Happy Birthday to Me!

Kaldi's Coffee in our French PressWhat a great way to start my birthday!  I wake up and my wonderful wife sings me happy birthday first thing.  For breakfast we're trying to make bacon (we found something labeled "English Bacon" in a butcher shop that looks close), eggs over hard (I love them over-easy but it's probably not too wise to do that here - and we DID splurge to get eggs with yellow yolks), pancakes (made from scratch, of course - no pancake mix available here), and grated hash browns like you get in some restaurants (those are an experiment - straight from potatoes to hashbrowns - for some reason I haven't found packages of grated hash browns in the supermarket here).  AND the present I got to open first thing this morning...  Kaldi's coffee! 

Kaldi's is a coffee shop that is right across the street from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis.  They've got a whole slew of coffee shops all over the greater St. Louis area but their very first shop is that one right by the Seminary.  They roast their beans and distribute them to other coffee shops in the area.  The coffee shop where Krista and I met serves Kaldi's coffee.  The coffee is so good that my parents in Washington State buy it online and have it shipped all the way across the country to them.  It's so good and meaningful to us that Krista and I served Kaldi's coffee at our wedding reception.  For my birthday my dad somehow managed to get about a pound of Kaldi's coffee here (presumably from St. Louis to Washington State to Kampala, Uganda) - and I somehow didn't smell it as it sat waiting for me to open it on my birthday! 

It's even raining today - which comforts this boy from Seattle and means we may just have a cooler day.  My birthday is off to a great start!  -Shauen

Update on Friday, April 10, 2009 at 8:29PM by Shauen & Krista

Hmmm. Well our bacon still had a bit of skin on it, complete with hair follicles. Not the prettiest thing to see on your food. But, just pull off that strip with the hair and you have bacon! Well, almost.  -Krista

Same stars, different perspective

As a Boy Scout in Seattle, I camped year round.  On those few occasions when the sky was clear in the winter, I loved looking into the deep darkness and finding Orion in the South.  Orion is the Southern Hunter, rising soon after sunset and roaming the night sky. 

In Uganda, the night sky is clear more often than not.  But Orion is no longer my southern winter marker.  Instead, I sometimes find him perched almost directly above me in the very middle of the night sky.  They're mostly the same amazing stars I gazed at as a boy in Seattle, but somehow the perspective seems to have changed considerably.  -Shauen

Shoes

Here's something you don't expect:  When we were packing to come to Uganda, we packed sparsely.  Yeah, we had five huge bags that were checked through, but believe it or not we left a lot behind as well.  I brought only three pairs of shoes.  One is a pair of running shoes - good for walking all over the place, and very breathable.  The other two pairs are dress shoes since being well dressed is very important in Uganda.  One is a nice shiny black pair and the other is a nice brown pair. 

For some reason - maybe the altitude, maybe the heat, or maybe I'm just retaining water - my shoes don't fit.  My sneakers are stretchy enough that I can wear them and I even wear them when I play basketball but they squeeze my toes pretty good when they're laced up.  My black dress shoes just barely fit my feet - they're the ones I wear to church.  My brown shoes don't fit at all.  I've had that pair of shoes for almost ten years and they've always fit fine.  But here in Uganda I can't fit my feet into them anymore.  What am I going to do with them now?  Just think of what we could have fit into that space and weight if we left them back in the US!  We could have brought more essentials like a couple bags of chocolate chips!

March Field Notes Published

Field Notes for the month of March have been published. This month, Field Notes included the following articles:

• Dedication of a new facility in Ibanda
• Safari and white-water rafting on the Nile River - Lake Mburo and Krista on the Nile
• Human sacrifice in Uganda
• Facts in Focus - Ugandan English

Our prayer requests include:

• For the families of victims who have lost their lives to human sacrifice in Uganda
• For the witchdoctors and those who hire them, that the brutality of their actions may open their eyes to the efficacy of Christ’s all-availing sacrifice on the cross

And we praise the Lord:

• For safe journeys to Ibanda, Lake Mburo National Park, and down the Nile River
• That the Christian church in Uganda has risen up against human sacrifice in outspoken advocacy for the sanctity of all human life, calling Ugandan Christians to prayer and fasting

If you haven't seen it yet, download Field Notes for March 2009 (PDF file, 440k) now!

Mexican Night

Yes, that is indeed a huge avocado!Corn tortillas being turned into chipsChips! (please ignore the burnt one)

Amelia, Evangeline, Michelle, Jake & Shauen (after I took the picture, Evangeline proudly announced "I smiled!")Last night I attempted Mexican night. I had found salsa ($4.50), taco shells ($5.25), and some corn tortillas ($6.75). I love Mexican food, especially chips and salsa. I could eat it every day and not get sick of it! No surprise, I haven't been able to find tortilla chips here (I was actually shocked when I saw the salsa). I did some research online and apparently you can make your own ships using corn tortillas. By some huge luck, I found a package of corn tortillas in a little specialty food store so I decided to go all out and attempt a Mexican night (Old El Paso is apparently fairly popular here, well, actually, it is the ONLY brand I've seen here and even then, only occasionally). I decided to bake my tortilla chips as people online said it was quite delicious and much healthier, plus I tend to always burn myself when it comes to oil, so deep-frying seemed more dangerous. I was eager to try them, however, let's just say they didn't turn out as I hoped. While they weren't bad, neither were they the chips I had been craving. Maybe next time (provided I can find corn tortillas again), I will try deep-frying. I think that's the trick. Of course, by then I won't be able to find salsa and will have to make that from scratch as well, turning what used to be a simple pleasure into an all-day affair! (if anyone has suggestions, or a great salsa recipe, send it my way!) Although the chips didn't turn out as hoped, the tacos certainly did. It was wonderful to munch on our tacos and make a mess of our plates (why do we always put so much in?). Overall, Mexican night turned out pretty great!  -Krista

Rain on Sunday morning

Here's something you don't think about in the States: rain.  Does rain effect church attendance in the US?  Well, if you're in Seattle, the first spring/summer Sunday WITHOUT rain may effect church attendance.  In Kampala, rain has a dramatic effect on everything.  Only about 7 families who attend Kampala Lutheran Church own a vehicle (counting us missionaries).  The rest of the members rely upon taxi-buses and motorcycle-taxis (called boda-bodas) to get to church.  Which means, for them, if it's raining outside they'll likely be sloshing through mud for a ways to get to the paved roads and then they'll wait in the rain until the next taxi-bus comes along.  If they don't live on a taxi-bus route that passes by the congregation they'll be standing out in the rain as they transfer between taxi-busses at least once.  The taxi-bus drops you on the main road, about 150 yards from the church tent.  The other option is the boda-boda which will deliver you all the way to the church.  But who wants to take a ride on the back of a motorcyle in the rain and mud with the added danger of extra-slippery roads to get to church?  We were down almost 30% because of this morning's rain.  I guess the rainy seasons here are going to be like the summer slowdown in the US.  Pray those members who can't make it in the rain will rejoin us when the weather clears.

Just Because

Shauen thoughtfully surprised me the other day with "just because" flowers! Aren't they beautiful?! Pink and orange, my favorite color combination!  -Krista

Cooking Lessons

Last week I taught a friend in our neighborhood how to make pumpkin pie. Everything was from scratch, from baking the pumpkin to making the crust. I told her how back home, it is actually much easier (if you use a store-bought crust and pumpkin from a can, both of which I do), but I don't think she believed me. She very much enjoyed the pie, but said it was very complicated and she would need lots of practice first. This week I went over to her kitchen and she taught me how to make chapati, a local favorite, similar in concept to a tortilla. She informed me that compared to the pie, this would be so much easier! As she poured flour, milk, eggs, oil and salt into a bowl, without measuring any of it, I knew she was wrong! See, I am the type of cook who NEEDS a recipe. Shauen is the person in our family who opens the cupboard doors, pulls some things out and comes up with a fabulous meal from scratch. Me?! I can cook most things, if I have a recipe! Without one I am lost. So while I do not have a recipe for chapati, I at least have an ingredient list and a vague concept of how the dough should feel like after everything is mixed together.  Maybe next time I go for a cooking lesson I should bring Shauen along.  -Krista

Another Hope Children's Ministry

This week I received a phone call from Ruth, the Executive Director of Another Hope Children's Ministry.  She had looked up my number at the suggestion of a friend and supporter she had met in the US who is an old friend of Krista's family and had heard we were in Uganda.  Another Hope is located in a suburb of Kampala, so I suggested we come and visit.  Today we made that visit and are grateful to have had the opportunity to do so. 

