December 19 in Uganda

It has been just over a week since I last posted and yet it seems like a year.  So much has happened.  I have now gone to the women's program five times.  I will start doing a Bible Study with them after Christmas.  I was supposed to give a Bible study on Thursday and we ended up having a meeting with them instead.  They have been meeting for about four months.  They receive counselling and two Bible studies each week.  They are fed one good meal.  They have a clean nice place to work in.  They can listen to the radio, talk to each other make bracelets.  They make beautiful beaded bracelets that Abby then buys from them for $2.50.  For the last four months they have received about $2.00 per day allowance.  Yep two dollars.  The staff decided to reduce that to $1.00.  The women were so upset. Several did not come to work at all on Wednesday.  Thus the meeting.  In the end the staff restored their allowances until Christmas.  But after Christmas they will get no allowance, only the proceeds from the sales of their bracelets.  Where is a rich benefactor when you need one?  Abby and the other staff were NOT being mean to reduce their allowance.  But the program is expensive to run with such a young ministry.  So Friday I spent filming some women giving their testimony.  Moreen, a Ugandan staff member will then translate and we will have a short film about the women in their own words.  Saturday we went to the slum to interview a few more women.  Oh my gracious.  It is the same slum that I stayed in for my first trip in April.  All of the women lived in one room.  Several of the women lived in rooms that were no bigger than 8 X 8 feet.  Yet they were gracious and hospitable.  I had the opportunity to pray with each woman.  I honestly had no idea what they were saying while they were talking, but you didn't need language to understand the pain on their faces and the tears in their eyes.  One woman showed us a picture of her husband who had gone mad because of AIDS.  The problem with continuing to live in the slum is that they still have "visitors" come to their houses wanting sex.  They used their own rooms for prostitution.  Most of the women dreamed of returning to their villages to live.  I did take some pictures with their permission and I will add them later. 
But it has not been all work here.  I have had some truly funny experiences here.  I am learning Lugandan.  They boys think it is hilarious.  I am sure my accent is just pitiful.  They love it that I will eat everything that they eat.  Most visitors will not eat everything.  I drew the line on sucking the "meat" out of a fish head.  But I did eat the body.  Probably tilapia.  We have three college students here from North Carolina.  They brought a Christmas tree for the boys and stockings.  So the house looks very festive.  Their church is a really big one and they are the main support behind A perfect Injustice, the ministry that Abby has here. They raised all of the money to buy their land for the house.  They paid for the land this week!  I have also have been able to go the market several times.  Moreen encouraged me to buy some African fabric and have an outfit made.  So she designed me a dress.  I will wear it when I come home in February.  I printed some of the pictures that people have sent me and put them on the wall in my room.  The boys LOVE looking at my family and friends.  Please send pictures.  I will write more later.  It is time for church and I need to go.  I love you all.   Jajja Gina

An Emotional Thursday Night

This post is primarily a copy of the entry from an e-mail that I sent the folks that have requested updates.  If you would like to receive updates just email me!  Please skip the letter if you have already read it but pass on to the bottom for current news.  I can't begin to tell you of all of the wonders I have seen.  But first let me describe what Kampala is like.  Let your favorite three year-old scribble on a piece of paper and then imagine that the scribbles are streets.  Then add LOTS of potholes, mud, and trash.  Then add literally thousands of people.  Walking, riding motorcycles and sitting in little make shift vending areas on a tarps or cardboard boxes.  Then put in hundreds of mini-van type taxis and trucks belching black diesel smoke.  And then throw in a little rain.  Whaaalaaa...Kampala!  I have now gone to the prostituted women's program twice.  There are currently thirteen women.  They are making beautiful glass bead necklaces and bracelets.  (soon to be for sale at MVBC!).  They work five days a week making the beads.  Everyday they get fed, make jewelery, and have either a Bible study or counselling.  They have asked me to teach on Thursdays.  GULP!  I saw some of their kids.  So cute!  I have had boys hanging all over me since I arrived.  The big thing now is to laugh when I am taking my Lugandan lesson.  I have to admit though I sound funny even to me.  I have gone to the big market several times as well.  Ridden motorcycle taxis every day.  That is my prayer time, HA!  They are crazy!!!  I spent my first night in the container but they moved me to a little office so that I can be near the computers and where the boys study.  I have a twin bed with mosquito netting.  I am glad that I brought some twin sheets.  My Ugandan friends have all been freezing because it gets down into the 60s at night.  I am loving it!

