Greetings dearest ones!
Some aspects about my life as of late that may be of interest to you:
-regular nightly checks of my room (mostly bathroom) for cockroaches (and not much shock when I discover them there; other than mosquitoes and small insects the other one I found was a lizard – don’t worry, says my family, they won’t hurt you!)
-going all day, sometimes all week, being the only white person I come across (some small kids’ reactions are the best, as they stop what they’re doing, get wide-eyed, and squeak, ‘mzungu!’)
-getting asked at least 5 times a day why I’m not serving myself more food; aren’t I hungry? Don’t I like the meal? What’s wrong with me? :)
-trekking 2 miles to town with my laptop so I can be guaranteed Internet and Skype dates with people
-being reminded on a daily basis how BLESSED I’ve been my entire life; how I’ve taken things for GRANTED; how RICH I truly am, and how much LONGER I have to go to be able to exhibit even a fraction of the love and compassion Jesus shows everyone
-wishing for a hot or even a lukewarm shower, then remembering 8 out of 10 people in surrounding houses are bathing with cold water out of a basin
-being humbled daily, HOURLY, at the graciousness, hospitality and selflessness of the people I encounter here
For anyone who just started reading this, the above list is more or less a crude summary of highlights. I hope and pray you’re reading more than that; even what I write barely touches on all I’m experiencing, all God’s doing. Thanks to those of you who’ve personally told me you’re following the blog; it means more to me than I can express.
This present age has continued much as the last… (Watkins: warning. I may have butchered that line. Alas, I digress.) Things are progressing here slowly at times, much too fast at others! I see such incredible beauty here in the same hour as I witness some horrific or devastating sight; sometimes it’s overwhelming. I know for sure if God was not my comfort, my backbone, and my guide, I would not be here writing you now; I’d be on a plane back home. Don’t get me wrong; there have been wonderful and exciting and peaceful and joyous moments. And not just moments, but whole days. But life here, especially compared to the lavish luxury most of us are used to, is physically and emotionally difficult in many different ways. I live in a very nice house by Ugandan standards, and our family has so much more than most. I know I’ll always eat 3 meals a day here. I practically get treated like royalty; sometimes I have to argue to help with the dishes, or clearing the table, or to go get my own water. Even in our family we struggle, though again, we have much more than a lot of people here. It gets hot; there’s no air conditioning. The family doesn’t even own a fan; I had bought one in Kampala before coming to Tororo, and I can’t tell you how much I’ve appreciated it every night!! My toilet sometimes flushes, sometimes the water decides not to work so that gets me hauling in a water can from outside, pouring it into the back of the toilet, in order for it to flush. Never have I been so aware of how much water one can use. The family uses either a fire outside to cook (think camping) or a charcoal stove, which is small and cooks very slowly (I bought them another charcoal stove – it was the equivalent of like $3 – I forget if I’d written that in another entry). Sometimes we eat dinner at 9:30 cause that’s just how long it took to cook. Welcome to Africa! :)
I suppose I need to tell you about the orphanage, since that is kind of what got me over here! So, this past week I actually was able to start helping to teach the youngest ones at OCA’s house here in town. Okay, I just reread what I wrote last time, and I didn’t really give a good picture of the orphanage. I will have to post some pictures when I get a chance; for now, words will have to suffice. (Suffice! That word is for you, Mr. Layshock!) The orphanage is located in a medium-sized, 3-room house almost in the center of town – I mean it’s about a 5 minute walk from the very center of it. It’s one story. One room is a storage room/Anthony’s room when he’s in town/Raphael’s children may sleep there/miscellaneous; one is for the boys; one is for the girls. I’ve never been there at night but, I can imagine it’s interesting trying to fit 24 children into 2 rooms. They sleep on these mats that my family has just told me are made of papyrus; they are pretty stinking hard, but I’m told most African children (even in wealthier familiar) sleep on these, or sleep on a mattress on the floor, so they aren’t the worst conditions. There is occasional running water in the house. What this means is that if there is water in their tank in the backyard, the toilet will flush, the sink will have water, etc. If there’s no water, they get it in buckets from a tap in the backyard. They have one toilet (for 25 people, remember) which is the kind you may be familiar with if you’ve spent any time in third world countries. It flushes, but it is actually built into the floor, so there’s nothing for it but to squat. I’ve used it several times, and I wish it were appropriate to take pictures cause believe me, it’s funny. The men running the orphanage are trying to raise money to build a pit latrine in the backyard, which as far as I can gather is more like an outhouse than anything else. Whatever the case, they need more toilet facilities there. I’ve seen kids peeing in the bushes and honestly, I’d probably do that too if I were in their situation.