Another Hope takes in children who are orphaned or unable to be cared for by their parents.  They place some children into foster-homes in the community and some reside at the Another Hope home.  School-age children attend a nearby Christian school or the school where their foster brothers and sisters attend.  We were warmly welcomed by Ruth and some of the other directors of Another Hope who shared with us the history of the project.  Since we had come in the middle of the day, most of the children were at school but there were a handful of toddlers playing at the home.  They were well cared for and we saw some coloring, some eating a snack, and some singing to themselves.  They were all a bit shy.  Children generally don't begin to learn English until they begin school, but it doesn't take much English to smile and wave, so we did a lot of that.  After an introduction to the project, Ruth showed us some of the crafts the children learn to make like woven palm-frond bags and paper-bead necklaces.  We also took a tour of the home.  I was happy to see the mosquito netting in the children's rooms - Malaria is a significant threat to children in Uganda.  Ruth was even more excited to take us on a little drive a bit further outside of town and a well off the main road to see some land Another Hope had purchased where they hoped to build a new facility with an expanded capacity.  They have enough land there to teach additional skills like farming or raising chickens or pigs and which could provide food for the project at the same time.  I was happy to see coffee already growing on the land - their future American visitors will enjoy that!  Then we stopped by the school since the school-age children had heard of our visit and wanted to meet us.  We arrived as the lunch bell chimed and the youngest grades were let out so (I hope) we didn't disturb things too much.  The children are so eager and polite - what a pleasure to meet them. 

We had only a few hours this midday to visit with Another Hope and hear about some of their dreams for the future.  The children we met who are in their project have a bright future indeed, with Ruth, the other directors, and the volunteers who come to work there.  The way the children greeted Ruth and one of the directors known as Big Brother was encouraging.  This project is definitely a family, bound together in Christian love, a new family for children in need - a family that extends all the way across oceans to sponsors who assist with school fees, food, clothing, medicine, and volunteer labor during short-term trips.  Were Another Hope closer to our home, I'm sure Krista and I would be there often.  Praise the Lord for His good work in this small suburb of Kampala - where another hope springs forth in the hearts and minds of His little ones.  -Shauen

Green, Not Orange

 Oranges here are green and while they taste like oranges, they are not as sweet. If you want to splurge, for a premium price you can purchases orange oranges at the big supermarkets, shipped all the way from South Africa! Lemons are also green. Another thing that is green? Pumpkins! Beth was visiting last week and had mentioned a craving for pumpkin pie. Well, I wanted to be a good hostess and I knew pumpkins were available here, so I figured surely I could attempt a pumpkin pie from scratch. I took along a Ugandan friend for some help and even though she picked out a perfect pumpkin for me, I did have to question her multiple times. THIS is a pumpkin? I wasn't so sure, I even asked a third party in case we were having a communication issue. I was assured that this indeed was a pumpkin. Let's just say it was neither orange, nor round. I'm still not sure if I bought a pumpkin or a squash, but the pie was delicious and tomorrow I am teaching my friend how to make pumpkin pie!  -Krista

HowTo: Mailing packages to us in Uganda

Send packages to:

    Vicar Shauen & Krista Trump
    Lutheran Media Ministry Uganda
    P. O. Box 21645
    Plot 4460 Diplomatic Zone, Kabalagala
    Kampala, Uganda

Packages usually take from 2 to 6 weeks to arrive at our central post office.  Unfortunately, we may not be notified of their availability for several more weeks (in one case it took 6 weeks for the post office to put the little notification slip into our postal box).  If that slip gets lost between the Ugandan postal receiving area and our hands we can't get the package. 

