Travelling Blogger Mari

Hi All, Sorry about the big gap in my reporting, but been a little bit busy. Generally speaking my weekly programme falls into Monday (if I am not away on a trip) catch up with washing, sort out Bible Studies for the coming week, and generally help around the house if needed. Sometimes I go into Kampala with Emi and I get a chance to use really good internet facilities with a fast connection. I am usually there 2 hours catching up, the journey takes about one hour each way, and sometimes Emi and I have to meet with various Pastors about this or that, so much of the day is gone.
Tuesday, sometimes into Kampala if I haven't managed to do it on Monday, then in the evening I usually go with Emi to the Bweyogerere Bible Study Group, where usually I have done the lesson. We get back home about 8.30 p.m. and by the time the meal is served and eaten, prayer and worship with the family, it is time to fall into bed! Recently on Wednesday I have been travelling to the village of Butinindi to help the nurse with mini-medical missions. The village is about and hour or more in the car. The road can be really bad if it rains - and it usually does. A few weeks ago we went there in a hired taxi (normal saloon car). There was Flo, the Nurse, and me and the driver Fred. About half way there, the main road became a large mud-pat and the driver had a terrrible job just keeping the car out of the ditch. We managed to visit quite a few of the old people and treat kids and ladies along the way. The return journey was even more scarey, but Fred got us through. Butinindi is the village where Flo and Emi have a small plot of land and they grow food there to feed the whole of Bweyogerere School as well as various poor families. Flo goes there most Fridays to collect all the food in the pick-up truck. They also have a house there and occasionally Flo stays the night - she loves being close to the land and having the quiet of the village, if only for a short while.
The next week we went there with 2 nurses, Flo, me and Fred - bit of a crush in the car! We ministered to 130 people, and could have been there still if we had not had to get out of there before the rain! Once we got passed the worse part of the little village road, the driver said to me - Can you drive?...... Yep!...... ok come and drive, I'm tired!!! But I don't have the right Driving Licence. Fred looks dazed...... "but this is Uganda!!!". Oh well, it was a challenge, so off we went, and we got some really funny looks that a Mzungu was driving 4 Ugandans. I drove for about 45 minutes and didn't crash his car, so he was pleased.
Yesterday, I made the journey again in the pick-up truck with Henry the driver for the school. There are only 2 seats and an area to carry vegetables etc. in the rear of the vehicle. The weather didn't look promising so we knew we would have to be quick. We managed the last part of the really narrow village road, until we came across a large lorry blocking the road. The driver advised us to leave the vehicle there and go on foot. Which we did, fortunately not too far, but very muddy. We got to Wilson's house, the elderly man who has a nasty ulcer on his foot. Unfortunately the dressing the nurse did the previous week had come off and it was open to all the dirt etc. I managed to redress it and bandage it firmly. There was another old man with a similar injury on his lower leg. A local man offered to take us to his house, but as we set off, the rain came pouring down and Henry and I were soaked to the skin before we reached the vehicle. We decided we could not chance going further to set off back to the main road, with the vehicle skidding and sliding and finally coming to a halt by a mini-river of water and a deep rut. There was nothing for it, I had to get out and push. Within seconds, I can covered with mud from head to foot as the back wheels spun around in a vain effort to move the car. I then stepped into the little 'river' which went over the top of my boots (knew they would come in handy!). After a while we got it out only to come up against the lorry which had moved its position! Again we laboured while the lorry driver sat in his cab looking on. Finally 3 young men came to our rescue and we virtually lifted it up onto the bank and guided it passed the Lorry. I returned home about one and half hours later. When Florence opened the door, she was totally speachless.... my clothes are still lying in a basin waiting to be washed and I am wondering.... is it easier to through them away? What do you think folks?
