2 more weeks...

August 22, 2009

Steven and I have been finding fun things to do that we haven’t ever had time to do. For example; A couple days ago, we tried to get over to the other side of the swamp and see what’s over there. We were unsuccessful, but I think it would be really cool to take a picture of the orphanage from that side looking back. We also took a walk back to the place where the children used to walk to get water. It looked the same as it did last year, only it was a little less crowded. We went because there were these plants that Bill wanted us to pick so he could make some necklaces. They are like little bead things that grow at the end of the stalk and they are super hard. So we did that and then came back to the village.

Last night I was sitting in the mission house drinking a cup of tea, and I had the cup about up to my mouth when I got a little splash in my face. A HUGE bug took a dive and landed right in it. That was all I needed to send me to bed. =)

Yesterday, I plowed through Steven’s book that I have been reading, ‘Dwarves’… I feel the slightest bit nerdy, but its really fun to read. Steven’s book is ‘Orcs’…
…I read for a little while, then walked around looking for my deck of cards that some of the kids were using. I like to keep a deck in my pocket because the children always want to play cards with me when I come visit their houses. I didn’t find them, but when you walk by a house, they say “come and jump”, “come and eat”, “you are most welcome.” or “come and play” in their softest voice. So I went in and jump-roped with the girls for a good hour or so. They have all their little games that they play with jump ropes. I showed them a few tricks that I know. I think they will have them down in another day or so. I fell on my butt too. I was jumping while two of them were swinging the rope, and they were like “Adam you must get out!” so I darted out of the jump rope only to step in a huge puddle on the side of the room… Let me tell you; It’s really slippery when its wet. It got super quiet all of the sudden. You would think that someone got punished or something. “sorry.”, “sorry”, “Sorry!” they all say to me as if it was their fault. Its pretty cute.

It has been raining pretty hard over here lately, yesterday we had a few thunder storms, today we are having thunder storms. Our thunderstorms back home don’t hold a candle to their thunder storms. It gets SOOO loud. Its not like it hits and stops, it thunders for like 10 seconds straight... Right now I am sitting at the table Steven and I put up in our room typing this all out, and it is pouring outside… oh wait… some more thunder.

August 23, 2009
We went to the children’s service here at the orphanage. It was amazing, as usual. Steven and I are about to head to the Ridar, When we update, you will know that we made it to the Ridar, but we plan on swimming, reading, doing a little internet, having dinner at Richard’s house (Ridar employee), then returning around dusk. It should be pretty cool. Tomorrow we plan on heading with Robert into town to do a little shopping. We have to come up with a little shopping list.

We have been playing the same card game over and over and over, I am starting to miss all the other card games that I know how to play. My family game is “Hand and Foot” but I cant really teach that to the children with the language barrier and all. I told Steven that I’d show him how to play. The trouble is we need to find another deck of cards… so we tried playing a little rummy. That was nice. We taught Zion how to play, so we can play with three.

I was reading my book the other day, and Barbara from the house next to the orhnanage came up to me and started asking me all kinds of questions… like do you eat pork… I was like “of course”. That wasn’t the answer she was looking for so for the next 10 minutes she was telling me that I was going to be judged for it. I tried to find the place in the Bible that said it was ok, but I failed and just took the verbal bashing from her instead. Joel, if you could send me a little reminder of why we can eat pork, that would be rad. =)

