Saturday and Palm Sunday

I didn’t wake up until about 0400 Friday night, which is a new record. It took me a bit to fall back asleep, but then I slept until 0730. Another record! I'm feeling hopeful that I'll adjust sooner than the 1-3 week estimate that many people have mentioned.

Saturday morning I went to The Hangout with the Barcelonans (from Argentina and Chile originally) before they left for the airport. The Hangout is where my meals have been coming from and it’s basically a small slice of western life for people who miss aspects of home like burgers, tacos, and pizza. I was very amused to see that the coffee stand offers pumpkin spice lattes. They should sell uggs next door to complete the package. Then we walked back to the hostel and I was excited to find Ashraf waiting there to drive them to the airport. I chatted with him a bit while they finished packing and we made plans to get together this week for a "tour" of the city and some Luganda lessons. When they finished packing and loading their things, I wished my two short-term friends the best and told them that I hope we meet again in Uganda some day.

    I wanted to do a bit more exploring after they left, so I wandered back out of the complex. About 30 seconds down the road, a man stopped me to tell me that his wife and children had died, he had no money, and something else I couldn’t quite understand. He asked if I knew about “that” and I realized I had missed something critical. I'm not sure if I was being cynical or wise, but based on his clothing (very clean, arguably nicer than what I was wearing) and shoes, I was pretty sure he is a professional beggar. For that reason, I responded "no" while thinking of a way to disengage. He said, "you don't know about AIDS?" *facepalm* After a few more exchanges, I managed to exit the conversation semi-gracefully with a "I don't have any shillings" (true, I hadn't exchanged my USD yet) and told him that maybe I could help him out another time. He asked me where I lived 😬 and I gestured vaguely while saying "down the street".

    After a short outing, I returned home because my lunch was being delivered soon-ish. I noticed that I was feeling very lonely for some reason, which caught me off guard. It happened suddenly and felt much deeper than I could justify. I concluded that it was a spiritual loneliness because I had not spent enough time focusing on God and His reasons for me being here. It's very easy for me to forget that I'm here to see what He can do through me, not what I can do myself. I sat down with my Bible and found exactly what I needed in the pages Isaiah. I was reading for about 45 minutes when one of the other guests happened to walk by and struck up a conversation. We talked about the state of the Church in the US and the disparity between how many Christians live their lives and what Christ called us to do. We were not called to build beautiful churches and have beautiful services - we were called to love and to serve, especially those in most need. He said it was difficult when he recently returned to the US after being here for more than a year. He told me of his frustration at seeing millions of dollars spent on new buildings when the old buildings were still perfectly usable. More then 40% of the global population lives on about $5 or less per day, with about 800,000,000 people living on less than $2/day. That's 2.5x the US population that survives on less than $800/year. 1 billion of the 2.2 billion children in the world are living in poverty. Something needs to change and it's not the sound system, lighting, seating, or gym for a church that is only serving people living on $40,000-$200,000/year. But I digress... 

    We were joined by the guest I had met the night before and the two of them started peppering me with useful information about some dos and don'ts of Uganda. I was surprised by some of them - *do* eat street chicken, because it's worth the damage it might cause. They also gave me the rundown of local clinics for things like bilharzia. Fun fact: if you need multiple IVs over a period of 24 hours, they will leave the whatchamacallit in your arm when you go home so it's easier to resume when you get back. That's different. Also notable, there is a clinic nearby that offers dental x-rays and cleanings for about $13 total. Wowzers. 

    Saturday night was the night of mosquitoes and barking dogs. I went to bed a bit later than expected and then struggled to fall asleep because there were mosquitoes *inside* my bug net. 😢 After about 30 minutes, I was pretty sure I had killed all of them. Less than an hour later, I woke up to to so much barking. All of the barking. I love dogs, but last night it was hard to think of a reason why anyone would. The neighbor's dog was barking like a bloody fool for 5-10 minute stretches every hour or so, which meant I was woken up about that often. Every time I woke up, I heard mosquitoes hovering around me and it's hard to go back to sleep with that signature mosquito whine fading in and out. I discovered that my long hair can be used as a defense mechanism (I knew it would be good for something!), but I don't think that discovery was worth the number of bites I got. In the morning I noticed that the window screen in the bathroom was open, likely from the windy day yesterday. Oops. The latch is fixed now (+1 point for bringing a multi-tool) and hopefully that's the last time I have a mosquito party in my bed.      

