TheNarrowRoadPursued

After our morning/afternoon worship experience we went further into the “downtown” area of Kampala and visited the Garden City mall. The mall is a fairly good size and has western style restaurants and shops. It is where most of the expatriates stationed in Kampala go to shop and hang out. Garden City had one of the best “ForEx” shops we found, so Mark and I would return there to exchange dollars for shillings whenever we were able.

Our hosts wanted to eat at the Indian restaurant at the mall so Mark and I treated them, their daughters Charis and Sophia, and Kelsey to an absolutely excellent Indian meal.

The waiter had no idea how to use a camera.

In addition to really fine food and outstanding service we had Cokes made with cane sugar from a glass bottle (Coke NEVER tasted so good) and ginger ale made with real ginger (that was different, but very good).  The meal for the seven of us cost about 110,000 shillings which is very, very expensive by Ugandan standards but much lower than average for US restaurants of the same quality (meal total was about $69).

After the meal (which took about 90 minutes or so) we traveled to Anthony and Misti’s home for a planning session.

Their home is a missions residence near the main International Mission Board offices in the Muyenga neighborhood (in Kampala) where we were also staying. It is a walled, gated and guarded (at night) compound and quite large. The girls have a wonderful tree house in the yard and the “garden” is well managed. Because of the disparity of incomes (between the missionary and the average Ugandan) and due to the amount of time required to get from one place to another, it is customary for missionaries to employ several Ugandans in different capacities to help them care for property, their children and even themselves. Our IMB mission workers do not earn a “living wage” by American standards, but they do all right in making a respectable life for themselves and their children in Uganda.

Muyenga neighborhood taken from a nearby hill

Anthony gave us a brief overview of our assignments for the week. We nodded approval although we had no idea of what we were doing. I was able to give the girls some gifts we brought from the States and to give Anthony supplies he had requested (HP Inkjet cartridges were especially appreciated).  One of my stateside friends had given us $600 to spend on our trip, so we arrived with plenty to share and ended up passing some of what we brought on to a team from Texas that joined us later on in the week.

We were allowed computer access and took about one hour to send 3 emails and 4 or 5 text messages to our family and workplaces.  I had forgotten how slow the internet used to be in its earliest days.  Ugandan internet is mostly dial-up on copper wires and the rest world is broadband on digital and optical lines.  The two don’t mesh well to say the least.

7:45pm in Uganda is very dark, and we were still at the Shelton’s home after 8pm.  Anthony was gracious enough to take us back to Emmaus House.  Both Mark and I were plenty tired and fell asleep before 10pm…bad move…at 4am Sunday we were tossing and turning trying to make it to 6:30am.  We survived, however, and made it to Day 3 ready for “real church” with our ever expanding Ugandan family.

Looking back am constantly amazed over how clueless we really were as to what was just around the corner.

Stay tuned!

After sleeping like we had not slept in two days, we awoke to a fine breakfast of something that looked like pancakes, peanut butter (for me), fruit juice and a semi-overcast day. We spent the early hours exploring and taking pictures of the place where we were staying. We didn’t suffer any jet lag, me because I have learned how to avoid it pretty successfully and Mark because he is just flat out tough (more on that later).

The gardens at Emmaus House

We were supposed to be picked up by Anthony, our host missionary about 10am, but a little after then Misti, Anthony’s wife and co-laborer, arrived at the Emmaus house to let us know that the plans had changed. On short notice, Pastor Thomas of the Sweeto gathering had called for a “women’s day” and Misti and Christine, another one of the Mission Board workers, were to supposed to speak at the gathering. Not knowing what to do with Mark and me and unwilling to leave us there with nothing to do, Misti invited us along. We accepted gladly.

One the way we met Grace, a Ugandan woman who has been working in the slum areas of Kampala sharing the gospel with the women there, finding resources for meeting places for the “house churches” and teaching new Christians the basics of following Jesus. Grace is beautiful inside and out and her name suits here very well.

We also met Kelsey, an American woman who came to work in Uganda as a volunteer at an agricultural testing lab north of the city. She had no American friends and no support system in country and (very long story short ) connected with Misti so she would have someone to hang out with from America. Kelsey is also an extraordinary woman. She has her degree in agricultural science from California Polytechnic Institute (a prestigious school) and came to Uganda “to work with the people here.” She had no training in cross-cultural communication (outside of living in California) yet she just jumped in and began exploring the country…on her own. I don’t believe she is crazy, but she does have an extra measure of pluck.