August 24, 2009
Today we went into town with Robert to go to the store. We wanted to make Zion and Bill something American, and the only thing we could think of that we couldn’t decide where it came from other that America was Chili dogs. So we picked up some hot dogs (which were actually quite good), pinto beans, baked beans, chopped tomatoes, cheese, onion, chili powder, and the closest thing we could find to a hotdog bun. We bought a few other things, I got some tea, and Steven got a small bag of dried fruit that was unmarked. I looked at the receipt after we were out of the store, and Steven’s fruit cost more than anything else that we paid for. We paid around $9.00 for the small bag of dried fruit; it didn’t even taste that good and its probably what made his stomach upset. Its funny; you can walk around the corner on the street and but a huge delicious pineapple for 1500 Ush. (that is like $.75)… or you can pay 12 times that amount for something small and disgusting in the store.
Anyways, we bought the stuff, then we took it home, and whipped up some good old chilidogs. We added a little too much chili powder; it was really spicy, but really good. It was too bad for Steven, he said that he was having a stomach problem, so he didn’t eat any. He said that it smelled really good and that he was hungry, but he couldn’t eat. Bill whipped up some tea for him which would supposedly calm the stomach that he called “Conk” Steven said “What is this?!”… I tasted it, and it tasted like poo. I’m glad that my stomach is okay. Bill says women take it for abortions…
On a different note, I got an email from a friend who is going on a mission to Italy from my church about some of the equipment that I borrowed from. I was supposed to send it back to him when my team came back, but forgot to do it. I am feeling really bad about it. It is totally my fault, so I just want to apologize to him and to the Italy team for not getting his things back to him. I told him that I would send it back with the team and fell through on my word. It is a huge insignificance for him because I know that he is really busy and probably doesn’t have time to search around for equipment to borrow from other people. I didn’t get a chance to reply to his email, so I thought Id type it on here.
I also got an email from Dave Hamilton that had a “To do” list attached to it. There were a lot of words on it. I got through about half of the email, and had to save it as a word document on my hard drive because we were in some internet café in Mukono. I only had about 3 minutes remaining, so now that I can look at it as long as I want; Dave: Got it taped to the wall in our main room here, and we are going to make sure that all of the items are taken care of..

August 25, 2009

Woke up this morning suffering from insomnia last night, we seem to be getting it more and more. Its like the restless leg in your whole body. Steven and I both have it. I have this one bug bite that won’t go away because its on the inside of my elbow. It’s pretty much the worst spot to have one because you always unintentionally irritate it.
We wanted to get some of the items on Dave Hamilton’s list accomplished, so we started working on that this morning when one of the mums told us that she was going to go over to the other side of the swamp. We have been wanting to do that pretty badly, so we decided to accompany her over there expecting it to be a 20 minute little hike. Well, it ended up being 3 hours and 3 ½ miles to get to where we wanted to go. We just blindly follow, and they just go. We went around the swamp, down this road for a while, then started going up hill, then down these trails that went through peoples farms, and property. We ended where we wanted to go, on the other side of the swamp looking back at the orphanage. It was more than we bargained for… we picked and ate Guava, Sugarcane, and Pumpkin. It felt really good to walk on the trails. I felt like I was on a real hike… I guess that hike was more real than most of the hikes that I do at home.

When we got back, Betty came to the orphanage with mail for the children. There were so many of them crowded around her while she sat in her chair and read their names. I understand now how often I write to my kids. Joan and Florence both had around 6 letters from me each. I feel good, but then I felt bad at the same time, because there were so many kids that didn’t get letters from their sponsors. They just looked around at me, at Betty, at the kids who got letters hoping that their names would be called. It was hard for me to watch Betty turn the kids away; especially the ones whose sponsors I know. I didn’t take any pictures of it, but I got some video. It was just sad to me. Every piece of mail that was sent to the village was already opened. It just confirms for me that you can’t send anything of value in your letters or packages. They won’t receive it. The Uganda post office opens everyone’s mail and takes what they want out. Often times they just throw the mail away after they open it. Betty showed me a package for one of the kids; a rat had chewed a hole clean through it. Looking at the letters that I sent, I noticed that the letter that I sent when I got home from last years trip was there… It took a whole year for the mail to get here. The Post office just lets it sit and accumulate… That just frustrates me. I told Betty that I was just going to keep all my letters and bring them when I come back and give them out in person. Then she corrected me saying “These children love to hear their names called to accept letters from you in front of their friends. Don’t stop sending mail. Your letters mean so much to them.”

