Kampala in Pictures

 

Heading Out:

Saturday, September 28

 

This morning after teaching preschool (which went much more smoothly today--thank you to whoever was praying. Yes, you!), the Guthries, Mrs. Pysar (a Bible School professor who flew in with us), the Alberta Students and I all piled into Mr. Guthrie's land cruiser to take on the City of Kampala.

 

 

We went to three malls while we were there to shop, stock up and see more of the city.

Malls here are considerably different from those in Canada. For one thing, there are no doors. No snow blows in, or cold of any kind for that matter, so certain corridors and courtyards have no walls at all. You just turn a corner in the mall and suddenly find yourself “outside,”  in an area half exposed to the open air.

One mall's inner courtyard

 

Sodas at the Grocery Store
(The yellow ones are pineapple.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 For another thing, when you enter the parking lot of a shopping plaza here your car must first be searched by a guard. They’ll look in the window or open the door and talk to you, much like the guards at a border crossing. Sometimes they scan the undercarriage of your vehicle with a metal detector to make sure nothing is attached underneath. You also may find yourself being scanned and your bags being searched on the way into a large store as though at an airport.  

Street Scenes

Driving through the city, you can tell which taxi vans are Islamic
and which are Christian by what titles are painted on the widows.

The food courts here are also quite different from those in North America. There, you walk up to a place, order food, pay for it, and take it to a table. Here in Uganda, as soon as you walk into a food court you find yourself surrounded by a crowd of representatives from different restaurants to present you with a menu. You pick the dish you want, tell the attendant and let them bring it to you. They then come again with the bill later, like at a regular restaurant.


The food court, partially open to the world outside,
overlooked a golf course where this crane was roaming.
I'm pretty sure I've seen similar birds in zoos before...

Maize Flour for Sale
(Used to make posho, a Ugandan staple)

A sign encountered upon entering a new mall

Pricewise, 2,500 Ugandan shillings are worth about $1.00 Canadian. So the whole day's purchases for me, including a huge lunch, a Ugandan Birds field guide and a scoop of mango ice cream only cost about $10 CAN.

You can imagine that walking through the store takes a good deal of thinking here, as you must translate the several-digit figures you see on all the merchandise to dollar equivalents!



You'll notice that the billboards here are the size of small apartment buildings!

Life at Home Base

Errands off the compound offer a chance to see other sides of the city

 

``Now we`re going to do...everybody listen. We're going to--Jonny! Take that toy out of your mouth! It was just in Sylvia's!" That's pretty much how substitute teaching preschool went today. The class at the Baby House consists of a really cute bunch of kids. When you're sitting down, they'll stand against a far wall, count to ten, and then charge at you to give you a big group hug. (And then bang heads. Oops.) When you start swinging one of them around in circles, a high pitched chorus of "Also me!" is sure to ensue. When you quiz them on their colours, you'll probably hear "yellow" called "banana" and "gray" called "dark white."

As I said, they're very cute. But when you lock yourself in a room with all of them and try to take charge of the situation, (and they can tell that you're not doing a very good job of it,) things get a little hectic. So that was this morning's challenge. The rest of the day went wonderfully, though! I can't believe it's already been a week since I left Canada. Things have fallen into a comfortable routine:

New Situations

"Get up, get up!" an urgent voice shouted at 4:47 this morning, "We have to leave! We have to go now!"

Kampala at Night

(To continue, please click "Read More.")

 

Finding a Routine

The sunrise over Kampala, as seen from the upper guesthouse balcony:
A strong wind is blowing in the palm trees, making the leaves shudder and applaud.
The sky is filled with the breaking dawn. Roosters are crowing. Birds are singing.

This morning, after the first African sunrise I've witnessed took the breath away from everyone who experienced it, the time came for me to start work at the Baby House. It's pretty easy really--you just sit there and let the preschoolers treat you like a jungle gym. Jjaaja (Grandma) Ritah, a missionary lady here, teaches kindergarten to the older children here and allowed me to help out! We told the story of Jonah and the Fish, using a balloon animal.

A group of us then went to a local plaza with a really fun grocery store. Here, the mangoes and papayas are local, and the apples are imported!

Next came lunch at the Bible School, which happened to be posho (a mashed potato-like dish made from white maize) and beans. The students are hilarious! It's going to be fun getting to know everyone here. Speaking of which, Ritah helped me sign up to audit a world religions class at the school, starting tomorrow. That should be interesting!

