Church Ugandan Style

Sunday 1st Feb
Church this morning was very local - about 5 minutes walk from the YWAM base. It was fairly small, about 40 locals and 22 visitors. Just like home, very few people there at 10 am, turn around at the end and there were pepole everywhere. It was a familiar style for us, worship followed by some testimonies, we visitors were welcomed, there was a kids presentation then the sermon. Would you believe it? An American lady preacher! Mind you the local guy translates into the local language, and then when she had finished he summarised it again in english, with his off-sider translating for him in the local language. Then afterwards it was fun meeting them all and walking home with many of them.

Noah, the kid next door sang and gave testimony / led a special offering during the service




The Worship team seemed a fairly flexible arrangement - people moved in and out from the front.








The flurry of posts is about to dry up, it will be several days before we are back in town where internet access is available.

Our First Day Out

Sat 31st Evening
This afternoon we travelled into Jinja town to acclimatise, find ATMs where we could get some local currency, have a bit of a look around and then we enjoyed a nice dinner at a restaurant. Some people found that their cards only work at one particular bank, and unfortunately both branches of that bank had very long queues that appeared not to be moving. We will try again tomorrow. Again we were amazed at the people wandering around, not only during the afternoon but also at night as we came home. Jinja town is a place unlike any I know about in Australia. The vast majority of shops are tiny little rooms smaller than most stalls at Victoria Market. The streets were asphalted, but had huge potholes all over the place and parts that have just been washed away. Adherence to road rules in the town centre was as bad as anywhere else, despite signs pleading for people to obey them. We found of course that there are different prices for Mzungus and Ugandans and you have to work hard to get a bargain, whils some things are remarkably cheap. Internet access to upload these posts and check a few emails etc is 500 Shillings or about 45 cents! Tomorrow we are going off to church at the local church where our breakfast cook Grace attends. Should be fun.

Working on the Site

Sat 31st
After a good night’s sleep, we started with breakfast at 8am which consisted of chipattas (like pancakes but a bit heavier) with jam or with egg rolled up or the super model called a Rolex with egg, cabbage and carrot rolled up. There were also some roasted potatoes, some donuts, and more pineapple. We had devotions and conducted a prayer walk around the site, and then it was into work for everyone. Paul, site manager for team 2 allocated jobs to everyone and then it was hard work for all. Some laid mud bricks, some laid fired bricks for the septic tank, others dug trenches, some painted window frames, some mixed mud, others sifted dirt ready to mix mud, some brushed walls, some set out the string lines for the next building, the kitchen and toilet block, and John our leader went shopping. I think he ended up working harder than any of us.

God's Plane for Africa

Our flight from Hong Kong to Nairobi was very interesting. The first part, to Bangkok, was very quiet and the plane was half empty. At Bangkok a number of people came on board. Thos who joined Dan in his row pulled out their bibles, in chinese, and read them for ages. When they stopped long enough for him to engage them in conversation he found out that they were on a mission trip to Sierra Leone to work in a train ing school there. A little while later I had a conversation with a young lady who, with her friend, (Sally and Esther are on the left in the photo) is headed for the Watoto children’s homes in Uganda to volunteer for a month. Then as we were walking into the terminal, I was talking to a guy headed for a remote locatiton 12 hours slow drive out of Addis Ababa where his son and daughter in law are serving God. They will help to get started the process of ‘home schooling’ the grandchildren. It really was God’s plane for Africa and its people.

We Have Arrived

Friday 30th
Today we arrived in Jinja Uganda, after many hours travelling. To our great relief, all of our luggage including shovels arrived with us. We were met by Ivan and a boy from the house next door to Hope Village called Noah. They took us to our bus for the trip to Jinja- an amazing experience of complete disregard for road rules and the realisation that this is a very different place to Australia. We arrived in time for lunch and made our acquaintance with “posho”. We were spared the combination of it with beans, instead having a rather tasty egg plant topping.
After lunch we settled in, some of us resting and catching up on sleep, others fought jet lag by getting straight into some brick laying.
Dinner was rice, beans, chipatta – a rather thick pancake- and pineapple that was so good I really liked it and I don’t like pineapple.
An early night for most as we try to adjust our sleeping clocks.

The Journey

Its Happening

We are on the way. Stage 1 of the flight has gone well. There was lots of room on the plane so we could all stretch out and get some rest. Everyone is excited that it is really happening now, only a few hours (well 18 or so) and we will be in Uganda ready to meet up with team 2 and get started. way.