When we got back to the Village here, I could see all the children crowded around Betty getting mail. I wanted to get the video camera real fast but had to stop to go to the bathroom on the way. So I did my business, and got the camera. On my way over to the crowd of kids I started feeling a little heat coming from my pants. It was getting hotter and hotter. I was starting to think maybe a fire ant got down there and was doing a number on me. Then it hit me… on the way up to the other side of the swamp we saw a couple bushes with wild peppers on them, so we picked them and I got a little of the fiery juice on my hands…

August 26, 2009

I know this has been a long one, but we have our excuses; last time we came to update we could not find Cosmas (Hotel Manager) or the Secretary, who usually generates the little slips that give you internet. This time she was in a meeting and Steven and I are just sitting on a couch outside her office waiting for her. I didn’t tolerate all the Mzungu shouts, and people asking me for money on our way here for nothing! We were walking and talking as usual when we heard a crash. There was truck that was full of brick and the wheel sheared off the axle leaving the truck all tilted over in the middle of the road. We just walked by thinking “man that sucks…”

I saw many emails last time, but I just don’t get enough internet time to reply to everyone, so If I don’t respond, I apologize. Ill get back to you when I can.

Best place on earth.

August 10, 2009

I got to shoot some testimonies of some of the kids today. It is really hard just to watch and hear them talk not even knowing what they are saying. Bill told me a few of the things that they were saying, two of the three that we filmed were to be sacrificed… makes me want to punch the family… We had lunch and dinner with Mummy Sara’s home today. That was pretty neat. Back to beans and posho. If you don’t know what that is, it is Maize (corn) that they mash into a paste, and it becomes firm. Then they put beans and whatever else on it. Yesterday we got meat because the children get meat on Sundays. Steven and I were in the Mission house eating with Bill when they served up the lunch. There was the beef! And there was something that looked like a piece of carpet sitting in there with it…?! I was like “What the heck is that Bill?”
“It is the meat of a cow.”
“No, I mean the carpet next to it…”
“Oh, that is the intestine.”
All of the sudden the meat didn’t seem so great anymore. There was a really gamey smell to the meat that all came clear. For the rest of the day I could smell it on all the children’s breath. Awesome! I have to say, I didn’t even try it. Bill sure gobbled it up though. They didn’t mind us not wanting it at all.

Oh, here are a few rules to sitting for supper that bill told us about... and yes, they are true:
1. You have to sit without holding yourself up or they hit your elbow and it bends and you fall over. And you can’t bend over. They sit on the floor, so not bracing yourself was a little difficult for me.
2. You can’t have your legs out in front of you crossed like I love to do.
3. Only the father gets to sit in a chair.
4. Only the father is served his meal with the sauce and matoke or posho separated. All the children get it mixed together.

We just found those kinda funny.

So when we went to the Ridar to update the Blog last, there was a concert going on. ‘The Eagles’ is their name. Not The Eagles that immediately come to mind, but they were pretty good. It was pretty neat how they do their concerts. The place was packed. We actually came a little earlier in the day and went swimming, then went to buy some dishes and cups for eating. When we got back to the hotel, they wouldn’t let us come back in without paying. It was a little different Uganda crowd than we are used to... Steven and I don’t think we have ever heard anyone talk so fast in Luganda before. We ended up getting in after the security guard argued to the concert guys for a good 5 minutes or so. There were people coming up to the performers mid song, and they would give money. Some would dance with the singer, others would just walk off. Bill loves to dance, so we gave him 500 shillings to go up there so he could do his thing on stage... it was rad.

Last night, we ate dinner at Mummy Imerida’s house. I’m not telling any names, but Tiffany G’s sponsored child was not allowed any tea because she would wet the bed if she took tea at night... It was really nice; we had dinner then played Uno for about 45 minutes. They took a regular deck of cards and turned it into an Uno deck. They pick a few different cards, and designate them as the skip, and reverse, and wilds… draw two… it looks like chaos, but its pretty fun….and they pretty much all cheat.

I came back inside our house here to get some things for fixing some light bulbs and switches, and I was shocked to see like 5 girls in Bill’s bed… Bill wasn’t in his bed, but there was a ton of girls just passed out in our room. Made me laugh. Steven was reading, and they were coloring. Steven fell asleep, then they all passed out after he did.

So, not only is there no seat in the bathroom, they definitely don’t have light. At night, it is pitch black in there. I was just in there, Steven and I were power dumping together… you just have to get in there and hope that you are standing over the hole. You don’t want to feel around with your foot and actually have the misfortune of finding it, so you just squat and hope… well, I totally missed, and dropped one on the floor…. Disgusting, I know... I had to come back with my head lamp and take care of it.

