Good Shepherd's Fold, Jinja, Uganda

Tuesday March 25, 2008

First of all let me start this email by asking for peoples prayers.  Bob came down with malaria on Easter Sunday.  He is on his third day, so just being praying for a good recovery.

Finally yesterday the weather started to warm back up.  The kids didn’t have school yesterday, I got the boys to help move some trunks that had towels and sheets in them.  When Claudia came back from furlough she brought 35 trunks with her.  So after I finished getting all the kids knickers and socks, then we needed to get things squared away with those who needed sheets and towels. So I had a bunch of the boys moving the trucks around for me.  A few of the big boys were painting bunk beds, so I helped them paint the beds.  They thought that was pretty great.  Ha-ha, I guess most women guests don’t do that.  Actually, I think it was because I was doing their work for them.  It took most of the day getting things passed out to the kids.

Dianna (she is the Global Outreach Coordinator for Jinja, I think) anyway she came out to the orphanage last night.  She got here about 5 and Claudia and I were going to ride into Jinja so we could get Claudia’s car.  It was at the mechanic shop.  Let me just tell you when we got there to pick it up, I was shocked at how they jack vehicles up.  I was going to take a picture but I didn’t want anybody to be offended.  So I’ll just try and describe it the best that I can.  We go in and there is a guy welding under a car.  The back tires are on the ground and the front end is on probably 2x6’s.  One long one under each front tire, and then the back tire has a rock behind them to keep in there.  The front tires are on the boards and those are slanted up on some piece of metal.  Anyway, I would be scared to death if I was under that car.  Then instead of having a lift, there is basically a six foot deep ditch into the ground where a person walks down there and you drive the car onto some boards and you work underneath the car that way.  I definitely knew I was in Africa when I saw that. Ha-ha  

Claudia has only been back here at the orphanage for two weeks.  She got back here the week before I got here.  So she has been to the states on furlough for one year - just wanted to give you the background really quick, so you can fully understand my story.  So we climb in the car and go to the supermarket and get a few things.  Well when we come out it is dark.  We are at a intersection and something didn’t feel right.  Then Claudia says, "Are we on the right side of the road?"  Well I only know one right side of the road.  As traffic is coming at us, we both start laughing and realize that we are on the wrong side.  She has been in the states so long she forgot how to drive.  So thankfully in Uganda you don’t get tickets, we probably would have gotten pulled over in the states for being on the wrong side.  So we got a nice laugh out of that.

Then we decide that we want dinner.  So I got to experience getting food at a drive though there in Jinja.  But before you guys think, "Oh it is just a drive though," let me explain.  Remember it is dark out.  There are people on the side of the road with a straw umbrella over there heads, with a little fire burning cooking.  So we pulled over and a guy came to our window.  We wanted chipate’s (I don’t know how to spell it sorry) so they were 600 shillings each.  So we got six, which was enough for dinner for her family and me.  Our total was 3600 shillings and the exchange is 1600 or 1700.  So for a filling dinner we spent $3 dollars or so.  Not bad huh?  Anyway the chipate’s are a flour wrap with eggs, tomatoes, onions, and cabbage in them.  Something like that.  So they are sitting there making our dinner, cracking the eggs there, doing everything right there.  Good thing the health inspector wasn’t around!! Then to top it all off, the lady who is making them has a magazine there and after she makes the food, they are each wrapped in a page from the magazine.  So the food was good, and it was a great experience.  There is a picture of the chipate.  It is sitting on a box and wrapped in a piece of writing paper.  Just thought people would get a kick out of it.  I know I sure did.

Anyway, things are continuing to go well.  The kids all go back to school today which is Tuesday.  So probably one day this week and then one day next week I’ll go to school with the kids.  Well I am headed to go and see the kids who aren’t in school.

I hope everybody is enjoying the emails.  I try to write them as if you are sitting here talking to me.  Thank you all for being so interested in what God is doing in my life over here with the kids.  Keep the prayers coming.

Debbie

Jeremiah 29:11, Luke 1:37

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