Thursday, its either Kampala for emailing, or sorting things out at home. Also Bible Study as I usually go to Sonde Church in the evening to lead their meeting. Not a lot of people come, but those that do seem to have got a lot out of it, and anyway, it gives me the chance to see my grandaughter - Marie - who kindly did a poo all over me last week!!
The last few weekends I have been away from Friday to either Sunday or Monday. I think Beki has told you a little about our visit to Soroti and the camp where the people lived after the flooding last year. Originally there were about 400 people, but around 200 had returned to their own places. The remaining people have built mud houses and burned it into a little township. The Pastor - Samuel - was an older man (well, probably a bit younger than me!). About 80 people came to the church to meet us. They are great worshippers (even without drums). I got some film footage which I hope will be good. Beki and I both spoke, with Pastor Francis translating. We had a meal with Pastor Samuel and his wife and family afterwards. Everyone was so grateful for the assistance we sent last year.
I HAVE A HORRIBLE FEELING I HAVE ALREADY TOLD YOU ALL THIS, IF I HAVE FORGIVE ME.
Sunday we attended Pastor Francis Church. We both spoke. There were some other Mzungu's there. A family from USA, a young couple with 2 little daughters (5 and 3 years) and the lady was pregnant. They have already been in Soroti about 1 year and intend to stay for about 5 years. From time to time they go back to the USA, as they will soon for the delivery of their baby, and they hope to return about a month later. The man helps disciple Pastors in the surrounding area and does a lot of work with the blind, of which there seems to be a higher than average amount, he also does the Sunday School. I believe the lady is involved in widows projects etc. Apparently there are over 200,000 widows in that area! Seems unbelievable. The lady we stayed with (also a widow around 35 years) does a lot to mobilise them, organising conferences, bible study, prayer meetings, etc. She has also got a "slot" on the local radio.
Pastor Francis and his wife Maggie, were lovely people, they have 2 sets of twins and a single child born in between. We went to their house on the first night for our evening meal.
The journey to and fro was a bit of a nightmare. Going wasn't too bad as Beki, Baby Charles and me sat on a 3 seater. On the way back Beki and I had to share with a lady, who was next to me..... well almost sitting on my lap most of the time, and what with her 2 chickens under my seat, I hardly moved for about 4 hours and was stiff as a board when we came to our destination..... ho hum..... all in a day's work!
RWANDA -
I had a few pre-conceived notions of what it may be like there, but none of them were vaguely near the reality. We set off last Friday around 6 a.m. as we were worried about getting through the traffic in Kampala, which is a nightmare by about 7 a.m. Consequently we got to the bus station too early - well, better than missing the coach which was due to leave around 8.30 a.m. Pastor Emi and Isaiah, dumped their bags by me and Flo and said to each other, "lets have a cup of tea" and left us standing there! Flo and I looked at each other and she said.... "Marie, men are very difficult, that is why I am waiting for Jesus to come back!" (and so say all of us!!!) An Asian company does the run to Rwanda and they left on time. Well the next 10 hours are a blur, mainly because we were travelling at speeds exceeding 80 mph. He made a few brief stops for people to jump off for the loo and if they were lucky by something to eat (I didn't get off). The palava at the border has to be experienced to be believed. We had to get off the bus, leaving our main luggage, and queue up to get our passports checked and stamped. Some people ended up in the wrong line, so there was a lot of pushing and shoving - We then had to walk across the border - about 50 yards. Then go into the other sides passport office etc. etc. When we returned to the bus all the bags are on the ground and we each have to open our bag and they check for who knows what, but mainly for plastic bags (or cavera, as they are called here). They are NOT allowed into Rwanda. People returned to the bus with all their worldly goods in paper bags.... fortunately we had already heard about this and had not packed any. Think about it.... what do you do with a wet flannel, or toothbrush, or dirty shoes??
