Wednesday June 10

Wednesday AM June 10, 2009
You got me again.
I am currently sitting in out in the lawn in a walled “compound”. The grass in green, the chickens are wandering around, the monkeys are waking up, and the sun is shining. We just heard what I believe to be a lot of kids walking in the street on their way to school.
We drove to Soroti (so row tee’) in style. We were picked up at about 10:00 yesterday from the Airport Guesthouse in an air conditioned 20 passenger bus - just enough room for all of our luggage and a seat for the 10 of us (including Karen the teammate who met us in Entebee) and a seat to spare. We headed out of Entebbe and through Kampala along Lake Victoria with our very capable driver, Nixon. The city driving seemed quite chaotic. What made it a little more stressful for me was the whole left sided driving thing. I have enough trouble with the “round about “ concept in the states, and then to do it from the left side of the road just throws in a whole new angle.
The views out the window were a bit difficult to absorb. There was so much to look at. There is obviously no OSHA here. There were many buildings half-constructed, small shop after shop after shop selling similar items, schools, churches, huts of all shapes and sizes. Cell phones are a big item. Karen was telling us that the poorest of the poor has a cell phone. They may not be able to put food and the table, but they have a cell phone.
As we headed out to the country we saw more of the tea, sugar cane, mango, corn, and rice fields along with more huts. Some made out of bricks and others were made of clay most with either thatched roofs or corrugated metal. People were everywhere, many on bikes, some waiting for taxis, others working or simply hanging around. Cows and goats were tied to trees like I said, so much to take in and difficult to describe.
We stopped along the way for bottled water, “squatties”, and simosas (vegetable filled tarts). We finally arrived in Soroti at about 3-4pm (I have no watch) and were met by the Sleidrechts and the Shaardas.
We are staying on a small compound with a lovely duplex. One side the has the Sliedrechts and the other is the guest house. Our side has 4 bedrooms (one is Karens), a living room, dining room, kitchen and a bathroom. The house is complete with tile floors, running water, fans, electricity, bunk beds, mosquito nets, and a guard who takes care of the yard and protects the property at night. We feel very safe here.
We had dinner and then began the first of many discussions. We talked about the history of Uganda. How it got to where it is. We heard about the Karamajong and the Teso and the strife that has occurred between the tribes. We talked about the average age of the population at 15 and how that impacts Tim and Angie’s work here. We talked about the challenges of the country – one of the main one being distrust. And we talked about the strengths – being the fertile land and the kind hearted people. We talked about the high percentage of people who say they are Christians. Tim said that in general, Christianity is a mile wide and an inch deep. Many people say they are Christians, some go to church, yet many do not know the story of the gospel. Again, many people say they are Christians but don’t live their lives for Christ. Many have what Tim describes as an animistic worldview. They their roots in spiritualism where you can influence the gods through bribes to get what you want and also in fatalism where the belief that nothing I can do will ever change the poor situation that they are in or a “waiting for someone else to come in and solve their problems”. This worldviews breeds weakness, despair, and hopelessness. The goal would be to change the core worldview to a biblical one where God has a plan and in time he is working to redeem creation from the effects of the fall. This affects the way we live our whole life and breeds joy, strength, and hope. Tim does a better job of describing it.
We finished off the night with Mango crisp and a campfire with many different conversations. The sun goes down by 7:30 so we have a lot of time in the evening for talking and debriefing.
People experienced varying degrees of sleep last night. Some heard the dogs or sheep howl or bleat (still to be determined), some were awake from about 3am on, yet others struggled to find their way out of the mosquito net to hit the potty, while others slept the whole night through.
Off to orientation …
~Jane