Dec 29, 2006

Meet Thomas Abach


On the left in this photo is Thomas Abach, 40 year father of 6 children, security guard by night, volunteer pastor for a one of the Kampala Christian Church Networks' house churches by (part of) the day. Over the past few weeks I've enjoyed getting to know Thomas and have become friends with him. I've really admired his character, joy, dedication, and obvious love of God. And he's hilarious, AND he plays an adungu &:-)}. Last night when I came back to the compound I was blown away as he shared some of the depths of his life, and life struggles, with me. Thomas is from the Acholi region in northwestern Uganda. This is the area where the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) rebel group and his men (and child soldiers who they recruit by kidnapping) reside and continue to murder & commit atrocities against their fellow Ugandans, especially the Acholi tribe. When Thomas was 15, he and a group of Christians were ambushed by the LRA. Thomas watched as they brutally tortured and killed many of his friends, and then as an LRA mercenary beheaded (and worse) his older brother. Thomas himself was just about to be killed the same way, when (miraculously) a general of the LRA decided to spare him and some of his companions. They returned to their village, stripped naked.


Twenty five years later, displaced by, and having lost everything material to this rebel war in the north, Thomas and his family have been forced to live in one of the poorest areas of Kampala, "Soweto". I've visited this area and others like it a number of times now, and my mind still doesn't seem to let me take in what my eyes are seeing. It's overwhelming. Thomas shared with me that even though he works 6 x 12+ hour nights a week for the security guard company, after rent (for the 12x15 ft, single room house) the money he earns is barely enough to provide 1 small meal a day for his family, only allows 2 of his 5 school-age children to go to school, and doesn't stretch to cover things like unexpected medical expenses. If their kids aren't able to get educations, they will be end up in the same position as their parents.

At the same time as Thomas struggles with worry, he experiences Christ as his life, which is obvious - he exudes the joy and life of God. He is committed to sharing God's life and love and truth and freedom with others as he is able to in the time he has, as a volunteer pastor. His dream is to be able to do this full time, but his immediate concern is obviously to provide for his family. God promises to provide for all the needs of everyone who is his child, and Thomas trusts and is trusting God to do this.

Unfortunately Thomas' story is very common here in Kampala. The crazy thing to me are the costs we're talking about - for example, US$20 per month for rent, US$50 per term per kid for school fees, with only a 3 term school year... but with the average annual income per capita in Uganda being US$350, you can understand the problem. 80% of people in Kampala are living in poverty. The long-term solution is not simple. Uganda is heavlily dependant on international support, and (from what I have gathered) from the top down, people have a mindset of dependancy on, & expectancy of, handouts. To make things worse, the government is regarded by many people as being corrupt and (so) social services and infrastructure we take for granted in the western world are poor or non-existent.

Today, as I enjoyed my 2nd meal for the day, I thought about Thomas, who works about 10 steps from my door in his guardhouse by the gate, and his family who live about 15 minutes walk from here. I wondered how I, personally, can help him - and other people and families like his. It's overwhelming to me, and my fear is that if I start to give to people like him, a black hole will open up and all my money will instantly cross the event horizon & disappear into it. As I thought & talked to God about this last night, I remembered that He has not given his children a Spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and sound mind. So fear is not a good place to begin. Trust is. If I give too much, God will let me know. I want to err on the side of generosity and trust God to correct me from that side and not the other - but I still struggle with the fear. He does want us to use wisdom in giving (2 Corinthians 8:12-15), to not give out of guilt or compulsion (9:7), but also wants us to give generously, and promises that we cannot out-give Him (9:6-11) - wow! What if!!??

As I finish writing this it's starting to get dark, Thomas has arrived and I'm grinning as I hear him laughing and playing his adungu outside the guardhouse, *grin*.

Dec 25, 2006

Christmas Day with The Kotolis


A repeat of yesterday! After meeting with the Church at Kibuli on Christmas morning, we ate another huge meal prepared by Aggie (and her kids, I forgot to mention that!) and then we hung out at their place again until the evening. The only missing person has been Brian, Aggie's oldest son, who I haven't met yet. As I think I said in an earlier blog entry, Brian is staying at a boarding school up in northeastern Uganda. Over the Chrismas school break, he's staying with relatives up there.

I've really enjoyed hanging out with Aggie's kids! They seem to like me too, which is a very good thing!!

