Thursday 31st May 2007

Today was not too active.  We saw Edward and gave him a contract to try and make a deal with the landlord of the property that we are trying to arrange for the boarding school.  Apart from this we did not do too much, except for preparing for the Marriage Conference that Frank has arranged for us to be speakers at.

Wednesday 30th 2007

We had a great day today. Firstly we met with Edward and he told us that the Inspector of Schools had given the property we are looking at the OK for running a school there. So we are doing up a contract to sign between the owner and ourselves, as I do not think that he will be doing one up. We also discussed about the name of the boarding school and Edward was happy for us to use the African name of Moses, the boy who had touched Gary & Judy’s heart when they visited. The name is Akanyijuka and means “He remembered me.”

As we were praying with Edward Phil had a picture in his head about the logo and this is what he got, so this is what the name and banner of the first children’s project for Destinations in Uganda will be:

After this we went with Ben for lunch at Lake Bunyonyi. All I can say is that if you come to visit us make sure we take you there. Last time we went with Edward to the shore of the lake, but this time we went to some cottages on the hill side and the views were spectacular. I would have to say it is better than anything I have seen in the coastal hinterlands back home. Here are a couple of snaps that Phil took:

 

Tuesday 29th May 2007

Today we didn’t have much to do, except looking into getting a cot. The carpenters told us they could make one for 40,000 UGX – that’s just under $30 AUD. But we will get Edward to give them a photo of one and correct dimensions and see if he can get a Ugandans price for it – usually at least half. So Quinton and Erica should be happy about that – but I don’t think it will be quite the same as the one they have at home. After this our other job for the day was to buy some more towels as we were currently using all that the Wards had and it is not possible to wash and dry towels in a day. After this we got some lunch and Kathryn tried some yummy yummy chocolate cake – I will say that she will probably not have that again. Phil would say hee, hee, hee to that – he’s been sniggering at everything that goes wrong for Kathryn & I today grrrrrrr. He’ll keep!

Here are a couple of photos I took of the centre of town as we drove back up to the Wards:

 

We are still waiting to hear back about our house, to see if we can move in or not. We have a contract from July 1^st 2007 for one year. The current tenants are not living there, but have a few things to pick up. We have been waiting for over a week now as the landlord tries to contact them to see if we can put his things in part of the house and live in the rest until they come back to collect their things. Once that happens we will be busy cleaning and getting household items and moving and getting water and electricity connected etc etc.

We had a visit from Pastor Frank this afternoon; he was coming to tell us what he wanted us to talk about at a conference on Friday and Saturday this week. Not sure how we will go as the Wards took the subject that I thought would be best. If we do not have much on tomorrow, still need check with Edward in the morning to see how things are going, we will head up to the lake with the Wards and relax a bit.

Here is a photo for Quinton and Erica – it is a shot of your wing at the house we are looking at – BYO windows!:

 

Phil and I have been walking in the mornings and here are a few photos of what it is like in the mornings. Every morning is different but still magnificent:

 

Monday 28th May 2007

I learnt two valuable lessons when eating out today. 1. ‘Local Vegetables’ means beans. 2. Don’t order something just because it sounds good. I had a Vegetable Burrito at a local restaurant and resolved that I will not go there again, though we probably will one day in the future.

We got some productive things done in the administration side of things today as the power was back on and we could use the computers again, estimating set up and running costs, and getting together some child profiles. We also have organised for the property we are looking at to be inspected by the Inspector of Schools. So hopefully if that works out well then we can look at getting things under way. Our relationship with Pastor Edward and others is getting better and better, we seem to be getting things done. Although nothing official has actually happened, many things are underway and will just need the processes to take place before things start happening.

It is good to hear that Quinton, Erica and Amelia have had their last Sunday in church and will soon be with us here in Uganda. They must be feeling excited now – or at least I hope so. Kathryn and I are sharing on Friday and Saturday and a Marriage Conference that is being hosted by Pastor Frank. Don’t know if we will be much help or not, but we can give it a go. Then on Sunday we are leaving early to drive to Kampala again to meet the incoming troops on Monday. It will be funny to have them arrive in Kabale and us show them around as we don’t know too much yet, mainly just where the bakery and internet café are.

