A Bit of Africa

On the way to a groundbreaking for one of eMIEA's projects, we stopped at Otter's Rock, where John and the Z's fought the current to explore an island in the middle of the Nile,

Zachary played in the hailstones,

          and we roasted apples and marshmallows over an open fire.

 

 

We visited John and Paula's original home (6 years ago) in Jinja

 

 

And stopped to see the occupants of the Arise Africa Children's Home

built by eMIEA.

 

 

We passed through lots of villages made up of mud huts with thatched or tin roofs,

 

glimpsed an introduction ceremony (introducing an

engaged couple  to both families and giving the dowry)

And got stuck behind numerous trailers (that often tip over) loaded high with sugar cane.

 

 

To add a little excitement, we got hit by a boda.  Then, at the agricultural fairgrounds, Paula and I lost track of John and the boys, who went to the car and patiently waited (as "the only logical place to go when someone's lost"), while Paula and I traversed the fairgrounds back and forth and up and down, asking every policeman if they had seen a muzungu (white person) with two little white-haired boys.  A policeman finally found John (who had to get back "in" the "exit") and hollered at him, "YOUR WOMAN is SERIOUSLY looking for you.  And you FORGOT YOUR PHONE!"  Paula didn't think it was a bit funny at the time, but now she is SERIOUSLY laughing.

 

Just another day in Africa....   

eMIEA, one of 6 international non-profit offices of Engineering Ministries, Int., is currently located in Kampala, Uganda (until relocation to Kajjansi), with space for a staff of architects, engineers, and support staff, with additional support staff on the field.  Below is John in his office and two of the staff and Paula,

and a pavilion for prayer, Bible study, and lunch.

 

eMIEA also has two different teaching/training programs with students in Ugandan universities.  Below are 4 Geomatic Engineering students from Kyambogo, Ndejje, and Makerere Universities working with EMI volunteer Patrick during a Survey Practicum, for hands-on practice in setting up a base, using a rover, and becoming competent in use of a data collector, as part of their industrial training course requirement. 

 

They had fun teaching "Mama John" (me) how to use the data collector.

 

 

Helping Patrick train students is University Graduate and former eMIEA intern, Moses.  Both the intern program and the university teaching programs provide excellent opportunities for mentoring/discipling young Ugandan men and women.

 

 

 

Slum picture

We have been away from internet service for awhile, and I have not yet had the opportunity to load the many pictures taken onto my computer.  But today I would like to give you a word picture of about 6 hours of my day yesterday.

It was the 2nd time that I have volunteered with the ministry to pregnant women in the slums.  This time we split up into a number of groups and visited the women in their homes.  "Home" is a small space, maybe 10 x 10, mostly filled with a bed if they are blessed enough to have one, occasionally a plastic chair, but wall to wall with the next tiny hovel, and usually occupied by an entire family and possibly extended family  Gutters (around 2 to 3 feet wide) meander through the area, leaving just enough room for one, possibly two, people to walk from place to place (unless one is traveling the broader area where the railroad tracks run through).  There were no toilets in the area of the slums that we were walking in.

We sat on the mattress in the first home and listened to a mother tell the story of her tiny daughter, Grace, paralyzed from waist down.  The little one, 18 months old but looking more like 6 months, seemed to be in constant distress, crying weakly.  Her momma said they had just come from the hospital where she was told Grace had malaria and where they gave her 3 different meds (but nothing for the malaria).  The father had left for good long before, and it was only by the current grace of a neighbor that the momma and child had a temporary room to rent and a tiny bit of food.  We loved on the mother and prayed for her (with my partner translating my prayer so the mother could understand).      

We next made our way to "Mama Carol's", a precious Ugandan lady of the slums who had given her life to Jesus in one of the ministry Bible studies, and who now ministered to other women living around her.  Twenty-three women crowded into the small space (perhaps 6 x 10), most of us squashed together on the floor, with the rest leaning in at the door-less entry.

After my first visit to the slums, my heart was broken for the many hurting women, and I prayed that God would give an opportunity to share my story as encouragement to these gentle women whom I had come to love.  God answered that prayer yesterday, as I sat on the floor in Carol's tiny home and told the women crowded around me about the journey God had taken my husband and I on, through 3 months of coma, 18 years of caring for my husband with traumatic brain injury, his struggle with "why", and the eventual peace that God filled him with in spite of the worsening situation.  We talked about how our relationship with God - as our best friend who was always there - constantly lifted us up and carried us through (see the brochure & video at ssauder.blogspot.com for more info).

Afterwards, the women came forward one by one to tell us their story, and I prayed with them, hugged them, loved them., even as my heart was crying to hear their tragedies.  There were requests for safe deliveries, healing for an asthmatic baby we could hear struggling desperately to breathe, and relief from pain, but most of the requests quietly whispered involved their "man" leaving - just walking out one day and never coming back.  They are desperate for someone to love them and care for them, but it is an endless search that usually always ends in unhappiness  - unless they learn to make God their best friend. 

It seems that one of the biggest problems in Uganda is men who have never learned responsibility with a job and how to truly love their children and the mother of their children.  That is one of the situations that eMI is trying to address through discipleship.  They are seeing Uganden men change little by little, one man at a time, as God works in their hearts through Biblical teaching and modeling.

