“So, how was it?”
You couldn’t ask a harder question. How to summarize six months into one
answer? I’ll tell you it was great, amazing. But where to go from
there?
To those of you who asked me this question in the last few days, I
apologize for any lame answers I gave. To be honest, answering this
question effectively requires a lot of thought and intentionality, and I
can’t say I offered much of substance to every person I talked to this
week.
When someone puts this question to me, my mind spins and I seem to lose
the power of speech. What does this person want to hear? Everyone wants
to hear about snakes, safaris, massive spiders, language lessons, etc.
It’s easy to sensationalize the experience. But even as I’m rattling off
the snake-in-a-bag story again, in the back of my mind I know that I
need to offer a deeper answer.
How was it? Let me tell you what God did for me, for my team, for the
Karimojong. Let’s get past the fluffy, exciting stories and get to the
meat of the matter.
Ask me specific questions about the ministry there, about how God is
growing His church in Karamoja, about my role in the work. I would love
to talk deeply about all the things I did and saw (and now that I’m not
jetlagged, maybe my responses will be coherent). Don’t be afraid to
challenge me with real questions. It’s good for me to think deeply about
my work there, and it’s edifying to the body of Christ when I can share
with you how our Lord is at work across the world.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Reentry Blues
I’ve experienced culture shock before, but this reentry period is much
rougher than any others I’ve experienced. Part of it is that this has
been my worst ever case of jet lag. It doesn’t help that it’s about 80
degrees colder here in western Pennsylvania than it was in Uganda!
The first culture shock experience that really hit home was in Newark airport on Wednesday. I went to buy a bottle of water from a convenience stand, and it cost the equivalent of 6000 Ugandan shillings – several days’ pay for most of my neighbors in Karamoja. For WATER! I was appalled. I wished I hadn’t bought it.
My friends took me out to dinner when I arrived in Pittsburgh, which was wonderful. American food! The next day I made the mistake of having a Pop Tart for breakfast. Too sweet. When I got to my best friend Jenny’s house, she gave me a pile of hoodies, sweatpants and blankets, and I hunkered down for a few days. I’m just now beginning to acclimate to this dreary weather!
The only shopping I’ve done since I got back was in WalMart. It makes me laugh to think that we call the little general store in Namalu (probably about the size of your kitchen) “WalMart”. In Nakaale, going to one store in town that has everything – milk, juice, oil, laundry soap, yarn, jewelry, biscuits, shoes, tools – is a real shopping experience. We really could get much of what we needed for day to day life in that little hole in the wall store, plus the fruits and vegetables and clothing we’d buy out in the market. The whole American advertising scheme telling you that you NEED this or that is really disturbing. I promise you, you don’t.
I’m also discovering that my sensitivity to germs, bugs, etc. has changed quite a bit. I have to remind myself that, generally speaking, it’s not normal in America to pull a bug out of your food and keep eating (but throwing away perfectly good food? What a waste!). “Disgusting” bathrooms here are five-star establishments. Why? They have flush toilets (as opposed to a hole in the ground), toilet paper, running water, and soap. What else do you need?
The first culture shock experience that really hit home was in Newark airport on Wednesday. I went to buy a bottle of water from a convenience stand, and it cost the equivalent of 6000 Ugandan shillings – several days’ pay for most of my neighbors in Karamoja. For WATER! I was appalled. I wished I hadn’t bought it.
My friends took me out to dinner when I arrived in Pittsburgh, which was wonderful. American food! The next day I made the mistake of having a Pop Tart for breakfast. Too sweet. When I got to my best friend Jenny’s house, she gave me a pile of hoodies, sweatpants and blankets, and I hunkered down for a few days. I’m just now beginning to acclimate to this dreary weather!
The only shopping I’ve done since I got back was in WalMart. It makes me laugh to think that we call the little general store in Namalu (probably about the size of your kitchen) “WalMart”. In Nakaale, going to one store in town that has everything – milk, juice, oil, laundry soap, yarn, jewelry, biscuits, shoes, tools – is a real shopping experience. We really could get much of what we needed for day to day life in that little hole in the wall store, plus the fruits and vegetables and clothing we’d buy out in the market. The whole American advertising scheme telling you that you NEED this or that is really disturbing. I promise you, you don’t.
I’m also discovering that my sensitivity to germs, bugs, etc. has changed quite a bit. I have to remind myself that, generally speaking, it’s not normal in America to pull a bug out of your food and keep eating (but throwing away perfectly good food? What a waste!). “Disgusting” bathrooms here are five-star establishments. Why? They have flush toilets (as opposed to a hole in the ground), toilet paper, running water, and soap. What else do you need?
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Kidepo Pt. 2
We had a pretty nice campsite. There were two open-sided bandas, one
for our ranger Ben to stay in (he guarded us at night and travelled
with us during the day, armed with his AK-47), and another which we
used as a kitchen/hangout spot. We set up our tents pretty easily, and
I was on cooking/dishes duty so I helped Martha feed the hungry
masses. We were on a small hill, and all around us were valleys full
of herds of animals. The edges of the park were marked by the
mountains surrounding us in the distance on all sides. I can't really
describe it, so you'll have to see the pictures sometime!
Each morning and evening we went on a safari drive. The park is huge,
and on one of our drives we even crossed over the border into South
Sudan (just far enough to awkwardly straddle the line between the
countries and snap a picture). Most of us young folk (plus Kristy
Rosenbaum) would sit or stand in the back of the pickup during the
drives, to get the best view. It was SO MUCH FUN. I love the Wrights
and Maria and Jamie, we had some really funny conversations, laughed a
lot, went a little crazy, just enjoyed each others' company while we
saw hundreds of amazing animals.
We saw WAY more animals than I expected we would, and they were much closer than I had anticipated (something about being in the bed of a pickup truck completely exposed to wild animals kind of heightens the experience). We saw tons of elephants, thousands of cape buffalo, Jackson's hardebeasts and several other kinds of antelope (oribi, dik diks, etc.), giraffes, warthogs, ostriches, and lions. Yes, lions. We
saw 11 lions one morning. A bunch of us are in the back of the pickup when Ben directs us towards a group of lionesses. They're down a little gulley so we could see them, but we weren't too close. We turn off the engines and enjoy the sight, amazed that we had gotten so close.
Then we drive on a bit, and before we know it Ben has sent us to a group of five male lions. They were younger (didn't quite have full manes yet) but they were HUGE. And we got about six feet away from them. They weren't scared of the vehicles, they were just sitting
there watching us, dozing off, bathing, stretching – it was probably one of the coolest things I've ever experienced. They were SO CLOSE. We turned the engines off again and spent probably almost 30 minutes just watching them and taking pictures.
We couldn't top that. The whole trip was amazing, but nothing beat
being so close to the lions. We also sat in the middle of a HUGE herd of cape buffalo for several minutes, but they're pretty dumb and the
wind was in our favor (not blowing our scent towards them) so they didn't bother us. But they could have done some serious damage if they
wanted to.