The Ugandan postal service does, however, use the Customs Declaration Form number as a tracking number!  So, if you mail us a package, please immediately email us the number at the top in the center of the green or white customs form - the number ends in "US."  We can take this number to the post office 2 weeks after you've mailed the package and they'll look up where they put it and give it to us!  -Shauen

 

Whitewater Rafting on the Nile

Becky, Beth, Krista, Pallo (our guide), Robbie, MichelleDuring Beth's visit, one goal we had was to go whitewater rafting on the Nile. Due to various reasons, we kept changing our reservations until finally she had one day left before leaving. We were talking about it the night before and what was going to be a group of 2 girls turned into five! Beth had a friend who was passing through Kampala on her way to Gulu, a town in the north. Michelle and her sister-in-law (who had just arrived for a visit, along with Jake's parents) also decided to join us. What could be more fun than five girls whitewater rafting class 5 rapids?! We were picked up in Kampala and taken to the rafting base in Jinja. We were fitted with life vests and helmets, had a brief lesson in safety and learned what commands our guide would be giving us. We practiced on some simple class 1-2 rapids, jumped in the water and practiced getting back in the raft. Then the adventure began! We survived our first class 5 (The Ribcracker), and then we came to 50/50, a class 3 rapid (as in you have a 50% chance of staying in the boat). Sadly, we were in the other 50%-the one that got us thrown out of the raft and trapped below water for so long I was sure I was going to die. In reality it was maybe 5 seconds, but when you're trapped in churning water and have no idea which way is up, it feels like forever. We all came up sputtering and had all swallowed a bit of the Nile. All day, you could hear one of us coarsely coughing as we tried to get rid of the Nile water that had ended up in our lungs, we called it the Nile Cough. All in all, we did 12 rapids (4 of them were class 5) and flipped a total of 3 times. Somehow, I fell out of the boat all on my own during one rapid, so I can claim 4 times. (Luckily our guide saw me, because I was in the back and apparently did not even make a noise-all of a sudden I was gone. I know why I didn't scream, I was desperately filling my lungs with air as I plunged into the churning water below and wasn't going to waste my oxygen by screaming.) We were lucky that the sun did not shine most of the day, this really saved us from some severe sunburn. We also passed by some class 6 rapids, but these we avoided. They are not meant to be rafted (when something is called The Dead Dutchman, The Pencil Sharpener, or The Ashtray, you really want no part in it). It was a fabulous day! We laughed (we maybe felt like crying, but didn't!), we screamed, we giggled and we coughed. The picture above is the five of us with our guide (after we dried off and no longer looked like drowned rats). If I want, I can raft again in the next 3 months and get 50% off. Sounds great, but I just don't think I'm brave enough! -Krista

TEE - Holy Communion

This weekend's Theological Education by Extension (TEE) class focused on Holy Communion.  Since I took over the meat of the presentation last weekend, fellow missionary Reverend Gillard was going to take the majority this weekend.  We had carefully orchestrated this since Krista's good friend Beth was going to be visiting this week and Rev. Gillard's parents and sister were going to be visiting during our next TEE - when I would do the majority of the teaching.  Unfortunately, Rev. Gillard had a little last-minute business to take care of at the central police station that ended up taking him away from class on Friday AND most of Saturday!  All I had prepared was an introduction to Holy Communion - as far as Luther's small catechism goes and no farther!  I suddenly was all on my own, starting class, doing the "housekeeping," introducing a grading system for attendance, administering the test on baptism, giving my little prepared presentation, answering questions, and getting the guys into some translation work.   It wasn't the best weekend to go solo - I would have been able to swing it on my own last weekend when I'd done all the prep work for baptism.  But I managed.  And when Rev. Gillard was able to join us finally late Saturday morning, he tried to cram as much of his prepared lecture into the time we had left.  We already knew we would cut class short by one hour so we could get on the road to Ibanda for the dedication of a new church building on Sunday.  Some of the communion material will have to be presented at our next TEE. 

The good news is that we had our final 3 students show up!  So now we have a full roster - 24 men from across Uganda who come to Kampala (some by overnight bus) the first and third weekends of every month for intensive training on Friday from 9am to 5pm and Saturday from 8am to 3pm.  Most of these men then immediately board busses back home to serve in their congregations on Sunday morning.  Our roster is full, our classes are underway, and the future looks bright!  Praise the Lord for His lay leaders here in Uganda!  And please keep them and their travels in your prayers the first and third weekends of each month. -Shauen

Update on Saturday, May 23, 2009 at 5:17PM by Shauen & Krista

Here's the Holy Communion test we administered and the answer key.  Good luck! -Shauen

