It is Saturday morning and the carpenter is coming to work on the project for Johnny's room. I am not doing much of the work - I occasionally go out and hold something for him and maybe even give him a tip on how to do something better but he is used to his methods and they are crude by comparison to the West. Nonetheless they work.

Last night I met a man who is a part time missionary who comes here from time to time to invest in ministries and disciple people. He is a retired postmaster from Georgia but also was the foreman at a large cabinet shop and has a personal shop that is twice the size of my building. We talked about my table saw problems and he gave me some ideas. Funny where you meet the solutions to some of your problems. Roger and I talked a lot last night.

The picture is of a typical moment on a Jinga street. Notice the few cars and the large number of bicycles. This is life here - few cars and a large number of other types of transportation. That is not to say that there are no cars - there are, but they don't own the streets or highways. The thoroughfares of commerce are owned by pedestrians, bicycles and mopeds/motorcycles. Cars slow down and maneuver around the people, the bikes and the mopeds. Very few helmets, and when there is an accident - we have seen at least three very serious ones - there is almost always loss of life; and you can see why. Of course everyone drives on the "other side of the road" and that would not be hard to get used to but the presence of people on the streets is still strange to me.

Tonight John and I will head into town for some night pictures. He tells me: "If you think there are a lot of people on the road during the day, wait until you see it at night". The Ugandans are night people. I will see for myself soon.

Things are well, I am relaxing for the last 48 hours and then travelling and all that stuff.

Woodworking in Uganda

It is Friday and I am woodworking a bit. The carpenter is by and he is showing me how they build things in Uganda. By American standards they are primitive and includes a great deal of handwork. My first picture is of Gilbert planing lumber that we cut with an old skill saw.

The second picture is of a "bodaboda" which is a bike being used as a simple but very common taxi. It costs 25 cents for a ride and they have to work to get up the inclines. It is the bike owners livelihood. People learn to balance riding side-saddle. I have not ridden on one of them; rather I have taken a motorcyle/moped which is faster and costs a bit more (50 cents).

It is warm today; and very slow, but another missionary came by to ask me to take a package back to America and mail it for her. It is being shipped to North Carolina; she was surprised and blessed to know that I would be there for 2 days.

Heading Home

We just arrived home after a happy/sad day. I hugged many and waved goodbye as a large truck of men left without me. John and I and a few others took his van back to town. We saw the truck along the way as men were dropped home and taken to the bus depot. Many of them have long journeys ahead of them and when they arrive home will be facing food shortages and crop failures. Some took food so their families could eat.

The most common comment was; please return. It would be wonderful but right now I cannot see the Lord opening that door for some time. It is not evil to hope so I hope and they earnestly pray.

I made several friends; Paul, Mawa John & Dominic - all are precious and passionate about serving the Lord. Perhaps in God's amazing plans I will see them again; until then we must serve apart.

We are hoping the carpenter will arrive so we can work on the shelving unit that I would like to begin. John believes the man is coming today. We will see.

I am attaching two pictures of closing day - they will be eternal memories!

Students & Stuff

The first is George my personal gecko. He lives in my room behind the map, or at least I think that is where he lives. He finally came out last night and introduced himself. Now I know who keeps the bug population in check while I am sleeping or away. He has a whole family that enjoys the house and does their job effectively and efficiently.

The second picture is my 2nd & 3rd year students after taking one of my exams. The lighting is natural and the desks are primitive but it all works and they call it my lecture hall. The blackboard is black paint painted on a finished stucko wall and the chalk is used up very fast. It is primitive but it works and we are all happy.

They all send greetings and THANK YOU for sending me to be their teacher - we were brothers on the first day, now we are friends for life!

People at the Global Theological Seminary

These men are excellent students and have wonderful attitudes. The man in the AWANA t-shirt is Matete Fred from Mumbas, Kenya. He is a 4th year student and he has started clubs and trained workers in AWANA in Kenya and is training workers at John & Rebecca's home Church, Victoria Baptist Church. He is the real thing. He is an excellent student and he is a worker. John loves him and tells me that in spite of his hands, he has the best handwriting of any student he has seen in years. He is a friend who loves AWANA.

In the other picture there are two guys with me: Paul Gacheru, 3rd yr., from Kenya and in the yellow shirt, Mawa John Liki from Sudan. Paul has been in ministry 7 years and he is one of my best students and in all 3 of my classes; Mawa John is only in my Biblical Characters class as a 1st yr. but is an excellent student as well. Both are highly motivated. I would love to take them both home with me. They have attitudes that any teacher would love and are eager to learn!

Another Sunday in Uganda

We just returned from Church and lunch. We had lunch at the Triangle Hotel; we all had fish and chips. They have a lake fish here that is good and fries up nicely and is put with fries - which are real potatoes. They have a thing called Top Up that is a replacement for ketchup - the Fulks like it but it is nothing but watered down ketchup.

The church that I was at this morning was the most primitive of the churches that I have been in and the smallest. The pastor is a student and he loves the people. He has 3 or 4 men and 5-6 women and then there are folks who come and go and lots of children; yet a good beginning and the men all help. I sat on a very low chair so I could see their eyes in a very small room that had no lighting except the door and it grew hotter and hotter as we worshipped, prayed, sang and danced.. It went well and when it was over the Pastor invited me to ask them questions to see if they were listening and one woman asked a question about forgiveness which told me that she was listening carefully.

The first young man I met was named Ramadan and he is a converted Muslim. I am sending two pictures: one of the Pastor - Batumbuze Paul on the left and Ramadan on the right and the second picture is of all the folks who came.

This evening we will have Missionary Fellowship at someone's home and they will nearly all be American Missionaries; and a few Europeans. Last month when I went the fellowship was good but the food was strange.

It is hot so we will nap with the fan on - thank God for the fan!

Uganda Beauty

Things happen here and today is an example - we were expecting the carpenters so that we could begin building a shelf unit for John and his son Johnny. We got the lumber yesterday - it was awful by my standards, but it is what they use - I took the kids for lunch at a spot they really like and John & Rebecca headed off to a place that they like for some special coffee and we returned to wait for the carpenters - well - they had problems and can't come. Very disappointing but what happens. I spent the afternoon reading and updating my journal.

We did however have a moment or two to snap a few pictures of Uganda beauty, especially flowers. They are attached - the garden where these were taken was where John and Rebecca were having coffee and snacks.