July 12
On the side of a mountain.
I don’t know how to better describe it.
We were sharing the Gospel on the side of a mountain. The local people were saying, “We have never
seen this before!” A group of 12 white
people, slipping, sliding, panting, and turning red as they walked from house
to house to share the Gospel with the people.
Banana, matoke, guava, jack fruit, and palm trees cover the
mountain side; Beneath their shade grow
coffee trees, corn, cabbage, tomatoes and beans. Six inch foot trails snake around, up and
down the mountain; curving out of sight around a huge flowering tree. Houses made of mud, branches and iron sheets
as a roof are tucked away in the folds of the trails. All trails intersect and seem to lead to the
same places, some plummeting straight down the side of an incline, others
sloping gently but taking longer to reach the destination. Fresh spring water erupts from various points
in the mountain, providing water for the inhabitants – people, livestock and
plants alike.
Cows are the prized possession of the locals. “Mzungu” cows, loosely translated as “white
people” cows. These are the exotic breed
that produce about ten liters of milk a day.
It is common to enjoy a large mug of steaming, hot milk, bananas and
toasted peanuts for breakfast or a mid-day snack.
We struggled to reach our destination. The steepness of the mountain, combined with
an uneven trail made it difficult for all vehicles, even our four-wheel drive
truck. At what seemed to be the “end of
the road” for vehicles, we unloaded.
There were many men and boys waiting for us and helped us to carry out
supplies to our primary location. We
walked about half a mile to the main house.
An iron sheet roof had been added to the house since my last
visit, providing a meeting area for the group.
We were welcomed whole-heartedly by the entire village. The Chairman went through the usual formal
ceremony customs: list the order of
ceremony, introduce his people, his people introduce him, introduce Beatrace,
Beatrace introduces me, I introduce the team, more people come and get
introduced. This is the usual custom for
any meeting in Uganda. It generally takes
at least 30 – 45 minutes to get through formalities if it is done right. People must be introduced in a proper order
and if not introduced yet, the person will not truly speak, only a brief,
mumbled greeting until he has been introduced.
It seems very tedious and formal to me, but is necessary if you really
want to show respect and be respected.
Finally, they served us steaming milk, roasted peanuts and
bananas at 11:00 as a snack. Beatrace,
Kim and I then began looking at several huts as possible places for the team to
sleep. We checked one house, across the
ridge, onto the next mountain, but the inhabitant was recently diagnosed with an infection, so Kim and I decided that was not the best choice. We went to a second house, back across the
ridge, that belonged to one of our translators.
It was perfect. We took the girls
there to hang mosquito nets. The men and
couple, James and Judy would be staying at the primary location.
After setting up, we had a lunch of matoke, peanut &
tomato stew, peanut & bamboo stew, beans, cabbage and posho. All the locals sat behind us and watched us eat.
There were about 30 of them.
We ate and
ate. Ate some more. Then the locals asked us why we were not
eating! We ate some more!
Finally, to my relief,
Beatrace said we did not have to finish everything! We then set out, with heavy stomachs to visit
a church. We walked about a mile, across
the mountain and then up the “road”. The
church, like all the buildings, sat on a piece of land that had been carved out
of the mountain by hand with a hoe.
We went through another 30 minute formal introduction,
finally coming to my part of introducing the team and having the program. One team member shared her testimony, three
women sang “Amazing Grace”, beautiful but a little slow for African taste, then
one team member preached. But that was
not enough, they wanted more!
The Chairman turned
to me and said, “Madam Director, do you not also have a word to share with us?”
I replied, “Sure, I have a word.”
I scrambled to grab my Bible, whispering a prayer, asking
for inspiration. I shared out of
Ephesians 1, about the blessings that we have as believers, then turned it
around, stating that unbelievers do not have those blessings and briefly shared
the Gospel. My first sermon – Don’t tell
Dad! The people seemed to enjoy it. A couple of choirs sang for us, then we walked back down the
mountain to have games and evangelism with the children.
Claudia was in charge of this, so Kim and I
walked back to the house to prepare an American dinner, spaghetti. After dinner, we went to our huts to sleep. Claudia and I took a bucket bath. No one else would try it, unsure about how to
do it, afraid of completely undressing in the wilderness? Not sure why.
That night, the dampness set in and I froze all night. So did everyone else.
July 13
The next morning, I sent the driver to buy blankets for
everyone!
We had breakfast, spam, eggs and bread. Then we waited. I had been given a schedule, showing the
day’s itinerary that the chairman had written for me. By the time the translators and chairman
arrived, we were already two hours behind!
We walked about a mile and half to another church, across
two mountains. When we arrived, there
was no one there, so they took us to see a waterfall. Another mile to two miles to it. It was beautiful.
On the way back to the church, we found a guava tree and
enjoyed it’s fruit. So sweet, odd
texture but delicious.
We had a church service, briefly. The majority of the ceremony was the formal
introductions. Then a team member preached the Gospel. The chairman then announced that “time was
against us” and that “Africans struggle
to keep time”. So, we divided into teams
and went visiting door to door.
Kim and I tried to hurry back to the house to do some house
keeping, but we kept getting stopped by people greeting us. We arrived back around the same time as the
team members.
We had a great lunch of matoke, stewed beef, beans, scuma
and posho. We were then informed that
the children at the school were waiting for us!
We walked about 2 miles to a school down the mountain, St. Tim Primary
School.
The chairman told me that he had only scheduled 30 minutes
at the school! We had just walked 45
minutes to get there!
I asked if we
couldn’t have at least 45 minutes. He
agreed. He then started with the formal
introductions, eating up all of our 45 minutes and then some! But, as “African’s struggle to keep time” we
just continued forward and began counting our 45 minutes from the time that the
introductions ended.
The kids loved the games.
It is amazing how something so simple like a giant tunnel or sack races
can bring so much joy. Meanwhile, half
of the team was doing wound care for the kids.
At the 30 minute mark, Claudia stopped the festivities and shared the
Gospel.
The chairman asked me what we would do next. I told him, “We can go door to door from the
school to the house. But then, that is
all. The team is finished. No more today. We are too tired.” I had been noticing that the team had blank,
far off stares even when standing and working.
They were exhausted.
We broke off into groups again and went door to door. Kim and I tried to hurry back to prepare
dinner for the team. I say tried because
it was a struggle going straight up the mountain. But we did arrive in time, sat down to
breathe and stop the world from spinning and then prepared dinner. Nice
American dinner of chicken tacos with Velveeta cheese! (easy meals)
Beatrace asked at dinner if we could go door to door in the
area below and to the left of the house in the morning. I agreed, thinking that we could delay our
departure by two hours, no problem.
However, that night, it began raining at 9:00 and did not
stop until 6:00 the next morning. I was so thankful for the blankets but
dreading walking, sliding rather, down the mountain the next day.
July 14
We had breakfast and then decided to forgo the visitation;
the trails were just too slippery for our untrained legs. We packed up and started our exit. Because of the rain, the van was parked at
the bottom of the mountain! We had to
slip, slide, stumble and fall for about three miles before we reached the
van. By that time, it was 11:00!
We then slid, fish-tailed and spun our way out of the
villages, the mud was deep and sticky.
It was a great trip.
Exhausting but wonderful. I want
to do follow up soon. A team is coming
in September that is already excited about the possibilities!
Next time I will take a few items I forgot – a blanket,
jacket, Gatorade and more protein.
Besides that, it was great!