Right now, Steven is in his bed, and Zion and Bill are sitting here interpreting the testimonies that we have on tape. I think I am going to type it out, so that in the not so rare case that we lose the notebook, I will have a backup.


August 13, 2009
We are going to Kampala today. Robert is coming at 10:00 or 10:30… Its 10:45 right now. I think we are going to maybe see a movie, eat at Nando’s (a burger Joint), then hit up the store before we come back. We have a few things that we need to buy.

We saw the biggest frog today. Some of the girls were using a stick to hit it over into a hole near the place where the bathrooms drain into. I had to run to take a picture of it real quick. Was thinking I should put a coin down next to it so you could see how big it was, but I didn’t have any, so I just took the picture.

The other night we also saw one of the biggest cockroaches on the floor. Once again… the biggest I have ever seen. This wasn’t a macro setting or anything, but there is some good detail in the picture.

We saw Harry Potter 6 at the Cinaplex theatre in Kampala. They had some delicious popcorn. It was like chili tomato or something like that. I loved it.

The last couple days have been all rain. It’s good for the area, but you have a hard time not falling on your butt when you walk around. It’s pretty nasty.

We made it back to the Ridar, we wanted to bring some of the children here to have dinner with us, so I have Maureen, Joan, Florence, and Deizy here crowded around the computer watching me type. We watched the Tribal show here at the Ridar, Maureen and Joan went swimming. They had so much fun swimming back and forth in the pool. I took some fun shots. They ate popcorn, and drank Mirinda Sodas. Now we are in the restaurant. We ordered our food and drinks; we got seven cheeseburgers and one fish and chips. And three Mirinda Fruities, two Orange Fantas, one Sprite, and to Cokes. We are all ready for our supper here so I thought I’d post some things to the internet real fast. Too bad I forgot my prepaid internet slip back at the village, so I don’t even get to post. We have to ride some boda-bodas back tomorrow morning to get the money that Mark left behind to pay Felix, so we will just post then.


August 17, 2009

Well Last night was a lot of fun. The girls had a good time. I talked to Richard earlier in the day to arrange a bus, I forgot to notify Robert the day before for the bus, so we had to get another. There were 8 of us. We were planning on riding a bus back to the village, and a walk to the Ridar. So we had our fun, then they called the bus to come to the Hotel… Well it was a car. So the 8 of us packed into the car. 2 in the front seat, and 6 in the back… it was actually more fun that way. =) Cosmas couldn’t come to the hotel last night, so we had to walk back here this morning. We are just hanging out here in the bar, drinking some delicious sodas, and getting the internet time in. Then we’ll head back and do a little more hanging out with the kids. Coming into town always gives us a good excuse to hit up the store, so I’m sure that well do it on our way back.

On the way to the Hotel today, there was a ton of people all crowded around something. We didn’t know what it was, but we were curious. There was a horse and a camel. They were giving rides!!! So we checked it out. It was rad.

One more thing; I know that we promised to give you a list of things that we shouldn’t take for granted back home, but we got a little sidetracked, not to mention bored. Just consider everything to be a luxury.

On our own...

July 29, 2009
Since last time, we have gotten the last of the playground structures up. We have assembled all the Futbol Goals. We actually had a Uganda vs. USA match the other day on the small field… and by field I mean sloped hard packed dirt area. It was so fun, because the field was may be 50 yards by who knows how wide. There were children crowded around. It was the Guys on the mission team that wanted to play, and the interpreters that we hired to translate for VBS for us. We had bricks set up as goals, which were about 2 feet wide. We ended up winning 1 to 0. They didn’t like it all that much, but we dominated…

Electrically we have been tearing it up. I can wire one of these houses with my eyes closed pretty much. I know a good amount about the system, so I am somewhat of a go-to guy in that department, but I have Andrew and Steven on a team, and we form the “Trifecta” just a little name we gave ourselves. We have come up with Acronyms for our Trifecta maneuvers. Since we only have 2 ladders on a good day, we have to swap ladders, it’s a little hard to explain, but we have a ladder hopping technique that my Skanska safety people would probably not really think was all that great. We are attaching wires to roof trusses, and since it’s quicker, we just have the guy at the top of the ladder hold onto the truss while the guy on the floor moves the ladder. “H.A.S.” also known as the Hold and Scoot. There are a few more. But I won’t bore you with those details. As of Wednesday the 29th, we had 36 houses completely wired; give or take a few.

