Today is the final day that we have to run errands before the team arrives. Our first engagement was to meet Betty and Felix at the orphan village. Betty, who is Eve’s youngest sister, basically heads up the orphan ministry, as best I can tell. She knows everything there is to know about the moms, the kids, and so on. Felix is the construction professional. As usual, our ride was late. This morning he was about an hour to an hour and a half late. Asher calls this “Africa Time.” Jessie and Kelsey were able to come, two members of our team that have spent most of the summer in Uganda.
Our meeting with Betty went well. It was nice to meet her considering I hear about her all the time. She expressed an inside view of where our missions team and our missions funds would be best utilized. We had been discussing many options. Betty’s top options were painting the inside of some of the boys’ houses, working on the water runoff problem at the orphan village, patching foundations, and painting the outsides of the homes.
Felix, as I kind of expected, said that it would be better to have time to prepare for the water runoff issue. We decided we would try to prepare a team to tackle that project in the December trip. We asked him to take a repair inventory of the houses to make list of what needs to be done to each of them. Many teams focus on new construction, so the existing buildings tend to be ill-maintained. We decided that this trip would be spent painting the inside of some of the houses that need it the most. We had been told many different projects, so it is actually a relief to finally have an idea of what our construction team’s focus be so we can go shopping!!
We went to the paint store following that. We ordered all of our paint and supplies. During that LONG process, we got to witness some drama outside the store. It started when Jessie noticed one man pulling another man down the side of the street. The man being pulled was fighting. As it turns out, the man pulling was accusing the other of stealing. He physically grabbed the other man’s pants, pulled them away from his body, and was pointing down the man’s pants. The people gathered around. It was a town effort to resolve the conflict. As it ended up, they called a Boda Boda. The accused and the accuser got on after some argument, and they headed to the police station to resolve it there. I thought this was a situation that probably would have played out much differently in the States. That was our first drama of the day.
Then, we went by the Game store. We got some water and snacks before heading to the church. Eve wanted to introduce me to the staff at the church.
When I got to the church, it turned out to be a full out meeting. It was stuffy and weird, but it was business I guess in Uganda. Truthfully, I’m perfectly glad that it is over.
Then, we headed to get something to eat. On the way, there was a truck that had misjudged a turn and had gotten himself stuck. Really, if some cars would have backed up, he could have made the turn. But that is not Kampala style… if there is a jam, you just find a tiny hole and squeeze through it. An older man saw that this was only making the truck get stuck there longer, so he got out of his vehicle and proceeded to yell at all of the drivers. It was kind of funny because when Joseph, who was driving, saw the jam, he immediately went off the road and started driving there.
It was probably 3:30 by the time we got to eat, so we were starved!! We went to an italian pizza place. The setting was so neat! It was mostly outdoors, shaded with all kinds of trees and plants. The pizza was mediocre, but it was an experience.
Then we headed back to the church to drop Asher off to the coaster bus so he could go pick up our first half of the team from the airport. Joseph took Jessie, Kelsey, and I back to the hotel. On the way, we encountered another traffic jam. When we got to the problem of the jam, there was a cow lying in the street. Many men had tied ropes and were dragging him off the road. The cow was definitely alive. Our first theory was that it had fallen out of a truck. Joseph’s idea was that it didn’t want to get slaughtered so it ran into the road. In an effort to get it to quit fighting, they tied its legs and were dragging it. Who knows… all I know is that it was quite a sight!
When I got back to the hotel, I got to work passing welcome letters and stuff to all of the rooms of our team. One of the items was a 2 liter water bottle, so it was a heavy task!! After that, I had worked up a small appetite. I decided to take advantage of the buffet dinner and get a light meal. The tables were completely full. In Uganda, there isn’t as much of a sense of “personal space.” For example, at breakfast, strangers come sit with us all the time. So, being in Uganda, I decided I would be brave and do a Ugandan thing. I asked a man sitting alone if I could sit at the table. He said yes. As it turns out, his name was Andrew and he was visiting the Ridar for a conference. He is part of the government. We spoke of many things, mostly comparing Uganda and United States. We discussed many things. Here is what I learned:
• Uganda uses mostly glass bottles because plastic has caused littering problems. Littering in general is a major problem because there isn’t really a good solution for the amounts of trash that the city generates. He said that the only public trash service is the one that picks up from the city center. People are expected to either burn their trash or take it to the city center. He pointed out that there are no trash cans around; I hadn’t noticed, but there aren’t!
• Bricks in Uganda are much less expensive than bricks in the US.
• They are trying to implement building code and a permit process, but it is too hard to enforce. He said that they are highly considering creating another city center elsewhere that will be able to provide for its people in a better way. He said that other countries have done this, where they basically move instead of working to improve the city that they have to accommodate the number of people they have. He said Kampala is growing at a rate of 33% every 10 years, I think.
• He hopes internet will be faster here someday.
• The war in Lira went on for about 20 years or so. The terrors would enter a small village pretending to be a regular person. Then one night they would terrorize the village, slaughtering, raping, kidnapping. We both agreed that we never hope to understand fully how one human being could do something like that to another. We just pray that it stops.
I enjoyed my conversation with Andrew. After dinner, it was off to work! I worked on the bookkeeping, blog, and photos, among some other miscellaneous things. I am ready for the team to get here.
I, personally, am doing okay. I miss my Jason, my family, and my dogs. I actually miss vegetables, too.
No comments:
Post a Comment