It's All a Matter of Perspective

It's interesting how things mean such different things to different people.
When our children were coming to visit, we were so excited. Someone asked how long it had been since we had seen them. We told them it was February 20 when they dropped us at the airport. The response was, "Oh it hasn't been that long then." We then proceeded to tell them that we had never gone this long without seeing our children. When Charissa was at Bible school, we dropped her on September 11 and she arrived home for Christmas on December 5- that is the longest we have ever gone without seeing one of our children.
In Uganda it is very different. Even though it is a small country, getting around is a huge challenge and a huge expense. One of the guesthouse staff told me that it would cost her 50,000 shillings to go see her mother in the village. If she takes her children, it would be 200,000 shillings and the journey would be about 6 or 7 hours by bus and then boda. She said that she sees her mom less than once per year...and they live in the same country! That just seems so unbelievable to us- no wonder they think we are whiners when we talk about how long it has been since we have seen our family.
Another interesting conversation occurred this week. A little background information- Uganda is about 1/3 the size of Saskatchewan and has 37 million people. Most people who visit here find the huge number of people to be overwhelming and the air quality to be poor. We have a team of 40 people staying at the guesthouse this week and one of them said, "Uganda is so beautiful. It is so bright and fresh. The weather is nice and cool and there is not many people." When one lives in Hong Kong, apparently Kampala is like a nice little country get away.
It really is all a matter of perspective.

Comfy?

I learned long ago that in our Christian walk, we are not supposed to be comfortable. When we get too “comfy” that means that we are not growing and learning. It is not a good place to be, but sometimes it is where we think we should be.
God has really not allowed us to be comfortable for a very long time. He has continued to challenge us repeatedly. As we learn one thing, there is something else that we need to know. Even things that we thought we knew, then God teaches us something new about it or takes us to a whole new level of understanding on that topic. Today was another one of those days for me (Lorenda).
Uganda has a history that includes a brutal war that raged in northern Uganda for over 25 years. Most of us in North America knew nothing about it until groups like Invisible Children started making us aware of the situation. Many thousands of children had to walk every night to find a safe place to sleep where they would not be kidnapped by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).  They were called “night commuters” and at the height of the war it was estimated that 52,000 children were commuting nightly. If they were abducted, children were forced to be child soldiers or many of the girls were forced to be “wives” for the leaders of the LRA. Prior to coming to Uganda the first time, we had done a lot of reading and research about the war.
On our visit to Uganda in 2012, we built a classroom in northern Uganda at the Watoto children’s village. We stood on the very ground where many bloody battles took place. It was a very overwhelming experience to stand on that ground knowing the atrocities that had taken place there. It was a whole new level that we could not reach by reading and researching.
On that visit I also had the privilege to meet an incredible woman who shared her experience of living in northern Uganda. She was an amazing, joy filled woman even though her entire family had been wiped out by the LRA. She told me that the war had to happen to cause people to turn to Christ. I cried many times as I thought about her story and all that she had been through- another step deeper.
The boy that we sponsor was actually born while his parents were in captivity of the LRA. He managed to escape when he was around six years old and somehow got himself from South Sudan to Gulu because he had heard his parents talk about Gulu and he knew someone there would help him. Each person's story is unique and I thought I was beginning to understand more about the war.
I have spent a lot of time with many people who lived in northern Uganda throughout the war. However, until today, I had never sat down and spoken with someone who was a night commuter. This beautiful young woman was born into a family where she was one of eleven children. The war started when she was one year old so she would be tied on her mother’s back as the other children walked with their mother to find a safe place to sleep at night. As she got older, she learned that she needed to walk every night to find a safe place to sleep and then get up in the morning to walk back to the village to go to school. I thought I knew a lot about the war in northern Uganda, but hearing it from her perspective was a whole new, overwhelming experience. As I sat there with tears running down my face, she said, “If you came to my village, you would really cry.”
Unfortunately, despite her mother’s best efforts to do all she could to keep her family safe, her husband and seven of her children were killed by the LRA. As a parent, I cannot even begin to get my head around that. Even after being here three times (this time for an extended period), I realize more and more everyday that I really have no idea what it is like for the people here.