We had our Re-match today against the Interpreters. It is so much fun. There are tons of kids that come to watch. Every time you mess up, they all laugh, and they cheer when you do well. It is awesome. We played on the big field this time. It is still a little sloped, and a little rough, but it serves its purpose. There needs to be a little raking or dragging of some HUGE rocks and hard packed dirt clods. But it still is 10 times better than what they had before with tree trunks, and pot holes. It was much more interesting though.
We ended up winning again. We scored 2, they scored 1. but we have a tactic that is catered to a bunch of guys that cant play soccer; boot it down the field toward their goal as hard as you can, and hope that you get a lucky shot. We did.

Having the swings around is awesome, because those times when you have absolutely nothing to do with the kids and you just sit and stare at each other and smile, you can now fill with things like swinging or spinning on the Neutron Spinner. It is very nice to have that. I got to push Joan, Florence, and quite a few other kids on the swings today after our Game. I actually got on there a few times, and Joan tried to help me slow down, and I just blew her over. I felt really bad, but that is the way it goes I guess. I am sorry, and she was okay. She is awesome. She is like a little enforcer, and she understands what I am trying to say ALL THE TIME. It is awesome.

July 30, 2009
We got to the orphanage and started wiring homes. We actually wired 6 homes today; that is a good amount. It’s the most that we have done in a day so far. We got it pretty much complete by lunch time. Then the rest of the day I was basically sleep walking around the place. I was doing laundry last night till around midnight, then our bus left at 7:30 so that we could get as much finished as possible. It’s a vicious cycle, but its for God, and his orphans, so I’m down with it. =)
I got a shower tonight, last night our water heater was out, so I showered with a wet towel. Right now I have a couple extra people in my room; we just played a little beans, and now I'm about ready to hit the rack.

