Saturday morning we got up bright and early and went to help Kathryn’s language teacher, Florence, harvest ground nuts. Ground nuts are basically peanuts and are very popular here. Anyone who knows me very well knows that gardening is not my thing, but I decided I had to participate in the cultural experience. The tricky thing was there were about 4 things growing in this same field and there were no straight lines. So you had to really know what you were looking for before you started pulling. Mercy allowed me to harvest for about an hour and then she’d had enough. So for the next hour or so, her and I played on a mat and watched the others. There are some benefits to have a babying to look after. Ha!! At the end they had to gather all of the crops and put them in one large pile. So everyone had to take a turn carrying the piles on their heads. Even Doug gave it a try. After making the pile we pulled the nuts off of the plants. We just did a few because of time.
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| Don't worry I didn't work the whole time with her in the sling, only for photos, ha!! |
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| Taking nuts off of the plants, I'm sure there is a technical word for this that I do not know |
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| Kylie carrying our harvest |
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| Doug looking manly as he carries his load... note: no Ugandan man would do this, ha!! |
Saturday and Sunday night I got some treats. Saturday, we had nachos for dinner. They make their own chips with baked chapatti topped with cheese and jalapenos and then homemade salsa. It’s not Ted’s (for you OK people) but it did help satisfy my craving. Then Sunday, we had quesadillas. So yummy!
Sunday we went to church at ORA (Orphan Refugees Aid). This is a ministry run by a couple from New Zealand, Sam and Kim. They sponsor around 100 children from single parent families or that have no parents. Sponsorship covers medical care and school fees. They also offer foster families for those children with no family to care for them. Kim said they have hundreds of kids on a waiting list to get sponsored. They leave in a few days to go back to New Zealand for a while and she hopes they’ll be able to raise enough funds to sponsor many more children. Each Sunday they hold a children’s service. I was so glad to get to attend. There were about 50 kids there. These are kids that are part of the sponsorship program or from the neighborhood. Worship is led by a 16 year old girl named Peace. Peace has a 6 week old baby that is the product of a rape. Her family disowned her, so now she is living at ORA. It was beautiful to watch her lead the children in singing. The “praise band” consisted of Sam on guitar and then about 5 boys playing the drums. The drummers were amazing! Then Sam told the bible story for the week, which was the life of Abraham. I was amazed with the number of distractions and other things going on at how much the children retained of the story. Then they sang a lot more. From my time in Uganda, especially with Libraries of Love, I was familiar with a lot of the songs, which was fun. For my LOL people, they even sang an abbreviated version of “Making Melodies”. Afterwards everyone got a treat of mandazi (kind of like a donut) and tea since it was Kim and Sam’s last Sunday. It was not a traditional service at all, but it was so meaningful to me to see children who have so little worshipping God for who He is and despite their circumstances they are still willing to sing praises to Him. I pray that I can have that attitude about praise.
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| Sam and Peace leading worship |
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| The Drummers! |
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| Storytime! |
The rest of Sunday was spent resting, visiting and eating. For those who think I’m withering away over here, I ate a lot!! Mercy had a great time playing with the kids and they were very excited for her to be there. I think this is the most toys she’s ever been around, so she had a lot of fun. I also got to hear a lot about the Taylor’s ministry and the relationships they are forming. When you are a “career” missionary versus a “short-term” missionary you go about things very differently. For them, right now, it is all about learning language and slowly building relationships. But they are now seeing the fruit of this and getting to have some great conversations/discipleship time with several people. I am so excited to see how God uses them in the years to come to reach the Lugbara people.
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Mercy really did have fun, just not in the photo.
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Monday morning (today) we flew back to Kampala. Mercy did amazing on this flight. She slept pretty much the whole way. We came back to the Cook’s place then went out to run a few errands. Interestingly enough, remember how earlier I mentioned all of the stares I got in Arua. I get them in Kampala too, and it seems more common in Kampala for people to yell things at me like, “Where did you get that baby?” or “Did you steal that baby?” or “How can that be your kid?”. I usually just laugh it off, but it does get annoying after awhile. But today, while riding through town I had two men at different times on bodas yell, “Hey mzungu, thank you for what you are doing for the baby!”. That was nice to hear.
***As for news/progress, I did get a bit of good news on our case today. We have been assigned another judge. We still do not have a hearing date, but we are working to get one ASAP. Please pray for things to continue to move in the right direction and pray for wisdom and tender hearts for all people working on our case both in Uganda and the States.
