US Ambassador

Tonight all American’s in Mbarara were able to go to Lakeview hotel and meet the US Ambassador to Uganda. It was really interesting to hear him talk, hear other Americans state their concerns, ask questions and then listen to his response. It was just another level of understanding this country, what is going on, what things are changing and what is going to change, what is good, what is bad, what could potentially be an issue, etc. He and his wife were fabulous people and I really enjoyed meeting them. They knew I was only in town for a short time as we all introduced ourselves and so asked me where I was living and what I was doing there. They gave me great encouragement when they heard I was in New Orleans. It is interesting though, all ambassadors only have a three year assignment and then they are done. It doesn’t seem like enough time to truly get to know the country, the people, your people living in it to make a difference. But who am I to challenged the policies of the US Government. I do know however, that it is a pretty cool job and I wouldn’t mind taking it on one day…hmmm, where should I be ambassador to? Suggestions?!

The University Hospital

What an experience to see a hospital in action in a third world country. I had the privilege once before going to a hospital in India, but this was more intense. Lydia has been working with the hospital in OB-GYN ward and just switched to the Surgery ward. She invited me to come along and observe with her knowing that I majored in Bio Pre-Med. We took a boda-boda (motorcycle taxi) to the hospital, I met the head nurse, dawned a white doctors coat and stethescope and we were on our way. Our duty was to clean the wounds of the patients in the ward. Let me tell you something, what we think of as sterile is not the same as what is in the hospital. Not that things are dirty, but we in America take so many more precautions that Ugandans done have the luxury of doing. It is a good place and they do a good job, but the conditions are so different. Starting in the men’s ward the first patient had been hit in the leg by a boda, fracturing his tibia and fibula…an open fracture at that so you could see the bones. There were other unbelievable things…a young man who had been sitting on the back of a truck and a trailor hit him and took off the lower part of his back and one of his butt cheeks was almost severed. I could see the guys vertebrate, some of his pelvic bone and the top of one femur. As we were cleaning him, he cried and cried, evidentally they stopped giving him morphine one week after he was admitted because he was becoming addicted. So this guy has been copping with the pain of this accident for months. There were old men, young men, young boys in the ward, some in really bad shape, some in good spirits, all in some sort of pain. It is however a cultural thing to not show pain or express noise when in pain so it was silent while the cleaning occurred. The women’s ward was next to care for the women and children who were there. Again things that would have been treated much more aggressively in the States was not the case here. Some of it has to do with the people who are injured, either they wait for a long time to even go to the hospital and thus the damage is much more severe, or there is no money to go to the hospital. And some of it is difference in quality of life. Either way my heart hurt for those women and children. One lady had a ten year history of breast cancer and was just now coming in to get a masectomy. Another lady had an acid burn on her hand, she didn’t come in for treatment straight away and her pinky had to be removed. The top of her hand was fully exposed and I saw muscles, tissue and her bones. We walked through the Pediatrics ward when we were leaving and saw some itty bitty babies, kiddos with massive tumors on their heads, and other kids sick with a variety of things. It made me want to know all things associated with medicine and care for them all.

Central Market and an Ultra Sound

Today Crystal and I picked up Amina, a neighborhood shopkeeper and friend, to take her for an ultrasound. This is her third child, she is 8 mths pregnant and has never had an ultrasound. Crystal had told her she would pay for one so she could have the experience of seeing the baby in the womb. I asked Amina if she preferred a boy or a girl. She said a boy, but that it didn’t matter too much. They dropped me off at the Central Market so I could do a little shopping for friends and headed to the imaging center. I walked around for a bit, looking a different shops, bought a few things and then it started to pour. I sought shelter under a tarp with many male shopkeepers attempting to get me to take respit in their shops…all in vain. I waited it out for a while and then braved the rain and made my way to the imaging center. I didn’t see them, so went to a hotel next door and had some tea while waiting. It was nice to sit outside, sheltered, drinking tea and pondering my time in Uganda and that I would be in America one week from that day. Eventually I went back in as I never saw them come out only to find that they were still waiting to be seen. Ugandan time…everything takes longer. So we sat and chatted. There was a funny African animal/nature video on that was looped, so it played over and over. I probably saw it three times and they saw it six. At last the wait ended and they went into see the technician. She came out beaming and announced that she was having a boy. What fun to be a part of this in her life, for Crystal to love on her friend this way and continue to develop a deeper friendship with her.

