We have been very busy this week here in Uganda.
Monday we had meetings all morning, then went to a bush church in the afternoon and measured the feet of 400 children!! A church in the U.S. has raised the money to buy all the kids shoes. We got the sizes – those kids have such DIRTY, FILTHY feet! And, they have huge, flat feet because they are used to walking barefoot all the time.
Tuesday I went with Edith to order the shoes. First, we converted the American sizes to European sizes. Then we realized that the European sizes are not consistent – a 17 is bigger than a 20, two size 21’s are completely different sizes. Not easy when you are ordering 400 pairs!!! The owner is a Muslim man, he was so excited about the purchase he invited me back to his house. It is a two room cement structure in a “apartment” complex – really a courtyard with two long cement buildings on either side. Two of his children were sitting in the floor eating posho. They were wearing the traditional Muslim head covering. He said he wanted to show me where he lives so I would know I could trust him!
Wednesday we went to Jinja, a larger town about 2 hours away for some meetings. I made some purchases and then went on the adventure of finding some more waterfalls to take teams to see. The previous ones, Bujagali falls have since been dammed up. After making the driver stop and ask directions (this was a process of him parking, getting out, sitting in silence next to some men for a few minutes, then asking without looking at them – no eye contact – for directions. They discussed it a while and finally agreed that we would pay 5,000 shillings for a man to ride with us and show us the way. We went flying and bouncing down a dirt road – dodging chickens, goats, children, bicycles and cows for thirty minutes and finally arrived at Itanda falls. They were spectacular!
Thursday I went to the Village of Eden to check on the progress out there while Brenda stayed at the Mission House to do some other work. I walked all over that property in “mudders” (black rubber boots) that were at least 3 sizes too big for me. We went down to see where the fish pond is being dug, then we went to the garden to check on the corn. Jacob, the farmer, was all upset because the corn is “stuck” for lack of weeding. I assured him we would hire more workers and get his corn weeded. He calmed down. He is a great worker and takes great pride in his work. He later took me to his house to show me his coffee plants. I learned all about coffee and how it grows.
Friday (today) I am at the Mission House working with the newly hired social workers. We are training some new workers to keep up with our orphan sponsorship program. I set up their office yesterday and sent them out to buy supplies today. I am writing this at 9:23 a.m. here and most of you are still in bed (it is 2:23 in the morning in Georgia) – Get up!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment