(mary holding some of the gifts my school sent over with me. Thanks Barcroft Elementary!)


They have a saying here,

"TIA." "This is Africa," usually when describing the frustrating aspects like trying to walk through the taxi park with an oversized bag (which is pretty much like a New York City street on steroids) getting haggled by boda drivers when you refuse to get ripped off, getting eaten by mosquitos, or showering with a roach who isn't willing to share. (Thought I was finished with roaches when I left Rwanda ;) It's amazing in the few months I've been gone how spoiled I've gotten. Here, everything takes patience. We don't know how lucky we are to be able to even drive our own cars or go where we want to go when we want, or take a hot shower.
We don't know how blessed we are to be able to walk down a street and not see a baby with sores on her feet holding out her palm as her mother's tiny beggar.

Or what about freedom of speech? They actually hosed people down in the streets for voicing their support of democracy. Here in a place that supposedly has a democracy. But I guess we understand that in the US too. Only not to the same extent.

So there is that meaning. But I think there is another meaning also. One more pleasant. That Africa is a place where anything can happen. Where you never know what the next day will bring or where it will take you.

In America we are blessed and we are cursed. Cursed because every minute is planned and we are such control-freaks that we don’t know how to deal with the kinks in our plans. Not me of course :)

Here my friends give America’s most precious commodity as if the world was actually revolving to help other people. They give their time. My pastor friend Edgar has been moving with me the past week helping me start the application process as an NGO here. It helps to have someone to navigate the streets of Kampala or the daunting taxi park. With names like Bukoto, Wandageya, Ndjee, Ntinda and others which are easily confused with similarly named places which take you nowhere you want to go, Edgar is pretty much indispensable. Even though he barely has enough money to live, and he is believing in faith for the funds he needs for bible school, he spends hours dealing with me and my large luggage. Poor guy. Lord only knows why he pays that price.

So this is what I mean about the beauty of Africa’s lack of structure and schedule. This and the fact that because we had no real plan he was able to take me to Jinja to visit a woman who is the closest thing he has to a mother. And she is a mother. She already calls me "daughter." That and the fact that I'm on my way to getting a tan, I’m hoping to stop being called mzungu really soon.

He wanted to introduce me to her because the woman knows everyone. She is one of the real Ugandan women entrepreneurs. She owns her own restaurant at the Source of the Nile and takes care of twenty-some orphans. The woman never rests. She must have cooked for five hours and ironed my sheets about twelve times. When I tried to help her she said, "No today you are a visitor, tomorrow you will be family and then you can help." Tomorrow came and I still wasn’t allowed to help. Such hospitality.

This is Africa, where one day you are in Kampala and the next in Jinja being loved by a big black mama. Where when you get peeed on by a big bat, it means that you are going to have good luck (yes, it happened to me today.) Where you can actually hear an advertisement for "Moon Beads" magic beads that help you calculate when you're going to get pregnant or not. Brown=go for it, White=hold your horses. The new natural family planning system. Seriously? (Ck, I'm going to bring you some;)

Where the fact that there wasn't a schedule turns into being led by the Holy Spirit and meeting a woman who will put in a good word for you on the NGO board and introduce you to the President’s wife, and get you a work permit in one day. These things that normally take weeks and months, have not happened yet, but they will happen simply through a relationship. Uganda reminds me why relationships are important, why we need each other, and why giving each other our time could bring about change in the world.

We all prayed together before I left and I prayed like I can't remember praying in a very long time…with power and conviction and with faith for the hope of Uganda's future that will come through the children we touch. God is doing something here. The least will become the greatest, the smallest one, a mighty nation. It has already begun.

I had hoped to leave for Gulu tomorrow but my friend Isaiah is coming from Kigali and I am meeting "Mama" as she likes me to call her at the market tomorrow to buy crafts that we can sell in the US for the projects we are beginning for our children. So plans, they change. But that's the best part. Who knows what tomorrow will bring, but every day there are people—people to learn from and to love, people who God gives us favor with and who we know will be a part of our lives. Tomorrow is seen with new eyes. Tomorrow a set-back may not be a set-back, a change may not be a bad thing and a detour may bring a blessing we could never have expected. The heavens are open and our hands are open to receive and to let go again.


Sorry few pics so far, internet time has been few and far between. But soon. Appreciate your prayers. I have felt them :)