Mailing from Uganda to the USA

Today I had some free time (waiting for the Uganda Revenue Authority to print my receipt) and I walked over to the central post office in downtown Kampala.  I had brought our stuff to mail thinking I might have such an opportunity at some point today.  We finally got our newsletters printed out for those who receive it via snail-mail and I also had a good chunk of birthday and anniversary cards which I needed to mail.  The post office was not too confusing - once I figured out where the "post office" part of it was.  The foyer is full of little booths where you can pay your phone bills, utility bills, and who knows what else.  All the post office windows said you could buy stamps but down at the end was a much friendlier-looking place called the Stamp Botique or something like that.  They had a big wide counter and it looked like just the place I wanted to be.  The very-friendly ladies there helped me weigh all of my cards and letters and gave me sheets and sheets of stamps.  I hadn't, of course, expected the stamps to be self-adhesive, but wouldn't that have been nice?  When she wasn't helping someone else, she even helped me put the stamps on my letters!  So it costs 2,000 Ugandan Shillings to mail a normal letter - that's just about $1.  If it gets too heavy, the next step is at 2,500 Ugandan Shillings.  So it's not too bad at all - just about the same as the USA.  I bought a few sheets of stamps but I'll miss the super-efficient assistance of the postal worker in damping them and putting them onto my mail! -Shauen

Work Permits in Uganda

Well, we're legal again.  We've been assured by many people, including the guys at the immigration office that we won't be kicked out of Uganda for overstaying our original one-month tourist visa.  They say Americans don't get kicked out.  It's a nice sentiment, but I was still a bit nervous.  I know what they do in the USA if you overstay your visa!  So we've been trying to get our work permits here which would allow us to actually work through the year (the initial work permit is good for one year).  So when our tourist visa ran out we went to the immigration office to get an extension - which is what the immigration officer told us to do when we first arrived in Uganda.  But they didn't want to give us an extension (of course).  Nope, you can only apply for the "Special Pass" extension (which costs like $30 per passport) if you are simultaneously actually filing the work permit paperwork.  So until the work permit paperwork is all in place and ready you can't get the extension to stay in the country while you file for your work permit!  Didn't make much sense to me, but that's just my Western mind clouding up the issue. So, fine, we take our passports back home and wait until we have everything assembled.  We were waiting for our background check letters to come in the mail which they finally did.  Then, our wonderful President of the LCMU, Noah Isanga, helped us out with all the stuff the LCMU needed to contribute, like letters of invitation, NGO certificate, and cover letters for the filing. We finally had it all together.  Krista and President Noah go down to the immigration office to file our work permit.  They accept the whole package and give us a receipt and tell us to come back in a week or so.  "One week?" I thought, "This is going to be easier than I expected!" 

We went back today.  First, logically, we go to the window where we dropped off the work permit paperwork.  They hand us back our passports with a receipt.  Funny - the passports look exactly the same as they did when we turned them in last week.  We're directed to another window.  At this window, the guy takes our receipt and passports, writes another receipt in quadruplicate, stamps each copy, hands us three copies, and gives us our passports back.  I still have no idea what's going on - we don't have any work permits or special passes in our passports - they're exactly the same.  And we haven't paid any money yet but we have our passports back and a receipt in triplicate with a bunch of blank boxes on it.  Finally we figure it out.  We have to take this receipt downtown to the Uganda Revenue Authority which is the centralized location for collection of all official taxes, duties, fees, and fines (centralizing collection prevents corruption I think).  There we pay the fee for our special passes. 

Okay, so I find the Uganda Revenue Authority which is in the bottom of a regular ol' bank.  Stand in line...  Still standing...  Yup, still standing... Finally, I'm at the front.  Pay the $30 for each passport plus the "collection" fee.  She takes two (if I remember correctly) of my triplicate receipt, stamps them all in one of those empty boxes I saw earlier, and hands me back my original receipt - now with a new stamp on it.  Now I knew that I needed a different receipt to take back to the immigration office - it didn't look at all like the one I had in my hand.  So I asked her.  "Wait one hour," she says, "then stand in that line to get your receipt."  "Surely you jest," I thought.  "Why in the world do I have to wait an hour for you to give me a receipt?"  Well, I spent my hour (or most of it) at the post office - I'll write more about that later.  I return a little early to the Uganda Revenue Authority and since the "receipt" line was short I thought I'd try my luck and could always feign ignorance if I came before my hour was up.  I even checked where she had stamped my original receipt to see that she didn't write the time in the box.  So I get to the front of the "receipt" line (which is at a window with "RECEIPTS" written over it, of course) and I finally see why there's a separate line for receipts.  Behind the lady is a continuous-feed dot-matrix printer which is continously printing out receipts from all the other Uganda Revenue Authority windows.  I had to wait an hour because that's the estimate for how long it would take the print job my money-receiving lady sent to actually get through the printer and on to the receipt-giver's desk.  Sure enough, even though I was 10 minutes early, there was my receipt.  Yay!  It can't be long now, I thought! She gives me my receipt and stamps my original receipt in yet another previously-empty box.

