I did all the work on this wall shown here. Taping the brick section off, painting around the corners, then rolling on the paint with a roller. Not too bad if I do say so myself.

Because of the lack of internet, I was unable to do a daily blog. So I've decided to compile the entire Mubende trip into one. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed doing it.

Saturday

I packed the night before, so saturday morning I only had to get up at the ungodly hour of 6:45. After a quick bowl of cereal I was out the door with Sam (director of Loving Hearts Baby Home) and George (an ARM employee and our driver). The three of us piled ourselves and our stuff into Jez's Land Cruiser (an awesome car by the way) for the three and a half hour drive. I knew what to expect on the drive because I had taken the route last month with the team from the US. Let's just say it didn't disappoint me with a lack of pot holes the size of the Grand Canyons, seemingly endless road construction, extremely dusty roads, and a fair share of crazy road raged drivers. We arrived at Pastor Wilson's house on schedule and were greeted by a large number of Pastor Wilson's adopted children. 

It might be a good point to explain who Pastor Wilson is for you guys..

He, most simply put, is the Billy Gram of Uganda. He has told me the following story twice now, the first time when the US team visited his house and the second time soon after I arrived saturday before he realized we had met before. He became a christian in the years of Edi Ameen when christians were persecuted. One night while having an underground bible study, the police raided the house and all who where there were arrested and imprisoned, inevitably to be executed. As they laid on the prison floor, there was no room to stand, Pastor Wilson saw all the men being taken out to be executed. He thought about all the children that would be left without fathers because of this and at that moment he asked God to let him live and if he did he would take care of children that needed to be taken care of. He was somehow let out of prison not long after that and he's been adopting and taking care of children ever since. He personally has taken in fifty-three children, but has two child sponsorship program facilities through ARM that have somewhere around five-hundred children combined. He also became a pastor after being in prison and has planted over ninety churches, most of them still up and running. I think he owns more than ten acres of land with anything from bananas to peanuts growing on them. But despite all his success, he isn't wealthy by any standards. In fact, he sometimes isn't sure where the money he needs to fix his own house will come from, this is only because all the money that he receives is almost immediately put back into his ministries. He is truly an incredible person.

Back to Saturday.. Most of the afternoon was spent being retold by Pastor Wilson about what is going on in his different ministries. I learned a few new bits of information here and there, but I let him go on just because I know how excited he is to see what he feels God is doing through Him. I was then shown my room and they let me be to unpack or whatever. I ended up laying down and unintentionally napping for two hours. Dinner was served around 8:00, which is unusually early for a Ugandan. It might have been because they figure I'm used to eating a lot earlier, so they split the difference. Despite my nap I was pretty tired so I turned in around 9:00.

Sunday

Almost all of Sunday was spent at church. I'm sure you probably realize that church is fairly long here anyway, but that sunday was the exception. I left the house with Pastor Wilson at 8:00 and I wasn't back till 4:00. We attended the general children's bible study, followed by another children's bible study broken up by age, followed by the actual church service, break for late lunch, then finished with what I think was an elder's meeting/bible study. At each of these, I was asked to come forward and introduce myself and share with the people. In the split up groups I was with the teenage kids and was asked to speak for thirty minutes about myself. It was actually easier than it sounds, I just told them five minutes worth of information then let them kill the last twenty-five with questions and answers. One of the things that all the different groups found extremely interesting/shocking/funny was that I was only 20 years old, they thought I was in my forties. Sunday ended much like saturday with dinner at 8:00 and bed soon after.

Funny side story: Right after lunch at Pastor Wilson's off church ground located office, I was greeted by what was most likely the town drunk. He was very pleasant asking my name, where I was from, how I was doing, then finally asked if I could give him money. I simply responded I didn't have any to give him. It was then his entire persona changed. He began yelling at me in Lugandan, I think he was cursing me because he spit at the ground I was standing on. I thought for sure it was about to come to blows until one of his friends, equally as drunk, came and pulled him back and they went on their way. He was the first of the many very drunk people, eleven to be precise, that I have been approached by that got hostel.

Monday

I was up and out of the house by 9:00. I got a ride on the back of Pastor Wilson's son, Simon's motorcycle to Mulette. The ride was uneventful until the dismount at Mulette, when I burnt the inside of my leg on the muffler. There was an upside and downside to this predicament. The obvious downside was that it hurt, a lot. The upside was that the mosquito bite that had bothered me the night before and that morning, which happened to be at the same spot I got burned, didn't itch anymore. 

