We are having some trouble getting our devices to communicate with each other. At this point, it takes a significant amount of time and frustration to attach pictures. We have included two photos today and we will keep trying to get them for you.
September 16, 2016
Remember how I told you a few days ago that we have gotten
to the point where not so much surprises us anymore. Well, believe me, it
happened today!
After Greg did some hands on training with the team this
morning, he went with some of the guys to purchase a piece of equipment. Greg
asked if I wanted to come along, but I declined, knowing that they wouldn’t be
gone that long. Oh right, sometimes my brain is still set on “Canadian” when I
think silly thoughts like that! It is Friday and there is always jam for the whole
day on Friday so the trip took several hours (that is definitely not the
surprising thing that happened).
Once the trip was done we decided to knock off a little
early, stop for a bite to eat and then spend some time with Joanna and the kids.
As I said the jam occurs for pretty much the whole day on Fridays so it takes a
while to get anywhere!
Eventually we were on our way to Joanna’s, but we are
not so familiar with the route to her current place so we were relying on the
GPS. We have spoken many times about how our cheap little Garmin GPS has gotten
us to where we have needed to go and was an absolute lifesaver for us in 2013.
Well, today it let us down! On top of the crazy jam, the GPS decided to take us
through a community that had very narrow streets, with many, many, many people
walking on the roads AND a huge market lining both sides of the streets. We also had absolutely no idea where we were at that point. “In
the olden days”, this would have freaked us out, but again, that is another
situation that we have become accustomed to.
Finally we got ourselves on the right track and we were on
our way, or so we thought! We ended up in such a bad jam in an area where there
should be no jam. It took us over 30 minutes to go 400 meters. What, what,
what? As we were slowly getting closer to the corner where we needed to turn,
we could see that there was a very large mob of people (>1000) gathered
there. Things would remain quite quiet for some period of time and then this
huge crowd would begin jumping and yelling. At this point we were still too far
away to determine what was going on. Every few minutes the crowd would begin
jumping, a loud roar would come from the crowd and then we would move a few car
lengths ahead, before we came to a stand still again.
We just could not figure out what was happening. At first we
thought there were people fighting in the street. No, it didn’t really appear
to be an angry mob. Then I saw a sign for a soccer match that one of the bars
was planning to show. That must be it. Ugandans are crazy for soccer so they
must be gathered in the streets watching a match. But the loud cheers came every
few minutes, there is not that much scoring in soccer. It was becoming curiouser
and curiouser!
Finally we are about the third or fourth car in the lineup
when the cheering began again. The people in the street started freaking out
and pounding on cars to get them to clear the intersection. Then Greg says,
“Look at this!” Here comes a race car- yes, a fancy painted race car, zooming
down the street toward us. It then turned on the street where we wanted to go.
Right behind it comes the vehicle it was racing against. Once the racing cars
passed and the cheering died down, some of the people in the street started
directing traffic and waving at us to turn and get going. What? We don’t want
to be part of this race!
I’d like to say that I have seen everything now, but I doubt
that is true! Can you imagine? Cars racing around a circuit through some
community while 1000 people block every intersection and cheer. What does one
do after encountering such a situation? Just sit and laugh hysterically! TIA
(this is Africa)
Remember I told you in the beginning we were headed to see
Joanna and the kids. We did eventually reach there and were greeted with our
usual hugs, hugs, hugs. It was so amazing.
While Brian and Martin were preparing supper for us, Sharon
and Efrance decided that the rest of us needed to dance with them. These kids
are part of a competitive dance group and they dance very well. The rest of us,
not so much! Greg quickly decided he needed to go assist with supper
preparations, while Joanna and I continued to “dance”. Joel was watching and
was laughing so hard that I thought he would collapse! Then he decided he
needed to take video of this- whatever it was! Hopefully there will be no
evidence of this posted anywhere.
After we ate our amazing supper, we all sat around the table
and talked for quite some time. These young people are absolutely amazing. What
a huge blessing it was to sit with them and discuss so many different things,
from spiritual issues to teenage issues. All the craziness of the trip there,
just didn’t matter anymore. We would have done it four times over, just to have
the privilege of that time with Joanna and these incredible young people.
By the time we left at just after 10 PM, there was no more
jam. We got back to our hotel quickly and without one single wrong turn. Yay
Greg- you rock this Kampala driving!
September 17, 2016
One of the jobs Greg needs to do while we are here is to
assess each of the eleven Watoto church campuses, from a maintenance
perspective. We are starting to panic that our time is going so quickly and
will be gone before we know it, so we decided to hit a couple of them today.
