Culture Club

We are learning a great deal about the culture here in Uganda. Here are some of the things we have learned so far….

Greeting… it is all about a proper greeting.  If you do not properly greet someone you are considered very rude. It the States it is not uncommon to walk into a room full of people and wave and say “hello everyone.”  In Uganda, that is socially unacceptable.  You are expected to greet everyone with a handshake and proper greeting which includes asking how they are doing, how their night was, how things are at home, how are the children, how are the cows/goats.  You get the picture?  Greetings can take a very long time.  Even if you have been sitting right next to someone in class for a couple of hours, if you have not properly greeted them you are expected at the first break to greet them and everyone else in the room you have not spoken to.  It is also not acceptable to just wave to someone as you pass by or to start your greeting before you have reached that person. If you do that it is a sign that you are rude and want to get your greeting over very quickly.  If you are passing someone on the road, you are expected to wait until they completely reach you, stop and go through the whole greeting process. It is also very important to teach your children to properly greet someone, so that you are not offensive to someone because your children won’t greet them.  The kids are catching on, even Pierce says hello and sticks his hand out to greet now.

Crossing your arms when someone is speaking is considered rude and disrespectful. By crossing your arms you are saying this person is boring and does not have anything important to say.   I cross my arms all the time; this is something I have had to be conscious of, especially when Ugandans are teaching.

My cute little monkey; How many times have you said that to your little one?   Kari called Pierce her little monkey for the longest time.  He even had a shirt that says “Mommy’s little monkey.”  Cute and harmless right…WRONG!  A group of westerners was visiting New Hope and was with one of the family groups where a couple of young Ugandan children were being bathed in wash basins outside.  One of the ladies said “Oh, look at those cute little monkeys” just a simple term of endearment.  Well the word spread like wildfire through the community that this group of westerners thinks that Africans are monkeys.  Another example was when a man from the UK was praying for a group of Ugandans.  He began is prayer with Lord bless these folks. What the Ugandans heard was fox, and again they were offended wondering why this man though that the Ugandans were a group of animals.  We are being very cautious in our wording and trying not to make mistakes.  And then there is Everett. Those of you that know Everett will just understand that it is Everett being Everett. The Head Master of the School had a birthday today and Kari made a very cute card for all the staff to sign.  Everett, just being Everett comes running up to Uncle Simon to sing him Happy Birthday. Sweet and harmless right, a 5 year old singing happy birthday; what could go wrong?  So Everett starts in “Happy Birthday to you, you’re 102, you look like a……..at which point Kari slaps her hand over his mouth.  Everett keeps trying to sing, muffled by Kari’s hand “You look like a monkey and you smell like one too.”  Thankfully Kari was able to stop E from getting the words out. Can you imagine?  I can see the headlines now “American student calls the Head Master a monkey and thinks he smells like one too.”  Oh Everett you cause me more grey hair each day.   

It is customary in some cultures to fatten the bride up before a wedding because a skinny wife is an unfit wife.  In the States bride’s work hard to lose weight before the big day so they will look good in the wedding gown. Can you imagine in the States “Honey, does this dress make me look fat…..yes dear…..Great!’

If you say “what” in response to someone it is considered rude, your response should be "yes please."  Your conversation would go like this “Kari……….yes please…….can you come over here.”

If someone comes into your home you should invite them in, have them sit down and immediately serve them juice.  You do not ask if they want juice you just bring it to them.  It is rude to ask because it is like you are saying I am asking but I hope that you say no. So when I am back home in the States, I expect “juice” each time I come to your home.

Do you hate when someone drops by the house unannounced?  Not Ugandans! It is considered an honor when someone shows up unannounced. At which point, you guessed it, you need to bring them juice.  It is also expected that if it is near a meal time that you feed them as well. So when we get back to the States our family of six is going to drop by unannounced and expect juice and meals……Is that a problem?

“That’s okay” means yes.  For example do you want more posho (to which your answer should always be NO) if you answer that’s okay, you better move over because there is a heap of posho coming your way. 