All in all then, things are going ok. It's a huge learning curve, and this morning I woke up thinking that it should be about time to go home! But I know that this is all happening for a reason, and God Himself will lead this thing through, one day at a time. At the end of the day, every challenge faced proves worth it. So thank you SO MUCH for your prayers! May every purpose of God be accomplished.

Diving In

First Impressions IMMERSIONS

Sunday, 3:25 PM

From experiencing a power-out to trying traditional food for the first time to having to teach a village Sunday school on the spot, there hasn't been a single dull moment out of my first 15 hours in Uganda!

(For the whole story + pictures, please click "read more")

Into Africa

Upon stepping off the plane last night, the first thing that hit me was the air. It's wet. The next thing I noticed was an exotic-looking tree, giving it a double-take because it wasn't a poplar. Then as we drove in the dark to home base on the outskirts of Kampala, I noticed the roads. We were driving on the left!


When we finally pulled into the guesthouse, I greeted my new roommate, a Bible College student from Alberta named Alyssa. I was also greeted by a power-out, which is apparently a frequent occurrence here. Missionaries often come home talking about taking things for granted, like tap water and light switches. Now, I believe them! Trying to get organized in new surroundings by a Coleman Lantern gets to be a little difficult after a while, so I feel spoiled now that the light switches are working again. As to water, we get to drink out of a Biosand filter--the kind that you can donate to families overseas through organizations like Samaritan's Purse.

This red mound happens to belong to a civilization of termites. This is the smaller of two mounds along the red dirt road which winds up toward the guesthouse, which is the building in the top of the picture. The last time I walked by this scene, a goat and two oxen were in it as well.

Getting Here, Part 2

Brussels-Entebbe:

4:27 AM We’re flying over the ALPS! Right now, this honestly feels like one of the neatest things I’ve ever experienced. –Probably because it never occurred to me that we would need to cross them in order to reach Uganda, so doing so turned out to be an  surprise. =)

 

5:03 AM: We’re now over the Italian Peninsula, nearing Rome. Supper just came (including cheese and chocolate mousse), following those really cute pretzels we got a little while back. This is the first time I’ve ever eaten a pretzel that speaks a different language!

 

 

 

7:32 AM We’re flying over the deserts of Northern Africa and I’ve officially lost all concept of “time.” It doesn’t feel like 4:33 PM (that’s Uganda time) but it certainly doesn’t feel like 7:32 either. It’s ridiculously weird to believe that it’s been more than 25 hours since I last got out of bed, and that my family has gone through an entire day and night since I last saw them!

Unidentifiable Point in Time Several Hours Later

After stopping in Rwanda for an hour to reload the plane, we finally flew into Entebbe, Uganda. As we were landing, I saw what I thought was a cloud out the window. Then I realized something: "that's no cloud--that's a hill! And these are trees! And this is Africa!"

Getting Here, Part 1

Chicago-Brussels

 

Friday, Sept 20-Saturday, Sept 21

Chronicled in terms of Canadian Mountain Time



Chicago:

Outside my window is the most incredible sunset I think I’ve ever seen! “It’s like Christmas,” Andrea says, looking at the colours in the sky.









We’ve just gotten into our seats in this incredible Boeing 777, a nine-seats-across jet that is supposed  transport us from here in Chicago to Brussels, Belgium. This metal tube is to be our home for the next 7 hours and 55 minutes, but from the looks of the blankets, chargers and touch-screen TVs, we won’t be roughing it. Andrea and I decided we should just stay here for the next 3 months.

 

12:35 AM This is the first midnight I’ve ever spent eating
 breakfast over Scotland, of all things, 
instead of being home in bed!

 

 

11:53 PM

Even though it’s midnight in Canada, it’s actually daybreak here as we’re approaching the UK. Only a little while ago it was so dark that I was able to witness a falling star trail fire across a larger-than-life Orion suspended above the dark gray Atlantic. Now, it’s bright enough to see the Scottish Isles between the clouds.

The East Coast of Scotland

1:07 AM The intriguing, irregular-shaped patterns of Belgium are now below, some spotted with black and white sheep.  Green fields, red roofs, grey steeples…what a lovely place. I might just stay here!

 

Anticipation

Friday, Sept. 20
Departure Morning


When's the last time you sat buckled into a roller coaster, waiting for it to start moving?

Were you nervous? Excited? Wondering what thrills or threats the twisting, galloping path ahead would involve?

I'm ri-i-ight with you. I've waited in line (for eighteen months, planning, preparing and getting poked by needles to go on this thing!), secured a ticket and am now at more or less the point of no return. You know--that point when you step forward into the roller coaster car, buckle in, and feel an attendant push a restraint around your shoulders. Then you start thinking.