A few years ago the Wrights went to Kidepo and were charged by a bull
elephant, and their guard had to shoot his gun to scare it off. I
didn't expect this, but I was more scared of the elephants than
anything else we came across. They are massive and almost every time
we saw them, there were baby elephants around (so cute! And yes they
do hold their mama's tail when they walk) so they were very
protective. I admit I said some prayers on a couple occasions. But no
incidents to report!
for our ranger Ben to stay in (he guarded us at night and travelled
with us during the day, armed with his AK-47), and another which we
used as a kitchen/hangout spot. We set up our tents pretty easily, and
I was on cooking/dishes duty so I helped Martha feed the hungry
masses. We were on a small hill, and all around us were valleys full
of herds of animals. The edges of the park were marked by the
mountains surrounding us in the distance on all sides. I can't really
describe it, so you'll have to see the pictures sometime!
Each morning and evening we went on a safari drive. The park is huge,
and on one of our drives we even crossed over the border into South
Sudan (just far enough to awkwardly straddle the line between the
countries and snap a picture). Most of us young folk (plus Kristy
Rosenbaum) would sit or stand in the back of the pickup during the
drives, to get the best view. It was SO MUCH FUN. I love the Wrights
and Maria and Jamie, we had some really funny conversations, laughed a
lot, went a little crazy, just enjoyed each others' company while we
saw hundreds of amazing animals.
saw 11 lions one morning. A bunch of us are in the back of the pickup when Ben directs us towards a group of lionesses. They're down a little gulley so we could see them, but we weren't too close. We turn off the engines and enjoy the sight, amazed that we had gotten so close.
Then we drive on a bit, and before we know it Ben has sent us to a group of five male lions. They were younger (didn't quite have full manes yet) but they were HUGE. And we got about six feet away from them. They weren't scared of the vehicles, they were just sitting
there watching us, dozing off, bathing, stretching – it was probably one of the coolest things I've ever experienced. They were SO CLOSE. We turned the engines off again and spent probably almost 30 minutes just watching them and taking pictures.We couldn't top that. The whole trip was amazing, but nothing beat
being so close to the lions. We also sat in the middle of a HUGE herd of cape buffalo for several minutes, but they're pretty dumb and the
wind was in our favor (not blowing our scent towards them) so they didn't bother us. But they could have done some serious damage if they
wanted to.
A few years ago the Wrights went to Kidepo and were charged by a bull
elephant, and their guard had to shoot his gun to scare it off. I
didn't expect this, but I was more scared of the elephants than
anything else we came across. They are massive and almost every time
we saw them, there were baby elephants around (so cute! And yes they
do hold their mama's tail when they walk) so they were very
protective. I admit I said some prayers on a couple occasions. But no
incidents to report!
Last I wrote, the Wrights and Erika were on their way up country
again, along with Bob's sister Kristy and her son Justin. I had been
alone on the compound for a couple weeks, so it was great to have the
place humming with activity again. And boy, were we busy. We were
packing for a safari.
Just a few days after they arrived in Karamoja,
14 of us (plus all our tents and camping equipment) drove north to
spend a few days at Kidepo Valley National Park.
Now, when I say we drove north, this was not a comfy road trip (not for most of us, at least). A few people road in the Wright's SUV, but me, Erika, Rachel, Justin, Mary, Kipsy, Bobby, Anna and Jamie climbed onto the back of the pickup truck, on top of all our camping gear, and held on tight for the 8 hour drive north on the dusty, bumpy Karamoja roads.
It was fun at first – we talked, had some sing-alongs, enjoyed the scenery. After a couple hours it was not very much fun anymore; it
was just plain painful. The only really unbearable part of the ride was a certain section we passed through when we were getting pretty close to Kidepo. The road was very bumpy and slow going, and as soon as we had to slow down to navigate the ditches, we were attacked by tse tse flies. We are very fortunate not to have a lot of tse tse flies in Nakaale. They are big, persistent, fast (like horse flies but WORSE)… they can bite through clothes, they're very hard to squish, and their blood burns your skin if you do manage to kill them. Cool.
I was so glad to finally go north of Nakaale, though – it's hard to
imagine any place more barren and less developed than Nakaale, but the
northern districts of Karamoja are EMPTY and the mountains and hills
are stunningly beautiful. We drove through a few "cities" and got lots
of stares and shouts and waves. We wazungu were a sight to behold –
dirty, sunburned, exhausted.
One thought that struck me again and again as we drove farther away
from civilization was this: so few people in the history of the world
will ever see these mountains, these amazing rock formations, these
savannahs and caves and hillsides (how blessed I am to be one of the
few!). But God made this place beautiful anyways… for the few who
would see. He displays His beauty, His strength, His creativity, so
that even in these remote places people will see the evidence that He
is there. He loved the Karamojong enough to place them in a
magnificent country where they can't escape the fact that He IS.
About eight hours after we set out we arrived at the ranger station
parched, hungry, dusty (all the ladies had nice moustaches by this
point!), extremely sore, and extremely happy. Just driving into the park to get signed into our campsite, we saw a herd of elephants.
again, along with Bob's sister Kristy and her son Justin. I had been
alone on the compound for a couple weeks, so it was great to have the
place humming with activity again. And boy, were we busy. We were
packing for a safari.
Just a few days after they arrived in Karamoja,
14 of us (plus all our tents and camping equipment) drove north to
spend a few days at Kidepo Valley National Park.
Now, when I say we drove north, this was not a comfy road trip (not for most of us, at least). A few people road in the Wright's SUV, but me, Erika, Rachel, Justin, Mary, Kipsy, Bobby, Anna and Jamie climbed onto the back of the pickup truck, on top of all our camping gear, and held on tight for the 8 hour drive north on the dusty, bumpy Karamoja roads.It was fun at first – we talked, had some sing-alongs, enjoyed the scenery. After a couple hours it was not very much fun anymore; it
was just plain painful. The only really unbearable part of the ride was a certain section we passed through when we were getting pretty close to Kidepo. The road was very bumpy and slow going, and as soon as we had to slow down to navigate the ditches, we were attacked by tse tse flies. We are very fortunate not to have a lot of tse tse flies in Nakaale. They are big, persistent, fast (like horse flies but WORSE)… they can bite through clothes, they're very hard to squish, and their blood burns your skin if you do manage to kill them. Cool.
I was so glad to finally go north of Nakaale, though – it's hard to
imagine any place more barren and less developed than Nakaale, but the
northern districts of Karamoja are EMPTY and the mountains and hills
are stunningly beautiful. We drove through a few "cities" and got lots
of stares and shouts and waves. We wazungu were a sight to behold –
dirty, sunburned, exhausted.
One thought that struck me again and again as we drove farther away
from civilization was this: so few people in the history of the world
will ever see these mountains, these amazing rock formations, these
savannahs and caves and hillsides (how blessed I am to be one of the
few!). But God made this place beautiful anyways… for the few who
would see. He displays His beauty, His strength, His creativity, so
that even in these remote places people will see the evidence that He
is there. He loved the Karamojong enough to place them in a
magnificent country where they can't escape the fact that He IS.
About eight hours after we set out we arrived at the ranger station
parched, hungry, dusty (all the ladies had nice moustaches by this
point!), extremely sore, and extremely happy. Just driving into the park to get signed into our campsite, we saw a herd of elephants.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
"Paul reduces all the actions of the new life to three classes: sobriety, righteousness, and godliness... Nothing is more difficult than to forsake all carnal thoughts, to subdue and renounce our false appetites, and to devote ourselves to God and our brethren, and to live the life of angels in a world of corruption.To deliver our minds from every snare Paul calls our attention to the hope of a blessed immortality, and encourages us that our hope is not in vain. As Christ once appeared as a Redeemer, so he will at his second coming show us the benefits of the salvation which he obtained.Christ dispels the charms that blind us and prevent us from longing with the right zeal for the glory of heaven.Christ also teaches us that we must live as strangers and pilgrims in this world, that we may not lose our heavenly inheritance."