Come on, come on...

Living in a foreign country has many advantages and of course, some disadvantages. One of the disadvantages is that there is rarely anything you recognize on the radio. The ads are often for places and products we have never heard of. The music is from a variety of countries, but every so often they play something that we actually recognize. Today was one of those days!
We were driving in to Central this morning when the song "Locomotion" came on the radio. In case you don't know, I love that song and absolutely cannot sit still when I hear it. So there I was dancing in my seat as I was singing very loud. The "jump up, jump back" parts are a little hard to do while seated in a vehicle, but I made it work.
As we were coming up to the round-a-bout, there were many people walking to work. I told Greg that he should stop so that I could jump out and start a flash mob. All he had to do was turn the radio up really loud. Obviously, he didn't think that was such a good idea because he kept on driving. And just for the record, Laurena, I am in way better shape now than I was at Courtney and Cam's wedding so I could have pulled it off!
As we kept driving, I kept singing and dancing. Then we came to an intersection where we had to stop. As soon as you stop, people rush your vehicle to try to sell you newspapers, phone cards, what, what, what. This guy stood by our vehicle trying hard to sell us a newspaper. I just turned up the radio really loud and kept on dancing. He just looked at me like I had lost my mind, shook his head and walked away with a disgusted look on his face. I guess they don't "Do the Locomotion" here!

All in a Day's Work

In North America, we consider a normal work week to be 40 hours (or even less in some organizations). In Uganda, it is a very different story. The normal work week is considered to be 48 hours and most people put in quite a number of hours beyond that.
Greg's team has to be available seven days per week to handle any maintenance issues that arise. They also have to be available in the evening at the weekly Bible study and whenever there is a special event taking place. In Kampala there are five Watoto celebration points and someone need to be available at each of these sites whenever anything is happening there.
One of Greg's team was having trouble with the power generator at the South site so we decided to go there to attend church and see how the generator was doing. It is a long drive from our apartment to the South site, but any drive in Kampala is always entertaining and the traffic is not so bad on Sunday morning.
We have often told you about all the things that can be carried on a boda boda, but we have never taken any good pictures. This guy is carrying a large bag of charcoal on his boda- not unusual to see a site like this. However, we thought you might be interested in what he had on top of the charcoal. Yes, that is a live chicken. We have seen up to about 20 live chickens tied on one boda, but we thought we would start you off slowly!

It has occurred to us that we seem to talk about and show pictures of the fun things that we do. We don't want you to think that we are just on a big vacation here. We actually do work and here is some proof.

This is Greg and Grace, one of his team members, checking out the generator to make sure that everything is ready for the Sunday morning celebration at Watoto South.

Each day is a new adventure in Kampala and you never really know what to expect. They are doing a lot of road construction right now so driving now has more challenges than usual. I (Lorenda) have been doing a lot more driving lately. One of our friends compares driving in Kampala to a slow dance- you just move slowly to the right, slowly to the left. I personally see it as more like a football team- everyone out there has an assignment. When I drive, I am a running back- I let the other cars, trucks, bodas, pedestrians block for me and I sneak through. I'm getting so good at it that I am thinking of changing my name to Kory (if you don't get that, you need to watch more Rider games!) Greg, on the other hand, plays the position of linebacker and the blitz is always on! Two very different styles, but so far both have been effective!

In the Dark

Well it has been a few days since we last posted anything.
On Thursday our power went out in the afternoon and the laptop had very little charge (like 7%) so I thought I would blog on Friday morning on the way to Gulu. Plugged the computer in before we went to bed, but the power never came back on through the night.
OK- we'll charge the computer once we get to Gulu, but our internet doesn't work there so we will have to wait until we get back to Kampala to post. We arrived in Gulu at noon Friday and all of Gulu town (yep- Gulu "town" with 1 million people) was without power.
We had a good, productive time in Gulu as Greg did some prep work for the new church tent that will be put up there. Lorenda spent time doing training with the guesthouse staff and learning more about how the Gulu guesthouse runs.
We started back to Kampala on Saturday morning and arrived after about seven hours. We no longer look at a map and say "330 kms- we'll be there in 3 hours". No, no, no- Uganda roads mean that you need to at least double the time that you would expect it to take. And Gulu highway- there really are no words that could describe it adequately.
When we arrived home, our power had been restored, but everything in our fridge needed to be discarded since the power was out for such a long time.
Tonight I sit here again, in the dark, typing this blog for you.
There are many things that we will not take for granted when we return home- one of them is definitely having good, reliable power. Next time you see a SaskPower employee, give them a big hug!

Our View

So, as promised today we will give you a view of what we see when we look out our windows.
But first we have a little "announcement". Yesterday marked the halfway point in our time in Uganda. It is hard to believe that we are half done already. Don't get me wrong, we will be very ready to come home in December and hug all our loved ones! I'm sure the last week or two that we are here will be the slowest moving time ever, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

Now, on with our view.
Our apartment has a little balcony on the front of the building with a table and chairs to sit outside and enjoy the Ugandan sunshine. We also have a balcony on the back of the building where we dry our laundry. We do have a washing machine which we are grateful for. We can use it when the power is full and the water is on at the same time- sometimes we have water and no/low power, sometimes we have no water. Note: As I was proof reading that very sentence, the power went off with a load of laundry in the washing machine! Who knows how long it will be out!
After the clothes are washed, we put them out to dry on a drying rack or we hang them on the rail on the back balcony. They dry well, but are very wrinkled and need a lot of ironing. The other problem arises when you forget them out there overnight because then they end up with gecko poop all over them and you have to start over. Learned that lesson the hard way!
The lot behind our building is vacant, but often one of our neighbours brings his goats there to graze for the day. When I took this picture today, there were no goats- just a vacant lot and the apartment complex behind us.

Off our back balcony and to the left, there is a path that leads to a school and a whole community (you can see a man walking on the path in the picture). We love to walk through there and visit with our neighbours. It is especially fun to walk by there as the kids are getting out of school- we have some really good chats then.
The large building/complex that you see in the background is a prison.

When we look out from our front balcony we can see our neighbours' houses and yards. Straight across is a garden that has plenty of casava and maize (corn) growing in it. There are also palm trees, banana trees and other fruit trees that we have not yet identified.

This house is directly across from our building in the other direction and is the home of the rooster that likes to begin crowing before sun up and carry on all day long. The building to the right of the second storey of the house, way back in the distance is the school that I spoke about earlier in this blog. On Sunday they use it for a church so we get to hear singing from there starting at 7AM on Sunday.

This house is right next door to the one in the previous picture (to give you context). The road is what Greg refers to as the back alley or as I called it in yesterday's blog, the back way in. Even though it is not paved, it is actually a street and does have a street name. This is our most frequent route that we take as it saves us a lot of time. It is very bumpy and often has a lot of pedestrians, but there is never a jam on this street. It is our most direct route when we are going to most places so we use it a lot.

That is the view from our apartment. In several of the pictures you can see different hills in the background- Kampala is built on several hills. In some pictures you can also notice that it is hazy. That is because we are in serious need of a rain- the dust, smoke and other assorted particles are just hanging in the air right now. A good rain would settle it down so we could see all the hills around us clearly.
Thanks for coming on this tour with us- now you have seen what we see when we look out our windows.
Birthday wishes go out to our baby girl who is not a baby anymore. Happy Birthday Charissa- we love you.

A Tour of our Neighbourhood

Today we are going to go on a little trip through our neighbourhood so you can see what we see everyday.

Many of the roads in residential areas are not paved. We have driven in some areas with very large and expensive houses, but roads that are not paved and in some cases, can barely be called roads. We travel on this road quite frequently on the way to our friends' home. Just a note for those who were on the Faith Baptist 2012 trip- the church where we did the seminar day is about 500 metres from our friends' house.
In this picture, you can see that the truck is full of pineapples. They are very plentiful here and are sold out of the back of trucks, or often wooden carts along the road. For a nice, big, fresh, sweet, juicy pineapple (larger than any we see at home and much tastier too) we pay 1000 to 2500 shillings (between 40 cents and $1) depending on where and when we purchase it. That is going to be one of the hardships of returning home- having to drive to the store (instead of just stopping on the road) to buy a pineapple that is not fresh and costs way more! My children think I am going to get thrown out of the store when I try bartering for my pineapple at Safeway!

