Field Notes Received 2/19/10

NOTES FROM UGANDA - Week 6

Friday, Feb. 12: I went to the Internet Cafe today instead of TLT. It was great! It only took me 1 1/2 hours and was much less expensive but best of all, everything went smoothly! So I had some extra time before class. I went to Smile Africa Women's Center and bought 15 necklaces to take home for 36,000 UGX or roughly, $18.00. These necklaces take hours to make because the ladies make the beads first from rolled paper. I had a short visit with Pastor Ruth's mother.

Afterward, I went to Smile Africa in Beeson and had a nice long chat with Janet. Actually, she shared her history around HIV with me and said she should make a testimony about it. Perhaps, when my son, Kent, comes in April, he can bring his video camera for an interview / testimony with Janet.

We made Valentines in both classes. I had four people make Valentines for me. It was so nice.

We three (Kathy, Leah and I) were invited to Pastor Ruth's for dinner along with Andrew (IT) and a friend of Ruth's from the Salvation Army from Jinja, Ezra. We had those wonderful samosas and a crispy-on-the-outside chapati, chicken and rice with eggplant and a sauce. We also had pineapple, watermelon and bananas for dessert. We took along a large pineapple as a hostess gift. We got home about 8:00.

Sat - Feb. 13: I got up early = cooked beans and rice and boiled water for purity. My ride to Busowa came early so went to town to do a bit of shopping, then a long, slow, HOT drive to Busowa. As Pastor Peter had to go to Kisimu, Kenya, he sent a driver, Peter also, to take me. This Peter was telling me how difficult it is for this small group of Christians in Busowa as they are surrounded by Muslims who do not want them there. Pastor Peter has said many times how much he wants to help the people in Busowa because they are trying so hard and are doing so many good things. Hope 4 Kids dug the village a well, which is shared by all, Muslims and Christians alike.

We made Valentines. I was given a papaya and a huge bag of sweet potatoes as thank you gifts plus I received another Valentine. There is only one sticking point: they keep making food for me that I am to eat before I leave. I told Pastor Peter this poses a problem for me re gastro-intestinal reactions and he said he would take care of it. Well - without him there today, it again was an issue. Obviously, he did not make this point clear. I feel so bad turning them down as they are just being hospitable and showing their gratitude but I have experienced too many ill effects on previous trips to risk it. I have several weeks left before I leave and I don't want to be having health issues the whole time. This is such a hard thing to try to explain.

Kathy wanted to eat out so though I had done much prep already, we walked to the Rock. Leah and I had fish which was good. Kathy had spaghetti. This time we were smart and brought flash lights so we could see to walk home in the dark -no street lights.

Sunday - Feb. 14 - St. Valentine's Day - Last night I forgot to tell you of something very important. Pastor Charles at Busowa told me of a plan his small congregation has come up with for micro-loans. They are pooling what little money they can spare. He is recording the contributions of each. They want to save until they have 30,000 UGX ($15.00). He thinks they will have this amount by the end of March. Their plan is to then take applications for business ideas from their members. They will then vote on who will receive the first loan to start a small business. When the loan has been repaid, they will then make another loan to someone else, and/or people will continue to pool their money. I understand why Peter is so excited about this group and their leadership. They are not waiting for the muzungu (whites) to step in and "save" them, they are taking steps to help themselves. They are trusting in God and each other. It is beautiful to see.

I went to Sacred Heart Catholic Church with Alex today. It was wonderful! The music was spectacular - lovely, harmonic singing and some drumming with minimal electronic keyboard. They sang in various languages including English, which I could understand, so I could sing along. I could also join in with many of the responses. They sang a lovely version of the Creed and they had Eucharist - what a joy! They announced Imposition of Ashes on Wednesday so Alex said he would find out what time the service would be so I will be able to observe Ash Wednesday corporately.

On arrival at home, I hurried through a quick lunch and then waited for 2 hours trying to reach Peter. He called me at 2:15 saying he would not be coming. He returned from Kisimu last night but was involved in some kind of crisis today - he had been praying all day. Either he or Peter (driver) will pick me up tomorrow for Wikus. So I had a very leisurely day - cleaned the gift papaya, did a little cooking and read Leah's cookbook. It has been stifling hot all day.

Leah and Kathy went out to Aquari's compound. Kathy went hiking to find some monkeys and Leah "mudded" the hut being built out there for H4K. They also took some food out for Wazemba. Apparently, she is in a bad way with no one to help her as both Janet and her sister are currently living in Tororo. Leah has plans for next Saturday (Kathy's farewell party out there) to bring her a clean dress, bathe her and try to do a bit of laundry. The concern is her family will come and steal her food that we are giving her. She can't walk so I don't know what she is doing for water and firewood for cooking.

