A lot of things become normal when you are living in a refugee camp that you never thought would or could feel normal. It was such a good month, and God worked in so many ways while we were there. I look forward to writing more about all the stories we heard and all the things God showed us individually as well as a team. In the meantime though, let me share with you a little bit about our time in Rackoko and the “normal” things in my life this month.
Areas of ministry:
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Soccer practices with a devotional at the end
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Writing resource curriculum for the director to use with the youth
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Study nights at the office
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Organizing their small library
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Visiting the youth and their families
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Presentation at a local school
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Designing a website for Kingdom Pearl
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Gathering media (video, photos, interviews) to further promote the ministry.
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Preaching
Things that are now normal:
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Eating lots of beans for 2 out of 3 meals a day.
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Wearing skirts every day.
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Sleeping under a mosquito net.
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Charging things whenever the electricity comes on, because you don’t know how long it will last.
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Carrying a bucket and a large jug full of water with you to the open roofed tin structure used as a community shower.
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Washing your hair in a bucket in your room when you’re too lazy to carry the heavy water jug to the shower area.
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Using the pit latrine with flies, spiders, ants, crickets, and the occasional lizard keeping you company.
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Seeing the breathtaking stars and milky way fill the sky every night.
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Hearing children yell, “How are you?” multiple times in a row whenever they see you.
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Drinking tea and eating Chapati (bread, kind of like a pita or tortilla) every morning for breakfast.
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Dogs and chickens joining us for every team time.
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Walking “by faith and not by sight” when the power is out at night and we walk the long dirt road to get home.
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Dancing during church services that is about the equivalent of a good workout video.
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Goats. Everywhere.
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Seeing ants on the food you are eating and deciding to eat it anyway because you need any protein you can get.
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Speaking English and being laughed at. Trying to speak Acholi and being laughed at.
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Squeezing into the Kingdom Pearl office with about 40 youth on movie nights.
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Finding small rocks in your rice and beans as a result of being cooked over an open fire.
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Having conversations with your landlord as he comes out of the community shower in a towel. (This should never be a norm)
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Buying roasted corn on the cob in the center of town for 200 shillings ($0.08) and avocados for 500 ($0.25).
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Being stared at all the time. Seriously. All the time.
One time events:
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Receiving a chicken as a gift, carrying it home, and eating it for dinner.
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Watching 30 new believers get baptized in a river.
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Hanging out with an older lady from the church in her mud hut. We ate peanuts and laughed because we couldn’t communicate at all. 🙂
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Being served meat at a village church and almost not being able to eat the unidentifiable innards I received. Our contact laughed and said it was better I didn’t know what I ate.
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Attending a positive HIV living support group, complete with singing and dancing to welcome new people that are choosing to “come out of the closet” about their battle with HIV.
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Being part of the solemn negotiations of buying a piece of land for a future orphanage. I honestly felt like we were in the Old Testament and that the men would start swapping shoes at the city gate or something.
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In an effort to get rid of lice (round 2), putting olive oil, laundry detergent, vinegar, and lice shampoo in my hair during the span of a few days.
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Attending a church that meets under a big tree in the middle of mud huts and teaching Sunday school under a nearby tree.
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Learning traditional dances from the women at the village church, and then, after many requests for demonstrations of our “traditional dances” we proceeded to teach them the electric slide and the macarina. 🙂
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Riding in a matatu (public transport van) through the African bush, with 20 passengers, all our luggage, and a chicken that flapped around under Rashida’s seat the whole ride. We also had to unload the whole vehicle twice to cross muddy or narrow areas to prevent getting stuck, stop for oil once, and then coast to a stop at our destination city because “the brakes went out somewhere back there.” 🙂
Things I have learned this month:
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How to make Chapati.
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African bus drivers make less bathroom stops than my dear mother – 8 hours without a single stop. Thankfully, a lifetime of traveling with Mom prepared me and my bladder for situations like this.
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Their only solution to getting rid of lice in Uganda is to shave your head. Not the answer I was looking for.
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The Acholi word for water is “pee.” Yes, this can sometimes make communication confusing.
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Floors made out of cow dung do not smell bad like I thought they would.
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Electricity, stoves of any kind, and running water are all luxuries, not necessities.
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The Acholi people are apparently much cleaner than we are When they saw that our room had not been swept in a few days, they told us that “no human should live like that” and offered to clean it for us if we didn’t fix it soon. 🙂
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Rest is important and necessary, especially when trying to maintain a “Mary heart” when you have “Martha responsibilities”.
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Contentment is not reliant on comfort. (Philippians 4)
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We are set apart, chosen people, and we should act like that regardless of who is watching or who isn’t.