Another 2/3 hours and we reached Kigali (Chigali). Pastor Joseph was there to meet us. He had taken 2 days off work and borrowed a car so that he could host us properly. I had already been impressed by the tarmac roads everywhere, the place was so clean you could have ate your dinner off the pavement. There were surprisingly few people around compared to Uganda where the population seems to have "exploded" literally. There were proper "pavements" unknown in Uganda except in Kampala. We had a meal at his home. His wife, Dorothy, was a gem. If you read Proverbs - The good women, think its in the last chapter, you will have some idea of what she was like. The food was good and plentiful, they went to a lot of trouble. We were lodging in a sort-of convent place, run by Catholic nuns. It was very clean and quite, so a real refuge after that long journey. We had our breakfast there each day, but our other meals with Pastor Joseph's family. He had 4 children - 3 boys and a girl - but one boy was killed in a car crash. All the children were involved in the church, were so respectful and helping around the home, it was so lovely to see them. The oldest boy seemed to run the worship group and plays the keyboard and sings. Their girl - Mercy - was in the choir and can also do a pretty mean Rwandan traditional dance (more about that later). About lunch time on Saturday we visited a church that Pastor Isaiah encourages. The choir sang and each of us brought a little greeting - but I was "sort-of" the main speaker. I spoke about shining for Jesus and as the church was set on a hill (of which Rwanda has many) the point was not lost on them. Pastor Joseph then took us to the Genocide Memorial, which I couldn't go into here, I still feel so emotional about it, but perhaps when I return, I can share it with those who are interested. After about an hour, I came upon Joseph standing quietly staring into space. I asked him if he had brought many visitors there. He said "many". I said it must be very upsetting and emotional for him.... and all he said was "we lost all of our families". After that I just couldn't stay there any longer. Florence had already gone out to sit in the gardens, where the remains of many of the victims are buried. We felt it was best to call it a day. In all the time we were there, I only saw about 3 people over the age of 40 years. Apparently the average age is about 15 years.
On Sunday we went to Joseph's church for the morning and evening service, both lasting around 3 hours, with lunch in between. There were choirs, preaching, speaking, more details on my return. One very interesting thing. There was a man there who I can only describe as a tribal "wise man". He was traditionally dressed and had his hair cut in a tribal style (I have a photo). He sung a song (in Rwandees) and narrated a poem, both of which he wrote just to welcome us. He was a fascinating character. Later 6 or 8 of the younger girls did some traditional dancing and suddenly pulled Emi and me out the front.... well we did our best, that tribal man really knew how to dance and I just copied him as best I could. Florence was "spitting feathers" that she had not recorded it!!! ME - I'm glad!!
We travelled back early on Monday morning. We were on the coach about 10 hours including the time at the border - and I had to pay about 25 pounds to re-enter Uganda - cheek! When we go to Kampala, we hired a private taxi as the traffic was so bad, but still ended up in 2 hours of traffic jams. So all in all we were on the go about 14 hours during which time, neither Flo nor I went to the loo (mainly because they hardly stopped), and we travelled on a boiled egg, 1 bottle of water apiece, and a coke. By the time we reached home, I could hardly stand, my body was shaking so much, I had to lie down and have a cup of sweet tea, kindly made by Beki. Well, folks, think thats about enough from me...... off to Bugiri tomorrow until Sunday, hope to update early next week. Mari, reporting from Uganda

