The Joys of Central

Working at Watoto Central is a very interesting experience with a variety of rewards and challenges.
The challenges of working here mostly relate to the traffic- vehicles and people!
There are so many people working in the building that the interruptions are frequent. We know that we are here because of the people, but some days it feels like we don’t get much done! We keep asking God to show us the balance between being task driven and being relational. North Americans tend to lean way to the task driven and Ugandans lean way to the relational- we need to find that middle ground where we are people sensitive, but still get the work done.
Getting into Central in the morning is not that big of a deal because we choose to come in early and beat the traffic. Right now the traffic is especially light because the children are on a school break- it is unbelievable the difference in the traffic when the children are out of school.
Leaving Central at the end of the day can be a very different story! If we leave at 4:30, it takes about 15 minutes to get back to our apartment. If we don’t leave until 5:00, the trip becomes a 30 to 45 minute commute. Leaving at 5:30 means we get to spend about 90 minutes in the vehicle. We have mobile internet so we take advantage of this time to Facetime with our family or catch up on things that didn’t get done during the day. Thankfully we are usually able to get away by 4:30 and the drive is quick.
Watoto Central is located on a VERY busy street- much traffic and the pedestrians are many. Greg’s office is on that side of the building and their entry door opens right onto the street (sidewalk of the busy street, actually)- most of the noise stays outside except when the door opens for someone to go in or out. Sometimes they see some very interesting situations develop outside their office- riot police are a pretty common fixture out there.
My office is located deep in the church- back behind the sanctuary and through the lunchroom. Right now it is the best place in all of Watoto to be. The children’s choirs that will be going out to various countries in January have begun to practice and where do they practice? Right outside my department! All day long (on the days I am doing office work), I have the privilege of listening to those beautiful, little voices praise the Lord. Jobs just don’t get any better than that!
If you have never heard a Watoto children’s choir, you need to do that. They send choirs to Canada, US, Australia, Asia, Europe and some countries in South America. The choir going to Canada will start on the west coast in January and move across the country. They are usually in Saskatchewan in March and continue east until they leave Canada in late June or early July. The choir schedule will be on the Watoto website as the time comes closer- don’t worry, I will remind you!
In the meantime, I’ll just sit here and sing along, “I am not forgotten. I am not forgotten. I am not forgotten. God knows my name- He knows my name….”

A Post about Nothing

Well, we have hit another one of those spells where there is really nothing happening so it is hard to come up with anything interesting to write about.
Greg continues to work with the maintenance team, equipping them and preparing them for when we will be gone back to Canada. A maintenance supervisor was recently hired so Greg has handed over much of the daily supervision and day-to-day operations to him. He is a very capable young man who will do well in that position and continue to keep the maintenance department on track. It is very rewarding to see how far this team has come in the time we have been here. Building into the lives of people and watching them grow is such an amazing privilege. Even though we are starting to get a little home sick, we continue to count our blessings for the amazing experience we are having here.
Lorenda continues to work with the staff at the three Watoto guesthouses. In the beginning she was writing an operational manual- it described more of where we want to be by December rather than where we were at that time. The staff has been very receptive to the teaching regarding safe food handling techniques, cleaning procedures and building security.
The one thing that Ugandan women are not willing to change is the way they bend. Throughout Africa, they bend from the waist- they have amazing flexibility, but bending in that way with straight legs (or even sometimes hyperextended knees) is so hard on their backs. These are very young women with very sore backs! Lorenda has tried repeatedly to tell them and model for them using their leg muscles (largest muscle group in the body) is so much better than using the little, tiny muscles in your back. It is a hard sell, but it will be one of the challenges for the remainder of our time here.

Ugandan Families

A friend of ours, who is a colleague of Greg’s at Watoto Church, will be moving to Juba, South Sudan this weekend. He will be acting as the administrator of the Watoto Church there. Yesterday he asked if we would “stop by” and meet his family before he leaves for Juba. You would think that after this long in Uganda, we would know what “stop by” means. We were thinking that we would be back in an hour or so- not so!
After work Greg picked me from our apartment and we were going to meet our friend’s family. With the usual Ugandan directions in place (just keep driving past the quarry and you will see me), we set out on our journey. Now a few months ago, that kind of directions would have made us a little crazy. However, we have become more Ugandan with time so now we just laugh and proceed when we are given directions like that.
We did meet up with our friend who then told us that he wanted us to first “stop in” and “just say hello” to his auntie. Well…about an hour later, after we had been served tea and g-nuts, we bid farewell to auntie, cousin and a family friend. However, when auntie found out that we stayed nearby, we had to promise that we would come by to visit again because we “are family now”.
After a very short drive we arrived at our friend’s sister’s house. A wonderful little African home with beautiful, warm people. Our friend’s two brothers and three sisters, their spouses and families were there, as well as his mom, a cousin and a family friend. They served us a wonderful Ugandan meal and treated us as if we were the guests of honor. Our friend kept referring to us as “his bosses” and his family kept thanking us for all that we had done in his life- we didn’t know we had done anything!
After supper we had a time of singing and prayer. Some of it was in English and some in Luganda, but it didn’t matter- it was beautiful and amazing! Again they told us that we were family and we were welcome to come to visit anytime.
It is amazing how we could feel so welcomed by people we had never met before. Some of them didn’t speak English very well and we don’t speak Luganda. It was the first time that they had ever had Mzungu (white people) in their home. But none of that mattered! We were friends with their family member and that made us family- that was all that mattered.
I remember hearing stories of how our culture used to be like that. You could depend on your neighbours, stop in at a friend’s house unannounced and enjoy a meal with them without feeling like you were imposing. Where did we lose that? When did we lose that? Why did we lose that? We think that we have advanced so far, but I think we need to take some notes from our Ugandan brothers and sisters on this one.
Before we came to Uganda, we feared that it might be “awkward” to be the only white people at different gatherings. Last night we were not only the only Mzungu in the house at that time, but we were the only Mzungu who had ever set foot in that house and I can tell you that we felt nothing but love and acceptance.
We are really missing our family, but when we leave here, we are going to miss our Ugandan family. They are such loving, kind, generous people who welcome us with open arms.
Greg did make a new friend last night. Our friend’s niece is about 8 or 9 years old and she stuck to Greg like glue. She sat right beside him all night and kept putting her hand on his arm (they are amazed by the contrast between their skin colour and ours).
We have become so accustomed to seeing our black brothers and sisters everywhere (it is OK for me to call them black- it is not racist here) that it is going to be strange when we go home and all we see is pasty white faces everywhere!

Rainy Season is Back

For some weeks now, we have been looking forward to rainy season. The rain helps to settle the dust and the other various particles that like to hang in the air. The rain makes house cleaning much simpler- one does not have to wipe the counter tops three times a day. The rain makes it much easier to breathe. The rain makes the view from our apartment much more appealing as we can actually see across to the other hills instead of just seeing haze. I am really glad for rainy season- although, this morning when I was walking from the guesthouse and the first really hard rain of the season opened up on me, I wasn’t quite so in love with rainy season.
The best part of rainy season is that now all the crops will grow. Our Ugandan friends have been busy planting their crops and now the rains will help them to grow. Crops that will provide food for families or will be sold at market to provide money for school fees or clothes. I love rainy season, but my reasons for loving rainy season seem very frivolous when we compare them to the reasons my Ugandan friends have.