Dec 24, 2006

Christmas Eve with The Kotolis


A different Christmas this year! Most people celebrate it here in Uganda, but there's nowhere near as much Christmas hype, which in a way is nice, but I think I sort of missed the atmosphere - hearing Christmas songs playing everywhere, lots of decorations etc. If I was in the U.S. or Australia I'd probably be complaining about the opposite though, *chuckle*. After meeting with people at the Kibuli celebration point in the morning (where surrounding house churches meet together on Sundays), Aggie & I & her daughter Sarah walked to their place, where Aggie had once again made an awesome meal, including 3 types of meat (fish, beef, and chicken) with all the African fixin's. For most people here, meat is the least likely thing they'll have with their meal, since it's the most expensive, so THREE kinds of meat would probably be the equivalent of us having like a whole leg of ham, a whole turkey, AND oven roasted beef all at the same meal. So this was a really special meal, and I know Aggie also made it special for me.

After we ate, we opened our presents. Aggie gave me a traditional African shirt (green, my favorite colour - very nice!) and I gave her kids some games that I brought from the U.S. (Uno and Monopoly), and a few other small things, which they really liked. To Aggie, I gave a portable CD/MP3 player with 3 MP3 CD's full of my favorite music - "Music from my heart for Aggie". She loved it has been listening to it heaps since! The photo here is of Joshua, Aggie, Abbey, and Sarah, *smile*.

In the evening, Aggie & I went and saw a group performing traditional African dance, as well as comedy (the MC guy was hilarious). It was excellent. The highlight of it was when the female dancers put clay pots on their head, starting with 1, and then kept adding a pot until they had like 9! We drank African tea & hot chocolate as well (*mouth starting to water again*). An excellent Christmas eve.

Dec 23, 2006

Progress on Aggie's House


Aggie's house is coming along well now. The roof is on and the door and window are in. She's now waiting for the walls to be plastered and painted, and the floor to be cemented. It'll be really good when her & her kids get to move into this place - the one they're in now is very small (about 12x12ft (4x4m)). They new place also has only 1 room, but it's a bit bigger, I think about 15x15ft (5x5m) and has a cooking/store-room as well (the doorway to the right of the front door in the photo). They'll also have electricity when all is said & done, which they haven't had before (her Mum has electricity though & is close by).

Dec 18, 2006

Meeting Aggies' Family


Today I met Aggies' Mother & extended family - a culturally significant event here in Uganda. She had been planning this ever since (actually before) I arrived. I was accompanied by John & Rebekah and their girls, and Deo (another of the pastors here), which was also significant, as they carry weight as "character witnesses" for me. Many things are done in community here in Uganda, and as well as this being a "Meet the parents" event, this was also a chance for Aggies' extended family to approve (or disapprove?) of me as a potential husband for her. There were about 30 people there - most of Aggies' brothers and sisters (7 out of 8), their kids, and other relatives (e.g. uncles), in-laws, and friends. It was a big event! Most of the ladies were dressed up - some in traditional African dresses. Everyone had gone to a lot of effort cooking food & preparing. So as you can guess, I was a bit nervous! I pre-decided to just be myself & rest in who I am as God's child - even if they didn't approve of me. But it went really well! All of her relatives came before us (me, John, Rebekah & Deo - the photo here), we introduced ourselves, and Agnes gave a short speech to formally say that her & I are in a relationship, and that we are going to walk in God's light in this relationship as trust Him to guide us. Then each of them came by me & introdued themselves. After this, all the food was brought in (*mouth watering*) and we all ate, music was played on a stereo, we talked, and danced (to my horror, but it went ok!). At the end, Aggies' Mum sat on a mat and I came to her with a gift, and she took my hand in hers, which was really special as well: many people here believe in a superstition that if you shake the hand of your in-law (or potential in-law), when you get old, your hands will start shaking. Aggie didn't know if her Mum would shake my hand or not - but she did - so that was really significant to me!

All her relatives were really friendly, as you can see in the photo here, and afterwards Aggie said her family were very happy, and that it went very well. Webale Mukama (Thankyou Lord)! I'm still processing all of this - I'm still experiencing culture shock here to a fair degree - but I'm thankful that her family are so accepting and friendly.

Dec 17, 2006

Aggie's House

After meeting with the church at Kibuli ("Chi-booli") this morning, I went and saw Aggie's house that she has been fixing up. It's on a small area of land that her Mum has given her in an area alled "Katwe" ("Kat-way"), right next to her Mum's place. It used to be made of mud and reeds, but she said that it was falling apart, so she's having it rebuilt with bricks. She was hoping to have it finished before I arrived, but the guy who was building it wanted more money from her, so she couldn't do anything else on it. God provided for her, and it's now moving forward, although slowly, because she's had a hard time getting the guy to actually come and work on it (sounds familiar). She hopes to have it finished this week - they need to put the roof on, cement the floor, and plaster the walls. I think it's going to be at least a couple of weeks though, knowing contractors (no offence, any reliable, hard-working contractors reading this).

