TEE - Managing the Harvest

~ Lukonda's worship space - built by the TEE class ~ This weekend our Theological Education by Extension (TEE) class returns to Lukonda, where we had done our service project last year. The small congregation at Lukonda has done some work on the structure we began and it's good to see that the floor has been leveled and some of the cross-beams have been erected. The structure is in need of a roof but the tin sheets used for roofing are a bit expensive, and this congregation consists of maybe 10 women and a couple men who consistently worship there. Their roof will take some 80 sheets and they already have promises for about half of them from local businessmen and politicians. The building is multipurpose and is already serving the small school that meets in that area. A tarp suffices to provide some shade for now.

Since our TEE class comes from all over the country, we arrange for those east of Lukonda to meet us there and those from the west come to Kampala and get a ride with me or Jake as we travel up to Lukonda on Friday morning. Also riding with Jake are two agricultural missionaries from West Africa, Delano and Linda Meyer who arrived in Uganda just this week. They'll be here for several weeks traveling around the country to share their presentation, "Managing the Harvest" with local farmers. This weekend is their first presentation, and they're the reason we're taking the whole TEE class to Lukonda. Since many of their presentations will be coordinated by our TEE students across the country and since many of those who won't be having a Managing the Harvest workshop in their own areas are farmers, we thought it would be a great idea for this first presentation to include the entire TEE class.

Getting the TEE class from the nearest big town where they've been dropped off by the bus out to the Lukonda village takes a bit of work. My truck is loaded down with 12 people including myself as we drive the 20km to the village. It's a bit tight and I drive cautiously, fully aware that I'm overloaded. But the truck doesn't seem to mind in the least.  Around noon we're all gathered and ready to begin. Managing the Harvest is an interactive presentation. For Delano and Linda to truly put their vast agricultural experience to use, they need to know how farming works in this community - everything from soil condition to harvest times to environmental changes over the years. With a flannel sheet and pictures, the Meyers paint a portrait of a normal year from the farming perspective. The presentation eventually comes to focus on our responsibilities as stewards of God's land and suggestions of ways to improve the health and retention of the soil, improvements in storage of harvested foodstuffs, optimal times to sell, the great need for family cohesion and so on. Scripture comes often and easily into the presentation and times of sharing. Delano and Linda have obviously learned a lot over their 15 years of agricultural missionary work. Each time of discussion the participants are divided into three groups: women, young men, and elder men. When the time of sharing begins, it's the women who get to speak first, then the young men, and finally the elder men. Otherwise, the first two groups wouldn't share because culturally deference is always given to the elder men.

Lunch has been arranged at the nearby trading center but gets pushed back hour by hour until our students are finally served around 4:30. For those who rose well before dawn to get here on time it has turned out to be a long and hot day. After our lunch we have run out of time for the last presentation of the day and promise to continue it on Saturday morning.

On Friday night we head back to Kayunga Town and the men disperse to find lodging for the night, agreeing that they'll return to the hotel we're staying at for a little more discussion at 7pm. After a year of TEE, our students have adapted themselves to the Western-style punctuality and at 6:50 all are assembled and ready. Delano comes ambling in around 7:10 and is shocked that the whole class is assembled and waiting for him! "Never in Africa," he says, "have I been the last one to arrive!" It's a small but revealing victory for our students, who take pride in the discipline they exhibit when it comes to "keeping time."

Saturday morning we again pile into the vehicles to return to Lukonda for the last part of the Managing the Harvest workshop, which begins with a Bible Study hour. A few more locals have come this morning to glean what they can from the last hours of the workshop. Finally we pack up and begin our journey back to Kampala. Delano and Linda will continue on further to the east for their next presentations. ~ Students pose at the bridge where the Kabaka's Premier was stopped ~ On our way back to Kampala the men in my truck beg for us to stop at the bridge that divides Kayunga district from the next district. This is roughly the place where the Premier of the Chief of the Central regions was stopped by the government last year - an action which ultimately resulted in riots and dozens of deaths in Kampala.  My TEE men want their pictures taken at this historic intersection of political and cultural power so we take some time for photos at the bridge before safely returning to Kampala where my wife, my baby, and my Mom await me. The rest of the journey is relatively uneventful except for a few diversions around some road construction - normally not of note except the recent rain has made these dirt bypasses slippery and we chuckle as we watch several cars get stuck trying to crawl up the slopes back onto the paved road. After patiently waiting for these cars to slide far enough aside, our capable truck effortlessly makes the climb with nary a spinning wheel. -Shauen