Daily dress is nicer than most of our church clothes.  Most people dress very nice for their daily attire.  In our class the women are expected to wear skirts everyday that cover their knees.  Men are expected to wear nice pants and at minimum a collared polo shirt. Workers will dress in nice clothes to go to work and take clothes to change into for work.  There was a group of construction workers building a small apartment near our training classroom.  They would come to work dressed in slacks and button up shirts, take them off and change into work clothes, and put on the nice clothes at the end of the day to go home. When it comes to shoes you had better dress to impress.  If your shoes are not nice, you obviously do not know how to take care of your feet. If you have on dress shoes they better be polished or you should just not wear them. Flip-flops are considered shower shoes and you would not be seen out in public with your shower shoes on. So 99% of college students would be considered to have on shower shoes when they go to class in the States. 

Whew, we have a lot to learn.  This is just a few of the things we have learned so far and the list of things we have not learned yet is even longer. Slowly but surely we are learning.

We have a huge praise report;  we got our Visas renewed with no issues!  We have heard reports that this can be a very big hassle and can take hours or even days.  Thankfully I walked right into the immigration office and would have been done in five minutes if I would have had copies of our passports. I went and got copies made, paid money and "Stamp" we were done. No hassle, no worries and we have new 90 day visas. 

Week of Firsts...

Week of Firsts…….

This was a week of firsts for me.  First, I rode a Bota bota for the first time.  A bota bota is motorcycle taxi and they are everywhere.  I would say they out number cars on the road at least 10:1.  It was literally the first time in my life I had ever been on a motorcycle, ever. Working as a Paramedic I am not a big fan of motorcycle, but it was either take the motorcycle taxi or walk to our destination.  So I jumped on the back, one hand secured to the handle on the back and one arm wrapped tightly around Kari. It is no uncommon to see 2-3 people on a Bota plus the driver.  We actually saw a bota with three male passengers, plus the driver.  Four grown men on one motorcycle was a crazy sight.  Off we went, white knuckled I clung on for my life.  I said a prayer before, during and after our journey.  I leaned forward during the ride and told Kari not to close her eyes because it made it way worse.  When I finally opened my eyes, I noticed that everyone passing by us was laughing, probably due to the shear terror on my face. However, we survived our journey and made it safely to our destination.

Another first for me was ox plowing; it is a required part of our training here at New Hope.  Growing up in College Station, Texas oddly enough we did not do much Ox plowing.  I had been very anxious to “help” in the fields and prepare them for planting by plowing with oxen.  Imagine a city raised boy behind a plow being drug by two enormous oxen.  After two passes I was out of breath and panting, between drops of sweat I looked back at my lines in the soil and they were none too straight.  I sat down to take a break and allow the men to get some actual work done; I am convinced that one of the oxen kept eyeing my down every time they came by.  After a few minutes of rest they called me back and had me do a couple more passes. It was a little easier this time, but wrestling with the plow to keep it in a straight line was hard work.  I sat back down and one of the experts, a 17 year old boy named John, took over.  I looked up from catching my breath and he was holding the plow with one hand and strolling along behind it like it was a leisurely walk in the park. He told me he had been plowing for about 12 years, so that means he was 5 when he started.  Can you all imagine Everett plowing??  Needless to say, they got a lot more work done once I was done “helping” them.

We also had our first encounter with a Mamba this week.  Our friends we are in training with had the first hand run-in with the Green Mamba. Thankfully nobody was hurt, well except the snake……..you can read the whole story complete with pictures at: http://mattandjamie.4cornersministries.org/2012/03/green-mamba-dead/

I scored my first goal playing Futbol with the Ugandans this past week as well…sorta.  On Sundays the Institute students have been challenging the school teachers in a game.  The first challenge was Volleyball and this past week was soccer, which they take very seriously.  It brought out a large crowd to watch and cheer. I was playing defender and our team made a run to the goal, so I ran with them.  There was a bit of a scrum and the ball shot out towards me, I stopped it and tried to pass it to one of our better players (which was anyone on the team other than me) to shoot.  I kicked it and it ricocheted off one of their defenders and squirted into the goal.  I also stopped one of their better players on a one-on-one match up.  He broke loose and it was me and him between our goal, I stood my ground and pretended to know what I was doing.  As he dribbled up to me and made a soccer move, I just stuck my foot out and the ball actually hit it.  The ball bounced right off my foot and shot between his legs.  I was able to run behind him and kick it back up field, all while pretending I had some clue as to what I was doing.  This came with a huge roar from the crowd that this Muzungo (what Ugandans call white people) stole the ball from a Ugandan. We played a full 90 minutes a came to a 1-1 tie.  It was debatable about whether I was going to be able to get out of bed the next day, but amazingly I felt great.

