Family, Friends, Travel and Lions

I feel awkward sometimes writing updates like this. The past month has reinforced the already present feeling of being on vacation more then being at work.  It has been wonderful and we have seen the country and made connections and met people. I keep saying this, but we are still in transition and I feel that it’s legitimate to use that line for about another week before it becomes a cop-out. 

Anyway, my feelings aside and for the sake of transparency (and maybe to entice more of you to come visit us!) here’s the run-down of our latest month long adventure.

Benj and Izaac at the Source

Bringing bubbles and a ball to play at Welcome Home

On March 1st Christina’s mom and sister arrived and we spent a few days doing some of the tourist stuff around Jinja. We took a boat ride on the Nile and visited “the source” where the longest river in the world originates ands its waters that sustain and even define the lives of millions begin their long journey north. We went swimming and took walks and ate at great local restaurants and enjoyed with them this town we now call home. Just a few days after their arrival we all loaded up and headed to a place that ranks right near the top of my list of favorite places on earth. In the foothills of mount Elgon, near the Kenyan border, there is a river with a series of waterfalls that is beautiful and mostly undeveloped and feels to me like close to what Eden was like. We spent two days hiking, climbing and exploring. We spent a night in tents, lulled by the sound of the falls. 

Sisiyi Falls

Hiking to Sipi Falls 

At this point our group split up, with Ruudy, Beckie, Sarah (Ruudy’s niece who lives with them) mom, and Meredith heading on to Soroti and us, after spending an extra night on the mountain fixing car problems, heading back to Jinja and then onto Entebbe to pick up our next group of visitors. Christina’s best friend Anna, her brother Joe, and our good friend Allison from PA arrived a day late due to their plane catching on fire on the runway in Brussels, and then spent an extra two hours in the airport in Entebbe trying to track down missing luggage that they were transporting for us. After that somewhat rough start to their visit, we spent 2 days in and around Entebbe. We went to the zoo and spent time in the botanical gardens and got chased around by monkeys and played soccer in the park and tried to get over some stomach issues. It was then time to say good-bye to mom and Meredith and head back to Jinja to do some of that tourist stuff again with this new group. 

Don't you just want to give him a big hug!

Nile Crocodile (we got much closer then this!)

About a week into their visit, we hit the road. This time the itinerary included the falls again then on to Soroti for a night where we linked up with my sister, Jennifer, Ruddy, Beckie, Sarah and Goretty (a young lady who lives with us and helps us in Jinja). From there we left Soroti early in the morning to drive across the country to Murchison Falls National Park. Almost immediately upon entering the park we were surrounded by gazelle, Ugandan Cob, Hartebeest, and waterbuck. We soon saw warthog, water buffalo and a family of giraffe right next to the road. Later in the day we picked up a guide who took us to a place where a pride of lions was spending the heat of the day in the shade of some bushes off the path. We spent nearly an hour about 2 meters away from these majestic beasts. After reluctantly leaving the lions, we traveled down to the shore of lake Albert and saw some hippos. We had to leave the park at dark and slept briefly at a lodge nearby. In the morning we drove down to the river and took a boat upstream to see the falls that are the namesake of the park. This is a point in the river where a massive amount of water passes through a seven-meter gap in the rock. It’s really quite a sight. On the way up and back we saw a ton of hippos, got uncomfortably close to some very large Nile crocodiles, and more variety of birds then I can even remember.    

Definitely not a fan of these guys

Murchison Falls (this picture does not do it justice)

It was then time to leave the park. The plan was originally to head from there to Entebbe to drop off Joe so he could catch his flight home, but because of the events in Brussels, his flight was cancelled and rescheduled through another airline a day later. So we split up again, with our visitors going to Kampala with Jennifer and us coming home to Jinja. 

That now brings us to today. We broke bread together with family and reflected on the last supper of our Lord and now we wait in eager expectation to celebrate His resurrection, the reason for our hope, the purpose behind our love and service, the very act that allowed us to be adopted as sons and daughters and to be in relationship with our Father! 