August 7, 2009
Its been a really long time since I have been able to update. Right now, it is just Steven and I at the orphanage. One of the interpreters, Bill, is still here with us. The team has already arrived back in Portland and the other places that we were from.
The last couple days were nice with the team. We had a miniature water celebration when we turned on the borehole for the kids; we are able to drink the water straight out of the ground because it is from so deep down. I believe the well is somewhere around 280 feet deep. We also had a light celebration in the Main Hall. The kids all crowded into the place in the dark, then we just turned the lights on; the Children went NUTS. They must have danced around in a huge circle for about an hour. All the dust in the place was in the air. It was hard to breathe, but it was worth it. That same day we also had a show from the orphans. They sang a number of songs, had 3 testimonies, and then we had popcorn and sodas for all the kids… Count it, 750 sodas.. I couldn’t believe that they had that many sodas for the kids. The last day the team was here we went to buy beads at the rock quarry from Stella, did our usual Souvenir shopping, then went to eat at a sweet restaurant on the beach at Lake Victoria. The Pizzas there were awesome. I didn’t take any pictures of the place, because I didn’t want to lug a camera all day shopping and to the airport. So many people have cameras that you can count on at least 2 other people having the same picture that you have.
That night we saw everyone off at the airport, then Robert, Scott, Steven, and I drove back to the Hotel through Kampala. Night driving always gets me. There is so much going on at night here. People are walking through the streets, music is playing, and it is all so dark. I think people like to go do things at night because it is usually so hot during the day. We had a nice chat with Robert about Ugandan Politics. I was shocked to hear that Their president Musevini has been in power for something like 25 years. According to Robert he has rigged the elections so that he continues to win. He also gave us a rundown of some tribal stuff. We also had a nice chat with Scott about what it takes to get into the FBI. Sounds like fun to me.
That same night we went back to the hotel, grabbed all the things that the team left for us in the board room, and took it to the orphanage. I cant believe how much food that we have. We are talking around 90 lbs. We have eaten some of it, but we have been passing it out to the kids when we wire at night. Bill has also been eating a lot of it. I think we had around 9 jars of peanut butter.. haha.
The first night here, it was pretty funny, we had our amazing experience of bathing… outside… in the moonlight… Let me tell you the Mzungu skin stands out a lot better in the dark than Mudugov skin. Zion (former interpreter, now works at the orphanage) boiled up some water for us, and handed us a small jerry can of hot water, a big jerry can of cold water, a pan, and a rag. Steven and I looked at each other…. Then Zion was like “To Bathe.” Bill gave us a rundown of what you can do, but I think I am figuring out my own technique.
So the other day (Dave Hamilton: Don’t read), we were going through the homes on the maps that we have been tracing just checking them and fixing problems as we go. We got to Jimmy’s house (Mark and Susan’s sponsored child) and the lights weren’t working. The panel that feeds that house was labeled, but the cover was hiding a good portion of the writing so we couldn’t really read what it said. For example, if it said 36, you could see the 3, and part of the 6, but the half of the 6 that we could see looked like a 1. I was down testing the junction box and I had Steven turn the power off to Jimmy’s house since we had a problem. Looking at our map we could see that House #31 could have been feeding House #36 (don’t worry if you don’t get any of this..) We turned off the breaker at the panel that we thought was feeding Jimmy’s Home. I was up on the ladder with the junction box open, and I pulled out the Line wires (Black) and one of the wires slipped out of the wire nut. I was like ”Well, there’s our Problem!” While pilling them out a little more, a spark came from the black wire that I pulled out… I looked at Steven and asked, “Is it Hot?!”
He said, “I turned the breaker off!”.
I busted out Dave’s testers that he gave me to use, and stuck one of the probes into the wire nut that had the black wires in it, and got another blast. I didn’t get shocked or anything, but pretty darn close. The wire nut caught on fire, and I had a nice big flame coming up from the J-box.. The wire nut was the only thing that caught fire, but I was just standing there in amazement looking at this big ‘ol flame coming from the wire nut.. I gave it a casual blow, and turned to Steven and told him to turn off the main. We had a little audience of like 5 kids all laughing and amazed. I don’t think they are ever going to touch a wire any time soon.
There are about 9 homes to a breaker in some cases, some more, some less. We have encountered a few instances where there is one short in the whole circuit, but all the boxes, switches, and lights are all screwed shut. Soooooo, we have had to go through each house; opening all the interior boxes, lights, switches, and exterior boxes looking for places where we had shorts. We have found many. There are a lot of places that the wires were stripped and in direct contact with other wires in the box. We have taken off decorative cones that don’t let the light bulb touch the socket, replaced light bulbs, mounted switches, we’ve found junction boxes completely open and unfinished, wired, re-wired, all the while feeding the kids leftover American lunch food(which the love). Speaking of kids eating, There is a child named Mustafa. He will come up to our house just before meal time pretty much every day and eat more food than Steven and I combined. He doesn’t say much when he is eating, I’d say because he puts food into his mouth around every 2 seconds. We have nicknamed him Bulldozer, cause the kid ploughs through the serving dish. He is 6, and he is just a little guy, but his belly is HUGE.
We went into Joan’s (my kid) and Rachel’s (Gosvener’s kid) house the other night after we got them power, and we made them English, Science, and Math tests. They asked us to... but we made them, and then corrected them. They want Steven and I to spend the night one of these nights. They were talking to Steven. And the told him, “Please stay, we have two open beds!” I love it. When you walk in, they say “You are most welcome.” If you let them use a camera for a little bit, they will run back to you and say “It has refused!” if they cant get it to take a picture. They are so cute.
I know this is a lot to read, but I have not been with a computer for like a week. We didn’t have a whole lot of time to use it at the Hotel even while we were there the last couple of days. I asked Felix (Project Manager for the Orphanage) to get me two outlets so we could charge some batteries, and run the computer back on Monday, and we just got them from Micah (Ugandan Electrician) today. So I am trying to remember all the things that have happened since I last updated, but that was quite a while ago.
We are heading back to the Ridar tonight for a little concert, and some swimming. We have a little checking up on some wiring to do before we go though. Luganda classes start on Monday from the Mums… What I would give for a toilet seat around here. Speaking of which, Steven and I will work on a list of things that you should NOT take for granted in the US. Stay tuned. Not complaining, just being thankful for how fortunate we are to have what God has blessed us with at home in the US. Sorry I don’t have many pictures. My batteries have all been dead for a few days. =)