I have also been working in the clinic in the afternoons, which I will blog about more soon.  However, I had another first there last week.  I worker came in with a big splinter deep into his thumb, no problem, nothing some Lidocaine and a big needle can’t cure. We injected his thumb with Lidocaine to numb it up and dug the big splinter out with an 18 gauge needle.  Can’t say I have ever done that in the US.

This is only a few of the things I am doing for the first time in Africa, but these were some of the highlights.

Spider Man

So I woke up last night about 1:30 am to go comfort Hadlee who was crying out. This is not unusual since at least one kid is up at least once a night since arriving here in Uganda. I tucked her back in and half asleep I walked back to our room ready to climb back under the mosquito net and cuddle up in bed. That’s when the adventure began……..  There perched on the wall about 10 inches from where my head lays on the pillow each night was the largest, creepiest, ugliest, keep going with your own description, spider I have ever seen.  It was about as big around as lemon including its legs.  It had huge pincers that it kept clicking together when it saw me and realized we would have a confrontation and hairy legs.  At this point Kari was awake, probably due to me freaking out.  So the showdown was on…… after a carefully concocted plan that included a piece of orange construction paper and a Tupperware container, I made my move.  Now Kari might say that it took a long time for me to work up the courage and that there was a bit of hesitation on my part, but don’t believe her since I am the one telling the story. I made an attempt to trap the giant beast against the wall in the Tupperware container, I then planned to slide the construction paper along the wall and collect the spider in the container.  The spider must have read my mind because as soon as I slammed the container against the wall the spider side stepped and just stared at me.  It then dropped down off the wall onto the night table onto my shirt.  With great bravery I came up with a new plan……. This plan was to get a giant plastic box, the ones we packed in, push the shirt with the spider into the tub and run it outside.  Again, the spider must have read my mind because it leisurely climbed back onto the wall.  Back to square one….  So we did the whole Tupperware plan over again, you guessed it, same result.  This time the enormous spider jumped down onto the floor and began to scurry away.  Now at this point Kari is huddle under the mosquito net, which provided a false sense of security, she was yelling to get it or she would never be able to go back to sleep.  With all our combined bravery, which would have filled up a thimble, Kari moved the night table and found the beast crouched down.  I actually thought it was a different one that was dead; however the spider was just playing possum.  At this point I had enough; I went and got the all powerful Doom.  Doom is the Ugandan version of Raid, just a lot less powerful and smells a lot worse.  I sprayed the spider down with a fog that would have grounded the most seasoned airline pilot.   After the fog cleared literally, the beast had the audacity to move again and run behind the cabinet.  I then proceeded to let loose another fog that would have made an NBA arena proud.  At this point the spider was shriveled up and dying, for good measure I gave it another blast.  After this great adventure, I tucked the mosquito net into the mattress and crawled back in bed.  Kari reached over with her hand to say good night and grabbed my hand, at which point I freaked out and smashed her hand thinking somehow the giant spider had survived the assault of Doom and had crawled in bed to ambush me.  Once I was assured it was just Kari’s hand, I settled in to go back to sleep.  I only lay awake for an hour or so thinking everything that moved or touched me was the revenge of the spider.   I can deal with broken bones and bleeding wound, but a giant spider is not my forte.

Giant spiders were not part of the deal when we moved to Africa.  I can handle the poverty conditions we encounter and the sickness and injuries people come to the clinic with, but come on man spiders?

Karson’s Kreepy Korner will be posted today if we can get the pictures to upload.  The enormous spider would have been a great addition, but it met its demise when it met with the Spider whisperer or spider screamer depending on who it telling the story. 

Daydreams of food

So we spent this afternoon at lunch daydreaming about what foods we would have if we were back in the States. Here is the list of what each person came up with; we each named an appetizer, drink, main dish and dessert. Hadlee’s is most interesting, but it was word for word from her mouth.