First up- Suubi Village! Many of you already know what that
means- the mom that we sponsor and three of our sponsor children live in
Suubi. Unfortunately, the mom we
sponsor is currently on leave (vacation) so we did not see her today. But we
did get to see some of her boys who were staying in neighbouring homes. We saw
Abdul, who stayed with our friends Kim and Laurena when he was on choir tour in
Canada, a few years back. We also saw Victor, who stayed in our home when he
was on tour in Canada in 2014. Abdul immediately recognized us as he has seen
us many times, but it took a little longer for Victor.
Next we proceeded to the home of three of our other sponsor
children. These children are so special to me. While in Uganda in 2013, I
prayed, “Lord, break my heart for what breaks yours”. These three children were
the first kids that broke my heart while working at the babies home. They are
biological siblings and when they came to babies home, I was assigned to work
closely with them. Very soon I became “mommy” to them and I knew immediately
that we needed to sponsor them- there was no way I could let go of them. The
oldest was on choir tour in Canada earlier this year and stayed in our home,
but we haven’t seen the other two since 2013.
It was so incredibly emotional to hold those kids in my arms
again. The tears flowed as I told their mom how much these children mean to us
and how thankful I am that she is for caring for them. Someone suggested that
the children should come back to Canada with us. Believe me, if that was
possible, they would have come back with us in 2013!
Two more site assessments were done today, but I won’t bore
you with the details.
The exciting part is that two members of the facilities
team came with us. Grace was raised in Suubi village so he was a huge help when
we needed to navigate that large village. He also did most of the driving today
so Greg got a break, while Jonathan and I sat in the back. Jonathan was not
part of the facilities team in 2013 so this trip has been my first opportunity to
get to know him. I love the days when we get to hang out with team members,
away from the work setting and just get to know them better. These are two
incredible young men and we are privileged to have them in our lives.
As I have said many times before on this blog, it’s not
about the work, it’s about the people and today was a day loaded with people.
How blessed we are!
September 18, 2016
Sunday, what a blessing to be able to go to church and
worship with God’s people.
Today Greg decided to check out the two new Watoto
Church locations that have opened since we left in 2013. These are not buildings
that Watoto owns, but are in rented facilities. One is in a hotel and the other
is in a theatre (not a movie theatre, but one where you would go to see a play
or the opera).
First we went to the one in the theatre, which is in the
area of Kampala where we had our apartment in 2013. As we entered I saw a face
that was so familiar- Jetti, one of the nannies from the babies home. What a
huge blessing to see her again. Then she told me that Susan also attends this
location and my heart leapt! If you followed our journey in 2013, you will
remember how it was very lonely for me at the babies home for the first couple
of weeks I was there. Then God sent two amazing women, two kind and caring
nannies that I had the privilege to work with often- Susan and Florence. It was
such a huge blessing to see Susan today. I couldn’t locate her before the
service, but I found her after and I RAN when I saw her. Yes ran for the first
time since June (for those who don’t know, I tore my hamstring badly in June).
Again, I can’t explain to you how amazing it was to see her and to hug her- she
is so amazing!
We also saw our cell mate (ie. A friend from our Bible
study) Michael. Greg describes him as the “happiest Ugandan”. Many of you know
some Ugandans and know how much they smile so you can only imagine how much
bigger Michael’s smile is to be given that description! His smile and laugh are
so contagious!
Today we had the privilege of being escorted to these
campuses by another of the team members, Ed. He is one of the original team
members that was here when we arrived in 2013 and is another of the wonderful
people we feel blessed to have in our lives. He got married last year while Greg
and his brother Mike were here, so they were blessed to attend the wedding. I,
however, have not met Ed’s wife Phina yet. I keep asking him why he is keeping
her from me, but he assures me that is not the case and keeps promising I will
meet her soon. I will keep you updated.
While we were at the Watoto Church that is at the hotel, we
saw several race cars in the parking lot. There were also three large
cups/trophies that either someone had won or they were going to be contending
for in the near future. We have now learned that what we saw on Friday night
was not so unusual. Street racing is actually very big here. How would I know
that? The only thing I know about racing relates to Lightning McQueen and the
Piston Cup.
Today we had lunch at my favourite little spot which is
called Bean Café. If you ever come to Kampala, you should go there. It is easy
to find- right on Ggaba Road and they serve the most amazing Oreo Cookie
Frappe. They serve lots of great salads and sandwiches as well, but don’t miss
out on the frappe!
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