Africa: Part 11 "Karamajong Tribe"

Waking up on this second to last morning in Africa, I have to be honest that I was ready to go home.  I was ready for a hot shower and time to sit and relax.  Today was sort of a "half day" which is good because the team was really starting to fade.  Mama Rebecca made us a wonderful breakfast, as usual, and then we were off to shop at the market and eat at a cafe called The Source.

The market was a lot of fun to shop at because we could barter, although I am sure we still paid too much.  I was missing Henok, our guide in Ethiopia, who went to the market with us there and would help us negotiate.  There were lots of fun instruments, jewelry, and art work.  I had already purchased most of my gifts I could from the ministries we were visiting so I knew that at least my money was going to a good cause, however, I did find the most beautiful painting in the market place and can't wait to have it framed to hang up! When we were shopping, it always seemed  rushed so there was little time to think about which stuff was the really great stuff to get at the time.  I know now for our next trip, the shop with these paintings is where I need to go.  After figuring out that the exchange rate and realizing that it was about $5, I kicked myself for not buying more.

We had lunch at The Source, which apparently is code for "where the Americans eat".  We met lots of Americans who were living in Uganda now and apparently this was the internet cafe to hang out in.  After lunch, we were off to visit our last ministry.  Pastor Andrew has been working with the Karamajong tribe in Uganda and the ministry is really still in it's infancy.  We only visited one village of this tribe, but as soon as we arrived we quickly saw this to be what you think of when you think poor living conditions in Africa.  It looks like those infomercials with the naked kids with bloated bellies and terribly unsanitary living conditions.  No place we had visited had been good living conditions, but this was the worst.  The other ministries we had been with were more established and had been around for a while so they had rules for the children and had worked really hard to teach the kids manors.  All of the ministries had a focus on teaching the children not to beg and as a team we respected each leader and followed their direction when handing out candy or other goodies.  At a lot of places, we gave our donated items right to the leader to hand out at another time so we were free to just enjoy our time with the kids and they didn't see us as only a means to stuff.  These were big steps for the children and for us Americans.  I write all of this to say that I know a goal of Pastor Andrew's is to bring these children some of these same values, but they were not there yet.

This part of the Karamajong tribe is an outcast group in Uganda and there is much prejudice against them.  It's difficult for them to find what little work there is because of their position in the tribe.  There are no schools these children are allowed to attend, so Pastor Andrew is working on building them.  They are starting with a preschool, which a friend on the trip is raising funds for.  We got to see the beginnings of the construction while we were there, and our friend was able to bring the first installment for the building project.  That was a wonderful sight.

When it came time for us to break into two groups, one to stay with the women and one to go with the children, I chose to go with the children.  It sounded like the other group had a good time meeting with the women and doing manicures.  Those of us with the children did not have it quite so easy.  The children one on one were sweet and affectionate, but as a group were unruly and aggressive.  We were given instructions to just pass out our items and since this was our last stop we brought everything we had left.  There was one teacher there that tried to make a line for the children and we tried to help her keep that line, but it was no use.  It was intense and at times a bit scary.  After a few minutes and breaking up some fights in line, we quickly passed stuff out and got it over with as fast as possible.  The leaders of the other ministries had told us how hard they had worked with their children from homes with no father, many children, and little constructive discipline.  I had not realized what an amazing job they had done until now, but I also saw such hope for Pastor Andrew because I had seen that the children could still be taught.  Without these skills, there would be no chance of attending school with other children and no opportunities of finding good work as they got older. 

After this crazy time with the kids, we headed back to join as a group again.  Some of the older children put on an AMAZING show for us displaying their tribal dances.  It was one of the greatest treats of the trip!  I was regretting not purchasing the bells that go on your legs in the market earlier.  I didn't quite understand how they worked until I saw them in action.  The dancing was unbelievably beautiful as were the people.  After the dancing it was almost time for us to go, but first we wanted to purchase some necklaces from the women because this is one of their only sources of income.  Like I said before, this tribe is still rough around the edges and each woman sells for herself, so we had to buy an equal amount from each woman so as to not cause problems.  Our group only had enough to buy one from each woman because there were quite a few women.  A much better place to buy necklaces than in the market though.

This tribe was the hardest group for me to be with and a bit exhausting especially at the very end of our trip.  I wonder what my feelings would have been if we had visited them on the first few days of our trip.  Instead of being in a bit of shock of what I saw, maybe my heart would have broken a little more for them.  I think I will have to visit them again someday and see them from a different view.

Back at Canaan's, I used our free time to pack.  With my bags ready to go, I was able to enjoy a delicious dinner and sleep happily for my last night in Africa. 

