We are here!

Uganda January 31, 2008

Wow! It’s amazing to be here finally after so many months of planning and preparation. The trip over was long as expected with the requisite mad dash through the Detroit airport to make our connection. We all made it, and “Luggage Mountain” managed to follow us--So all is good in that department.

We arrived in Entebbe, the smaller town near Kampala where they happen to keep the airport. It was great to be welcomed just outside of customs by all of the friends Sue and John had made from their last trip. Richard and Generous were there with smiles and hugs. They had brought along the babies Jessie, Jorryn, Josiah and their friend Evelyn. Christopher was there to be our driver as he was for Sue and John before. And Chipper Adams was there to greet us as well. They treated us all like we were old friends and it revived our tired hearts.

It was about 9 PM and very dark so we didn’t see much coming in on the plane. It was about a 45 Min drive through the city to our hotel. There was very little in the way of street lighting, but even after 10 PM there were an amazing number of people out walking in the heavy humid air of the night.

Just outside of the glow from the road traffic I could make out row after row of rusted shacks cobbled together from corrugated metal. Most seem to be small shops, each selling what ever they could or offering some type of service. Hair styling to arc Welding, it was all there with throngs of people laughing and talking. Many people sat at occasional outdoor lounge bars behind plastic tables illuminated only by a candle or an oil drum burning the day’s trash. The fires made an acrid smog layer over everything and it burned in the back of my throat. I hoped that the people were not cooking over these fires but I’m afraid they probably were. Plastic is also a fuel if it needs to be.

The Squires hotel is fairly basic but clean and we were glad for the showers and a real bed. There is a wall with spikes all around it and an armed guard at the gate.

It was a rather gloomy first impression that night.

The next morning the poverty we had observed was all still around us, but the colors when I opened my curtains about hurt my eyes. The grass and trees are very green and good to see after coming from such a cold winter at home. The road behind the hotel had continued to host a celebration of some type well into the early morning, but it was now full of children running and laughing and people dressed in brightly colored clothing carrying shopping bags or balancing things on their heads. The road itself is the color of red Georgia clay and it just added to vibrant scene.

Over a hotel breakfast of eggs and toast we met some other guests of the hotel, Pastor George Epielu, his wife Eva and their very new baby Deborah. George is with the Bethel Pentecostal Church in Soroti and they were just returning from a successful 5-month mission trip to the U.S. They were in Arizona among other places, raising money for what he called Mission Times the Word Ministries. Soroti is located at the southern edge of the rebel fighting in the North of Uganda. He spoke with pride of how civilians in his home area picked up weaponry form the army and became an 11,000 member militia to repel the rebels--These same rebels had pulled over 2000 children from homes to the north and made the boys their armed killers and the girls their sex slaves. George’s eyes welled with tears as he described the atrocities and the last 20 years of this war. His mission cares for hundreds of children, many who have never known anything other than the poverty of the refugee camps.

We spent the rest of the day on the big 4x4 van that Chipper has for us. With Christopher driving we went from shop to shop exchanging money, and buying supplies we would need before we make the eight hour drive to Kabale. John and Charles left to go hassle with customs agents to gain access to the solar powered vaccine refrigerator and with a different driver got lost on the way back. It all made for an extra big day for them.

The rest of us met with Charles Howard, a friend of Chippers who was involved in the medical system of the country. He was full of great advice for the Drimlla’s and all they would go through in getting the clinic up and going.

Later we met with Charles Tuhaise, Principal Research officer for the Government social programs for Parliament. Charles was a wealth of information and good suggestions for how we should structure our orphan sponsorship program, and work with the district officials. Needless to say it will be much more complicated than we had imagined. At the end of the conversation, Sue invited him to be on our board of directors. He seemed very honored and would consider it. Generous also invited him to her home for our get together in the evening. He came, and is going to try to get time off to join us on the trip.

Richard and Generous have a beautiful new home with a lot of room for their growing family. We all sat and talked in their living room, enjoying a beautiful cake and soft drinks, while the kids entertained us all with cuteness.

Lucy led us through some spiritual time back at the hotel that night--A great way to cap off our first 24 hours in Uganda. It sure seems like more than that. What a day!

Feb. 1st.

We all straggled in to the lobby for the hotel breakfast between 8 and 9, and we put in on the road by about 9:30. Our first stop was a visit to the Canaan Children’s home in Jinja. It is an amazing place founded by Isaac Wagaba and his wife Rebecca. (They all call them Poppa Isaac and Momma Rebecca). It is largely supported by the Stony Point Presbyterian Church, PCA in Richmond Virginia.

