Sorry for the long pause between blogs - it's often difficult to find the time to get onto your computer and the internet is often unavailable. Also, my apologies that I don't have photos of everything - all those that know me know that I'm hopeless at remembering to do that!
Friday 18 – I did some more work at
Wakisa today. However, this required me to buy some extra gutter and
fittings, a padlock and some extra keys and some contact adhesive.
This unfortunately took up until lunchtime due to the constant haggling over prices that is required. I worked as fast as I could and
managed to get all the gutters finished buy the end of the day – I
was hot and sweaty as usual but it was satisfying to actually get
something completed. That night, a bout of gout started in the
knuckle of my big LH toe and it continued for the following week!
Saturday 19 – had a bit of a later
breakfast this morning and we met a guy called Faras. He was born in
Los Vegas of Iranian descent and was in his 4th year of a
medical degree. He was in Uganda to do a year's placement at Kisoro
Hospital but had one day in Kampala and wanted to see the Baha'i temple – apparently there is a major temple on each continent and
the one for Africa is in Kampala. In the afternoon, I was sick of the
slow internet at the guesthouse and so went down the street to the
internet cafe where I could plug my laptop in and get some good speed
– at only a$0.40 per 40 minutes! I then investigated which bus to
get to go to Lira the week after – not so easy. I went to Jaguar
Coaches but they don't go to Lira – I was directed to the Kisengi
Bus Terminal but it turned out they don't have buses going to Lira
either & they directed me to the Buganda Bus Park – here I
found out that the best buses are Fiesta and that they leave at 6am.
Linda and I then decided that we wanted something different for
dinner and so got bodas into the city and had Chinese at Antonio's –
great value for money and quite good!
Sunday 20 – Florence, who looks after
the restaurant at the guesthouse, asked us to Watoto church so we
decided to accept – the music wasn't as good as usual but the
message was very good & Biblical. Florence had to go straight
back to work, so we decided to try and find the 1000 Cups coffee
place and after about 15 minutes of searching on a boda, we managed
to find it within 100 mt of the church we were just at! Trip Advisor
said that they did the best coffee in Kampala and we thought that
they were probably correct – they had coffee made from beans from
all the major coffee producing nations of the world.
I bought some
gout medication and then back at the guesthouse, we were expecting to
be collected by Henry, Vivian's driver, but instead she arrived in a
car driver by Mala, a Malaysian Indian lady the she has "adopted" as a
daughter. She drove us to Paul & Suzan's place to celebrate
Vivian's birthday. Paul is Vivian's elder son and works as the manager on a large farm owned by Vivian's sister, Dorothy. With the
gifts and speeches finished by 7pm, we headed back into town through
the typical traffic jam.
Monday 21 – today I was to get Irene
back to school and also visit the other girls who are studying at St
Michaels High School. I first needed to see Rachel at Wakisa (she
looks after the school sponsorship while Gloria is on maternity
leave) to get a list of all the girls and also to collect Irene's
payment paperwork (all fees are paid directly at a bank into the
school's account). Christine was accompanying Irene and they were to
meet me at the taxi park at 10 am. Unfortunately there was a big
traffic jam on the way due to some roadworks and they didn't arrive
till 11 am. We bought some supplies that Irene needed and we were
off in a taxi to Sonde, a little trading centre near the school. We
paid her fees at the local bank, bought gifts for the rest of the
girls (cordial & biscuits) and headed off on bodas to the school
only 1 km away. The headmaster was pleased to see us and it took us
30 minutes to extricate ourselves from his office. We then met
Patience, Fortunate, Rebecca, Caroline & Goretti – I must say
that I have never visited such a healthy-looking and happy group of
girls – I was really pleased and wished them all well in their
upcoming exams, especially Patience, Irene & Rebecca who will be
doing their final exams in November. We then scooted back towards
Kampala as I had made a doctor's appointment to see about my gout –
unfortunately, I had their old address and went to the wrong place.
Tuesday 22 – long God story, but
since my last visit, I had connected with a guy called Robert, who is
involved in prison ministry and today I was excited to be speaking at
a Luzira Women's Prison, the main women's prison in Uganda. We went
with Rev. William, a wonderful Godly man who has been ministering in
the prisons for over 42 years. We started by meeting the 2IC and I
was asked to pray for her malaria. We then moved down to an assembly
hall and already present were about 200 women in bright yellow prison
dresses – they were all clean and many of the ladies had
beautifully braided hair and large smiles on their faces! The worship
songs were sung with such enthusiasm that I was amazed. Rev. William
addressed them with encouraged words and then handed the mic over to
me. I started by asking them to confirm that I was actually in a
prison and not a church! I gave my testimony and spoke of the love of
Jesus and it's life-changing power – I hope that it was also an
encouragement to them – I was deeply moved and felt that the
difference between this prison and prisons in Australia, was that the
system in Australia tries to exclude God from this space, whereas He
is welcomed in Uganda – and what a difference that makes.Unfortunately for security reasons, I could not take any photos.
On the way out, William mentioned that
the prison had run out of firewood and so the inmates were likely to
go hungry – I felt an urge to help and so asked William if it would
be OK for me to provide funds for 2 days worth of timber – he said
it was OK and he took it to the senior officer who was now back in
the prison. Her name was Stella and what a lovely lady she was –
she came down to thank me and give me a couple of gifts – she was
probably in her mid-40's and was due to be married soon and I was
again asked to pray for her and her future husband – what a
wonderful day!
I am continually reminded that these trips are not about what I do, but about who I meet - God is always needing to remind me about that and what a blessing it is.
Not so long a wait till the next blog - I hope!
No comments:
Post a Comment