Africa: Part 10 "Church Like I've Never Seen"

School room where we had Sunday school

Sunday!  I know a lot of us had been waiting for a day of worship for a while now. Our days had been so busy there was little time to debrief as a team and devotionals were almost nonexistent.  We started today with a wonderful breakfast and then headed off in groups to teach Sunday school before church.  Sunday school and church were open to the community, which is almost exclusively Muslim, so we were excited to see who would show up today.

I was with the teenage group and we were teaching the same "Gold" message we had brought to each group we ministered to along the trip.  The group was mostly boys and from their facial expressions seemed very uninterested in what we had to say... until we asked them to share.  These boys heard our message loud and clear and were more honest about their feelings than our other groups.  To hear them talk about how it makes them sad that nobody knows the real them was heartbreaking and also a universal feeling here in Africa and all over my local high school back home.  I could tell by the answers they were giving they are getting a solid biblical education at Canaan's and for that I was grateful.

After Sunday school we headed over to church and settled in.  As with everywhere we went, we sat in the plastic chairs up front with the wooden benches lined up behind us. I was in the last row of chairs before the benches started and the room was packed so there was almost no space between the ladies sitting behind me and my chair.  As the worship started we rose to sing and dance with the crowd.  The only problem was we didn't know any of the songs.  I was a little sad because I was ready to sing and found it hard to join in, but to watch the room worship with such zeal was awesome.  It went on and on, and as we neared the middle of the worship time I started to hear some commotion behind me.  I didn't want to be rude so I didn't look for quite a while.  Soon it became too much for me not to look as someone started kicking my chair.  When I turned around, I was surprised to see a woman thrashing on the floor yelling and screaming.  There were about five other women trying to contain her, but she was strong.  I had never seen for my own eyes anyone that was possesed, but I was pretty sure that was the case and after speaking to the pastor later that day at lunch I found this to be true.  As the women were lifting her by her limbs to carry her outside, she turned to me and began spitting on the back of my head.  Well, that was something new.  I've been spit up on in church before, but never spit on... and certainly not by someone who is possesed.  I'm not going to lie, it freaked me out a bit.  I found out later that she was carried outside where they performed an exersisim of sorts and now the woman is okay.

 This church was full of new experiences for me today.  Watching the hearts pouring out during worship was moving, and the way they take offerings was interesting.  There were a few offerings taken and with each one they would ask members (not us guests) to bring the offering forward.  If they didn't have it with them, they could run home now and get it, there was time... this process took a while.  If they didn't want to go home, they could come up and sign a paper saying they would bring it back later.  I liked the way they gave every opportunity to tithe.  There would be no excuses today other than not wanting to give anything.

Pastor Isaac 

Pastor Issac, who's life story could be a book and probably should be, gave a message about bringing all of us together (the American's and his congregation).  I liked how he call all of us out on our stuff.  He called the Americans out for being, well... Americans, and he called his people out for sometimes viewing foreigners coming in as nothing more than money.  After this time he gave us to *ehem* humble ourselves, he asked our three men to come and "preach".  The first guy to get up is a teenager who just graduated high school, but he has seen more life than a lot of us.  He spoke beautiful truth about how God loved him through all the years he walked so far away from Him.  The next man that got up spoke from personal experience about how it's never too late to come to know Jesus.  He was a man who strayed from his family and divorced his wife.  After finding God, he came back to his family and remarried his wife... a powerful message to this community and to our own communities back home.  The last man from our team to get up was a man I had admired this whole trip.  He and his wife had been a constant bright energy every single moment of the trip.  I had seen him be humble and kind to everyone on the team, play soccer with the boys until he might collaps, and always knew the names of the people carrying our bags or dishing up watermellon.  I was not prepared for the Greg I was about to see on the pulpet.

Greg stepped up on the stage and I was prepared to hear another testomony, but that is not the message God had for him to share today.  He continued along with Pastor Issac's message about coming together as one group in the eyes of God.  In the middle of sharing scripture and preaching God lead him to abandon his message and he asked us all to stand and pray for one another.  With in minutes, he had us push chairs and benches aside and called whom ever needed prayer to come forward and find one of our team members so we could pray for them.  Now, had this been day 1-5 I would have been nervous and wanting to run out of the room to avoid something like this because it was not comfortable, but it was day 11 and I was more flexible now to go where the spirit was leading.  The first few women that came to me, I laid hands on them and prayed as best I knew how.  My prayers were not fancy or even well constructed, but they were honest.  As the time was wrapping up, a teenage girl pushed through the crowd and fell into my arms.  At that exact moment, I kid you not, I literally felt her pain as if it were my own.  Imediately I burst into tears blubbering some sort of pray that was probably half sentences because this pain was so intense. I have no idea how long we were together because all sense of time was lost in that moment. We embraced and cried until our time was up.  That prayer for her was probably the purest time of prayer I have ever had.  I have never cried out like that before and never been so sure I was being heard.

