Daily Life for Wendy

I usually get up around 7am or maybe just before.  If the power is on, I make coffee from the electric pot, or if it’s off, I boil water for instant.  Then I wake up the girls while Aaron wakes up Micah.  If the power is on, I turn on the heater to warm up bath water (every other day J).  If it’s off, I boil extra water for coffee and bath.  We have a bathtub, but water is scarce, so we never fill it.  We have a pitcher that we fill with half hot, half cold (we have a British water system, so they have one cold one hot and you have to mix it yourself—that’s one area where the Americans have the British beat—I love our combo water taps!)

Then, I make breakfast.  On Monday kids have cold cereal, milk and juice.  On Tuesdays, we make a fried egg on store bought white bread thing called Love Toast because I butter both sides of the bread and cut out the middle with a heart shaped cookie cutter.  That’s Emma Shae’s favorite day and she has been known to cry if we switch the routine.  Sometimes I can’t go to town on Monday and get it, so it gets bumped to another day!  On Wednesdays we have cold cereal again.  On Thursdays, we have a boiled egg and cinnamon toast that I make in the oven on homemade bread.  Fridays usually back to cold cereal and then Aaron makes pancakes on Saturdays and sometimes if we have instant oatmeal from the U.S., Sundays are oatmeal days.

After I fix breakfast and while Aaron is polishing Emma Shae’s shoes black (they have inspection every morning of shoes, nails and general “smartness”), I get the snack ready for the 10am break time at school.  We fill their water bottles. Water has to be filtered and we have a bucket that we fill with tap water and then we let it drip into a container with a tap.   I also make lunch—they used to eat the lunch there until recently there were bean weevils that the Ugandan kids knew to pick out and the kitchen staff didn’t report.  Leslie wrote a letter and the principal dealt with it, but it was too late for our kids, so now they pack a lunch.

Then I stay on the kids to finish breakfast, brush teeth, make sure their uniforms, hankies, erasers and backpacks are all fixed and ready to go. Micah and Emma Shae meet the Hines on the road to be picked up for school—our mini bus stop.  Then I hurry to take my bath before the staff comes.  Then I rush around gathering things like clothes and laundry basins, etc. for Grace to do laundry.  She and Precious come at 8:30 am.  On Wednesdays, Christian used to come also, but recently we hired Grace to wash clothes only.  Christian is a student that we hired to help out with school fees—it was temporary but became permanent.    I write out a grocery list and an extra duty list for Precious.  She cleans the house, but I have added some baking and food prep or shopping to her duties since I started home schooling Mallory.  Ugandan is not a baked goods country, but I trained Precious to bake bread and I have found she can bake almost anything I can teach her except tortillas for some reason.  I also gather the days lunch money and set it out—cash only, which sometimes I have to scrounge around for small change.  It is customary to provide lunch—usually you would have people cooking the lunch, but I tried that and it was very cumbersome.  You would have to have an outside kitchen and another staff person, which we don’t have and I try not to have Precious staying all day because it’s not peaceful to have a full house.  Our house is pretty big for Uganda, but it’s small for me and I am not used to have having house help all day.

At 8:30am, we greet Grace and Precious and discuss the day.  Greetings are very important.  We ask each other how we are, how was the night, how are the family members and so on.  On Wednesdays we pray together and then start.  Usually once or twice a week, this time is interrupted by Sunday Thomas who comes around selling vegetables that foreigners like—broccoli, leeks, spring onions, red cabbage, herbs like cilantro, dill and parsley.  We used to get a lot more people dropping by asking for money or help with things, but they don’t come so much anymore.

Then I try to remember to eat breakfast, read the Bible and gather Mallory’s things for home schooling.  If we don’t do that, we do it in the afternoon.  We might have a tea or visitors or have to do town shopping.  Recently, I was meeting once a week with Leslie and our German friend Stephanie to watch a TV show called Top Chef.  That was fun!  Mallory’s school usually takes a couple of hours.  At 10am the guys who work outside come and we stop and greet them and discuss the days work.

Sometimes I send Precious to town with a list.  Often I have to go myself.   We have a small fridge and we have irregular power, so we usually have to shop daily.  Also, we are an outpost town, so things have to come from Kenya and Kampala and we don’t always have the same grocery items, so we check daily in case something good comes in.   I usually go to the post office, the vegetable market and two supermarkets.  We don’t have recycling and have to burn our rubbish, so we also keep a bag of things that don’t burn well—bottles and such and I take in to the city dumpster.  I usually go to the ATM once a week since this is a cash society.

