Thursday, September 15, 2005
My first visit to the village
On Thursday, September 8th, in lieu of the regularly schedules women’s Bible study at the town church in Mbarara at 5pm, we met at the church at 930am to go to the village of Kishasha for a town-village ladies’ day.
The women were awaiting our arrival at their small church building—nothing more than a dirt floor, walls of mud and reeds, and a tin roof. While our hostesses were preparing meals for us, the 17 ladies from town sat on the 8 small benches inside or on the big straw mat on the floor; before long, we broke into songs—well, they did. I hardly knew the songs (and the Runyankore language is very difficult). They did sing a few in English: "Soon and Very Soon" and "This is the Day". Slowly, ladies and children from nearby villages trickled in and greeted us (the visitors). They served us a mid-morning meal of hot steamy posho (corn mush—like porridge) and sweet baby bananas. (I’m pretty sure there were some dead flies that had gotten mixed in with the posho, but I don’t think I actually swallowed any!)
Then we got down to business and did some serious praising of out Lord. Man, do these people know how to celebrate and praise the Lord! There was singing and dancing and clapping and even a drum for some added acoustics! There is so much "free-style" singing that takes place too. It is very cool to see and hear!
It was beautiful to see so many women from different places praising the Lord together. Our hostesses sang some songs welcoming the visitors and then asked us to sing some songs for them. In this way, we were able to see some differences, whether in language, culture or knowing different songs; more importantly, we were able to see the most significant commonality: a great love for our amazing Lord!
We had the opportunity to hear 3 women speak to us. First was Jane (from Nyakinengo village) who shared about how to trust that Jesus knows our every care and worry and will take care of us (like with a sick child). She spoke from the gospel of Mark and with such excitement it was contagious. So, we sang and danced some more; following the "singing sessions" people just broke out into prayer. . . individually and out loud. It was such a cool thing to hear, even though I couldn’t understand it at all.
Next, they asked for a volunteer from the town church or a missionary to preach to us. Thankfully, Jadress (from MCC) shared with the ladies about the many blessings women have in our Lord. I can’t imagine just getting up and speaking without any preparation, but she did a fantastic job! More praise and worship followed, along with everyone standing and introducing themselves.
Finally, they wanted a missionary to preach to us. So Amy Naramore felt moved and wanted to speak. She shared a story of a Ugandan friend who claims to be a Christian, but he doesn’t think he is saved because he still sins. She left us with a message of God’s grace and salvation through Jesus Christ.
Our hostesses served us a typical Ugandan meal, with HUGE portions of posho (corn meal-type stuff), matoki (looks like bananas but you cook it and it tastes kind of like potatoes), and beans. It was different—a little bland, but very filling. Everything had a different texture than I am used to. .. . overall, not a bad experience for my first taste of the local food here.
It is difficult for me to compare this day in the village to worship in town, because I have been here such a short time and only been to one church service. However, in speaking to the women from Mbarara Church of Christ, they felt blessed to see the joy of the Lord in our sisters’ hearts as we all worshipped Him as one body. I, too, feel blessed to have been in the presence of Jesus with such beautiful women.
The women were awaiting our arrival at their small church building—nothing more than a dirt floor, walls of mud and reeds, and a tin roof. While our hostesses were preparing meals for us, the 17 ladies from town sat on the 8 small benches inside or on the big straw mat on the floor; before long, we broke into songs—well, they did. I hardly knew the songs (and the Runyankore language is very difficult). They did sing a few in English: "Soon and Very Soon" and "This is the Day". Slowly, ladies and children from nearby villages trickled in and greeted us (the visitors). They served us a mid-morning meal of hot steamy posho (corn mush—like porridge) and sweet baby bananas. (I’m pretty sure there were some dead flies that had gotten mixed in with the posho, but I don’t think I actually swallowed any!)
Then we got down to business and did some serious praising of out Lord. Man, do these people know how to celebrate and praise the Lord! There was singing and dancing and clapping and even a drum for some added acoustics! There is so much "free-style" singing that takes place too. It is very cool to see and hear!