The young man in the picture below has one of the wooden carts that I spoke about, but he is not selling pineapple, he is selling sugar cane. It is a yummy treat that is in abundance here. Of course, they also make sugar with it, which tastes much different than our sugar.

Women (and sometimes men) walking down the street with things balanced on their head is something else that we see everyday. I have always been amazed at how much they can carry and the ease with which they do it. From the time they are very small they begin to carry things in this way. When you see them hauling water, the little girls will have smaller water containers and as they grow, they carry bigger containers. They learn how to adjust their body movements to keep the load from falling off their  head. That is the problem when we try to carry something on our heads, our bodies are rigid. They keep their bodies nice and loose and adjust as they need to to keep the load on their heads. I still can't do it, but I am learning the body mechanics of how the Ugandans do it.

It has been a long time (over two months) since we have had a good rain so it is very dusty everywhere. As we drive down this road you can see how the dust is just sitting on the leaves of the plants, covering them and causing them to appear orange.

We are very fortunate that we have paved streets all the way to our apartment (unless we come in "the back way"). Our friends tell us that we must have someone important living on our street (I think they mean besides us). We have paved streets and when our potholes appear, they get fixed quickly. Here is the way to our place...

Now you know the way! This is a picture of the building we live in with Greg sitting in our vehicle waiting to get in the gate.

That's a quick little tour of our neighbourhood. Next we will take pictures from our balcony and show you what we see when we look out the front and the back of our apartment. I wish you could hear the sounds- it would make it so much better. Or, when you are trying to sleep...so much worse!

Picture Day!

It has been a long time since we last posted any pictures. We know that and we are sorry so today will be picture day. We will post a few pictures that should have been posted earlier and we will try to post pictures with every (or at least most) posts in the future.

Have we mentioned a time or two that we love mangoes? There is a beautiful mango tree in the compound of the guesthouse at Gulu and it was loaded with mangoes. Isaac is one of the guesthouse employees. He climbs up the tree then he uses a large stick to knock the mangoes out of the tree. Oh- they are the best mangoes on the planet- so sweet and juicy!

While our children were here we tried to show them as much as we could. One day we went out to Suubi village and introduced our kids to Jovulyn, the Watoto mom that we sponsor. She wanted us to take a photo of "just the girls" so here we are

We also went with our kids to the Rhino Sanctuary. Rhinos were hunted to extinction in Uganda so they are now attempting to reintroduce the species here. When they reach a certain number (I forget what that number is) in the sanctuary, they will reintroduce them into the national parks (protected game reserves) We have never been there before, but we had read about it online so we did know what to expect. We knew that we would drive in our vehicle to a certain point and then we would get out and walk, yes walk up to see the rhinos. Our guide told us that we needed to listen to him closely and if he told us to climb a tree that's what we needed to do. Even though rhinos are huge, they can definitely outrun a human and since I was the slowest human in the bunch, I made sure to scope out a tree as soon as we got to where the rhinos were. It was a little unnerving standing about 25 feet from these three ton beasts, but when this one decided to stand up and take a few steps, I was ready to head for my tree! This rhino is named Obama- they named him that because his father is Kenyan and his mother is American!

Tomorrow I will take you on a tour of our neighbourhood so you can see what we see everyday!

Ugandan compliments

We’ve been here quite a while now and we have learned a lot about the culture that we never learned while we were in our little protected “bubble” on our two previous trips. I’m certainly not suggesting that the “building team bubble” is a bad thing- it is necessary! If I had been exposed to some of this stuff on my first trip, there wouldn’t have been a second trip! God slowly gives you little bits more and allows your eyes to see things, as you are ready.
Many of the ways that Ugandans phrase things is much different than the way we phrase things. I believe I have blogged before that our children told me I no longer speak English, I now speak Uganglish (Ugandan English).
One example of a phrase is that Ugandans do not “pick up” or “drop off” someone or something. When you arrive in the country they will “pick” you at the airport and when you leave, they will “drop” you. Both of us now use these phrases without even thinking about it.
There is one phrase here that has caused many international volunteers to cry! When a Ugandan says, “You are fat”, they mean that you look healthy, you don’t look malnourished. Of course, that is not the way that we take it! Most Ugandans are very honest though and if you need to lose weight, they will tell you, but that is not the same thing as calling you fat.
When Canadians see a large group of something, we would say, “There are lots of those.” Ugandans say, “They are many”. Without realizing it, this has become my default when I speak. Of course, my son pointed it out and corrected me many times during his recent stay!
My favourite “Ugandan phrase a Canadian could take the wrong way” came just the other day. I mentioned that we had one of Greg’s team over for supper on Tuesday. The plan was to have chicken, but there was none at the store (and I wasn’t about to buy a live one!) so we had pork chops instead. Albert thoroughly enjoyed the meal and thanked me for it several times. The following day, he once again told Greg how good the food was and added, “You wouldn’t find food like this on the street.” I laughed so hard when Greg told me about how Albert had paid me this compliment.
You see, in Uganda, you can buy a lot of food “on the street” from vendors who sell a lot of different things. For many, especially single males, this seems to be their major food source- it is readily available and inexpensive. In the morning chapatti is cooked up on grills all over the city. Rolex (fried egg cooked with peppers, onions, etc and rolled in chapatti) is a favourite of many. As the day goes on, chicken and corn on the cob are grilled at all sorts of roadside grills. Sugar cane and fruit that is already peeled and cut is available everywhere. The street really is a smorgasbord and I have just given you a small sample of the fare that is available.
So when Albert says, “You wouldn’t find anything like that on the street”, it is indeed a compliment. Warning to all of you in Canada, when we are back home and I invite you over for supper, I will not consider that phrase to be a compliment there!

July 11

Today marks a very sad anniversary in Uganda’s history. On July 11, 2010 terrorists attacked at two different locations in Kampala during a screening of a World Cup Soccer final match. Even though Uganda has never been in the World Cup, Ugandans are crazy about soccer. Suicide bombers at each site quickly turned the excitement of these crowds into fear and chaos. One of the sites was a rugby stadium where a huge crowd had gathered to watch the game on large screens. The other bombing site was at a restaurant/bar (not far from our apartment) where another large crowd had gathered to take in the game. These attacks left 74 people dead and 70 more injured. In the days that followed, more people succumbed to their injuries bringing the total to 86 deaths as a result of the bombings. Please pray for the families and friends of these people as they observe this anniversary.
This attack caused the entire country to change the way they viewed many things. Suddenly, every large gathering was seen as a potential terrorist attack site and the country changed dramatically. When we visited Uganda in February 2010, we were quite free to go in and out of most buildings as we pleased. That all changed after July 11. The next time we visited, we had to go through metal detectors to get into any building- including church. It is the law that all public buildings (churches, supermarkets, everywhere) have metal detectors. Every time we enter a parking lot, our vehicle gets searched inside and out, including using the mirror to look under the car for anything attached beneath. As we go into a store or mall, our bags/purses are searched and we go through the metal detector- it is part of life here. All because of July 11 and the country’s desire to see that never happen again.
I talked before about a song we sing in church and one of the lines says, “Taking back what the devil has stolen.” The devil has stolen the peace of mind that these people once had. 86 lives gone- just like that.
Please pray for these families and the people of Uganda as this horrible day in history is remembered.