Kari- chips and salsa from Ozona, Route 44 Diet Dr. Pepper “easy ice”, Sam’s 3 meat pizza, movie theater butter popcorn

Everett- hot dog on a bun with ketchup, mustard and relish for an appetizer

Chocolate milkshake for his drink, cheese pizza from Papa John’s, and Spoons frozen yogurt for dessert.

Karson- Shipley’s Donuts for an appetizer (warm glazed), a Sonic sour apple slush, soft tacos with juicy chicken and home-made brownies to round it out.

Hadlee- hot dogs with syrup, ketchup and mustard to start things off, apple-orange juice, hot Chucky Cheese- cheesy macaroni pizza, and for dessert what else but a cake with Hot Tamales spicy candy and chocolate chips (not the Black box  she says those are too spicy, but the red box; you Hot Tamale lovers will know what she means)

Jason- Fried pickles from Chicken Oil Company and chips and queso, Big pile of wings and tenders from Wing-n-More with lots of ranch, Cherry Lime slush from Sonic to cool things down, and Blue Bell ice cream anything with chocolate.

Pierce really didn’t voice his opinion but I would assume peanut butter, since that is what he lives on here.

Since we could not have these things we settled for the spaghetti they made us  for lunch with chunks of “mystery meat” and mushrooms. For dinner tonight Kari made an incredible home-made chicken noodle soup.  She even cooked and cleaned the chicken herself, this job is usually reserved for me.  Luckily we did not have to prepare the chicken ourselves; Kari was able to get  a frozen whole chicken from one of the family groups that was already plucked and ready to cook. She added some egg to the soup which made it delicious!  She made some Texas sweet tea to go with dinner, thanks Mom for sending Lipton Tea bags! For dessert, since they were fresh out of Blue Bell ice cream on this continent, she made Snicker doodles from scratch. The boys each ate four bowls of soup,  I would venture to say they liked it! Kari has become quite creative in the kitchen having to make everything from scratch.

It has been raining a lot here lately, which is a good thing.  It has filled our cistern enough for us to pump water back into the tank so that we can have water for shower and dishes again. I sure took running water for granted back in the States.  We had a storm blow in on Friday that was crazy.  The adults were all playing volleyball and Karson was at futbol practice.  It started lightly raining which was not a big deal because it had been doing that for the last few days.  All of the sudden the bottom let lose and it was pouring down rain.  We could not make it home, but luckily there was a covered porch near the volleyball court, we all took shelter under that with the 3 younger kiddos.  However, Karson got stuck at futbol practice and ran to a friend’s house.  While the wind was howling and the rain was coming down we realized we had left our windows open.  So I ran home in the pouring rain and hail to find our bed, bedroom floor, Hadlee’s bed and Everett’s bed already soaking wet.  I closed the wooden shudders on the inside and moved everything away from the windows.  There is no glass in the windows, only screen, so you are at the mercy of the wind to determine if the rain blows in.  We called and found out Karson was taking refuge at Uncle Keith’s house with a towel and dry clothes, so we settled in and weathered the storm.  We got everything dried out and it even stopped raining in time for us to walk down to dinner.

With all the rains means we can start working the fields with the Samuel Family, on Monday we are going to plow the fields with Oxen.  It should be an adventure, stay tuned for pictures of me Ox plowing...

If you follow Karson’s Korner he has a great one planned for this week, if you don’t you should check out his stories.  A little teaser for next weeks story from Karson….. Karson’s Kreepy Korner.

           http://www.healingfaithuganda.org/category/karsons-korner/

What Have I Learned?.......

As I reflect back over the first seven weeks of this journey of transformation and relationship, I am amazed at how far we have come.  I feel God has done some serious work on my heart and that He has some serious work left to do.

I think the first thing God did was to open my eyes.  I have lived in the same city in which I was born for the last 35 years. This is the first time I have lived outside of College Station, Texas. From Texas to Uganda, wow! College Station is a wonderful place and will always be home for me, but it is also the place that shaped my world view.  The only world view I have truly know to this point.  God has rocked my world with the respect to world view. I have been made to realize the shaded and jaded lens through which I have been viewing the world. I think back to the story of Saul, how he was called by the Lord and was blinded.  Once he was ready and prepared by God there was no more Saul, only Paul.  I feel like in the same way God opened Paul’s eyes, He is opening my eyes to  allow me to truly see the world around me.  My world view is still tinged in the colored lens through which I view the world, but the color is becoming less my own and more His. I have learned we all need God to come and take the lens off our own world view.