- John Calvin's Golden Book of the True Christian Life
- John Calvin's Golden Book of the True Christian Life
Saturday, January 28, 2012
this deserves a *happy dance*
So, I have exciting news -- the missionaries have asked me and Erika to return to teach again next year! The mission has approved and my parents gave me the ok, so please pray that all the necessary details get sorted out. The hope is that we'll be able to come here in late August (after White Lake camp, of course, I wouldn't miss White Lake for anything!) and stay until May -- 9 months. I'm soooooooooooooooo excited :) Erika will primarily teach the Okkens while I'll teach most of the Wrights' classes and Omnibus (early church - Reformation) for James and Josh Tricarico.
Also, I wrote an article for RP Missions which will appear in the January RP Witness. Certainly not my best piece of writing, but it'll do. So keep your eyes "Pihled" for that (yeah I just did that).
Also, I wrote an article for RP Missions which will appear in the January RP Witness. Certainly not my best piece of writing, but it'll do. So keep your eyes "Pihled" for that (yeah I just did that).
"You are very important to me"
The Wrights and Ericka have been down country for over a week, so I've been enjoying a breezy teaching schedule and lots of downtime. I spent most of my time reading, hanging out with Leah Hopp in the evenings, and putzing around on the internet (since the middle compound, where I live, has been home to only three people instead of ten, we've had tons of power! My poor old Grove City laptop has 30 minutes of battery life, so it's wonderful to be able to plug it in all the time!).
In other news, Bob Wright cut his arm badly earlier this week, and yesterday morning he had surgery which successfully reconnected a nerve and two tendons. Poor Bob :( His arm is in a cast and he can't use it for six weeks, so the Wrights and Erika are coming back from Kampala a week early, along with Bob's sister and her son Justin, who are here for a visit.
Leah had a birthday last Friday, so we had tortillas and hummus and watched tons of episodes of the Cosby Show... oh the 80s. Gotta love the outfits :)
The kids Bible study on Monday went very well. Leah came with me this time. I taught them the parable of the lost sheep. Only 25 kids came (instead of forty, as we'd had the week before) which, I admit, I was thankful for, because a group of forty kids is hard to control. I brought along a big jump rope. Some of the older girls were pretty good and they had three kids jumping at once. I think it was a hit.
This morning Ruffin (a 19 year old visitor who's been here for 6 months), Jamie Tricarico, Jim and Jenny Knox and I were on the road at 6:15am to visit the Pian Upe Game Preserve, which is just a little ways south of the market town of Namalu. We went on a mini-safari :) We arrived and the guide brought us into his office. "If you are lucky, you will see some animals... if you are lucky, you will see some animals... if you are lucky... you will see... some animals..." He was a very funny man... he said "for-ay-nee" instead of foreign and repeated himself a lot. Jim had to sign the guestbook because "you are very important to me."
Jamie, Ruffin and I climbed up on the roof rack of Jim's SUV (easier said than done for a shorty like me!), and our guide plus a ranger (complete with AK-47s) sat in the back seat. The sun was just rising as we set off on the three hour drive through the bush. It was terribly uncomfortable sitting on the metal bars of the roof rack, but after a while I didn't notice it so much. The view of Mount Kadam was breathtaking... I'll post pictures soon. Unfortunately, we didn't see too much wildlife, but we saw tons of cobs (a type of antelope) who run SO fast... they were outrunning our car. It felt like we were in the middle of a National Geographic film. We also saw Jackson's hardebeasts, which are huge antelope-type things with big horns. We also saw a very large, very fast rodent thing and some guinea fowl and other neat birds. No cheetah, ostriches, leopards or baboons... but the view alone was worth the trip. That was my first time riding on the roof of any vehicle ever... and it was so much fun :P
I think I got a bit of heat stroke/sun stroke cuz when I got back I crashed in bed and slept for two hours. I'm still feeling exhausted and dehydrated but it's all good. I'm just chugging water like it's my job. Tonight we have a group dinner, and it will be Ruffin's last before he goes home, so I have to make an epic dessert :)
"Have you chewed the donkey?"
Last night, Jim and Jenny invited me and Ruffin over for dinner, along with Moses, Albert and Fred, three of the young men on the clinic staff. I think all three of them are roughly my age. They are hilarious.
"Have you ever chewed the rat?"
"What??"
"The rat? have you chewed?"
"You don't say that in America. You say tasted or tried."
"How about chewed and swallowed? Have you chewed and swallowed the rat?"
"If you say that in America people will look at you very strangely."
We talked about eating rats, cats, dogs, small birds ("you could fry them like a chicken, but I think maybe even you must eat the whole head, even the what? The bones.") camels, chameleons (in a stew or something??) and donkeys.
Fred said that on the radio that day they were offering 5,000 shillings (about 2 dollars) to a caller who could answer this question: If the man is the head of the family, the woman is the what? Fred put the question to us. Jim told him he should call in and say the woman is the body, because Christ is the head of the church and the church is the body. We also considered the neck (she turns the man any direction she wants!) or the heart. Apparently one person called in and said the tail (?!). The callers had such a hard time answering the question that they were going to continue the discussion on the radio the next day. Jenny said that here in Karamoja the men say that women have ears on the "buntocks" (as they call it) so you must beat them in order to make them listen. Women are not very respected here, but believe me, they do must of the work.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
The Lord's Prayer
Papa kosi ngolo eyai Nakuj Ekonikiro tokeritete.
Akonijakanut bu neni kosi, kitiyaere alokwap nguna a Nakuj.
Inakinae isua nakwar na akosikimuj ngina a jwi jwi.
Kisyomi isua ngakosimecae, ikwangina ikisyonio isua nguluce dang.
Nyikiya isua nakitemyet, nai toiunae aneni aronon.
Anerae apukan ka apedor ka apolou ngina Kon jik.
Akonijakanut bu neni kosi, kitiyaere alokwap nguna a Nakuj.
Inakinae isua nakwar na akosikimuj ngina a jwi jwi.
Kisyomi isua ngakosimecae, ikwangina ikisyonio isua nguluce dang.
Nyikiya isua nakitemyet, nai toiunae aneni aronon.
Anerae apukan ka apedor ka apolou ngina Kon jik.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Monday, Monday
Thirty kids showed up, along with our translator Omena (Lokwii Paul). It took a while to "mobilize" (i.e. shout back into the village and tell kids to come). While Erika walked around calling for kids, I stayed in the ward and visited with the ones who were already there. I know enough Karamojong now to scrape by a small conversation (Hi! How are you? What is your name? What is your sisters name? My name is Ngakiru Emily. etc.). I tried to get all their names, but the names here are so unfamiliar to me that I had a hard time with that... but there are a few kids that are very familiar to me now, and will greet me and Erika by name if they see us walking around. Samuel, Lokiru, Sagal David, Abra, Losike, Longoli, Soki, Tony, Baby Bob, and Achio are the ones I know the best, and we love to visit them and talk to them. I'll keep working on learning more names over the next few weeks.
We sang a few songs first. Some are classic kid songs here:
Amina, amina, amina
Epol amina,
Ejok amina,
Kristo erae amina.
