I saw God in 30 tiny faces

With dirty clothes but faces bright and shining, a large group of children sat waiting in a small patch of grass yesterday when we walked home. We looked around, and while we had no idea what was going on, we decided to respond to their cries of "Bye muzungu!" by actually sitting down in the grass next to them. A huge line of motorcycles was forming across the street, a sight strange even for the busy road where boda bodas (motorcycles) freely weave in and out of a busy mess of cars, trucks, and pedestrians alike. A few words of broken English from the kids surrounding was all we needed to find out that a race was about to happen.

While we never actually saw the race (it was getting dark quickly and we decided we should walk home), I saw something even greater. I saw God.

With the 30 tiny faces turned in our direction, 60 beautiful dark-brown eyes, and 300 little fingers touching our faces, hair, and skin, I began to see what God must look like. After all, they were all, like you and I, created in His image.


At one point in the night, one little girl who was sitting beside me turned and looked at me. "Money?" she asked. My heart sank. I had money with me-- plenty of it in fact, because we had just come back from a trip to Kampala. But as I sat and thought/ prayed about giving her some of it, my heart was in deep conflict.


Right now in one of my classes we are reading Ron Sider's book Rich Christians in the Age of Hunger. It is a challenging but incredible book, and reading it while I am here in Africa has made it even more impacting. As I read it and think through things, I keep finding myself paralyzed. It is so easy to be overwhelmed with all the need. The world is fallen, and the sin of this world has caused great suffering. Our sin has caused suffering. My sin has caused suffering. Why was I born into a Christian family in America, instead of one of the many suffering families that I have met here? Abraham was blessed to be a blessing to others. Is this how I am living? And true, in comparison to the great need of the world, I have little to offer. But in comparison to the 5,000 who were hungry, the 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish that the little boy offered (See John 6) were enough to laugh at. But look at what Jesus did with that. Could He do the same with my resources if I let him? What if we all did? And would the glory that God would receive in our faithfulness not be something to speak of in itself?


In Sider's book, I read something that really spoke to my heart this weekend. It was a part of a "membership covenant" for a mission group of The Church of the Savior in Washington DC:

"I believe that God is the total owner of my life and resources. I give God the throne in relation to the material aspect of my life. God is the owner. I am the ower. Because God is a lavish giver, I too shall be lavish and cheerful in my regular gifts."

I don't know how to end the suffering of the billions around the world who don't have food to eat, water to drink, clothes to wear, or a place to lay their heads. I don't even know the extent of the pain in the 30 beautiful faces that I met yesterday in that tiny patch of grass. But I am confident of this: that just as Christ knew the need of the 5,000 hungry who sat on the grassy hill 2,000 years ago, he knows the need of the hungry today. I don't have much to offer him, but neither did that little boy. And if the Word of God says that "whatever we do for the least of these" we do for God himself, maybe I didn't just imagine that I saw God in those 30 tiny faces. Maybe I really did.

Kibaale photos

This weekend we went and visited some missionaries at Kibaale (actually pronounced chee-ball-ee)Community Center in the southern Ugandan district of Rakai. It was a great weekend to see what the Lord is doing down there, and we had plenty of time to just hang out and enjoy how beautiful it was. Here's a few pictures!


We decided to make a pyramid at the top of this huge hill that we climbed


The beautiful view from the top of the hill... if you look really closely you can see the border line for Tanzania. Haha not really, but you really can see into Tanzania because we were so close to the border.


A schoolhouse that we passed on our walk to the school. It was really falling apart, but there was fresh chalk on the board.


The missionaries that we met adopted Mazie from another area of Uganda... we played with her and their other three adorable children all weekend.

I found the source of the mysterious ticking noise

If anyone has seen the ridiculously funny/ stupid YouTube video with the Harry Potter finger puppets and the “mysterious ticking noise” you’ll probably think that the blog title is funny. If not, hopefully you’ll think this story is funny :)

Long story short, I did indeed find the source of the mysterious ticking noise. Actually, the noise was more like a… beep… beep…beep… but it was still very mysterious. We’ve had over three weeks of school now, and the whole time many of us have been wondering what the noise is. You hear it everywhere—in the classrooms, in the IMME room, in the dining hall, walking across campus. It seemed so strange to be in the heart of Africa and constantly hearing this electronic-type noise. Finally at one point last week I decided to ask Phil, one of the interns, if he knew what it was. After laughing at me for a little bit (its ok, I probably deserved it) he revealed the mystery. What is the mysterious beeping noise? A bird. Humorously enough, Phil even called it the “catchphrase” bird, which absolutely describes the sound that it makes.

