Children peeling Matoke

These children were in the village we visited near Nama. They were peeling the matoke while one was preparing the sticks to make a fire for the cooking. Every where you go in the villages, you will see someone sitting peeling matoke or cooking it on an open fire. I have not yet developed a taste for it.

While visiting in the village near Nama on Thursday, I purchased the bunch of matoke which the mother cut from the tree, loaded on the bike and had the children push the bike to my car. Matoke is the staple food of the Baganda people; it grows on a tree like a banana tree and resembles a banana. It is peeled, put in a pot which is lined and covered with banana leaves and cooked over an open fire. It is the texture of waxy mashed potatoes and the Ugandans can eat platefuls of it. It is eaten every day by those who can get it.

In Gema Village

Tonny, Timo, Faridah and Becky arriving in Gema for visit Wed., January 7.

photo

This picture was taken in the village of Gema as we walked to someone's house; typical path to a home in Uganda. I am in the picture with Timo and Faridah

January 10

Last week was my first complete week and it was a busy one. We traveled to two villages to organize groups for teaching Imagine Acts Ministry book series. We go to the villages, meet with one or two people we have worked with in the past and have them "mobilize" the other villagers to meet with us on the next visit. We will return next Wed. to the village of Gema and then on Sunday to a village near Nama. Last Sat. and again today, four of us went to the village of Kiraku, where one of the youngest disciples of I AM has had an on-going Bible study.
The group has not stayed together well and we are trying to revive it. We did have a couple more today and 6 children. We had a good study on the first five verses of Ps. 103 and used the book on Creation to supplement and discuss. We had previously taught the book to the JaJa, the grandmother , when I was here in Sept.

We began planning our first tasks we will begin at the orphanage. We had a plumber go out and give an estimate on repairing the water cisterns. We had hoped to have the money to repair at least the one for the hostel(dorm) for the children. We have enough to repair all of the three cisterns at the orphanage and the work will begin next Wed. We should be "catching" water when the rainy season starts in March. Second task is to make new gardens and improve and work existing gardens. We have engaged one of our church members, a Congolese man who is a great gardener to instruct the children, plan the gardens and the planting, and supervise the work. The ground is very hard from neglect and it has been suggested that we hire 10 prisoners to work three days breaking up the ground. We will have to purchase the hoes and the machetes and pay about $55.00 for the three days of work. Planting will begin in mid Feb. in anticipation of March rains. We will be growing potatoes, eggplants, beans, a root plant they eat here and maybe some other vegetables. We will begin work on the old chicken coop which is on the premises. One of our IAM workers will be the supervisor and trainer of that project. Although he is only 20, he is experienced in raising chicks and is a faithful worker. He will have two or three of the orphans to help him. Meanwhile, I will arrange with Tonny, one of I AM workers, to get a work crew together to do general clean up of all the trash on the grounds. It is pretty bad.

Some of the children from the orphanage have gone to relatives homes during the holiday and school break, so there are only a few remaining; however, some university students who are home from school reside there during holiday. School will begin on first or second of Feb.

I am satisfied that we are off to a good start. We will be providing income for at least three and stimulating the Ugandan economy!Thanks to everyone who donated to these causes.

Monday, I leave to travel to Kampala, the capitol to meet with the artist for the books and the printer. We will then travel north to Mukono where we will meet with the Associational Director of the Baptist churches of Mukono to plan for training, teaching, and distribution of the books. We leave Mukono in the afternoon and head to Jinja where we will drop Henry Lutwama off for his three week session at the Ugandan Baptist Seminary and I will spend the night with the Academic Dean of the UBS and his wife. Tuesday morning, Henry and I will have the opportunity to teach a class of the incoming pastors on our book series, our teaching methods, and training. We will distribute books for the pastors to take back to their churches and villages all over Ugandan and 5 other countries bordering Uganda. We are very excited about this opportunity and hope to return for each rotating class of pastors during the next three months.

I welcome your comments and suggestions. Thanks for your interest in the work of Imagine Acts Ministry in Uganda.