Skipping a lot (I do mean A LOT) we found the gathering spot, a government/community building which is something akin to a picnic pavilion at most state parks in the States. We were greeted with “Praise God” by Momma Agnes. Mama, I discovered later, is the self-appointed leader in any context you find her. She wore on her person a passion for Christ and an intensity for service that can only be truly found in places of great need and held only by people whose mission is Christ alone. Mama is “fat.” In the US we consider that a negative. In Uganda, being “fat” means you are well provided for and it is actually considered desirable in both men and women. When Mama shared Jesus and spoke of His provision for her, people believed her.

We all received places of honor as we waited for the gathering to begin.

Mama Agnes, Kelsey, Me, Misti, and Grace @ Sweeto

For the first thirty minutes or so only men came to the gathering. We were not disappointed, however, because they all brought instruments and began tuning them. I have never seen or heard anything quite like it, but it was extraordinary. I was so sure that there would be nothing but dissonance, but once these men (there were at least six or seven) began to play together the music was in tune and harmonious and exciting! Below is a picture of the “bass” version of the instrument which also doubles as a tambourine and a drum and is played by two people simultaneously.

Pastor Thomas is standing to the right (in front of the white truck). The worship instruments are to the left. The man in the white shirt was one of the translators.

Pastor Thomas greeted the few who had arrive and we began worship. We jumped, we stomped the devil we sang with all our hearts (whatever words we could pick out either in English or the local dialect being sung). About forty minutes later the crowd had swelled to near capacity, other men, women and children came from the local area.

Mark and I were allowed to bring greetings from our brothers and sisters in Christ. Mark had never spoke in public before, but he came ready to roll. He not only introduced himself very well but won the undying love of the people there by letting out a worship whoop that made it sound like he had been in Uganda his whole life.

Christine shared her testimony to relationship with Christ and read a long passage of Scripture. The process took a long time because everything was translated for the sake of those who were not fluent in English. Then Misti got up and gave a message that would have done Beth Moore proud. That woman can flat out preach. Since it was “women’s day” and yet so many men showed up, Misti took the opportunity to speak about marriage and to tell the men that the accepted Ugandan custom of treating their wives as household slaves and instruments of personal pleasure was opposite to Scriptural teaching. Pastor Thomas was translating. He rearranged quite a few things that Misti said, but enough of the men spoke English well enough to get the “unedited” version Misti was presenting.

Mark and I give greetings to the congregation at Sweeto

After a couple hours we were finished, and needed to go meet up with Anthony. We said our goodbyes and went off to another section of Kampala that houses the “rich” of Uganda.

Mark Lauer and I journey began at the Cincinnati airport mid-afternoon on a Thursday. We flew to Detroit, then to Amsterdam and from Amsterdam to Entebbe, Uganda. Mark and I arrived at the Entebbe airport after nearly 18 hours of flying and a little less than 7 hours of varied airport layovers. It was about 10pm Uganda time Friday night. I had to purchase entry visas and we were told twice by uniformed guards to get into the wrong line so getting out of the airport took about 40 minutes longer than it could have.

Right away we knew we were going to have to be very mellow and take everything as it came during the next seven days.

After “clearing” customs–actually we just walked right past the customs agents pretending they were not even there–I had the joy of meeting Isaac, who was soon to be my adopted son, Anthony, our missionary friend, and two other mission workers at the airport reception area. Although it was not my first international experience, I was already feeling overwhelmed. I hadn’t expected Isaac to come and frankly didn’t know what to do with him.

It was so dark and a little too warm. The night was overcast so we could not see the stars and the airport parking lot had only one light. Getting luggage loaded onto (yes onto) the Toyota Land Cruiser was a dirty chore. The superfine red dust that I would soon learn to love coated everything and I was dirty from the flight and dirty from dirt. Along the road there were very, very few street lights and the hundreds of shops lining the lane were dark. It was just 45 minutes of some pretty bad roads, driving on the “wrong” side of the street and wondering if oncoming traffic would crash into us as the opposing drivers attempted to dodge potholes that make the Detroit freeway system look like polished glass.

Video of Detroit Potholes

Satelite pics of Detroit Potholes…No Kidding!

The missionaries were kind enough to give Isaac a lift back to Kampala, our destination, but Isaac and I didn’t have time to get to talk very much on the way. I felt guilty about ditching him unceremoniously off at a crossroads while I went with my American friends to get some rest. This emotional unease became the norm for the rest of the week.

Neither Mark nor I can sleep for more than 40 minutes at a time on a plane, so we were appropriately tired by the time we arrived at our lodgings for the week (now about midnight Uganda time). Lydia, our host at Emmaus House greeted us upon our arrival, got us checked in (an experience in itself) and led us to our more than adequate quarters.

We showered, shaved, got under the mosquito nets and slept deeply.

The reception desk at Emmaus house.  No one ever manned this desk.