As far as other exciting on-campus news…
Its been raining for a long time, and not just raining—pouring. I’m sitting in the IMME room watching the lightning flash at the same time as I hear the thunder pound because it is so close. We also have a rushing red river outside of the door, the remains of the red dirt road washed away. The rainy season is not supposed to be for another month or more, but I think it’s come early. The walk home should be fun.

This past weekend was a pretty eventful three days. Because of some classes that got rearranged earlier in the week, we didn’t have any classes on Friday which was incredible. Laura and I decided that because we had the entire day free it would be a great time to plan to make dinner for our family. Two other guys in the program live in the house right across the street, so we planned for a joint meal. Cooking for 16 with nothing but charcoal and firewood proved to be more difficult than we had bargained for, but definitely still just as fun (if not more!) By the end of the night we ate a delicious meal of spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread, and banana splits for desert (Everything turned out great except that we had a few too many meatballs and not enough sauce so it ended up being more like sloppy joe sauce on top of spaghetti… but they didn’t know that) Our brother William like it so much that he not only ate two huge plates of spaghetti, but he wrote on a copy of the 2006 calendar on the wall: “best supper in the world” with the date and his signature next to it. I bet that calendar will hang for at least another two years.

Saturday, three of us decided to visit CMU, an orphanage in Mukono. It was a great day—we visited with Ruth, a German woman who with her husband founded CMU, helped some of the girls wash their clothes, ate lunch, and had the opportunity to sing with the kids and talk to them after lunch. At first the girls were really hesitant to let us help them wash (who would have known bazungu could wash clothes by hand), but after a while they began to open up a little more. We are looking forward to going back in the near future.

The rest of the weekend was also pretty eventful—while the rest of you enjoyed the Superbowl on Sunday, I went Saturday night with my brother William to watch a football (soccer) game. Laura and I walked in the room, immediately realizing that we were not just the only white people, but also the only girls. It was an experience, all of us in the same room watching the game on a single television, but it was also a lot of fun. Sunday four of us went into Kampala to meet a friend-of-a-friend of one of the girls here. It ended up being a great weekend, visiting the church that he attends and grabbing some pizza and ice cream before catching the matatu home.

This weekend the 16 of us on the IMME track are traveling to Rakai, a rural area of Uganda about five-or-so hours away. Our last trip to Jinja was great, so I’m really looking forward to it. I’ll try to post some more pictures soon!

Jinja pictures

One of the many monkeys that we saw on monkey hill.


The beautiful hut we stayed in at the resort in Jinja... it was AMAZING.


Ok... a really cheesy picture of me touching the nile :)


Several of us outside of the Source Cafe in Jinja. One of the teams of missionaries that we met started the cafe as a way of creating financial independence for the churches in Jinja. Its now under Ugandan leadership.


A taxi covered in chickens that we saw on our way to Jinja.

Visiting Jinja

I always have a problem with figuring out what all to tell you back at home. There's so much to say, but I have trouble putting it all in words, knowing that these mere symbols on a computer screen will never be able to convey it all accurately.

This weekend those of use who are on the missions track in the study abroad program took a weekend trip to Jinja, a town about an hour away. It was an amazing weekend, and it was just what I needed in a lot of ways. Program wise for the weekend we talked with two different missionary teams in Jinja, learning about their ministries and rejoicing in the work of the Lord. One of the missionaries also took us on a tour of Jinja on Saturday, showing us a lot of things that you wouldn't know about Jinja from just walking down a street with markets. I don't have time to tell a whole lot about it today, but hopefully I can tell you more when I am able to post pictures. Sunday night we were able to be visitors at New Life Missionary Baptist church. Not only was the service AMAZING-- three hours of joy and fellowship-- but it was great to talk to the leadership of the church after the service to see the ways that they are being a missional church in Jinja and the surrounding area. More than anything, that is what I am praying to see in Uganda the most... not that they would have to depend on foreign aid and Westerners, but that Godly Ugandan leaders would be raised up. It is already happening, and I pray there will be more and more in the future!

For the weekend we stayed at a place called Kingfisher Resort (which happened to be BEAUTIFUL and complete with a hot shower!!!!). Friday night was pretty chill, and after dinner with the missionaries several of us dug out the guitar and began worshiping in prayer and in song. The Spirit of the Lord fell, and we ended up worshiping long into the night. One of the coolest parts of the night is that God brought us together with a few individuals from a team of missionaries traveling with AIM. It was great to worship with them and to hear and share stories of the working of God in our lives. It is always a funny thing to meet other Americans over here... its like we share a strange but instant bond.