It was beautiful to see so many women from different places praising the Lord together. Our hostesses sang some songs welcoming the visitors and then asked us to sing some songs for them. In this way, we were able to see some differences, whether in language, culture or knowing different songs; more importantly, we were able to see the most significant commonality: a great love for our amazing Lord!
We had the opportunity to hear 3 women speak to us. First was Jane (from Nyakinengo village) who shared about how to trust that Jesus knows our every care and worry and will take care of us (like with a sick child). She spoke from the gospel of Mark and with such excitement it was contagious. So, we sang and danced some more; following the "singing sessions" people just broke out into prayer. . . individually and out loud. It was such a cool thing to hear, even though I couldn’t understand it at all.
Next, they asked for a volunteer from the town church or a missionary to preach to us. Thankfully, Jadress (from MCC) shared with the ladies about the many blessings women have in our Lord. I can’t imagine just getting up and speaking without any preparation, but she did a fantastic job! More praise and worship followed, along with everyone standing and introducing themselves.
Finally, they wanted a missionary to preach to us. So Amy Naramore felt moved and wanted to speak. She shared a story of a Ugandan friend who claims to be a Christian, but he doesn’t think he is saved because he still sins. She left us with a message of God’s grace and salvation through Jesus Christ.
Our hostesses served us a typical Ugandan meal, with HUGE portions of posho (corn meal-type stuff), matoki (looks like bananas but you cook it and it tastes kind of like potatoes), and beans. It was different—a little bland, but very filling. Everything had a different texture than I am used to. .. . overall, not a bad experience for my first taste of the local food here.
It is difficult for me to compare this day in the village to worship in town, because I have been here such a short time and only been to one church service. However, in speaking to the women from Mbarara Church of Christ, they felt blessed to see the joy of the Lord in our sisters’ hearts as we all worshipped Him as one body. I, too, feel blessed to have been in the presence of Jesus with such beautiful women.
Sunday, September 11, 2005
General Information about Mbarara
Mbarara is the fourth largest city in Uganda, but that isn’t really saying much. Our area is considered to be tropical, but it isn’t like the rainforest and it’s not like the desert either. We are located near the equator at the foothills of the Rwenzori Mountains, so rolling hills surround us. (It is BEAUTIFUL!) Our elevation is about 5000 feet and we are pretty far from any large body of water. Because of this, the humidity here is much lower than many of the other cities in Uganda. The temperatures are usually in the 80s during the day and the 60s in the evening, with only two seasons: rainy and dry. During the rainy season, it can rain for 10-20 minutes in the morning and be beautifully sunny in the afternoon (or vice versa). It can, of course, rain for much longer periods of time too. But so far, it hasn't been too bad.
There are 3 "nice" restaurants in town (I’ve eaten at 2 of them.) It takes at least 30 minutes to get the food, and just because an item is on the menu doesn’t mean that they actually have it. They serve local food, slight variations of "American" food (like hamburgers, sandwiches, and pasta dishes), and even some Indian foods. "Local food" includes the main staples of the Ankole people: bananas, matoke (cooking bananas, which oddly enough taste sort of like potatoes), posho (cornmeal mush, from which you can posho chips—Ugandan-style tortilla chips), rice, and beans. Other foods which they have here in abundance are: sweet potatoes, peas, ground nuts (like peanuts I think), avocados, cabbage, greens, tomatoes, pineapples, mangos, papayas, watermelons, pumpkins, guavas, and passion fruits.
We pretty much have to make everything "from scratch." (I’ve learned to stop saying, "This is so good… is it made from scratch?") It is rare to find cake or muffin mixes; soup packets or even canned soups; seasoning mixes; no frosting, pudding, jello; and hardly EVER ice cream—at least in Mbarara. In the Kampala, the capital city about 3 hours away, you can occasionally find things shipped over from the states—like cocoa puffs instead of just rice crispies or cornflakes. That is where I got a jar of salsa and some taco seasoning, a couple of oranges, grapefruits and some string beans (which I probably should cook before they go bad), along with some meat. The only meat really available in Mbarara is hanging up outside in the open air market—sometimes with the tail still on! Also, let me tell you about the bread here. Apparently, Ugandans like stale bread. They actually poke holes in the bags for it to get hard quickly! Isn’t that strange!?!