So here is my conclusion in light of this season: we experience all these things, these life-giving relationships with family and friends, these adventures of travel and experience, of waterfalls and loins, through the lens of relationship with the One who crafted them. He designed and authored them and gave them as gifts to us, us, His children, His beloved, the joy of His heart, and the objects of His desire. And we can experience them as gifts, as small demonstrations of His unimaginable love for us because we have been brought into a place where we are called His children, where we can know Him as Father because of Jesus, who died on a Friday and was alive again on a Sunday!       

Grace and Peace to you, in His name and because of His unfathomable love!

Happy Easter!

Benj, Christina, Izaac & Ellie

Our House!

Izaac’s Thoughts

1.     I love when visitors come!!

2.     I really want to build a tree house in our mango tree

3.     I love to play with Caleb.

4.     I like to run around in our yard!

5.     I like to climb our avocado tree!

6.     I like to play games in the house! (Thanks Miss Jen for Five Crowns Junior!!)

About my future tree house

1.     I am going to put my tree house in our mango tree

2.     I want to put a bed in it!

3.     I want to put toys in my tree house

4.     I want to put fruit in my tree house maybe.

5.     I want to make a rope ladder so nobody can get up when I pull it up.

6.     I want to put a little door so no one can get in.

Ellie’s Thoughts

I love my Daddy

I love Anna

I love my Naomi friend!

I like this house

I like my room.

I don’t like taking cold showers only hot showers.

I like to go to Welcome Home to play with the kids and the trampoline!

Since the kids wrote about the house I guess I will too!!

August 24^th, 2015 was the last time we had our own space/house as just the four of us! I know lots of people share space for a lot longer than 6 months and if I had too, I could continue sharing but oh man it is nice to be home.  February 4^th we move to Jinja and moved in with my sister. Then March 1^st we moved into our new house.  It isn’t large and it isn’t small but seems to be just the right size for right now.  God knew just what we needed just when we needed it. God is really good at that!  Our house has its pros and cons, as all houses do. In keeping with the list theme for this post, here’s mine of a few things I like and dislike:

1.     I love that the kids bedroom is right next to ours.

2.     I love that we have a bathroom connected to our room.

3.     I love that we have sit down toilets!

4.     I love that our house is right next to a little shop I can get most of the basic things like flour and sugar but also things like cold soda!

5.     I love that there is a chapatti shop right next to us too!

6.     I love my shower and the inline heater Benj put in!!

7.     I love having a pretty big compound that the kids can play and run around in.

8.     I love the Mango and Avocado trees we have! (we have already enjoyed many avocados!)

1.     I don’t like that there is a trash bin right outside our gate.

2.     I don’t like that the trash bin is always overflowing.

3.     I don’t like the large bugs that I keep finding in the house.

4.     I wish I had a few more rooms so visitors would have a bit more of their own space.

There are many more likes than dislikes but, above all, we’re just really grateful to have our own place to call home. There are always things to fix and things that break but luckily I have a very handy man for a husband so we got this!

God has been so good along this journey.  Can’t wait to see all He has in store for us!

Time

16 days. We’ve been here in Uganda now for 16 days. As Christina and I did the math we had a tough time believing it had only been about 2 weeks. Surely it’s been longer then that, right? I don’t really know why it’s felt so much longer.

(I promise this time-tracking thing won’t last much longer.)

We’ve found ourselves trying to adjust to the pace here. When walking with our new Ugandan friends, we find we have to keep adjusting our pace or we end up walking alone in front of our friends. Handshakes are expected to linger a little long and greetings are crucial and not a thing to be rushed and must be extended to everyone within a half mile radius.

Maybe all these things contribute to the sense of time progressing differently then we’re used too.

Ryszard Kapuscinski, a Polish journalist/author who wrote about his time reporting from Africa during the independence era reflected on this time paradox in a way that I find incredibly accurate. In his book The Shadow of the Sun he writes:

“In the European (westerner) worldview, time exists outside of man, exists objectively, and has measurable and linear characteristics. …The European feels himself to be time’s slave… An unresolved conflict exists between man and time, one that always ends with man’s defeat.