January 5

On Sunday evening Norah's husband died.
Norah is a 19 year old mother who lives right outside the gates of my compound. Her daughter Catherine is about 2. Norah is very poor and I was able to give her small jobs in Sept-November to assist her. I paid her about $8.00 a month to come and sweep and wash a few clothes. She was always so grateful and loved coming here. She was the first person to come and welcome me on New Year's Day when I arrived. At that time, she told me her husband had just been released from the hospital after 9 days but was no better. The diagnosis was what 90% usually are, malaria and/or typhoid. Saturday he went back into the hospital and died on Sunday.
January, the compound guard, came this morning to inform me that as neighbors it is customary for us to attend the burial. He also said it was a custom to write a note and make a donation to the family. We wrote a note from Mityana Baptist Church and I donated the recommended 10,000 shillings, $5.00. January, Henry, and two women neighbors and I left to travel deep into the village for the burial. Since it took us over an hour to get there, the burial had just taken place when we arrived. There were about 200 people there and the women were serving food.
Norah saw us right away and came over. She seemed so pleased that we would come. Her husband had/has two other wives. I am told that he was in the process of divorcing the other two. Regardless, he was not able to provide for Norah and Catherine very well and I don't know what she will do now. Her rent is about $10.00 a month, and some days she and Catherine went without food. I will try to give her work if she wants to continue and some of the girls from the church and I will go to visit and encourage her. Hopefully, we will be able to minister to her and share Christ's love.

The drive was quite interesting; one any young teenage boy with a pickup or Jeep would have loved. An hour's drive of dirt road/path full of holes to dodge, water to drive through and
washboard road conditions. The Rav 4 handled it all and I did a good job myself!! I now might be ready to tackle the highway to Kampala.

We are beginning to make plans for book distribution and ministry work. I will keep you posted.

From Mityana house

Greetings, from Mityana,

Arrived in Entebbe, Uganda, at 10pm on December 31 after a very pleasant and comfortable flight. I spent the night in the Entebbe Guest House, and although the manager, a Dutch man,
had champagne cooling in the drink machine, I declined the offer to sit out with the guests and staff to usher in 2009. I opted for a good shower, an Ambien, and nine hours of sleep.

Ernest, the driver, I have known for several years, met me for breakfast before heading to Kampala. One of the guests staying at the guest house was a Phd professor from Illinois and was going to western Uganda to a national park where she has been conducting research on
chimpanzees. I offfered her a ride as far as Mityana, and she gratefully accepted. She had planned to take a bus or taxi van. We all stopped in Kampala which was unusually quiet b/c of the New Year holiday, did some grocery shopping and exchanged money. When we arrived in Mityana, we spotted the bus to Fort Portal, where the professor was headed; Ernest flagged it down, and she was boarded within minutes. Perfect timing. Ernest can manage anything!

New Year's evening was quiet as most of the town people were still celebrating at their
churches and villages. Mityana Baptist Church had a big meal including a goat and pig which they had slaughtered and cooked. I chose not to go, so I could begin to unpack! Celebration of Christmas and New Years in Uganda means an opportunity to eat much meat, which they normally cannot afford; therefore, having meat is one of the things they enjoy most about the
holidays.

I have visited many friends, shopped in the market, and settled in. In some ways it seems that I have not even been away. The house is in good shape. It is dry season now and I am somewhat worried about the possibility of running out of water since my water source is a cistern of rainwater. I am already trying to conserve just in case. ( I will only shower when really necessary and will try to wear clothes more often before washing!!) Now I understand why everyone here is happy for it to be rainy season. It is also warmer and dustier than Sept. and October.

There is a fuel shortage here and many stations have no gas. Those that do have are charging much higher prices. No one seems to know the reason and conditions are expected to change by mid month.

Timo and Peter and I went to Kiraku, a village that is about a 20 minute car drive from my house, to have a Bible study. We will continue to go there on Saturday afternoons and I am hoping the group will grow. We only had two today, but we had a good time of sharing and praying. Timo and Peter had brought some food for the lady because she was alone and had no way to get food. She was so grateful. She gave us several pieces of sugar cane before we left.

I am cooking beans and as soon as they are ready, I will put them in the refrigerator and go to bed. Hopefully, next week, we will begin scheduling what I will be doing while here.