spotty) and no sockets.

It means that the past couple days I got to catch up with Aunt Jill, and this morning I got to be with Worcester family again for a couple hours! It was so good to see them all, and they welcomed me back warmly J

It means that I walked into a completely bare room. Tonight will actually be my first night to sleep in my room, because the bed I’m borrowing for now was just moved over this afternoon! But it also means a western toilet in the bathroom! :D

It means being able to walk over to the Institute, my home last time, to see Betty and Harriet – two of my favorite ladies! I love being able to drop in on friends using just my own two feet to get there. This community aspect is one of the many reasons I wanted to return!

It means a return to the dust and the bugs….Today I had started unpacking and sorting my stuff to reorganize it….and my feet were filthy from my bedroom floor. So I swept (with our two-foot broom made of wispy plants/twigs) and mopped (which meant a bucket of water and laundry soap + an item of clothing that has been retired from wearing and relegated to the rag pile).

It means that I awoke the past two mornings to a plethora of beautiful bird songs out my window. :D I have so loved getting to see the beautiful birds here again, especially the cute little finchy birds I so fell in love with last time! (Red-cheeked Cordon Blues and Pin-tailed Whydahs)

It means showering evidently requires making a choice between clean water fetched from the water tower (as a cup/basin shower) OR running water (that comes from our house’s rainwater collection held in a cistern, and so is considered dirty….and will run out during dry season!). Neither of which are hot, unless the power is on to heat the water we fetch from the tower, OR unless the sun has warmed our tank enough that our running water is somewhat warm.

It means I will get to know Ugandan culture (and hopefully Luganda!) much more thoroughly from immersion in it by living with my housemates.

It means I have yet to be on Internet since leaving the guesthouse in Entebbe on Friday morning (I haven’t succeeded in getting Internet from my new house yet, and haven’t tried going closer to the main source to connect)

It means that tomorrow morning I get to worship once again with my Kasana family!

It means that I am here following God’s call and hopefully serving His purposes.

It means that soon I get to start helping Aunt Jill with her work in the sponsorship office!

And so, despite the challenges, the cultural uncertainties, the minor inconveniences, I am excited and so very blessed to be here!

{As I mentioned at the beginning, most of this was written last night. This morning, as I opened my windows, I looked out at the greenery and the flowers, and listened to the birds, and just couldn’t help leaning against the windowsill and thanking God for bringing me back! Worshipping with my Ugandan brothers and sisters this morning was also such a blessing!!! J}

10 Books

Just posted this on Facebook, and decided to post it here too since it will be easier to come back and find this way! :)

"Make a list of 10 books (in no particular order) that have affected you in some way. Good or bad, thought provoking or just straight up adorable.
Then tag a few book loving friends as a subtle hint that you would enjoy seeing a similar list from them."

So.....Mrs. S tagged me for this a few days ago, and I'm going to do it before I forget! :)  Please note that they are in no particular order (as instructed above), and that for the purpose of this list I've chosen to leave the Bible off. Obviously it belongs here - but 10 is too small of a number as it is!

1. Expecting to See Jesus by Anne Graham Lotz ~~~ Last summer I had the opportunity to hear her speak in public, and we also received copies of this book by her! Then I landed at home in Dallas for the fall, and there "just happened" to be a Bible Study group going through the video series by the same name. God definitely used that in my life, and also the book as I read through it this year.

2. Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis ~~~ I read this mostly over Christmas Break of 2011/12. It made me want to quit school and go help people....somewhere, anywhere! Little did I know then how God would work things and take me to Uganda in 2014....something which only came about because I stayed in school and persevered.

3. Love: The Greatest Thing in the World by Lewis A. Drummond ~~~ A small book that packs a powerful punch, it's an extended devotional on 1 Corinthians 13 that also manages to address spiritual gifts and a myriad of other topics. I "just happened" to find it in N. Ireland, and it helped flesh out lessons God had already begun bringing into my life recently! I've been meaning to blog about it ever since and just haven't yet!

4. The Second American Revolution by John Whitehead ~~~ Reading this book during the spring of my high school senior year is what made me decide to pursue political journalism, which is part of what took me to John Brown University. And if I hadn't gone there, I would definitely not be the same person I am today.

5. Discerning the Voice of God by Priscilla Shirer ~~~ I read this one about the same time as Kisses from Katie, as I was trying to decide whether to take an internship opportunity in D.C. I did, and God used that time to shift my focus from political journalism to writing for non-profit organizations.

6. Hinds Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard ~~~ Such a beautiful story - I love it every time I read it! Filled with good reminders.

7. Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss ~~~ I haven't read this one in a long time....and making this list makes me want to add it to the pile of books going to Uganda! When I read this in high school, I always wondered how she could be so foolish, so back and forth. I was in denial--since then I have learned that I do the same thing, over and over and over.

8. Surprised by Joy & The Chronicles of Narnia ~~~ I remember listening to my parents read Narnia to me, and watching those old BBC movies as a young kid...but then I took a hiatus from them until 2004, when I dove back in headlong and discovered the amazing, beautiful world Lewis created. I can't even tell you how many times I've reread them since! So far I haven't re-read Surprised by Joy....but I really should. The joy Lewis talks about there is what Narnia so often gives me!

9. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Don Miller ~~~ Another one I want to reread! One of the earliest things I remember (read this fall of junior year) that got me interested in the concept of STORY and led to me writing a 35+ page Capstone about it my last semester of college.

10. Joy for the World by Greg Forster ~~~ I must admit, I still have not finished reading this, and it has been in my reading stack all summer! I must finish it before I leave. Anyway, it is a very interesting and thought-provoking critique of modern American Christianity. The subtitle helps explain it: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding It.

Honorable Mentions: Packing Light by Allison Vesterfelt and A Lifetime of Wisdom by Joni Eareckson Tada ~~~ {my perfectionism constrains me to mention that I listened to both of these rather than actually reading them}. Both memoir-style, so very well written and also thought-provoking! Each one was read by the author, and hearing her voice tell her own story added to the power of the words.

Last Wednesday....

Just a couple little snippets for your enjoyment tonight J

A few days ago, I had a couple interesting/funny things happen.

First, I was preparing some food for a young adults’ class potluck. I’m still having Uganda withdrawal, so I decided to make one of the dishes we had there often: avocado salad. At least that’s what I call it.

It’s pretty simple – you can make it too! Just cut up a few avocados, add a tomato and some red onion, and maybe a few spices (I forgot to put spices in mine…sorry folks!).

Our wonderful cooks there were always making it for a crowd, so I had to remind myself not to use as many avocados as they normally did…but then again the size of these green fruits (or vegetables) is twice as big in the Pearl of Africa as it is here. I guess that one guy was telling me the truth when he joked about how Uganda keeps all the best avocados and only exports the little ones ;-)

So there I was, cutting up the salad ingredients, thinking about how much I missed Betty and Harriet and hanging out with or helping them in the kitchen. I was listening to the radio, and you’ll never guess what song came on:

Just their favorite song! I don’t know how many times it was playing as they made dinner. I felt like I was right back in Uganda….but still missing these wonderful ladies. Soon—I’ll be back soon!

So that was happening #1. #2 occurred when I went over to my church to babysit during a class/Bible study. I had four kids: Two brothers, just turned 7 and 5; and a sister and brother, 7 ½ and almost six.

I was having fun watch them do the whole kid thing, playing ninjas and princesses and capturing and rescuing and wrestling a little. Anyway, we decided to play sharks and minnows. Somehow I got picked to be the shark.

I don’t remember how the subject of age came up…..but it did! They asked mine, and I told them to guess. Actually, I think I just told them that I’m 23.

Well, the oldest boy didn’t believe me. He was like “no way, you look like you’re 13!” To which his younger brother responded “no she doesn’t!” The other boy was like “no, she looks like an old woman!” And the young lady of the group won when she told me “no, you just look like a grown up woman.”

Or at least that’s how I remember it now. Hope you got a chuckle out of it J

And don’t give me the “you’ll be glad you look so young someday!” line. Because I’m not there yet. We went to an event for military academy students and graduates. Folks knew Nathan was either in the Academy or just graduated….but they didn’t know about me.

“So where do you go to school?” one important person asked me. “Oh, I graduated from college a year ago…..” Yep, I got there before Nathan did!

But another gal took the cake. She just graduated from high school and received an appointment to USAFA, I think by now she’s there undergoing BCT! Best wishes to her! At any rate, her comment after me mentioning that my brother had graduated was “are you applying to the academies, or are you going to let him be the only one?” In other words, she assumed I had just finished my sophomore or junior year in college! {sigh…….}

At least Nathan was very nice and considerate when we were in Colorado last month. He was kind enough to make a point of introducing me to his friends as his older sister! Thanks didi, I definitely appreciated that J

The Food of Uganda!

Guess what? I’ve been meaning to do this post for a while but have been putting it off…now that I’m fixing to leave in just a few days, I reckon I better get it written….or it may never happen!

So here goes: a post about the typical Ugandan food I have experienced.