Aggie is renting the place she's in at the moment - where she's staying with her kids. She took me there again (the 2nd time now) and had some fish, rice, and spinich-like stuff prepared for me. I'm really enjoying the food here, did I mention that?

In the evening Aggie & I went to a restaurant near the compound called "Cafe Roma" - a Mzungu place with outdoor seating - very romantic - this is the 3rd time we've been there now. We enjoyed talking & eating, and then more talking as we wandered back up the hill to the compound, where she caught a taxi van home & I returned to my hobbit-hole.

Tomorrow is a big day - I'm going to meet Aggies family - her Mum, most of her brothers and sisters, and more relatives I think! John, Rebekah and their girls, and Deo (one of the pastors of the house churches) are going to to too. It's going to be a pretty big deal! Aggie has asked me to bring 3 loaves of bread, 3 containers of milk, and 5kg (11lbs) of sugar - culturally, she said it would not be good to come empty handed! I'm a bit nervous, but am imagining if this were me
introducing her to my family - I would be really excited, so that helps me relax, and look orward to it!

Dec 16, 2006

Adungus!

This morning I went for a walk to get some exercise. My plan was to go to the bottom of "Tank Hill", buy some drinks (fizzy rinks/sodas) and walk back up with a backpack full of them. Walking down, I saw another hill at the bottom that had a dirt road going up it, and trees on top. It looked interesting, and it looked like I might be able to get a good view of Lake Victoria to the south, from the top - so I checked it out. It ended up being a rock quarry, with the people breaking the rocks down by hand - from chipping huge pieces off the rock face, all the way down to breaking them up into gravel sized pieces. Wow. I got talking to one guy up there and told him how hard the people were working. He was telling me that a lot of people can't get work here and do what they can to earn a living to support themselves and their families - e.g. working in this quarry. I'm still finding it hard to take all this in - it's so foreign to me.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to be putting on some weight here - in the afternoon we had another Christmas party! This one was on the compound and everyone from the Kampala Christian Church Network (the churches that the team here have planted) was invited. About 400 people came and it was excellent. We had African caterers bring food (matooke, rice, potatoes, a spinich type thing, g-nut sauce, meat, and fizzy drinks). The highlight for me was a group of guys who brought instruments called "Adungus" that were like harps. There was one big one and about 5 small ones, and when they played it was so beautiful that I almost started crying! *chuckle*. I took a video of it with my camera - I wish I could post it, but it's too big.

In the evening, Eva (Aggie's best friend) and her boyfriend Joseph came over to The Gatehouse & we watched "Monsters Inc" and ate some of the food that Aggie had brought me the day before. Another special day in Africa.

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Dec 15, 2006

Wow...

Next to eating a peanut butter & jam sandwich with nsenene (grasshoppers) on the side for lunch, the highlight of today was how beautiful Aggie looked! The Ugandan workers from the team here organized a party to thank everyone for the work they've done this year, and as a special guest of Aggies, I was invited as well. When she arrived, Aggie came walking down through the compound towards The Gatehouse and I thought "Is that Agnes? If it is, she has a totally different hair-do!" I thought it was quite possibly her, because the African women here change their hairstyles even more often than their Mzungu (white) counterparts! I heard her laugh & knew it was her! She looked STUNNING (*jaw dropped to ground*). In addition to the hair-do, she had a beautiful African dress on. Wow! She is a classy woman! I was glad I'd put some decent clothes on! So off we went to the dinner, and it was great. These Ugandans are hilarious, they have a really dry sense of humour and are always poking fun at eachother, *chuckle*. The food was excellent too - a mix of African & Mzungu, but mostly African.

Another highlight of today was the package of food that Aggie dropped off for me - more nsenene, and also cooked fish (Tilapia) and grilled bananas! Someone said tonight at the party "Have you heard that the way to a mans heart is through his stomach?" and I elbowed Aggie & told her that I think she must be the one who originally started that whole thing, & she laughed. I'm finding it hard to "receive" all these blessings and love from her - one of my "issues". I know she genuinely wants to do these things for me. I walked around the compound a bit later tonight thinking & talking to God about this (and thanking Him) and receiving in retrospect.

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Dec 14, 2006

Kabalagala


Today it poured from early to late morning. It's the transition between a rainy & dry season here (they have 2 rainy & 2 dry seasons each year), so some days I wake up in the early morning and it's pouring, and some days I wake up and the sky is totally blue & it's dry. People tell me that soon it's going to be dry and hot. January is the hottest month here, but John said that it's not as bad as an Alabama (or Georgia, where they're from) summer - nowhere near as humid. The rainy season is when it's humid, but it's also cooler, so that sounds good to me! People here are sensitive to small changes in temperature, since it's almost the same temp all year round.

