some photos for you

Just some random photos for those that dont really have time to read all my detailed blog entries.

Here is a photo from my second trip to an IDP camp. This time we slept in the IDP and were able to play with all the kids. This little boy at least has some form of clothing even if his butt shows. The main problems in the IDP's in terms of general servival is a lack of clothing and lack of medicines.

I am planning another trip to an IDP this time in Kitgum which is an area that has suffered greatly with LRA. We will be going to highschools and churches to mainly talk to youth about HIV/Aids and encourage them with the hope of Christ.

Here I am using a coal iron. We have to use these occasionally when we have no power. They work pretty but sometimes leave ash on your clothes.

This is me with fat little 4yr old Anisha. I was carrying her African style because she had fallen asleep and the best place to put a baby in Arica is on your back. She just woke up for the photo.

Im alive

Hello Peoples!!!
I am still alive but have just been very busy.
Thankyou to all who sent Birthday wishes. I was very happy to get them (especially when Ugandans dont celebrate bdays so it was nice to get some bday love from the other side of the world.)
I will be pretty busy these last 2 months so im not sure how often i will be able to update you all. I still have some posts typed that I just have to put on my blog.

I have begun to start organising my 21st bday party so if anyone has any reasons why I shouldnt have a party on either the 11th or 18th August please let me know.

Please continue to pray for safety. Another missionary just died here in Uganda after being hit but a car who's tyre blew. She was a mother of 4 children. Life here is cheap so not much care is taken by Ugandans in most situations. So please continue to pray that God will keep me safe an well.

Also please pray for the teen girls Bible study and the chapel services at BCC.
Lots of love to you all!!!

and theres more...........

Updates!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok I have to firstly make an apology to people who have emailed me. I am already a slacker when it comes to emails but it isn’t helped by the lack of computer and net access in this country. SO sorry if I have not replied to your emails my friends. I have loved hearing from you all.

Ok so since I last wrote soooooooooo much has happened I barely know where to begin.

MALARIA
I have had Malaria twice since I have written. Its quite a funny feeling having Malaria. I can understand how its similar to our common cold because people get it so often. It comes with fever, headaches, loss of appetite, tiredness, lack of energy and just an overall weird feeling like you have thousands of little vermin in your body sucking the energy from you. Which is precisely what it is as the virus works to destroy all your red blood cells and dehydrate you. So yes I survived Malaria but in all seriousness I am thankful to God that I picked it up early so I could be treated fast. Malaria claims more lives in the world than HIV/Aids. I understand how this statistic is truth as people in Africa are very poor and many cant pay for the treatment and also African people tend to leave things to the very last minute which means they finally take themselves to hospital when they are in a very bad stage, have lost lots of weight and all energy is gone so they die a lot easier.

BIBLES
A few weeks ago I was informed of some very exciting news. An organization in Australia decided to donate a large sum of money to Bushikori for furthering the Kingdom of God. SO Director and I sat down and decided that our greatest need for BCC are Bibles as we had only some very old, unusually translated copies that were falling apart and couldn’t be used for teaching.
Ok so I traveled to Kampala to hunt for some Bibles for BCC. I spent the whole day walking around the capital “city” and got very sun-burnt. I did however find some cheap hardcover NIV Bibles and Good News Bibles.
I was also on the hunt for some Sunday School teaching manuals to assist the School teachers with the Christian Education classes and the weekly chapel services we have started up. In the process of hunting around town and not having a map of Kampala I got a bit lost. I ended up at Kampala Baptist church instead of the Baptist bookshop. So I decided to ask someone for directions to the shop run by the Baptist. So I saw a man who just arrived in his car. I noted that he was reading a book by John Piper (a Christian author well known by many CU’ers) and was a book that I have picked up many times wanting to buy it but deciding it was too expensive. And I know you should never judge a book by its cover but I completely judged this man by the book he was reading (The book buy the way is “let the nations be glad.”) . He didn’t speak to me as most sleezy Ugandan men do and he just genuinely helped me out heaps and called a Piki over and told the Piki driver where to take me. We were discussing which Bible shop would be the best and then he said “actually I might have some books that I could give to you for helping with childrens ministry”. So we swapped numbers and off I went. I found the cheapest Bibles in all of Kampala and headed back to Muyenga near Robs work place for the rest of the day and for Sunday to spend with Rob. We had a wonderful time to catch up and I got to go to his church and meet some of his friends and Pastors of his Ugandan church.

