Note: If you missed previous days, be sure to start at Day 1 to see the complete list of published posts on this topic.
On day two I woke to the sound of the street; children laughing, someone pounding bricks, boda bodas (motorcycle taxis), automobiles, dishes clinking, and Stan talking to the rest of the group from somewhere outside my window. His voice carries like a radio announcer. He must have been a good teacher. My eyes are glued shut in protest of the too-few hours of sleep over the past two days. I manage to pry them open, shower, and head down to the dining room.
Stan and some of the other group members are sitting outside on the patio waiting for breakfast to get ready. I approach them.
“Wendy!” Stan exclaims. “We heard you weren’t going to be here until Sunday!”
“That’s strange,” I reply. “I sent Jim my itinerary. I arrived very late last night.”
Just then, we were told that breakfast was ready, so we headed into the dining room. Breakfast was typical of a former British colony: white bread with butter and jam, scrambled eggs, mini bananas and pineapple. The mini bananas are about the length of one’s finger and are super delicious; the pineapple as well is very sweet. There’s something about eating fruit that’s ripened locally as opposed to being shipped halfway across the world green. I look for the familiar thermos of water and Nescafe instant coffee. To my amazement one of the kitchen staff brought out a carafe of BREWED coffee. This is luxury.
Over breakfast I meet the rest of the team from the church in California. Stan, whom I mentioned earlier, is a former board member and so I have known him for many years. Joining him from Bethany CRC are Keith, a former missionary kid who grew up in Nigeria; his daughter Michelle, a 17-year-old, and her friend Lianna; a retired pediatric nurse, Sandy; and a forensic nurse, Pam. I explained that my role was to be an observer, to learn from their interactions and experience of trying to form a relationship with the Ugandan church they came to visit. Our itinerary for the day was orientation at the CRWRC offices in Uganda; changing money; and then visiting Dwelling Places, a home for street children to which some of the members of Bethany were connected.
At the CRWRC offices we learned about the history of Uganda, CRWRC’s work with food security projects and conflict resolution in the north after the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) incursions, and more recently work with Kabale PAG in southwestern Uganda to come alongside their efforts to minister to people living with HIV and AIDS. It is the latter project which Bethany has been instrumental in funding, and which we will learn about more intimately during our time in Uganda.
After lunch at a local Indian restaurant (turns out Indian food is very popular in Uganda; we joked that the British had to colonize in order to learn how to cook good food) we changed money and then headed to Dwelling Places.
I was very impressed by the organization. Rather than focusing on international adoption (which is very expensive, difficult because of Ugandan laws, and able to reach only a very limited number of children), they focus on rescuing and rehabilitating street children so that they can live independently after reaching adulthood. They also work to reunite families and provide education for them so that they can positively influence society.
After playing with the children for an hour or so, we headed back to the guest house, where Jim (CRWRC staff) and his wife Josephine (who would be accompanying us to Kabale) would join us for more discussion after dinner.
Our evening meal was rice, beans, chicken and coleslaw—very tasty, especially when washed down with orange Fanta. I normally don’t drink soda but for some reason it always hits the spot when I am traveling; perhaps because it’s made with real sugar instead of HFCS.
I went to bed straight away, still needing to catch up on sleep and knowing that we had to make an early start in order to drive the eight or so hours to reach Kabale the next day. It sounds long, but I was so exhausted that I ended up sleeping most of the way. When I was awake I tried to absorb the landscape, to imprint it into my mind.
We reached the beautiful mountains of western Uganda, and our guest house which would become home over the next week, around 7 PM. The pastors from the local church came to greet us before our evening meal and to work out details for the next day’s church service, of which we would play a major role.
Before bed I showered the dust off and hung up my clothes for the next morning. Once again, I fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.
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