Tuesday and Wednesday in Uganda

Candice and Marlea in the Jinja market shopping for skirts.







Tyler who's 3 1/2 and Zach Kimeze who's almost 2






Roy Mwesigwa, Faustine who runs the clinic they visited, DJ and Ricky Kahudu

Hi, it's Tuesday afternoon here. David and Jeff have been meeting with Roy and Ricky about the ISAC program since about 10 this morning so I'm having a pleasantly slow, relaxing day. It helps when we can schedule a day in town like this after long, tiring days out in villages or meeting people like yesterday.

This morning, Irene took some time away from the craft shop and she and I went shopping for school supplies for Gerald and Rachel who will start a new school term this coming Monday. Gerald is in a boarding school in Iganga. We'll go with Irene on Monday to take him there. The school supply list for these kids is a little different than the one we might have back home listing how many different notebooks or kinds of crayons and markers. Besides items like 2 pens and 2 notebooks, this list also had laundry soap, bath soap, toilet tissue on it.

Forgive me for repeating things, it's difficult for me to remember sometimes what I've already written and it's quite difficult to go back and open up my old messages. I just called Candice to see if we could come to her house to use her internet since it's a little faster but they're actually having it worked on today. Last year, I was able to write in the evenings sometimes at the house but this year I try to just spend time with Irene and the kids in the evenings. We make chai together, cook and eat supper together, or entertain the kids so she can. Then I usually hold Zach til he falls asleep and the last two nights, Rachel has fallen asleep in my lap. So there's really no time at Irene's to spend on the laptop--unless I were to get up early but I'm not going to do that. Besides, Zach is up by 6 as it is so I don't think that would work anyway.

Just in case you’re wondering, I’ve been reading Mark Bowden’s book Road Work, I’ve been on a Mark Bowden kick since I sent a couple of them in Z’s birthday package in March—at his request. I read Black Hawk Down a couple of years ago and in the last few months, I’ve read Killing Pablo (about the Colombian drug lord, Pablo Escabar--after listening to or maybe sleeping through Z’s audio version a couple of times), Guests of the Ayatollah (about the Iran hostage crisis in the late 70s), Doctor Dealer (about a dentist in Philly who became this cocaine kingpin) and now I’m reading Road Work which has about 20 of his magazine articles from the past on a wide variety of topics like Saddam Hussein, Al Sharpton, and F-15 pilots. Jeff’s reading them after me. Obviously, I really like his writing. David is reading The Bottom Billion, a bestseller that Z left for us to read. It’s about the poorest of the poor and the nations that are at the bottom economically.

A couple of days ago, I was getting homesick and then last night, I thought, why aren’t we staying longer? Why can’t we spend the whole summer here each year? I mentioned wanting to go to Murchison Falls next year if/when we come. It’s a beautiful national park in northern Uganda where we have been discouraged from going in the past. Things are so much better politically in the north now that travel is much safer. Jinja’s interns (mostly from Rochester and Abilene I think) are going up to Gulu in northern Uganda to some of the Internally Displaced People’s Camps (IDPs) in just a few weeks looking for areas for church plants. I’ll be anxious to hear how that goes and if they go to the Falls.

I feel like I’m rambling terribly so I’m gonna go. I got to talk to Zach’s girlfriend, Julia, online today and also to Ryan for a little bit. Julia says Z has gone to Shanghai to get his cellphone fixed. Ryan is going up to Ohio for the holiday weekend. So, I think everyone is doing really well. We’ll be home a week from this Thursday.

Wednesday afternoon…..

I didn’t get to send yesterday’s message out because the electricity went off—therefore no internet. This afternoon, I’m sitting at Candice’s house while DJ and Jeff are in budget meetings with Roy and Ricky and then I think were going to drive around into another slum area we haven’t seen before. We’ll be home in just a little over a week but things are winding down here in Jinja.

This morning Jeff, DJ and I took Candice and Bobby on a trip around the Nile to see the Source itself—where the falls used to be that start the Nile River. It’s a fun boat trip. There are lots of birds to see and we watched several families of monkeys play in the trees along the bank. It’s very relaxing. We watched some fishermen casting their nets. I really enjoy being on the water and I’m glad we went in the morning when it’s cooler. And it’s getting cooler here, by the way. The evenings are very pleasant.

Tomorrow we’re going to Kampala, Uganda’s capital, to spend the day with Irene shopping for crafts and just enjoying the day visiting the mall and eating out. She works six days a week and has four kids so she doesn’t get to go there very often at all. Friday, we’re visiting with some of the missionaries here to talk with them about our plans and what we’re up to. Friday evening, we’ve been invited to dinner at Joan’s house. She’s Ronald Mugulisi’s fiancé. Ronald is the accountant at the Source. We’re helping him with a loan to build their house and on Saturday we’re going to visit his village. Mugulisi handles the finances for our loan programs and is a great resource for us and a real blessing. I like him a lot.

Saturday evening we’ll be visiting and eating at Goretti and Grace Nyanga’s home. Grace is the director of the Busoga Bible School here and very close to Dr. Ganus. They have two of their own birth children: Edith and Emmanuel and also care for about 16 orphans—mostly the children of two of Grace’s brothers who died of AIDS. Goretti runs a craft shop in Jinja and used to work at the Source cooking. When Z lived here, I showed Goretti how to bake a chocolate cake from scratch that they still have on the menu I think.

Sunday we’ll be going to Musima for Super Sunday where a bunch of the village churches all meet together for singing, lots of singing, preaching, lots of preaching, and food, lots of beans and rice. Zipporah and the ladies will be cooking back in the hut. Bobby will be preaching. Moses will be leading the singing and last year, several choruses from different churches sang. It’s a blast and lasts way too long. The Pepperdine group of about 20 students plus Gary and Tammy Selby will be there. Dr. Ganus is leaving on Friday so he’ll be gone already.

We’re planning on spending the rest of Sunday afternoon and evening with Irene and the kids as a last night together. We may go swimming again and will go out to eat maybe at this really neat place with Bobby and Candice. Then Monday, we’ll take Gerald to his boarding school, come back to town and visit the Njeru Parent’s School to see those kids actually in school. It will be their first day back after the holidays. We’ll probably present the school with a soccer ball and lots of ink pens to students and teachers. Then we’ll pack up Monday night and leave for Entebbe on Tuesday morning. I’m not looking forward to the goodbyes. It’s always a tough time especially with Irene’s kids. On Tuesday afternoon if we get there in time but more likely on Wednesday, we’ll be again at Banana Village and James and Jemimah. We’ll visit some more of those ladies in that microloan program. We fly out of Entebbe at 10:20 pm so we have the whole day—just have to be there 3 hours ahead of time. Then we land in Atlanta on Thursday afternoon around 1:30 Eastern I think. Lexie is supposed to be there to pick us up. Ryan will be get a two-week leave starting on that Friday so he and Emily are heading down to Florida to meet DJ’s parents. I’m telling you all of this just in case I don’t get to write again. Love to all there.