Then I come home and make lunch and start on dinner prep.  We have to bleach our vegetables, so that takes planning and time—20 minutes to bleach and then a thorough rinsing in filtered water—I have trained Precious to do that also, if I remember and have the items ready.  She typically leaves at lunchtime, which is 1pm.  Aaron comes home around this time.    Everything is made from scratch, including sauces, so it all takes planning and thinking ahead.  I try to do things the day before, but it doesn’t always work out.  We also have a tiny sink, so we spend a lot of time doing dishes.  Then I try to have lunch and read and I try to have a nap because town is over stimulating and tiring .  People are always coming up to you or calling out to you and driving is tricky—my friend once told me they learn in driving school to look 360!  Boy is that true—you are navigating large trucks as we are the road to Congo and Rwanda and also people from the even more remote villages stock up in our town.  Also, there are people everywhere and at any given time herds of goats or cattle.  Large groups of school kids are there in the morning, at lunch and at 5pm. 

At about 10 minutes to 5pm, I go and pick up kids from school—I am the evening car pool driver.  Then we come home and finish making dinner.  Wednesdays we watch a little show—right now we are watching Little House on the Prairie which can be good or quite depressing.  Once, the kids went through Liberty’s Kids about the Revolution.  On Sunday evenings we always watch a nature program.  Then, if the power is on, we heat the water and give baths or we heat up kettle water if the power is off.  We try to spend time reading before bed, girls go at 8pm and Micah goes at 8:30 or 9pm.  Aaron and I either read or watch a movie or a TV series in the evenings.  Sometimes we are in a time of prayer, like right now praying about our future.   Two Mondays a month, I go to a meeting with the university staff spouses and we study the Bible and pray together.  Afterwards, there is always tea and bananas and talking, but the university gate closes at 8pm and we live right outside the gate.  For awhile, Aaron and were switching off on Wednesday s going to the

staff fellowship meetings, but that got interrupted and we are having a hard time going back.  It is awesome, but we are usually pretty tired by the time we get back.  Also, in the evenings once a week, Clement comes by to sell vegetables that foreigners like or we get visitors.  People typically eat at 8pm or later here and their house help is cooking the meal—people have live in house help.  So, visiting comes between 5-7pm or sometime around that window.  On most nights, we go to bed between 10 and 11pm. 

Also, we try to have regular times out with the Hines either home dates or we drive to the lake and eat a meal at the Belgian hotel on the lake. Once we had Americana night—hamburgers, fries and queso and we watched The Avengers.  It took 3 days to gather ingredients and to make the meal and we put all the media in our car and drive it up—TV, converter and computer to play the movie.  We just laugh how that would be such a simple date night in the U.S., but here it was a big event—worth every effort. 

The rest of the time is interwoven with various unexpected events.  The power and water outs consume a lot of time and effort to work around those disruptions.   The kids are home for a whole month or two in between terms, so that brings a new routine and often travel plans.  We spend a lot of time with cultural differences, good or bad.  It is a very slow paced, relational life here, so we spend a lot of time talking and listening and observing.  This past Sunday, a friend gave a sermon and talked about her first time on an airplane—no one had told her what to expect and she was by herself.  She thought she was going to die going over Lake Victoria and then the airports were busy, fast and confusing.  She experienced cross cultural differences both in Kenya and Amsterdam before arriving in the U.S.  It was comforting to share that cross cultural living is a challenge—even on the most basic levels because you don’t know what your questions are at times and the culture doesn’t even think about most of their living since they have been doing it since birth!

So, it’s hard to express what do I do all day.  And as I write this down, it sounds so simple, but it is busy and tiring!  I once read about the term “ebb and flow” from the Irish saints of old.  That flow eluded me in the U.S., but ironically, as I have pressed through the initial chaos and continue to have life experiences that put me deeper out of control of my own life, the ebb and flow has come naturally.  That has been especially true with Mallory coming home and managing that schedule in a culture that has a million interruptions.  I love it and am so thankful for that gift that God has given us!

The Roads-closure and no more complaining.

This is just totally to get this off my chest.  Aaron once commented that I talk about the roads too much in the updates we send out, and well, it's true.  So, this is to help me bring closure to the roads situation. I have one fun picture, two on the paving of our hill road and then a series of shots coming home from Kampala, some driving and some roadside towns, etc.  So, if you can't sleep at night, remember these videos :).

My favorite thing to see on a bicycle transport is a bed.  I don't know why.  It's iconic.

Last March construction on the road began.  

Then it stopped until this year, when they did phase 2 out of 3.  The rocks.