I spent that day painting. So I did everything from taping off the brick sections, edging windows and doors, and painting the outside walls with plaster primer. Pastor Wilson was ready to leave before I was, but since he was my ride I left around 2:00. I still felt like I accomplished a good amount of work in the four hours I worked. We ran a few errands on the way back to Pastor Wilson's house. In the late afternoon, I decided to take a short walk, which turned into a "how far can I go?" walk, then when it started pouring rain it ended up being a "how fast can I get home?" walk. I was soaked by the time I got home and went straight into the shower. That evening was like the rest before and the nights after, dinner at 8:00 then in bed by 9:00. I am almost always tired by the end of the day. Whether it's because of the work during the day, or the possible dreams induced by the anti-malaria medication, or the early-ish mornings I can't really decide. I just know I'm tired and ready for bed asap.

Tuesday

I was asked the day before to help over at Jabez, a primary school directly across from Pastor Wilson's house, so I spent almost all day in the director/principle's office drawing posters for all the different classes. A few posters that I did were, means of transportation, wild animals, and dangerous items. The dangerous items poster, including items like an AK-47, a spear, a machete, and razors, was the easiest one for me to draw. This did not go unnoticed by the director/principle, she of course asked why I was able to finish this one fastest, I almost answered "Because I used to be an arms dealer" but figured the joke was in bad taste so I just laughed and shrugged my shoulders.

We were visited by Margaret that night. She was originally from the UK, came to visit Uganda, and never left.. by choice. She is involved in the local churches assisting in helping start church plants and was over that night to go over plans with Pastor. I was also able to talk some shop with her as she used to be a nurse back home. We talked about the medical situation all over Uganda, the inadequate number of staff, the lack of vital medications, and even some situations of corruptness within the hospitals.  She had dinner and left around 10:00, way past my bed time. So when she left it was straight to bed. 

Wednesday

I was again especially asked by Pastor Wilson to accompany him this day. I agreed to come with him, but it's not like I really had any other choice haha. We were picked up by Pastor's younger brother who is also a pastor, who already had an almost full van of other pastors from all over Mubende. Using my superhuman brain power and logical deduction skills, I quickly figured that wherever we were going or doing, it had to do with pastoring. A four hour car ride later, three of them on the worst roads I have yet to encounter here, we arrived at another pastor's house in a place I can't recall where with about twenty other pastors who's names I can't remember. (What happened to the superhuman brain power? I wonder the same question.) It was a pastor's meeting discussing the various activities that had happened in the various churches, planning future events, and basically encouraging each other in their work. Why we had travel four hours for an hour and a half meeting, with a half hour for lunch, only to drive four hours back.. I may never know. The drive home was quite interesting though. It had poured the entire meeting so the roads were horrible on the way back. After almost getting stuck in three sink holes, fording more than eight rivers that had spawned out of nowhere, and enduring the pot hole induced bone jarring ride, I came upon a conclusion. Driving on roads like that is like going through a drive-thru car wash back home; its very wet, you can't see anything due to overhanging trees, and you can't control where you're going. The usual dinner then bed.

Thursday

I went back to Mulette to help with the clinic again. This time I helped lay some tiles and grout the tile sections laid previously. The hired workers were surprised both days when I knew what I was doing, even more so that a white man would actually get down on his hands and knees to do manual labor alongside them. The work went by quickly then we left around 4:00 headed directly home. After a shower, I relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. I actually watched a movie that was originally in english, but was completely dubbed over in Lugandan. Now, when I say completely dubbed, I mean completely. The voices and the sound effects were completely absent whenever Lugandan was spoken, which was the whole time. What made it really funny was that the english wasn't even directly translated. The man speaking Lugandan only paraphrased, but to give him credit he did describe the sound effects that should have been there, the looks on people's faces, and giving away details of the movie just in case you were wondering if the man was actually dead after being shot fifteen times. Right before the usual dinner then bed routine, I got a call from Jez via Pastor Wilson's phone telling me that the driver wouldn't be able to pick me up as planned friday morning, instead I was to be picked up saturday morning. 