    I still haven't gotten over the phenomenon of toilet snakes, so my middle-of-the-night bathroom trips have a bit more anxiety than I'd prefer. I actually took my phone into the bathroom with me as a flashlight to check the toilet. 😐

    Maria (the person who connected me to Imprint Hope, where she has been working for about 5 years since she graduated high school) told me that the nearest Catholic church has an English Mass at 8am, so I walked over there for a Palm Sunday celebration. The previous Mass was still going strong when I arrived at 7:45 and I was amazed at how many people were packed "inside" the church. There were probably 400-500 Ugandans with only ~100 of them actually inside. Once they ended at 8:15, they fairly promptly began the 8:00am English Mass. I was surprised to be the only muzungu out of 400+ people, but I felt completely at home. Talk about a joyful celebration! I've been to dozens of Catholic churches and I've never seen Mass celebrated in such a pure, joyful, and holy way. They handed out palms and we processed in while waving the palms and singing. I was moved to tears several times because I could so clearly feel God's presence in the midst of this celebration. It ended at 9:45 and I quickly exited so I could catch a boda (motorcycle) and make it to church at 10am across the street from home. Surprisingly, he didn't try to charge me the muzungu rate - maybe because we were leaving church? It was my first time and I was a little nervous, but I figured my soul was in as good of a state as I could hope for it to be. I was a little late to meet my friend, so I decided to get breakfast instead of going to the 10am church service... until I heard them start the service and they were singing with such a holy intensity that I threw my shoes on and jogged down the street to join. I made it in time for a soul-shaking rendition of "Great Are You Lord" that made me think of some amazing people back home (looking at you, Tuesday group 😊). Again, I was moved to tears by the beauty of people sincerely and passionately worshiping God. After a few songs, the pastor preached about the suffering and faith of Jesus in the garden. He pointed out that even Jesus struggled to follow God's perfect plan for him, but through prayer he was strengthened and was able to bring redemption to the world. He suggested that Jesus was also referring to Himself  when he said "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." Such a great service and definitely going back next Sunday for "African Sunday" - everyone is supposed to come in some sort of traditional African clothing. I was told by several Ugandans that it's totally appropriate for me to buy and wear something African; they actually said it would be more inappropriate if I didn't... so apparently I'll be doing that next week.

                                        

    The next few hours were spent meeting more missionaries, expats, and (finally) my new boss Clare. She and Maria came to chat with me about what I will be doing when I start working at IH. Clare also asked me if I would be interested in starting the next day instead of the following week. Heck yes I would!! After that, it was a quick stop at home to get changed before heading to a nearby house to play volleyball with a great group of people. As I was leaving my place, a lovely Ugandan woman named Joyce told me "it will rain soon. Maybe not now, but in the next hour." I told her I was sure it was going to rain the last two days when the sky was covered in grey clouds and it smelled like rain. She said, "that was different weather. Today it will rain." There was one grey cloud covering maybe 10% of the sky but I suspected she knew something I didn't. Sure enough, 30 minutes later I was playing volleyball in the rain (and mud). We had enough people for 3 full teams and that included several people that had played in college. I received several "suggestions" about using all of our touches, setting people, and just generally being better at volleyball. 😅 When the games were done, the owner of the house chatted with me a bit and showed me around his backyard. He is growing avocadoes, jackfruit, mangoes, bananas, lemons, limes, and at least 2 other fruits. He told me he'll have me over for dinner sometime soon so I can have "some good food."

                                                  

    It was an amazing weekend and it blows my mind to think that I've been here for less than a week. If this is the acclimation process, I can't wait to see how well things go when I'm settled in! I'm also amazed at how much was packed into the weekend, so that I barely remember things like meeting a Norwegian ambassador to Uganda who was visiting Jinja from Kampala (the capital, 2 hours away). This is a special place and I am blessed to be here.