I have also been made to realized how “me” centered my world is.  One quote really stood out to me in reference to the temptation of Adam and Even in the Garden and the fall of man; “Adam and Even gave up a God centered world and traded it for a man centered world.” This me centered world has formed my image of God.  I have been trying to make God conform to my image for my benefit….it just doesn’t work that way.

I have learned I am a wounded person with an orphan heart.  I have physical parents who love me very much and provided for my every need and desire. However, I still bare some of the characteristics of an orphan heart.  I have the fear of rejection…..What if I am not good enough? Greed……what if I do not have enough?  Independent spirit…. I do not need any help, I got this.  I also constantly strive for approval, and try to prove myself and my worth to those around me. I have also learned that I try to carry my wounds on my own.  I can not handle them on my own but I need to take them to the cross.  These things are just the beginning of what I have learned.  Yet, these things will help me tremendously with the work in the Healing Faith ministry.

Before I can help anyone, I need to first help myself through Him. In order to help someone with their struggles I have to understand their world view.  I may not fully understand or comprehend their world view, but my eyes will be more open to it.  I will also be able to identify the characteristics of an orphan heart and work through the issue with orphaned children. First, I must build a foundation based upon a relationship. If I build a foundation on what I have to give physically, it will crumble when the physical gifts run out. However, if we can build a foundation on relationship, we can build a large structure, one that will last and one that can weather the storms. I know realistically that I cannot tear down the walls of defense that some of the orphans have built all as once. Yet with His help I can break down the walls brick by brick, day by day. I am not the whole solution to the problem but a tool God has chosen to use.  The more willing and obedient I am the more God will sharpen me as His tool and use me as His craftsmen.

The lessons I have learned and the lessons I will learn will make me a better follower, better husband, and better father. I pray God will use this season of my life to soften my heart and make life long changes in me that can be seen through my children and through the generations.

“I will not leave you all alone like orphans; I will come back to you.” John 14:18 

American Idol

In our training we have been discussing idolatry. Anything that exercises control over our lives can become an idol. The idol starts to say “you need me, I will make you happy.”

What are our idols……..money, football, homes, jobs, cars, movie stars, success and on and on.  Christian Artist Toby Mac says “America now has more superstars, now we call them idols.” 

We can easily become enslaved to our idols. Sure we don’t have carvings of wood or golden calves but we idolize so many things.  How many of us are enslaved to our cell phones?  We carry them everywhere, and if we leave home without it or lose it we panic.  It rings and we have to answer it.  Some of us answer at the most inappropriate times.  We are saying that whatever we are doing or whomever we are interacting with is less important that our idol cell phone. We have special ring tones for calls, a special one for texts, we even have vibrate so as not to “disturb” those around us. We stand in long lines to get the newest model and we compare our idol cell phone with everyone else.   I mention this not to say that cell phones are bad, but to show how easily we submit to our idols.

Upon cell examination I was very guilty of this as well.  How many other idols do we have?  We were challenged in class to make a list of our own personal idols.  The teacher challenged us to come up with 50.  I stopped at 20, not because I was out of things to write down, but I stopped out of self preservation of my own feelings.
We have to be careful of judging others and their idols until we have self examined our own. "Do not judge others, or you too will be judged.  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judges, and the measure you use, it will be measured to you." Matthew 7:1-2 NIV

My prayer is that I will cast down my idols, focus on God, not judge other and be more accepting.

 "Do not sore up for yourselves treasure on earth, where the moths and the vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:19-21 NIV

Daily Life

Let there be light!!

We are so excited to have power back, we have been without power for 5 ½ days.

Here is a little about our daily life here in our training at New Hope Uganda.

Week days start off with same annoying cell phone alarm Monday-Friday.  Most of the time we truthfully don’t need an alarm as the sound of kids wheeling a wheelbarrow full of empty Jerry Cans (big water jugs) to fill with water for the family wakes us.  This starts at first light which is around 6:30.  Our second alarm is Pierce coming in the room every morning, pulling up our mosquito net and asking for milk and butter (peanut butter).  We are thinking we are going to have to change his nickname from “Chubby”, since he is thinning out, to Butter.

