Differences

Well, it is Saturday and we are very glad. We are exhausted from the heat and a week of hard work. Our bodies have finally realized we are on the other side of the world and we have slept well the last two nights. Praise the Lord!

After being in Uganda for a little over a week now, we thought it would be fun to paint you a picture of our life here vs. our life in Canada. What are the similarities, what are the differences?

We’ll start with the similarities- it is a short list!
The best news is that we still serve the very same God- He is the same no matter where we are or what we are doing. We are very glad for that!
We also continue to breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. That is about the end of the similarities list. I guess we do have some other bodily functions that remain the same, but we won’t go into all of those. Lorenda does have to comment though that life without Malarone is a beautiful thing!

Now the differences in our lives and they are many.
The obvious one is that we live a long way away and miss our family very much. Modern technology helps to close that gap some and we are very thankful for that. Greg’s brother and his wife are coming to visit in April and our kids are coming in June so we are looking forward to that.
In Canada we own a home, with air conditioning, that we have lived in for more than 22 years. In Uganda we rent a very nice apartment in a new building without air conditioning (too expensive here!). We have some of the conveniences of home (running water and a washing machine), but we use a drying rack to dry the clothes. Once we are home, we will never take our air conditioning for granted again!
A ten foot stone wall that has broken glass and razor wire on top of it surrounds our apartment building. We have an attendant in our compound during the day and an armed guard at night.
As we look out our living room window right now, there is a man cutting grass with a machete- not something one sees everyday in Canada! On the other side of our building is a vacant lot and during the day our neighbours bring their goats there to graze. Our neighbourhood has many roosters that like to make sure we don’t sleep in. There is also a mosque that is not far away so we hear the sounds from there every morning starting just before sunrise.
When we leave the apartment each morning, we are in serious traffic- the traffic will need to be a post of its own and will be mostly pictures because there really isn’t words to describe it.
Lorenda has been working at the babies’ home for the last several days and has learned many things. The word “silly” means something entirely different in Uganda than it does in Canada. When Lorenda called one of the babies “silly”, Sandra (one of the nannies) asked Lorenda what that word meant in Canada. It turns out the word is a real insult here and one of the nannies actually said that would be abuse to call a child silly. Note to self- do not use the word silly!
Another misunderstanding occurred when one of the nannies asked Lorenda something. We still sometimes have trouble understanding some of the accents and pronunciations here. The nanny repeated what she had asked and Lorenda still had no clue what she had said, but took a chance and asked the nanny if she was asking how many children we have. The nanny laughed and repeated the phrase more slowly “How do you make it?” Turns out that phrase means “what time is it?” We have a lot to learn!
Greg has seen many differences in his work here compared to the way things are done in Canada. Ugandans and in particular, Watoto, are interested in changing the standards of their building maintenance. This, of course, will take time, but the desire and commitment is there so the change has already begun.
Our diets have changed dramatically, but we do shop at the Mzungu supermarket so there are many familiar foods there. When cooking at the apartment, we eat simple Canadian type meals, but lunch at Watoto each day is definitely Ugandan. Lunch each day consists of matooke (mashed green bananas) with or without peanut sauce, sweet potatoes (nothing like Canadian sweet potatoes), rice, chicken, beef or beans in a sauce, greens (cooked) and another dish which I can’t remember the name of (it was described to us as being like corn bread, but is not the consistency of bread, at all). There is always pineapple for dessert (yum, yum) and right now you can purchase mango juice for 1500 shillings.

These are just a few of the differences that now exist in our lives. This post could go on for a very long time if we outlined every detail that is different. Future posts will continue to describe our lives here so this theme will be ongoing throughout our time here.

As we stated at the beginning, God is the same in Canada or in Uganda and we are very glad for that. The first few days here were rather overwhelming, but God reveals Himself when we need Him. One day we were out with a Watoto driver and getting all the things done that needed to be done. We were tired, hot and feeling discouraged. Just then a van drove by with Jeremiah 29:11 on the back window. God is good and has a plan for us here!

Jeremiah 29:11
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”