Sleepover!

I hung out with my friends John and Lydia Young (in UG short term from Georgia) and Zilla Whitehouse (in UG longterm from Manchester) tonight at another friends house that John and Lydia were housesitting for a few days. John made dinner, a fantastic curry, I made naan and we ate and hung out, talking about life, what we all want to do, what we are doing and getting to a deeper level of friendships. The four of us went to the porch, to enjoy some fresh air and a little gift from a friend and then went inside and watched Juno. After the movie was over, Lydia invited me to stay the night and so we had an adult sleepover. Good times. We had breakfast together in the morning and all went our separate ways.

Girls Lunch and Slashing Grass

Crystal and I went to lunch at this beautiful hotel called Lakeview. We sat by the pool and ordered our lunch, chatted casually and then got into some wonderful talks. Tears were shed, we laughed as well and enjoyed the warmth of the sun shielded by the clouds. It started to sprinkle just a bit so we moved to the bar/gazebo to eat. We sat down and the counter was much higher than normal…almost to our chins. My mind flashed back to Pippen in Lord of the Rings shouting, “They come in PINTS?!” and then sitting at the bar that was WAY too big for his hobbit size. Our food came and we realized this would not work so we moved to a bit more leveled out area of the bar. It was so fun to be with my sister, share our thoughts, enjoy each other and spend some quality time together.

We got home and Asher was in the buck (as he usually was since he was potty training) and out helping Dennis slash the grass. That’s what they do in Uganda, take a scythe and slash or cut the grass. Asher took a long branch bent over started slashing the grass in perfect slashing form. Any Ugandan would be proud. I laughed so much…then he started running around, slashing and yelling, “I’m running! I’m running!” Ah to be two and do things that make others laugh and you can enjoy the innocence of it. He cracks me up!

A haircut and a walk

This morning I walked into the play room and saw a vision of hair flying into a basin and Matt leaned over buzzing his own hair. So I sat down on a cushion and watched the show. A little later Asher toddled in and was roped into getting a haircut as well. Bribed might be better, he got to watch Cars while the deed was being done. I shed a little tear as his ultra cool faux hawk was slowly shorn into a buzz. We all decided to go on a walk around the neighborhood and get some tomatoes for lunch. We went to the burial grounds for the Kings, Queens and Princes of the area. It was quite nondescript considering this was the place to hold the dead of royalty, but it was cool to see. We got to the shop, bought what we needed and chatted with the keeper and headed home to make lunch, fun outing!

One week left

I can’t believe I only have one week left. Time has flown by, I have experienced so much and know this week will be more to experience. After our adventure in Kishanje we just chilled as a family. Matt got a little sick and so stayed home from teaching and we had good family time.

Tears of the Sun

Beautiful Africa

Has anyone seen this movie?  Bruce Willis stars with others that you might recognize.  I had never seen it before and we borrowed it from another couple.  It is about evacuating Nigeria after a rebel militia army assassinated the President and his family and cleansing the country of certain people (genocide).  Bruce Willis plays a Navy S.E.A.L Lieutenant whose mission is to extract a doctor, a priest and two nuns from a Mission and take them to safety.  I will save you the rest of the plot, watch it for yourselves, but I will share my thoughts and experiences after I was done.  Watching the militia men kill, rape and destroy people’s lives without a blink of an eye or any moral consciousness sickened and angered the depths of my soul.  At the end of the movie I could feel the emotions start to rise.  It wasn’t however until I was cleaning a few things up that I started to experience these emotions.   Knowing this was just a story, but also knowing the reality of what occurred in it is very real in Africa, and in fact all over the world.  I asked God, “How could you let these things happen?” and He answered, “They were my children, I loved them too.”  “Why God?  How long will you wait?  I know you can intervene…why did you not?”  I know the answers in my mind to these questions, but my heart had to ask them.  The tears started to come, broken for those who had experienced such atrocities and died, those who had and lived, children being forced into an army and brainwashed to kill.  More tears for kids and young adults that I had met here who had experienced these things.  I thought of my own conceit of how I live, how privileged I am and not just in wealth but in physical and emotional health, safety and yet the smallest, insignificant thing may dishearten or upset me.  I know nothing of pain and torture, deepest grief and fear as those that have gone through the manifestation of a war torn country overcome by evil men.  I think of those Christians who have experienced something like this, and those that have survived have spoken of compassion, love, grace and mercy for their torturers.  I have no faith in comparison with that…how could I love my enemy when they have done unimaginable things to my friends, family and even me?  It could not come of me, nor of them, but that kind of love MUST come from God.  I know God will bring justice upon those who live wickedly, but it is still difficult for me to not be angered at them.  Matt and Crystal had gone to their room, heard me crying, came and knocked on my door and sat with arms around me as I wept.  After quite some time I shared my thoughts with tears still running quickly down my face.  Broken, reality hitting me in so many directions about so many things, I hope to never forget this day.  May it be that this be instilled deep in my soul and effect how I view situations, people and life and love the world with God’s love and not my own. 