Once we get up and get going we head down to the kitchen, about a quarter mile walk or a little more, for breakfast at 7:30 am.  Breakfast usually consists of bread, jelly, peanut butter (Pierce’s new favorite) and hot tea. On good days we get either a boiled egg or scrambled eggs to go along with our “raw toast” as one of our classmates calls it.   After breakfast it is time for Karson, Everett and Hadlee to head up to the house with Auntie Rachel for school. Pierce, Tristan and Cole all stay down at the kitchen area and wait on Auntie Gertrude.  Auntie Gertrude watches the “littles” as we call them while the big boys and Hadlee are in school.  They generally play for awhile and go on walks around New Hope to see the cows, sheep, gardens and other fun things around. 

At 8:30 am we begin our training for the day.  We are in school until 10:30, at which point it is proper to have tea and a snack for break.  We break for 30 minutes and then get back to work on our training. I will be updating the topics of our training in other blogs to come. Our class is made up of 16 students.  There is another American family with two kiddos.  Their boys Tristan and Cole are Hadlee and Pierce’s age. There is one other American man and the rest of the class is made up of Ugandans. We work up until 1:00pm, which is lunch time in Uganda.   The kids come back from their adventures and join us for lunch.  We eat lunch with our families and everyone going through the training institute with us.   Lunch usually consists of some sort of starch like rice or posho, which is a thick dough like substance that I compare to very verydry, very thick mash potatoes without the butter, sour cream and void of any taste. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posho

  After lunch we head back to the house for rest and nap time, unless it is our day to do dishes first. The boys at this point begin watching the clock and counting down until 4:00pm at which time they head out to play with their friends until dinner at 6:00 pm. Dinner is a much smaller crowd, it is our family, the East family and 3 others.  After dinner we let the kids play for a bit and then head back up to the house for a little family time.  Then it is time for the shower, pajamas and bet routine.  This is made very adventurous because a lot of the time we do not have power and we are working by flashlight.  It has also been made even more of an adventure because we are out of running water due to it being the dry season in Uganda. We have a cistern under our porch, however since it is filled by the rain water and since it has not rained in months, we are out of water. The rainy season runs from March through May.  If we can just make it through February, it should rain again.  February is the hottest month of the year, with temperatures reaching up to 100 degrees.  They have said we have had a couple of 100 degree days, but it has not felt like it.  The heat is a very dry heat, unlike Texas, and most afternoons there is a nice breeze.  At night and early morning the temperature drops down to the mid to low 60s, which is very nice.

When we are not in training, we spend time with our family group, Samuel family.  The kids here are all divided into family groups.  The family group consists of a mother and father figure and about 15-20 kids.  The family groups live in a village type setting at the end of the road.  The family groups have chickens and a large garden they are responsible for.  They grow their own food and cook their own meals, they function as a large family.  Every night at 7:30 they have devotions, they work in the gardens around 4:30 everyday and on Saturdays they do laundry and work in their gardens.  One of the things we are required to do during our time here is to plow the fields using Oxen to plow.  That should be an adventure for me!  The Samuel family had already harvested their maze and were working on taking it off the cob.  The girls were doing so by hand and the boys were putting the maze into large bags and beating it with a large stick.  I asked if I could help with this process.  I worked on two large bags and by the time I was done I had a large blood blister on my hand.  The kids thought this was hilarious.  We were also able to tour the fields were they keep the cows and the oxen for plowing.  When we got down there Pierce jumped down and yelled cows!  The man keeping the cows looked up and in a very thick Uganda accent yelled Pierce!  Our kids seem to know more people here than we do.  Another one of my tasks is to get drinking water for the house from the big water tower up the hill.  I fill up to big 20 litter Jerry cans and carry them back to the house.  A full Jerry can weighs about 50 lbs.  I do this once a day, so by the time we are done here my arms and shoulders should be pretty strong. 

Life here has been very busy, but we are learning so much.  Being without power for almost 6 days really makes you appreciate having power and water in the US.  We have lots more to share about our daily lives and what we are learning so stay tuned……..power willing.