One of the other teams with us in the slums saw this same kind of miraculous change yesterday in a woman who had been dealing in witchcraft before she came to last week's Bible study (after much prayer by another new Christian).  From one week to the next, she became a new woman - beautiful inside and out, calm, peaceful, speaking in her right mind!    

And when we stopped by a second time yesterday to check on the little one who was paralyzed, we found her sitting on her mother's lap, still paralyzed but looking around, content, at peace.

What an honor - an honor I don't deserve - to have the joy of listening to and praying for and loving these whom God loves enough to come and die for them.   

 

Kampala, Uganda has many faces.  The steep, hilly streets (and even the road all the way to Entebbe) are all lined with multitudes of small, unique shops overflowing with gentle people with a gracious greeting.  The drivers are a different breed, however, where it's "each man for himself".

 

Most residents live in tiny shacks crowded together, with goats, chickens, and cows wandering the pathway (see rooftop view below).  Their mode of transportation is usually walking, 

 

but there are also bodas (motorcycle taxis) carrying everything from a mom with child to mattresses, bananas, chickens, a door or whatever needed.  Multitudes of them swarm around your vehicle on both sides.  Or, as many as 14 (or many more) people can crowd into one of the white vans (matatus) that careen around the crowded streets at unbelievable speed.    

 

 

On the other end of the scale are diplomats and government officials, traveling by police escort with sirens blaring, and all other vehicles are forced to quickly pull over to the side.  Periodically, one will see a tank for spraying tear gas into rioting crowds, as the officials did last week after the murder of a cleric.

One wakes and goes to sleep to a sing-song chant from the mosque and to neighborhood dogs barking, and both compose the background noise numerous times during the day.

Yesterday I volunteered at a ministry for pregnant women in the slums with a friend, Jalina, a nurse.  The prayer requests of the precious woman crowded in beside me on a hard bench - "please heal my baby; please, Lord, I need a job; please heal my HIV".  They come from all over Uganda to the tiny one-room shacks in the slums, in hopes of finding a job and a better life.  Their babies are called "Hope", "Precious", and "Blessing", and the mothers have a shy smile of thanks. 

And we complain about our tiny problems.  Lord, open our eyes.     

The Wedding

Saturday I had the great privilege, along with Engineering Ministries International EA staff, of attending the Ugandan wedding of Richard and Lydia.  Richard, as a site field manager on the EMIEA staff, oversees Ugandan construction workers building various EMIEA partner projects.

The wedding had been preceded by an "introduction" about a month before, where the bride and groom were introduced and the families were arrayed in their traditional dress.  The groom brought dowry and gifts needed to "purchase" the bride and had to be "accepted", along with his gifts, by the bride's family.  The high cost of the dowry and the wedding force the majority of couples to start a family before marriage, since custom must not be broken.

The wedding started with stirring music, and then the groom, five groomsmen, and two boys, all singing "Jesus, you make me beautiful", did an awesome dance-walk down the aisle to the front.  

 

Two little girls, dressed in white, along with five beautiful bridesmaids, sang and danced their way down another aisle,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

including Hope (far right), a Ugandan on staff with EMIEA as Human Resources Assistant (notice Hope's "dreadlocks").

 

The bride followed, escorted by her father in village dress.

  Before vows were exchanged, Richard first had to look around the audience to check for objections to their marriage and then remove the bride's face veil to verify that it was Lydia he was marrying (not some imposter)!

 

They were then free to exchange vows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wedding was celebrated with much joy, clapping, dancing, and AWESOME singing.

Below is part of the EMIEA staff and spouses (and Grandma) with the wedding party.

The reception following was opened with a blessing from John,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the dancing re-entry of the wedding party,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and then a speech by Steve, the EMIEA Senior Project Manager, praising not only Richard's excellent project oversight, but also his spiritual leadership over the construction teams.

 Great food was plentiful (rectangular-shape at the top is Ugandan sweet potato),

along with colorful village dress.

                                                   Part of the wedding party changed clothes,

but, lo and behold, the groom got lost in the changing!!  Much time was spent by the bride and her attendants hunting for Richard, and there was great celebration,

                                                             

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                and dancing, when Richard was found.

 

 

 

 

 

Next on the agenda was lighting the wedding cake with sparklers, cutting the cake,

and the bride and groom serving each other.

The cake (both frosting and cake much harder than typical American cakes because of the humidity) was cut into small squares and served to the guests, and then the remainder was wrapped into "packages" and presented to several people, including John as director of EMIEA.

Next on the agenda was a speech by Richard, and another by Lydia, with Lydia's including a word of thanks to EMI for mentoring Richard,

and then presentation of the EMIEA gifts of a refrigerator and stove to Richard and Lydia.  

Next, Richard's (current) construction crew brought a gift to the bride and groom.

Then it was time for the rest of the guests to dance down the aisle to Richard and Lydia with their gifts.

The wedding was concluded by long speeches, including a speech by the Local Council Chairperson urging men not to beat their wives, a common practice here - one which wives traditionally expect and, in fact, where they see themselves as the "favored" wife if beaten. 

In a sense, the highlight of the wedding was Richard's speech, urging all of his construction crew to follow his example in marriage.  It was apparent that Richard does not think of it as just a job; he deeply cares about the guys and about their learning to live in accordance with Jesus' teachings.  The fact that the crew all dressed up and found a way to come to the wedding shows the honor they give to Richard.  He is making a difference in the lives of Ugandan men - one by one - and consequently in the love, honor, and respect given to their women and children.