Tribalism

Recently I was in the room while people who had worked together in South Sudan before the war reminisced.  It was amazing to learn about things from another perspective.  Things occurring in plain view but often (at least by me) overlooked.

Some of those present now make their home in a refugee camp.  Others live here in Koboko.  All (except me – I came after the civil war in South Sudan had chased them to Uganda) were familiar with the different tribes of South Sudan.  They were talking about how the people of one tribe do not want to attend religious services with other tribes, even when translation is available or they understand the language, because they want the people leading the service to be from their tribe.

It makes me realize the problems of that concept I first heard about in social studies in middle school, to the victor (the one in control) go the spoils.  If we do not work together and work for the common good, rather than the good of a tribe or family or … the reasons for strikes or riots or civil war or <pick your favorite term> will continue to grow.  We need peace and reconciliation.

The leaders who now live in the refugee camp are blessed because the tribes need to live together and face the issues of living together.  I am blessed to be involved in prison ministry because the prisoners can be from any tribe, and they all need to be ministered to.  The prison ministry team needs to be ecumenical and to consider the needs of all of them.

Prison Ministry Team

The prison ministry team in Koboko continues to prepare for the day when we can re-enter the prison and share the gospel.  At the end of January 2022, President Museveni of Uganda announced the end of all corona virus restrictions effective early February 2022.  The restriction preventing ministry groups from serving the prison is still in place as of June 2022.  I believe the president really did end the restriction; however, UPS (Uganda Prison System) is not allowing ministry groups to enter the prison, only family.

My morning prayer group encouraged us to pray specifically about the issue, not just a general prayer for access.  I mentioned it in the team meeting and the team responded by praying specifically to ‘see the prisoners.’

Heavenly Father, please put it in the mind and the heart of UPS to allow ministry groups to enter the prisons of Uganda.  I hope you will join me in praying for this.

Kittens

The kittens have been out from where Queen Sheba gave birth and in the house for ten days now.  She waited 3 weeks to bring them out.  It was too long.  The kittens continue to be afraid of anything that moves (except Queen Sheba).  They are beginning to hiss.  The first couple of times I mistook it for a sneeze.  Sometimes they will let me pet them, after I catch them.  This week I started putting them on my lap to try and get them used to people.  It does not appear to be working, but I have just started.

Guava

The neighbor’s kids just came by.  They frequently do.  Frequently it is to charge a phone or to pick up a phone that was left for charging.  (The national power grid has put up wires in Koboko, but no one is connected and there is no power in the lines yet.  They started extending the power grid in January 2021.  There is no hurry in Africa.)

At this time of year, the kids are just as likely to come for the guavas.  I have three guava trees in the compound.  One is young and does not produce a lot of fruit yet.  The others do.  One is a white guava tree; the other is a pink guava tree.  Guavas have a lot of editable seeds, but I find that makes them hard to eat.  It is probably just my receding gums leaving spaces where the seeds can get stuck.

Mail

I just received mail.  I do not receive very much physical mail, so this was a surprise.  There are four items.  One is a birthday card.  Due to the expense and time it takes for mail to travel in Africa, I do not expect birthday cards.  Thank you very much.

The other three letters are returned mail.  My first returned mail.  I should not be surprised, but I am.  One is a note I sent in 2020 when the first lock down had been announced but the post office had not been shut down yet.  (During the first lock down non-essential services, like physical mail, were shut down.)  What I did not know until recently was Uganda was not sending air mail out, they just let it accumulate at the airport, even after restrictions were eased.  I did not receive the letter back in 2020 so I assumed it had reached her before she died (also in 2020).  Wrong!  The postmark on the letter shows Uganda Postal Service did not process and send the letter out of country until 24 Jan 2022.  Obviously undeliverable since she died in 2020.

The other letters are undeliverable because the recipient has moved.  Enough time has gone by since they moved that the US post office did not even find an expired forwarding order.  I need to try other sources to get a current address.

We may never know the full impact of the shutdowns.  Add this one to the growing list.

