June 21

Hey all - the post below this one has some pics. I tried to upload a video clip, but it was an "epic failure" in the teen terms.



All righty then! I’ve got some pics and movie clips, courtesy of Ken’s camera, that I can hopefully get loaded up today. I say hopefully because I’ve found that internet access in the Internet café is, shall we say, “sporadic”. Friday night it seemed to pop pretty fast and I was rather surprised because John had warned me about how slow the connections were here. Last evening was a different story. It took me 3 tries to finally get the post up and I never was able to send or receive any emails – kept getting disconnected.

So I’m sitting in the living room area of the guest house at 4 am typing this. I have the patio doors opened up with the screens pulled across and it is a true urban jungle out there. I can hear at least 6 distinctly different dogs and who knows how many others in the background. They bark and howl all night. I chuckle when I think about how annoyed I get once or twice a year with one of the neighbor’s dogs barking for 15 minutes or so before the owner takes them in. The Kampala roosters also have a very sick perspective on time – they think they’re supposed to start crowing around 2 in the morning!

Yesterday we got a real taste of “Uganda Time”. Maybe it wasn’t a real taste yet, but it was certainly different than what we’re used to. We had 3 things scheduled for the day – helping to raise the tent at The Palace, practice worship and dramas and attend church at KIU in the evening. We arrived at The Palace around 9:15 am. We returned to the guest house at about 10 pm. I think it we spent maybe 20 minutes helping with the tent, maybe a total of 2 hours practicing dramas. Where did the rest of the time go? I have no idea. In Uganda, things happen when they happen.

The church service last night was an experience. I missed the first half hour because I was trying to get the blog updated, so I’m thinking right now I’m going to have someone else explain their perspectives of it. Branden did a fine job of leading worship and preaching, although there was great hilarity when his message was interrupted by a moth approximately the size of a chicken. It buzzed him a couple of times, but it would appear that Branden doesn’t deal well with bugs that appear large enough to remove one of his limbs.

I have to apologize for misspelling (and possibly a misrepresentation of the sound) “Mzungu”. It’s an ‘n’ in the middle. Brian was trying to teach Branden & I some basic Swahili yesterday, but I’m afraid I’m very visual with language – I have to see the word written out before I can try to pronounce it. Branden appeared to be doing quite well, however. When I first started to contemplate this trip, one of my fist questions was “how will we be able to communicate?” English is the “official” language of Uganda, which means that it is taught in all of the schools from primary on up, all of the signs you see on the street are in English, etc. The “mother tongue” of everyone, however, is Swahili. This results in the pronounced accent that they speak with, and some are easier to understand than others, naturally.

I also learned today that Mzungu actually means “going around in circles”. The original white people that they met were traders who would travel around Africa over and over again.

I just can’t say enough about how warm and friendly the people are. In the US, there always seems to be an underlying tension between the races. I know that I have a few very good friends in the States that are black, but even in conversations with them I can still feel something there, even when neither of us feel any racism towards each other. Over here, they are just ecstatic to have us here. They tell us how blessed they are to have us come over. As Branden said last night, they don’t seem to have any comprehension of what this trip means to us – they are just overjoyed to have us. If we could bottle that perspective – for both sides – and import it to our country…

Another update on Nick. Friday night he went to the local hospital where they gave him an IV to re-hydrate him, and yesterday morning he appeared to feel pretty good, Later in the morning, however, he began feeling ill again. Lance took him into the hospital again and at this point it appears that his system is just not doing very well with the anti-malarial pills that he has been taking. They gave him some anti-nausea pills and we’re waiting for his Mom to speak with his physician at home as to recommendations where to go next. He is getting lots of sleep, but we all feel very badly that he is missing so much of the experience so far.

Everyone on the team had a new culinary experience last night at dinner – we had goat. All agreed that although it was slightly tough, it tasted pretty much like beef. I could tell a couple of the kids were a little apprehensive about it at first, but it went over well.