Friday

Because I was granted another day in Mubende, I decided to spend it at Kachungwa. I was picked up by Solomon on his motorcycle, we left around 1:00 in the afternoon. The ride was smooth all the way up to the last bit when the muddy conditions caused some problems. It's now safe to say that "I have been in the bush" because on one of the muddy uphill turns we both sort of tipped over into a large bush. At Kachungwa they were having a celebration for the kids moving on from P7 to their senior classes. This would be the equivalent of going into high school for us. Some of the students remembered me and the invisible juggling routine that Neal (part of the visiting team from the US) and I had done for them the month before. I also had a few others come up asking if I remembered them, some I did and some I didn't. A small handful of kids came up to me asking if I could be their sponsor too. When the celebration festivities wrapped up Solomon and I made our way back to Pastor Wilson's.

Saturday

Was uneventful. 

Hahaha but seriously, the quick breakfast, followed by the long drive, and ended with sitting poolside with the Fage family then dinner and a movie.

Overall, the trip to, in, and from Mubende was a great success. I felt like I was able to help the workers at the clinic and serve those who needed help outside of that. I really enjoyed the time I spent with Pastor Wilson as well. He is easily one of the more interesting people I've met and hearing all his stories was very enjoyable. Now that I'm back to Kampala things will start back into my usual routine of working at Wentz, which is fine. Its nice to do all the new things and experience other aspects of Africa, but it's also nice to have time to settle into a familiar schedule or routine. I've spent a lot of time thinking and realizing how fast time has been going by here. Hard to imagine that I've been  here for 53 days, coming up on two months.

Before I sit down to watch War of the Worlds,  I figured I should give a quick update.

On saturday, I will be leaving to go to the Mulette clinic, stay for 5 days, then return to Gaba on Friday. This plan is as set in stone as plans can be, but still not 100% positive on details because I don't know who will be driving me there or back, what stage of required help the clinic is at, or if the workers at the clinic know I'm coming. By this time in my stay, I've gotten used to the uncertainty, and quite frankly it's nice to not have to stress about it because I figure everything will work out one way or another. If the worst occurs, it'll just make for an interesting day and blog post the next.

I again am blessed with my clothes being washed for me. Helen has a washer though, so I guess it wouldn't be too hard for me to do it. The part that blew me away was, Martin (gate keeper/guard/handyman) not only put all the clothes out to dry, but also ironed and folded every. single. article. of my clothing. Yeah.. wow.

On a side note: Nana, we had cottage/shepherds pie for dinner tonight. While it was very good, it still wasn't quite as good as yours.

The team from the US that I traveled with did some blogging while they were here. I haven't had a chance to read all of it yet, but feel free to read keeping in mind I was there too. There's some great stuff there
http://africarenewalministries.blogspot.com/

No, I have not fallen off the map, I've just been busy and haven't found time to sit down and blog..

Well, the past week hasn't necessarily been eventful, but definitely a good one. I moved in with my new host family, Jez, Helen, Charis, Jonah, and Ethan Fage. They are originally from London, and moved to Uganda to serve God in whatever way they felt called to do, which ended up being with ARM. I'm staying in their two room guest house (separate form the main house) equipped with hot shower, electricity and wi-fi. Not necessarily "the African experience" but I'm definitely not complaining. Especially after the lovely steak dinner I had tonight.

Other than that, things are as usual.

In the next week, I will most likely be going back to Mubende to help get a clinic up and running at Mulette. Dr. Martin said that the floor needs to be redone and then all the furniture and equipment moved in and set up. I would probably stay for 4 or 5 days to help, while there I would stay with Pastor Wilson and family. Details are still being worked out, so more info to come.

If there's anything you are wondering about thats not already included in the blog feel free to ask.
Thanks for reading!

Loyce is a 4 year old Ugandan living in a slum of Kampala. Her town is filled with either small businesses, cramped one room houses, or bars. The smell throughout the town is a combination of burning garbage, sewage, and the smell of rotten fermenting fruit that will eventually be used for beverage consumption in the two or three solid blocks worth of bars. Being there any time after the sun goes down, which was most of the time I spent there, is a guaranteed three or four mosquito bites due to the abundant amounts of stagnant sewer water breeding grounds. Because I've only been there at night, most of the men of the town have been or are still drinking.  This drinking, isn't at all what could be considered "recreational drinking", its "get drunk to deal with life drinking". This leads to more people stumbling through the narrow busy streets than I could count, handfuls of people incompasitated on the side of the road, and even some completely blacked out face down in the middle of the road. It is definitely a place no one would live in if they had a choice. 