ROB CAME TO VISIT
Finally the time came for Rob to come and visit me here in Mbale. So Sat morning he arrived, I took him to BCC (so I could get a Malaria blood test too). We went to my Ugandan friends graduation Party and in true Ugandan style she arrived 3hrs late for her own graduation. Here in Africa they spend a huge amount of money to celebrate graduations. There was a large turnout for her party. Most people were from her village area but there was a few Muzungus as well. We had great fun watching the jajas (grandmas) dancing. They are incredible dancers. I will have to show you some footage I got on my camera when I get home. So late Saturday we returned to my home. Ate a very nice African supper and I served Rob as all good Ugandan woman do to any males. This means I kneel to serve him, pouring his drink and handing him his food. Mama flora told me off as she was disappointed that I didn’t kneel at the bus stop to greet Rob when he arrived. My excuse was there were too many people and I also forgot that I should have done that.
On the Sunday we went to the church in my plot and Rob experienced hi first exorcism. It really is quite horrifying to see people rolling on the ground and throphing at the mouth. We then went to an orphanage to have a visit. Salem is an amazing orphanage that is sponsored by some very wealthy Germans. There are little African huts everywhere. In each hut lives one mummy and around 10 female children, or one daddy with 10 boys. They are all ages so that the older ones can help look after the younger ones. There were around 10 little babies that stay in a separate place with some mummies. We got to cuddle some of the littlest babies. It was really hard to see so many gorgeous children that will never experience or receive the attention of one mummy. There were a few babies just crying and crying cos the mummy couldn’t pick them all up at once.
We then got taken around the hospital that they also support. It was an amazing hosptal with so many facitlities. Like they have rooms separated for differrnt kinds of illnesses. There are many nurses. The birthing ward actually has an oxygen machine, a special bed for birthing and some other facilities that are no where to be found in most clinics here in Uganda.
We then were treated to a cup of coffee and some gnuts. It was quite posh which is most likely the German influence.
Monday was our day to just talk and enjoy each others company before the next drought of not seeing each other.

UGANDAN MUSIC CONCERT
The following week I went to the Baptist church to farewell some British volunteers. I met up with Karina again. Karina is from Melbourne Australia and knowing Christian circles to be small in Melbourne we tried to work out any people we had in common. And funnily enough my ex-housemate Jordan Brown had been her ex-housemate before he became mine. SMALL WORLD.
So anyway we decided to go and see a Gospel Music concert that was meant to begin at 12noon and by the time we arrived at 4pm it hadn’t began and they were still setting up. SO we hung together chatting until it started. Finally when it did we had great fun dancing to African music. In Uganda EVERYONE knows how to dance calypso – it is hilarious to watch and really quite difficult to do. Patricia had already taught me so I spent some time teaching Karina and laughing for the rest of the night everytime we tried to dance calypso.

SCARY RIDE HOME
By the time we walked home it was quite late which is always a bit risky in Uganda especially as a female. Our Ugandan friends walked me to the taxi park. Taxis in Uganda are mini vans meant to carry 14 people but they somehow manage to squish around 25 people in them. The taxis travel on one route and you just tell the taxi to stop and let you out when you get to the stage closest to you. SO I had to wait until my taxi filled before it would go anywhere. Women don’t travel late at night and even 10pm is too late for them, let alone a white woman. It was after 10pm SO I prayed silently while I waited and ignored all the comments of the men around me. One came and sat beside me and I made my best efforts to answer him in the most un-suggestive way possible. Finally the bus filled with entirely men which made me feel even more uncomfortable. I was sitting up the very front next to the driver. We started driving and all the men were saying things about the ‘muzungu’ and having a good laugh and trying to talk to me but I had no idea what they were saying cos they spoke in Luganda. I then sent a message to mama flora asking her to send Moses (the cousin of mama floras husband) to the road to meet me when I get out of the taxi. When we stopped at the first stage one man beside me got out so a man from the back moved to sit next to me and tried to talk to me. Finally I told the driver to stop cos we had reached my stop. When I told the driver, the man who had moved to sit beside me also said he would get out here too. That was scary because my stop is an obscure point and never has anyone ever got out at the same stop as me. Its also a bit isolated so there would be no one around and no lights at all making it all too easy for a man up to mischief. So I again let out another prayer as we approached. But then I saw Moses and Jordan (Patricias brother) and I was more than relieved. I got out and so did the man beside me, I made it really quite obvious just how glad I was to see Moses and started walking with them. The bus drove off and the man who intended to follow me disappeared into thin air as soon as he saw I had protection. He never got back in the bus I know for sure cos the taxi drove off before I had reached Moses and acknowledged that he was with me and it was too dark for me to see far but he wsa out of sight thanks be to God.


TEEN GIRLS BIBLE STUDY
So I have started up a teen girls Bible study for Bushikori sponsored girls that attend a particular highschool in Mbale town. So every Monday and Tues I have a group of 8 girls. I started it up towards the end of their school term so we havnt done too many studies but I have had a great time getting to know each of the 19 girls. I made them a chocolate cake and bikkies for the first one so it got off to a good start. In Uganda food is a way to a mans heart, just as much as it is to a woman’s. Its been a wonderful time running my first Bible study. The studies we are oing have been prepared by a Kenyan pastor so they suit the African way of learning. They are focused on growing a disciple of God into a confident, stable and consistent disciple and uses both the Gospel of John and 1 John in its study. Its been really exciting to focus on the promises God has promised to all who choose to follow him. There are just enough studies for the amount of weeks that I remain here in Uganda which is wonderful. I really praise God for his provisions as I never had to pay a cent for the study packs that come with 3 study books, memory verse packs and other goodies. All the girls attend the one school and stay in the hostel so it makes it easy for me to recruit them when they are a bit slack. SO prayer for this Bible study would be greatly appreciated.