My receipt - complete with 4 stamps.Back to the immigration office I go (almost 2 miles from the Uganda Revenue Authority), with two receipts in hand.  Now I go into yet another office to find out what I'm supposed to do with this receipt.  A man takes my receipt, stamps my original receipt in yet another box, takes our passports, and tells me to come back in three days to pick them up - they'll have our special passes in them then.  All that - and all I have to show for it at this point is a receipt with 4 stamps on it - and no passports.  I guess this is why they don't kick you out for overstaying your visa.  The percentage of time we've had our passports in our possession vs the percentage of time they've been at the immigration office makes it pretty clear that we're not likely to be stopped by the police and actually be able to present our passports.  The valid excuse can always be, "They're at immigration."  -Shauen

Update on Monday, March 16, 2009 at 4:49PM by Shauen & Krista

Well, Krista picked our passports up today.  This time they actually do look different.  The "Special Pass" form we filled out (1/2 of a sheet of paper) is stuck in the middle and a hand-written "extension" is written on one of the pages of the passport with a nice little immigration stamp.  They told her to come back at the end of April to check if our work permits have been processed.  I can hardly wait!  -Shauen

Update on Wednesday, May 20, 2009 at 4:20PM by Shauen & Krista

We're hosting a short-term missionary for about a week as he gets settled in and adjusted to Uganda time and culture.  So I decided to take him around on all of my errands - including checking on our work permits which should be done by now.  We drove over to the immigration office and confirmed that our work permits were, indeed complete.  The man at window #2 handed us the original applications complete with everything we had turned in.  Now there was a little itty-bitty sentence or two written on the inside of the cover of our application indicating that we were approved and a two-year permit was to be issued.  Yay!  We were told to take the applications over to the cashier.  I remember how this went last time, so I wasn't too optimistic that we would get our permits today.  Indeed, the cashier writes out another set of those triplicate receipts and hands us the yellow copies - just like last time - except that this time we get four receipts: one for me, one for Jacob, one for my wife, and one for his family.  Then its off to the Uganda Revenue Authority again to pay after a quick stop at the bank first to get the necessary funds.  We finally get to the Uganda Revenue Authority around 3:30 in the afternoon and the line is short, which is nice.  After paying, the man tells us the current wait for our receipt is 2 hours.  Two hours would take us well past 5pm, which I figure is closing time.  So after confirming that I could return the next day and pick up my receipt we left.  One stamp closer to filling our yellow receipts and getting our work permits!

Update on Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 4:27PM by Shauen & Krista

Today we went back to the Uganda Revenue Authority to pick up our receipts.  It's no small task, although picking up the receipt itself takes only a few seconds.  Parking in downtown Kampala is quite hectic.  Since I can count on one hand the number of times I've successfully parked on the curb, I don't even try - instead I drive up to the Grand Imperial Hotel and park there, which is usually fairly hassle-free even though you're only supposed to park there if you're a guest of the hotel.  Wouldn't you know it this is the one time the gentleman at the gate gives me a bunch of grief about how he has 120 guests coming for lunch and he can't just let me park there if I'm not a hotel guest.  The parking lot was, of course, empty.  He wanted to know exactly where we were going and when I told him we were going to the Diamond Trust Bank and the Uganda Revenue Authority he really, really didn't want to let me park there - such a task could easily be a 3 hour ordeal.  Fortunately, someone else drove up to the gate at that moment and he had to go let them in so I walked away assuring him we would be right back.  Not the best approach but remarkably acceptable here as it maintains the relationship and reduces conflict.  There was almost no line at the receipt window at the Uganda Revenue Authority, so picking up my receipts was very easy.  Alec was amazed that we had come back a second day just to get a slip of paper but that it still took 1/2 an hour to park, walk the 5 or so blocks, and actually do it.  Sure enough, we were back at the Grand Imperial long before lunch time and the parking lot was still mostly empty.  The gate keeper who had hassled us so much didn't even make eye contact when we returned.  Off to the immigration office with 4 yellow stamped receipts and 4 printed Uganda Revenue Authority receipts! 