Love, love love,
Love is great,
Love is good,
Christ is love.
Kire ejok Akuj,
Kire ejok Akuj,
Kire ejok Akuj,
Nooi, nooi ejok Akuj!
Surely God is good,
Surely God is good,
Surely God is good,
God is very, very good!
Oh, Oh, Oh Yesu ikimina iwon!
Aleluya!
Oh, Oh, Oh Yesu ikimina iwon!
Oh, Oh, Oh Jesus loves us!
Aleluya!
Oh, Oh, Oh Jesus loves us!
Omena also led the kids in a song they requested that I've never heard before. It's not in our Karamojong songbook, so I'm not quite sure how all the kids know it, but they sang it very enthusiastically. The only part of the song I understood was "Satan", which was mentioned several times...
Then Omena told the kids the Christmas story using a tract the missionaries have been using for the past month. He is a great teacher - he went to Bible college and the missionaries are training him for church leadership. He asked the kids lots of questions and they answered well, and they also practiced memorizing John 3:16. Martha Wright, who came along to observe, handed out the Christmas story booklets to all the children who were in school and could read. Only a handful could out the group of thirty, but when she was going around asking the kids "Can you read?" many of them said "Not yet!" They want to learn, which is encouraging.
After the lesson, we brought the kids outside to play Duck Duck Goose. I took the younger kids group (mostly toddlers and preschoolers who had no idea what they were doing) and Omena advised me to use the words "Ane, Ane, Akine" instead of Duck Duck Goose. I still don't know what those words mean, but in any case we had fun, even if we did kinda bend the rules. They didn't know how to play and the only useful word I knew was "atipei" which means quickly, so I pretty much just let them walk around, pat heads, and then if they whispered "akine" or just started running randomly, I would point to the kid sitting and say atipei! It worked ok... many of them were laughing. The littlest guys just looked totally confused. One little girl, Abra, is so chubby she couldn't run (chubbiness is very uncommon here.... she must eat a lot of porridge) -- she just waddled around looking mystified. It was pretty adorable though.
Finally, we decided it was time to go. Martha wanted a picture of us with all the kids, which they got quite excited about. Hopefully I'll be able to post that picture on here at some point. We kept saying, "it's time to go!" but they didn't want to go, they were clinging on to us and started spontaneously singing Yesu Ikimina Iwon, which was so sweet. We finally managed to detach ourselves, point the kids home, and say goodbye.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Sssss is for Sssnake. Eeee is for Eeeemun!!
More snake excitement.
Earlier this week, as I was walking back to my banda, I saw a snake in the grass. The good thing about most snakes is that they will move away from you when they realize you're coming. So it did move away from me, but unfortunately it moved TOWARDS our banda. I think it must have a hole somewhere in the tall grass around our hut. We called Papa Lokwii to walk around with his stick and look for it, but it's still out there somewhere. It looked fairly long (probably 4 ft?) and was a medium/dark green with two yellow stripes down the length of its body.
This second snake story, which took place just this afternoon, I did NOT witness, but I got the full account from several eye-witnesses. Josh was walking out to his shop when he noticed the cat, Timu, hissing furiously at something. He saw it was a snake and that Timu was trying to protect her two kittens from it. Josh, Ruffin, Jamie and the guard, Akol were all present at the Death of the 7 1/2 Ft. Forest Cobra. Akol knocked it on the head a couple times with his stick, and Jamie threw stones at it. Even after its head was smashed in, its reflexes caused it to twist and curl around on the ground for several minutes after it was dead (I've seen the video, it's horrifying). There were four toads in its stomach, two of which were still alive and moved around a bit after they were cut out, but then they died. We think it was going for one of Timu's six week old kittens. The boys dissected it (the heart kept beating for a long time after it was dead), skinned it, and are now curing the skin to make it into a snakeskin belt or guitar strap. I saw the skin just a little while ago... even with 1 1/2 feet of the length cut off (you can't use the head or smaller part of the tail for a belt) it is still REALLY long. The skin feels pretty cool but it's starting to dry out too much so they need to oil it, and then salt it to keep it from getting smelly.
Snakes are just a part of life here. A very unwelcome part of life. Now that it's the dry season and they're looking for water, we're sure to see more, so please pray for us, that we would be diligent in taking precautions, but that we would not be too paralyzed by a fear of them. The fact that Erika and I have now had three snakes right outside our hut (two dead, one still unaccounted for) is pretty scary, but we have to go on with life. We still need to walk around at night, we need to take certain paths to get certain places.
Some precautions we take:
Never walk at night without a good flashlight. You can't really enjoy the scenery when you're walking, you have to look at the ground. If you want to stargaze or just enjoy the mountain view, it's best to stop and look, and then keep walking when you can pay attention to your surroundings.
Stomp when you walk. It's not graceful or ladylike, but the snakes feel the vibrations.
Don't leave any water sources around the banda. The snakes are thirsty.
Shake out boots before putting them on. NEVER put your hand where you can't see.
The T's had a black mamba that wasn't much bigger than a worm. They still have venom. All snakes should be killed unless someone can confirm it's not poisonous (some are actually helpful, they eat rats.)
Never a dull moment. These critters keep us on our toes, that's for sure!
Earlier this week, as I was walking back to my banda, I saw a snake in the grass. The good thing about most snakes is that they will move away from you when they realize you're coming. So it did move away from me, but unfortunately it moved TOWARDS our banda. I think it must have a hole somewhere in the tall grass around our hut. We called Papa Lokwii to walk around with his stick and look for it, but it's still out there somewhere. It looked fairly long (probably 4 ft?) and was a medium/dark green with two yellow stripes down the length of its body.
This second snake story, which took place just this afternoon, I did NOT witness, but I got the full account from several eye-witnesses. Josh was walking out to his shop when he noticed the cat, Timu, hissing furiously at something. He saw it was a snake and that Timu was trying to protect her two kittens from it. Josh, Ruffin, Jamie and the guard, Akol were all present at the Death of the 7 1/2 Ft. Forest Cobra. Akol knocked it on the head a couple times with his stick, and Jamie threw stones at it. Even after its head was smashed in, its reflexes caused it to twist and curl around on the ground for several minutes after it was dead (I've seen the video, it's horrifying). There were four toads in its stomach, two of which were still alive and moved around a bit after they were cut out, but then they died. We think it was going for one of Timu's six week old kittens. The boys dissected it (the heart kept beating for a long time after it was dead), skinned it, and are now curing the skin to make it into a snakeskin belt or guitar strap. I saw the skin just a little while ago... even with 1 1/2 feet of the length cut off (you can't use the head or smaller part of the tail for a belt) it is still REALLY long. The skin feels pretty cool but it's starting to dry out too much so they need to oil it, and then salt it to keep it from getting smelly.
Snakes are just a part of life here. A very unwelcome part of life. Now that it's the dry season and they're looking for water, we're sure to see more, so please pray for us, that we would be diligent in taking precautions, but that we would not be too paralyzed by a fear of them. The fact that Erika and I have now had three snakes right outside our hut (two dead, one still unaccounted for) is pretty scary, but we have to go on with life. We still need to walk around at night, we need to take certain paths to get certain places.
Some precautions we take:
Never walk at night without a good flashlight. You can't really enjoy the scenery when you're walking, you have to look at the ground. If you want to stargaze or just enjoy the mountain view, it's best to stop and look, and then keep walking when you can pay attention to your surroundings.
