Money

What do you take on trips? I take money. Lots of different kinds of money, I mean. For our average trip, we use three to five kinds of currency. It's a bit tricky to keep them separate at time, and to remember how much each is worth! This picture is of what we needed for our trips to Uganda.

1. 10,000 Tanzania shillings, worth about $7.00 USD.
2. 10,000 Uganda shillings, worth about $5.00 USD.
3. 1,000 Kenya shillings, worth about $12.50 USD.
4. 10 US dollars, worth about $10.00 USD. ;-)

When crossing borders in East Africa, only US dollars, Euros, or Great Britain pounds are accepted in payment for visas. So, even though our trip definitely did not involve travel through the United States, we needed US dollars to buy our visas in Uganda, and mine in Kenya. Crazy! They say visa is everywhere you want to be, but my personal experience says otherwise - my take on that would be, "US dollars are needed everywhere you want to be."

Pikipiki, bodaboda, motorcycle, whatever it's called!

In Tanzania, it's called a pikipiki. In Uganda, it's called a bodaboda. In the US, I'm pretty sure it's called a motorcycle. But whatever the name, I like to call it terrifying! The only reason I'm smiling in this picture is because we're at the end of the trip and I'm still alive.

Much to my surprise, when I was in Uganda, we had to rely on bodabodas for transportation some of the time. I've been in Tanzania for four years and haven't been on a pikipiki yet, but I went to Uganda for one week and found myself on one FIVE times in just one week!

Here are a few hints for what helped me:
-Reciting the Apostle's Creed is a good distraction from the reality at hand.
-Convincing myself that my driver is an excellent, superb, well-practiced driver at least made me feel better, whether it was true or not.
-Hanging onto the bar on the back gives a sense of security.
-Wearing capris is easier than wearing a skirt (although 4/5 of my trips were in skirts).
-Skinny drivers leave you more room on the seat.
-Dirt roads are better than paved ones, because the thought of falling is less horrifying.
-Slower is generally better than faster, except it makes the trip longer.
-If you look at the scenery and remind yourself that you can appreciate it better on a bodaboda than when in a car, it greatly improves the experience.
-Wearing sunglasses so you don't get bugs in your eyes is highly recommended.
-Remind yourself that at least it'll make a good blog post!

Home Alone

I've had about three weeks on my own here in Musoma while Andrew has been in Uganda, and I have to say, certain patterns emerge. I definitely live differently when he's at home than I do when it's just me here!

For starters, my eating habits are a bit tweaked these days. Sugar bananas, okra, and millet porridge have been appearing fairly frequently on my menu lately. Andrew prefers "regular" (i.e. the kind that gets imported to America) bananas instead of the little sweet ones, and okra and millet porridge do not factor on his list of foods he'd ever eat if on his own. I, on the other hand, have no problem with returning home after a day at the office to eat a nice pot (yes, straight out of the pot) of porridge made out of ground millet, soy, and peanut flour. Mm-mm good. A tortilla filled with stir-fried okra and zucchini and a little banana for dessert is also mm-mm good! Toss in a couple fresh tomatoes for an appetized to eat while waiting for the porridge to cook and call it a feast! (Raw tomatoes also appear on Andrew's list of less-appreciated foods, and rank very, very high on mine.)

My down-time habits have also had a few changes. For instance, I don't read an average of two books a week when Andrew is at home. This stack is not the exact pile I read during this time, since a few of the books aren't here right now and couldn't feature in the picture, but these are all ones I've read in the past couple months.

On top of the stack is the Bible, New Living Translation. I like a variety of translations, but this one has a nice level of natural English discourse and clarity in translation. Second is "Frankenstein", which was a reread I enjoyed during my time in the Ugandan village last week. Just a reminder, folks, Frankenstein is the name of the creator of the monster, not the monster himself. Third is "The Friendship Gap", about making friends cross-culturally. Fourth is "Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith", because Anne Lamott always makes me laugh and want to write a book myself. Fifth is "Mennonite in a Little Black Dress", by my favorite Hope College professor, Rhoda Janzen. Funny, well-written, and one I'll read again. Sixth is "The Help", a must-read for anyone who has househelp! Seventh is "The First Five Years of Marriage", which has the answers to (almost all of) my questions. Finally, this month's edition of National Geographic, my favorite magazine, which my friends here faithfully pass on to me every month after they read it. So if you wonder what I read out here in Musoma, there's a recent sampling! I recommend all of them. :-)

Finally, another change is my daily hours. Even our night guard commented the other day that it seems I go to bed a bit later and get up a bit later when it's just me and Andrew is away... Yeah. Confirmation on that one! Let's just say sometimes I'm a little late for work when Andrew is gone.

Time spent on Skype also goes up with his abscense. Hey, one has to talk to one's parents sometime or other, so why not when home alone?

