interesting times

Well this afternoon as I write there is no electricity (thank you God for a good battery) and there is a water shortage but we do still have some. However, these are practicalities which simply put us a tiny step closer to understanding reality for so many of the people around us.

Yesterday afternoon I was invited to a ladies’ group called Women of Hope. What a great name! Let me hopefully describe the afternoon to you. I arrived, thinking I was late. Oh, that’s right we are in Africa – gradually more women arrived. There was a time of singing in Lugandan and then prayer – African style which means everyone speaking at once. I sometimes try to sing with them when I can pick up words – I figure that way I will be able to say the words when I know what they mean. It also means that I feel involved. Then, there was a welcome and I was welcomed and introduced myself. That comprised the only English that was said publicly for the afternoon. Many of these women had had the opportunity to go to Kampala to a prayer gathering the previous Friday. There were great testimonies of what God had done, things like I was able to pray for the first time, God became real, I got a new song to sing that will be shared later. It obviously had been a great thing. Significantly, I was also made aware that a large number of them probably about 5 of the 25 that were there at this time had never been to Kampala before. Kampala is about one and a half hours away and there are taxi buses there all the time. In my terms it is a bit like living all your life in Bendigo and never having been to Melbourne ever.

Then, there was a sharing time and it was this time that was very significant. I had someone who translated some of what went on, and I was able to see different things because I couldn’t understand the language. To give you a little gist, they talked about how Jinja (the main town where we live) should not be in poverty but curses have been placed on it. That it should be a prosperous place but there is so much poverty. (as an aside, on Sunday we went for a bit of a drive and when you look at the beauty, the Source of the Nile and the wonderful climate and picturesque landscape we were thinking how this could be so much more). Then, there was some fiery stuff with a woman saying that women come and call themselves Woman of hope and then go and steal tomatoes. She had seen it. Someone else talked of thieving, that parents turn a blind eye to children coming home with things they have not bought. There was a passionate call for change, that people needed to stop sinning and things would change. This is the point that I would differ. It is terrible, though I am not going to judge. How could I, we always had food in the cupboard for the children and they never went to sleep hungry. What I would say though is, that if it is about sin then there would be more poverty. My heart went out to these women, desperately seeking for answers for change. Many of them are widows, others have husbands who are drunks and some have husbands that work. On the funny side, here are all these people living in worse conditions than I am here and I was the only one with dirty feet! For most of the afternoon I kept them hidden under my skirt – the advantage of sitting on the ground.

This experience, though not understanding a large amount of it, was very significant for me. I feel that this group will be important as I get to understand more of what it is like to be a mother, a wife and a woman in a village in Uganda. In some ways it is easier for me to see things differently when I see children. Seeing these women reminded me how fortunate I am, through nothing I did. I simply was born in Australia. Life is raw. I came home and then saw a lady that we had met when the team went to the nearby village. She is normally part of the Women of Hope (by the way, by the end there were about 45 women – normally there is more but the recent trip to Kampala reduced numbers.). This lady had taken us into her home, and we had prayed for her. Her son was ill but is well now – she had taken him for prayer in Kampala as well. So here she is outside the fence collecting water in a yellow jerry can. She was not embarrassed that this was what she was doing, it was just life. Just guessing it would be about 800 metres to her home from where I saw her and she would be taking the children and the jerry cans back with her. They weigh a ton. This is how she gets water.

Then, today I have been back to YWAM and been with lots of children. They are holding a program for three days for the children of these women. It was great and I feel like I am getting to be more part of the community as I was able to see quite a number of children I have met or had something to do with. Included in these was a young girl, maybe 16, who has been to church each Sunday we have been and has come all by herself. I spoke to her last Sunday and found out that she doesn’t go to school. She came and gave me a hug today. I wonder what her story is and look forward to hearing more.

There is so much potential for good things and I am praying that we will be part of bringing about good things for this nation. With most of the population of school age and under there is so much that could happen. Most people believe that education is the key. However, it has to have more than just results at school. I met a lady this morning whose son had done well but had not been able to go on to university and so she was not sure what the future holds. We cannot afford to have vain hope, it must be in the maker who knows how to make things different.

Sorry for the ramble – maybe this post is just for me to download.

Picture of all the children at YWAM

This is a young girl who is about 8 years old at most and her baby sister who would be about one

and this is how you get the baby in place.

Well, with a prolonged power outage, this didn't get posted until now. I will also add some photos from the children's events today. The first few relate to the big event at YWAM and then the later to sharing the afternoon with all the village kids in the admin centre.

Life is exciting

It doesn't seem to matter every day has at least one thing that means that I say "life is exciting", or "life is an adventure". Sometimes, that is what I say as cars are doing crazy things, or there are people everywhere, or I try cooking something that I have no idea what it is.

