Blessed day

Wow, I can hardly contain my joy. Just got back from a visit to Mulago hospital. You have heard me talk of it before. It's a place of terrible suffering. I have mixed feeling when I go, I love it and hate it all at the same time.

Today we visited a man with Sickle Cell, he was is crisis. Crying out in pain. No staff came to him and no family to care for him. He was thankful for prayers to comfort him. Then there was a woman foaming at the mouth and seemed dazed, don't know her story The sick and dying everywhere, on the floors, in the halls and in my heart.

Before leaving we were asked to visit a young woman with AIDS. We went far up the hill towards where the old hospital had been many years ago. Here there were tiny rooms, each leading to another. beds jammed into corners, no privacy at all and deep suffering in every bed. Here is where I met Joyeria. A sweet young woman, maybe 20-22 years. She was able to understand english so I told her the story of Jesus's great love for her. She prayed with me to ask Jesus to be her Savior. She now knows for sure when she dies she will have a home in heaven. I can't stop thinking about it. I don't know how much longer she has on earth but she will go to a much better place. Her name is now written in the Book of Life.

Local Produce

Today is such a hot day. I need to see if I can get some freon in my car, the open windows in this ridiculous traffic are a bit much. I was out and about buying some goodies to take to dinner tonight. One of Aid Sudan's Houston team members is in town, so we are having a get together for her. Along with some other things I said I would get some fruit. There are men with wooden wheelbarrows parked randomly along the streets so I decided to give one of them some business instead of the supermarket. You tell them when you want to eat the fruit and they show you which one is best. Mine is so sweet. I also got a water melon. Back at the house I made a pumpkin cake, forgot to put in the melted butter and had to pour it over the top and then gently try to force it down in the partially cooked cake :-( Oh well you can do what you can do, right?

Neighborhood

I just got back from a walk in my neighborhood. It's not anything like my neighborhood in Texas. No zoning laws here. I had a couple of chickens walk in front of me and passed by several goats grazing on the side of the path I was walking on. I usually get lots of stares and children call out Muzungu ( white person) but not so much today. Maybe I am blending in more :-)

It's very warm out, about 96 but I chose to go as the sun is starting its decline in sky so it's a tiny bit more tolerable.

One of my favorite places in the neighborhood is a little chapati stand that is just at the end of my street. As soon as I come out of my house and turn right and go up the street for a couple of hundred years there it is. I love seeing the sign "Jesus is the Alpha and Omega" ( beginning and end) I have been there a few times when I don't feel like cooking. The owner mixes egg, a little chopped cabbage, tomato and red onion together and then cooks it over a griddle on top of hot coals. The filling then is wrapped in a chapati. ( not good for cholesterol but so yummy) It costs about 75 cents. More on the neighborhood later. I think I have an urge for a chapati :-)

Hospital visit

Yesterday was one of my weekly visits to a local hospital. Peace, a Ugandan, Anya, a Dutch woman and I visited the children's ward at Nsambya Hospital. It's a place of much suffering and sadness. As soon as we walked onto the ward we saw a very small child, who was propped on pillows. Her chest and arms were swathed in clean white bandages. Her head and face had obviously been burned also but these areas had been left open to air. The little girl, about 1 year old was tired from the ordeal of just having the bandages changed. I can't even imagine the torture she went through for that. Her mother standing at the bedside was tortured also. She stood there unable to speak with tears running down her face.

In the next bay of beds we came across another little girl who was about 1 yr. also. Her story was especially sad. Apparently her mother came and left her there, never to return. A stranger, visiting another child in the next crib, took on the responsibility of feeding and caring for the little one while she was there. The hospital staff apparently doesn't do more than is absolutely necessary to care for a child such as this. When she is well from her bout with malaria she will go to an orphanage.

We prayed for healing physically, emotionally and spiritually for children and families involved. Thankfully God is a God of great mercy and love for those who are suffering or abandoned.

Experiment

Due to the season we are living in here in Kampala at present, which is hot and dry, everything is covered with dust continually. Since my car is a silver color and the dust is a reddish color it is very noticeable. Today I could stand it no longer so I decided to wash the car. Some things to bear in mind first. There is NO hose, just a bucket,faucet around the BACK of the house and me! I kept thinking about the mop. Finally I picked up the mop and put it into action. It actually worked quite well. I had to make numerous trips around the back to the only outside faucet. There was a lot of old ,dried mud especially around the wheels. This required many buckets of water that got sloshed over the wheels. At last it look reasonable. I felt hot, dusty and tired. I went out later in the day and when I came back I noticed the car looked dusty ( Ugh! )

Exotic to mundane

Over the last month you have followed my comings and goings both here in Kampala and then on a wonderful African adventure in Kenya., but all good things come to and end as they say. So now here I am having been moved into my new place for just 3 days and there is one little problem. Do you remember me saying there is no washing machine? Well guess what? There is still no washing machine :-( Now it's time to do the next best thing. We all have to do what we have to do. You can see by the photos there is a space outside with hook up ready for a machine, just no machine. The bath tub offered the best place to wash the clothes and then I hung them on the clothes line outside. Since this is a temporary situation I am hoping to beg some of my friends for use of their machines. I have thought of offering free hours of babysitting while I wash! Quite a deal huh? Trouble is around here depending on the part of town you live in, there may be a shortage of water. Another issue not to be overlooked is if the power goes out, then the machine won't do you any good anyway. That may be one of the reasons there is no laundromat anywhere. Not much profit involved in that business. So there you have it, daily life in Kampala.

Moving again!

Moving again? Yes, hard to believe but true. Today I moved into my new house. It's a MAF ( Missionary Aviation Fellowship ) house. This very fine organization has several homes that their staff occupies and they have one that is available for use temporarily for people like me. I will stay here until the end of March. It is fully furnished which is a big benefit except sadly no washing machine. More on that later. I have been able to assemble all 10 of my footlocker/trunks in one place and get them out of my generous friends garages and space. It's like Christmas opening trunks that were packed in Feb. and March of 2011. I did find however that bamboo skewers don't do well unattended for that long. They kind of disintegrate :-(

I have added a fun little MAF Christmas video that I thought was so well done. Please click, learn and enjoy.

Harmonics

Well if you read the title to this post you are probably saying" Harmonics, what is that?" I shall be happy to enlighten you. Today, at church the group known as the Harmonics sang, or rather they harmonized. They were really good so thought I would share a little with you, so sit back and smile.

Team dinner

Once a month the the Aid Sudan team of Kampala goes out to dinner together. This month we decided to try a new restaurant called Little Donkey. It's Mexican. We all miss our Mexican food so we went with great anticipation. The place is brightly painted and the staff are attentive. We viewed the menu which I have included part of so you can laugh along with us. As you can see it contains a glossary. The tortilla chips are described as somehow like crips (chips) made from chapati which is an Indian flat bread. We thought that somehow it was all quite tasty. I had quesadilla which is my standard order in most mexican restaurants. Anyway we enjoyed the company, conversation and our food.

On the move

My month long stay at the Baptist compound is over but my new rental place is not yet ready so I'm spending 4 nights at Shalom Guesthouse. My room is right at the front with the little balcony. The guesthouse is quite old but well maintained and is comfortable for me for these few nights. I will say the road outside is quite noisy. For some reason many in Kampala stay up late. It's not uncommon to drive at night and see people out strolling like it was the middle of the day. It doesn't help either that there are a number of speed bumps on a small stretch of road just out front of the guesthouse. Just how many trucks can be going over these at midnight?