Let’s see...what else can I tell you? Power is scheduled to go out every 3rd night for several hours, roughly from 7 – 11pm. This is because Uganda sells electricity out to some surrounding countries and the nation’s electrical source (the dam at the source of the Nile in Jinja) just doesn’t produce enough electricity for those countries and for us. I believe they are still working on the construction another dam, but until then it looks like we will be "power-sharing" with some other cities/towns in Uganda. For this month, they actually put the schedule in the newspaper. I guess we will see what happens in October.
There are 3 "nice" restaurants in town (I’ve eaten at 2 of them.) It takes at least 30 minutes to get the food, and just because an item is on the menu doesn’t mean that they actually have it. They serve local food, slight variations of "American" food (like hamburgers, sandwiches, and pasta dishes), and even some Indian foods. "Local food" includes the main staples of the Ankole people: bananas, matoke (cooking bananas, which oddly enough taste sort of like potatoes), posho (cornmeal mush, from which you can posho chips—Ugandan-style tortilla chips), rice, and beans. Other foods which they have here in abundance are: sweet potatoes, peas, ground nuts (like peanuts I think), avocados, cabbage, greens, tomatoes, pineapples, mangos, papayas, watermelons, pumpkins, guavas, and passion fruits.
We pretty much have to make everything "from scratch." (I’ve learned to stop saying, "This is so good… is it made from scratch?") It is rare to find cake or muffin mixes; soup packets or even canned soups; seasoning mixes; no frosting, pudding, jello; and hardly EVER ice cream—at least in Mbarara. In the Kampala, the capital city about 3 hours away, you can occasionally find things shipped over from the states—like cocoa puffs instead of just rice crispies or cornflakes. That is where I got a jar of salsa and some taco seasoning, a couple of oranges, grapefruits and some string beans (which I probably should cook before they go bad), along with some meat. The only meat really available in Mbarara is hanging up outside in the open air market—sometimes with the tail still on! Also, let me tell you about the bread here. Apparently, Ugandans like stale bread. They actually poke holes in the bags for it to get hard quickly! Isn’t that strange!?!
Let’s see...what else can I tell you? Power is scheduled to go out every 3rd night for several hours, roughly from 7 – 11pm. This is because Uganda sells electricity out to some surrounding countries and the nation’s electrical source (the dam at the source of the Nile in Jinja) just doesn’t produce enough electricity for those countries and for us. I believe they are still working on the construction another dam, but until then it looks like we will be "power-sharing" with some other cities/towns in Uganda. For this month, they actually put the schedule in the newspaper. I guess we will see what happens in October.
Saturday, September 10, 2005
ignoring immigration
This is a picture of the sunrise over the Entebbe Airport on Friday, September 2, 2005.We had been sent an email from Emily (a new team member picking us up from the airport) explaining what we should do so that we could find her, get our bags, go through customs, etc. She told us to "hug the left wall and ignore the three lines" because eventually everyone would end up going to the last line where we would need to pay for our visas and enter through immigration. So we did what we were told and just acted like we knew what we were doing. We didn't see any other line or anything, so we just decided to go get our bags, which were already spinning on the baggage carousel. After finally getting all EIGHT (total) of our tubs onto little trolley carts, we headed out. We were stopped by a man from customs who was interested in knowing exactly what was in our huge tubs. So we had to open several of them to show him all of our school supplies. Of course, the first two tubs he opened had clothes on top. He seemed to be a bit frustrated--almost like we were trying to slide something through. We kept assuring him that if we dug further, he would see them.
Anyhow, we made it through customs and all and went out to meet Emily, her husband Scott, and the 2 most precious, tiniest babies I have ever seen. (Emily and Scott are foster parents for newborn babies who've been deserted or had their mothers die, but are too little or unhealthy to make it in an orphanage.) We told them we didn't even show our passports to anyone yet and they just laughed and said we had to go back through.