SURPRISE VISIT TO ROB
In the process of acquiring the bibles it required another trip to Kampala. John Duffield was driving down which made it easy to pick the Bibles and meant a free trip to Kampala. SO I decided to surprise Rob for our 8th monthery. We were able to catch up for a full day which was great. I stayed with a Ugandan friend of mine that attends a University in Kampala and stays at a Uni college. This was a great opportunity to see College life in Uganda, which really is just the same as college life in Australia. Every Friday they have a worship service outside so we went and were entertained for 4 hours with singing, dances and acts. It was palm Sunday the following day so I attended the service which was packed at the University church. I then headed home. Normally it takes a good 4 hours to get back to Mbale from Kampala but instead it took me from 10:30am till 7pm to get home. Firstly it was a late start but then the very dodgy bus decided to die on us with a wheel problem so we waited a few hours for it to get fixed so by 2pm I was still in Kampala city. I nearly missed the bus when I went for a loo stop and had to run to catch it before it left me behind with no money or phone or anything.

home life- photos

These are a collection of photos that I thought would be fun to post.




Ok so me in the middle with Mama Flora on the readers right and Winnie on readers left. Mama Flora (as in Mary) who works at BCC is my mummy here even though she is only 6 yrs older than me. And Winnie also lives with us. She is one of the most fun people to be around and you will always have a good laugh with her.

Lazarus is a beautiful little boy that lives with us. The Congo Bishop saw him outside a village church. He was just sitting there because no one was caring for him. He had a big injury to his head and couldnt walk. We dont know if he had cystic fibrosis or Polio that made him lame and have twisted limbs but the braindamage is a result of the injury to the head which very easily could have been someone trying to kill him because they thought he was useless or he was just too draining on the finances. Since living with us, he has been able to walk around a bit and he plays with the children and you will always see him wearing a big big smile. He cant go to school so he often is idle so I gave him a texta and some paper to do some drawing. He drew those beautiful pictures that you can see there. I truly think they are really creative.

Here are all the women and children lined up at the well near my house waiting to get water. Its fun going to the well. I have carried a 20L jerry can on my head for the 2km walk home. Its quite a skill. The women that can do it with no hands are truly amazing.

Here I am with 5 of the kids/brothers and sisters we live with. Every Saturday morning we fill our basins and wash wash wash. It really is a very social event and you will often see women out together washing their clothes and chatting and laughing away while they are doing it.

This is Deborah my sister I live with. She has the best Afro ever!! so I just had to get a shot of it. Of course she doesnt wear it like that but its just what you get when you brush African hair.

ROBERT
So as most of you know my boyfriend arrived in the country almost 2 months back but he had been working in Kenya and had orientation with his organization so I hadn’t been able to see him nor msg him for the month he was here. We did speak on our 6 monthery which was great. So anyway I got a ride to Kampala with the school bus that was taking Beths family to Entebbe airport. It took around 4 hrs. I met up with Lydia in Kampala so Beth could farewell her family. I spent the day with Lydia just meeting her family in Kampala. (So Lydias mum and real sisters live in Kampala and her fathers second wife lives in Mbale.)
Beth came back to Lydias that night. When we were walking to get Beth I covered my head with a scarf as if I were Muslim as an attempt to protect myself from attention in the dark suburban streets. Lydias shoe then broke so I gave her mine so I was now a barefooted Muslim Muzungu wearing a skirt that showed my legs from the knees down, so I don’t think I did a good job in disguising myself.
We had a great chat, told Beth my testimony and got interrupted by Lydia cos she couldn’t handle the seriousness, and had some more funny chats with the girls. When we were going to bed, Lydia had to explain to me the potty system. As most Ugandans are afraid of the dark and toilets are always out of the house, they have a plastic bin that they use as a potty at night. I thought it was hilarious as I haven’t had a potty since I was a bub. So I had a good laugh when someone used it cos of sound effects(Lydia couldn’t understand why I found it funny).
The next morning Lydia had a job interview for a job that she just found in the papers. She told us how much she hoped it wasn’t one of those jobs that you go from door to door to sell things like shoes, saucepans and the like. So we jumped in a mutatu and tried to find our way there. At one point we thought it was still a good distance away and for the sake of time we would get a piki piki. So we got on and the cheeky men drove us 100m down the road and we were there. They demanded we give them 500 shillings and Lydia insisted we wernt going to pay them. They went and got the police and Lydia just instructed me not to pay at all. So I sat there waiting for Lydia to tell me what to do. My driver got really angry and grabbed my arm hard and said some rather harsh and angry swearwords at me and told me to give him the money. So I gave it to him whether Lydia wanted me to or not. Finally we went in the gate and it turned out it was just the job Lydia had not wanted. So there were all these poor uni graduates hoping for the best and would arrived, crack up laughing and walk away before anyone could see them there. Finally at 2pm we left for town center. So we had a look then decided to go to the market the following day for a shop.
So next day we got to the market had a brief shop for some essential clothes then I got a boda to go meet Rob.
I thought almost every second that I was going to die on this motorbike as the traffic is crazy in the city. Finally I saw Rob standing out as clear as anything being the only muzungu amongst many Africans. It was fantastic to see his smiling face again. We were not allowed to hug to say Hi so we had to shake hands keeping with Ugandan ways (ie nooo affection in public. It was cute and yet very refreshing when I read a write up in a newspaper today that stated “prostitutes dare to even kiss in public!” –it came with the exclamation mark.)
So we would have some explaining to do if we hugged. So Rob took me out for tea at a beautiful Italian Restaurant in muzungu land. We shared stories and photos. Ate some great pizza and risotto and just caught up. The next few days saw us talk, talk and talk some more. Shopped in the market. And just hung out together enjoying each others company. I stayed at some Americans that work for Robs organization. They live such a refreshing missionaries life with very little processions making it very easy for them to offer hospitality to Ugandans with out worrying they might steal something or make them feel more inferior than they already feel or making them long for something they will never have and be jealous. They are wonderful beautiful people that came from very tough backgrounds and have changed into the most beautiful people with all credit to God and the effects of his amazing love working through these people. They also have recently adopted a gorgeous little 4 year old Ugandan girl who is HIV positive. They are giving her a loving family and a chance at life. In the orphanage she had just been laid out on a mat to die but now with treatment and love she is a bundle of energy.