Stomp when you walk. It's not graceful or ladylike, but the snakes feel the vibrations.
Don't leave any water sources around the banda. The snakes are thirsty.
Shake out boots before putting them on. NEVER put your hand where you can't see.
The T's had a black mamba that wasn't much bigger than a worm. They still have venom. All snakes should be killed unless someone can confirm it's not poisonous (some are actually helpful, they eat rats.)
Never a dull moment. These critters keep us on our toes, that's for sure!
Rain's gone. Here comes the fire.
We're definitely in the dry season now. The rains are gone, the wind is blowing, the sun is hot, and the wildfires have started. Last night there was a noticeable haze of smoke over the whole compound, although we couldn't see where the fire was burning. Some of these fires are caused by people intentionally burning their fields - to remove brush so the enemy (the Pokot, or other raiders) will be more visible (probably for agricultural reasons too, but I don't know how that all works); some fires are started by shepherd boys who are hungry for some BBQ rat, so they burn the fields so the rats will run out. The problem in both cases is that these fires can easily get out of control, and there's no fire department in Nakaale. The missionaries tell me that fires are to be expected and can get quite scary, but Bob plows a break line around the mission, and the guards keep the area watered so that, hopefully, the fire won't jump onto our land. They've never had a serious fire here on the mission, so I'm not too scared, but there have been some close calls. So you can pray over the next few months that we, and especially our neighbors living in thatched huts, will be protected from the wildfires.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
RP Missions Countdown
I am so thankful for the way the Lord has blessed me through my RP Missions trips. Not only have I fostered wonderful friendships and had some truly once in a lifetime experiences during my trips to White Lake Covenanter Camp, Airdrie and Inverness, Scotland, and Karamoja, Uganda -- I've also learned so much about myself. I've learned that the Lord has given me particular gifts that can be used in His kingdom, and that I should not be afraid to seek a way to use those gifts for His glory. I know that it's no accident that God has given me a desire to work with children. He has been growing my abilities in this area for as long as I can remember. God opened my eyes to the idea that this love for children is not restricted to comfy middle class American kids -- this particular gift has opened the door for me to work practically anywhere in the world. Through RP Missions, I've discovered, wadio wadio (slowly slowly!), that surrendering your life to the Lord isn't scary, and it's not a sacrifice. It's an immense blessing. My life is more fulfilling and exciting than anything I ever could have planned for myself -- God has been leading me to a wonderful (not necessarily easy, but joyful) life of ministry.
I am so indebted to RP Missions for helping me through the baby steps of missions. Now I'm beginning to crawl, I guess... but I'm still a baby here on the field. I still need guidance and help. So far, I've been blessed by wonderful counsel and encouragement along the way.
There are others who have already gone through these baby steps, and now they're walking. They're running. They're out in the fields, reaping the harvest of souls that the Lord has prepared for them. But they can't do it alone.
RPM&M (Missions and Ministries) recently announced that there is a $50,000 deficit in their budget that needs to be met by January 1st. I have given to RP Missions in the past (very little, but whatever I could spare). Now I'd like to ask all my friends and family to consider giving just $10 to RP Missions to help them meet their goal. What is $10? One less strand of Christmas lights and one less Christmas-y frappacino at the mall? If $10 were given to RP Missions for every person who has viewed my blog, they could put another person like me on the field for six months; they could pay for the Cush4Christ team's Christian Education program -- twice! It's a small sacrifice with an eternal reward.
Visit this site to learn more about what RP Missions has in store for next year, and how you can help them meet their New Years goal. Only 21 days left!
In Christ,
Emily
'Tis the season!
It's strange to be celebrating the holidays on the other side of the world. I've had plenty of birthdays away from home, but this will be my first Christmas away from the family (cats included...). I know that Christmas is going to be a ton of fun, though. Erika's piano students will have a Christmas carol recital/party a few days before Christmas, Friday night we'll have a white elephant gift exchange, and Saturday (Christmas Eve) we'll celebrate Christmas with a big meal together (I think? plans were still in the works last I heard). Since Christmas is on a Sunday we'll have church, I'm teaching Sunday School that day, and then there's the Christmas edonga (dance) and also a wedding that I might go to with Leah (we tried to go to that wedding a few weeks ago, but found out it had been postponed till Christmas day because the priest from Nakapiripirit wasn't able to get to Nakaale through the mud). I'm not exactly sure how the edonga works, but I know everyone wears their best clothes and all the beads they own, and they meet out somewhere towards Atedeoi I think, and the men jump up and down in a circle and the women dance around them outside the circle. I think it's a prime time to choose a fiancee, so that will be interesting to see. But I'll tell you what it's like once I've seen it with my own eyes, Lord willing :) The dance goes all day and night so hopefully we'll be able to pop in for an hour or two. On Monday night the Knox's are having us over for a Boxing Day dinner party.
Last night Jenny (Baumgardner) Knox had me, Erika and Leah Hopp over for a girls' night. We did pedicures (my feet haven't been this clean since I left America... but we didn't scrub all our callouses off cause we need them!), had delicious Indian food (naan, rice, and daal... sooo good), and we just chatted and relaxed. It was wonderful. I am so blessed to be here with such fun, sweet, encouraging ladies. You guys are the beeeest :)
So, today I need to bust out some more TEFL lessons (obviously this blog post is just my way of productively procrastinating!). This afternoon several of us are going to get together to play board games before dinner. Since it's my birthday, they let me pick the meal tonight, but I'm not too creative so I just picked Mexican food. It's always delicious, especially here. I am learning to cook a lot of amazing things here, I can't wait to get back to the States and try these recipes at home. Who knew I'd have to go across the planet to finally learn to cook... but I'm starting to enjoy it. It's becoming less scary to me and I've only had one disaster meal (failed tomato soup and grilled cheese... just does NOT work here) so that's not so bad.
Ok. No more procrastinating.
Much love,
Emily
Last night Jenny (Baumgardner) Knox had me, Erika and Leah Hopp over for a girls' night. We did pedicures (my feet haven't been this clean since I left America... but we didn't scrub all our callouses off cause we need them!), had delicious Indian food (naan, rice, and daal... sooo good), and we just chatted and relaxed. It was wonderful. I am so blessed to be here with such fun, sweet, encouraging ladies. You guys are the beeeest :)
So, today I need to bust out some more TEFL lessons (obviously this blog post is just my way of productively procrastinating!). This afternoon several of us are going to get together to play board games before dinner. Since it's my birthday, they let me pick the meal tonight, but I'm not too creative so I just picked Mexican food. It's always delicious, especially here. I am learning to cook a lot of amazing things here, I can't wait to get back to the States and try these recipes at home. Who knew I'd have to go across the planet to finally learn to cook... but I'm starting to enjoy it. It's becoming less scary to me and I've only had one disaster meal (failed tomato soup and grilled cheese... just does NOT work here) so that's not so bad.
Ok. No more procrastinating.
Much love,
Emily
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Could it be? Is it really the dry season??
There have been a couple days without rain now and it is very, very windy. The wind is nice... although the sun is bright and hot, the breeze makes it very comfortable. For now, at least. I've been told that when the dry season is in full swing, there are a lot of wildfires and the driving wind blows the sand everywhere. Just another feature of the Karamoja Resort and Spa: mud treatments, exfoliating sandstorms, wading pools, the malaria weight-loss program... :) The wind right now is ridiculous. I have never felt such strong wind in my life... and this is just the beginning!