Tea

I thought this point deserved a special post because I know tea is so close to the hearts of some people I know!

Tea in Uganda is warm milk with tea leaves in. Most people put in at least 3 sugars and Florence will often find some random leaf to stick in it which we've never worked out what kind of herb it is! sometimes they buy milk but its very expensive, and also hard to keep good. This is because it is bought long life in a kind of cardboard container that you rip open so you cant keep it sealed. And also the fridge is turned off overnight, so it wouldnt be any good in there. So generally I have been getting used to black tea, which is actually quite nice, but to my shame I am starting to only like it with 2 or even 3 sugars in it. Something I never thought I would become lol.

HOWEVER today has been a breakthrough! because I have just been to a big shopping centre and found....wait for it... not just twinings tea... not even just twinings fruit tea... but my actual favourite in the whole wide world... cranberry raspberry and elderflower tea!!!!!!!

I didn't miss it, but I am very happy that I found it. It actually made my day lol. What didn't make my day quite so much was that it cost the extortionate equivalent of 2.50 pounds. But there you go, I treated myself, and no more sugar for me :)

I've updated the photos

I hope this doesn't get confusing for you, but it's much easier for me to upload photos only onto facebook and not on both!

There are three albums now, and you will need to type different addresses for them.

The first is

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=40656&l=f4381&id=503957996

The second is

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=43351&l=f7582&id=503957996

The third is

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=44739&l=acfdf&id=503957996

By they way, we are getting used to having titles here! Mari is usually Mama Mari, Sister Mari or Auntie Mari, and I am somewhere between Sister Beki, Teacher Beki and Madam Beki at school! haha

More things I've learnt in Uganda

- If you run out of fuel, take empty water bottles to a petrol garage they will happily fill a couple for you, as they will carrier bags
- A sign which says 'no stopping' or 'no parking' actually means 'this is a very convenient place to park so please turn it into a car park'
- Oranges are actually green, and so are lemons.
- A car or taxi is never full, regardless of seats available
- Its near impossible to keep using hand sanitising gel
- There is nothing unusual about a hen wandering into a prayer meeting or indeed a primary school lesson, so don't look alarmed.
- Sweet potatoes are grown in fields which are dug up into a million little molehill type lumps
- Shea butter comes from trees
- Post its are worth their weight in gold
- Wet wipes make quite good bandages when a 7 year old child in your class slits their finger sharpening their pencil with a razor blade.
- Health and Safety inspectors are simply unheard of
- Sleep is valuable. Guard it well.
- It is difficult to get people to understand that electricity and batteries are cheaper if you turn things off when you're not using them
- The song "God is so good, he's so good to me" means a million times more when you hear it sung by people who are really suffering. We visited a place in Soroti called Obalanga where a small trading town has become a sprawling mass of mud huts where people have settled in a hurry. Most of them were chased from their villages by the LRA rebels, or Karamajong tribesmen, or catastrophic floods last year, and because of all those things in that one small area there are over 2000 widows.
- Simple buses can overcome the most adverse camber i have ever known on a road, so much that a 5 hour coach journey became the ultimate alton towers experience.
- Riding side saddle on the back of a bordaborda (motorbike taxi) with pineapples, 5l bottles of water and a handbag is not as difficult as it seems when you get used to it.
- A 20l jerrycan full of water can be carried by an 8 year old, often on their head, for goodness knows how far, but I can't hardly lift it.
- Millet is the most disgusting food known to man. They say it is made out of Sogum mixed with casava flour but Mari and I are having a hard time distinguishing it from brown sticky chewing gum with sand in.
- Ugandans are easy to form really good deep friendships with.
- Most, if not all processed food comes from Kenya, which explains why so much of East Africa was affected after the troubles there last Christmas time
- Ugandans can look clean, tidy and presentable when they handwash their clothes and bath in a plastic bowl full of water. We simply cannot.

Blogger Mari...

Hi di Hi, Mari here to talk to you happy campers again! Sorry if I repeat myself, will try not too!

Starting from last Sunday 28th Sept. Beki will have told you she was busy at Bweyogerere Church working with the Youth. Orginally Emi and I were going to a small mud church which is set on a hill through some sugarcane fields just outside the town of Lugazi. He was unable to contact the Pastor (Dan), so at the last minute the arrangements were changed and we went with Elder James (who looks after the orphans) to a church that he has been encouraging. He told us there would be about 30 people there.... ok..... We arrived just after 11 a.m. having travelled a rough village road to the place. I can't spell, or pronounce its name, but in English it means "the place where they kill mosquitos". Don't think they are working hard enough... they are still finding me! Anyway.. on arrival we find a big celebration going on. Their Pastor (Moses) had just graduated from a 3 year Bible College Course. There were 2 tarpaulin shelters put up and we were shown to the best one.... as..... WE were the GUESTS OF HONOUR!! (news to us). Emi told me that they would expect me to speak. Thankfully, I had something ready to share, and as always, when you have God on your side, it is perfect for the situation. A young lad had to hold an unbrella over me and Emi (he was translating) as the heat from the sun was unbearable. There were over 100 people there, and I had such a job trying to stop my hands from shaking. It seemed to go ok, Emi was pleased. They also had speaches, dancers, choirs.... the day wore on. I had drunk my one bottle of water within the first hour, my clothes were sticking to me, and after 4 hours we had given up the will to live. Eventually, the food was served about 4.30 p.m. You know when you think you are starving, and then this mountain of food appears, and suddenly your appetite just disappears? Well it was like that. Then Emi gets a phone call from home that a pastor has been waiting for him since noon. So we had to eat as much as we could manage, make our exit as inconspicuously as possible and get back, which took about one and a half hour.