The kids eat the exact same things every day: posho and cabbage. Posho is the kind of substance made by mixing maize flour with water and boiling it until it becomes the consistency of mashed potatoes, just a bit thicker. This is a staple food in Uganda and most people eat it at every meal. On a good day, the kids get beans. Otherwise it’s posho and cabbage every day. Can you imagine? Can you even imagine eating really GOOD things, but the same things, every day? Like having to eat, I don’t know, potatoes and chicken at every meal, indefinitely? I love chicken, I love potatoes… but every day? I suppose it’s normal to them, but I still wish I could give these kids meat, or French fries, or something of more taste and nutritional value. And the orphanage doesn’t even have enough money to be buying those basic things for these kids every day. Several times already since I’ve been here, Raphael (he and his family are kind of running the orphanage, along with a widow named Sarah) has told me that they were trying to scrounge up money for food because otherwise the kids weren’t going to eat.
Are you kidding?
I asked him a lot of specifics about what the kids eat and how much it costs. There are 24 kids living there. With only buying them posho flour and cabbage, it costs about 23,000 shillings per day to feed them all. That is about $12. $12 will feed 24 children for a day.
When is the last time you went out to eat? Where did you go? How much did you spend? Even if you went to McDonald’s and bought something off of the dollar menu, you just spent enough money to feed 2 kids at the orphanage for a whole day. THAT is poverty. THAT is real need. Our car breaking down because it needs a tune up or a new part - getting upset because we didn’t get a promotion at work – having a high electric bill – traffic taking too long and frustrating us – when’s the last time you got upset by something like that? Did you feel sorry for yourself? Most of us need a serious reality check, myself included. Which is one of the reasons, even though I have days that are incredibly challenging and gut-wrenching and I feel a bit of suffering, it is nothing compared to what these kids deal with daily. Or what 80% of the world deals with.
This blog may make some of you feel uncomfortable. Why is Cathi being so harsh? Can’t she let up a bit? Why the guilt trip? Let me say, if you were here, you would probably be telling people the same thing. Let me say, if you want to hear about what is going on here in Uganda, these are the kinds of things you’re going to have to expect to hear. It’s your choice; you can continue if you want, or you can “lose my web address” or “forget to read it” from now on if you choose to. I’m going to be honest on here, and I know most of you will appreciate that. I pray God reaches you with what I’m saying. I pray you’re not the same after logging off of your computer.
I would ask you to consider helping out by donating money to the orphanage. On the right side of my page is a PayPal ‘donate’ button. Click on it and it will lead you to a page where you can fill out credit card information, and it links to my bank account, which thankfully I can access from right here in town. If you donate, I will assume it’s a general donation for my mission trip, which I may use for anything from paying my host family to buying phone minutes to fixing showers, and anything in between. I’ve also been using some money to help out the orphanage, but I want to be able to help more. I do have about $1,000 more to reach my original goal for the trip. But if, when you donate, you want it used specifically for the kids at the orphanage, can you just email me and let me know? That way I can channel it to buy them more food, supplies, etc. The more you designate for me to use, the more I can help them. However, this is NOT tax-deductible. Conversely, you will know for sure it’s being given straight to the kids, so that’s a plus. Know your money can go SO far here. Remember, $12 a day will feed every child. If you can give ten bucks, you’ve helped feed most of them. Please pray about giving on a regular basis; it is definitely a worthy cause. I wish more of you could come and see.
That’s the thing about places like this. As much as I try to describe it to you, show you pictures, even videos, there is only so much that can be passed on. To really see what it’s like, you’ve got to come. Maybe not Uganda; maybe you’ll go to Calcutta like my friends the Smith family (names changed to protect the living-in-an-oppressive-country) and serve ex-prostitutes. Maybe you’ll spend some time in Mexico like my friend Saul and cook food for missionaries. Maybe you’ll go to Haiti like my friend Katie (no name change!) and hold babies in a cramped and impoverished orphanage. People are out there every day, all over the world, serving the poor, the afflicted, the suffering. You can give money, you can sponsor children, but until you see death and disease and desperation for yourself, you can never truly know what it’s like. Quit talking about it, and do something about it. I’m not talking about a weekend trip building houses where you come home and feel super about what you did. I’m saying commit to something, maybe it’s even in your city. I bet if you drove twenty minutes from your home you could find homeless, starving, neglected people that could benefit from some compassion.