We've had two false alarms already when we thought the dry season was starting, so I'm not counting on it... but it would be nice for the rain to be done so the roads will dry out. I'm sick of muddy feet and my flip flops being destroyed in the muck... and it would be good for the roads to dry out since different members of the mission have to drive down country many times in the next few weeks.
On Thursday the Wright family will be leaving for a ten day vacation down country. It will be quiet and boring without them (they bring a lot of life to this compound! I love those kids...) but it will also be nice to have ten days to organize life, work ahead on lesson plans, clean the banda and kitchen, and just relax for a while. I'll only be teaching from 9:45-12 every day. It's also wonderfully providential that they're going away now, because it will give me lots of time to complete my TESOL course, which I have to finish by December 23rd (and I still have 8 lessons to do, each of which takes several hours!).
My mind knows that Christmas is coming, but it doesn't feel like Christmas at all without snow... Erika and I do have a nice little fake tree in our banda (which she lovingly refers to as The Toilet Brush) with tinsel, colored lights and decorations. Last year's teacher, Amy Folkert, sent Erika and I a package of Christmas presents! It had candy, decorations, a card for Erika (who shared this banda with Amy for 3 months earlier this year) and a few presents. She doesn't even know me so it was so so sweet of her to include me in the gift.
I'm also having mixed feelings about turning 24 in a few days. 24 just sounds so grown up. In some ways it's great, and I'm so glad I'm an adult now, and done with school! But in other ways it's a little daunting because at this point I really need to start taking things seriously and planning for whatever's next... time to start making some serious decisions which could really influence my next few years, important decisions like where to live and work next year. But I'm excited that for the rest of my life I'll be able to say I celebrated a birthday on the African savannah :)
We've had two false alarms already when we thought the dry season was starting, so I'm not counting on it... but it would be nice for the rain to be done so the roads will dry out. I'm sick of muddy feet and my flip flops being destroyed in the muck... and it would be good for the roads to dry out since different members of the mission have to drive down country many times in the next few weeks.
On Thursday the Wright family will be leaving for a ten day vacation down country. It will be quiet and boring without them (they bring a lot of life to this compound! I love those kids...) but it will also be nice to have ten days to organize life, work ahead on lesson plans, clean the banda and kitchen, and just relax for a while. I'll only be teaching from 9:45-12 every day. It's also wonderfully providential that they're going away now, because it will give me lots of time to complete my TESOL course, which I have to finish by December 23rd (and I still have 8 lessons to do, each of which takes several hours!).
My mind knows that Christmas is coming, but it doesn't feel like Christmas at all without snow... Erika and I do have a nice little fake tree in our banda (which she lovingly refers to as The Toilet Brush) with tinsel, colored lights and decorations. Last year's teacher, Amy Folkert, sent Erika and I a package of Christmas presents! It had candy, decorations, a card for Erika (who shared this banda with Amy for 3 months earlier this year) and a few presents. She doesn't even know me so it was so so sweet of her to include me in the gift.
I'm also having mixed feelings about turning 24 in a few days. 24 just sounds so grown up. In some ways it's great, and I'm so glad I'm an adult now, and done with school! But in other ways it's a little daunting because at this point I really need to start taking things seriously and planning for whatever's next... time to start making some serious decisions which could really influence my next few years, important decisions like where to live and work next year. But I'm excited that for the rest of my life I'll be able to say I celebrated a birthday on the African savannah :)
Monday, December 5, 2011
If at first you don't succeed...
Erika and I are hoping to start a kids "afterschool" type Bible study in the village behind the clinic ("after school" isn't the best term since most kids here don't go to school... but you know the idea, sing, play games, hear a Bible story). So today was going to be our first day. We walked down to the clinic and tried to mobilize as we went (shouting "apena akilip" and "potu daadang" to all the kids we passed on the road.) If not for a pretty intense game of soccer happening in the middle of the road outside the clinic, we could have had quite a group... as it was, about 10 kids came. Erika brought them to the big, empty building (the ward) and I went off to the village to get Rose to translate. But when I got to Rose's home, she was making dinner and said she could not come...
So I went back, gathered up Faith, James and Stacey from their banda, and went back to the ward. I told Erika that we didn't have a translator, but we decided to wing it and make do with our tiny vocabulary and hand motions. We taught them Red Light Green Light. Of course, these kids have never in their life seen a stoplight, or any road signs at all for that matter. So Erika had a piece of green paper with "apethi" on it, which means "go" (or fast? something like that) and a red paper that said "bas" (stop). These kids also can't read, but it was helpful for us to have the words written out. Basically we just demonstrated what to do and they had a great time...
We also tried Duck Duck Goose. Faith, James and Stacey are old pros at this game now. The K'jong kids seemed to enjoy it, but the problem is that they wouldn't say the words, or they would just whisper them. We tried to have them repeat after us, but they were too shy. So they would walk around tapping each head saying something like "duh" or just a general "uh" sound, and then when they got to the person they wanted to goose, instead of saying anything distinctive, they would say "uh" again, or they would just start running with no warning and we'd just yell "apethi! apethi!" to the one sitting down until they figured it out. So I think we should pick some Karamojong animal words that they can pronounce easily and use those next time. Dog Dog Cat (Ino, Ino, Epus)?
We obviously couldn't do a Bible lesson without a translator, so then we sat the kids down and attempted a few songs. Thankfully Faith knows the Karamojong songs pretty well so she actually led them for us, and many of these kids come to Sunday school and church occasionally so they know the songs too. We sang Kire Ejok Akuj (super easy and repetitive), Kidyama Lore A Papa, and Yesu Amina Ayong (Jesus Loves Me). I was quite convicted that I don't know the songs well enough, so I need to practice those during the week.
Altogether though, the kids obviously had a lot of fun, our charades worked, and everyone went away smiling. We'll try again next week, hopefully with a translator, and we'll tell them the Christmas story.
So I went back, gathered up Faith, James and Stacey from their banda, and went back to the ward. I told Erika that we didn't have a translator, but we decided to wing it and make do with our tiny vocabulary and hand motions. We taught them Red Light Green Light. Of course, these kids have never in their life seen a stoplight, or any road signs at all for that matter. So Erika had a piece of green paper with "apethi" on it, which means "go" (or fast? something like that) and a red paper that said "bas" (stop). These kids also can't read, but it was helpful for us to have the words written out. Basically we just demonstrated what to do and they had a great time...
We also tried Duck Duck Goose. Faith, James and Stacey are old pros at this game now. The K'jong kids seemed to enjoy it, but the problem is that they wouldn't say the words, or they would just whisper them. We tried to have them repeat after us, but they were too shy. So they would walk around tapping each head saying something like "duh" or just a general "uh" sound, and then when they got to the person they wanted to goose, instead of saying anything distinctive, they would say "uh" again, or they would just start running with no warning and we'd just yell "apethi! apethi!" to the one sitting down until they figured it out. So I think we should pick some Karamojong animal words that they can pronounce easily and use those next time. Dog Dog Cat (Ino, Ino, Epus)?
We obviously couldn't do a Bible lesson without a translator, so then we sat the kids down and attempted a few songs. Thankfully Faith knows the Karamojong songs pretty well so she actually led them for us, and many of these kids come to Sunday school and church occasionally so they know the songs too. We sang Kire Ejok Akuj (super easy and repetitive), Kidyama Lore A Papa, and Yesu Amina Ayong (Jesus Loves Me). I was quite convicted that I don't know the songs well enough, so I need to practice those during the week.
