Sunday, November 23, 2008

My birthday!

Wednesday was my birthday, and I had a really great day! We went to my favorite restaurant in town, Dawat an Indian restaurant. Everyone on the team was invited to come. Even though I really didn’t expect them to all come, pretty much everyone on the team came, which was really cool. After that we went to the Tylers’ house for devotional. We sang a few songs and then Shawn asked the team to speak blessings over me. It was really thoughtful and very humbling. I was very moved especially since I’ve only been here for 3 months. That was a really special time that I will not forget. After that they brought out brownies with candles in them for me to blow out and they sang to me. Later that night I came home to several voice mails and emails wishing me happy birthday. It was a really good day. Thanks! :)

Saturday, November 22, 2008

The Hairy Lemon


This past weekend I went back to Jinja for more time on the Nile. Our team went on retreat to an island campsite called the Hairy Lemon. Unlike the name of the place, the island was indescribably beautiful. Most of our time was spent relaxing, playing in the water, and getting to know each other better. I saw a side of the kids that I hadn’t seen before, and it felt more like a family time. The place itself was very basic, but I liked it. The beauty of it far outweighed not having a normal shower. Most of us ended up washing our hair in the Nile anyway. Sunday morning we had worship on the porch of one of the cabins. We sang of God’s majesty and splendor as we looked out on the ancient Nile River. Ian got up and read a couple of Psalms and red-tailed monkeys joined us. They played in the trees above our heads, and it was so neat. Definitely an African experience. Mary Beth said it was like they came to listen to Ian read the Word of God. As I looked out at various secluded creeks of the river, I thought about Moses floating by in the basket as the princess bathed. Being in Africa I have seen more things that can help me imagine what things may have looked like in some of the Old Testament stories. Last year as I cut rice in the rice field, I thought about Ruth and Naomi. Looking at the river outside my cabin, I thought of baby Moses. On Friday there was a rainbow over part of the river. It was the most beautiful rainbow I have ever seen. It was so vivid that I could clearly see each color. I wanted to take a picture, but there was no way a picture could do that sight any justice. Behind the rainbow there was a huge, fluffy, white cloud. In front of it little black birds flew freely all over the sky. Beneath it was the greenery of healthy, growing life of the earth. Beneath that, the River Nile flowed steadily along. The sky was that perfect shade of sky blue. It was such a perfect sight, and it left me in awe of the awesome God we serve. Again, I thought back to the Old Testament and thought of Noah and the flood. I wondered if what Noah saw looked anything like what I was looking at, and I remembered and felt God’s promise all represented in that rainbow. The retreat was wonderful… I couldn’t ask for more.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

One of the coolest things I've ever done

Last week Julie and I were able to tag along on a trip with some Harding students passing through town. These students have been studying in Zambia this semester. They’ve been and are travelling around Uganda and to Rwanda before they return to the States. On Monday they were scheduled to raft the River Nile. Julie and I thought this was a great time for us to go rafting, so we tagged along. We found out about it on Saturday and scrambled to get everything worked out to leave with them on Sunday. We had to get a private hire (taxi) to take us to Jinja because plans changed with the transport situation and we had to find our own way there. We tried to call the guest house where these students were staying to find out if there was room for us, but MTN (cell network) wasn’t working in Jinja. So we arrived at the guest house to find they were full. Since it was dark by this time, Phillip generously drove us around the neighborhood to find a place to stay. We went to a couple of different places only to find out they were also full. Why there were so many people in Jinja on a Sunday night, I have no idea. As Phillip drove by the Daniel Guest House the first time he said, “Thousand shillings says I’ll be bringing you back here.” Of course, he was right. This hotel was a bit…sketchy, but it was a place to sleep. We had one mosquito net to somehow fit over our two twin beds, so we slept with our heads close together trying not to get tangled in the net. We got up the next day and joined the Harding students for the rafting trip. Julie and I ended up in a raft with 3 guys and our guide, Peter. I think we went through 12 rapids and only flipped twice. I had never been rafting before, and my first trip we went through class 5 rapids. Rapids are classed 1-6. Class 6 can only be done by well-trained kayakers. The class 5 rapids here are “probably the best class 5 rapids in the world,” according to the Jinja rafting people. For the last rapid we had to get out and walk around while the guides carried the boats further up the river. That part of the river was a class 6 rapid. I was pretty much terrified looking at the water we were about to get back into and raft through, and really thought about not doing the last rapid. Of course, I hopped back in the boat anyway. We made it through the final rapid, “The Bad Place,” without flipping, though Julie almost fell out but pulled through by hanging on for dear life. So my first rafting trip ever was on class 1-5 rapids in the River Nile… I don’t think I can ever raft in the States now; nothing will be quite as thrilling. I felt very accomplished at the end of the trip and very proud of myself for making it through flipping only twice. Floating down the Nile between rapids was awesome. I wish I could accurately describe the feeling of being on the Nile mesmerized by the beauty of God’s creation and the excitement of playing in it. Rafting 30 kilometers of the Nile is one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Trips to Kampala



We weren’t able to work out a trip to Gulu over fall break, but we spent a few days in Kampala. We went to the mall (that has a bookstore!!... guess where I was most of that time), a craft market, and to a couple different grocery stores that have more selection than we have in Mbale. We also went to see a movie. The theatre had comfortable seats and air conditioning… it doesn’t matter what movie we may see, it’s comfy in there. Julie, Jennifer, and I took a bus down to Kampala… thus my public transport insights from the last blog. We had a nice time overall and it was good to get out of town for a few days. We also went to see a traditional African dance troop (Ndere) perform; that was a lot of fun. There weren’t many people at all there, and they pulled us down to the stage area to dance with them—so much fun! All in all, fall break was a nice, mostly relaxing break.
We went back to Kampala a week and a half later for our team’s (New Testament Churches of Christ) quarterly meeting. We have teams in Mbarara, Jinja, Kampala, Fort Portal, and Mbale. It was nice to meet teammates from around the country and learn about the work they are doing around Uganda. I know that if I had written this blog sooner after the trips that I would have more to say, or at least a more interesting way to tell about what we did.
The power went off about 2 hours after we got back to Mbale, and stayed off for 48 hours or so. It went off and on a lot that week; then things got busy. I think some of my teammates (Julie and Mary Beth, I think) wrote more about Kampala and the power outage. Feel free to explore their blogs for more stories about my team here. :)