Facts of Life....

Africa is a difficult place to live.  This may be the understatement of the year.  The sheer act of existing in a village here leaves no time or energy for possibilities of ‘getting ahead’.  

Even if access to clean water exists for a village, it still means making multiple trips a day and usually waiting in line to fill your gerry can (interesting tidbit on these below).  If no clean water source is near, miles must be walked to bring back as much as possible, a fire built and water boiled over the fire before consuming, which means gathering more firewood.   Getting water is often a job for the children.  It is not an uncommon sight to see a child Lila’s age and size carrying a large gerry can.  And they are quite heavy when filled.  

With no refrigeration, indoor plumbing or other ‘luxuries’, meals (or rather MEAL for most) must be picked or purchased and prepared each day.  There are few vegetable or meat options because of spoilage and cost, so most survive on a diet of starches.   Herding cattle back and forth to pastures can be a full days’ journey.  

With few or no changes of clothes, things must be washed by hand, usually requiring a trip to the nearest water source to be scrubbed in dirty water by hand and hung to dry, something that happens infrequently as there is usually nothing else to put on while laundering the clothes on one’s back.  

Dirt roads filled with potholes make travel very difficult, so unless a village is located within walking distance to a larger trading center, getting supplies, food, medical care and education can be extremely difficult.   Many times villages do not even have dirt roads and have to go through fields to even reach the nearest dirt road.  Below is a photo of one such village we visited.  I have yet to figure out how anyone can even find these villages to assist them.

Despite the circumstances, smiles seem to come easily to Ugandans.  Children run out if they hear a car and a simple wave seems to make their day.  We stopped and passed out ‘sweeties’ (aka dum dum lollipops and plastic eggs filled with jelly beans, compliments of Ms. Leila at Lila’s school) during Easter weekend to many of these children, and had to show most how to unwrap them and warn them not to eat the sticks.  They were simply precious and so excited to receive such a treat.  

The children here are incredibly well behaved.  When we stopped at a place Auntie Rox has visited before to pass out clothing, toothbrushes and sweeties, the children bowed and thanked us.  One young girl received a pair of shorts and a tshirt (quite possibly the only new outfit she had ever had) only to offer them to another who arrived after we had passed out everything.  The other girl took her choice of one item and both girls left happy.   I couldn’t help but think how this same situation would have probably ended up quite differently at my own home and in my own country.   The little girl in the right photo literally dropped to her knees when I gave her underwear, shoes and a toothbrush.  

We came to serve the people of Uganda, and very much plan to continue to do that, but are seeing that they actually have much to offer us, too.   Our own children are realizing this as well.  During our de-brief over breakfast this morning, Brayden eloquently stated that it seems easier to share when you only have a little and having a lot can sometimes  cause people to become selfish.   WOW!  We are so incredibly proud of the way all of our kids have adjusted to all of the changes around them.  We know that God is working in their hearts as much as our own and are amazed at the profound thoughts and comments they are having.   We are so grateful they have the opportunity to see how much of the rest of the world lives at such young ages, and trust that the things they are being exposed to will impact them for the rest of their lives - much as they will our own. 

Okay - that’s enough philosophical writing for the day.  On the gerry (jerry) can.....during WWII the Germans used these [usually] yellow plastic jugs to carry fuel and tied them  on their tanks.  People called the Germans ‘Gerrys”.....thus the eventual adoption of the term used for the containers they carry their water in.   These jugs typically carry 5 gallons of liquid.  Try lifting 5 1-gallon jugs of milk at once to have an idea of the load the people (children!) are carrying for water!

And I’m not sure who is having more fun with the constant games of football - Rob or the kids!  Why do Americans call football soccer, anyway?! 

Seriously, we are all having an amazing time and are so thankful for all of you who are following our journey and praying for us.  Thanks so much to everyone who made donations for our trip.  The children could not be happier to receive all of the items you were so generous in giving.  We are still working on the coordination of our well and hope to have more to report on that after some meetings next week.  Blessings to everyone in America from Africa! 

From Tyler

Hi! Tyler here!

We just came back from a trip right at the Uganda/Congo/Rwanda border. We stayed at a lot of hotels (which were really mostly tents), and we drove on roads that were actually dirt with a ton of bumps.  I liked every part of it except for the very long driving.   

They measure distance in kilometers here.  10 miles is equal to about 16 kilometers (we looked that up!), but could take an hour to drive on these roads.  Before we left, I drew a map of Uganda and charted our journey.  But guess what? The driver ended up taking a different route, but I still learned a ton making the map.  

We saw   a ton of zebras, a few elephants, warthogs, hippos, water buffalo and baby crocodiles.  We stopped in a fishing village and gave out “sweeties” (they call all candy sweeties) and clothes.  We stopped at another village and gave out more clothes and toothbrushes.  The kids were all very excited and ones at the second place were very respectful and bowed when we gave them things.  It was the sweetest thing ever and made us feel good about helping them.

We are staying in a house in Kampala with clean water, but we only drink bottled water because our bodies aren’t used to the water here.  We even have to use bottled water to brush our teeth and rinse our toothbrushes!!!!!!!!!!!  One of the places we stayed over the weekend had no running water!(They filled big jugs with water from the lake for washing your hands and body (but we didn’t shower there!) and bring supplies back and forth on a canoe.  I twisted my ankle at this place, but it’s mostly better now.

I have made some friends here that are also in 3rd grade.  Their names are Wasswa (Auntie Rox’s Ugandan son) and David (his father is a leader in Southern Sudan and may be the first president there - pretty cool!).  We also play football (what we call soccer) almost every day in Auntie Rox’s front yard with the children from the community.  Most of these kids don’t own shoes and many don’t have parents.  One of the boys, Brian, lives with his 13-year old brother who works all day to make money to pay rent,buy them food and send Brian to school.  Brian has been on vacation from school, so he came and did home school with us one day last week.  He did pretty good with writing!!!!!!!!!!!!  Sometimes we have the neighborhood kids join us for lunch.  We think it is sometimes their only meal for the day.  One girl who comes over whenever we open the gate is Sarah.  She is Brayden’s age and shares one pair of shoes with her brother.  Once when she came over for lunch we had to teach her how to eat a sandwich!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

I miss everyone very much!-tyler