Some assembly required

The hen house that was built for me (after I paid for it) was delivered today.  I have been expecting it for a couple of weeks.  There is no hurry in Africa.

I was told that I would need to get some thatch for the roof.

Thatch

Moses plans to get some pulls to put the house up (off the ground) but he wanted to wait until the hen house arrived before getting them.  When they arrive, it will truly be ‘some assembly required.’

Hen house

Trust

I continue to be surprised by the level of trust around here.  On the way home from Mugujai a driver of a public car removed a tire (probably a flat) and took it to town, just leaving the car, unlocked, windows rolled down, there on the road.  Lots of people had gathered but no one touched the car.  They were all eyes on the Lorry (big truck) that was stuck in the mud.  A few were helping dig it out but there were only so many shovels.

I bought a bundle of thatch.  I was able to get a better price by buying through my friends in Mugujai.  The person selling the bundles has them stacked at the side of the road.  My friend had used the money I gave him earlier in the week to pay for a bundle. He made arrangements with the seller to leave it there until we came today.  She was not there when we were ready to leave but my friend just picked up a bundle and loaded it onto our car.  They trust each other.  Lots of people use the road (the only real road in / through Mugujai) but no one disturbed it, and no one questioned our picking it up.

Prison Ministry

The prison ministry team continues to meet and study the gospel of Mark as if we were sharing inside the prison.  We do not want to give up the habit of meeting together.  Some of those who have allowed other things to occupy this time slot on Thursdays are beginning to show up for meetings again.

Today we discussed Mark 5:1-20 where Jesus heals a demonic and is then asked to leave the region.  We discussed Jesus’ authority and how he is revealing it, 1) in the scriptures we looked at in recent weeks, and 2) in this week’s reading.  We also discussed competing authority, both worldly desires and demoniac.  The concept of witchcraft is alive in this part of the world and two members shared about the church’s encounter with those following that evil way.  They were both powerful testimonies.  They both showed how this gospel speaks today and how it will glorify him even in the prison.  God is good.

Kakwa

I had a great meeting with my Kakwa mentor today.  He is cleaning up the grammar of sentences I received from my previous Kakwa teacher.  (My previous teacher is a high school student who was helping me with Kakwa while he was learning computer skills from me.  He recently completed his computer skills instruction.  Meanwhile other missionaries encouraged me to change Kakwa instructors because my pronunciation was not improving.)

Today I was able to pronounce ᶇ correctly.  It is close to the sound of n, but it is produced in a different part of the mouth and that has been the hard part for me.  My previous instructor did not know I needed to change how (where in the mouth) I was pronouncing the ᶇ.  ᶇa and na are two different words (‘where’ and ‘I’), but only if you change where in the mouth the ᶇ is pronounced.

Computer

I just found out that a friend of a friend tried to visit on Monday.  I am in Mugujai each Monday to teach computer skills.  He is back in Koboko today and told me his computer stopped working.  After he arrived home from his unsuccessful attempt to meet me, he was able to reboot the computer.  Sounds like the same problem that the Mugujai computer had.  It was fixed by several unsuccessful attempts to reboot and waiting for the system to apply the massive set of updates Microsoft sent out.  Not a big deal if you have a good internet connection.  However, for those of us with periodic, pay as you go, internet it is a big deal.  My friend lives out in Kerry.  It is close enough to a cell tower for hot spot connectivity via the phone.  However, the download speed and the recent update’s failure to put a message on the screen (just a black screen) are probably contributing to his recent problems.

He plans to stop by later to have me look it over.  My former co-worker from EDS, Bob Schneider would be proud.  He was trying to get me into that department 20 years ago.

Thatch

I now have chickens.  I ordered a hen house which is now built, but not delivered yet.  I am told it will need a thatched roof which will have to be made here, after it is delivered.  Moses said a small bundle of thatch sells for 5,000 shillings in town and it will take five bundles because they are small.  With so many thatched buildings around (because they are cheep to build) that did not seem right.