Altogether though, the kids obviously had a lot of fun, our charades worked, and everyone went away smiling. We'll try again next week, hopefully with a translator, and we'll tell them the Christmas story.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
ngaKaramojong Prayer
Yesterday at our language lesson, Rose taught Erika and I a simple prayer we can say if we come across someone who is sick or injured. It will take a lot of practice to memorize this (and, as Martha said, one missionary trick is to read prayers off index cards, because everyone closes their eyes during a prayer so you can get away with reading!). But I would like to try to memorize the whole thing.
Akuj Papa, ikilakara ainakin isua ngiboro daadang.
Ikilakara akiboi kaapei akilip ekonikiro.
Akuj Papa - kitangaleo ngikonei kosi.
Ka kidara ikes toyakaun kaapei ka isua akimor akiroit kon.
Papa Akuj, kotere erauni ekiro kon ngolo apolon nooi alotooma isua ikilipi jui jui.
Ngona ikilip isua kira iyong!
Agogong kapedori daadang ebunit a neni kon.
Iyong Papa Akuj ipolo ngooi.
A lokiro a Yesu Kristo Ekapolon yok. Amen.
Father God, we thank You for all things.
We thank you that we are here together.
We pray in your name Father God, heal our friends.
Keep them so that they may be with us to share your Word.
Father God, we pray always that your name, which is very great, will be in us.
Hear what we pray!
All strength and power come from you.
Father God, you are very great.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Akuj Papa, ikilakara ainakin isua ngiboro daadang.
Ikilakara akiboi kaapei akilip ekonikiro.
Akuj Papa - kitangaleo ngikonei kosi.
Ka kidara ikes toyakaun kaapei ka isua akimor akiroit kon.
Papa Akuj, kotere erauni ekiro kon ngolo apolon nooi alotooma isua ikilipi jui jui.
Ngona ikilip isua kira iyong!
Agogong kapedori daadang ebunit a neni kon.
Iyong Papa Akuj ipolo ngooi.
A lokiro a Yesu Kristo Ekapolon yok. Amen.
Father God, we thank You for all things.
We thank you that we are here together.
We pray in your name Father God, heal our friends.
Keep them so that they may be with us to share your Word.
Father God, we pray always that your name, which is very great, will be in us.
Hear what we pray!
All strength and power come from you.
Father God, you are very great.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
You Know You're In Karamoja When...
1. The internet is down for two days. Why? Because the cell tower (which we can see from our mission) ran out of fuel to power the generator (because there's no electricity here) -- this fuel shortage happens at precisely the same time each month, by the way -- and the truck carrying the fuel up from Mbale is completely stuck in the mud over an hour away.
2. You see an ant in your food, you scoop it out with a spoon, and you keep on eating.
3. Rose comes to the door. "Hemly! I have a jigger just here... do you have something?" Erika immediately responds "on the desk!" Yes. We keep a safety pin readily accessible solely for the purpose of digging bugs out of hands and feet. (Thankfully Erika and I haven't had any jiggers yet, but Erika did have to have a guard, Sam, dig a thorn out of her foot. He's apparently the BEST... he's so careful you don't feel a thing).
4. You're really not all that surprised to walk into lunch one day and see a dead Green Night Adder in a cardboard box on display. I was, however, less than thrilled to learn that it had been killed just outside my banda. Papa Lokwii, the one who killed our cobra, came to the rescue again!
5. You can't tell someone their baby is beautiful, because they think evil spirits will ruin the child if you say that. So if you tell a mother that her baby is beautiful, she will just laugh nervously and try to get away from you.
6. Owls are wizards. Chameleons are demon-possessed.
7. You're walking to the clinic and you reach the culvert (small river) where several people are bathing. Yes, they are naked (could be men, women or children). And yes, they would like to greet you, talk to you, and even help you practice your Karamojong phrases... right there knee deep in the river.
8. You wake up to beautiful mountain views every day... and every evening the sunset looks like a spread out of National Geographic.
2. You see an ant in your food, you scoop it out with a spoon, and you keep on eating.
3. Rose comes to the door. "Hemly! I have a jigger just here... do you have something?" Erika immediately responds "on the desk!" Yes. We keep a safety pin readily accessible solely for the purpose of digging bugs out of hands and feet. (Thankfully Erika and I haven't had any jiggers yet, but Erika did have to have a guard, Sam, dig a thorn out of her foot. He's apparently the BEST... he's so careful you don't feel a thing).
4. You're really not all that surprised to walk into lunch one day and see a dead Green Night Adder in a cardboard box on display. I was, however, less than thrilled to learn that it had been killed just outside my banda. Papa Lokwii, the one who killed our cobra, came to the rescue again!
5. You can't tell someone their baby is beautiful, because they think evil spirits will ruin the child if you say that. So if you tell a mother that her baby is beautiful, she will just laugh nervously and try to get away from you.
6. Owls are wizards. Chameleons are demon-possessed.
7. You're walking to the clinic and you reach the culvert (small river) where several people are bathing. Yes, they are naked (could be men, women or children). And yes, they would like to greet you, talk to you, and even help you practice your Karamojong phrases... right there knee deep in the river.
8. You wake up to beautiful mountain views every day... and every evening the sunset looks like a spread out of National Geographic.
On Tuesday I went to the nearby market town of
Namalu. First stop, Juliano’s nursery. Juliano is a really nice Italian guy who
grows flowers, trees, etc. in Namalu. Leah (another MA, who does health
education and literacy work) and Erika really wanted a REAL tree for Christmas.
They came home with a real tree, but it’s certainly not your traditional
Christmas tree J
It has a long stem and a few big, broad leaves at the top, which have now been
thoroughly decorated with tinsel and popcorn strings. Unfortunately, just this morning the tree officially died... all the leaves fell off :(
I bought some beads at
the general store, which I need to string together in time for the Christmas edonga (dance), which we’ll hopefully be
able to attend. We wandered around but didn’t do much shopping. We visited a
man who sells vegetables, and he gave Kipsy and I free bananas, which was nice.
He knows how to keep his customers. J He was selling matooke
(aka plantains, or green bananas – you cook them in oil and they are sooo
yummy, they taste like potatoes), yellow bananas, tomatoes, onions, kumquats,
and little green eggplants. I didn’t buy anything from him this time, though. I
was hoping to buy some blankets or fabric, but they didn’t really have any out,
probably because it was drizzling. After wandering up and down the market
street, we went to Pastor Emuron’s church for a Bible study with the pastor,
his family, and a few members of his church. Attendance was low (probably 8
people?) but it was interesting to hear them talk about Christmas. Leah was
asking them what the average Karamojong child or adult out in the villages
knows about Christmas. The influence of the Catholic church is very strong
here, because the first missionaries to Karamoja were Roman Catholic.
Unfortunately this means that most people here know a lot about Mary, but she
is so overemphasized that they worship her more than her Son. The Catholics
taught, first and foremost, that Mary is the mother of God… and they didn’t
really distinguish that she was not the mother of God the Father. So they seem
to place her even above the Trinity. Leah is going to be visiting the villages
and sharing the real story of Christmas, and its relation to the whole of the
Gospel.
