Turkey

December 21, 2006 - Thursday

Turkey I have decided that the Ugandan word for concrete must be foam, I have been sleeping on a 'foam' mattress these last few weeks and it seems that I still haven't made an impression. It is interesting to wake up to think you've fallen out of bed onto the floor. The weather here is great, I was expecting it to be much hotter, but it seems that the temp stays around 25-30c… I was asking how hot it gets in the warmest part of the year and found that last year they had a record temp of about 36c… so heat is not going to be a problem here… I hate computers again; we've spent the last week installing the new operating systems on them. It's really not fun, but we do buy a ridiculous amount of coke to fill in the time so it sort of evens out. We got the coke on special order from a small store near the house; normally you can't take the bottle away from where you buy it but we promised to bring them back. Bottles of coke cost about 30c but take away (cans) are about 70c… A big thing has come up that I would like prayer for; originally I was under the impression that they were building a new building to house the computers at the children's center. In actually fact the new buildings the director (Anthony) was talking about were built for the children as extra dorms. The plan with the computers was to rent a place near by and set them all up there. The problem that now is in front of us is that the person from the US who was going to supply the funds to rent and set up computer place has sort of fallen through on that gift. This of course leaves us with a problem on the computer training side of things a $10,000 problem. Please pray that God will provide the funds shortly as we are only a week or two away from being ready to set up… I miss cheese, there is no cheese here… By the way if anyone wants to buy an Orphans for Christ in Africa tee-shirt or mug or stuff to support the center click HERE… There are two girls from America coming over in mid January to help in the Kanjjasi center. It'll be good; I am finding that I am missing people my age just to 'hang' out with, so I'm looking forward to that ;) I've been playing a bit of soccer recently with the boys here, they are very good. Not only are they good with ball skills but they are totally switched on when it comes to positioning. It's quite funny to be told by a 7 year old that I should be running up the right side of the field not the left… the insolence… he was thrown… The kids have trouble pronouncing my name which is fair enough when I have no chance with most of theirs. My name seems to come out as Jam-sea. Ten points if you can work out what song the kids are singing here… Speaking of music, if I hear a Hillsong song once more I'm am going to the hills… it seems that secular music is a no-no in the Christian community here so instead it seems to be Hillsong scattered with a sprinkling of solo male Christian artists… I can't really handle worship music played non-stop as background sound… I have a secret iPod… :) Was asked to give the Kids the Christmas story last Saturday to which I said 'no, go read it yourself'… then decided to do it anyway… I found a cockroach in my bed… :) I have noticed that there are a lot of Indians living around here; I tried talking to them with the only Indian words I knew. There seems to be no response to 'teepee' or 'Geronimo', I think they were just being rude. We killed a giant turkey yesterday, interesting experience and a bit messier than I would have liked but I did learn quickly that it is better to have a sharp knife. Here is the turkey a few hours before lunch, We Barbequed it and I ate its livers… I'm finding that people are basically the same the world over, there are good people, bad people, nice people, angry people, happy people, sad people and people that smell… once you get used to the barrier of the cultural differences you can get to know what personalities people have, I was missing that in the first weeks here. Starting to miss having my friends and family around, its easier to be totally comfortable around people you know rather than being the center of attention 24/7 and meeting 100 new people every day… its good but it sometimes gets a bit much. Thanks guys, James P.S. here is almost the funniest thing I have ever seen… maybe… (thanks Jules)