Gulu....and some

I’m going to start off as best as I can to describe what has happened the past few days. Tuesday, we decided to travel to Gulu to see Mosea (one of the founders of Cornerstone) because his sister had passed. We decided to leave around 5am. As of lately, African time has been very much observed… aka I knew we wouldn’t leave for at least an hour later. I woke up at 5:30, got ready, met Sarah and Gertrude at my house as we waited for the van from the boys school (about an hour drive away) to arrive. Finally, Kenneth arrived with a few others. We loaded up and headed to Gulu…or so we thought. After about an hour, Kenneth pulled unto the dirt road towards the boys campus. We were all shocked. What was he doing now? (After being almost 2 hours late). He said he had to pick up some more people, so 5 of us decided to get out of the van and wait in the town area. The drive to the boys school is gruesome and rough and none of us felt like sitting an extra hour. We got out, opened up my new can of peanut butter, took out some bananas and had ourselves a breakfast as we waited. Peter, one of the staff members mentioned that Kenneth didn’t know what time the burial was, so he decided to call Mosea. I literally laughed out loud as I heard him say, “The burial was when?... yesterday?” SO AFRICAN! The lack of planning has started to gnaw at me…(just wait it gets worse). Peter then made a great point that we go to burial for the living to be a support, so we would continue to journey on, without telling Kenneth, but instead for each of us to play with Kenneth and  ask him when the funeral was as we went. Finally, Kenneth arrived with almost a full van, not including us. We all got in and then Kenneth kicked out a student who wanted to come because “Of his lack of planning”…although, Kenneth KNEW there were 5 of us waiting and he still brought extras. Again, Africans lack of planning. We started down the road, picked up another staff member and had driven about 45 minutes when the van stopped again. This time for food and “conveniences”. After about 15 minutes, we started out again…for maybe 5 minutes before the car began to have a burning smell and smoke was filling the car. We all got out as they opened the “Hood” (which is located inside the car). Smoke pooled out. They began to pour water on the engine to cool it. From the broken conversation I heard, Kenneth forgot to service the car before this long journey and the oil was bad…and from the looks of it, I figured he had really hurt the car driving it in the condition it was in. After a few minutes, he loaded us up again to try and drive it. I told Sarah I didn’t think it was smart….

Minutes later, we made another emergency stop.  Sarah came over and grabbed my shoulder and burst into laughter. I asked her what was so funny. She told me one of the ladies we were traveling with didn’t see the huge holes that were in her clothes due to rats. RATS! Sarah thought it was so funny to imagine someone not seeing the giant holes in her clothes. She laughed about this for the rest of the trip. Sadly, but for amusement purposes, I referred to the lady as “Mrs. Rats”. (I still don’t know her name)

After the car began to smoke profusely again, we pulled over in a school yard, went to the local pump/well and poured water into the engine. Sarah and I (and a few others) went into the school and I pulled out my laptop to listen to sermon. “Choose Joy, because you can trust HIM”. (you have NO idea how much I’ve needed those words for the past few days) Sarah and I sat on the wooden desks and listened as the neighborhood kids continued to come and point at the mzungu. We were def. in the village!  After an hour or so, I was getting a headache because it was SO hot outside and I knew I needed water (I had poured mine into the car earlier), so we made our way over to the local house were a market was set up. We ended sitting there for HOURS as we waited for the outcome of the car. I got to hold a one year old who was HUGE, part of it due to the fact he was still nursing, right then and there from his mom (he stood on the ground as she fed him standing.. I’ll let you imagine!) Oh, did Sarah laugh about this as she began to tell me stories of African women after they breast feed. The guys with us (Joseph and Peter) told me how a mom will pack a baby on her back and then fed it, while still on her back…yet again, I’ll allow you to imagine. The laughs the conversation brought will forever make me chuckle. After 4 hours of sitting, I finally told Sarah we needed to make a decision. If we were going to Gulu, we needed to take a taxi and go because it was getting late. Again, the whole “think through/plan ahead” is never existent here… so I made an executive decision for us to choose as a group and leave for Gulu. It ended up being Sarah, Joseph, Peter and I. I offered to pay for Peter and Joseph to go (since non of them brought money bc they thought we’d be in the school van the whole time). To make the journey a bit cheaper, we decided to HITCH HIKE! Yep, I talked them into it. Peter hadn’t been beside the road for more than a minute, when we “lucked” out and got Patrick, a kind man with a big car, headed to Gulu. We were a bit smooshed, but laughed the whole way. 

Once we arrived, again it was mayhem: no planning ahead, not sure where to go, what we were going to eat for dinner, sleeping arrangements…the organizer in me was starting to get a bit annoyed. Simple planning could revolutionize these people.  Finally, we made it to Mosea’s house (he was in the village though…funny we came to see him) were his family greeted us, made us dinner and places to sleep. I shared a bed with a sweet girl named Gloria with Sarah in the bed next to us.

The next morning, we got up, ate and headed to the village (of course on African time). The roads in Gulu are SO dusty!!! Sarah had me wear a blanket in the car so my white shirt wouldn’t turn brown (which it did on the way home from the windows being down). After a gruesome drive (getting to Gulu is a bit rough on the behind as well), we turned at the tree, next to the bush, where the goats are tied and the dust is red J and somehow found Mosea and his family. They all greeted us and were SO thankful we had come. It is a great tradition Africans offer one another as they grieve over lost ones. We did a lot of sitting around, for hours, and I knew the drive home was going to be a difficult one as we were nowhere near our ETA. But, as the kids starting laughing and playing around me, I gave up caring about the schedule or my hungry tummy and decided to hold and hug the babies instead. I got to hold the sweetest little girl, Gloria. She had some respiratory/breathing problems and all I wanted to do was bring her home.  She was precious and made my afternoon.

 I got to have some good conversation with Mosea as well, who is a man of God, which totally encouraged me. Finally, lunch was served around 2. We ate knowing we all needed to head back (the drive to Gulu is about 5 hours, on a good American time line). After lunch, we left. We drove around Gulu a bit to see the sights and then headed to the gas station were we were going to try and hitch hike…

Hitch hiking didn’t work as well the 2^nd time, so we decided to hop on a bus. Come to find out the bus we sat on (for 2 hours while we waited for it to leave ) had stalled multiple times that day due to the lack of money to fuel. Not sure how that worked since we were all paying customers, but after a group of us got out and threatened to leave and get our money back, they filled the bus with gas and left. The drive home was LONG. We were in the back of the bus, so we felt every bump. It was a bit stuffy, but at least the 4 of us kept our spirits high. The majority of the trip was in the dark, so we slept, sang or laughed, but time seemed to stand still. We finally arrived back in Matugga at 11:30pm, called David (Sarah’s husband) who came and got us to bring us home. It was a long 42 hours.

I’m glad we went. The 4 of us was a perfect team. The only bummer was when I got home, I had had $250 stolen from my room…kinda put a damper on the mood. We’re not sure who stole it, but it’s hard to pin who it was. We interrogated a few people yesterday, which was again a long and drawn out process, but I have to just let it go. Choose Joy, because I can trust HIM (knowing He’s got me). It’s just really frustrating to give and give and then be stolen from. You can pray my heart gets to a better spot. It is just money… but a lot of it.

Last night, I started my parasite meds as well. So I’ve been a bit itchy and dizzy. I’m praying this helps my overall health and that the symptoms don’t get worse. I can handle this for a day.

I’m not really sure why God has had so many difficulties this trip, but I’m praying my joy remains in Him, to give as He has given me, and to love those I have come to love with everything I have.