Monthly Archives: April 2006

To Kampala.

Kitgum can be summed up in two words. Severe gastrointestinal distress and lots of bugs.

Actually it was a good time. Not good as in fun, but good. We saw a lot of suffering. Not like limbs blown off, ears cut off suffering, but continual, mind-numbing circumstances that kill hope and cause unrelenting misery.

We visited a Night Commuter shelter every weeknight. The one FRM works with is lead by this great bunch of guys, Richard, David, Charles, Charles, another David I think and another guy. So we did a skit, taught some little bible studies, others in our group danced with the kids. There will be photos when they become available and I am not on a 24k connection. This group are the only ones reaching out to the kids, and the kids really respond to it.

We taught some basic health/medical stuff to the caregivers at the Kitgum Infant Care Center, which is an orphanage run by a guy named Terrance, who works at the hospital. Terrance is in charge of the nutrition department and he has 24 orphaned children that he has taken in, on top of his two children and six other dependants, which are presumably close family that have been orphaned. It is an amazing thing. We also saw his hospital, which is the best in Kitgum, and one of the group said it best, we keep our houses cleaner than that hospital. In the past 6 months 11,000 children alone have gone through there for treatment. The smell, welll, it must be smelled to be believed. Especially, if your sense of smell is heightened by severe gastrointestinal distress.

We went to an outreach in the IDP (internally displaced persons, think refugee) camp. The Richard, Charles, David group put it on. It made Kitgum seem like a luxury resort. Kitgum made Kampala seem like a luxury resort. Kampala makes Spokane seem like the Emerald City. So yes, 26,000 people crowded into a few acres with 6 bore-holes (water pumps) and 200 pit latrines. Appalling. Their tukuls (sp?) are round little huts, maybe 6 feet across and 4 feet high, entire familes live in there. There is literally about a foot apart. Anyway these guys did an outreach there that went well. Naturally it attracted all the drunks and nuts, who were fascinated by our whiteness and had to explain their lives to us. Of course, everyone there stared at us everywhere we went. That’s an uncomfortable feeling, especially knowing that some of them are rebels.

We ran out of gas, for the stove, the first day there. Electricity came and went, I think it was on for almost 6 hours one time. That was exciting. We ran out of water (not drinking) for a couple of days, had to use pit latrines those days. Which as luck would have it coincided with the worst of the severe gastrointestinal distress. Good times, good times. But, our last day, we had electricty, gas and water all at the same time. It was like a holiday.

It poured rain a couple of the afternoons. And after it rains like that the bugs come out. The first night it was the termites. Wait until you see the pictures. Since we had the only lights on in the city, due to our generator, they all came to our house. Which delighted Rose, our cook. So we went out and caught termites. And she fried them up the next day. They really taste like nothing. There is a hint of an undefineable flavor, definitely not chicken, but seriously, they taste like nothing. The next day it was flying ants. Which we did not catch and did not eat. But they got into everything that the termites didn’t. Also, there were cockroaches and spiders, but they were just a background nuisance. Except that one latrine I used where they started crawling up the sides of the pit toward me, that sort of made me nervous.

So there’s a lot more, but that’s enough for now.

So, we are going to Kitgum tomorrow. I’ve been having a fantastic time so far, let’s see how leaving the big city goes. We just finished teaching a Children’s Ministry Workshop today. Yeah, so that went well. I managed to cover Inductive Bible Study in 10 minutes. I’m sure they got a lot out of it.

Today was a pretty typical day, so I will describe it to you. Get up at 6. Wash the dishes from dinner. Breakfast and devotions at 7. Leave the guest house around 8, running late of course. Walk down to the ShopRite, about 1 mile down hill. Catch a taxi, which is like a Toyota minivan that seats 14 not counting the driver and his man Jeeves. Take the taxi to CC Kampala. Stand around waiting for something or other. Get another taxi to Entebbe. Admire the countryside as we drive there, stopping repeatedly as people are getting on and off. Get to Entebbe. Stand around as our host argues the price of the ride with the driver. Even though we arrived late, we are still early so we stand around some more. Do the morning session of the workshop. Lunch is late, naturally, so we flex the teaching schedule to fit around it. Eat lunch, which was ugale (this connection is mind-bogglingly slow, so you have to google that yourselves), beans, rice, spinach?, and some meat joint not actually intended by God for food, with a special treat of sodas. No forks, they ran out. Finish the afternoon workshop. Walk down to catch a taxi.Wait for a taxi, decide it isn’t coming and walk to a better spot. Catch a taxi, ride back to Kampala, walk a few blocks through rush hour traffic, catch another taxi, which runs out of gas. On the plus side we drove past the Cuban and Algerian embassies. Very nic. Wait for one of our hosts to come pick us up in FRM’s vehicle. Cram 9 people into a car designed to fit 5. This saves us the mile walk uphill. Get home. Wander about. Eat dinner and debrief. Find out the schedule for tomorrow. Mess around for an hour or so. Go to sleep.

Pretty much that sums it up. What we actually do during the day changed, obviously, but they pretty much go the same way. So, yeah, there you have it.

The grass is still growing. It might need to be mowed soon.

Not joking. That’s why I decided to come down here and and tell you about it. Later I believe we are going to go watch the grass grow.

But Calvary Chapel Kampala will have a shiny new coat of paint and that’s what’s really important.

Yeah, that’s it. You kids have a good day, and I’ll update you later on the grass growing project.

Well, I’m sitting in an internet cafe in Kampala. The plane ride was a seemingly endless cycle of exhaustion, discomfort and um, fill in something else annoying. London was fun. Of course, none of us had slept more than 3 hours in the last 48 hours, so it was a brief tour. The underground is admirably arranged, a nice ride and easy to use. I would recommend it to anyone.

Our plans to go to Kitgum have been postponed due to political type things. At the moment we are planning to go later, so the chicken juggling is still a go.

The weather is practically perfect, it’s more humid than I would like, but still, upper 70’s sunshine, occasionally a bit of rain that blows through. The beds are comfy, the toilets are the normal kind and we’ve only had rice once.

So, to sum up, because I’m out of time, things are going well, and yeah. Nothing is as planned, but it’s all good.