But really the reason for this note is to tell you all what happened tonight.  The staff went to sing and pray with the handicapped people that live on the streets.  In Kampala a really handicapped person probably can find no work and there is no social security, so they beg.  I saw wheel chairs made of plastic chairs with old bicycle tires, men with leather pads strapped onto stumps to be able to scoot and great joy.  Yep, joy.  Uncle David brought his guitar and he sang with them.  They were all lined up on the sidewalk in one certain area.  Sleeping on their cardboard and plastic bag beds.  So we moved along the sidewalk and he sang with them.  I shook every hand and greeted all smiling faces.  Then David decided that I should share a word with them.  So I prayed three times for their safety and joy and told them that they were my brothers and sisters.  I was very, very humbled.  I spent a good half hour with one woman who had just had a baby a day or two ago.  Tiny and precious.  Umbilical cord stump still attached.  She rubbed margarine all over her and then put baby powder on her.  She then asked me to give her a name.  I thought of my own family and the sacrifice they are making to let me be here and told her to name her Elizabeth.  Like the mother of John the Baptist, and of course my first born as well. I prayed specifically for her.  God is so good. 

You may wonder why there are no pictures.  I think it would be really rude to take pictures of disadvantaged people until I have a relationship with them and can explain why the photo is important for them and us.  After I have been going to the street programs for the handicapped people for a while, I will take video of them.  You can't help but be blessed and humbled to see people with an internal joy despite such extreme hardship.  I am considering setting up an e-bay store for the sale of the bracelets and necklaces.  I would need a US partner to help me.  I would send the bracelets and necklaces to you and you would have to put them in a package to send.  I think it would be pretty easy with the one postage rate boxes from the post office.  If you are interested in helping with that, please let me know. 
Take care my US family and friends!

Here in Uganda

I arrived safe and sound in Uganda, Sunday night at 10:30 pm.  That is ten hours later than Phoenix.  I had a long layover in London and DID NOT miss my flight (thank you very much).  But I arrived late in the afternoon and by the time I got to my hotel it was very cold, damp and dark.  so I holed up for the night.  Tourist attractions are not open at night in the winter.  But I did walk to the white stag pub and have fish and chips.  The meal included mushy peas, their words not mine.  Not my favorite new food.  The fish was very good and the chips were the fat soft kind.  I also rented a remote, nothing is included at easyhotel.  Ha!  I watched slum dog millionaire again and really enjoyed it.  I got to my plane with plenty of time to spare and was able to have a Starbucks coffee, good but not Einsteins.  On the flight to Uganda I watched Shrek forever after.  Very cute movie.  Today has been probably a pretty typical day except the boys are not in school.  They are on holiday until January.  What a long break!  And like every other kid on the planet they are already running out of things to do.  HA!  I bought a teach yourself Lugandan CD that I will start and brace myself for all of the boys laughing at my horrible accent.  I went to the market today with David but quickly ran out of money.  I bought a web stick and a Uganda phone.  Number to come later.  So I still need the basics: soap, shampoo, and a curtain.  The guys here have made the cargo container very homey.  I have a space just over the size of my twin bed for my "room".  I brought some red sheets from home and it feels great.  The boys asked me today to ride one of their bikes.  Funny stuff when a 50+ woman gets on a kids bike!  Of course disaster was not far behind as I promptly fell into a puddle.  No harm done though.  I also have been helping the boys learn about the computer.  We had four computers donated and I brought them all, wrapped snugly and dispersed in my bags.  Praise God, they ALL made it.  I almost lost the printer though since the terrorist bomb scare in ink cartridges.  But they let me through.  Kampala is warm and humid and I am happy!  You can text me on my us phone at 602-326-5025.  Please don't call.  Thank you for all of your support and I will keep you posted.   GJ