At the immigration office we arrived in the middle of lunch which runs from around 1pm to around 2pm.  So we went and ran another errand in the meantime and got back around 2:30.  This time the lady at counter #2 asked if we had made our photocopies of our receipts.  No, of course we hadn't - why would we make photocopies of the receipts?  Well, she wanted us to go make photocopies first and assured us that right across the courtyard we could have copies made.  So across the courtyard we go - the copier, of course, is "finished" which usually means broken.  So we couldn't get our copies made.  The lady at window #2 insists that we need photocopies and she won't take our receipts and passports unless we have photocopies - "for accountability" she says.  I ask what the next step will be once we do have our photocopies.  Apparently it's going to be as easy as dropping off our passports and the receipts and returning in one week to pick them up with our issued work permits!  We're so close!

February Field Notes Published

Field Notes for the month of February have been published. This month, Field Notes included the following articles:

• Theological Education by Extension - TEE begins
• Getting Around - Buying a truck to take us safely and efficiently upcountry
• Nursing - Krista makes some new friends and joins a women's Bible Study
• Facts in Focus - Driving in Uganda

Our prayer requests include:

• For those suffering from Malaria, that medicine and treatment be affordable and available
• For daily safety on the roads
• For our upcoming trip to Ibanda to celebrate the dedication of a new church building

And we praise the Lord:

• For the successful start of our Theological Education by Extension classes in Kampala
• For Krista’s birthday and baptismal birthday at the end of January
• For new friends

If you haven't seen it yet, download Field Notes for February 2009 (PDF file, 733k) now!

Who was more scared?

Don't let the picture fool you, this thing is HUGE!We have geckos here. We normally see them outside on our porch, small little things dashing out of sight, only several inches long. Once we saw one in our bathroom, again, fairly small. I don't mind them, although I don't exactly prefer them in my bathroom. They are harmless (right?) and eat various insects, so aside from occasionally startling you as they scurry away, no big deal. At least, that's what I used to think. Now I'm not so sure. I was just in the middle of writing an email and felt the need for a glass of water. As I was walking into the kitchen, what darted before my feet but this huge monstrous beast of a gecko! So what did I so? I screamed. Lucky for me, Shauen was out of the house at a meeting so there was only the gecko to scare with my scream. It immediately darted for cover behind a shopping bag (where it currently remains, I'm not sure I how I am going to encourage it to leave). As I calmed down, I realized that it was only a larger-than-normal gecko (maybe 8 inches or so) and that I might have over reacted a wee bit. However, when something large and dark slithers unexpectedly across your path, right where you are about to place your bare foot, I think it is perfectly acceptable to scream.  -Krista

Update on Saturday, February 28, 2009 at 4:19PM by Shauen & Krista

Hmmm. Well, I went back to shoo the gecko outside. I bravely threw a shoe at the bag to scare him from his hiding place. Nothing happened, so I was forced to investigate. My gecko has disappeared. While I am hoping he went back outside where he belongs, I fear the worst and am therefore imagining large, scary geckos everywhere I look.  -Krista

TEE - Baptism

This weekend was our second Thelogical Education by Extension (TEE) class.  We had some new students, so our numbers are rapidly approaching the expected 24.  Never having taught like this before, I felt that I wanted some of those tools that my own teachers have had over the years, like an attendance roster, a grade sheet, and a nice picture roster so I could learn our student's names.  The picture roster has proven to be especially popular since the TEE students come from all over Uganda and the vast majority of them didn't know each other before this class.  We're doing more than teaching theology here!  We're uniting the lay leaders of the LCMU and bringing another level of cohesion to this great church body. 