When we came back to school we all hung out on campus for a while before walking back home to be with our families. A few of us were feeling adventurous after a long bus ride, so we climbed up "monkey hill." From the top we could see all of Mukono, and it was beautiful! We also had a lot of fun searching for monkeys, who happened to find us on the way back down. We acted like ridiculous bazungu who had never seen a monkey before, taking tons of pictures and laughing every time they jumped or did something funny, but it was a great time. We loved the hill so much that we decided to come back the next day EARLY in the morning to try and watch the sunrise... which unfortunately ended up being a thunderstorm instead. It was still fun though, and we took some pretty sweet pictures that I'll put up another day. We are still determined to watch a sunrise one day...

Well I have to go... I have class in an hour, and then Laura and I are headed home early today to do our laundry. Thankfully the clouds and rain from this morning have cleared up so that they can dry! Pictures will come soon!

I meant to post these last time... I forgot

Pictures from the demonstration in Kampala

more pictures

(From bottom to top)
1. The view of Mukono on our walk home from school
2. Getting my hair plaited
3. Laundry!
4. Mama Robinah, my sister Rebecca, and I in our sitting room
5. Several of us in the IMME room on campus... showing how we feel about Matoke (Tori is the only one who likes it)

The inauguration of new things

It’s kind of funny that as the United States celebrated the historical event of the inauguration of the first African-American president, I was here. In Africa, celebrating it with African friends and family who I am nearly positive were far more excited about it all than my friends and family back home. Why is it that everyone here is so happy about Obama? Is it because of his policies? Is it just because he’s black? Why does it seem like the whole world is happy? Is it because the election of a minority shows that democracy truly exists in the US?

While we were in Kampala this weekend a few of us had our own opportunity to witness politics in action. Some of us got bored with the mall-like atmosphere of Garden City where we had gone to exchange money and find food (the pizza was great though!), so we decided to take a walk in the area. Just around the block was a huge demonstration. African Muslims flooded two blocks of the Kampala streets, walking, riding in Matatu (big vans that serve as taxis), and shouting. The roar of their voices seemed like it could have been heard for miles. They were holding banners made of sheets, but we couldn’t make out what they said, so we asked a few fellow onlookers who explained that they were protesting Uganda’s ties with Israel because of the conflict right now. Apparently Uganda has had close ties with Israel since independence.

The rest of our weekend was less surprising but no less interesting. On Saturday Silvia took Laura and I to a small salon to get our hair plaited. The women at the salon were really sweet, but they didn’t know very much English and spoke in Luganda the whole time. It took ALL day and hurt a lot, but it was totally worth it. It looks pretty sweet, and it will be so much nicer to take care of and deal with while I’m here. One of my Ugandan sisters, Rebecca is older and doesn’t live at home, but on Sunday after church she came over to the house and saw us with our new hair. She kept talking about how much she liked it, and Mama Robinah said, “Yes, what beautiful African daughters I have.” Haha. I liked that. Rebecca and Mama both agreed that we looked very “smart”, which here is a really nice compliment meaning you look good (well dressed, etc.)

Sunday after church we had our first experience of washing our clothes in buckets. We soaked them the night before, so it wasn’t nearly as hard as I was expecting it to be, but it definitely still took a while. My favorite part was later that day. USP staff warned us both verbally and in our handbooks that if you don’t iron our clothes we can have problems with bugs. Apparently these things called mango flies come and lay their eggs in your clothes while their damp, and then they later burrow under your skin because your skin is damper than the dry clothes. I guess ironing them kills the bugs. In order to look “smart” you can’t have wrinkles in your clothes, but that was a much smaller motivation to iron than preventing nasty flies from crawling under our skin. But the funny part was that while I was ironing Laura and I were talking to our sister Silvia who thought that the whole thing was hysterical. She had no idea what mango flies were, and had never had bugs under her skin from her clothes. “Your brothers never iron,” she said. Laura and I decided it was an attempt from the USP staff to make us iron our clothes and look smart. Haha. We all had a good laugh at it. We didn’t iron everything.

WARNING: the next paragraph may contain material not suitable for sensitive readers. (Just kidding. Kind of. If you’re really fond of roosters, don’t read this.)

Yesterday we went home early from campus because we were both done with classes by one and we wanted Mama and Silvia to teach us how to make some of the food. Much to our surprise, not only was our Mom, Silvia, and our brothers there to meet us, but also an old lady with a rooster. The lady didn’t speak any English, so we had to find out everything about her from our Mom, who called her “the stubborn old lady that she takes care of because she used to serve the church.” But really, the lady isn’t the main part of this story… it’s the rooster she brought. It was walking around the courtyard the whole time that we prepared dinner, and Laura and I kept commenting on how pretty the feathers were, taking an occasional picture. Our brother William came and said that it was time to slaughter the chicken. We thought that he meant one of the many other chickens that we have, but before we knew it he had scooped up the rooster with one hand and was sharpening a knife with the other. The rooster with beautiful feathers was sacrificed to our stomachs, and we have pictures in his memory. During dinner our mom kept saying, “how’s the rooster,” and “eat some more of the rooster.” Like we needed reminding.

