Still loving it here : )

This week we stay in a village called Osuguro (no idea if I spelt that right). It was definitely an interesting and amazing experience. One thing I'm going to miss in Uganda is the lack of seat belts. I know how weird that sounds, but imagine riding on a bumpy road through the remote bush. SO FUN!! Painful at times, but the novelty outweighs the bad. Ha!

Our "guide" for the week was James (pronounced Jay-mez), a pastor in Soroti. He made sure we were taken care of and planned what we would do for the whole week. He also ended up acting as our entertainer - the man was hilarious!! We also went/stayed with Brie, an American from Portland, OR whose home church partners with James', and Jane, a pastor from Entebbe.

The greeting we got was absolutely unbelievable. As soon as the villagers saw our truck, they were dancing, singing, running out to us on the road. They were SO excited. Blogging all these things is so hard - I wish I could just show you!! My words are nothing compared to seeing, hearing, feeling it. It was amazed.

That night they sang and danced for us - their welcome. Then they worshipped on into the night. Oof!! The reason we were able to stay at a village was that we tagged along with Life Ministries, a church in Soroti who wanted to evangelize around the Katakwi District (where the village is located). So the Pastor from Life, Charles, showed some films and spoke about salvation. This was actually really confusing - he showed a few (seemingly) ancient videos. Seriously? From the sixties. Ha. And they were about overbearing, controlling men - a young guy who nearly rapes a girl and an angry husband. Ok?? We were all very confused.

We stayed in their guest hut, which was the only one in the area besides a kitchen hut and the church (the village seemed pretty widespread). The first night, the welcoming festivities didn't really die down - they were literally outside our hut singing while we slept. Thank God I was exhausted. I was able to sleep anyway. I've been able to grow some thicker sleeping skin : ) YAY!!

Wednesday was our first full day. We went to a training session at the church for door-to-door evangelism. We wanted to see a little of what they were doing, but we didn't actually go with them for a few reasons. I've learned that we're pretty distracting - some people marvel at the fact that muzungus are around.

Instead of that we would do practical service everyday, which was really good because it helped us understand more of what village life is like. We chopped acok (potatoes), hoed some fields, pumped water at the well, etc. We definitely learned how soft our hands, feet, bodies are!! We got tired, blistered, sun burnt, achy pretty quickly. But it was all still so envigorating. Most of the time while we were in the village, I had to keep pinching myself. Am I really here doing this?? Ah, so cool!!

Wednesday we also went to meet the Regional District Commissioner, Joseph. He's basically the president type of the Katakwi District. Whenever someone visits, they like to give an official welcome. I felt like an honored guest and hey, I guess I was.

Other than sitting in on training/devotions and doing some practical work, we were able to have a lot of chill time. This was definitely my favorite. The language barrier wasn't bad - many people spoke English - but it was difficult to communicate with a lot of the kids because they usually only speak Attesso. But we've all found ways around that. One afternoon, Mike and I were sitting with about 10 kids playing one of their bass string instruments. Mike ran off, so I had a bunch of Attesso-speaking kids staring at me. LoL - uhm?? So I just started to make funny faces and noises. And they would laugh and repeat whatever I was doing. Ha, it was sooooo funny!! Apparently they thought I was entertaining because one by one they would run off and grab a bunch of their friends. So soon enough I had about 40 people around me, waiting to see what I would do next. It was incredible. I will never forget that moment - language is only one part of communication and so many other things are universals. Thank the Lord for laughter.

I made a buddy. For most of the week, I didn't know his name. "What's your name?" is one of the sentences that I keep forgetting in Attesso!! But I now know that his name is Solomon and I'd say that he's around 3 years old. In the first training session, he was sitting down near the door. It's common now for us to shake hands with hundreds of people a day, it's just kind of something you do all the time. So as I passed, I put my hand down to shake his and instead of gently giving me his hand and then letting go, he pulled me down to the ground!! Yup, from that moment I was hooked on how cute he is. He would run up and sit on my lap. We wouldn't be able to say anything to each other, but he would just smile at me and his whole face would light up. Michelle told me that I couldn't keep him though : ( It's kind of illegal. LoL.

We also went to one of their crusades - it was a worship service they have near the side of the road. Preaching, singing, dancing. I LOVE how relentless they are in worship. They just dance and do whatever they feel like doing. Why is that so rare in the West?? They way they worship is the way I imagine and the way I desire. RHAH!! So COOL!!

So basically... I had the time of my life in the village. We were immediately and wholly welcomed. It was like one big family and it was hard to leave!!

Stay tuned. More to come. Keep on praying and thanking God - He's teaching amazing things.