Horizons 2012 in Kabale

First the Pictures and some reflections follow...

Dr. Katie and Laura working together in English and Swahili

Group Bible Study

East Africans gathered for training

A culture exercise in Urdu lead by Kevin Higgins, international director for Global Teams

Group Discussion broken down into language...Swahili, Kinyarwandan and English

Wilfred from Kenya and Edgar from Tanzania, two of the leaders

Micah, Kevin, Aaron and Dr. Gilbert at the conference--Aaron's two bosses!

Leslie, Julia, Travis, Safari, Wendy-American and Batwa united in Christ!

Tea at Kirigime gardens

East Africans and one German, our friend Stephanie

Rev. Matthias and 2 BBUC students prepare communion

Participants stand as John 4 is read

Our friend, Sam receives his certificate with gratitude

Kevin, Rev. Walina from South Rwenzori and Wendy

Travis and brothers from South Rwenzori

Leadership team debriefing

 Global Teams offers an introductory missions training course called Horizons.  Click on the words Global Teams or Horizons to get more information. During the course of 10-14 days, participants gather to go through an inductive Bible study from the Old and New Testament focusing on cross cultural issues and ministry.  Participants also are introduced to topics like unreached people groups, contextualization, movements of the church, as well as prayer and mobilization.  Several case studies are presented on cross cultural servants current and historical and many, many opportunities to reflect, discuss and share. 

The Kabale Horizons 2012 included 61 people, with 15 leaders coming from 10 different nations and speaking double the languages.  The countries included Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, DR Congo, Rwanda, Malawi, Germany, U.S.A., Somalia, and India.  It was translated into Kinyarwandan and Swahili and English depending on who was speaking.  There was quite a continuum of economic, educational background, as well as diverse denominations.  Men and women who were students, professionals or “peasants” (people that dig their own food, but don’t get paid and usually are not formally educated) as they are called in Uganda gathered under the Banner of Christ to learn from each other, the Bible and the teachers on cross cultural ministry.  There was unity, humility, freedom, laughter and a profound and quiet work of the Holy Spirit.

A few of the quotes we heard…

“My eyes have been opened.”

“My head is full of new things.”

“I have not seen that before.”

“You have given me a new perspective.”

“We never get this type of training, this is new for us.”

“We have many tribes in my country-we have never even thought about sharing the gospel outside of our tribe.  This must change.”

“In my country, we teach that wearing earrings is a sin.  Now, I see that it is culture—here is my sister and she is wearing earrings like an Egyptian. How can I say that she is wrong, she is MY SISTER!  It is culture.  We need to take this back and I challenge my sisters from the Congo to take back this message.” (the lady was Laura a leader from Tanzania)

As you can see, for many people, there was a new, deeper understanding of the role of missions in the church.  Aaron commented that these folks have the access to remote areas and unreached tribes, but they didn’t have the heart or vision for cross cultural ministry.  People were challenged on the issues of tribalism that hinder the Gospel being shared.  There was great unity in this group and we pray that momentum is carried back and overflowing into all those churches represented!  Participants clearly gained a bigger heart for unreached people groups, which is a focus for Global Teams.

We also heard deep gratitude from attendants on the uniqueness of the content and the diversity of African leadership and missionaries who were leading the training.  My friend Anne said, “How did you get this many people from other African countries here?”  Our African leadership is special and awesome.  They are humble people who have suffered and sacrificed much and it shows in their authority in Christ and fruitfulness of ministry. 

Participants were also given a new perspective on Muslims and we saw a shift from fear and suspicion to a vision for loving and praying for encounters with Jesus for their Muslim neighbors.  There is great potential for new movements in these areas and Aaron also commented that given the right tools and right encouragement, folks are ready to share Christ with the nations.

As we closed, there was communion, our international director, Kevin preached on John 4, the Bishop blessed the group and I had the privilege of praying over the group from Psalm 67.  It was personally powerful for me because it was translated into Swahili as I was praying and God gave me this beautiful blessing and a deep sense of how much He loves and will use this group!

Psalm 67

May God be gracious to us and bless us

And make his face shine upon us,

That your ways may be known on earth,

Your salvation among all nations.

May the peoples praise you, O God;

May all the peoples praise you.

May the nations be glad and sing for joy,

For you rule the people justly

And guide the nations of the earth.

May the peoples praise you, O God;

May all the peoples praise you.

Then the land will yield its harvest,

And God, our God, will bless us.

God will bless us,

And all the ends of the earth will fear him.

A surprise visit...