The Institute kitchen staff has done a marvelous job of feeding us, especially considering that they’re trying to provide for people from at least two primary cultures…and actually even more than that because of the several cultures represented within Uganda!

Breakfast

Some things that would be typical in America too – oatmeal, bread/toast (the latter when the power’s on!), scrambled or hard-boiled eggs, bananas (see below). Occasional treats are “baked oatmeal” (more like an oatmeal bread) and banana bread.

We also sometimes have sausages (that don’t taste like American sausages) or fried salami. But there are also a couple things that are not American: rice porridge and (a couple times) millet porridge, and a high importance of having tea made from hot milk. The kids who live here eat maize porridge for breakfast, and it’s just made of the same type of cornmeal that is used in posho (see below).

Lunch

Our meals—especially lunches—have followed a pretty regular menu, so that’s the easiest way for me to think of everything I’ve had. Every lunch/dinner also includes some sort of vegetable (usually cooked or raw cabbage, avocados/guacamole, or sometimes eggplant) and a fruit (pineapple, mango, papaya, watermelon, or some combination of the above. Passion fruit once or twice, I think).

The soup/sauce is always served over the carbohydrate. And all the food is hot, which combined with the warm temperatures can sometimes make simply eating a meal cause one to sweat!

Monday lunch: Steamed rice, posho, beans.

Tuesday lunch: Sweet potatoes/yams and lentil soup. (Second favorite J)

Wednesday lunch: Steamed rice, matoke, g-nut sauce, vegetable soup with beef.

Thursday lunch: Chapatis, rice/boiled Irish, beans. (Personal favorite!)

Friday lunch: Steamed rice/posho/spaghetti (two of the three), lentil soup.

So…a lot of those are probably new foods that you’re scratching your head at…….here’s my attempt at an explanation of each J

Posho is a staple here (the kids who live at Kasana eat posho and beans at both lunch and dinner every day). It is made from ground maize (like cornmeal—but white instead of yellow like sweet corn), mixed with water, and cooked so that it’s a very stiff—well, I was going to say mush…but the consistency is not anything like mush. There’s not really anything good to compare it to….  {A month later and I finally figured it out: the closest thing here to posho is really thick grits.}

The sweet potatoes and yams here are not much like American sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes here are white, though the shape is longer and skinnier rather than round. I enjoy the taste and texture of those ones. The yams (if I have this right) are white with purple streaks. They are a much starchier texture and don’t have a whole lot of taste. I don’t prefer those ones…

All of the soups listed above (minus the g-nut one) include carrots/bell papers/onion and sometimes tomatoes, zucchini or eggplant.

Matooke is a special kind of bananas (most like plantains) boiled in a very particular way, then mashed, I assume…because it kind of has the consistency of mashed potatoes—though more sticky.

Here’s a good place to briefly mention the types of bananas here. They have at least four types, possibly more! And I don’t remember all the local names for them, so I apologize. My favorite are the small sweet bananas that we usually have at breakfast (maybe called finger bananas or something like that in the States?). Then there are what I consider “regular bananas” – but I’ve been told they’re still different than typical American bananas. Matooke bananas are the third. The fourth type is a pink-ish banana that they’ve served us a couple times at lunch. Steamed in the peel, they are sweet & pretty yummy in small quantities!

G-nut sauce is kind of made from peanut butter (peanuts here are referred to as g-nuts). But it’s somehow watered down so that it’s a runny, protein-packed sauce. Served over the matooke, but it’s good over rice too.

Early on they also served us yummy pumpkin squash as one of the staples on a weekly basis. I really liked it….but evidently others didn’t like it enough because they quit serving it L

Chapatis are basically a really super thick flour tortilla, including shredded carrot and onion mixed in the dough. More like a half-way point between tortillas and flatbread, if that makes sense. So whenever we have them it’s almost like a Mexican meal!

Boiled Irish is simply boiled potatoes. But what are considered “regular” potatoes in America are called Irish here!

The lentil soup is yummy. It reminds me of my mom’s split pea soup, except for it’s made with orange lentils rather than green and is less runny.

Dinner

The evening/weekend meals can sometimes tend to be a bit more Western. We still nearly always have a carb and some sort of sauce to go over it, as well as the vegetables/fruits listed above. Some of the regulars are spaghetti and ground beef/tomato sauce, rice and chicken soup (big pieces of boiled chicken + veggies & broth), fried rice (with lots of yummy veggies and chicken or scrambled eggs), and a repeat of the Thursday lunch (YAY!).