I thought about some things that Eddie said to us the other day while we were praying. He said that it was as if Kabale had been on a life support system and it was now going to be taken of and us coming was going to inject a new vitality into the local churches and community. Also he used climbing a mountain as an example of what things will be like for us. It will be hard and there will be pitfalls and setbacks. We will take locals with us to help, but also to inspire and take with us. When we to the top, however, the view will be amazing! To look around at all that God has done will be better than any view form any mountain.

Also, as requested, here is the Wards – Pam:

Eddie:

 

Ben:

It is a great experience living here with them. They are great people, looking after us while we get organised, and an awesome encouragement to us. We are learning much about living in Uganda as a westerner, like tonight we were about to sit down for dinner Sam (the boys living with them) came home in a huff, a pastor came around to invite them to preach at his church in a few weeks and another young boy from their project arrived after he had been to the hospital and was told he needed a needle as he had a disease. Not sure exactly what is up there, but he slept the night and Pam is taking him to the hospital tomorrow to try to sort it out. One really great thing about dinner though was I got to try out some chilly powder I bought from the supermarket today – very nice indeed. This is where they live:

This is Phil soaking in the missionary vibes at the Wards:

And this is the hot rod that we cruise around town in:

Sunday 27th May 2007

Today we went to Pastor Jackson’s church.  It is held in their home, they have a large lunge room that fitted around 15 people.  It was a good service and Jackson brought a good word about love.  Afterwards we stayed to some drinks and snacks.  It is funny here, when you to someone’s place for a drink or meal they seem to get formal and people make speeches and stuff – hopefully we can break that habit.  We talked a little about me giving various people from their worship team lessons.  I even gave Jackson a it of a quick one after eating.

 

For dinner we went to Manzi’s house.  Harriett cooked a magnificent meal, but the best thing about being there was the company.  Henry must be one of the humblest, most nice people that I have had the opportunity to meet.  He shared his testimony with us and we spoke about life in Australia and Uganda.  It was great being with them, it really made us feel that it is in God’s plan for us to be here and that He will be looking out for us.

Saturday 26th May 2007

We had a few things to do today. We were going to get some stuff sorted for the project on the computers and stuff. But we woke up this morning and the power was off. So that put and end to that. We ended up not doing much at all today. Phil said that his most exciting thing in the day was eating a banana!! I thought about a few things today, including my life before and after salvation. Before I was saved I just existed. When I look back at my life, now that I have Christ I have a new life, new purpose and a new meaning for existing. Being here I can see that with each day in Jesus I gain more life, more purpose and more meaning in my life.

Some people have asked for us to post some photo’s of the Wards – the people who we are staying with. Here is a few photos’ of some of the residents. This is Korma:

Here’s Tikka:

Masala:

Penang:

And Phil’s favourite – Butter:

Friday 25th May 2007

Relax Relax Relax.  This was our plan for the day today.  We just wanted to get something small on the car looked at and send a few emails.  The car turned out to be much longer than we expected, and we will probably have to go back again.  Then we went to the internet café to send emails, and the connection was down.  So we basically had nothing to do today and accomplished nothing.  That’s Uganda for you I suppose.  One thing we did accomplish though was to go to Pastor Jackson’s church on Sunday.

Thursday 24th May 2007

We met Pastor Frank today at VCCS to go and meet various Ministers and Political people that we will need to know.  It was just a chance to meet them and make ourselves known to them so that they do not discover us and what we are doing by chance one day.  A chance to make sure we know who to talk to ensure we are doing things right and not have to change the way we have done things at a later date.  Me met the Regional District Commission (RDC. the presidents local representative), the LC5 Chairman (basically the same as the premier back home), the Deputy RDC, the Vice Chairman (the one who looks into NGO’s), the District Inspector of Schools and the Local Inspector of Schools for Kabale. 