Africans apprehend time differently. For them it is a much looser concept, more open, elastic, subjective. …  for time is made manifest through events, and whether an event takes place or not depends, after all, on man alone…. In practical terms, this means that if you go to a village where a meeting is scheduled for the afternoon but find no one at the appointed spot, asking, ‘when will the meeting take place?’ makes no sense. You know the answer: ‘It will take place when people come.’ “

I would not presume to say that one view is better or more “right” then the other. I think that elements of both can be healthy when balanced, but it causes tension for us, as we strive to live in the midst of one paradigm while struggling with our own bias toward the other.   

Enough of the existential discourse on time though, here’s what we’ve been up too.

(I won’t bullet point it this time and since I guess nobody got my doomsday clock reference to stress levels in my first post, I’ll avoid that sort of thing too.)

Our first week and a half was spent in Jinja, which will be our home base for a while, and consisted of the necessary work of beginning to get established. We made some important connections with people and places we will get to know well like a good mechanic named Moses, a couple good “super” markets, and a possible church where we connected with a pastor named Mike and his wife, Charity. We also spent considerable time just getting to know our way around town and getting comfortable with normal tasks like grocery shopping, banking, and paying for parking.  

Last Monday we left Jinja and drove up to a smaller town called Soroti. This is where my sister, Jennifer lives and we have been staying with her, which has been good. The kids are having fun here. Jennifer has something of a make-shift petting zoo going on here with 5 rabbits, 2 guinea pigs, a family of ducks, bunch of chickens, a one-eyed cat and a little dog, all of which, I imagine, will not be too sad to see us go as they’ve gotten a lot more attention then they’re used too or could ever want. As for me, I’ve been grateful for a chance to get my hands dirty with some vehicle work and a bunch of repair projects for my sister and others in her community.

We’re here primarily to wait out the national elections which took place on the 18^th. Because Jinja is a large town with a greater population density, there is a greater chance that unrest would escalate more quickly. We decided to be safe and headed up here to wait and see how things go.

Up to this point, most of the disruption has been confined mostly to Kampala and has been unruly and violent at times but hasn’t spread too much and hasn’t really been anything unexpected. The results are supposed to be announced today and so, if things are going to heat up, it will most likely start this evening. We’ll keep you posted but if you’re interested in more details, here’s a good link:

We plan to be here in Soroti until next Sunday the 28^th when we head back to Jinja and from there, on to Entebbe to pick up Marybeth and Meredith, Christina’s mom and sister, and to start moving into our new house!

We are well and healthy and feeling more and more comfortable with each new day. We are excited to be here and are looking forward to getting into the “work” that the Lord has in store for us. We know that this is all part of the process, and each new step is important and we are seeking His will and His way with each new phase. 

I guess that’s enough (more then enough really) for now.  

Until next time, grace and peace,

                        -Benj

The Market

So we have been here for just over a week now. It seems like it has gone so fast. We have accomplished a lot and yet feels like nothing all at the same time. Benj or I have gone to town every day since our arrival at least one time if not more. We have a limit on how much money we can get out at the ATM every day so we have had to go get out the max everyday. We have also gone to a "supermarket" or two or the market almost every day. I am still getting use to the new way of doing things. I can't just run to Meijer and get everything I need (and then some). If one shop doesn't have what I need then I have to try to find one that does. I didn't realize how much I relied on my debit/credit card either. How easy it is to just slide the card and the things are paid for. Not only do you have to use paper money but it is in the thousands. I am still having a hard time figuring out my change or how much to pay. A coke costs 2500/= which is about $.73. The bills are 50,000 20,000 10,000 5,000 2,000 and 1,000 there are coins too, but I try to avoid them. 

Any way back to the market. Ellie likes going to town and I want to give her lots of opportunities to experience her new surroundings. Izaac doesn't like to leave the compound much but we keep praying he will feel more comfortable and confident with time.  Today I went with Beckie and Ellie to the market! It is very different then what we are use to in the states. Very crowded and lots of different smells. Ellie is sensitive to smells and plugged her nose on more than one occasion! I have told the kids they will be stared at and that maybe some people will touch their hair. (With Ellie's curls I don't blame them.) Today that happened. When we would pass people they would try to talk to her really close to her face. They would touch her arm or her hair. She did a great job. A few of them got her grumpy face but for the most part she would would do her shy smile and a little wave. You could tell she was getting tired of it towards the end though because she kept asking if we could go back to our house. I wish I would have taken pictures to post with this to give you a better idea but I did not this time. I will have to make sure it is ok to take them first and then I will post at a later date! Please feel free to contact us is you have any questions or things you are interested in learning about! Thanks for all your prayers! We can definitely feel them!