We’ve also had things like pasta salad, and a couple of times have been treated to an {iceberg} lettuce side salad! I’m always pretty excited about the latter – I’ve really missed a good robust green salad here. It’s going to be my first meal when I get back to the States…that and ice cream! ;)

Miscellaneous

The sweet things are pretty much restricted to breakfast (we go through a jar of Nutella in a day or maybe two, and people add sugar to both porridge and tea!), fruit, and birthday cakes….so no regular dessert here! Thus I have gotten into the habit of maintaining a chocolate stash to occasionally satisfy my sweet tooth. Oh, and the ice cream here tends to be more like either frozen cool whip (fake dairy) or slushy/snow cone-ish (more like sherbet rather than being creamy).

Thankfully they have soda (soft drinks) here. The first week I was really craving one, even though I’m not a habitual drinker of them back home. I think that was probably my sweet tooth talking, and my desire to have something cold in the heat! So yeah – Coke, Pepsi, Mt. Dew, and Fanta are all available here. A unique one is “Krest” that is basically a fizzy lemonade that’s bitter instead of sweet. They also have this amazing one called “Stoney” (think a really strong ginger ale). Hmm…I’ll have to try to smuggle one or two home so my family can taste it!

I haven’t had traditional snacks here as much….but I do know a few. Mendazis (no idea if I spelled that right…) are a little bit like donuts—more dense but just as fried and unhealthy! The taste reminds me of funnel cake. They also have things like popcorn (which I haven’t gotten to enjoy nearly as often as I wish!) and they eat g-nuts plain too. Since the British are the ones who colonized here, “biscuits” (think a type of crispy cookie that are only lightly sweetened) are widely available. They also eat sim sim (sesame seeds) by themselves and a snack that looks like (but doesn’t taste like) sesame sticks. Jackfruit and mangoes are also common snacks in the family groups. Jackfruit...I don't know what to compare it to. The taste reminds me of dried bananas. I need to take a picture of it.....

Street food is the Ugandan version of fast food (I don’t think McDonalds has reached here yet…..). Chapatis are common street food, as are mendazis (I think) and an empanada-type food filled with chick peas. Chips (steak-cut French fries for you Americans), fried eggs, rotisserie chicken with cooked cabbage, roasted maize, and pineapple by the fourth and with the stem still on are also available. There are also “Rolexes” – chapatis with a fried egg and sliced tomato rolled up inside!

So yeah….I think that about covers it! Hope you enjoyed this “tour”/cultural lesson J

The Institute Kids

Four months ago, I arrived here at Kasana….and shortly thereafter the other people who would be going through the Institute began to arrive as well. They live in what I affectionately call the “Institute village,” and we share all of our meals together. There are others who have already been on staff here at Kasana and who live in other areas of the compound…sadly I haven’t gotten to know them as well.

Our Institute village consists of five bandas (round huts) and a duplex down the hill, plus a kitchen and the dining hall/classroom. The residents are as follows: three single guys, one single gal (my roomie!), one young married couple, a couple and their daughter from Liberia, two Ugandan couples with children, and a new missionary family. There’s also a gentleman who has a family back in Kampala…he lives in one of the family groups but comes to eat meals with us.

I’ve been writing the rest of this post in my head for a while, and am finally sitting down to actually do it. I wanted to talk about the five African kids who have stolen their way into my heart these past weeks. When I leave, I’m going to miss everyone I’ve met here a lot….but especially these kids. {Here at Kasana, “Auntie” is used as a prefix before women’s names as a sign of respect}

Those first few weeks the kids were understandably shy. But now, looking back…it makes me chuckle inside. Because now they are anything but shy!!! Going to school here where English is the common language has helped that too—now they are actually confident enough to speak in whole sentences. J So I dedicate this post to these kids….and I pray God’s blessing on their life journeys.

There is the set of three siblings (a girl and two boys) who came with their parents from NHU’s other location. They have an older sister, but she stayed home for the sake of schooling. The daughter who is here helps a lot to take care of the littlest fella, and she still tends to be reserved. But there have been several times recently when I’ve seen her beautiful face light up with joy and excitement, and just last night she was teaching me how to say “moon” and “stars” in her mother language J

When I got back from the Institute break of four days, she and a classmate were just getting back from a day at school. She ran up to give me a big hug and the traditional Ugandan greeting to one who returns from a journey: “Auntie!! Welcome back!” Adding on, “this is my friend who is in my class!” I think that might have been the first time I heard her speak two whole sentences in English…

The older of the two boys was missing his two front teeth when I first met him. Now they are mostly grown in. The whole time, he’s had the most adorable grin. A few weeks back I taught several of the kids how to play “Go Fish,” and now this fella’s favorite question is “Auntie, we play the cards??” After I started working in the afternoons, my roommate told me he kept coming to our hut asking to play cards with me when I was gone.