When
the Bible study was over, we all climbed back into Pastor Al’s SUV (Kipsy and I
had sat on the floor in the trunk on the way over… Erika rode in the back on
the way home). And we proceeded to get very, very stuck in the mud. It took us
several minutes of violently rocking forward and back, forward and back,
spraying mud everywhere, before we finally got out of the ruts.
Oh, rain. It’s still
raining like crazy – no dry season in sight. Our laundry lady/language teacher
Achio Rose said that the people in her village are coming to her asking “Are
these the rains of Noah?” For us, the rains are mostly just a pain – we have to
break out our boots, we can’t charge anything and we lose power every night
because there’s not enough solar power coming in… but for the people in the
villages, they have to walk around barefoot in the mud, wade through rivers to
get to work, and sleep on the floor in flooded huts. Their crops are being
destroyed by the rain.
It was raining all day
yesterday, and by the time me, Erika, Heather, Leah and Ruffin went over to the
Tricarico’s for dinner everyone was
freezing. We were all decked out in our hoodies, jeans, socks, with blankets
wrapped around us. I asked Mrs. T what the temperature was.
It was 68 degrees.
I’m becoming such a wimp.
After dinner, while we were sipping tea and eating
gingerbread cookies, we started hearing popping sounds. In all seriousness, I
said, “Ooh, are those firecrackers?!” And everyone said, “Yeah, firecrackers.”
I did not get the sarcasm. Laurie comes in from the other room and says
“Gunfire.” There were a lot of rounds going off, and the six night guards on
the mission compound blew their whistles to alert each other and make sure no
guards were sleeping on the job. We just stayed inside. Later we found out that
the shots were coming from Alamacar, which is quite a ways away from us, back
in the hills, but the sound of the shots was echoing on the mountains so it sounded
very close. We also found out that the local militia successfully stopped the
raid. The militia is made up of government-appointed locals who are allowed to
have firearms to prevent raids – the rest of the Karamojong are not supposed to
have guns, the whole region has gone through a disarmament). When I walked back
to my banda around 9:30, I quietly greeted the two guards on the Wright’s
compound who were faithfully walking back and forth with their bows. It was
good to see them taking it seriously… I feel very safe here.
Friday, November 25, 2011
Reality Check: This is Africa
Well, the last few days in Mbale it was raining quite a bit, and we had received word from friends here in Karamoja that it had also been raining "too too much" in Nakapiripirit. Nevertheless, we prayed and set out for the journey around 11:30AM. Erika and I rode with Pastor Al and Laurie again.
The first bit of the journey is a real, paved road (lovingly referred to as "The Tarmac") -- but once we got onto the dirt [mud] road we knew pretty quickly that this would not be an easy journey. We hit three particularly rough spots. In the first significant stretch of slippery, muddy ruts we came to, there were other cars and trucks coming the other direction already stuck. We headed in for the ride (it felt a bit like being on a shying horse... if anyone out there knows what I mean... one minute you're going left, the next minute you're spinning right, you're turned sideways, tilting side to side, and holding on tight). There was one particular point when I really felt scared because the car was tilting and sliding and I was so worried we were going to tip over (and I would have been on the bottom side, getting squished into the mud! But God protected us and Pastor Al kept the car upright :) However, we did get legitimately stuck, and it took several backward pulls by Bob's massive Dyna truck to get us out of the rut.
Later on we came to a similar rough spot. Bob, Heather, Ryan (a visiting pastor from Kitgum) and Pastor Al actually walked out the course through the mud and planned the best way to navigate the huge ditches and ridges. We made it through without getting stuck. The funniest moment of the day -- we've got our windows down and Pastor Al is vigorously steering through this labyrinth of puddles and potholes, we're all quite tense and holding on tight and as we're coming over a tough patch someone standing on the grass on the driver's side says "How are you?" Pastor Al, spinning the wheel like a boss, replies "I am fine!" We just broke down laughing hysterically. How does it LOOK like we're doing?!?!?! We're basically going sideways through a muddy trench the size of my house! But Al's right, "It is important to greet!"
The last spot of the really daunting spots actually ended up not being too bad. There's a broken bridge at one point. Several men were standing around trying to guide cars through the water and up onto the other bank. We watched Pastor Dave in the car in front of us go in... it's up to his wheels... his exhaust pipe is underwater for a few seconds... he almost looks stuck... but then he's up and out. So Pastor Al just went for it and it actually didn't feel as bad going over it.
We made it home to Karamoja again. It's raining cats and dogs here. It had been dry the past couple weeks so I really thought the dry season was here. Think again. The climate change here is remarkable... the seasons have completed shifted. Unfortunately that makes it quite hard for the Karamojong, who can't easily foresee what to plant when... some have planted again in these extended rains hoping to get more of a crop. We'll see how this rain effects things here next year. As long as we don't have to drive in it, it's a good thing... but the Mission has to take several more trips south in the next month, so these roads can add a lot of stress and uncertainty to our plans. Please pray that they will dry up soon!
The first bit of the journey is a real, paved road (lovingly referred to as "The Tarmac") -- but once we got onto the dirt [mud] road we knew pretty quickly that this would not be an easy journey. We hit three particularly rough spots. In the first significant stretch of slippery, muddy ruts we came to, there were other cars and trucks coming the other direction already stuck. We headed in for the ride (it felt a bit like being on a shying horse... if anyone out there knows what I mean... one minute you're going left, the next minute you're spinning right, you're turned sideways, tilting side to side, and holding on tight). There was one particular point when I really felt scared because the car was tilting and sliding and I was so worried we were going to tip over (and I would have been on the bottom side, getting squished into the mud! But God protected us and Pastor Al kept the car upright :) However, we did get legitimately stuck, and it took several backward pulls by Bob's massive Dyna truck to get us out of the rut.
Later on we came to a similar rough spot. Bob, Heather, Ryan (a visiting pastor from Kitgum) and Pastor Al actually walked out the course through the mud and planned the best way to navigate the huge ditches and ridges. We made it through without getting stuck. The funniest moment of the day -- we've got our windows down and Pastor Al is vigorously steering through this labyrinth of puddles and potholes, we're all quite tense and holding on tight and as we're coming over a tough patch someone standing on the grass on the driver's side says "How are you?" Pastor Al, spinning the wheel like a boss, replies "I am fine!" We just broke down laughing hysterically. How does it LOOK like we're doing?!?!?! We're basically going sideways through a muddy trench the size of my house! But Al's right, "It is important to greet!"
The last spot of the really daunting spots actually ended up not being too bad. There's a broken bridge at one point. Several men were standing around trying to guide cars through the water and up onto the other bank. We watched Pastor Dave in the car in front of us go in... it's up to his wheels... his exhaust pipe is underwater for a few seconds... he almost looks stuck... but then he's up and out. So Pastor Al just went for it and it actually didn't feel as bad going over it.
We made it home to Karamoja again. It's raining cats and dogs here. It had been dry the past couple weeks so I really thought the dry season was here. Think again. The climate change here is remarkable... the seasons have completed shifted. Unfortunately that makes it quite hard for the Karamojong, who can't easily foresee what to plant when... some have planted again in these extended rains hoping to get more of a crop. We'll see how this rain effects things here next year. As long as we don't have to drive in it, it's a good thing... but the Mission has to take several more trips south in the next month, so these roads can add a lot of stress and uncertainty to our plans. Please pray that they will dry up soon!
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