If you do nothing else from this blog, you need to go to his web site and read the story of his journey to founding this place. I can’t begin to tell the story here but it includes dragging himself from a pile of dead bodies, when he was left for dead by an Idi Amin execution squad for being a Christian pastor and refusing to denounce Christianity. He is such a warm and high-energy person. When he tells you his story personally, as he did for us today, there is no doubt in your mind that he truly heard the voice of God that night raising him out of that pile and telling him to go and be the father to the now fatherless children of these dead men.

Isaac’s staff was also warm and wonderful, you could tell there was a lot of love around the place for all 102 children they have at the moment. The kids were just beautiful, very bright and healthy. They have them divided into buildings for boys and girls, with each bunk room a certain span of ages up to 18. They call each bunk room a family and each one has a “Momma” that lives in an adjoining room. As the boys get older they are lead by an “Uncle.” They also get together as one big family in the evenings and for worship.

The kids were very excited about our visit—loved to get their pictures taken and then see themselves on the little screen. Some proudly gave us a tour of their bunk houses and showed us the few treasures they kept on their bed that made it their own.

There is also a beautiful new clinic on the grounds that serve the children and the people of the surrounding area. We all had a tour and Rick and Linda had a chance to spend time learning the realities of clinic work here from the Doctor in residence.

We met David and Joyce Kimpwitu, for lunch at a beautiful hotel and restaurant overlooking the Nile near the dam in Jinja. It was good to share stories of our experiences so far, and to meet their beautiful daughter Dina and grand daughter Maggie. Joyce is Vincent Oriedo and Grand mother to his son Alex both members of Memorial Presbyterian. After lunch they joined us on the bus for a look at the near by water fall and rapids. Our driver Christopher stood next to me as we marveled at the volume of water surging through this part of the Nile. He said “It is amazing the shear power of God creation.” It was certainly an understatement.

We also travel the mile or so to the point where Lake Victoria empties out and joins a huge flowing spring that begins it’s 4,000 mile run to the Mediterranean—it take 3 months. It was just awesome and so amazing to be standing there, who would have thought I would ever lay eyes on this place though a much easier time than had by Jonathan Speke, (you might have to look up that reference).

We got lost more than a few times in the morning, finding our way to the orphanage, which set us back a bit, but Charles Tuhaise and Richard still joined us for dinner at 8 PM when we finally returned to Kampala. It was good to get off the bus and relax and reflect on the day while planning the next. Once again I was not home in time to post my blog and internet café. I don’t even know yet how it will work, but when you finally read these words you will know I have managed. (Unfortunately I don’t think I can send pictures because the cafe’s modem is apparently very slow and I, at least, want to describe to you what is happening here.

It will be good to be heading for Kabale and Ikamiro tomorrow morning, assuming the last solar panel can be freed from customs tomorrow early and the needed minor repair to the bus starter is accomplished. Nothing goes as planned…just as we planned.

I thought I should expand on my impressions from our travels today. In the light of day I could see that in some areas along the highway for many miles at the edge of the city, the tin roof shanty’s I described from our first night are actually miles deep in the directions parallel to the road--Shanty towns with masses of people of all ages existing in what to me would be unbearable squalor and tight-packed over-heated conditions. They seemed to be happy and living their lives, smiling and waving as we drove by—I guess if you’ve never known anything else, but…no, it’s got to be a powder keg anyway you look at it. So few with so much and the all the rest, huge masses of people, with less than nothing—there does not appear to be a lot of middle class here. I guess I can see how things can flair up to situations like we now read about in Kenya.

The people of Uganda, as I’m sure would be the case in Kenya, are warm and friendly people, gentle and soft spoken, the definition of grace in any situation, but I can’t even think about what those shanty towns must do to people at the end of their rope.

As we made our way out of the city and toward Jinja the housing went from tin-shack squalor to rural poor. The homes were still self-made but spread further apart and they tended to be more of bricks from the red clay rather than rusty metal. Everyone was out working, either in the fields, washing clothes, or preparing the next meal they had gathered from the jungle or a garden they tend. Carrying water was obviously a big part of the day, and cooking and washing involved no modern convenience of any kind. It seems to be a hard scrabble life anywhere we’ve gone in Uganda.

I’m sure it will be no different as we travel east to the village of Ikamiro. I look forward to seeing this place in the next couple days. Richard’s village and I think Generous is from Muko the next town near there. What tremendous accomplishments they have made for their life together and for the village. This must have been a rapidly expanding world for them in these five short years—I am sure, even bewildering to them. I sometimes look at them and wonder about their perspective of all of this. There is no question they are grateful that God has brought our communities together to partner in this way. I know our team and our churches get so much more in return--Generous just beams with welling eyes, hugging and shaking hands, saying “God is great. God is great.” How right she is.