Hello there!
I have been back three weeks now and I can still hardly believe all the experiences I had while in Uganda. Most of our team got together last saturday to catch up and have dinner together. We shared some brief reflections, as well as heard from Alex Wori about his experience on the trip (since his was much different than ours as a Ugandan). Since some of our team have yet to return home, we have yet to discuss in detail next steps.
Our team leader Greg was kind enough to put together a report summarizing our trip. Here is the majority of that letter:
We left Davis the morning of June 17, arriving in Kampala
the evening of June 18. We ate a
late dinner at Milly’s Aunt Irene’s guest house, and were ready the next
morning to drive the 5 hours to Bukigai.
Unfortunately, a tire on one of our vehicles had other ideas, so we were
delayed until noon leaving for Eastern Uganda. After a couple other stops we found ourselves in Jinga,
about half way there, late in the day, so we stopped for the evening. The next morning we met with a
representative of the Amazima Foundation, founded by the young American woman,
Katie Davis, whose story is chronicled in the book “Kisses from Katie.” This was an opportunity to learn more
about the Ugandan culture and her approach to addressing the needs of orphaned
children.
We continued the trek to Bukigai after our meeting, and
gradually made our way allowing for roadside stops for mangoes, bananas, papayas,
watermelons, live chickens, and even a couple turkeys. But once again, a flat tire slowed one
of our vehicles. As the other van
continued on, even the spare on the first vehicle went flat. So after two flat tires another 1 am
dinner ensued – but we were in Bukigai at last.
The next day we had time to meet our hosts, including
various members of the Revival Mission Church in Bukigai. Milly’s brother Richard – one of our
guides and drivers from Kampala – is actually not only the pastor, but the
Bishop overseeing the church in Bukigai along with several other churches in
the Mbale region. We took a tour
of the area, got settled into the rhythm of Bukigai and checked-out the
construction of the church/community center which was one of the major
initiatives of our mission trip.
As it turned out, Alex – who had preceded us by a week –
had enlisted the assistance of his brothers and cousins (who are skilled construction
workers) and church members in Bukigai, and the walls were already 6 feet tall
by the time we arrived. The hope
was to get the walls to the point that a “ring-beam” could be installed to tie
all the walls together. But as a
result of your generosity, enough funds were raised to not only get the
ring-beam installed, but finish the walls to the height that the roof can now
be installed. This exceeded what
we thought was possible.
In the meantime, on Sunday we went to the top of “Prayer
Mountain” for our worship service.
Our vehicle got us half- way up, but after getting stuck in the muddy
roads once (requiring the assistance of local farmers to help dig us out), the
roads simply became too steep and muddy to proceed. This meant hiking the rest of the way. Two plus hours later, we arrived,
finding several church members from Bukigai who had started hiking up the
mountain at 6:00 am, and after a 4 hour hike had been waiting 2 hours for our
arrival. This became known to us
as operating on “African Standard Time” – humorously accepted by our African
hosts, and contrasted with “North American Standard Time.” We all had our first taste of providing
a “preachimony” – sharing about our faith and what had called us to come to
Uganda. This would be repeated on
several occasions.
After our descent back to Bukigai, and a good night’s
rest, Monday started a couple of our other activities – working with kids at
both the primary and secondary schools on art projects, and doing some positive
parenting “training of trainers” with a group of leaders from the
community. At the end of the week,
both schools had murals on external walls that can be seen from the main road
through Bukigai, and about 8-10 people were trained to help pilot three positive
parenting family cooperatives.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights were part of
evening outdoor crusades sponsored by the local church. At each meeting our team shared
favorite scriptures, testimony, encouragement, greetings from UCC as part of
building a long-term relationship with the Bukigai church, and even some
singing. This pushed most of us
out of our “comfort zones,” which occurred continuously and actually was one of
the great blessings we received during our trip. And we cannot forget Richard’s leading of “Morning Glory”
every day at 5:00 a.m. during the week, a time of prayer, Bible study and
getting ready for each day. What
jet lag?
We left on Saturday to go to Alex’s village, which
normally would be about a 3-4 hour journey. But the day before, a heavy downpour had resulted in a large
petrol truck being stuck in the middle of the road. In essence the road going into and out of Bukigai was
blocked for about 36 hours. But
here we learned about “Kingdom Standard Time,” as when we arrived – not knowing
if or how long it would take to get through – a tractor showed up and pulled
out the truck. We waited only
about 30 minutes and then were the second vehicle through and on our way.
The greeting we received in Alex’s village – Muganja –
was unbelievable. Muganja is a
more remote village and much smaller than the Bukigai area, and had last been
visited by Mzungus (us white people) 15 years earlier. Most of us felt like rock stars mobbed
just for showing up, not doing anything. But this reception was real and genuine, and
represented their desire to show their appreciation for our coming to visit and
provide a message of encouragement from UCC.
After a wonderful dinner with Alex’s brother Geofrey and
other family members, we drove back to Mbale where we spent the night. The next morning we worshiped in
Richard’s now “home church.” We
should say something here about worshipping with African Pentecostals. You have not worshipped until you have
experienced the genuineness, joy, enthusiasm and sense of the Spirit found in
the African Pentecostal church – at least in the services we attended. Once again, we were provided an
opportunity to share our stories and bring a word of encouragement from UCC.
The next day we returned to Kampala to prepare for our
departure on Wednesday, July 2. We
did have the occasion to visit the source of the Nile on our way to Bukigai,
and once back in Kampala, finding ourselves with an extra day due to travel
conditions, we ventured to the wilds of Murchison Falls National Park north of
Kampala to view wildlife and see the Nile squeezed through a ravine 10 feet
wide with a 140 foot drop – hence considered the most powerful waterfall in the
world. This was an unexpected adventure
which capped our trip.
I think that is enough reading for now!
You are loved,
Liz