A group from St. Peter's Cathedral enjoying the children dancing.  These guys are my heroes.

The visiting delegation, 3 saints, a bishop, the bishop's wife and an archbishop.

I got a kick out of the Archbishop and our Bishop George enjoying the dance.

One of the privileges of living here is meeting interesting groups that come through. We were notified by mutual friends that a team from the U.S. was traveling to our town with a team from Tanzania.  They have vision and a burden to help orphans and were visiting at least an orphanage run by the Church of Uganda on our hill.  I am not sure about the rest of their itinerary, but we had a nice visit and really enjoyed getting to know this ministry.

I don't know about the rest of East Africa, but in Uganda, the church is the biggest voice for the poor and oppressed.  They do countless hours at great sacrifice and cost to themselves of unreported service of the poor. It is not perfect because it's made up of fallen people, but wow, what God can do with availability!  This orphanage is called My Father's House.

So, I wanted to share this visit.  It was such an unexpected delight for me personally and I was so encouraged to share in part of this day and to meet some extraordinary people, not only in our area, but from the U.S. and the Archbishop from Tanzania!  There is so much bad reported in the news and especially about the church, but that has not been my experience.  I cannot express how much these people are my heroes and they are putting their money where their mouth is--impressive!

We heard about the ministry and then we also got to hear the children sing and dance.  What you don't see is all the kids outside doing the dance by the side of the road.  One of Aaron's and my favorite things when there is a formal dance performance is to look around and see who else is doing it, because they cannot help themselves.  So far, EVERY time, someone on the edge is dancing and sometimes people just jump in and there is no one complaining.  The pure joy and freedom is such a delight to share.  Love it.

Diary of a Child with a Broken Arm

Dr. Gilbert in brown shirt is leaning on the pole that Micah fell from and broke his arm.

First cast.

Second x-ray showing that the reduction had failed.

After surgery bonus Thanksgiving with Wendy's brother and parents and family.

A clamshell cast that would not need removal in Uganda.

Healed!

So, in pictures, there is the story.  Now for the nitty gritty.

Oct. 28-29th 2011, we go for an overnight stay at a cabin on the lake.  Reminds us of camping in the U.S. and is a fun place to go, but very slippery.  Ironically, Micah falls from the restaurant beam as we were paying our bill and I was looking at brochures to come back and stay in a tent.  hmmm....

He was wearing a long sleeve shirt and wasn't crying like he was in extreme pain, but now we know better.  We pull up his sleeve and it looks like an inchworm!  Awful feelings and panic set in--we grab banana branches and a staff member offers prayer and a scrap of fabric so we can make a temp. stent.  We quickly go down to boat to go to the mainland.  We pass a Canadian family getting off the boat and they give us children's ibuprofen.  That comforted us greatly because God showed us mercy--I mean, what timing and a family in remote Uganda with children's meds???  Thank you Lord and step by step.

After a 20 min. boat ride and another 20 minutes bumpy ride back to town, we go straight to the other hospital in town for an xray.  As we wait, the president, Museveni comes to town and lands his helicopter in the field across from our hospital.  You never see Ugandans running and there they were, running to see the president.  That was weird.

The x-ray shows the bad break-both bones and not an easy fix.  We have to go try a reduction.  Back to Rugarama where Aaron works.  That was so humbling and hard--people working on Micah are clinical officers, including the anesthesiologist.  Dr. Gilbert and a surgeon in training are assisting the ortho clinical officer. We consult with the clinical officer anesthesiologist and she catches that Micah has reactive airway disease--asthma triggered by allergies or colds and meds. and would require a certain care.   So, we prayed and went forward.  Surreal and no obvious word from God--we are too numb to even sense His presence.  Wow, do we need community and people praying for us and now looking back, it is so clear the hand of God was leading us and providing, although we still have no idea what was the purpose?  God could act and heal in a million ways, why did we have to go back to U.S.?  Only God knows. What I was struggling with was making decisions as a westerner with options, when our friends don't have options.  When we look around, there are a lot of walking wounded, pressing on in very difficult circumstances.  It was very humbling to make the decision to go back to the U.S. for care.  Aaron was a steadfast advocate--working tirelessly and with strength and clarity.  Of course, I am biased, BUT he did great!