Today is no different, we have been into town and it is all an adventure in there. It is so busy with stalls everywhere, and I mean everywhere. Cars, buses, bicycles, boda bodas (motorcycles) rushing around amongst people. The rule of the road is biggest gets priority and that can mean anywhere on the road! We went to lunch at a place suggesting it is for Westerners and the taco I had, the inside was great but the "taco bowl" impossible! Ron had a chicken caesar salad that comprised of a plate of lettuce (good lettuce), some cold strips of chicken and a couple of croutons! However the drinks were great, iced coffee for me and a pineapple and coconut (pina colata) milkshake for Ron. So, basically nothing is predictable.

Home to the village. The children get to watch a movie on a Friday night and then one on a Saturday. Yesterday I put on the Sound of Music for them (my precious mum gave it to me for Christmas - bless her). Today they begged for it again! The following is a photo of approximately 25 children all piled into the TV room - there are neighbour kids and farm kids added to our children. The children are so so good, we do discipline them but there is never anything much. I watched in awe as about 8 kids crowded around my ipad and played a word game. No fighting, no thinking they all should even have a turn - just sharing together. This is so so common.



Then, I go to hang out our towels (for the second time - it rained briefly earlier so I brought it in) and next to the fence there is a little drive and then a water pipe that is leaking. Each day it has children constantly coming to get water in yellow jerry cans. Yesterday there was a group of friendly children while I was doing some digging and so I gave them each a lollipop. Once again there was so much appreciation. Then, today - they greet me with there is our friend. How humbling. I have taken their photo to show a little of the reality for people here. This is collecting water for all their needs. I asked if they have a mosquito net and the answer is no. Ron and I need to find the place in the market to buy some and then we will be giving them away lots and lots. It is hard to focus on the need without becoming overwhelmed. As the children watch the movie a couple of girls come up. They are friends of our children. Jane tells me - they are orphans, so I suspect the older girl (probably about 14) does the parenting! It is all so amazing that they are always happy.We certainly feel that we are beginning to build good relationships and are able to constantly show love. We find that it is much easier with children because they are so innocent and come from the right place. It is, and always will be with adults because they do see us as the money solution for their needs. Even there it is hard, a man working labouring all day will earn 5000 shillings - about $2.30. So we continue to pray that God will be using us, that we will use the opportunities presented and that we will always be messengers of His love.

Getting you up to date

Well, apologies for not writing more. I will try and get you all a bit up to date with what we are up to so far. It is a great place, we are having a good time and we are keeping busy. There is so much to tell and show you.
I have taken some pictures of our new home so that you can see things and also try and give you a bit of a glimpse into what life looks like for us.

We are living in the admin centre of the Village of Hope. It has four rooms that can be used as bedrooms or rooms for use with microindustry, an office, a big open area that encompasses the part that we fondly call the kitchen and then there is a bathroom. We have as 'our space' one of the bedrooms. It has a bookcase that we store our clothes in and a makeshift string that supports coathangers, though we only have two at the moment so not much is on that. Some things are still in one of the suitcases - things that we don't need at the moment but we will need. The bathroom is good, with a sink, a very large shower area that makes it easy not to get water everywhere and a flushing toilet.



Of course, the shower only has one temperature of water, it is operated by a knob that resembles the thing you turn on a gas bottle. The cold water isn't a problem as it is hot and we normally have a shower in the afternoon and so that is fine. The harder part is that the water is not predictable, it is most common to start to have a shower and the water cuts out, it usually comes back! We are very appreciative of the flushing toilet especially since about the second night I had the runs and vomitting. It was not very pleasant. We share our accomodation with Luke who has been here for about 6 months I think. The reason I mention this is because the admin centre has no ceiling i.e. no sound proof - everything (and I mean everything) is heard throughout. Fortunately, Luke wears earplugs because he doesn't like hearing the dogs in the night - he was saved from some awful sounds in the night!
The kitchen area has improved as we have gone along. It was a table full of lots of stuff. I have been able to clean a whole lot of this up and a beautiful buffet has been bought. This holds the food, cutlery and crockery. It is important to put all the food safely away, of course we have a friendly rat - not that I have seen it yet, just seen evidence.
The big room is used by us and the children. In the afternoon they have dancing and singing. This can be very pleasant and sometimes also very very loud. It has also been a good meeting place for the team and the children. We are working on boundaries for the children. Luke and the other couple who were here did that and it is becoming very obvious that we need to. The most iconic thing that happens in the day is that usually just as soon as I am about to sit down to do something the children come and say "we have come to mop". This is the process of putting lots of water on the concrete floor and dragging a rag over the floor. I have worked out that it is much more effective if I have swept first, so I try to keep the floor swept all the time - just in case.
Outside the admin centre is a banana palm. I have never seen bananas grow and every day we are able to see a difference in the fruit as it grows. We are not sure if they are going to be green or yellow bananas. We are hoping for yellow and that they get long enough to grow big and nice. You can see Luke in the photo as well.