It was good we met theses people as we have been put on the right track for starting a school.  The local inspector of Schools said that some people just start up a school, but when she inspects she has to close them down as they do not meet the requirements.  It is also as Pastor Frank has a good relationship with her and we will be able to get her to inspect any property we are looking at to ensure it will meet the set standards.

For lunch today we went to a local ‘Pork Joint’ that Ben seemed to talk about a lot.  When we arrived there Phil said ‘Man, this looks like one shady operation’ and the look on Kathryn’s face said that she was thinking the same.  But we went in anyway and now Phil seems to want to make it a regular place to eat.  This afternoon I went with Pastor Frank and Pastor Edward to a local Pastors fellowship.  It was a good chance to meet some of the people we will have contact with in the future.

Wednesday 23rd May 2007

Today when we were talking with the Wards, Pam made a good comment that really encouraged me.  She said that God asked for us to go to do the job that we are doing, and He knows we are not perfect.  He knows all our faults and all that is wrong with us, He knows that we will get many things wrong and make many bad decisions.  Beside all this He still chose to send us.

We had a pretty relaxing day where we did not do too much – we are waiting for things to happen before we can do anything else so we took the opportunity to just do not too much at all.  In the afternoon when the Pam & Eddie came home they said about there church having another baby now.  Not someone from the congregation having a baby, but another one that had been brought to the church for someone to look after it.  It was discovered on Monday in the football stadium, after not long being born.  The person who had found it found it with a brick on its chest.  This just highlighted yet again the need for things to change here in Uganda.  I don’t think that this child would have been left for any other reason, except desperation.

After dinner Phil went with Ben to watch a soccer match on TV at a local hotel so we watched a DVD with Pam and Eddie about the situation in northern Uganda, one that I had brought with me.  After watching this Pam said that she is moved greatly by the situation there, but also said that there was many things that were comparable that happened in the Kabale district.  Maybe not as straight out horrific and sadistic, but just as bad anyway.  We spoke a little on the way that children are beaten at home and at school.  One of the children in there program missed a few weeks of school at the beginning of a term, and at the end of the term was beaten for not having full notes.

Today was just a big thinking day – a day to reflect on the situation that we have come to.

Tuesday 22nd May 2007

Today Manzi came and saw us before breakfast and he gave us the contract for the house. It is good as it is automatically renewable for the same term unless we let them know in advance. So it is good to know that if we are staying on more than one year then we will have the same house for the same price. After breakfast we went to Mbarara to get some more money to help set up ourselves. We had a good lunch there and headed back. The drive was good, but it is definitely a different experience driving at 100km/h with people walking on the side of the road. Often if there is a vehicle coming on the other side of the road you need to blow the horn to get people, bikes and even Boda-bodas out of the way. Of course the pot holes and speed bumps are always a constant challenge.
This afternoon I was thinking of the many stories that we hear from the Wards, it seems every time we talk it seems they have an endless amount of stories that make us realise how great the need here is, and makes me feel like what I am doing is definitely worth it. One they mentioned was that when there gets to be too many children living on the streets in town, the police round them up and take them into the bush and drop them all off in remote places one by one, in a hope that they don’t make their way back again. The boy who was here when we arrived had had this happen to him a couple of times.
Many of the big organisations have fancy cars and big houses for their staff to live in, but do not actually do too much to help. The cost of the staff being here must be more than the cost put into the projects. Some pay for the children’s school fees, but then children are not allowed in school because they don’t have books, or pens, or shoes, or uniforms or some other thing they need. One such organisation actually does pay for the children’s uniforms but they only get one uniform purchased when they join the program, do they think that the children will not grow, or that maybe they might need two to be able to have a clean one for school? I am not sure that this is the same every where in Uganda, but this is the way it seems to be in Kabale. I have seen some good projects in Kampala, but nothing that actually helps too much here in Kabale. The corruption is rife here, shipments of donated clothes that are meant to be for charity end up being sold by locals – they have made trade out of it, the only benefit is it makes it cheaper to buy clothes for the needy.

Sorry for not posting many photo’s yet, I have not taken many, but will hopefully start posting some soon.