The Okello’s second eldest daughter, Betty, is pregnant with her seventh child. It is extremely common here for people to have 4, 5, 6 kids, even more. Betty is now 10 months pregnant – yes, 10 – and is having, not surprisingly, complications. Her other children have come even before 9 months, so this one is concerning everybody. Betty’s been in the hospital for the past four days (by the time I post this blog it will probably be 6 or 7 days) feeling labor pains, having trouble doing even something as simple as laying down, and needing desperately for this child to be born. So now I’ve become acquainted with the main hospital, which is about a twenty minute walk from our house, and is the only government-run hospital in town. You’d think that it would be big and fancy and clean, but none of those describe this place. I soon learned ‘government’ was code for ‘cheaper service and shady conditions’. If you can afford it, you go to a clinic, where the facilities are cleaner but much more expensive. The hospital is dirty. Today I went to go use the bathroom in the main lobby – I almost vomited. Feces all over the floor, urine everywhere, foul-smelling – I was wearing flip flops and was wishing I had army boots on. I couldn’t believe this was the state of the BATHROOM at a HOSPITAL. Poverty plus neglect minus time, that is the recipe for conditions like this. Can you imagine what would happen if a hospital in the US were to look even a fraction like this?? Lawsuits anyone??!
At all hospitals in Uganda (and I’m sure this is true for other parts of the continent) there is no food given to patients. There are no cafeterias. Nobody makes food. You know how patients survive? Their family and friends have to bring them food. There isn’t even an option to pay more and have the hospital staff bring you food. People from the outside have to bring it to you. Morning, noon, and night. People don’t bring it, the patient doesn’t eat. Sometimes other patients and their families are kind enough to share with others, but basically your family has to be responsible for providing food for you and anything else you might need that is not medical. What a change, right? I couldn’t believe when I heard that today. So much needs to be changed here. There is so much need, so much need. Please pray for Betty’s pain to subside and for her baby to be born. [Amendment: I started writing this blog yesterday. Last night, the whole family got together before going to bed and prayed for Betty’s baby to be born. And this morning, she was!!! God is SO FAITHFUL!!!!! Power of prayer RIGHT THERE my friends.]
I believe I got on a tangent, but I wanted to elaborate on teaching at the orphanage. So in my last post I explained I’d be helping teach the youngest children, called Nazarene (like pre-school or kindergarten) age. School finally started for them this past Wednesday. Raphael found a woman from town called Harriet who volunteered to help. When I met her, I found out her English is pretty good, although we still have some issues understanding each other. We’ve been doing school from about half past eight in the morning until midday. Well, let me rephrase. I don’t know what time Harriet gets there, but every time I get there (usually more like 9 o’clock) she’s already into the teaching. I think she just wants to start early because that’s what she’s used to (she has taught at schools in Uganda previously)?? I have a feeling no matter how early I get there, she will already be there, having started. Cultural differenceeeeees, welcome. The first day I was trying to explain to her that I wanted the children to play a certain game to name different colors. So obviously I explained it to her in English and I expected her to translate it into Jap, which is the main native language here in Tororo. But instead, Harriet just said the same thing to the kids, but in ENGLISH!!!! Ahhhh. Imagine my frustration slash confusion! Lol I didn’t know what to do. This continued for the rest of the morning; if I tried to ask her to translate something, she would just say it in English still. GRANTED, her English is the accent that the kids are going to understand much better, so that’s something, but still! Harriet really took over teaching; I just have been sitting a lot of the time; helping out when the class does an exercise; I’ve read them a few books, etc.
I went into this thinking I would have to do all the teaching, planning, etc and I would just have Harriet translate. I know we’ve just begun, so many things could change, but for now it looks like Harriet is doing most of the teaching and I am there as more of a helper. Which is fine by me (Beasley and Boling: uhh… uhhh…. Uhhhh… FINE BY ME!!!!!), I just want to help in whatever ways I can… and this is definitely humbling me. On Friday Harriet left me alone for about the last hour of class because she had to run an errand. So it was my first time alone, trying to teach in a language the kids don’t know yet. However, it went better than I would’ve expected. I spoke slowly and made a lot of gestures and pointed to things and eventually they got what I wanted them to do. We’re working on basic things like counting to 10, their alphabet, shapes, etc. I’m excited for what the kids are going to learn this year. I pray I’m not just helping teach them material, but showing them the love of Jesus every day. Pray I would have patience and kindness and compassion but also be disciplined and steadfast and persevering. I need it all!! :)
There are some verses that have really been in my head lately and I wanted to share a few of them with you, they’ve been really encouraging to me.
