After spending a week at debrief camping along the Nile
River, we made it to our ministry.
Before coming to Africa I was so nervous and anxious. Once
we landed in here, that feeling was gone. There was a heavy spirit on me in
Asia I didn’t realize until I left. Many people on the squad have mentioned
this as well.
For some reason, I always thought of Africa hot, dirty, and
poor. Since being in Uganda, two of those have been proven wrong. It is such
nice weather here. It’s cool in the morning and evenings and breezy during the
day. Also, not all of Africa is poverty stricken, but it is dirty.
This month it is just our team with Pastor Joseph and his
wife Pastor Frita. This is the first time we’re alone with Sam. I’m excited for
us to connect with each other, building community with just us again.
We drove up drove on dirt roads to our contact, Pastor
Joseph’s, house. We didn’t know what we’d be getting ourselves into this month
and set no expectations on our living situation. When we drove up to the house,
each of us was blown out of the water!
We have our own beds, two to each room! People are cooking
for us. We have an outdoor shower and two squatty potties for the bathrooms. We
were welcomed by Joat, Peace, Brenda, Sylvia, and Agnes. Those are just a few
of the youth (age 16-25) Joseph and Frita have unofficially adopted as their
own.
We were immediately served rice and beans for lunch. Now,
let me tell you what a blessing it was. This rice was not Asian rice, but
tasted so good, so salty and flavorful. It made me so excited to know that kind
of rice is behind us now.
Everyone greets us with “You’re Welcome� meaning welcome to
our country. Here they call all white people Mzumgu, which isn’t a racist term
by any means, but a greeting. So, many times driving down the roads, we’ll here
kids yelling, “Mzumgu! Mzumgu!� and they’ll be waving their hands, running after
the van, dancing, all trying to getting our attention so we’ll yell “Hi!� back.
Frita and I talking at church
After we arrived, had lunch, and a ministry meeting, Joseph
took us to his church. Once we started driving down the dirt road the church
was on, Joseph himself called out “Mzumgu� letting the kids know we were here
to come play. And when we drove up to the church, the kids were lined up
against the wall.
They didn’t know what to do at first, neither did we. But
after about five minutes of staring at each other, they began jumping all over
us. Most of the children do not have hair and some even have a skin disease
that turns spots on their scalp white.
I fell in love with two beautiful girls who were perfectly
fine sitting with me, Shamim and Aisha. They climbed all over me, petted my
legs, combed through my hair, and put my arms around them. They just wanted to
be loved and held, and that’s what I wanted to do.
Others on my team ran
around, were tackled and got really sweaty/dirty playing with the kids. It was
so much fun to watch them come alive being a kid again.
I’d look over and see
Grayson on the ground with a dog pile of kids on him. Courtney was always
running past me with kids chasing her. Andrew had kids climbing on his back.
Shelley has kids climbing on her arms. Ally was sitting with kids like me. Sam
was standing with kids on her back and surrounding her.