Monday - Feb. 15: Started the day slowly (both Leah and I did) waiting for our rides. True Vine forgot Leah so at noon she went to Smile Africa. Peter (driver) arrived about the same time Leah left. We picked up Sarah, Pastor Peter's wife, in town to give her a ride home to Paya, near Wikus where we were going. I gave Pastor his Valentine and gave Sarah a large bag of sweet potatoes which she was happy to get. The drive to Wikus is a dirt road with bad pot-holes and vey narrow with barely a shoulder. The road has a variety of traffic: motorcycles, bicycles, cars, vans, trucks and pedestrians all trying to use the middle of the the road. So, as we are driving Peter is constantly beeping his horn to tell others to move over. This works pretty well until he has to go between motorcycles and bicycles OR meets on-coming traffic bigger than we are, as no one really slows down - they just swerve a bit to the side. I forgot to mention there are also cows and goats using the road.

One of the mothers in my last class today had 2 sick children with her. A little girl had a fever and the boy she was holding had large blisters all over 1 leg, with a few on the other leg and it looked like some were forming on his back. I had to stop for a minute so I didn't burst into tears and then told the mother I would try to bring a nurse with me next Monday. Another mother had a small boy with her who seemed very tired. I was afraid he would fall off the bench and hurt himself on the concrete floor. He would talk to himself, then his eyes would close, his head would sag and then he would jerk and talk to himself again.

On the edge of Tororo, returning home, we got a flat tire. The spare Peter put on had a 10 inch long loos piece of tread, about the width of the tire. Fortunately, he got me to my drive and I walked home from there. I don't know what happened to Peter and the car after that.

Leah talked about her experience at Smile Africa today. It was "fruit day" when the kids receive a banana - once a week. She said the reaction of the children when the van came with the bananas brought tears to her eyes. The kids were as excited about getting a banana as our children are at Christmas when they have received just what they wanted.

Tuesday - Feb. 16 - Roy's Birthday (my late husband): I have a friendly gecko sharing my room with me. I've also had 2 GIANT cockroaches in my bathroom. THEY are not welcome and have been disposed of.

We had a lovely cooling rain this morning. My English class at Smile today had requested learning body parts so they 16 new words today - 4 members of the family and 12 body parts.

Alice Joyce came for the LS class and we proceeded to new material. She is a very bright woman and is taking a computer class which she is excited about. She would like a Good News Bible. Perhaps I will give her the one I brought. We'll see.

We went to dinner at a new Indian restaurant. It is a tiny building, in back of the Shell station, that recently opened. The food was excellent. I was a bit leery at first - hopefully all will be well with my GI tract. If all turns out fine, it is a treasure. We ate under the trees and dinner only took about 2 hours so that wasn't bad. A long-term missionary, age 68, from Albany, NY, who has been working at Smile Africa took us in her car and returned us home as she lives on our road. She is a very entertaining conversationalist, so it was a great evening. It will be so nice to sleep comfortably tonight.

Wednesday - Feb. 17 - ASH WEDNESDAY: This was to be my day of contemplation and solitude ending with Imposition of Ashes at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. Though I did have an easy, relaxing day, none of it turned out as planned. The big disappointment was I lost my ride to church.

Thursday - Feb. 18: I have been watching the most spectacular lightning display behind the clouds on the horizon. It was like watching the aurora borealis in winter or stage effects behind a scrim.

I went back to True Vine today and observed a P2 class. I will come up with something to bring to a lesson for them - possibly creating words like I do with my adult Reading classes.

Mary returned to my Reading class today. Pastor Godfrey said she showed up yesterday because she didn't know I wouldn't be there. He seemed surprised she returned today. I was glad she did.

Also, Samuel (LS class) was back from Kenya, but will be gone again next week. Two of my students wrote essays for me; the others promised one next week. I will also put together a "test" for next week going over what we have covered so far. We did prepositions today.

In planning for my Friday Smile classes, it has become a bit difficult. I don't know quite what direction to go and/or what material to cover so that all the students are challenged and they are all learning what they wish to. I assigned homework which was to figure out a personal weekly budget. We'll see what the results are tomorrow. Maybe I will just have to back off from that tack.

There are 2 going-away parties planned for Kathy tomorrow - one at True Vine at 1:00 and one at Smile at 3:30. It will be interesting to see what happens with such close scheduling.

Please keep all of us here in your prayers as we keep you in our prayers. God bless you!