I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. I sought the Lord, and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. O taste and see that the Lord is good; how blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! / Psalm 34
Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him… The steps of a man are established by the Lord and He delights in every detail of their lives. When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the One who holds his hand… Wait for the Lord and keep His way, and He will exalt you to inherit the land. / Psalm 37
Although the Lord has given you adversity for food and suffering for drink, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher. Your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left. / Isaiah 30
I wanted to close with another random batch of facts, just more things I wanted to share but for sake of not making this an essay I will just bullet point :)
-Bishop (my host dad) refers to me every day as “my daughter!” and it’s always in a joyful, excited voice. When he wants to talk to me in the mornings while I’m still in bed, he stands outside my door and says, “Yes, my daughter!” Haha I love it.
- I continue to thoroughly enjoy my host family. They’re so much fun, such kind people, so hospitable, so friendly, and just good to be around. I feel so blessed. So blessed.
- For those of you who know me well, you know I love rain. LOVE IT. And that hasn’t changed since I’ve gotten here, though it rains a lot, and the rainy season’s starting soon, and it will rain even more then! The only real annoyance is that sometimes when it POURS, everything stops, and everyone finds somewhere to take shelter until it calms down. I didn’t expect that. A lot of people fear being out in the rain because it tends to give people fevers, may make their malaria act up, etc. So far I haven’t had any issues with it, just really enjoying it! It really helps to make the weather cooler, and it’s just beautiful. When we get rain coming in from Kenya (which is what normally happens), you can see it slowly spreading over the mountains; they get foggy and start to blur, and eventually the rain is on top of us. It’s incredible.
-Anyone who has spent time in eastern Africa knows they LOVE watching music videos. I mean LOVE IT. Everyone from the 5 year old to the 50 year old. Mostly they are videos made in Kenya, and they are usually praise/gospel music. Everyone’s dressed in traditional clothes of the area and a lot of it is either in Swahili/Kiswahili or Luganda. People usually know enough of the language to get the gist of what is being sung about. (In my house, 80% of the time we are either watching music videos or preachers from the US. Last night I experienced T.D. Jakes for the first time. Mitchell – word to your mother. I love black people.)
- Trusting in God is a big thing here. When something that may seem impossible is asked about, the person will frequently reply, “We will trust God for it.” I LOVE the faith that is displayed among these people.
- ‘Amen’ and ‘Praise the Lord’ are said HOURLY here, usually in the form of greetings. Most people upon meeting each other say either ‘Praise God’, ‘Praise the Lord’, or ‘Yesu Opaki’ which means Praise God in Jap, the local language. In church, ‘Amen’ and ‘Hallelujah’ are used exhaustively.
- Every Saturday morning all the young boys (and sometimes the older ones) of the family go to the family’s garden to help dig and plant and pick food, some of which the family uses to eat, some of which it sells to others to supplement income. MANY people here do this. In fact, most of the people who live in the surrounding villages use a garden as a main source of income. Usually by the time I roll out of bed on a Saturday at maybe 9 or 10, the boys are already back from several hours’ work at the garden. These people NEVER STOP WORKING.
- In Uganda there is a fruit simply called Jack fruit, not sure of the spelling but it is delightful. It kind of looks like an overgrown pineapple, it’s really an interesting-looking fruit. Anyway, there is a Jack fruit tree growing in the yard at the orphanage, and I have been given fruit from it several times. Let me repeat that. The people at the orphanage, who are barely getting enough food for themselves, continue to share food with me, who doesn’t need it. ARE YOU GETTING THIS?! Praise God for the hospitality and kindness that is found in the poorest of homes.
To anyone who still wanted it and didn’t have it, here is my phone number and address (see Matt Schenk, I have a real address! Not just a dirt road!)
Cell phone: +256 (0)785975575 [you may or may not need the 0, try it both ways. From Skype it costs 15 cents a minute to call this number.]
Address: Cathi Geisler care of Bishop Okello, P.O. Box 167, Tororo, Uganda
To close, I’d like to issue a challenge to every one of you still reading this. You’ve heard about what life is like here. You’ve heard stories of hard work, selflessness, compassion, and faith. My challenge to you is to try to live one day where you stop thinking about yourself. Stop doing things that only or mostly benefit you. Who can you help? Who can you encourage? Who can you serve? What kind thing can you say, in what way can you show someone else love for a day? For those of you who are Christians, this is not just a suggestion, but a command; to live in a way that is selfless and sacrificial and humble, forgetting about yourself and serving God by serving His people. For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to SERVE, and to give His LIFE as a random for many. For people in Uganda, this is a way of life.
Won’t you follow their example?
