Palm Sunday

This boy's name is Nicolas and he used to cry
when he saw either Joe or I.

I was startled when they brought the first person past me; practically dragging her. The man dragging her had his arms around her torso, grabbing hold of her wrists. Her feet were scrambling as he drug her through the crowd of people to the front of the room where he placed her on the floor and let her go. There she lay, flailing her arms and legs and wailing loudly. I was so shocked I didn't really know what to think. Then the next one came. This one’s ankles were being carried by one man, and her torso by another. One by one they were brought up to the front of the room and the preacher shouted at the top of his lungs, “In Jesus’s name” over and over. Then he began to shout, “Fire, Fire, Fire” over and over. I sat and prayed to God that if this were real, that he would carry the demons, or whatever was wrong with these people away, but if not, may they just stand up and return to their seat. I am not used to this sort of thing. I could not help but disbelieve that it was happening before my eyes. They eventually got up and walked back to their seats as if nothing had happened. This went on periodically throughout the service. The minister talked about when Jesus entered Jerusalem briefly, and then talked at length basically repeating the same thing several times in several different ways. My plastic chair chiseled into the hard packed dirt that made up the floor of the church. The sun beat down on the tin roof that shielded us at the cost of sweat. There were tiny holes throughout the roof and walls casting circles of light throughout the sanctuary. The chairs were crammed in so tight that shoulders were touching, and a mild body odor drifted past my nose constantly. The speakers were projecting at capacity causing me to wince every time the pastor made a sound that sent air from his mouth.

Henry wanted so desperately to bring me to his church. He walked to the front of the room and announced to 150 people that engineer, Adam Neil was in attendance. My head ducked down slightly as I heard my name. Every head turned to look at me; it was obvious who Adam Neil was. He told the congregation that I had given the church 1,580 bricks. The church started cheering and clapping. People were touching me and saying, “Apoio”, which means “thank you” into my ears. Henry was talking about a portion of wall that we constructed before our surveyor had come out to tell us where our property lines were. When we finally were shown the location of the boundary stones, a portion of the wall extended into someone else’s property. Henry told me that we should break the wall down brick by brick and use them on the wall in the wetlands. I told him, “Henry, time is money. It is cheaper to buy more brick then to use a worker breaking the wall down.” He asked me if we were going to leave it where it was, and I told him yes. He then asked me if he could have the brick if he were to demolish it himself. I said yes, so he replied by telling me he will break the wall brick by brick, very carefully and donate the brick to start the construction of his church. “After this project is finished, you can break the wall as carefully as you want.”, I told him. 

The service ended when one of the pastors brought out a Rooster and said, “In an effort to contribute to the building fund, this cock has been donated and will be auctioned today.” I never carry a bunch of cash with me, but sometimes I wish I did. I would have bought the Rooster for the children. We need a good rooster for the hens. It ended up selling for 25,000 shillings (almost $10). Then the preacher dismissed the congregation, and asked for people who needed more prayer to step forward. Henry ran up to the front along with half of the people in the church, so I just waited in my seat as several people came up to me and asked for my contact. 

I took zero pictures today, so
this is from a few days ago.

After church today I put my shorts and cut-off shirt back on and went outside. I found my wheelbarrow, hoe, and shovel and went to work backfilling my retaining wall. As I worked, the children came up to me; bursting with curiosity. Many of the younger kids just wanted to try and swing the hoe. I asked them if they wanted to help me, and many of them said, “Yes.” So, I had a crew of child labor working for free digging and moving dirt. There were about 10 of them. It was very nice to simply point to where I wanted the dirt to go. However, working with kids is much more frustrating than working with someone that knows the plan. They have more energy then they know what to do with, and end up being overly hard on the tools. I had to explain to one of them how much one wheelbarrow costs so they understood what it would take to replace one when it breaks. When we finished for the day, I was glad. I feel that I have been getting short tempered with some of them. There are definitely a few that like to push buttons, and don't know when to stop. My problem is that I started as a buddy, and now when it is time to be serious, they can not make the switch. 

This is day 2 without power. Still no drinking water for the kids, no cell phone charging, and I will not be able to send another update until it returns, because my computer’s battery is down to 10%.

I have 1 week in Lira starting now. Then I return to Seta for 1 day, then back to the USA.