1821 Uganda

Uganda Sunday, July 15 Our service at Immanuel, Ishongorero took about 2 hrs and was followed by a baptism of a baby girl.   The service started with about 15 minutes of singing, clapping and praising the Lord.   When Pastor Bensen preached he did the sermon in both the native language and English. Following the baptism, greetings were given by numerous officials-greeting from the President of the Lutheran Church of Uganda   then by various local officials.   It was after 3 pm before the meal was served. After the lunch, 20 filter buckets were given out to people from Immanuel congregation. Very few of these people had been at the presentation by the team who was here in February, so we   decided to have them complete the questionnaire, review the filter bucket including removing he filter to backwash with the syringe provided with the bucket. All in all it was a glorious day! When pastor   ame this morning, he brought each of us a dress to wear to church and shirts for t

Uganda, Saturday, July 14 Today was a very long day, not because we traveled a lot but it   was a warmer day than we have had and not as much breeze.   Maybe it was also that it was the last day and we are tired.      The congregation today was Kigando Lutheran Church of Uganda in Bugarama.   It was a small building with only a small window   but had doors on both side so we had a cross breeze. Other lessons beside the transfer of germs include food preparation in terms of washing the fruits and vegetable in filtered or boiled water, washing hands before preparing food, etc, then the topic of common parasites followed by discussion of the formula for controlling diarrhea using a special spoon which measures salt on one end and sugar with the other to be dissolved in water. Children drink one cup and adults two cups. In some ways it was hard to believe we had completed our 6 days of teaching already. Our comment to our team leader was we finally are able to do this smoothl

Friday, July 13 th The Lord kept us safe and sound today-it was a good Friday the 13 th .   Our preaching station today was at Good Shepherd in Ishongororo.   They have a church building they own so we had concrete floors again today. We have finally figured out the terminology for water supplies here.   What we would consider a well in the US is called a borehole here. It is drilled 60-100 ft deep but not finished like a drilled well. It does have a pump system.   A well here is a pond which is fed from below ground like an artisan well in the US however, the ponds may dry up in the dry season.   Cattle may use the pond depending upon the location of the pond, size of the pond and the angle of the sides. To supplement their water supply, some people have a cistern which collects water from roofs during the rainy season or there may be a community cistern.   Everyone agrees a river is a river here. The team members teaching the adults have become proficient at working with

Thursday, July 12 th Today was another lovely day here in Uganda-temps in the 80s with a wonderful breeze. Praise the Lord for great weather.  Our morning devotion reminded us to be doers and not hearers only. Using the illustration of a beach covered with starfish-one person alone can’t get all the starfish back into the ocean but numerous people working together can do it.  So it is with our team, each person is a vital to getting the lessons done. When we arrived following our 1 hr drive, we were welcomed again with songs by the children. Following the singing, welcome and introductions we had 2 hrs for teaching and an hour for distribution of the filter buckets. Distribution includes completing a questionnaire and practicing the method for backwashing the filter. We ask that they tell us how many times it should be backwashed (3), what kind of water to use (previously filtered) and practice removing and reattaching the filter to the hose. We gave out another 10 filters

Wednesday, July 11 This morning we got to sleep in because breakfast wasn’t until 8 am and we left after 9 am for Kinagamukono-the preaching station is only 6 months old so it doesn’t have a name yet.   The congregation currently has 20 family units with 30 children.   Today and for the next 3 days we only have to drive about an hour to our destinations-yeah!!!! Weather was nice again-we are at nearly 4000 ft above sea level here which helps temper the climate. Seems it only rained in the area we are staying last night which is near the national park because the areas we drove thru today were dusty and dry.   We had 5 hrs to be able to teach and distribute the filters. Ten of the families received filter buckets. Teaching both the adults and children includes the spread of germs which is demonstrated by putting glitter in a small amount of water, putting hand in the basin and shaking hands with a person who then shakes with the person next to them and so on.   The is done

Tuesday   July 10 A bit about the weather-the temperature is in the 80s during the day and drops into the 60s at night.   The humidity is only in the 50s   which means it is very comfortable-don’t have A/C but with the cool night air, room is comfortable. Breezes during the day also keep us comfortable also.   Today it was cloudy   most of the day and during dinner this evening it rained-actually thundered also. Praise the Lord for great weather. Our journey to Holy Mount in Kasese took just under 4 hrs   each way. Along the journey we drove through one of the national parks in Uganda and saw chimps along the road-the chimps wanted to ride with us to get free bananas which a couple of the guys tossed out the window. In one of the villages ripe corn   was being dried in the sun after being removed from the cob using a corn sheller. Praise the Lord for safe travel and seeing lots of God’s creation Holy Mount has both a church and a school. The school has over 200 children-40