WEEK 10

Friday - March 16

Pstr. Godfrey told me an African saying the other day, which I really liked: "When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers." How true - most of us are grass.

My faithful Anna (interpreter) was not there today. Her grandchild is ill. Faith helped in the English class and Justine did her best in the Reading class. All went well. Hopefully, we will accomplish what we need to before I leave.

In the evening we were invited to Pstr. Ruth's for dinner. Michael de la Rocha was also there with his African wife, Sylivia. Ruth had her lovely meat samosas. Oh how much I enjoy them. We had such a nice visit with Michael who seems so happy here. His life has been transformed. He is originally from the LA area and came here the first time with Hope 4 Kids. He made several trips, started staying longer and now is a true "ex-pat".

Saturday - March 17

St. Patrick's Day. Kent left for Kampala at noon for his return flight to the US. It was hard to see him go. Had a long talk with Pstr. Alex about future plans for teaching, overseeing the other teachers and some ideas he has to help the women of Juba.

We had an hour and a half combined class to talk about what the Bible has to say about saving, planning for the future and being responsible stewards of what God has given us. I used the story of Joseph and the "feast and famine" of Egypt when God put Joseph in charge of preparing for the 7 years of famine. I also used Proverbs 21:20 from Wendy's Mission Character Development about saving.

The only good thing about Kent leaving is now I have the use of the fan he bought for more comfortable sleeping WHEN we have power that is, which fortunately came back on a bit ago.

Sunday - March 18

Well, Kent is still on a 9 hour layover in Amsterdam. We all went to Soni today, a village on the Nagongera dusty, hot, dirt road to worship. After the service we gave out the last of the pillowcase dresses and T-shirts for little boys with their names written on the shirts. Everyone seemed pleased and happy to receive. We had a small luncheon of pork and kalo. Peter talked about village life and polygamy almost all the way home.

We got back about 3:00 p.m. I worked on the awards for my classes and as I had no sleep last night that was it - nothing else, nada, kaput!!

Monday - March 19

We had a few gentle drops of rain last night - not enough to make any difference. It is now 6 in the evening and we are having a downpour. How nice! Said good-bye to people at True Vine today. Set up an email account on Yahoo for someone. Took a map and we talked geography. It was a nice, pleasant morning. In the afternoon we did a bit of shopping, ordered a birthday cake for Peter and then I took Alex back to the hospital. He really looked bad today. He was so listless and had such dull eyes. The hospital about drove me up the wall. I almost lost it - so dirty, so Alsslow, so disorganized and to them "so expensive". It was 3000 UGX for a consultation - $1.50. Alex had 2 tests there, one for malaria and one for typhoid, both negative. Then they sent us to Divine Mercy, the best hospital in Tororo. It was considerably cleaner. Another test was done there on his blood - don't know what it was, but it was also negative. They gave him a prescription to fill but my question is, what are they treating him for if they haven't made a diagnosis? In fact, HE said to Pstr Lawrence it was a "guess prescription".

Tuesday - March 20

Yesterday's rain did nothing to ease the heat, unfortunately. Pstr. Peter drove me to Wikus so it gave me an opportunity to speak to him about my idea of a mobile tacher and classroom for the remote villages to share. Also, it gave him an opportunity to speak to Jackline's husband. This was my last teaching class in Wikus. We had fun and struggled a bit with money management. Next week will be farewell.

Wednesday - March 21

Happy 16th Birthday Kelsey!! How nice your Dad made it home to share it with you.

Did hand laundry for the last time. Worked on attendance records, awards and certificates.

At Smile Africa, I took some time in the English class to let the ladies ask me questions through our interpreter. Most of the questions they asked were about relationship and social problems: disrespected in-laws, teen-age pregnancy, wife beating, etc. I said I thought these problems were universal. One thing that for the most part is different in the USA and Uganda is that when a husband dies, his brothers can come in, take over the house and land and push the wife and her children out into the street. There are laws to combat this problem but many don't know of the laws and even if they do, they have no means to try to have the laws enforced. The police and courts all work on bribes.

Thursday - March 22

In the US spring has officially arrived! Tomorrow it is just one week 'til we fly home. It is always hard to say good-bye but I am ready to be back home. Went to Busowa. I am having difficulty finding the words to express my feelings or to describe these people. I handed out the 3 attendance awards. I took photos individually and of the classes. Then I asked if they had any questions, The questions were all about what would happen next, who would come to teach them, would they teach like I do, would they stay a long time and to them, very important, would they receive certificates. One man who had been in my class in 2010 again now, got up and spoke. He said how grateful he was and how these classes had made a difference for him in his home. Now his wife can understand and speak a little English and his English has improved, especially his understanding of the muzungu accent. Previous to my being there, he was not able to understand the muzungu visitors at all, but hearing me speak over extended periods of time he is better able to understand and most important to him,, his understanding of what he reads in his English Bible has greatly improved. What greater testimony could I, as a teacher, ask for. Then they said they wanted to pray for me that I could save my money to return to them, and that God would add good years to my life that I could return and for my safe journey home and back again. They started the prayer by singing - a leader started the "call" and then all joined in the "response" in beautiful harmony. I felt like the angels were singing and praying for me. I was overwhelmed with feelings of gratitude, humbleness and quiet joy. They ended the prayer with one person praying in English so I could understand what they were asking for and their praise of God. Finally as we were waiting for my ride, they decided to dance in the Lusogan way for me. They had 3 different drums and they dance similarly to what I have seen represented as Polynesian dancing - much fast him movement - very joyous and sensuous. It was wonderful.

We (3 muzungus) then ended the day by having dinner at the Prime with Pstr. Lawrence and his wife Rose as our guests. What fun!! Again I felt humbled as at the end of the meal Pstr, Lawrence tried to express his thanks. He is truly a man who always tries to "put the best construction" on everything. When we left the hotel he made a point of stopping to say thank you to the men who were working on the road bed. My reaction was of annoyance that we could not bring the car into the hotel grounds to park. Oh, I have so much to learn. Lawrence's reaction was gratitude for the hard work of improving the road.

Please excuse this very poor writing - it is late, I am very tired and am not doing this task well.