The Village

I’ve been enjoying the company of our new volunteers. Alex, Rebecca and Kate are all full of life and super excited about being here. It is really good to be with people who are so anxious to dive in.

Last weekend we went to our first church service in the village. We went with our good friend George to his village about an hour-and-a-half away. The church building is literally on George’s property. Despite being an hour late to the service (thanks to Uganda’s lovely public transportation system) the congregation waited for us to arrive before starting. They welcomed us with open arms. The building we worshiped in had a footprint of about 10’x20’. The framework for the walls and roof were small tree trunks slowly being taken over by termites. The walls were constructed using dried cow dung, and the roof was corrugated aluminum sheets. There were all of about 30 people in the building including the 5 of us. The rhythm of hands clapping and feet stomping was worship in and of itself. They sang from such a sincere place to the Lord’s provision in their lives. For some of them, even making it church that day was a victory and testament to the Lord moving. I never cease to be amazed as to how thankful these people are to even the smallest things in their lives. You will see in the picture the worship team leading us. Most of which are George’s children.

We’ve been spending valuable time with some of the Suubi women and some of our friends who own shops on Main St. I am becoming more and more comfortable in my interaction with Ugandans and the natural dynamics that occur in time spent with them. Long periods of silence are no longer uncomfortable for me. It is getting easier to understand some of their heavy accents. It is even easier for me to read some of their non-verbal communication and body language. Baby step #2 is to conquer the local language. This one may take a while.