 

 

ABIDE

Serenity

ABIDE (Amagara Bible Institute of Discipleship and Evangelism) is the ministry Matt has started that trains and equips young Ugandan men in a 6-month intensive program that develops them spiritually, emotionally, and vocationally.  They journey with people in the neighborhood and villages by praying for them, caring for their needs, and sharing how their lives have been changed.  There are currently 10 students who participate in ABIDE and are from all over Uganda.  Matt asked me if I wanted to teach and I told him I would be honored.  So Wed and Thurs I taught on the fruit of the spirit from Galatians 5.  It was fun to prepare, be challenged myself and then in turn challenge them.  There was much discussion both days, many of them have a deep desire to know more about the Bible and spiritual things yet have not had people develop them until now.  They are a great group of guys, so many different personalities, a variety of stories, gifts and I am glad to call them my brothers. 

Kishanje

Petrol to Kishanje: 120,000 UGS

Mechanic to repair wheel well: 50,000 UGS

Time spent on road and repair: 11 Hours

Experiencing true Uganda: Priceless

Ha, I laugh as I think back on what should have been a relatively easy trip out to the village and then remember the reality. Kishanje is 3.5 hours South West of Mbarara, very close to the Congo border and in the rural mountains of Uganda. It is another site of Juna Amagara Children’s Home and schools. Our trip’s purpose was to have a youth program for the kids. We (ABIDE guys, Matt, Crystal, myself and the boys) started out our trip with two vans and Matt and Crystal’s car. One van took a different route to pick up a team in another town and it had radiator problems the whole trip. The other van was just fine…until we blew a tire and not just a flat, it was shredded. So Matt changed it and took the time to show the guys how to change a tire. We started off and about 30 mins later I watched in awe as the same tire we had just changed went flying off the van, took multiple leaps and bounds and the van teetered on for a minute with one wheel missing. From there on our trip was full of more adventure…waiting, tires flying off again…waiting, other van over heating…waiting and finally to Kishanje at 10pm. Matt actually had to go back to pick up the people stranded in the van that overheated on the way up the hill. The other van that lost the tire didn’t make it up that night, nor did it in the morning, due to yet TWO MORE flat tires. Everyone was finally together around 5pm for the football match. This area is beautiful…steep hills colored with so many different shades of green, Lake Bunonye, one of the worlds deepest lake cradled in the valley of these hills, simple lifestyles, generous people, joyful children and an amazing view of the stars at night. It was like my own private viewing of the heavens each night. We stayed at a friend’s house and got to taste more of what true Ugandan life is like. No electricity, or water, pit latrines for toilets, eating lunch at 2pm, tea at 5pm, supper at 10pm, great traditional food and LONG Sunday church service, seriously like 5 hours! I really loved the simple lifestyle, I didn’t mind being dirty, hiking everywhere we needed to get and living how most would consider extremely roughing it. I was able to meet some teenage girls who attend the Juna Amagara school and were with Matt and Crystal in Mbarara when they first arrived. Lynnate was my girl…she’s spunky, outgoing, an amazing football player and trusts God with complete dependence. She taught me different things to say in her language, held my hand and clung to me at meetings and became a sweet friend. I look forward to seeing her again some day. Our return home was uneventful, but we went on our own, the others in the van weren’t so lucky. We made it home Sunday afternoon and all crashed. I loved the experience.