here is a snap in Robs work place. We just wanted a photo of us together in Uganda but it could be anywhere really.

Valentines Day & WHITE WATER RAFTING
So our Valentines day started very early as we were heading to Jinja (Which is the source of the Nile and is partway between Kampala and Mbale), to go white water rafting.
White water rafting is part of Robs Emi team bonding so two other girls and three other guys were with us. Rob was allowed to invite me along and he said it was my Valentines present. We got a bus to Jinja and were given a great second breakfast. With eggs and toast and chapatti and milk tea. It was fantastic. We changed into our rafting gear, jumped on the back of a truck and got to the starting point. By this stage I was starting to get a bit nervous even when I hadn’t seen the pictures I have showed you.
Anyway we learnt the ropes, were told what to do when we flip and we began a rather hair raising adventure.
It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much fun. We went down water falls that were maybe 2m long. We went flying through waves that were another 1.5m tall. We had a guide in our boat and he would shout us orders (like a coxwain …hmmmm I miss rowing), so he would should “GET DOWN” if we were likely to flip which was at every rapid. They were massive and we flipped a few times. I loved the flipping. It was great. There wernt any rocks so you just had to put up with being sucked under water for a few minutes at a time, coming up under the boat, or having limbs flying into you, but other than that its pretty safe. We did up to grade 5 rapids. I wonder if we even have them in Australia. I don’t think the Yarra moves that fast…just joking.
It was an all day adventure so we had lunch on the water of pineapples and biscuits. YUM. There were some still stretches and we had fun tying to race the other boats with our paddling even when they didn’t race us back. We still had pride in winning though…its all about team bonding. There were people along the side of the river. Some of them starkers as they were bathing on the shore. There were a few in homemade wooden boats fishing, and many women washing clothes on the banks. We asked our guide (who is a local), if the people on the banks thought it was weird that muzungus would raft down the river for fun and he told us that they think its just the same people going down the river every day. Hahah they must think one big family enjoys a ride down the river every day.
The best Rapid was the last one. It’s known as “the bad place” as it has massive grade 6 rapids followed by two grade 5 rapids. As novices we are not allowed to do the six so we got the boat out, and walked on the bank past the six then prepared for the 2 fives. The other girls got out so me and the boys jumped in. We were going along and the first rapid we couldn’t turn the boat around in time and over we went. We all got chucked out then sucked under. We were told not to fight against the water and try to swim to the surface as we might swim the wrong way and be stuck under water longer then we need to. So I let my life jacket do the work and after quite an extended period my head emerged. But if you think that that’s the hardest part out of the way then your wrong. As soon as you come to the surface the one thing your mind focuses on is getting some oxygen, but no hope cos as soon I got up I got sucked under the second level 5 rapid then flung through massive waves that come every second so every time you breath you get water, start choking then try to breathe again. It felt like a very long time. Finally when I was getting pulled to the edge by the natural flow of the water I saw (and still very clearly have an image of) Rob looking at me but he was still stuck in the very middle struggling to get a breath. Hmm at least I knew he was out of the worst of it. But he ended up another 200-300m away and had to get picked up by the life boat. Well I joked with Rob that I hadn’t yet seen a look of fear on his face and that I was expecting to on the rafting, and I did. I cant say at that stage I enjoyed seeing that look as we were both still fighting to breathe but now at least Ive seen it. What surprised me most was that after all that I still had firm grip of my paddle. I didn’t realize I was holding it until I got to the shore. I was like ha fancy that they told us to keep our paddle if we could and there it was in my hand I had no idea throughout that whole thing that it was there. My index finger had a cut on it as my grip must have been so tight.
So they fed us soda and chips while we waited for every one to come together, chatted to another Melbourne University Science graduate that couldn’t find work, then it was back to the truck and to the place where we ate dinner. It was a beautiful place with a great view of the river. We got western food and SALAD!!! Yummm
I left with sun burnt knees, great memories and a small amount of pride that we flipped the “bad place” and survived. Ok so only one person has died rafting in the last 10 years but still it was adrenaline pumping.
Thanks Rob! What a great memory we have for our first Valentines day, let alone our adventures in this far away land of Uganda.