Rain

Yesterday I tried to fill up a bucket with water from my water tank.  I turned on the tap and received a dribble and then it stopped.  The 2000-liter tank was empty.  It has been three weeks since measurable rainfall.  I had to get water from the town water system.  I just received access (after living here for more than two years) and I do not trust it yet.  It has a reputation for smelling.  It is pumped from a river on the other side of town and the people do everything in the rivers, including washing cars.  Also, during the dry season Birijaku is lucky to have water service for one hour of one day out of a week.  Fortunately, it is not the dry season and water was available, clear, and did not smell.

In the afternoon we received a four-hour rainstorm.  Thirty minutes is more typical.  It was heavy at times.  In the evening I knocked on the water tank to determine the water level.  Much higher than I expected for a single rainstorm.  My guess is 1,600 liters.  There was another rainstorm during the night and the water tank overflow is wet.  God has provided, again.

Updates

Microsoft is going out of its way to frustrate users in remote communities again.  They continue to expect that everyone has 24x7x365 access to the internet and that the data transfer rate is rapid.  That simply is not reality! 

Here in Uganda Wi-Fi is only available in tourist sites and the urban region around the capital.  I am at the other end of the country.  I access the internet by hot spotting my phone and buying data bundles.  Then I need to hope there are not too many other people on the phone system, because they divide the bandwidth among all those trying to connect.  Sometimes this makes it hard to understand the voice of the person on the other end, and data transfer – it drops to bytes per seconds, not Kb per second and definitely not the Mb per second that Microsoft seems to expect.

As a result updates like 2022-06 Cumulative update for windows take hours.  Literally.  Then the check for updates says that now that you have that update, I have another update, this one is called 2022-06 Cumulative update for .Net.  I can only pray that the phone system does not become overloaded forcing narrow bandwidth and lots of resends because of interrupted data packets.  Resends cost me extra data which means more money.  What happened to the days when there were sixteen small updates that could load quickly and simultaneously?  Those did not take hours, nor did they cost lots in data packet resends.

Computer Skills Ministry

Jim Jewett, a friend of the other missionary here in Koboko, is installing a water purification system at the Koboko hospital as part of his ministry work.  He asked me to help him with some computer skills.  It seems he has not been able to load all his pictures to OneDrive because it is full.  He accepts that he needs to buy more space.  Before he does, he wants to build some structure for keeping the pictures (and files) so he can retrieve and use them, both for training those receiving the water system and for his fundraising efforts.  I have been meeting with him when he was not busy installing the water purification system at the hospital to talk about what the file structure could look like and how to build folders.

Prison Ministry Team

The prison ministry team meetings are also experiencing the local concept of time.  Only one person joined me for the meeting by the start time.  That person comes a significant distance and walks with a crutch.  We began at half an hour past the hour with just four of us.  Two more joined us mid-meeting, or like they like to say here in Koboko, they caught us on the way.

I am trying to push the start on time concept with the prison ministry team because of entry requirements for the prison.  In 2020, before the lockdown, we were given a set time (2 o’clock on Thursdays) to arrive at the prison.  We left the home of the person providing transport at 2 o’clock and arrived at the prison about 10 minutes later.  Usually, we had to wait while they finished lunch for the prisoners, but we arrived together, checked in together, and were ready to use to time allowed for sharing the word of God.  We must leave the prison at 4 o’clock (their requirement, not ours).

If we become complacent about our gathering and travel time we will, either have very few people or will be going very late, resulting in little time for sharing the word of God.

It is a hard sell because we have not been able to enter the prison for two and a quarter years and most of the team members have never been inside.

Safe Water

Leroy and Amanda’s friends from UCOM (Uganda Christian Outreach Ministries) have arrived.  Jim and Duffy Jewett have a passion for safe (potable) water.  They offered to come and install a system here in Koboko last year.  Regrettably events got in the way, and they had to postpone the trip.

The trip was rescheduled for June of 2022 and arrangements were made with the Koboko hospital administrator and the appropriate government officials.  The government officials asked if it can be moved when the new hospital is completed. 

When Jim arrived with his crew they visited the construction site of the new hospital.  The water system being built there is two big for the water purification system he has.  Jim hopes to get the specifications being used to build the new hospital’s water system so he can consult with his suppliers.  Meanwhile, they are busy installing the system he brought with him at the current hospital.

Jim Jewett (left) and crew, working on the water tanks for Koboko Hospital

Picture taken with permission