As I write there are children around me, Ron's computer has just run out of battery and so they have moved to me. They want me to type their names. I have with me
Peter, John, Sharon, Sam, Paul all here.

I will publish this now, as we are heading off to a final dinner with the team but I will put more pictures and write more tomorrow. Sorry about the ramblings.
This is the car that we have bought. It will make getting around a lot easier and cheaper in the long run. It will also mean that we can take children, mothers to places that are necessary as well as pick up food as necessary. We are aiming to use it as little as possible and to keep walking lots.

As I now add to the previous post it is now just Ron and I here at Village of Hope as far as Mzungus are concerned. Luke has gone with his family for a trip to Kenya and Zanzibar as well as to climb Mt Kilamanjara. The rest of the team have left. We are now about to find out about life as it will be.

Ron is busy with a number of local people finishing off the house, so that the roof can go on as soon as the container is here. This house has certainly gone up quickly.

Of course there is more that I can write and I will very soon.

Anne

Big day

Today was a great day. It was very hot but full of good things. We are going really well with the building. The team is working very well together and the local guys are fantastic. It has taken about a bit over a week of work and there is just one more row of bricks before the ring beam! That means another house.
This is all added to by a visitor that arrived this morning. It was Juliette, a lady who if you have heard me (Anne) speak about Uganda, I will have told you about her.


She is the mother of some of the children here in the village. She has HIV and was unable to look after the children, in fact one of the siblings did not make it to the village. Last year I had the privilege of going to visit her and provide her with very small funds which meant that she could have treatment for other medical issues. Her life at that time was in continued danger, without the children coming into the village she would not have lived. When she saw me today, she was very happy to see me and grateful to be alive.



It for me was incredibly moving. It is such an honour and joy to be able to help these people and extremely humbling because so little means so much. Juliette has a baby who has malaria. Malaria is rampant at the moment in this area and quite a concern. Please enjoy the pictures.



The other highlight was that we were able to connect online via Skype with people. First of all it was with the Fooks's, and then with Anita & Stu. It was really easy - I didn't cry, but it felt really close which was good.
The hard part of today was that one of the children had to go to a burial of her father who she hasn't seen since 2007. Unfortunately, getting places takes time and she was unable to make it to the burial. We have just spent some time praying with her and a mother - that is the Ugandan way, to pray. It is such a great thing to be here, so out of our comfort zone of knowing what to do, but know God is in it all.
This is a great adventure - we will try and update with other news of the last week soon.

Learning the way

On the day we were leaving, a friend came to church to give Anne a book. He had bought it for his wife, but when he read it he knew he had to give it to Anne. One passage in particular was very important. The book was the story of a lady working in Sudan, and she was sharing how it must have been a bit of a chuckle for God when he decided to send a super achieving, type A personality to Africa, where the most important thing is not the task at hand but the relationships with the people involved. This was reiterated to me yesterday when I had to go to the bank with Robert, our local "Hopebuilders mainstay" and Johann to be added as a signatory on the Hopebuilders account. Along the way, one of the many phone calls Robert took was from some of his friends arranging to meet at a restaurant for lunch to celebrate the end of the year. So, before we got to the bank, we enjoyed a very taste plate of pork with vegetables, posho, matooke and spinach with Robert and some of his friends. We got to the bank, and did the other required shopping, but what we had thought was the purpose of our trip became secondary to spending time with Robert and for him to be able to introduce us to his friends.

And all of this time, life continued here at the village and we were scarcely missed as the team powered on with the bricklaying.

We are always learning.

p.s.

Posho - a largely tasteless food looking like mashed potato but sticks together in clumps. Used to soak up the juices of the food and fill the stomach.

Matooke - mashed green bananas steamed up inside banana leaves and then eaten with the juices and other vegetables (carrots, peppers etc)

Safely Arrived

We arrived safely last night at approx 10 pm after 36 hours of travel. A minor delay at Dubai airport then a whole lot of security at Entebbe made us a couple of hours late, then we got lost in Kampala on our way to pick up some other team members who had come earlier via South Africa.
Today we have been settling in and are currently in Jinja stocking up on some much needed supplies and telephone access.
Great to catch up with friends, old and young, at the village.
Will update again soon

One Week to Go

The Countdown is on. Both of us have now finished up at work, and we have the last week to get the house ready to leave and to pack our stuff. Oh, and there is Christmas in there as well!

Lots of goodbyes have already been said and there are still a few opportunities for that this week.

Our info night at church went very well on Nov 12. About 50 of our friends came along to hear in detail why we are going and what we hope to do. Hopefully we didn't bore them too much as we waffled on.

With work out of the way we are now able to focus on the year ahead. We are very excited to be going with a team and then staying on once the team are finished. Bring it on!