Ugandan Double Double

As we said in an earlier blog, we need to start to notice more things around us again. It really is fun to do that again. Two days ago we saw what we have termed a “Ugandan Double Double”. No this is not the same kind that Greg used to pick up every morning at the Robin’s drive thru. Remember when we were kids and we used to “double” someone on our bikes. Well, in Uganda doubling someone on your bike is actually a business- they are called bicycle taxis or bicycle bodas. A large cushion is firmly (usually firmly) attached over the back fender of the bike. The passenger rides there- either sidesaddle or straddle, it’s up to you.
Now for the explanation of the Ugandan Double Double. There was a bicycle cab who had a passenger on the back. The passenger happened to be another bicycle cab operator whose bike must have broken down. So what we saw was a bicycle cab with a passenger on the back who had a bicycle over his shoulder/back. OK so the description doesn’t really make it sound that funny, but it looked hilarious! We keep saying that we need to start carrying our camera so that we can show you things instead of just describing them. Problem is that we always see all the best things on the way to and from work and we don’t want to be hauling our camera around at work.
Last night we had a friend over to introduce him to the CFL. We replayed the first half of the most recent Rider game and taught him about football. He caught onto it very quickly and was understanding the basics of the game before very long. He is familiar with rugby so that helped except that the players don’t need to touch the ball to the ground in the end zone in football. We had a great supper together and a nice evening. He then told us that he wants to see hockey. Too bad he didn’t mention that a month ago- Greg would have loved to watch some of the playoffs. Oh well- we told him he has to wait for a few months now!
Happy Anniversary to Cam and Court. Hard to believe it has been nine years already. Love you guys!

Worship

Today in church our worship pastor preached on the topic of worship. The first part of the message was about worship- our attitude, our posture, etc as we worship the Lord in church or anywhere else. The message is available online at www.watotochurch.com if you would like to hear it.
The second part of the message was about living our lives as worship to the Lord. Graham used a familiar portion of scripture.
Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God- this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- His good, pleasing and perfect will.
We have all heard many sermons preached from that scripture with many different applications to whatever situation, but then Graham read that passage again from the Message translation and BAM- right between the eyes!
Romans 12:1-2 (Message)
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. Don’t become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well–formed maturity in you.
All of a sudden, God has my attention- my full, undivided attention, He was talking to me! I have blogged many times about how things are getting routine here. What does the scripture say, “Don’t become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.” God brought us here to minister to people, not just Watoto people, but the woman I buy bananas from, the guy at the pineapple cart and the people we meet just walking down the street. Have I got so comfortable in the culture that I am now walking by the very people God sent me here to minister to? Ashamedly, I must admit that the answer to that may be yes in some circumstances. I am so glad God showed me that now while I still have some months to pay more attention to the people around me and listen closely for God’s voice.
What have you been walking by in your culture? Who is God calling you to minister to?

We're Growing!

So just in case anyone missed the announcement yesterday on Facebook, we will be getting grandchild #3 in January 2014. Courtney, Cam, Ashton and Hayden will have a new arrival in their house. We are very pleased that it is in January when we will be home! We are trusting God for more additions to our family in the near future.
We are pleased to report there have been no further earthquakes since our last update- made for a much more peaceful sleep last night.
We are just getting ready to watch one of the CFL games we taped last night. Then we will watch “the main event”- the Rider game, when we get up tomorrow morning. We will have to stay off Facebook and e-mail until after we watch the game because we don’t want to know any updates along the way!
This weekend should be a nice, quiet relaxing one- at least that is our hope and plan. Within the next few weeks Greg will need to start working Saturdays and with Lorenda’s new position at the guesthouse, concerns can arise anytime night or day. We will just enjoy this weekend and see what God brings next week- that’s the plan. God has taught us a lot about a lot of things since we have been here- don’t worry about tomorrow and be anxious for nothing are two of the lessons that come to mind. Most days we can say we are quite far along on the learning curve there (but the earthquakes did set at least one of us back a few paces on the be anxious about nothing front!)
I hope this weekend finds you enjoying God’s creation on a beautiful summer day. Have a great day and make sure you cheer nice and loud for the Riders!

Life is Interesting!