I was leaving the slum after visiting for the first time, last wednesday, with Pastor Abbe after we had gone to one of the "alters" or meeting places then to the actual church location and met some people from his congregation. Usually there would be a number of kids that would hold my hands leading me from place to place, so as we were leaving there was a usual crowd escorting myself and Pastor Abbe on our way out of the town. None of the children's face really stood out to me except one of the smallest kids. Pastor Abbe was holding her hand and talking to her most of the time, but every once in awhile she would turn back to look at me. As we began getting close to the end of the town more and more kids began to branch off in their separate ways except one, the little girl that was holding Pastor Abbe's hand. 

Eventually it was just me, Pastor Abbe, and the little girl. Pastor Abbe stopped at one point and told me that the little girl would like to meet me, which is basically the children's way of getting close enough to touch my hand or feel my skin, so I crouched down to shake her hand. She timidly shuffled her feet from next to Pastor Abbe over to me to give the customary kneeling handshake as a sign of respect and greeting. I asked her one of the few, if not only, english phrase she probably knows, "How are you?". She responded with hardly a whisper, "I'm fine". With that she placed her hand in mine and we continued on our way. 

It was probably five minutes of walking and holding this girl's hand until I decided to give her the carton of juice that I was given much earlier in the day by Pastor Abbe. I had been carrying it the whole day and honestly I didn't really want it so I figured I could kill two bird with one stone by giving her something I didn't want to carry anymore and something that she may only get to have on special occasions. When it finally came time to part ways with the girl, I asked Pastor Abbe to make sure it was okay to give her the juice and he said it was fine. I crouched down again to give this little girl the juice. She deserved it if anything, she had followed us around all afternoon and had eventually followed us well out of her way just to greet me and hold my hand for ten minutes. When Pastor Abbe translated for me assuring her that it was her juice to have, she got one of the biggest smiles on her face I have ever seen, almost as if she never had been given anything in her life. Even though we already shook hands, Pastor officially introduced us this time, "Chris, this is Loyce." 

As touching as it may seem at this point, I thought absolutely nothing of it, literally, nothing. I had forgotten all about it until yesterday. 

It had already been a long day. I drove with Abby to Entebbe to visit her daughter at her boarding school and then we were on our way back in town so that I could be dropped off with Pastor Abbe. I had a headache, I was tired, I just wanted to go home and sleep, but I had promised to come back not only to Pastor Abbe, but to the people of his church. When Pastor and I finally connected, we made our way through the slums. I figured we were headed directly to the church, not that I would be able to tell the difference amongst the endless maze-like streets and corridors, but instead we stopped at a small nondescript house. I was greeted by the mother, the eldest son, the teenage daughter, and before I knew what happened a little girl came bolting out the door and gave my leg a huge hug, it was Loyce.

I ducked into the house to take a seat with Loyce's family as Pastor Abbe translated what the mother was saying, "You are most welcome. We are so happy to have you in our house. God bless you.". Pastor Abbe told me that Loyce had told him a couple days earlier, "The juice was so sweet. I want to have the white man to my house to thank him." So there I was sitting in Loyce's house, only four days later, being thanked for a simple gift of juice as if I had saved someone's life. 

Pastor Abbe asked that I speak to the family, to tell them about myself and offer any words of encouragement, and he would translate for me. So I gave my simple speech that I have been giving in any situation such as this, "My name is Chris, I live with my mother and father, my fifteen year old brother, and my thirteen and two year old sisters, and I am in school to eventually become a doctor. I've come all the way from California to Uganda to share God's love with it's people." This is usually interrupted at this point with clapping, shouting, yelling, etc. then I continue, "But what I've found is that God's love is being given to me through the people of Uganda. So, thank you for all that you have done and are doing. God bless you." This was followed again by the clapping, shouting, and yelling. We prayed together then made our way outside so that I could take a picture for the family to see themselves. (Something that they hardly ever get to do) After saying our goodbye's Pastor Abbe and I began making our way to his church area, but before I took my first step away from the house, Loyce's little hand grabbed my hand and looked up at me with a look that said, "I'm coming with you". 

