Uganda One

December 3, 2006 - Sunday

Uganda One Hi people, I'm finally in Uganda. Its a crazy place as you can imagine, I'm living in a little house somewhere, I say somewhere because apart from the main CBD there is no road names or numbers. Which of course is fantastic if you are trying to direct a dude on a motorbike (borta borta) back to my house. So for those who want to stop by, I'm in the Najjanakumi area off the big road down the dirt street and left near the thingo across from the pineapple seller. I've been having a great time already; the director is staying in one of my bedrooms in the east wing of the house. It is quite a good thing as he can direct me about and have a bit of a laugh when I've been ripped off by a street vendor. He is a good bloke and really passionate about the children he looks after. I have found a few funny things already, one being due to the lack of forward planning by the Government the power is switched off in our area every other day. The other thing I have found is that within 3 inches is close enough with any building work here; every house and smaller type building is basically "wonky". I'll send a photo sometime off the toilet door, it is basically shaped like a explosion. Malaria medicine gives you severe heartburn 24/7, after taking heartburn fixing stuff to no effect I have unanimously decided to get malaria. It seems I am going to be mostly concerned with helping things at the Kajjansi Children center and with the computers. The Kajjansi Children center is eventually going to be the main Orphans for Christ site. At the moment there are no children staying there since the dormitories are not yet finished. This center does look after 50 children at the moment who stay with members of the church and some other guardians. I met most of the children today it was great, they at first just stood around me in a circle looking up with big African eyes. They got used to me after a bit and wanted to carry all of my things... so cool. An odd thing is that the little girls will kneel in front of you and say welcome, a traditional greeting it seems. Although it is not what I originally wanted to do it seems that most of my time at the moment will be spent with setting the computers up for the training program. Once the computers are ready to go we plan to have the training center open by Jan and after that I will have less to do with them apart from teaching there. The container itself is here and we are hopefully getting it unpacked tomorrow and then beginning to set up the computers ready to go. Ummm... that's all for now, there is of course heaps of other stuff I could say, like about the 57 delays with the flying, the amazing poverty, the Muslim prayer calls, the fact that I have now eaten about 40 eggs and of course the boiled banana stuff, but I'll fill you in as I can. Photos are coming and maybe video too. I should be able to get to the Internet often, as there are more Internet cafes than people, which is a problem for business I guess. They basically range from one computer under a chip packet to about ten in a little room. So email me as oft as you want, I'm always happy when words are addressed to me. Of course continue to pray for me, I'm having a ball right now but I know it will get tougher, for example I'm preaching at church next Sunday... dang it. So Tim, if you could send me a message to preach in word for word format that would be great... thanks. James