Since fellow missionary Reverend Gillard took up most of the teaching at our first TEE, I had the honor of presenting the meat of baptism theology this weekend.  All told, it was probably about 5 hours of presentation on baptism.  How in the world would I try to convey baptism to this group?  I started with my own research using Pieper's "Christian Dogmatics," a 3-volume work (plus volume 4 - the index, which, by the way, I asked for for my birthday in April) that we use extensively in Seminary.  I paired that with Luther's small and large catechisms and the remainder of the Book of Concord.  From that solid (very solid - in fact downright heavy) theological background, I tried to approach baptism in a practical and logical way (according to my western ideals of logic).  My actual presentation of the theology of baptism didn't include any of those heavy resources, of course - those just helped me formulate my thoughts and solidify my understanding.  For references during my presentation I used only the Bible.  Our teaching style for this class has to be interactive, dynamic, and practical.  We're meeting in a tent, after all, with guys who may be taking all-night busses back to their home town to reach their congregation on Sunday morning.  No quoting from Pieper in my class! 

I'd love to be skilled enough to adopt the Ancient Greek method of teaching, where the teacher leads his students to the intended conclusion through questions he asks - the students discover the truths through their own thought processes that way.  Maybe someday I'll be able to do that.  But for now, I ask plenty of questions of them and when they ask a question of me I encourage them to work out the possibilities out loud.  Finally, I concluded my instruction with some case studies that the students worked out for me.  Their responses were promising - I think I managed to convey something of value!  We'll find out at our next TEE when they take the test!  -Shauen

Update on Saturday, March 7, 2009 at 5:00PM by Shauen & Krista

I write all of the tests administered in our TEE class - sometimes well and sometimes poorly.  I figured you might be interested in seeing the Baptism test that our TEE students took.  I don't have a key for this test, but I do have a Baptism Test Answers and Explanations handout.  Good luck! -Shauen

Lesson Learned...For the Second Time

For those of you following our blog, you might remember how one evening several weeks ago a light was left on in our bedroom which then attracted hundreds and hundreds of lake flies. We thought we had learned our lesson. Apparently we did not. Last night while cooking dinner I splashed my shirt and because I didn't want it to stain, I ran upstairs to change shirts and rinse out the stain. In my hurry to get back downstairs to finish dinner, I accidently left the bathroom light on. Although our screen was completely closed, the sliding glass was only open partway, leaving a crack between the screen and glass. So, guess what was waiting for us when we went upstairs to get ready for bed?! Once again, hundreds of lake flies! It was much better this time as they were all concentrated in the bathroom, so we closed the door and due to their short life span, they were all dead by morning! Of course, waking up to a bathroom full of dead bugs was oh so pleasant! So now I hope I can say we really have learned our lesson - always open the window correctly!!  -Krista

A Whiff of Homesickness

Shauen and I received our first packages! We were informed by the LMMU office that they had received a slip in their box for us and that we needed to go to the post office with picture ID to pick up a package. They couldn’t pick it up for us. We actually had two different kinds of slips stapled together. The first slip we took upstairs to the parcels office. A lady took the slip and Shauen's ID and then disappeared for a while. Finally she came back with the package. She wrote a bunch of stuff down in a big log book and then Shauen had to sign in the log book for the package. We also had to pay 3,000 shillings for it which is about $1.50. Then she hands over the receipt and sets the package over on another guy’s desk. He’s the Customs guy. So he looks through a bunch of customs forms that are rubber-banded together and somehow finds the ones associated with this particular package. He pulls them out, writes a bunch of stuff on the back of them and then Shauen has to sign each of them. Then we are sent with the receipt and one of the customs things over to another desk where the lady writes everything down in ANOTHER log book which Shauen again signs and has to put his phone number into. FINALLY, we're allowed to leave with our package! Then we go to where we’re supposed to pick up the other package. This one is much less involved – maybe because it was smaller/lighter. We hand them the slip, they disappear for a while, finally return with the package, write down everything in their log book, have us sign, take 1,000 shillings (only about 50 cents) and give us a receipt and the package. When we looked at the packages, we saw that the smaller one had been sent on Jan 20th and arrived in Uganda on Jan 29th, and the larger one had been sent Jan 23rd and arrived here Feb 4th. However, we weren't notified that the packages had arrived until yesterday! We are extrememly grateful to have at least received them, the Gillards are still waiting for packages that were sent to them mid-December. One of the packages happened to be a birthday present from my parents, I received a couple of new shirts that I had requested. In trying them on, I realized that they smelled like home! It turns out my Mom had thoughtfully washed them before sending them. I never considered home to have a smell, but today I learned it does and for the first time since arriving, got a little homesick.  -Krista