The people we interact with here all have an insatiable appetite to hear about what life in America is like. We all agree that one of the hardest conversations to have with them is around food. They want to know what we eat. They want to know what our staple foods are – what do we eat at pretty much every meal. You can tell them that the basic meats are chicken, beef, pork and fish, but it is very difficult to explain that we eat those in so many different manners – Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, Greek, Thai, Moroccan, “American”, barbecue and on and on – and that’s just in the Wilsonville/Tualatin area. It appears that they eat rice at every lunch/dinner meal. They also have “chapata” at every meal – an African bread that is similar to a tortilla but much better. I was sitting at a table with Evelyn last night, and when I tried to explain to her that none of us had ever eaten goat before, she was just astonished. “What about camel?” No, there aren’t any camels in North America. Rabbit? Erika told her that she had never had it. I told her that I used to eat it when I was younger and my grandmother would cook it, but haven’t had it in years.

But we all agree that their food is very good. Yesterday at lunch they served us “samoysas” (I’m probably butchering the spelling), which were kind of like fried dumplings filled with spiced meat, and “mince meat” which was a hamburger type meat spiced with something delectable. Every time we go to a meal they seem offended if you don’t take enormous portions of the food. Ken commented yesterday that he’s just amazed that they had 8 different courses at lunch – mince meat, samoysas, rice, beans, greens (similar to spinach but I’m not sure what plant it’s from), cabbage salad, chapata and fresh fruit (pineapple and watermelon). About the only thing that hasn’t gone over fabulously well was a white maize concoction they served last night. When I tried it I was thinking “paste”. Katie called it plaster. A couple of interesting observations I’ve had – I don’t think they’ve served anything yet containing cheese, and I haven’t noticed any garlic yet.

The weather warmed up some yesterday but still wasn’t terribly hot. In spite of that, I’ve noticed that I’m in a perpetual state of a light sweat. I’ve been having a terrible time trying to read stuff because every time I put my glasses on they start to fog up.

One thing I’d like to mention to everyone – please feel free to comment on these posts. Everyone here would love to hear from you, even if it’s just to say “Hi, we’re praying for you!”


The Church Service (Branden)

Let’s just say the church in America is, well, dignified. We have a very structured service that takes no more than 1.5 hours and one can generally know exactly what is going to happen next. To describe the church in African I think the words of David Crowder’s song “Undignified” best says it. It says “I will dance I will sing, to be mad for my king.” Then the chorus just says “I’ll become even more undignified than this.”

We entered the church service a little bit late, which is the custom in Uganda. Nothing is on time. The service hadn’t “started” yet but we walked in to a woman passionately praying/prophesying in a deep African accent. The gist of her prayer was that God is bigger than our problems. She said “I don’t care sister if you’ve lost your sister or mother the time of mourning is over!” “God is Good” It was amazing. Then the worship team started setting up. That’s right, the worship team STARTED setting up during the service. One of the guys started playing the keyboards and then an impromptu worship song started. They went on an impromptu version of “This is the Air I breathe” while they got us all set up. I (Branden) was asked earlier that day to lead worship. I have realized that we Americans do not know what worship is all about. I led 9 songs of worship, and they were ready for more. We had 10 students leading worship with me and the congregation was louder than the sound system! Then we had announcements, offering, another “sermonette”, the pastor spoke for a while, and then they invited me up to introduce the team and preach. I spoke for about 35 or 40 minutes and then Pastor Kennedy came up and recapped my message. Shortly after that we had a dance team that did 2 routines as a form of worship to the Lord. At the end of the 2.5 hours of service a young woman named Esther walked up and preached this message based on my message and followed it with worship and prayer. I have NEVER in my life heard anybody pray like that. 100 people praying in their own languages at the top of their lungs is breathtaking.

This first church experience rocked all of our worlds. We are around people who live with nothing compared to what we have, yet they have taught us so much about our faith. They begin every sentence with “praise God”. They pray, worship, and dance for Jesus with all of their might. They are looking to us as “rock stars” that have come to be with them, yet, they are the ones who are rocking our worlds!

Thanx Branden – Dale back again. This afternoon we went to the Ebeneezer Orphanage. Yes, our worlds were rocked again. I’m still trying to process it all and will hold off describing the experience until we’ve had the chance to debrief tonight.