Saturday June 20

We all went to bed about 10 pm last night, and Ken & I both woke up about 4 am. Came downstairs to the lobby area to find Kam had already gotten up as well, so maybe we need to cut him a little slack on how much he’s been sleeping… NAH! There wouldn’t be any sense in that!
After I left off last night we all went over to The Palace – a compound across the street from KIU where Eternal Impact has their offices. Led by Anthony, we went around the room doing introductions – starting with the hosts. Let’s see, there was Anthony, Emmanuel, Peter, Aaron, Laura, Sophia, Harrison, David, Jackson, Evelyn, and Matthew. One thing that struck all of us was how each of them would start with “Praise God! I am Aaron and I’m born again.” To which the rest would respond “Amen”. The reason it struck all of us was that even in evangelical circles we don’t often see people wearing their faith on their sleeves to that extent. Most were students or recently graduated, most were from Kenya. Oh yeah – and they sang their own version of Hakuna Matata for us. Yes ladies & gentlemen, that term was NOT created by Disney! On the way back over to the campus, I asked Aaron how many students KIU had. They run around 11,000 which would make it a mid-range sized university in the states.
He also told me that the university is owned by a Muslim. From what they’ve explained to us, Islam is spreading rapidly in East Africa, and the manner of recruitment is a classic case of “find out what the people need and supply it - with strings”. As an example, many of the banks are owned by Muslims, and low interest loans are available to Muslims or those willing to convert. For Christians – not so much. I find this fascinating since the Islamic method of incursion in Europe is on the opposite end of the socio-economic scale. The people already living there already have all they need except workers to support their lifestyles. They’ve therefore allowed massive immigration from the less wealthy Muslim countries.
But I digress. It was decided last night that we were going to postpone the festival scheduled for today because we’re just not ready. The schedule had called for spending time yesterday rehearsing sketches and practicing worship songs, but by the time everyone grabbed a short nap and we did lunch and dinner, the day was wiped out. Meals at the restaurant are not like what we’re used to in the states. We’d arrive and it seems that they begin preparing the food at that point since we’d spend 30-45 minutes sitting at the tables chatting with the students. This is very enjoyable, but it is an adjustment to the harried pace that we’re used to. So by the time we got to the guest house (around 11) got cleaned up and ready to go (around 1230) went to eat and returned to the guest house (around 230) finished up some naps (around 5 pm) went to dinner, and had our social event at The Palace, we were back at the guest house around 9:30 pm.
An update on Nick. They took him over to the hospital last evening (Alex went with him as well) and he was given an IV to help re-hydrate him. We’re praying that a good night sleep will help him get back on his feet.
It’s now about 7:40 am and the rest of the folks (outside of Ken, Kam & I) are starting to stir. The girls had asked me to wake them at 7, but they apparently were woken earlier by some of the neighborhood crowing roosters and barking dogs. I haven’t seen any dogs yet, but they certainly are around! One other quick note on the urban wildlife here. There are a large number of very large storks flying around all the time. And I mean LARGE! We saw one sitting on top of a pole yesterday whose body was probably around 3’ long. When they fly overhead they look almost like a small plane! The kids are all remarking at how exceptionally ugly they are as well.
Update 7 pm
We spent most of the day at The Palace, rehearsing worship and sketches and helped them erect the tent. On tap this evening is a church service in the Main Hall here on campus. Branden found out this morning that he is preaching. Oh, and he’s also leading worship. He’s a little freaked out right now!
The highlight of the day was when us “mzumgu’s” (white people) were hanging out under the tent, helping the kids out with their testimonies. Somebody noticed that there were some tiny little black faces peaking through the gate. A bunch of little kids were going by and one of them somehow caught sight of a mzumgu – and they ALL had to see. We motioned them in and introduced ourselves, but Katie kept them completely enthralled by taking their pictures and then showing them what they looked like. It isn’t a very common occurrence.
As we were going through the same session, a group of the university students came outside and started practicing some of their singing – a capella. I swear there were angels in attendance. They were amazing!
The whole mzumgu thing is quite fascinating. We’ll be riding in the bus through town and kids walking down the street will spot us and get all excited, shouting “MZUMGU!” and waving very enthusiastically at us. We even passed a blonde white guy today, and he looked up, grinned and shouted “MZUMGU!” John had told us that we’d be like rock stars over here, but it’s almost like we’re from a completely different planet. All of them are extremely friendly, but we are definitely noticed.
We also had a dancing exhibition today, led by Bryan, Patrick, Laura, Sophie and a young lady that I haven’t been introduced to yet. Bryan is the leader of the pack, and can definitely bust a move. After they danced through several songs, all of our kids (and by kids, I include Branden, Katie, and Lance) got up and had Bryan and the other young lady doing moves and having our group trying to imitate them. There were varying levels of success. I was taking some pictures, and had 4 or 5 people come up to me to tell me “Sam is really good!” Patrick came up to her afterwards and said “You dance really well. Branden? Not so much. I think he has two left feet!”
Okay, I should probably head off to the church service. So much to tell, so little time to tell it. Lance is doing a fabulous job of coordinating us, and I’m sure Branden’s preaching will be great. Kennedy and Evelyn both asked me today if I was going to be preaching. I told them it would be probably the shortest message they’d ever heard. “Jesus is your best friend – never forget that!” The Lord may have called me to make this trip to Uganda, but I don’t believe I’ve heard him asking me to preach!!!
So until tomorrow (or whenever I can get to the internet café again) I’ll sign off. We’re having a blast!

Oh, and I'm hoping to get some pics and maybe a video up tomorrow.