I'm ready to stop being a widow though. 24 more hours until Andrew gets back to Musoma!

Accidental Evangelism

While I (Michelle) was in Uganda, the Zanaki translators went to several villages to read some chapters aloud and get feedback on them. In one village, they had a different response than usual.

Shem, one of the translators, sat down and started reading a chapter from Luke (I actually don't know which one; it was either 10 or 11). After the first passage he looked up and was surprised to see everyone in the group frowning. He thought, "There must be something wrong with the Zanaki words we've used!"

Worridly, he continued reading. After another section he glanced at his audience again and saw them looking down at the ground and grimacing! Unable to wait, he asked them, "What do you think of this translation? Please, all feedback is helpful, even if it is negative. How is our word choice, our dialect in this?"

“It’s fine, going on reading,” they said, not offering much insight into their facial expressions. He continued with the chapter, and they still had grimaces, to his consternation.

He started asking them questions to see which things in the translation weren’t clear, and they contributed their thoughts and were helpful. However, about half of them said, “Oh, we’re not Christians, we don’t understand religion well, so maybe you don’t want our answers.”

Shem hastily encouraged them to participate, since answers from people who don’t know the Bible are often the most helpful. He assured them that this was not a test of knowledge, but him looking for help with the language. They stayed and listened to the chapters and gave their feedback about the translation.

At the end, he asked again why it was that they looked so serious when he was reading. This time, they answered him. Both the Christians and the non-Christians told him, “Those words of Jesus were convicting us! They burned our hearts as we listened; we know that just like the people in the parables, we need to repent from our sins. How could we smile when we are thinking about our sins and how we are not right with God?”

Calvary Chapel Entebbe

This morning Andrew and I visited Calvary Chapel Entebbe. Our home church is Calvary Chapel Olympia (WA), I used to attend and we're supported by Calvary Chapel Langley (BC), Andrew used to attend Crossroads, a Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, WA, and once while on vacation with my parents, we visited a Calvary Chapel in Stone Mountain, GA. But this was our first time at a Calvary in Africa! I was quite curious how it'd be different than the others, although since it was also my first visit to a Ugandan church, it's maybe a little tricky to know exactly what things are different just because they are Ugandan.

The whole service was totally bilingual in English and Luganda. The songs were a mixture, often with one verse of the English songs translated into Luganda, and sometimes a whole song was Luganda or English. Everything spoken at the front of the church, from announcements to prayers to the sermon, was translated from English into Luganda. Most of the audience laughed more at jokes after they were translated, which indicated to me that even if some of the Ugandans didn't know Luganda and needed the English, most of them did. The usual pastor is American, but he was away today, so the Ugandan assistant pastor preached.

Overall, the church felt WAY more western/American than any church I've ever attended in Tanzanian. For example, the kids were out having Sunday School during the sermon part of the service. In Tanzania, they are in with the adults, and if there is Sunday School, it's during adult Sunday School time, not during the main sermon. Also, there were guitars, a drum set, and a keyboard played by someone who actually knew how to play a keyboard. However, I appreciated that there were also two Ugandan drums. But I've sure never seen a guitar or a "normal" drum set before in a Tanzanian church. I'm not sure if they are due to the American influence in the church or if that's more common in Uganda, but it was new for me in Africa, at least. It was kind of a comfortable mix of western and East African, in that the music sounded Ugandan, but they were songs I knew in English, just sang with Ugandan English pronunciation, and some fun Luganda songs mixed in. There were words projected onto the wall, a computer running things in the back, and little paper bulletins. Again, maybe other Ugandan churches have these things, but for me they were a nice reminder of some positive aspects of western churches. It's really handy to have words up on the front wall during worship!

A great little variation from other Calvarys was the Bibles they offered for people to borrow during the service. They were New Living Translation!!! Take that, you King James Version Calvarys of North America, Uganda is showing you up. The pastor taught from the New International Version, but distributed to all the congregants who needed one for the was the NLT, my personal favorite English translation. :-) Way to go, Calvary Chapel Entebbe!

My favorite part was seeing the dove painted on the wall. After all, what's a Calvary Chapel without a giant dove swooping down, looking like it's divebombing the pastor? This one was a bit more moderate in size than some other Calvary's doves, but it was holding it's own up there.

So, today we got church in English (and Luganda). The last time I heard a sermon in English was, well, hmmm... one week ago when I listened to a MP3 of Calvary Chapel Olympia, which I think was a sermon from like three years ago, but hey, the Word of the Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever, right?

Miscommunication: Frustration or Opportunity?

