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.