Waterfall

The CEO of H4RI (Hope for Restoration initiative), our parent organization, came to Koboko with his family, so Leroy contacted a friend who owns property outside of Arua to obtain permission for us to visit.  The property has a river flowing through it, with waterfalls.

They are planning to build a retreat center.  We parked near the site of a future retreat house.  It has a good view of the valley.  The path we followed goes off to the left and then follows the river into the valley.  The waterfalls are almost directly below the steps, but a half kilometer away.

Most of the bigger kids wanted to walk the river to the waterfall.  They discovered that has a challenge to it.  Here is the same picture, not zoomed in.

Robert, CEO of H4RI, is in the waterfall (blue and white swim trunks) while some of the older kids wait for a turn. Yes, I did go into the water, near but not in the waterfall, but that picture is in Peter’s camera (I requested a copy).

Taraji

Everybody wants to hold Taraji, so I have kept quiet, until now.  Today most of the family was out of the Ray household getting ready for this evening’s events; when Amanda asked who wanted to hold Taraji I spoke up and there was no competition.

Taraji is 3 weeks old today.

Sorry about the hat-hair, I forgot to comb it when I took the hat off

Power

The house I rent is wired with a single ceiling bulb per room.  These are direct current (DC) and take their power directly from the solar battery.  It is more efficient and is not subject to the minimum 11.6 volts power requirement of the inverter.  The wall plugs are alternating current (AC) and, therefore, require the inverter.

Each room also has a light socket high on one wall.  These were not finished so the Rays gave me a couple of sockets and DC bulbs (because all my lights are DC) for Christmas.  We went to install them but we were not getting the expected results.  Lee went home and came back with a meter.  It turns out the ground wire has a charge on it, so the power is not on the expected wires.  Oh, it gets better.  They are AC.  I will have to call an electrician, and have it switched to DC so they can be tied into the light switches instead of the outlets which I turn off (I turn off the inverter) at night to avoid draining the battery unnecessarily.

When they were finishing the house so I could move in, I did not see any inspectors, nor any form of building documents.  Those US building codes do have some benefits.

Church

Today is the first Sunday after a major feast day, Christmas.  In the US it would be a low Sunday.  I was curious if that would be true in Uganda too.

This is the first Sunday since we could start attending church again that I did not see the congregation fill the building clear to the back wall.  Still, I would not call it low Sunday.  With the COVID-19 seating plan the seats are filled from the front going back.  I was at the front, so I cannot be certain, but it looked like just two or three open rows.  Just enough to say there was no one seated against the back wall.

Christmas

I was able to get together with the only other American family in Koboko for a Christmas gift exchange.

Here I am with the Christmas tree

Reuben and Boaz with the Christmas tree

Reuben received a helicopter

Leroy received coffee with chocolate flavor

Orrin received a car; Boaz received a 9 in 1 set of games

Essence received make-up

Patience received a DVD, Goonies

Christmas in Koboko

Christmas starts with the early service.  At St. John’s, Birijaku the service started at dawn, 6:30 a.m.  (Birijaku is next to Small London [I have yet to figure out the separation between them], both are part of Koboko’s West division.)  I was seated at the front, in the left corner when I took today’s picture.

St. John’s Birijaku near the end of the early service (English 1, 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.) Christmas day, 2020

This picture was taken March 8^th (Lent 2020, three and a half weeks before the lock down began).  Note, Christmas 2019’s decorations were still being used.  They were down when services resumed, post lock down.

St. John’s Birijaku between English 1 and English 2 services, March 8, 2020

Cooking a special meal for Christmas is also a thing here.  Most meals do not have meat; however, Christmas meals do have meat.  This is Moses cooking Christmas lunch for us.  Moses works as night security for my compound and asked me to take a picture of him cooking.  They (Moses and Stela) kept asking me to share their meals so we made a deal where I help with costs and his wife cooks (lunch and dinner) at their tookel (I cook breakfast at my house for Moses, Meta and myself), but today she was taking the kids to spend Christmas with their grandparents in D.R.C.  (D.R.C. is frequently referred to as “Congo” but there are two countries called Congo; D.R.C. is the only Congo that shares a border with Uganda.)

Moses cooking Christmas lunch at my house, Christmas day 2020

Christmas Eve

I went into town today.  Not to buy Christmas presents, but to restock food supplies and cleaning supplies.  Meta went with me.  He wanted to buy a flask (container for hot liquid). 

Town was busy but not with the stress of last-minute Christmas shopping.  Perhaps that is because the tradition here is parents give their kids clothes for Christmas and that is the extent of the gift giving (or so I am told) for the local culture. 

Food shopping is a daily thing but was more so today as people were planning for their Christmas meals and I was getting the impression the market would not have many vendors on Christmas day.  I was happy to be home at lunch time.  The weather is warming up, making it the warmest Christmas eve that I remember, including those spent with the Peace Corps in the Gambia.

Please leave me a comment about what Christmas Eve looks like for you.  I am sure it is different since many of you are experiencing a second lock down.  I look forward to your comments.

Prison Ministry Christmas

Today the prison ministry team met and took some food to the prison for their Christmas.  We also purchased some soap for the staff. 

Kairos Prison Ministry has not been able to go into the prisons in the United States since mid-March either.  One of the things they featured in their newsletter was a Kairos team remembering the staff of their prison. 

We took that idea and purchased some nice soap for the staff of our prison here in Koboko, Uganda.  A luxury for them.  We also took some rice (91 kg), ngege (small, dried fish, 2 basins worth or approximately 15 kg), cooking oil (2 liters) and onions (4 kg) for the prisoners.  The officer in charge called the head boy (lead male prisoner) to the window to witness the turnover since we could not come into the prison.  Then he told him to get some help and move the items to the prisoner’s storeroom so it would be there when they prepare their own Christmas day meals.

After we presented our gifts we met at the vehicle and prayed for the prison, the prisoners, and the staff.  I also thanked the team members that came.

Sorry, no pictures are allowed at government facilities.

Hospitality

Hospitality is a big part of the culture.  Today I was supposed to be teaching a computer skills class.  The Archbishop of the Charismatic Church offered to come to my house so I would not need to make the trip cross town like I do on all the other Tuesdays (when the other class members are available).

He did not show up.  He knows were I live; he has brought me home a couple of times.  It turns out visitors arrived, and he needed to take care of his visitors.  The story of Abraham receiving visitors and stopping everything to go get an animal, kill it, skin it, and give it to Sarah to be prepared comes to mind.  It did not matter that my friend, the Archbishop had made other commitments, he needed to take of his visitors.  We made a new agreement, for next week.  All my other computer skills students are taking the holidays off and will resume after Epiphany (day, not the entire season).

Laundry

The dry season is good for some things and a challenge for others.  Now that we are in the dry season, I do not have to worry about it raining while my laundry is on the clothesline.  Laundry is done by hand.  I remember grandma and grandpa hanging clothes outside at Lake Shoecraft to dry.  I have not seen clotheslines used as the only available means for drying the laundry since my youth (except in Africa).  Sure, there have been clotheslines but not as something that was used week after week as the only option.

I have not seen any “washboards”.  The women are very resourceful, they use the palm side of their wrist as the board and the other hand does the washing.

Hand washing avoids electric washing machines and their power requirements.  It also gives more control over the amount of water which is good when it needs to be pumped.  However, it can be harder on the person doing the washing, and on the clothes.