This post was written by Alan Lewis, a member of the Uganda team. Follow along with updates from the Uganda team as they cultivate relationships with our new partners at the Bududa Learning Center in eastern Uganda.
Today lasted blissfully forever, and you just had to be there to know what I mean. I feel as though I lived a month in one day.
For starters, I woke up at 3:30 a.m. thinking it was 8:30 a.m. Seemed a little dark still and no one was stirring, but what-the-heck, why not try to figure out how to pressurize our new camp shower while everyone was still asleep? Also seemed like a good time to do a two in the loo and get over my fear of the dreaded latrine. Barbara apparently heard me scuffling about (hopefully that’s all she heard) and expressed the next day that she was quite perplexed with my middle-of-the-night activity. She should talk to my wife, Ruth. For now, it was back to bed and then back awake at 7:30 a.m. to the smell of Ugandan-grown French-pressed coffee on the front porch. It was delightful. We were greeted by an African Pigmy Kingfisher lighting on the perimeter fence. The air was cool. That wouldn’t last.
After a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs, omelets, and toast (the eggs were provided fresh from our friend Robert and were the best ever), we loaded up our backpacks and started our first 2-mile walk to the Bududa Vocational School for Sunday worship and an afternoon of crafts for the children of Bududa. It was no longer cool. Hot yoga has nothing on this walk. I had sweated through my belt loops by the time we arrived.
The Worship service was spectacular. Between Allison Hinshaw leading us in Down by the River to Pray, the Children of Bududa singing and dancing, and Samali’s sermon, we all felt God’s overwhelming presence and a wonderful sense of community. This transitioned after lunch into an afternoon of crafts led by our mission team fair for the Children of Bududa, where the sense of community hit a new high. Among the many crafts, children painted t-shirts while others made necklaces, friendship bracelets, and paper airplanes. All I can really speak to is the bead/airplanes room, as somehow I was assigned the job of helping the kids make bead necklaces and wristbands. Me? Beads? Not my specialty, or so I thought. About 1/3 of the way through the afternoon, Court asked me if I wanted to rotate to another room, to which I replied that I had just gotten the hang of making necklaces. Why would I leave now? Somehow I ended up with a blister on my right ring finger from making bead necklaces. Go figure.
The waves of kids seemed to keep coming. We exhausted our supplies ran out of beads, painted lots of t-shirts, and Bryan entranced the boys for hours by making and flying every paper airplane design known to man.
We were all exhausted, dusty, sweaty, and we still had the joy of our 2-mile walk home ahead of us. Did I mention that we are at an elevation of 4,300 feet? As a frame of reference, Blowing Rock and the nearby Continental Divide are only about 3,600 feet. Barbara and I decided to hire a motorcycle, locally known as a boda-boda or pici pici, instead of walking. I only decided to do it because of my sense of adventure, of course, not because I didn’t want to walk 2 miles over dusty, rugged terrain for the second time in a day after two days of international travel.
Once home, somehow my foot-pump camp shower became all the rage. We have a very nice open-air bamboo enclosure to use it in, and a cistern that provides the water.
After dinner, we finished the day with our Psalm reading and a little contemplative time together. Sleep came easy.
Alan Lewis
Uganda Mission Tram