#49: Village Visit to Makoma

Enjoy the tour of Makoma. This is a small village near Lake Victoria. We went out there with Phillip to observe the culture. This was my second time for going and Joy’s first time. We had a blast! I had my first chicken heart!!!
It was very interesting. I will spare you any other details!

#48: Visiting Kaworyu

Here is just some videos and picture from my trip to Kaworyu.

Inside the church building.

Vince standing in the village of Kaworyu

Drums warming in the sun and getting ready to be played.

The fields are ready for harvest.

Shawn and James visiting with Patrick.

The church in Kaworyu.

#47: Visiting Makoma

I don’t usually write as much as Joy so this may be a short post. Last week I made a visit to Makoma, Uganda. It is located near Lake Victoria. It was a really a neat experience and very different from Atirir.

For those of you that are not aware, Joy and I live in a cultural diverse area. There is not just one tribe of people in the area, but closer to a dozen. In village of Atirir lived the Ateso tribe and in Makoma it was a different tribe.

During our stay in Makoma, we baptized 17 people! It was really neat to see how someone is baptized in something other then a tank in the church.

I think the biggest thing I learned was the hospitality of Makoma. We were warmly greeted by many people and we even ended our time there with a meal. We have rice and beef served to us. The food was good, it only had a few pieces of rock! 🙂

That is it for now, enjoy the pictures.

#46: Visiting Atirir

Yesterday we went on our first village visit in Uganda since being in the country this time, to a place called Atirir. The drive out there was about 1 ½ or 2 hours long partly due to road conditions. The first ¾ of the trip, the road was tarmac, but it felt like we were traveling by boat hitting lots of waves rather than a smooth road. The last leg of the journey introduced us to road construction. We somehow missed the road “diversion,” or as we would call it detour sign, and ended up driving on the part of the road that was under construction. We took a little video of what it is like to ride in a car in Uganda. If you’re interested take a look, but be warned, it is a bumpy road. 🙂

The area is not super lush and fertile like some areas, but the people still seemed to be surviving well. There were not many big trees around, mostly there were scraggly bushes. There were a few trees for shade, though. I saw a few mango trees and others I am not yet familiar with. The main crop right now is cassava, which is a starchy root that is sometimes eaten like a potato.

The houses that we came across were all square, one room houses made out of mud and had thatched grass roofs, most of which looked like they had seen better days. The houses had no windows and only one door, made out of wood. Each house had a pole in the middle to support the roof. This apparently is not customary in all villages. Our “tour guide” (a Ugandan friend of ours named George) made it a point to show us the pole and if we could not see it in a house for some reason, he would ask the owner of the house if they had a pole.

The church where the discipleship course was held was actually really nice to many we have been in. By looking at the picture I’m sure many of you are thinking, that’s nice? But the fact that it is a long term building with a tin roof, doors, and windows makes this a very nice building.

We had fun wandering around the area before the discipleship meeting started and were able to learn a lot of things about the way the people in the village live. We learned how they make their own charcoal, how they make their roofs for their houses, how to know when the kasava is ready to be picked or if it has already been picked, how to know where the boundary for each family’s land ends, and that they separate their bath house from their toilet area. The most interesting thing to me was that we found out that a bicycle is like the most important thing for somebody to own. It is the first thing someone will get. Some people even sell their land to get a bicycle. Can you imagine selling all your property or a chunk of it to buy a bicycle? That just baffles my mind, but then again, a bicycle is a lot faster than walking and cheaper than any other mode of transportation.

We really did enjoy our first experience in the village this time around and look forward to the next time we go out.

Ponderings from a Village Experiences

How does one adequately describe what goes on in life? There are so many different emotions and thoughts running through the brain, not to mention all the sights and smells and sounds that go on every second.

 

We are in Mbale and it is beautiful. Life goes at a different pace here, and it is taking us some time to get used to it, but we are enjoying ourselves. And things are beginning to pick up in pace this week, and I’m sure will only continue to do so in the near future.

The view from Mbale

I sit here now in a room where the electricity is off and there is a thunderstorm brewing outside, so there is lots of time to reflect on my experiences here so far.

On Saturday, Vince and I traveled with Shawn to a village up in the mountains, about 1 ½ hours away from here. Shawn taught a discipleship training there, and we got to listen in. There were between 10 and 20 men there who are leaders in local churches, and Shawn was taking the time to train them so that they can further help their congregations.

Picture of the village

As we sat in the little mud church building, surrounded by preachers, I was humbled and also driven by the work that has been done. There are so many people hungry for the gospel, but there is work going on everywhere bringing the message to people. The need is great, but God is greater. To Him it does not matter whether the church is made out of mud, papyrus, bricks, or open air. God fills any heart that is open to Him. As I listened to Shawn talk about salvation, I realized even more how immense the love of God is.

I was also struck by something else. At every window, there were children looking in on us. I know it was mostly out of curiosity because there were four white people in the building, but I couldn’t help thinking and praying that these might just be the next generation of Christian leaders. I found myself praying that God would open the heart of at least one of those children who were listening to the training Shawn was giving. What better way to get training than to hear it with the open heart of a child presented in a clear and straight forward way. May one of those children go from there and share the message to another person, village, tribe, country….

Kodedie

Yesterday I went to a village called Kodedie. Shawn, one of the missionaries we are staying with. Shawn was teaching a lesson on baptism and what preachers are to do when someone comes forward and says, “I want to be a believer.” I thought the lesson was very good. It was about 2 hours long and the students sat still and listened to every word.

The village was a good picture of what many think most of Africa look like. There we small mud huts group together. A number of fields dotted the village. The church building was made of bricks they made themselves and instead of mortar or concrete, they used mud.

This was the first village experience of many. Joy and I will both be going to a village tomorrow, Saturday, in the mountains. Check back for pictures.

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