The man we were to meet was Pastor Isaiah and he visits Rwanda a lot so will accompany Emi, Flo and me when we go on the weekend of 17th - 20th October. Can't tell you how much I am looking forward to that. It will be a days travel both ways and we will have Saturday and Sunday there, probably visiting 3 churches in all. Pray for us.

On Monday it was a day of this and that, can't even remember most of it, but I had my head in my Bible most of the time. Tuesday I helped with the Bible Study at Bweyogerere. I am doing a series about FAITH which I had the basis of from a study that Pastor Paul did some years ago. I altered it a bit to suit the circumstances here. Wednesday, Emi, Beki and I went to see some of the widows. In Emi's church there is a group of about 12. Six of them came along to one lady's house. We had asked them not to prepare a meal (partly because of the expense to them, and partly because of time limits). I shared a few thoughts on the "Aroma of Christ" and how we have to become "living sacrifices" for God to create the same "aroma" that Christ did when he died for us. They gave us tea and popcorn (but not as you know it!). Community Church also gave them a gift of 10,000 Ugandan Shillings each. This is just over 3 pounds, which does not sound a lot, but is equivalent to a weeks wages for some people. We also gave them a little bookmark (these were made by Helen on her computer before we came), they each had a little satin ribbon and a butterfly "sticker" and the words "YOU ARE LOVED". They were happy. I hope to visit them again before I come home.

On Thursday, I worked with Beki at lunch time with the kids at school, which I think I mentioned last time. They did some Ugandan Worship first, then we taught them a song. Then Beki read the story of "Cecil - the lost Sheep" (Helen's creation) and I larked about with a little lamb 'puppet' which the kids loved. Then we gave them all a biscuit before they returned to class. Beki later heard them singing the song we had taught them as they walked about from class to class - JESUS POWER SUPER POWER, SATAN POWER ZERO POWER !! Lizzie and I learnt it in India. Even across cultures and nations - HIS POWER travels! In the evening I went to Sonde Church (Pastor John and Christine). William (Emi's nephew came with me to interpret). It was almost dark when we started out and we took a public transport bus along the main road. Then I had to hide while William negotiated with the borda borda man (if they see me they charge more). It was quite a long journey, up hill and down dale in the twilight. AAAAAAAARGH..... goat in the road..... AAAAAAAAARGH herd of cows.......AAAAAAARGH flock of sheep..... AAAAAAARGH bike with no lights..... AAAAARGH REALLY REALLY BIG LORRY...... CAN YOU SEE, CAN YOU SEE..... OH shut up Mari, just close your eyes and pray! And that was just going there, it was a bit more scarey in the dark. Anyway, re-run the session on FAITH that I did at Bweyogerere and they were happy. Saw my new grandchild (Marie) nearly one month old and really beautiful (must be in the jeans!).

Friday, Beki took the day off from teaching and came to Lugazi with me and Nurse Grace to meet with James Akolo in Lugazi. We had to go on the public bus and then a borda borda to James house then a borda borda to Buyengi, a little village the team visited. The nurse treated about 92 people and we helped to pack up the little envelopes of pills for her. They were happy. At one point Beki and I had to share the same borda borda, which caused a lot of hilarity along the road, with the kids stunned into silence - a few managed a "bye mzungu" before we disappeared. James Akolo was very happy because we also left worming tablets for the whole of his school, and the kids at his church. So because of your kindess, 440 people are free of worms, and we still have 2 schools and one church still to do.

Today, I am with Beki at the internet cafe in Bweyogeredre, which for some reason seems to be able to give us a connection only on Saturday. Later today I will be going to a lady's house for lunch or tea, I'm not sure. Her name is Joyce and she has interpreted for me from time to time. She has also travelled ALONE to evangelise in the Sudan - brave lady.

