How Many Muzungus Can Fit in the Back of a Pickup Truck?

Today we traveled to Pastor Francis' village, Mabaale. The team split up between two vehicles. Five of us ladies crammed into a car...that's right, five women in one car. Plus a driver. The rest of the team rode in a van. An intersting thing that I have experienced twice now in Uganda is that when one driver is ready to go - he goes. There's no caravanning here...it's every car, van or boda boda (motorcycle) for himself. So, our car was ready and our driver was off. Initially, I thought maybe we were in a race, then I remembered I was in Uganda! After a short and bumpy drive, we made it to Mabaale.

Our first stop was the home of Harriet and Augustine. For me, this started off a day of being humbled about my own life. Harriet and Augustine are pretty amazing people. They have three children of their own and have adopted nine others. Here's the twist, Augustine had an accident ten years ago that left him paralyzed and bed-ridden. So, Harriet, with her 12 children, take care of their home. And their home brings new meaning to the phrase, humble home. Next, they took us on a tour of their property, garden and the well where they draw their water. The distance from house to well was about 1.2 km as the puff pit viper mamba slithers (according to J.R.). The walk to the well went winding downhill through sugar cane and past a witch doctor's home. We felt like we were in "Honey, I shrunk the Kids." (Minus the witch doctor.) We saw the well and made our way back to their home. I must confess, about half-way up to the house I was out of breathe. Harriet and all 12 of her children walk this path every day, each carrying a five gallon jug to collect water for the day. That's a hefty commute.

Later in the day, a woman brought around a jug of water, a basin and soap so we could wash our hands before lunch. For me, this was incredibly humbling. To know how hard these women have to work to have a small amount of water - I certainly didn't want to use any of it. The scriptures about Christ washing the disciple's feet came to mind and took new life for me. It's a lot different when you can't just go over to your refridgerator and press a button and viola...water. The water she poured on my hands was like diamonds to me at that point.

Prior to lunch, Pastor Francis gave us a tour of his church and the church's school. We broke up into teams and shared with the different classes. My team included Mary Grace and Pastor Dave. We told the story of David and Golliath (as did several others). I was the narrator, MG was David and Dave was Golliath. It was a lot of fun watching Pastor Dave crumble to the ground defeated by David (MG). The kids liked it to!! The classrooms here are pretty similar to the ones back home, it you count the fact that they both include students and teachers. Other than that, picture dirt floors, brick walls, tin roofs, chalk boards and wooden benches. We were all very encouraged by what these kids are being taught - in the P4 class (4th grade) the Religion chalkboard had questions like: who is the head of the church?, what is baptism? and what is a missionary?. It's pretty awesome to see such things, along with prayer, taught and practiced in the public school.

After lunch our ENTIRE team crammed into a pickup truck. We had 14 adults piled into the truck bed! We rode like that (down the good roads of Uganda) for about 30 minutes to see another Presbyterian church. Now, this was a very remote area that we went to, so we couldn't quite figure out why they got the good roads. I figured it was because the tobacco farmers lived on that road. When we arrived at this next church, there was a crowd dancing and singing to welcome us. (Yes, Ugandan Presbyterians dance..shhh, don't tell anyone!) While we were there, they asked us to pray for a young boy who was recently in a severe accident. He sustained a head injury and also fractured his femur bone. I think this pretty much broke everyone's heart. I know it did mine, I was ready to go straight to the bank to get this child help. The day he was hurt, his family took him to the hospital in Kagadi, but they weren't equipped to help him. His parents were told to take him to Kampala - but they couldn't, due to lack of money. Earlier in the day I hurt my foot, I immediatly whipped out the first aid kit for some peroxide, bandaids and Ibuprofen. Wow, was this humbling. Here this child was injured far worse than I could imagine - yet unable to get any help. His life could potentially be affected or hindered by this for the rest of his life.

That's the jist of our day. For me, it was the most engaging, humbling and convicting day I have had here.

We also had some fun conversation with some of the women of the church. They asked us (the girls) about cooking and if we knew how. I think someone said "no" - so they asked "does your man cook for you?" - everyone got a big kick out of that!!

Be thankful for running water, 24 hour emergency rooms, all night pharmacies....and men that cook for you! :)

Blessings,
Jenna

ps - we had another crusade tonight as well - but you've already heard about those. :)

Oh yeah - Pastor Aaron was awesome (and a prankster) as usual!