We are learning the valuable lesson of patience in this mission. Things move much more slowly in Africa. People are not in a hurry. Needless to say, we are not yet at a fully functioning state. We are still working on setting up an office in our home-- we have a second laptop, a printer/scanner, and an iphone that hopefully arrive this week. We will scout around and find 2 office chairs and another desk. We are getting more brave about driving every week. Ray is the driver and I am the navigator. In the mission that is pretty much the way the couples do it. The wife has to watch for motorcycles (boda bodas) coming up on either side of our vehicle and taxis (white vans that hold 15 people) squeezing in and around everybody. The navigator has to read the map, advise when to turn, and constantly keep an eye on everybody moving around us. There are no street signs anywhere.
This week our Mission President asked us to attend a meeting at the US Embassy on Crisis Management. Luckily with our map we drove right to it. A trainer from the State Dept was there to encourage each foreign company operating in Uganda to have a crisis management plan. He then reviewed the embassy's plan and what would happen in the event of an earthquake, Ebola pandemic, infrastructure failure, terrorism, etc. We came home and reviewed our mission evacuation plan and felt pretty good about it. Everyday our mission president receives security notices for what is happening in Africa and precautions to be taken. Nice to know we have a church and a nation with evacuation plans for its missionaries and citizens.
Today we attended church with our neighbors the Jonsens. Elder Jonsen is a Physician's Assistant serving in our mission and he does a great job taking care of the missionaries and many of the members. When I see what he does and how he is constantly answering the phone and answering or addressing medical questions, I am glad I am here on a public affairs mission. Anyway, the Jonsens are assigned to attend the Lugazi Branch. ( A branch, for those who may not know, is a small congregation. When a branch has many members, usually over a hundred, it may become what we call a ward.) We do not have a branch assignment and so we went with the Jonsens today. We left at 8 AM and returned home at 3:30. This branch has about 40-50 members and is in a beautiful area where tea and sugar cane are grown. The members there were so welcoming and delightful. I am posting below some pictures of downtown Lugazi. Notice that the main street is dirt and a little pavement and you can see the little shops up and down the street. Most of these shops are very small, maybe 6' x 8'. Many sell air time for phones, some sell paint, others clothing, some fresh vegetables, but my least favorite to see are the places that sell meat. It is just laying on the counter with no refrigeration. We have one of these meat shops in a market district not far from our apartment complex. The meat is just laying on the window ledge and you walk up to the window and place your order. The shop is tiny, painted bright blue, and the name of the shop written by hand on the side of the building..."The Pork Joint." Clever name, good advertising.
The branch meets on the second floor of a building on Main Street so all of these shots were taken from just outside our chapel, looking down.
As we came out to start for home, these little boys where laying on the front porch of the house next door. They were so cute and love to have their picture taken and then they always want to see the picture. They laughed and laughed when Ray showed them on his ipad.
We saw the closest things to a McDonald's today that we have seen. It was by the road side and consisted of several vendors with different food items, many being cooked on coal or charcoal stoves. You pull off the road and these young men run up to your car with kabobs of chicken, roasted corn, bananas, etc. and you take what you want or need and pay them and drive off down the street. We had dinner waiting at home and were not tempted.
We have a trip coming up, if not this week, more likely it will be next week. We are going with the missionary couple here doing humanitarian projects. They are letting us tag along when they go to the refugee camp to deliver supplies in northern Uganda near Lake Albert. The lake is one of the dividing boundaries between the DR Congo and Uganda. Due to the unrest, civil war, terrorism, etc. going on, many people are fleeing into Uganda. They are desperate people coming with nothing. The Stevens have petitioned the church for money for mosquito netting, blankets, and food. Those have now been purchased and are ready to be delivered. As soon as they get the go-ahead, we will head off. There are two large trucks that we go ahead of us, loaded with supplies. We are excited for this opportunity to take pictures and report on these humanitarian efforts. We will be sleeping in huts with thatched roofs and seeing lots of African villages, African tribes, and animal life. We will share our photos-- it should be amazing! The reason for the need for the mosquito netting is that most adults have built up immunity to malaria by now. But little children are the ones that are so susceptible and are dying from the disease.