Today I was in Mugujai and I inquired there.  They told me bundles of thatch are available in Mugujai for 3,000 shillings and they are big.  They estimate that one big bundle will contain about as much as ten of the small bundles I described.  That is a huge price difference.  It also puts thatch in the price range I expected.  I will get my thatch in Mugujai, not Koboko.

Moses explained the middle men want to make money so they split the bundles into smaller bundles and raise the price when they bring it to Koboko. Even so, that is a huge jump.

Zoom

Last night I tried to participate in the last Zoom meeting coffee hour before the US returns to standard time.  Unfortunately, something happened to the app and I spent the time trying to re-install it.  At first it would not reload but, after trying different methods I finally succeeded. Unfortunately, the zoom meeting was over. 

Uganda is on the equator and does not do the daylight savings dance.  The USA does do the daylight savings dance.  When they return to standard time there will be 11 hours between me and the Pacific coast time zone.  That means the future zoom meetings will be too late for me to participate and still be coherent for ministry in the morning.  I am going to miss meeting and sharing with my church friends back in the USA while they are on standard time.

Chicken

Two weeks ago, the head of the Women’s Union stopped by to thank me for taking an interest in their church projects, particularly the building of an office block for the church.  She thanked me by presenting me with a chicken.  Since then I have paid to have a hen house made and my guard has bought two hens to put with my cock.  Today, one of them laid an egg.  Hopefully the first of many.

One neighbor tells me Queen Sheba is just playing with the chickens now but watch her when she is full grown.  Other neighbors have both chickens and full-grown cats.  Who know what will happen?  At least the hope for eggs looks promising.

South Sudan border

I have been wanting to visit the South Sudan border; however, it has had to wait until things were quiet along the border.  Today Livingston and Touban took me there between the TPM small group meeting and the discipleship training.  I had been told it was just 300m away.  I counted steps for part of the trip and calculated it was much closer to 1 Km.  Still an easy and relatively quick walk.  It rained all through the night, so the river is full.  I will use an official crossing when I visit South Sudan; however, the refugees cross frequently, often using unofficial crossings like this, to reach gardens and fields in their homeland.  Not today!  The river is full.  The last 10m of the trail are under fast moving water.

Livingston leading me to the border with South Sudan

I am standing next to a Ugandan creek where it meets the river that forms the border with South Sudan.  The border is at the right edge of the picture.

IPAD

IPAD school was founded by the (now) RDC for Adjumani.  I pass by his family home on the way to and from morning prayers.  On the way home he invited me in for morning tea.  As we talked, he shared with me how IPAD school is a giving back to the community because of the support he received from the community growing up.  He converted from Muslim to Christian as a pre-teen and the family refused to support him.  God raised up support from the community.

The school fees at IPAD are the lowest in Uganda, just 60,000 Ugandan shillings per term (approximately 3 months).  The fees are used to pay the teachers and feed the students breakfast and lunch.  There is nothing for maintenance or for him as the founder/owner of the school.  This makes school affordable for many who might otherwise drop out for lack of school fees (like he almost had to do).

He also shared with me the vision for developing the school.  No, he does not plan to expand beyond P7.  (At the end of the P7 year students take a national exam, those who pass are eligible to go on to Secondary School [High School].)  He does plan to offer computer training to IPAD students in the future and really liked the computer skills materials I provided.  (In the near future the teachers will be going through the computer skills training materials I provided as ‘independent study’ and may ask me some questions from time to time.)  He also plans to build a school library for the nursery and primary students.  Somewhere in the future he would like to add an adult class to teach reading and writing.  (In separate conversations, with other people, I learned the illiteracy rate is around 50%.)  We discussed using the future school computer lab (needs to find computers and bring power to the school) in the evening for a follow-up adult class – those who complete the literacy class become eligible to take computer skills.  I don’t know if that will become part of the vision for the future; however, all the pieces to make it happen are already part of that vision.