He’s also our most frequent meal bell ringer. And he can play the djembe drum with better rhythm than I can! I tell you what, these kids just have rhythm in their blood! I love how concentrated he is when he does it, his mouth partly agape…his head usually tilted to one side J

Their little brother has me wound around his little finger. Man, those first couple weeks he was so whiny and so withdrawn….but now! Well, now he’s like the baby of a great big family J And I think I’m probably his favorite auntie… :D I don’t even remember how it started…but he taught me how to give a piggy back ride African style. The little kids here know how to hang on tight! After our meals, he almost always runs up behind me and grabs onto my skirt and we go through a whole routine of piggy back riding traditions that have developed over the past weeks. And even though he’s not far out of the toddler stage, he is perfectly capable of feeding himself (though it does make something of a mess) and washing his hands regularly (though he does need lifting to be able to reach the sink!). His name is perfect for him, because his laugh is probably the cutest I have ever heard.

He’s also started talking while here, kind of all of a sudden one week in the past month and a half or so. And now he talks up a STORM! On mornings when he’s in a good mood (about 50/50), I can tell it’s breakfast time when I hear his adorable little voice singing “happy birthday to yoooou, happy birthday to yooooou.” When we pray, his “AMEN!” is usually the loudest (and occasionally a wee bit premature…). “How are yooou? I’m FINE!” is another favorite, especially at breakfast. And when I have him on my back and go sit down in one of the cushioned chairs (to signal that I’m worn out for the day), he says (with the biggest grin on his face) what he’s evidently heard me say a few times: “I am tIReddd.” He’s also taught me some of his language! Akipi is water, Iya is again, and Inya is there (the last two I had to have his mother explain to me because he kept saying them during our piggy back riding times!)

Two other girls round out the little group. Both are between the ages of the two boys in the three-some

The older one is something else. She’s probably the most spunky, out-going little kid I have ever seen! She’s just a firecracker, always on the go, always in motion…sometimes to the point of minor calamities (I have no idea how many cups she’s spilled or pieces of silverware she’s dropped here…. ;-). My first clear memory of her is the day the first week when I was the blind man in Blind Man’s Bluff and she opened the closed door and ran into a stranger’s house, grabbed my hand, and tried to lead me to the kids I was trying to tag. That’s just how this little gal operates.

She definitely acts like she’s a little princess and certainly isn’t afraid to make her wants and desires known…and expects them to be met! And her high energy level can be hard to keep up with sometimes. But she is also definitely a blessing, with her joyfulness and her vivacity. The only times I’ve seen her close to “calm” is when she’s just gotten up from a nap. That’s the one occasion when she’s sporting a gloomy face and not running around laughing and chattering away. I love her facial expressions too…I can definitely see her dad in her face and in her voice J

The other little girl was the second most reserved of the group. I met her right after she and her parents got here, and she was hiding behind the door. I watched her interact with the friends from home who had brought her family down, and I knew it would take some time before I was able to interact with her that way. Sometime in the first couple weeks I went over and sat talking to her parents for a little while…and that was the first time I heard her speak a whole sentence…but in her native tongue. But just like all the others, she has since blossomed into quite the cheerful little lark. Quite often, she’ll be singing at the top of her voice rather early in the morning (good thing I’m an early riser!).

She and her parents are my closest neighbors, and I love all the little exchanges we have. Like her brushing her teeth outside and showing me how she can make the water squirt out of her mouth. Like her announcing to me “I am washing!” in her sweet little accent when she is doing her laundry (by hand, of course). Like just today her hollering from outside of my hut: “Auntie Esther!” “yes?” “Hi!” But boy, this little lady has some shrill vocal cords! If you tickle her or startle her (both of which happen to most of these five kids on a pretty regular basis…), you better be prepared to have a loud scream split your ears! In the past couple weeks she’s really attached to me, running up whenever she sees me and practically jumping into my arms. The funniest thing to me is how on nights like last night, when the temperature is maybe 60 degrees, she walks around wearing a coat/jacket lined with cozy warm fluff. Weather is certainly relative!

So yep, that’s the description of my five little “nieces and nephews” here. I’m so thankful that they have good families and parents who love them and care about them (including coming to the Institute partly to learn about parenting their kids)! It’s a good thing they do….because if they didn’t…….well, it would be a lot harder to leave them behind. It will be sad anyway, but I’m thankful to know I leave them in the most able hands of God and the good hands of their parents.