Here are some snaps of the crazy white rafting. It cost too much for me to buy photos of us so i just got these ones of the net but its seriously the same crazy rafting and flipping trip that we did. I think if I saw these photos first I would never had said yes cos it look far too crazy for me. But it was and it was FUN!

sorry for the letdown

Ok so I was intending on putting my whole typed blog update but I ran out of time so I just had to stop after loading one picture so here is some more.

Now I have been to the top of mount Waneli twice. Mt Waneli is a large mountain that stands just beside the town of Mbale. It is huge and looks magnificent from my house here in the village. I watch the sun rise from behind it when I get up early and its just glorious. My Ugandan friend Lydia is originally from a village up the very top of the mountain so she has taken me to the top twice.

The first trip.

We went to town around 9am to find a truck that was heading to the top. We had to wait for quite some time so we waited in a café and had chai (milk tea). We then paid our 1000 shillings each and jumped in the front of a truck carrying some goods to the top of the mountain. They are quite dodgy in that they will send all the people that want to ride in the back of the truck, to a point on the road that is beyond the police check point. So all the people have to get Bodas about 2km out of town so the driver doesn’t get a fine. So after a short drive we got to the point where they were to wait and they all jump on the back of the truck.

So we drove up the mountain. It was just glorious. It has beautiful views all the way of magnificent waterfalls that stretch possibly 200m down the mountain. There are many villages that line the roads. We saw many little children carrying jerry cans to get water from the well or from some of the many natural springs of water on the mountain. Most of the children are far too young to be sent to get water but that’s how they do it here in Uganda. They never seem to keep an eye on their children.

Of course they don’t often see a Muzungu so many of them were very excited to see me sitting in the front of the truck. A few kids gave me evil glares then they would draw their finger slowly across their throat attempting to scare into me the idea that they wanted to kill me. Hmm sick idea of a joke, or a very scary thing that a child so young would have such a hate for muzungus.

The mountain has so many villages scattered across it. We see many women and children sitting outside their huts as though there is not a worry in the world or no urgent duties that need doing before the sun goes down. Others wash clothes in brightly coloured basins that strike a contrast with the mud, stick and straw huts in which they sleep. Bent over at the hips, often resting one arm on a knee they draw the cloth out of the soap sud filled water, scrubbing twice the cloth against itself then plunging it back into the water. At the same time they shift the cloth in their hand to allow a new space to be scrubbed against itself producing suds, as an almost indicator of the soaps quality and effectiveness. Other basins that line the ground outside the hut doors are also water filled however this time a little dark bottom can be seen from a child bathing. Siblings may assist in splashing enough water on the childs body to give it a good cleaning. Again the African style of drawing water out towards the body has the hand cupped slightly and the thumb lined to ensure maximum amount of water reaches the body. The little bodies can often be seen with a ring of beads tied around their midrift. I have been told that it is an attempt to ensure the child grows to have a small waist and a good African bottom. Cows munch on the grass asending high up the mountain. The rope attached to their foot is pulled taught as they stretch to the furthest point it will allow. Struggling against the rope and yet there is plenty of grass for it to chew within ropes reach but somehow not desirable enough for the cow.

We reached the station point where we were to get out and start walking up towards Lydia’s village. We had a beautiful hike up the mountain. Once we reached Lydias village we where met by her uncle and aunt and their eight kids. They are all gorgeous kids and the smallest ones were scared of me. We went and had a look at the sight that Lydia is hoping to turn into a camp site for tourists so that people up the top can attempt to break out of their poverty cycle.

The view is absolutely amazing. Mbale town can be clearly seen as well as all the little huts scattered through out the Mbale district in their own little villages. The drop from the mountain is so sudden that you feel you could do a road runner trick and run off the edge and just keep going.

The family told us they were give us some lunch so we waited around. We went and met her Grandmother who was just gorgeous. She has a tiny hut about 1.5m x 2.5m. She fed us Irish with curry sauce which was sooooo good but we had to leave room for our lunch. We visited a few other families and was warmly welcomed by them all. She showed me the school which was quite sad to see. Just a large mud hut, no chairs or desks and one broken blackboard. I cant imagine how much the children can actually learn when they have no pen, paper chairs or desks.

Finally Lydias stepmom (in other words the second wife of her father. He has quite a few wives and many children.) had lunch ready for us at 5pm. So we ate the toughest chicken I have ever had to bite through. I thought you would need dog teeth to be any way successful at eating it. I watched Lydia and used some of her techniques to rip through the meat. As I was the guest of honor I was given the “pleasure” of eating the gizzard. For those that don’t know, the gizzard is the part of a bird that is filled with stones and does the initial digestion of any food consumed by a bird. I forced myself to try it and I even took a photo as evidence. Once I got to the stones I had to give up so Lydia’s step mum was more than happy to finish it for me. I think I have failed to mention to you the Ugandans eat with their hands.