Izaac and Ellie's Thoughts

Izaac's Thoughts

1. I did not like the airplane food!
2. I love the pineapples!
3. We have a cat named Valentine!
4. I got to see my new house. I like to have my own room when my sister doesn't have to share with me.
5. We are going to have visitors coming soon. (Grammy, Aunt Murf, Anna, Miss Son, and Joe!)
6. I made a friend. His name is Caleb.
7. The cat hides really well in the bushes down stairs.
8. We have a big yard.
9. I want to make a tree house at our house.
10. I like to play outside.
11. I didn't like the airplane rides that much but I liked playing my kindle on the airplane! The airplane was KLM.
12. I like living in Uganda!
13. It is really fun to make new friends.
14. It is fun to watch my sister dance in the living room.     Twirl Twirl
15. I miss camp and all my friends at camp!
16. I like to play with the cat!
17. I miss the swimming pool at camp!
18. I don't like the mosquito nets but I know they keep me safe.

Ellie's Thoughts

1. I don't like the cat (3se) 
2. It is very hot here in Uganda
3. I like living in Uganda
4. I like going to town.
5. I love mommy!
6. It will get darker outside.
7. I love my friends!
8. I love my Naomi friend!
9. I love our bed and I like our house.
10. I like to kill the mosquitos.
11. I like going to Uganda (moc)
12. I like eating watermelon every single day!

I just typed what they told me! I hope you enjoy. The letters and such in the () are letters she told me to type after the words!

Post Number 2 From Uganda

Don't get too used to these posts every other day. Though we do want to try to be on here consistently, I feel pretty confident in saying that it won't be long before we are struggling to maintain posting once a week.

Anyway, two things to comment on today...

First, I'm going to take this opportunity to be one of those people and brag on my amazing kids for a little while. If we were to put down a list of what we just put our children through in the past week or so, a number of official agencies would most likely start investigations. (If I was going to make that list it would include stuff like sleep deprivation, long periods of being strapped into horribly uncomfortable positions in confined spaces, mandatory forced relocation and other such things that I'm pretty sure are out-lawed under the Geneva convention as war crimes.) Despite all of this, they have done so well. They have been patient and adaptable. They have stepped out of everything that is comfortable and familiar and faced the unknown with confidence and boldness beyond their years and I couldn't be more proud! A huge thanks to all who have been praying specifically for Izaac and Ellie. There will be tough days ahead and a lot of a adjustment still to come, so please keep praying, but they have handled all of this like champs so far!

Next, we had a really productive day (which means something a little different here) and accomplished a couple important things in regards to the process of settling in here. We made our first trip into town without the aid of Ruudy and Beckie (We did bring my sister Jenifer, but I'm still counting this as an accomplishment since she's not very familiar with this city). Also, I successfully drove into and around and back out of town without being killed or maimed or anything. Important note, no one outside of my vehicle was killed or maimed either. Another big task checked off: getting new tires for our truck. Doesn't sound like a big deal, you say? Just run it down to Pepboy's, you say? Those days are past for us now. In brief, it took nearly 4 hours and 2 trips to 2 different banks. Last, but by far not least, we found a great house to rent at a really great price! We talked to a few people who painted a rather grim picture of our prospects so we set up a bunch of appointment to try to see a few different houses. As we were headed out to meet with the first guy, Ruudy got a call from a friend who had seen a house for rent close by, so we stopped by for a look, tracked down the owner while he was having lunch in town, went back to the house, looked it over, and made a deal! This was a another huge need that we felt uncertain about but a lot of people have been praying and, once again the Lord provided in a way that was beyond what we even expected!

 

Greetings from Uganda!!!