After a late night on Tuesday (with our car trouble and all), we were tired last night and went to bed very early, just before 9:00 PM. At 10:30 PM, we had another earthquake- this one even woke Greg up! It was stronger than the day before. A rather rude awakening I must say! It takes a while to get back to sleep after an earthquake (even a small one that the locals refer to as a tremor), but we did get back to sleep only to experience another one at 1:30 AM. These have not caused any major damage, but in the area of Uganda where they are occurring, the people live in mud huts. Greg was told today that around 40 huts have been damaged or destroyed so for those 40 families who are now homeless, the damage is significant.
One source said that the epicenter of the quake was at a village called Hoima. Today, I have been reading another source that states the quakes are actually on a fault line below Lake Albert- very interesting, indeed! You see, when we were here in 2012 with the building team from FBC, we were told that oil had been found at the bottom of Lake Albert. The problem is that the center of Lake Albert is the dividing line between Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda. Once the oil was found, the disputes about who owns Lake Albert began.
The Lord has been teaching me a lot about one verse in the Bible. Ephesians 6:12 says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” As the battle over this lake and its oil has heated up between two countries with a history of many occult practices, one has to wonder about these earthquakes. Please consider this as you pray for the people of Uganda and DRC.

A Day of Firsts

Remember a while back we felt like our life here was getting to be rather routine and felt that our blog may be getting a little boring. Well, today was anything by boring!
First off, I (Lorenda) started my new position working at the guesthouses. I didn’t do a lot of work, just mostly learned some of what has been going on and what direction they want things to go.
I was back to our apartment early and was doing a little relaxing when our building started shaking and the stuff on the coffee table started to move. I wasn’t sure exactly what was happening, but I was pretty sure I was experiencing an earthquake. Turns out I was right, I had just lived through my first earthquake! Just for the record, Greg also lived through it, but he was driving at the time and didn’t even know it had happened until I told him. When we came to Uganda we had no idea all the new experiences we would have!
Tonight we took our Australian friend Amy out for supper. She has been here volunteering for just over a month and is going home tomorrow (side note- she also felt the earthquake at her apartment which is about four kilometers from ours). After we were done with supper, our vehicle wouldn’t start. Greg has been having some battery issues and planned to purchase a new one tomorrow. Amy and I looked at each other and said, “Who does one call in Uganda to get help like this?” We both knew who to call if we were on our own continents, but not here. Greg spoke with the security guard at the restaurant and he called….yep, you guessed it- he called a taxi cab to come and boost us (what?!) The “jumpers” aka booster cables that they used were truly Ugandan- just two pieces of copper wire, no ends on them, just hold them on each battery and start the car! Now we know who to call for car trouble and what “jumpers” are.
It has been a very long and exhausting day with lots of learning and new experiences. I can’t wait to see what God will teach us tomorrow!

Happy Canada Day

Happy Canada Day to everyone back home.
Wherever you are, we hope it is a nice, sunny day to commemorate Canada’s 146th birthday.
We hope each of you realizes how blessed you are to live in such a great country. Sometimes when that is the only place we have lived, we start to take all that we have for granted. Believe me, Canada is a great place to live- not perfect, but it is a great place.
Things are getting back to “normal” here. Our kids left here on Friday evening and arrived back home on Saturday evening after a long trip. I remember when Charissa went to Europe in Grade 12 and said, “I love travelling, but I hate the travelling part.” In other words, seeing other parts of the world is amazing, but getting there and back is exhausting. I have to agree with her on that- the trip to and from Uganda is grueling, but it is worth it for anyone who may be deciding to come in the next few months.
Greg is back at work today and will likely be working some very long days this week- his plate just continues to get fuller and fuller. He is actually going to need a platter pretty soon!
Lorenda decided to take the day off to do a little relaxing, some laundry and a little organizing around the apartment. Having five adults in a tiny apartment called for a little rearranging!
It has been brought to our attention (again) that some people are unable to make comments on our blog. Of course, I (Lorenda) would not be able to do anything to help that problem so I sent it off to our computer genius son-in-law, Cam. Problem solved! There should be no further problems with anyone trying to make comments so I expect to see a whole lot more comments there now!
Once again, Happy Canada Day. Relax, enjoy your family and be thankful for the great country we call home.