I really needed to be heading home in order to get there before dark but Lydia and her family had a “chat” / heated discussion about someman that has ripped them off and never given them some doors they paid for. SO by the time we left the sun was going down. One of the little girls from a nearby hut run out and handed me 1L of milk in a cavera (plastic bag). It was such a beautiful gift from such a poor family to give me a whole litre.

We started to descend and they asked Lydia if the muzungu would be fine walking down and just as I said Yes I slipped down onto my butt. So they ran and got a stick for me. They also gave Lydia and I a huge sack of Irish, sweet potatoes, pumpkin and maize on the cob. So two little boys carried about 10kg on their head. It got dark at the point where we reached the road. We were too late to get a truck that was coming back down the mountain. So Lydias cousin put the massive load of food on her head and walked without hands balancing and we started what we thought would be a long dangerous walk down the mountain and back to town. It could have taken us hours and was extremely dangerous to be moving at night as that’s when people attack and kill once night comes. We walked about 20mins when a piki piki (motorbike) came past. It already had 2 men on the bike but Lydia stopped them and they were happy to take me with them. So me and my bag and my cavera of food squished on the bike. Thank goodness they drove slowly on the gravel bits as we could very easily slip when its such a stead descend. I made it home safely but worried the Duffields a little which I fully understand.

SECOND TRIP

The second trip that we made up the mountain was with Beth and her father, grandmother and grandfather that had come to visit Beth. Her grandparents are 80yrs old but they are fit people. So we bought some sweets for the kids that we knew would follow us on the mountain. Again all the way the children screamed out to us. This time Lydias father was driving us all the way. There again were some stops up the mountain to get some snaps. We made it to the top after having to get out once because we got bogged. Again the family was happy to see us.

We had lunch there again, had another look at the glorious mountain. This time while I waited for the grands to climb to the view point I was able to spend time taking in the glory of God. It is truly spectacular.

We left after lunch and drove all the way down in the tray of the ute and tried to throw sweets for the children as we went. Some of them were so scared they ran as if some muzungu was throwing grenades at them. It was actually quite horrible to see just how frightened they were when we threw things at them. But others knew they were sweets and we caused a few punch ups as they fought over the sweets. On the way down we saw a school mission statement that made us laugh. Have a look.

Possibly the funniest sign Ive ever seen. Hmm would you consider sending your kids to this school???

We then drove back down the mountain, ate some quality muzungu food at Oasis restaurant, got a lift home with Lydias friend and dropped off some school materials, nearly got eaten by a dog when our car got bogged in the mud as it was raining heavily but made it home safely.

This is my favorite photo of the trip. They are such beautiful people.

Ok Massive Blog update coming right up. And I wont feel offended if you don’t read it all. Just pick the heading you like and have a read. Its quite detailed this time as I am using it for journal use also. The other Journal the girls gave me I am using more for scrapbooking and hence will lack the small details of day to day activities.

BUSHIKORI
So firstly I should update you all on my work at Bushikori and the events that take place in a normal day for Maz.
Ok so I wake up around 6 and have some quiet time with God in prayer and bible reading. I’ve successfully worked my way backwards through the books of the Bible. I decided to go backwards as every time I read it from Gen-Rev I always get stuck at Numbers of Judges and don’t make it much further.
Then I “take tea”. Which means having a cup of tea with some food of some sort. Most commonly its plain bread, or some left over Irish (which mean potatoes as in Irish potatoes), sometimes there is nothing at all so then you just drink tea. (Ugandan tea consists of loose tea leaves with a large amount of sugar (which is odd because sugar is very expensive here) and no milk as they don’t have fridges and milk is also very expensive. (It costs 1000 shillings for 1L which is about $1 Aus. But considering most people in the villages might make about 2500 shillings a day its very expensive)
Then after I take tea I go and bathe. I fill a round basin with cold water then carry it to the bathing cubicle. I have a bar of soap in one hand and splash water on myself with the other hand.
Next I pack my things and walk out onto the path that passes through a line of huts with maybe 5 families in them. I have a little fan club that is made up of 8-10 kids ranging from 1-5yrs with a majority being around the 2year stage. They are soooooo cute! They consistently run over to me to shake my hand (kneeling if they are girls) and then they greet me. Even though I I have done this every morning for the last 3wks they have only failed once to come running giggling and screaming to greet me. Today they saw me coming from 50m back and they started jumping up and down and singing “muzungu, muzungu something something something muzungu”. (the something = a Lugisu word I don’t know).
I then wait on the side of the road and wait for the Bushikori School bus to “pick me”(for some reason they just don’t bother to say “up” on the end). While I wait for 5-20mins (differs from day to day) I get many “Muzungu how are you?”. I also get to see many Karamojan girls that have walked the 10kms from town with a huge sack of coal on their heads. The Karamojans are the most primitive people in Uganda and will get a blog write up all of their own. It’s a very very interesting tribe of people here in Uganda. But anyway they are very poor people and have to work very hard to get very little money.
Once the bus has picked me (and sometimes Mama Flora (Mary) shes often running late), we get to BCC. We go to Morning Glory time. Then go back to our offices and work. I generally work on projects, type documents to help admin, or am running my Bible clubs or preparing for them. Then at 1pm we head over to the kitchen to eat posho and beans or rice and beans. (doesn’t really come in other variety). Then at 5pm we get in the bus with many many people (far too many than can possibly fit). Get home. See my lovely fan club again as I go. Then 5:30 church starts so we sing and praise God, pray and then the Bishop speaks for a while then we pray.
Most nights I help to cook supper which we don’t eat until 10pm or 11pm. So often I feel I cant eat much as I am about to go to bed but often im so hungry at that stage that I eat close to a normal meal size.
Then Patricia and I head to bed. We attempt to kill some malaria carrying mozzies. Then I crawl under my mozzie net that I think really attracts the mozzies. We turn off the light or blow out the candle and go nigh nighs.