It was at this point that my heart melted for this little girl. Loyce probably never knew her father, most other adult males are out drinking every night, and while her mother loves her very much, she would have to be out selling roasted corn all day just to put food in her children's mouths. It is very possible that Loyce may never go to school, she could be destined to follow in her mother's footsteps to sell corn for the rest of her life. Not to mention the various daily health needs or risks, malaria kills hundreds of thousands of children every year. But all that she wanted at that moment was just to hold my hand. It was all I could from breaking down right then and there for that child, for little Loyce. 

For the rest of the night she didn't leave my side. Not that she had to try hard to stay there, I probably wouldn't have let her leave my side anyway. When another kid tried taking my hand from her, she almost socked him in the face. When we got to the church, she was still right at my side and got to sit up with me in the chairs in front of the rest of the church, something that all the other children wanted to do and practically fought for. During the service she kept looking up at me just to see me smile back at her. As we left the church little Loyce still remained at my side even with the other thirty kids all swarming around me. 

As we approached the outskirts of the town, all of the other kids had gone their separate ways, of course with the exception of Loyce. We stopped at Loyce's mothers corn stand to say goodbye once again. I asked Pastor Abbe to tell them I wished to come back again to visit them, and they were very happy to hear that, especially Loyce. After a big hug, I had to walk away without her. I kinda felt like I was forgetting something, even though I knew exactly what it was. 

As I recap and think about all that has happened, I'm not exactly sure how to respond to it, short of sneaking her back to the US in my carry-on. If there has ever been a time that I felt persuaded or led to sponsor a child, this would be it. Part of me says I shouldn't for financial reasons, part of me says it's really not that much money a month. I don't even know if she could be sponsored for whatever reasons. So what I'll do from here is simply pray and any additional prayer is appreciated. 

God bless Loyce

Yesterday I was able to attend Michael Kirungi's wedding. Michael is an ARM employee and was the person that I coordinated with the most in the details of this trip. I actually think that when I first met him was when he mentioned the wedding, at that time a month away, and invited me to it. So, I got dressed in the "dressiest" clothes I had, my tan shorts, a long sleeved collared shirt, and my flip flops and walked to the church. I didn't realize until halfway into the 20 minute walk that it was the hottest day I have experienced here so far. Unfortunately there aren't any taxis on this path and I didn't have the 1000 shillings (50 cents) on me for a boda-boda. By the time I arrived, I was, well, sweaty. I was at the church with 5 minutes to spare before the wedding was supposed to start, but thankfully everything is on "Ugandan time", meaning everything starts late. I chose a seat towards the back of the church, away from the middle aisle, so that I wouldn't be in all the pictures of people walking in. It was just my luck that for some reason everybody entered from the side door, completely skipping the middle aisle, right behind where I was sitting. I think it's safe to say I was in everyone's pictures at least once, thank God for picture cropping.

The wedding itself was like most weddings the vows, the songs, the sermon, what made it different for me was that I had to help with one of the visiting girls from Scotland who fainted from the heat during the wedding. I helped bring her out of the church then track down some water for her, then eventually helped their group leader escort her across the courtyard to the house where they were staying. I missed most of the sermon while helping, but was glad to be able to help.

The reception was at another location close by, The Bunga Gardens, which was a really nice place, shady and cool haha.. This was were the African weddings differed from traditional weddings. It started with the bride and groom standing before everyone to receive gifts. It seemed like everyone of the 300 people there got in line to give the newlyweds gifts. The great part was that everyone was dancing and singing while waiting in line, I'll tell you, if there was ever an ideal place to people watch, this was it hahaha. Then they served dinner which had the African staple foods. Then there was a time for people to give speeches, followed by the bride and groom giving speeches, and interestingly the bride and groom then gave gifts like separate wedding cakes to certain people that they were thankful for. Everything was wrapped up by 300 people swarming the couple to say congratulations and goodbye before they left, so we were there for awhile longer. 

Today I will be skipping church, for the morning that is, to go with Abby to visit her daughter who is in a boarding school. Abby rreeaallyy insisted that I come meet her daughter..... Anyway, then later on tonight I will be joining Pastor Abbe to meet the rest of his congregation for their sunday night service. Should be a good day :)