In the afternoon, people met at the ministry centre (about a 1/2 hr walk from the compound) for "T4T" - "Training for Trainers". Here, people (mostly the Ugandans working with, or on, the team) are being taught by the team leaders and pastors to be leaders (and pastors) themselves. Today John taught from Acts 12 & 13. Very challenging stuff for me personally. Aggie & I walked back to the compound via the market at Kabalagala (which means "pancake" -
I like it, *grin*) where I bought fresh eggs & bananas (the small, really sweet ones) and some milk. The photo here is of bags of grains and beans and stuff - my mouth waters! (my sister will laugh). I hope to cook some of these soon - I brought some cookbooks ("Meals without Meat", Paech's and Powells).

Aggie and I spent another eve together, eating Chipati (a flat bread, a bit like Indian "Naan", only better) & milk for tea (dinner) at The Gatehouse.

Dec 13, 2006

Nsenene!


Ok, I have to be honest with you and tell you that grasshoppers are now a part of my diet. Do you still love me? "Nsenene" are green grasshoppers that a lot of people here in Uganda enjoy eating immensely, and i've joined the ranks. They're around during the rainy seasons. To prepare them, you pull off the wings & legs, and fry them in oil, with salt. Agnes told me before I came that Mzungus really enjoy them, but I had my doubts. I tried them, and quite like the little critters! They feature in the photo here - land shrimp?? They taste excactly like something else I've tasted, but I can't quite put my finger on what it is... I haven't prepared them myself yet (not sure if I'm game) but Agnes has dropped off 3 multiple-snack sized bags of them for me so far. They'd make good movie snacks too I reckon. John Barnett gets a kick out of looking them in the eye and then chomping them - he said it makes him feel powerful. He also likes to munch them while walking back up from Kabalagala (a nearby market/shop area) & listening to his IPOD. He said the locals get a kick out of seeing this. *grin*

Today John & I rode boda-bodas (the motorbike taxis) into the city centre where we went to Garden City shopping mall & I bought a cell phone, an exciting event for me, brought on by necessity (I don't have one back in the U.S. (by choice)). The main method of communication here is the cell phone (or "mobile phone" for you Aussies). The land-line system is unreliable, apparently, and I think it costs more to use it than a cell phone (it definitely does in The Gatehouse, anyway). A lot of people have cell phones but can't afford to keep credit on them, so they'll "flash" you - call you and let it ring once, which is a signal that they'd like you to call them back.

Dec 7, 2006

Dinner at The Kotoli's

Aggie asked me to come over to her place this evening, and I met 4 of her 5 kids for the first time: Sarah (11), Joshua (12), Abbey (a boy, 14), and Sharon (16). Brian (18) is at a boarding school up in northeastern Uganda. I was pretty nervous at first, but relaxed after a while as I got to know them better. They seem like great kids! Unbeknownst to me, Aggie had planned a special dinner. Her and Sharon cooked dried smoked fish in "g-nut" (ground nut, I think they're the same as peanuts) sauce, an eggplant and onion dish, deep fried potatoes (just like back in Australia at the take-away places!), rice, and a freshly squeezed orange and passionfruit juice drink (that they made as well!). She knew that I loved dried fish in g-nut sauce (I had it last time I was here), and that I really liked eggplant, so it really touched my heart - I had tears in my eyes! She set this all out for me as the guest of honour before anyone else ate, and we then enjoyed eating and talking together. After we finished, her kids were cleaning up everything outside and quietly singing in Luganda (the unofficial language here, the official is English). I asked Aggie what they were singing, and it was something like "be patient and have faith when you go through troubles - God will bring you through...". How many kids would be singing this, as they clean up without even being asked! Wow. An evening I'll never forget!

Dec 6, 2006

The Gatehouse

I'm staying on the Baptist Missions compound here in Kampala (the capital city of Uganda), in "The Gatehouse". I feel like I'm in Lord of the Rings or something because The Gatehouse is actually part of the wall around the compound - I like it! It's also in a nice quiet location and the compound is beautiful - huge trees and lawns and everything really kept in good shape. John Barnett (the mission's strategy leader), his wife Rebakah, and kids Rachel & Sarah live in the main campus house, and about 10 or so others live on the compound too.

Dec 5, 2006

Arrival in Uganda!

On my flight from the U.S. to Uganda I got a window seat for the Amsterdam-Uganda leg, like last time, & saw some cool stuff again over Europe & Africa (especially the Sahara Desert). I arrived at the Entebbe airport & John Barnett, Pastor Deo, and Aggie were waiting for me. I didn't see Aggie at first (she was hiding, *grin*) but then she came running up & hugged me! It was so good to see her and she was even more beautiful than I'd remembered. She gave me an amazing bunch of flowers and told me that people give flowers here to welcome someone important. I felt loved already!

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