So we’ve finally arrived in our new home. For me (Benj), this has been a desire for the majority of my life. Then, after we got married, this was a thing that Christina and I would dream about together as we looked at our future and what we imagined it to be. We have worked toward it in fits and spurts for about the last 7 or 8 years and it became a reality in earnest about a year and a half ago. Since then we have been diligently working to reach where we are at this moment while I sit and write this. To think about this now it is overwhelming. Looking back over all these years, we can see all the experiences, relationships, trials and effort have lead to this, which is always how life works, but it is glaringly obvious sometimes more then others. And now from here we go forward, always forward, onto…

Before we go there though, here’s what the last 48 hours or so have taken us through…  

Wednesday, 9:05am EST: We receive an email informing us that our flight out of Chicago has been delayed due to “operational constraints”. This leaves us just less then one hour for our connection in Amsterdam. Stress level: 6 minutes to midnight

Wednesday, 10:10am EST: Grandma and Grandpa, Grammy, Benj and Christina and the kids load the church van and depart Grand Rapids en route for Chicago. Stress level remains consistent

Wednesday, 12:14pm CST: Stop at Chic-fil-a, good lunch enjoyed by all. Stress level: 10 minutes to midnight

Wednesday, 1:37pm CST: Arrive at the airport, unload luggage and pay approx. $150.00 for carts to get it inside (what’s the deal with that?) Stress level: 7 minutes to midnight.

Wednesday, 1:48pm CST: Check in for flight. No one in line.  Luggage is weighed and tagged. A few are slightly over but grace is given and relief is felt. Stress level: 20 minutes to midnight.

Wednesday, 2:03pm CST: Luggage must now be taken to security check-in and scanned.  During check-in a couple of straps on the totes break, one tote is opened and searched and a brief interrogation ensues. Stress level: 3 minutes to midnight.

Wednesday, 2:28pm CST: Luggage is cleared and taken back. Again, relief abounds. Stress level: 30 minutes to midnight

Wednesday, 3:06pm CST: Time arrives to say good-bye. Hugs are shared, tears are shed and we head through security. Again, very short lines and quick progress through and the sudden realization that we now have almost 3 hours to wait.

Wednesday, 5:3?pm CST: After walking the length of the airport a few times, exploring all the shops, and being generally restless, boarding begins. The kids are a bit nervous, and feeling restless already, but we’re excited to be on the move again.

Wednesday, 6ish pm CST: We are settled in our seats, headphones and kindles are out and ready, and take off is imminent. Suddenly sedentary, the reality of what is happening finally begins to sink in, queasiness and heart palpitations begin and will last until… well they haven’t really stopped yet. Stress level: 4 minutes to midnight.  

Wednesday, no… maybe Thursday, 7:55 perhaps, AM I think. Touch down in Amsterdam. Run the 8 miles from gate G3 to gate F9 with 2 kids who hardly slept at all on the flight. Arrive with enough time to use the bathroom and then straight onto the plane, back into the seats, headphones, games, pillows and blankets all back out.

…sometime in February: Land in Uganda, kids finally fell asleep shortly before landing, had to wake them up, didn’t go well, de-plane with twice as many carry-ons (maybe it just seemed like it) and 2 zombies that used to be our children.

… I think… maybe it’s… 2016: Got through the airport with almost no problem.  Collected all of our luggage and got some help moving it all through customs. Loaded it onto Ruddy and Beckie’s van. Headed out on the 20 minute drive to our destination for the night. Stress level: unknown do to exhaustion

…don’t know…time or place… brain won’t function: arrived at our destination, the home of some friends of Ruddy, found a mattress, went to sleep.

Friday, 9:30am UTC+3: everyone slept decently and awoke relatively refreshed, had tea and left for our next temporary home in Jinja. The ride went well, we made a number of quick stops including one for lunch. Hit the road again and everyone is beginning to feel tired again. However, only one fell asleep in the truck.

Friday, 4:00pm UTC+3, Arrived at Beckie & Ruddy’s place, where we’ll be staying for a while, unpacked and began to settle in. We’re all relieved to be done traveling for a little while. We’re also all ready to sleep again. Stress level: back to manageable levels for the time being!