Tomorrow, Beki will be with the youth at Bweyogerere, I am sharing in the main church and then we are presenting a half day workshop for kids workers in churches. This will be for about 6 - 8 people from different churches that Emi overseas. We are holding it at Florence's house and she is providing lunch. We are making them up a folder each with a notebook, pen, bookmark (thanks to Helen) and possibly some photocopies of some of the resources that Helen and I used in our children's work. They will be able to "cascade" the information down to other workers in their churches. Will say bye bye now

Bweyogerere Multi Purpose Primary School

Something about the school I have been working in... is that it is so incredibly different from English schools! I think mostly it's because it's a church run school, so there aren't restrictions on the morals and Christianity you can teach the children. But also it's not a government run school (it's licensed by the gov. but is effectively private) so things like health and safety regulations, child protection regulations and in fact any other sort of paper work simply doesn't exist! Obviously there are recommendations about things like facilities and fire hazards and everything else, but the attitude here seems to be something like well if you don't follow it and we catch you we will close the school, but if you don't catch you on your own head be it!

Having said that it is a very good school. They have very limited facilities - there are simply 9 classrooms, 5 latrines, and 3 'offices' (a room with a basic desk and a few shelves) - but the kids are really treated like proper school pupils. They have a green and white uniform with a badge on it that says "hold my hand Oh God", and have a time table of 8 40 minutes lessons a day that include maths, English, science, Social Studies (which I think is a combination of Geography, History and PSE), RE, and the younger classes also learn L'ugandan (the local language).

There are 10 teachers plus 2 cooks, a bursa, a matron (a girl called Flora who lives in the Dorms with the girls) and a headmaster. There isn't a class without a teacher so the classes they have given me have been bits and pieces with most classes. I am doing reading lessons with P2 every morning for an hour and a half, then the rest of the day I do RE lessons with P3, P4 and P7 (if P7 aren't in mocks for their end of school exams next month) and also English revision lessons with P5 and P6. I tend to be in the younger classes more which is very difficult because their English isn't so good and although they get basic instructions, to try and figure out who to tell off when two kids are fighting over a pencil or something is another ball game! I'm just about getting my head around their names, but the trouble with P2 is that they really are bad at reading. So to try and teach them to read in what is their 2nd if not third language (if they don't come from this area of Uganda they have another local language) is fairly challenging!

However I have discovered a collection of reading books at different levels in the back of the Bursa's office so am going to start using them with the kids now I am getting an idea of the ones who are better or worse. I think what they mostly need is just to practice reading... so let's see how I can get my head around finding enough time to do that as well!

Please pray for wisdom and strength and for me to get quicker at learning L'ugandan!

xxx

Things I have noticed about Uganda...

There are some funny things you realise about a country when you live here, but you usually forget to tell people when you get home. These are some of the things we have noticed about Uganda...

- Nothing is useless. In fact everything has about 10 uses and therefore very little is thrown away. Rotten food is fed to the banana trees. Old plastic bottles are very useful for washing your hair. And even old carrier bags make good containers for storing food...
- A bowl of water is amazingly precious. We have discovered that the same water can be used to first wash your hair, then yourself, then your underwear, then your shoes, and finally to flush the porcelain toilets they had installed especially for white visitors!
- I am a mzungu. And there is simply no one who is going to let me forget it! the children still aren't used to me walking past every morning and still shout "bye mzungu!" a million times on the way to and from school. Sweet, but can get a little tiring!
- Doing business in public is like an auction. The Ugandans hail a taxi with the slightest nod of the head, and refuse a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) by simply just blinking at them I think. Its so hard to remember to do the right thing!
- flip flops are the only practical shoes.
- Matoke is actually nice! Florence grows hers in the garden and it is steamed over a charcoal fire for about 2 hours and then mashed so it becomes a bit like mashed parsnip but a bit more bland.
- There are no such things as road signs, road markings, or a highway code. Each man for himself and go!
- People think we are funny because we walk along the road fairly quickly, compared to the average Ugandan who even if he is really late for something, will stroll along as if he is trying to fill the time! Apparently someone saw us and said 'look at that woman, who is chasing her?!'
- It's rude to walk and eat at the same time. You must take time about your food and if you should finish before your host, you have no choice but to help yourself to another plateful of food! We are learning to eat slowly.
- 9am generally can be translated as 12 or even 3pm. Especially with Emmanuel!

I will think of some more another time...!