Patricia and Bea in traditional outfits called Kitengi. Two daughters from the Congo missionary.

OFFERING
I just wanted to tell you all this story because it nearly made me cry when I saw it and it can be such an amazing example that as Westerners we could learn a lot from seeing more poverty more often. Ok so when I still lived with the Duffields I would go to the Church of Christ on Sundays. Most of the Americans in Mbale go to this church as they set it up but Ugandans are trained to lead and preach. So every week we have the offering where you walk to the front and put in your tithing and or offering (they separate the two.). So one week a man stood up, went outside, brought in a rooster with its legs tied together so it couldn’t run away, and put him in front of the table with the offering baskets. This man was an old man, dressed in very poor clothes (even very poor people wear nice suits to church, so he must have been very poor.) and had just given a chook to the church. They are so valuable to families and can fetch a nice price or are cooked for very special occasions and he had given it to God. I had tears in my eyes. I thought of the times when I have held back from giving my money because I thought I was poor. Me who had clothes enough to dress 20 other people, books, cd’s so many things that I could give away and so much more money than this man could even imagine and here was a poor man that gave what he had.

updates

Hello to everyone. I must apologize for my drought in updates. I have been very busy with work at Bushikori.

Holiday fun clubs: Bible studies

-Ok so since my aim to come to Uganda was to serve wherever Bushikori needed help, I decided to work on the spiritual growth of the children sponsored by Bushikori Christian Center. I held a seminar for senior students 4 weeks ago as an attempt to encourage senior students in their walk with God and to challenge them a bit before they head back to their Universities. We focused a lot on bringing glory to God in all we do so of course it was a challenging study. We had a guest speaker come in for the day and I ran a Bible study. It went wonderfully and the students gave very positive feedback.

I then started a holiday program for the children in primary 1 thru to senior level 6 (which is the same as grade1 thru to year 12.) Every Wednesday morning I would run the bible club for p1-p3, then Wednesday afternoons were p4-p6. Thursday morning was p7-s3 then Thursday afternoon was S4-S6. All up I taught around 70 children in 2 days, each week. The session started with games such as fruit salad, poison ball and other such kiddie games. For the senior students we did the more mind thinking games or just the general get to know you games such as “have you ever…..”. We then had a singing session and we sang songs such as “he is the King of Kings” and “Jesus loves me” and for the older kids we sang Ugandan praise and worship songs. After the singing we had the Bible study or Bible lesson. Each group of children came with their own challenges that made me work really hard. I enjoyed the challenge of trying to match certain activities with the age groups being taught and working out the level of understanding that could be taught at the different age groups. I can now see how helpful a course in Education would be if you were to take on such a role as teaching children the Bible.

So the holiday program has come to an end this week and I really enjoyed the chance to teach the children new things and to see how excited they are to learn about the Bible. They love the new games and loved playing with real balls (as they are used to kicking around some plastic bags wrapped very tightly to form a ball). I gave out lollies to the children when they answered questions so they were all eager to listen carefully and know the answers J (it was a bit sneaky but it worked)

So now that this program has come to an end I am now in the process of planning the Saturday programs that will run throughout the year. We are hoping to go out to the villages and around the school hostels, rotating from place to place. I am also hoping to begin a Bible study for teen girls in the hope of growing them into mature women in Christ. I have befriended an American girl that is starting a teen girls study through her church and an English girl that may start a study for teen girls in the slums of Mbale. We are hoping to bring the 3 girls groups together every few weeks and let the Ugandan girls grow a network of support as they grow in their faith.

Living with Ugandan People

Last Saturday I moved out of the comfort of living in a Muzungu (white person) home, eating Muzungu food and living near and around other Muzungus. I moved to a slummy suburb known as Bugema. I live with Mary, the Ugandan receptionist at Bushikori. I love it so much. They are teaching me the Lugisu language and teaching me how to cook Ugandan style on little coal stoves. We make posho (ground up maize mixed with water and cooked to make a food that looks and tastes like play dough without the salt. Its very very tasteless and has almost no nutrition value.), Matoke is a type of green banana that is cooked in water wrapped in banana leaves. We also eat pork, chicken or beef stews. I will take some food photos so you get an idea what an average meal looks like. They really don’t understand what variety in food is. You could count on your fingers almost the different food they eat and the variety they eat it in. So everyone cooks the same way. I try to explain how in Australia there could easily be 100 ways to cook chicken and they just don’t get how that could possibly be.

