 |
| This is a typical sunrise from our veranda. You can see the skyline of the factories that have been built on the hill. |
Today we are in the middle of a three-week holiday break between Term One and Term Two. The past month has been full of activities surrounding Easter week and the end of the term. At the same time, this month has been very typical, consisting of the normal events that we simply accept as routine. In order to give you a taste of what now passes as "ho-hum normal" around here, we thought we would give you a few snapshots of what has happened since our last post.
On Wednesday night before Easter, we had eight of the girls present “cardboard testimonies,” in which each girl walked silently across the veranda holding a piece of paper that on one side described a character trait of their “old self” and on the other side described how that trait had been changed through their new life in Christ. Sandra and Biti chose eight girls, two from each room to present. Everyone we asked said yes and was delighted to keep the presentation a secret from the other house members so that no one knew what was to occur until they actually walked out holding the descriptions. We played the song Amazing Grace as they walked across the veranda. Sandra told all the other girls to remain silent and simply read the descriptions. The activity moved all of the girls. The next morning, there were many conversations about the performance and the changes the girls recognize in their lives as a result of their faith in Christ. Biti took a video of the girls showing their descriptions. Unfortunately, it's a bit out of focus, but we posted it on our youtube channel in case you want to get an idea of how it looked.
Click here to see the video
On Easter Sunday, we had a scavenger hunt for items that would be typically found in “resurrection eggs,” which tell us the story of Jesus’s death and resurrection. Each room had to work together to follow clues that led them to the eight items hidden around Ruth House. After all the items were found, the rooms had to put the items in proper chronological order, using verses in their Bibles (Matthew 21-27) as a guide. It was not a race as everyone received at the end a piece of bread shaped into an “empty tomb,” which was a hollowed out bun with the end sliced so that it could be “opened.” The girls loved hunting for the clues and read the verses very diligently to place the items in the correct order. The one question that was repeatedly asked at the end was, “When can we do this again?”
To help with studying for end-of-term exams (they have 14 subjects!), we received large whiteboards that could be used for group study sessions. We loved watching and listening to our girls teach each other on the veranda using the new white boards. We especially enjoyed listening to Gladys, the second-youngest member of Ruth House, who aspires to be a dentist. She is a quiet girl in groups, but in small settings she is very loud and has a hilarious sense of humor. She also possesses some serious teaching skills. Her voice, her patience, her thoroughness. She gave clear instructions and asked direct questions. All the Ruth House girls listened to her!
 |
| Some girls using the white board to study for exams. |
On the Saturday after exams ended (April 27), which was the last weekend before the girls went home for the holiday break, we were given free time during the morning. So, instead of doing campus chores, which is the usual Saturday morning task, we were able to schedule a fun activity with the house. Just to the west of the school is this great hill that has an amazing view of the surrounding area, including Lake Victoria. For fun, all of us went on a walk up the hill. Knowing that we were going on this hike, a few of our social butterflies asked three of our Western teachers to join us. In addition, Amy, one of our Student Life staff workers, joined us in hiking, taking pictures, praying, and worshipping. We had a great morning to take in the beauty of Uganda.
 |
| Here we are at the top of the hill. |
Click here to see the snake at Mary House
The next night, when we were returning from Wednesday night worship at the Chapel, we found a similar snake at Ruth House. With some imagination, it is not too hard to picture the scene that occurred once the snake was discovered. Sandra was standing next to a girl. The girl said, "There's a snake." She pointed to the corner where the water faucet is. Other girls heard, looked, and saw. Upon seeing, the girls screamed. At the top of their lungs. They jumped on top of chairs and tables. Girls who had gone into their rooms came out to see what horrible event was happening. They joined in the screaming, running, and climbing. We think the screams were so loud that our neighboring country of Kenya called to see what was going on at the Ruth House! Amidst the screaming and jumping and climbing onto chairs, tables and each other, two girls, Kagoya Sharon and Nagudi Rose, calmly grabbed some large rocks and proceeded to pelt the unwelcome invader by throwing the rocks at it until it was smashed to smithereens. It is often mentioned that living at Amazima is so amazing because here the Bible comes to life. And sure enough, that night we were able to get a graphic picture of the Bible coming to life. Acts 7: The Stoning of Stephen.
Every week we leave campus go into the nearby town of Jinja to get groceries, cash, run errands. Just the normal stuff everyone has to do. In order to park on the streets in Jinja, you have to have a parking sticker, which costs about $11.00 a month (40,000 UGX). Jinja has hired many parking attendants to work all the streets, checking for parking stickers. To the unwary westerner, the whole thing smacks as a big scam. Parking attendants are constantly approaching the westerners, challenging whether they have a sticker, and threatening to write them a ticket. The goal of the attendants is to scare the westerner into giving them a small bribe, which they openly suggest and ask for, in lieu of getting a ticket.
For the past year, we have felt very fortunate to find a trustworthy Ugandan parking attendant named Perez. He has helped us and many other western mentors at Amazima obtain their parking stickers and fend off any attendants who try to hassle us. We have received so much help from Perez that this past January we introduced him to all of the new western house mentors as the "go-to guy" for all their parking sticker needs. Perez is very friendly and welcoming. He knows us. He knows our car. Whenever we come into Jinja, we always see Perez, with his smiling face and square-rimmed glasses.
This term did we did the normal thing with Perez. In February, when we bought our car, we went straight to him, told him we wanted a three-month parking sticker, and gave him the 120,000 UGX to pay for it. Perez did his normal thing. He went down the street to get our sticker while we got our groceries. When we were finished, Perez was there waiting for us, with our sticker. He helped us put it in the right spot in the windshield. For his trouble, we tipped him 10,000 UGX (about $2.60). Using the sticker, we have parked on many streets throughout Jinja. On a few occasions, an attendant has approached us and attempted to give us a ticket. We have diligently responded to each such attendant by telling them we should not get a ticket, we point to our sticker, and we tell them they need to talk to Perez. On these few occasions the attendants have gone away with smiles on their faces without giving us tickets. Denny interpreted the smiles as recognition that we caught them trying to scam us.
Well, the last few weeks we have not seen Perez anywhere in Jinja. We have wondered about this because our parking sticker expired on May 15 and we wanted him to get a new one for us. As it turns out, Perez has been unavailable because he is in jail. Apparently, he was not quite so trust-worthy after all. We learned that he has been part of a large parking sticker scam. Perez, and many other parking attendants, have actively solicited westerners to purchase stickers. Rather than buying valid stickers issued by the Jinja Municipal Council, however, they pocketed the fee and gave the westerners forged stickers that were printed at one of the local shops. Here is a picture of the two different stickers:
 |
| The top sticker is the one that Perez gave to us. The bottom sticker is the valid one printed by the Municipal Council |
Comments
Post a Comment