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….”