So anyway I live with Ugandan people, I bathe out of a basin filled with cold water (which makes washing hair kind of difficult), I wash my clothes in the same basin. We have a drop toilet/pit latrine that doesn’t have a toilet as such but rather just a whole cut out of the concrete floor so you have to watch where you step.

Our neighbors are a family from the Congo. The father is a bishop and a missionary in Uganda. They are extremely poor and yet they look after their own 6 children, 2 widows with their kids as well as 10 other orphans. So I am surrounded by children that just want to play all the time. I have decided to mentor the Bishops 3^rd daughter who is 12 years old. We are planning to meet once a week for prayer, bible reading and all other fun things that mentoring involves.

There is a little church set up for this bishop so we have praise and worship, prayer and bible teaching twice a day. Im learning some French songs as well as Swahili as the bishop only speaks these languages. I have been trying to remember any of my French I learnt in yr7 at school and all I can say in Bonjour, how are you, and my name is Marianne. So we do a lot of hello’s cos that all we manage in each others language.

Ok so I just wanted to update you all and I will post snaps asap to make reading the posts easier.

God Bless

Lots of Love Marianne

Evelyn and hair braiding

Ok so I went to a boxing day bbq at some british peoples home and I met a Ugandan girl, named Evelyn and she is studying biology at university. So anyway the next day we decided to catch up and she took me to her home and we just chilled and chatted about our different backgrounds and did lots of other things that I wont bore you with. Anyway I mentioned to her that I was interested to get my hair braided to save me washing it everyday. (As we don’t always have electricity often it means we have very cold showers.) So we hunted for ages to find the cheapest place and then we ended up getting her next door neighbor to do it. So here is a photo of the lady that did my hair.

sorry i tried to turn it but it takes too long to download for me to attempt to turn it again.

She braids hair in between working as a police woman in Mbale township. They often have people with guns like hers that just sit outside any shop that sells anything worth stealing.

Ok Peoples sorry about the delay in updates. I have been quite busy and have heaps to update you all on. Plus plenty more prayer points and things.
Ok so I will put subheadings on the stories but will just mainly comment on pictures as that way is more fun and interesting for you to read and easier and faster for me to type. Ok so here goes!

Christmas parties
Ok so for Christmas I was the organizer of the games and distributing the gift that an Australian work party had brought over with them. Their were pencils and books and toys of all sorts so it was quite fun to be the gift giver. Anyway this photo is one that I took when we went to Busiu village to do a Christmas party there.

We were walking back from playing some games when I saw this cow eating with the beautiful backdrop of the mountains so I decided to take a photo. Anyway as soon as I had taken the photo this crazy man came up to me yelling and looking very very angry at me. I was really quite worried that he could hit me cos he was waving his arms around. Anyway he was speaking Lugisu so I couldn’t understand him. But the group of kids I was with just said some things to him. Then the lovely teacher from Bushikori tried to reason with him. Anyway he was angry mostly because he is a drunkard that said that I was going to try and sell his cow now that I have a photo of it. It wasn’t even his cow he just wanted to make a scene because I was a mzungu and he is an old drunk man. The drunks here are very much addicted to their home brew of beer. You will often see a group of men sitting in a circle, with a big ceramic pot in the middle and thin hoses used as straws drinking beer. It is often what the men here resort to when they cant be bothered to find jobs so while their wives are back home looking after about 10 children and tending to the garden that will be their only source of income, the men sit around all day doing nothing but destroying their brains.

Another thing I may have failed to mention is that Polygamy (more than one wife) is very very common here in Uganda. Often a man will have 2, 3 and sometimes 4 wives with about 10 kids from each wife. Often the wives are forced to marry them because their families do not have enough money to keep feeding them, so they can sell them at 16 or 15 or even 14 years old. Although the minimum age has lifted from 16 to 18 years there are still many children given as wives at 14 years.

Another thing I have failed to mention is that a marriage here happens in 3 stages. The first stage is called the Introduction; where the man is introduced to the future wife’s family and the vise versa. At this ceremony the father of the wife to be, lays down the bride price that the husband must pay in order to marry the woman. I think in some ceremonies the price has already been stated so sometimes at this point the husbands family walks out parading all the things they have been told to pay for the bride. So out will come cows, chickens, baskets and baskets of eggs, fruits and veggies. It depends on how well educated the girl is and how wealthy her family is, as to what the price would be. So a girl that has university education and is from a wealthy family has a huge bride price. Often the bride will have 3 to 4 different dresses to change into on the day as she will eat lunch in one outfit, be introduced in another and do the introducing to her own family in another outfit. The next stage is the marriage where they will sign the legal documents to say they are married. The third and final stage is the wedding and sometime the wedding will not come until 5-10 years after marriage when they have enough money to pay for a wedding. The weddings here have become very western with white super frilly dresses and lots of food. They also have to cover everyones transport fees and you offend someone greatly if you don’t invite them. So hence not many people here bother to get married because it is just too expensive to do so.

SOOOOO anyway this is the nice photo I got at the Christmas party in Busiu. Anyone interested in buying the cow? Just joking