Tidbits from Africa

Today, Sunday, I went with Glenna to a small village in western Uganda. This was a very small church maybe 50 people. We arrived at 1230 instead of the arranged time of 900 due to a flat tire. Ok you have to understand a flat tire on a Ugandan highway is extremely dangerous. Passers by do not slow down for anything. Our driver, who's name is Sunday, changed that tire in record time. We pulled out the tarp and sat along the road and waited.

The service of course had already started and they were ready for introductions and the sermon by the time we arrived. I think I did ok for my first time actually preaching, as the district leader asked how long I would be here and if I could come to more of his churches and share. So praise be to God for helping me through it.

We are now waiting for team two to arrive at the compound and they should be here any minute. I think I am ready for two more weeks.

OK ladies here is something just for you.

When your husband comes and says he needs a new PU truck you need to tell him a true man uses a bicycle to haul stuff. In Uganda the bike is as good as a PU is in the states. I personally have seen the following being hauled
3 people
livestock (goats, chickens,very big pigs
Furniture ( 3 piece living room sets, big dining room table and 4 chairs, full size bed frame)
Lumber store needs( not just a piece of lumber but a real load, re bar, 4x8 tin sheets, bamboo 12ft long and sugar cane)
And lets not for get about the food shopping ( at least 50 pineapples, big bunches of green bananas
Strange things ( motorcycle, coffin)
So when he says he really needs one tell him manly men use bikes, but you could let him upgrade to a tube less tire if he really thinks he needs to.


I guess to be fair men this one is for you.

Here in Uganda it is tradition that once a girl marries, her mother is not allowed to come to the son in laws home. She is not allowed to sit next to him and basically must keep her distance. The only time she is allowed at her son in laws home is if he is not there. Advise on this one I wouldn't push my luck on this little cultural hiccup and try to instate it in the states, you might end up in real trouble.

Shopping in Kampala

The store is set up much like ours but there are a lot more produce bins, only two choices of pop and no air conditioning. The baskets are the ones you use that you carry, you know those little plastic ones, but the sit in their own little cart so they are mini carts. I guess they don't want you to buy too much. The prices are about 3 times higher than the states but this was a store where the wealthy of Kampala shop so I guess they think they can afford it. Example a box of fish sticks is about $10. And there is a visible discontentment with Musugoos ( white people)there. I was told is stems from years of mistreatment.

Now if you are on the lower end of the income level you shop at street shops, where everything is negotiable. You start to walk away and they ask you how much you will pay. On the way home today we stopped at many of these shops. 20 tomatoes were 2000schillings and 1632 SCH = $1. So you can do the math. 8 green bell peppers was 1000SCH, 10 small onions 1000SCH, 2 huge fish, I mean each one would have served 10 people were 10,000SCH. Oh and to get them home you hang them on the front of your car kind of like a deer. So it is cheaper to go to the outskirts to buy those kinds of items it is just impossible for the average person to get that far out of town.

Other differences
A zebra crossing = crosswalk
stoplights are very few and far between to instead they have speed bumps. On the road we went on there were about 50 in a line spaced 50 yards apart. Now that was a fun ride.
Instead of flares or cones to show you are broken down in the road, you break limbs of trees and place a couple in the middle of the road. Ahead of the vehicle and behind the vehicle.
My favorite is the one that says the road is a two lane, well they do not even have real lines in the road so if you think you can get in and start your own lane more power to you. There are probably only 2 stop lights in town the rest of the time you just push your way through and if you are timid you will sit there for hours.

OK I guess I have rambled but I think I was able to experience some things that I would never have, had I only been part of the big group.

Still waiting on team 2 but here they are en route

God bless and we will write soon

Love to all now officially team 2 has arrived
Kimberly