Hey all If you want earlier updates just let me know, this is her latest update.
from Kaitie
Uganda Prayer Letter #5 May 26, 2005
Hello everyone – sorry I have taken so long to write. I have been in the village for most of the last month, and unable to access Email while I am there. This is the last prayer letter that you will receive for Uganda – I just said my good byes to the children and staff in the village, and am now in Jinja for a couple of days before I head to Rwanda on Saturday to meet up with some fellow Canadians in Kigali. I am still not sure when I am returning to Canada, but I will let you know! I had written this letter in point form a while ago, but my notebook was lost. So hopefully I will remember what I wanted to share with you!
For starters, I feel like I have received way more than I have given while I have been here in Uganda. The children and staff at Bush Fire are amazing . . . I miss them already! They had a good-bye dinner for me on Monday night, and they even killed a pig and a goat for it. Yikes! Pork is cooked and eaten a lot different here in Africa then at home – haven’t quite acquired the taste for it. But mangos on the other hand are quite tasty and just coming into season. Much of my last few weeks have been spent doing a variety of things. The kids were off of school for 3 weeks, but their days still seemed to fill up quickly – they were involved in a lot of work on the compound, and they also had a teacher come to do some school with them almost every day. I did have the chance to teach them some songs (we sang 3 of them in church last Sunday), play some sports, and do some outreach in the villages (we went to 3 different homes to help people in the church by sweeping outside their huts, and preparing one home for a big event). I also spent time almost every day teaching worship songs to several of the staff. And I became the Bush Fire driver over the last few weeks, as the only driver on the base has been very sick and unable to drive. So I have been perfecting driving from the right side of the car, on the left side of the road, and in the bush. And I only got stuck in the mud twice . . .
Overall I have had a great experience living in Africa – very different from home, but people are still people, even if the culture is different. I have learned a lot from the staff and children, and I have been told that they have learned a lot from me. God has a special place in His heart for Africa and its people. And they are receptive to his call, as I have seen many times already.
Some other things to share:
Last Saturday I competed in my first international running competition! I found out about a running and biking race taking place just outside of Jinja, above the Nile River. It was put on by an organization in the UK to raise money for schools in the local area of Jinja and the Nile. They are currently working in this area to improve and renovate 20 schools about 10 km’s out of Jinja. Originally the running competition was to be 30km’s long (yeah right!), but the day I arrived for the race they had changed the run to 10km’s. Although the run was hard (and hot!), it was a good day, and a good experience. I ran with some girls from France, Germany, London, the US, and Norway to name a few.
I mentioned in my last letter about the number of children I have made cry when they look at me. I think if I have added in my head correctly I am at number 28. I even have two pictures (taken 5 minutes a part) to prove it!!
I took part in my first African ceremony – an Introduction. Before a wedding, the bride and groom hold an “Introduction” of families and friends at the bride’s home of birth. The grooms family are the visitors, and I have been informed that this is how they are engaged in Africa (although this event took place 2 weeks before the wedding). So there were many people in the village for this event, and they rented a couple of tents and a sound system. I didn’t understand most of what was going on, but there is a lot of joking around and acting, which is all part of the ceremony. Then the visitors all bring different gifts for the family (including the leg and thigh of a cow; hoof, skin and all! We had a great African feast, in between torrential downpours! I mentioned that I got the car stuck a couple of times. The first was after visiting the home of someone in the church that lives way out in the middle of nowhere. After they had given us a chicken and some maize (corn) I was driving back through the “trail”, and it was difficult to decide where to put the tires of the car, as it is really not a road. Suddenly with my right tires on the trail, the car just slid off the road to the left, and we wound up in a large mud hole / ditch. It took over an hour to get out of there – with the help of various villagers that were passing by. I thought we would never get out of there! The second incident was after a couple days of heavy rain I was driving a mother and her child back home from the clinic. It was dark, the trails were muddy, and I had been driving through the villages for a while and was already tired and a bit stressed out. We made it through the short cut (a trail that cuts through maize fields and cows grazing), but once I was on the main road the car had no traction. It was a “sheet of mud” – I just slid from side to side. I felt like I was driving on ice! I steered out of most of it, but eventually the car stuck in the mud. Once again we found locals to help us get going again – this time it didn’t take as long get un-stuck.
The one thing that I am not going to miss in the next little while is Posho and beans – the staple food of villagers. Posho is maize (corn) flour, and is prepared in the morning as a liquid porridge. For lunch and dinner is posho and beans, this time the posho is made thick, and not at all runny. So basically I have been eating corn for three meals a day . . . I can’t remember the last time I had vegetables . . . I have been bringing up a few different foods to supplement (including some macaroni and cheese that was given to me!), as well as some treats.
It is possible to make cookies in Africa using a charcoal stove and a pot! Made chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter cookies over the last week with some of the staff. Not as good as home, but a nice treat.
Prayer Requests:
Continual prayer for Bush Fire staff and children. CHILDREN: The children have just begun a new term at school on Monday – pray that they will be focused and able to learn. Classes are over crowded, and many children are left behind in the learning if they don’t understand the first time. Pray also for health and safety. STAFF: Malaria has been taking its toll on many of the staff. Over the last couple of weeks six (out of thirteen) of the staff have had malaria. The staff are also involved in many areas of ministry with the children and the church. Pray that they will spend the time that they need to with the children, and in the other areas that they are involved in. People in the village that have received Christ. It seems that every week during the church service there are at least a couple, if not more, people who come up to the front to be saved. Pray that they will continue coming to church and grow spiritually.
Sickness and Death. This these past 2 weeks I think there were five burials that took place in the local villages that Bush Fire Staff attended. Two of the deaths were children (one was from yellow fever) of neighbors in the village, two were old men, and another person died from TB. In the past 2 months I think I have heard of 15 burials that have taken place within 10 km’s of us. Pray that sickness will not take the lives of people. Medical attention is limited, and in order to get better treatment, a lot of money and travel is required.
For me as I journey to Rwanda this Saturday. Roads and vehicles in Africa are not known to be safe – for instance on Saturday over a distance of about 20km’s there were 2 large transport trucks flipped over across the highway, and another truck on the side of the road that’s engine had caught on fire, completely destroying the front of the cab. The highway that I have been traveling on is in horrible condition (I think it is one of the worst sections in Uganda right now) – repairs were started months ago, but the contractors haven’t finished. I am not sure how many deaths it will take for them to complete the highway.
Thanks again for all of your prayers and support while I have been over here – it means a lot to me. I hope all of you are doing well drop me an email when you get the chance!
Lisa