Tuesday was the day I started to come down with malaria symptoms. Through the morning my energy level took a dive, my head and tummy started to hurt, my muscles started to ache, and I lost my appetite for food (a rare thing for me). I tried to lay low during the Basic Bible Teaching workshop which was being held at the Lubwisi/Kwamba translation office, but when lunchtime came I felt obligated to tag along for the trip into town. It was our second day eating at the little restaurant there that served typical Western Ugandan food. There was one thing that sounded OK to eat. I wanted rice with a little bit of sauce over the top. That was all. After ordering, what I got was a huge portion of goat meat, a large portion of posho (a semi-solid, white, maize porridge), and a tiny bit of rice. I was annoyed. It was not the first time that my meal at a restaurant had been messed up, and it seemed they weren't even trying to listen to what I wanted. I also didn't feel we should have to pay for something we didn't want (the cost difference would have been about $1). I'm pretty sure I let my disgust show a little bit.

In contrast to my grumpy attitude, Timothy (the local Literacy/Scripture Use coordinator I had been working with) was sitting next to me and seemed to be taking it all in stride. He laughed, but didn't make a big deal about it with the servers. Then, all of a sudden, he disappeared outside. He later returned with a young motorcycle driver. He grabbed the food I wasn't going to eat and put it in front of the guy at the table next to ours. Then, some of the others in our group also started added the extra they weren't able to finish. Before long the guy realized he wouldn't be able to finish it all. He ran out and grabbed a friend to join him, and together they scarfed down a good meal.

This simple experience was a wake up call for me. There were a few ways I could have responded to the "non-ideal" situation. My choice was the wrong one. Timothy's was a great one!

Andrew

Water

On Wednesday morning, they started working on our road, and cut off our water. The road is blocked; we have to go around a detour to get in and out of our house. Since we're in the part of the road that is blocked, we dodge around the "Road Closed" sign to get in and out. I hope they might actually be doing some serious work on the road, like making proper drainage ditches and paving it, but I'm trying to keep my hopes down, since they most likely won't be spending that much money on it. As a side note, when they were working on the road last week they didn't close the road, but had people drive under the arm of the big Cat machine that had a scoop at the end. I had a moment of panic - seriously, there was a huge yellow bulldozer thing on one side of the road, and it was scooping a giant ditch on the other side, and everyone was just waiting for a moment and then whizzing underneath while it was still working away! But I survived and the truck didn't get smashed or anything.

When we got home to discover that our water had been cut off on Wednesday evening, we made do with eating some leftovers and figured it would be back on the next day. Well, Thursday morning arrived with no water. Skipping showering for one day isn't that big of a deal; we just went to work kind of smelly and greasy. This is Africa, nobody notices too much if you're past due for showering, since you get kind of sweaty every day, anyway.

Thursday was supposed to be laundry day, but that obviously didn't happen. It was also the day for the vet to come give the cats their rabies shots. (Yes, vets make house calls in Tanzania for everything from shots to surgery.) Betsy, the sweety, tiny little girl cat, went wild and bit me pretty hard. I couldn't wash off the blood and clean my wound at home, though, because of the water issue. So, back to the office I went (going the long way around, which was getting kind of annoying by then), and washed my puncture there.

That night our water came back for about an hour, enough time for me to dart into the bathroom and shower, fill the water filter bucket, and make pizza for dinner. It went out again before I had time to do any dishes. The next day, Friday, was totally without water all day. We were starting to run low on our bucket of drinking water, hadn't flushed the toilet in over 24 hours, and Andrew hadn't showered for several days. We had some leftover pizza for dinner, at least, but we used our last two forks and last two plates for eating it. Pretty much every dish we had was stacked on the counter, waiting for water. We realized that Andrew needed some of his clothes for his Uganda trip, and so took a few pairs of trousers and shirts over to our friends the Nicholls' house, where they saved the day by doing a load for us in their washing machine.

Saturday morning I went running, as usual. This time, however, I packed along my shampoo and towel, and our friends the Hills' saved the day by letting me shower at their house. I think I smelled badly enough that they didn't need any convincing of the importance of some water! Back at home, Andrew used most of our final 1/2 bucket of water to clean up a bit. We were down to 1/4 of a 5 gallon bucket as our only water in the house.

Saturday afternoon was missionary fellowship, so we went there (held at our friends the Turners' house) and drank lots of water and used their facilities, which flushed wonderfully well. Upon arriving home we checked the water first thing, but no luck. However, about halfway through watching a movie that night, we heard the ping ping ping of water coming out of the bathroom faucet and landing in the metal soup pot we'd put under the tap! Hallelujah! We both leapt into action, unsure of how long the water was going to stay on this time. We flushed the toilet about three times, Andrew showered and filled the drinking water filter, and I washed dishes like a madwoman.

This morning we checked the water first thing - still on! Not sure if they'll turn it off again tomorrow to continue with road work or not, but at least we've had one beautiful watery day here.