Church wrapped up and we headed to lunch before our group was going on a Nile boat tour.  I will add a few picture of that because it was beautiful, but it was just a bit of sight seeing and not as interesting as the other stuff we were doing.  We went to the source of the Nile, that was neat, and then had another 18 hour long dinner.  Okay, it wasn't actually 18 hours, but in an African resturant it just seems that way.  There is no order to how your order is taken or delivered.  You could order and wait 45 minutes for some food to start arriving and people could be done with their dessert before your dinner has even made it's way infront of you.  The last person to order might even get their food first. Not my favorite part of Africa :)

As we made our way back to Canaan's, I still couldn't get my mind off the spit that had sprayed the back of my head that morning and without proper showers was probably mostly still in there.  While talking with my leader, what I knew to be true in my heart was reiterated in prayer for me.  While this was something new for me, it had no more power than I was willing to give it.  So that night as I lay in my bed, my prayers took away all power that experience had to scare me.  Another peaceful nights sleep in Africa. 

Africa: Part 9 "First Night at Canaan's"

Evelyn in blue

 The evening after our home visits with Return Ministries, we loaded onto our bus driven by Abus and headed to Jinja where Canaan's Children's Home is.  We still had two more ministries to meet, but this was to be our last place to settle in and call home. This had been the place our teammates that had been on previous trips had talked about since day one and to be honest that was the reason I wasn't as excited about it.  I guess my YL camp advice about not talking so much about previous trips was true.  It deflated the balloon for a lot of us on the trip to hear about Canaan's from day one as we were all trying to stay present and take in each day as it came.  Never the less, we arrived in the evening after a long day and were met by warm friendly children while we settled in the best we could to our new home.   As with the other places, the children chose their people as soon as we stepped off the bus.  I was chosen by two older girls but only Evelyn stayed with me the whole time.

 It's a good thing this was the end of our trip and we had seen a lot and were pretty much exhausted because it really was the toughest place to stay.  The accommodations would have seemed much more unreasonable if I was not so drained.  Health-wise I was feeling better at this point and now the exhaustion was settling in.  The things that would have made me cry if it had been the first day simply didn't phase me and looking back that is a miracle in itself.  The bathrooms were located in the back of the little house we stayed in, never had hot water, and there was no electricity in them.  Each stall had a "shower," toilet, and sink, but since the showers were actually just a spray head into a small basin with no curtain they left water all over the dirty cement floor and Mama Rebecca insisted we not wear shoes in the house.  Sigh... at this point I didn't care about dirty feet.  I hadn't felt clean since we entered Uganda and knew now that was a dream that could only be fulfilled once I was home again.  My roommate and I did luck out with the best room seeing as another rooms had some sort of snail creature growing on the wall and the teens had about 1 billion gnats and mosquitoes die over night in their room. NO JOKE, they had to get a broom to sweep them away and be able to see the floor... they COVERED everything.  Here's the thing I had realized by now though, the people who put us up here were giving us the very best of what they have.  None of the people we were serving, including the couple running the children's home, lived in such luxury as we were bunking in for the next few nights.  For this reason, I stayed grateful for my bed and didn't look around in dark corners for things I didn't want to see.

Back hallway to bathrooms

Path between our house and dinning hall

Beyond the conditions of our living area, this was emotionally the hardest place to stay.  On the other days, we would minister to a group and then go back to our guest house to rest up before the next day.  At Canaan's we stayed right on sight at the home.  We were awaken with the children singing outside our house and when you opened the door there were no shortage of children sitting and waiting for you.  Often after a meal or in the morning I would walk outside and find Evelyn waiting for me.  I would feel guilty for taking so long eating, texting with Neil in the dinning hall, or taking my time getting ready in the morning after seeing her waiting patiently for me.  I was exhausted after these days and found it very difficult to give of every moment I was not eating or sleeping.  You could tell who the very strong team members were or the ones that had been waiting the whole trip to be here because they would be up very late playing outside with the children and would rise early to go join them again.  I am a bit ashamed to say I was not among this crowd.  Much of me wanted to be, but I was conserving energy at this point and selfishly I was missing home and Ethiopia a bit.  I spent some free time looking through pictures, journaling, and starting to pack for home.  Poor Evelyn, I wondered if she regretted picking me that first day.

All of our shoes by the front door 

Going to bed that night, I was looking forward to a bit of an easier day ahead of us.  Tomorrow was Sunday and we would have church and our Nile Boat tour the next day.  It probably would have felt like a sabbath if we were staying anywhere else, but it was what it was.  I had no idea the morning that I was in for!