But really, life here goes on just like life goes on anywhere else in the world—normally. True, the normal is relative to Ugandan normal, but as we slowly adapt it becomes normal for us too. Wearing skirts and dresses all the time, eating dinner at 10 instead of 6, drinking lots of tea, using Luganda greetings, walking everywhere, seeing tons of tropical birds, having the power go out, bathing with a bucket, worshiping and praying with our family every night, having kids follow you just to touch your skin… its all “normal,” and I am enjoying it all.

P.S. thanks for all your comments! I like hearing from you all!

My name is Nampebwa

Hello family and friends in the below zero weather :)
I wasn't actually going to write anything today, but I am trying to upload a picture to show you and it is taking a REALLY long time with the slow connection here, so I figured I may as well also type while I wait. Hopefully it works.

I am learning a lot while I am here, and I am taking a few classes as well. Most of what I learn comes from home, though. I have decided that Luganda is a really hard language. I don't know how successful I will actually be in learning much, but I love it anyway. Mama Robinah and Silvia are teaching us some really useful and fun phrases, though, so Laura and I like trying to remember and use them. So far our vocabulary only consists of things like how are you, I am fine, I am satisfied, thank you very much, good morning, good afternoon, sleep well, ok, and a few others. We have only been here a week, though, so maybe we will end up learning more than I think.

You might be interested in learning some about the food here. I had heard from other people who had come to Uganda that most of the food was bad, so I was a little scared, but it has been a lot better than I expected. At the bottom of the Ugandan food pyramid, in a food group all of its own is matoke, or steamed plantain mush. We eat it for both lunch and supper, and I'm sure you can imagine what it tastes like if you just think about it. It’s not horrible, but it is far from good. We cover it with beans, ground nut sauce, or on a rare occasion meat, all of which make it taste a little better. I had a revelation the other day in discovering exactly what G-nut sauce was. Silvia was explaining what they were, and all I could think was “I don’t think we have those.” She had me try some of the g-nuts when they were all mashed up, but before they were made into the sauce, and it tasted a lot like peanut butter. The next night Mama Robinah came home with a big box of g-nuts that were, in fact peanuts. Sadly, I think they only eat them boiled, which is definitely not my favorite way to eat peanuts, but I was definitely excited to realize what g-nuts were! We also eat a lot of rice, which like the matoke is much better with something on it. Then there is posho, which has no flavor at all and is a little hard, spongy cube of something like cornmeal. Tea time has become one of our favorite parts of the day (thank you British influence!), and anytime in Uganda can be tea time. We always take tea at breakfast, when we come home from school, and several of us try to go to tea time in the dining hall during the day in the afternoon. It is kind of strange drinking hot tea when it is so hot here, but a lot of us still really look forward to it. The fruit here is also delicious, and we feel like we just got a million dollars when we get some fresh pineapple, a banana, or a mango with a meal. Last night instead of tea Mama Robinah gave us jackfruit to try. It was by far the most unique fruit I have eaten, but we really liked it!

Our walk to school is about 30-40 minutes, although this morning we discovered that we can make it in about 25 because we walked much faster. Most of it is uphill coming in the mornings, and we have realized that walking slower has its definite advantages. In general, though, we love the walk. On campus all of us living with families have two little rooms with lockers to keep our laptops, books, etc. so we do not always have to bring them home. Yesterday morning I forgot my key, though, so as soon as I got here I turned around and walked back home. That made for a long day of walking in shoes that weren’t good for my feet, and today I have HUGE blisters all over them. Ouch! I am really hoping they heal soon because if definitely hurts to walk, and walking here is absolutely unavoidable.

The last few nights have been great with our family. This post is getting really long, so I won’t say too much, but I will say that I know God put Laura and I in exactly the family where he wanted us to be. The last two nights in a row we have had worship and prayer with several in the family, and I am so encouraged by their passionate love of the Lord. Last night Mama Robinah also gave us our “clan” names. I can’t think of the name of the clan right now (it’s written down at home), but the name that she gave me is Nampebwa. Laura is Nakiriowa, and we both feel like having new names has made us a real part of the family.

We have an exciting weekend ahead of us. On Fridays we only have one class, Faith and Action, and after class most of us are going to Kampala to exchange money and look around. We’ve been looking forward to it all week. Laura and I are also really excited about tomorrow because Silvia is taking us to get our hair done! I’ll be sure and try to post more pictures next week.

- Nampebwa

Pictures!