The next day, I was in church with the kids and Aaron was on the phone with doctors here, in the U.S. and one U.S. doctor who is working in northern Uganda.  It really impacted us how many medical folks we know in Uganda from prior relationships.  Well, that came in handy for advice and prayer and counsel.  God's provision through people is AMAZING.  I get a text from Aaron during church "Come home now, we are packing and going to Kampala"  The drive to Kampala, we were on the phone deciding next steps.  We were able to get an appointment with the head of the orthopedic dept. of the main hospital and on Monday, we were winding our way through a massive hospital full of people and patients.  That was crazy.  It was a great meeting, the doctor looked at the xray and said wait and see if it heals on it's own.  At the time, we only had one U.S. ortho who was advocating surgery.

The next week, we got an xray and the shock of the failed reduction (manually setting the arm).  So, Aaron was back at work emailing photos of the xray and getting advice from U.S. doctors.  This time communication was slow and there was not a consensus.  So, we realized we didn't want to take another risk with Micah and doing surgery in Uganda.  On Wed., we still didn't know and my mom (Wendy) asked what would it take to make a decision.  We didn't know.

The next day, we received a text from her that my parent's church found money that would cover plane tickets back and did we want to use it?  That was convincing, so we contacted a travel agent and decided to back to U.S. because it would take us 2 days to travel anywhere like Kenya, South Africa or Europe, so might as well take 2 days and come back home.  Meanwhile, my mom was filling out paperwork and trying to get us an appt. at Shriner's Hospital, which would offer free care.  So, early Friday morning, we left for Kampala and Mallory began to get sick.  Turns out she got malaria the week before as they had shoved us all under one mosquito net, which did not work and the kids had many bites.  On the way there, I was sending out incoherent prayer texts and our one American friend Kent, called and said, "who is this?"  I was so embarrassed, BUT he directed us to a guest house and pizza restaurant by the airport and Aaron ran out and got pizza and malaria medicine.  So, God works in mysterious ways!

We got to U.S. on Sunday, found out we had an appointment for Monday morning.  My parents hosted us and cared for the girls and we made our way to the massive Houston medical center.  I was worried about culture shock and re-entry and driving, but I have to say how gentle and detailed God is--Shriner's was super easy to get to from my parents and it's on the edge of the medical center--that is a small detail, but shows me the love of God.

We also received some emails that did, in the end confirm the decision to come home.

Micah had surgery on Tuesday and it was successful.  By the way, we were on Houston news while we were waiting for Micah's consult.  There was an apple juice/arsenic scandal and they thought our kids were cute and would we do an interview?  So, they got a kick out of us living in Uganda and what do Ugandan mom's worry about?  I bumbled my way through--talk about culture shock.  We spent the rest of the month in shock and surprise as we had Thanksgiving with my brother's family, got to see Aaron's mom and such.  Surreal.

We went back home to Uganda for Christmas and then got the all clear a few weeks later from the U.S. surgeon.  When we go back home to the U.S., Micah will have surgery again to remove titanium rods that were used to set his arm.  We have 2 homes now :).

I don't know what all we learned or what the purpose was or if there has to be a purpose, but I will say, that if you ask the kids, "Is God trustworthy?"  There would be a resounding yes!  We saw God present, providing and directing as only He can direct.  Dr. Gilbert and the staff at Rugarama were with us and fully supportive. I will never forget being in the surgery and Micah was under anesthesia and the comfort and support that the doctors and staff gave.  We were right in there with him.  Their complete trust of God and gentle manners are a comfort. Our Ugandan community humbled us with their love and care and prayers.  These are busy people with many challenges and the principal of the university stopped his car on the way to Kampala and prayed for us and continued to call the staff and faculty to prayer.  Our teammates, the Hines became even more family as they served and gave us care through the whole ordeal.  It was humbling and scary for us all because we really depend on each other here.  Our larger American community in Ugandan poured it out for us with advice, prayer and advocacy with finding doctors, etc. Our U.S. community gave and gave and gave, especially our parents.  We never worried about finances or resources the whole time.  Way to go church--even people we don't know that well gave to us at the church--only God's people will do that!

When we returned, one of the university professors and leaders commented, "You know, we really suffered more than you.  You are the parents, but we suffered more.  You are OUR visitors and this happened while you were here."

I don't know if this will make sense, but I saw clearly that God has a plan and He directs our steps.  I worry a lot about people and it was hard to imagine if we were joe Ugandan in the village, Micah would be a cripple.  We did have a lot of questions--it seemed extravagant to go back to the U.S. for care and even hypocritical.  However, the Lord is the Lord and only He knows what He is doing.  We never questioned God that He would come through or provide, it was just the road that was difficult.  I can't explain why there is poverty and who gets what, but I will never question God and His decisions--He is clearly in control and able with compassion and mercy to sort it all out.  He's good at that.