An eventful day in Uganda

Catastrophic Events in Uganda

#1 Destruction of the Oil Lamp

For those of you that are not familiar with Uganda, the country sells their electricity to the neighboring country Kenya. In the past trips here, we were lucky to have electricity 4 out of the 7 days a week.
We have been fortunate enough this trip to have only been without electricity about eight hours. However, our light in the room that we are staying in does not have a light so we have resorted to the dimly lit oil lamp for our source of light in the evening. We have really grown to love the oil lamp. Well, Stacie this morning decides that she wants to get into our make-shift table which is a tub with a blanket layed across it. While doing this, she knocks over our only source of night light, shattering the oil lamp into a million peices. Good news is that the electrician guy came and fixed our light...so as long as the country has electricity, we are able to see.

#2 Coffee time

Stacie (our dedicated barista) decides to make some coffee...go figure. After asking how the foreign pot works, begins hard at work brewing the coffee. The odd little pot is divided into three sections: top portion for pouring ONLY boiled water into, the middle portion for putting ground coffee into, and the bottom portion for catching the final product-a delicious cup of fresh brewed coffee!! Stacie pours the ground coffee and boiled water together into the TOP portion and waits 20 minutes. She checks it and finds it is still at the SAME level as it was when she poured it ino the pot.

Stacie: Uh, is it seriously supposed to take this long??
AmyRose: Yes. It takes time for it to drip into the bottom.
Stacie thinking to herself: 'Wow, I really don't think I have the patience to wait this long for a
tea-cup sized cup of coffee.

That was when they both realized there were 3 parts to the weird little pot...not only two.

#3 Stacie and the Cell Phone

So there we were. . .walking the streets of Enbebbe, on our way back to the house from the Internet Cafe. Stacie, being the much faster walker of the two of us, was going her usual walking pace of 25 miles an hour, while AmyRose was walking her usual 5 miles an hour.

Then the cell phone rang.

Stacie answers the phone, and begins quite the conversation with her dear friend Amy S. During this conversation, Stacie unknowingly begings walking faster than she already was, apparently very excited about the conversation at hand. Meanwhile, AmyRose struggles to keep up, while wearing new flip-flops that are a full size too small (apparently ugandans do not have feet larger than size 6), which are producing massive and painful blisters. Also, AmyRose is wearing a skirt wrap, handmade by herself, which is beautiful but ridiculously long and uncomfortable--resulting in impossible walking conditions.

Then comes the ditch. Stacie still on the phone, still at 25 miles an hour, and in a short flowing skirt and flops that fit, quickly and effortlessly jumps across the ditch... AmyRose struggles to jump across ditch without falling face first.

Result: AmyRose trips, catches herself, but barely--resulting in the bottle of Coca-Cola in right hand splattering all over AmyRose's face, shirt, and skirt. Coca-Cola dripping from eyelashes and face, Stacie is completely oblivious to entire scenario. . .and still on the phone :)






We went to visit Mercy Home of Children today which is the orphanage Stacie stayed at for nine weeks her first visit to Uganda. It was difficult for both Stacie and AmyRose to be there because the children are not being taken care of anymore. The area, which used to be a beautiful building is now torn up, trashed, and dirt splattered EVERYWHERE. Where there used to be singing, dancing, and smiling faces is now lonely, shattered, and empty hearts. We are asking the Lord to show us what we should be doing to help the children while we are here. Join us with our prayer and let us see what it is that God wants us to do.

The reason for this change is due to corruption. Corruption seems to be what all African countries are built on. Many orphanages are viewed as buisinesses. It is a means of making money for the pleasure of the ones in charge of the orphanage. Their hearts are not in it for the children. That is what has happened to the orphanage. They, maybe, started out with good intentions but those intentions quickly turned for the worse when money began flowing in. We just do not understand how anyone can claim to be believers and preach the gospel, yet have such evil hearts and mistreat the children in the name of the Lord. The more that we thought about this the more difficult it was to do anything. Then reading in our quiet times the spripture came up in Titus:
"To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not
believe, nothing is pure. In fact both their minds and their consciousness are
corrupted. They claim to know God but by their actions they deny him. They
are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good." 1:15-16

What scripture says to do in situations such as these is to silence them. Do not ignore it. Rebuke them sharply so that our conscience will be saved. So be praying that if we ought to do anything, which we believe the Lord is telling us to, then that we do it in prayer and using wisdom.

Thank you again for all of your comments and viewing our blog!! Remember that we love you and miss you all very much!!