ZANZIBAR

Zanzibar!!!! Here I am!!!! I can’t believe how amazing and beautiful it is here… wait a minute, your probably thinking how and when and why did I get here… let me explain!
I was really hoping for a mental health holiday but didn’t have the funds for it… so I prayed and seriously God heard my prayers and money was sent…so, here I am! Why not go at Christmas time you ask… well jess’ visa was expiring on Dec. 6th so we needed to travel before that, so we went now. I can’t believe it, really I can’t. We traveled by bus, 30-hours… it was crazy, at times we were only driving 5-10mph because the roads were so bad the bus would have fallen apart if we had gone any faster along the dirt roads… we traveled through Uganda, to Kenya into Tanzania… Tanzania has such a beautiful countryside and people! As soon as we crossed the boarder we saw people like in the national geographic, I tried to catch a picture as the bus drove quickly by but was unsuccessful (yes, you can say I have turned into a total tourist for 2-weeks.) but the men and women were beautiful. They had complete native attire. Women with 5-6 piercing through their ears with cow-bones stuck through… men and women all wearing wraps, kind of like dresses but the men had these capes on also. The men and young boys all carried walking sticks, or canes with them everywhere. I even saw a man dressed like this ridding a bicycle …I wish I had a picture. The whole ride was amazing and beautiful. Tanzania’s has some beautiful mountains,…ahhhh I really can’t believe I am here, it is absolutely amazing. We traveled by a speedy boat across the Indian Ocean to Zanzibar. I couldn’t believe how fast this boat traveled after the boats I have been ridding, it was like a space shuttle :) We are staying in Stone Towne for 2-nights and then will get a bungalow on a beach for a few nights! Stone-Towne is incredible, I feel as though I am traveling through Italy or somewhere in Europe. All buildings are huge and made out of, you guessed it… stones… ;) it is so amazing, okay I am really trying to stop smiling at this silly computer, someone might get the wrong idea :) oh yeah, and Janet, the food you sent was perfect for traveling 30-hours, I loved the rice-cracker things (wasabii ones), we have even saved some for the way home!!! Thank you so much!!! I didn’t realize how much I needed a break until now, I even ordered two cappuccino frappies at dinner tonight!!! I can’t believe I did it, but now I am laughing. I love you all and am so so so thankful right now! Wow, I am on a real holiday!

it's dancing time!!!

Anyone want to rejoice with me and dance naked in the streets … wait King David didn’t dance naked but in his undies…. So what do you say ? That’s what I felt like after the long miracle filled day in kampala…. My joy fully restored and a new sense of God’s mighty hand working in my life.

I hope I remember all the ways in which God provided…. So here is goes, my friend, Adam, from the mainland was traveling to Kampala today and offered me a ride. He was already going to kampala because he helps manage at the source café which sells coffee and one of the places they distribute coffee was the airport….anyways so we are traveling about 20 minutes outside of jinja and the road is completely blocked. Large trailers, semis, oil tankers were all backed up for miles… Adam kept driving through until we couldn’t go anymore. We got out of the vehicle and talked with the police which said this would not be cleared for hours. He suggested we follow some of the smaller public taxis (when traveling to kampala I always take the big-taxi’s because I feel safer… I don’t think I would have made it to kampala if it wasn’t for adams offer) that are taking a back road (not anything like our back roads…. J ) so off we went, and found our way back to the main road after a long detour. Than he dropped me at immigration and in I went. I ended up speaking briefly with a man on the Board of Governors for the immigration office and he told me that things may be changing concerning the price for volunteers, but said I just need to wait. Than I went in and talked with the secretaries that actually do the passport stamping. I told them my situation and they advised me to write a letter and submit it to the commissioner (the big boss). So off I went to the heart of busy kampala, I got a bodda bodda to the internet café to type a letter to the commissioner (by the way I love bodd’s in kampala… it’s a real adventure!). I finished the letter and back I came to the immigration office, I waited sometime for the office to open back up because the whole place closes for lunch until 2pm. Than when the office opened, I went back to where I was and showed the letter to one of the secretaries and she took me to the office of the commissioner… who wasn’t there and the commissioners secretary didn’t even know if she was coming back today …(think about it, Friday afternoon… I wouldn’t want to come back J ). So I sat. I didn’t know what to do. Should I try and schedule a meeting and just come back on Monday? Should I wait here until 4, when the office closes? I just sat and prayed…and prayed….. and than this fiery women walked in and I thought this must be her. She started addressing the people on the benches outside of her office and telling them they can’t wait there, and than looked at me and said what are you waiting for…. Let me tell you I was shaking in my boots…. I took a deep breath and started to explain; she cut me off and said go get the lady who told you to be here… I went back up to the secretaries that advised me earlier. The original secretary didn’t want to go with me into the commissioners office (I wonder why J ) and said ‘you wait for this other lady to come back to go with you’ … when this lady finally came, she didn’t want to go with me either (honestly, I think they feared the commissioner) so she passed me to a gentleman that was in the office that I had never spoken with. Down we went to the commissioner’s office, but he asked me to stay outside for the first while. Later he called me in and all I said was thank you madam for seeing me… (they never had name tags/plates) … she wasn’t even looking at me, she was just reading the letter I had written (the letter was just explaining my situation and asking for advice on what to do.) so finally she finished reading the letter and she started to soften… thank you jesus… although neither me or the man where saying much… but she started asking the man what to do… she had never seen a case come through like this and was asking him if this was common... he said it was starting to be…. But I could tell she wanted to help me… the two of them talked for awhile about what to do…finally they decided… she took my work permit, ripped it up and said we wont need this right now… she just changed the current expiration date on my visa to the 21^st of December and than is giving me a 2-month extension… so until feb. 21^st. and than she is hoping by that time the price for volunteers work permit should be adjusted. So I still had to take a bodda-bodda and go back into the heart of the towne and go to the bank and pay the extension fee… she was telling me to hurry because the office was sonly closing. I raced out to the bank, paid the bill and I thought I was off…. only to find myself being asked to enter a huge line at the bank to obtain a receipt. The power had been on and off at the bank and the line wasn’t moving. I asked the teller, if there is anything she could do for me I had to get back to the immigration office. She placed me back with the manager and the manager had the receipt I needed within 5-minutes and off I was back to the immigration office. On the bodda-bodda ride back to the office I felt like I had just entered into the Lord of the Rings movie… because off in the distance there was a loud blow-horn…like mordici (what’s the bad place called?... sorry to disappoint you penny I know I should know every moment of the lord of the rings) … and It was like the enemy just knew he lost and he was making a last call…. but instead of fearing I just had peace. The battle was won and the enemy lost. God made things happen. The whole taxi home I was smiling and so thankful and excited. Obviously we need to continue to hold this in prayer because come February we may have some more obstacles. But lets rejoice!!!

The African Times........

The Funnies:
So I am sitting, well squatting, in the latrines… you know going to the bathroom!! well, I feel this wet drop on my arm and thought it must have just been water from the ceiling (its dark in the latrines so I couldn’t see what it was). Anyways I walked out of the latrine into the light only to see that either a small mouse, rat or lizard thing had pooped on my arm!!! I couldn’t believe it, and it wasn't a solid chunck this thing diaherated on my arm!!! So as I shared my horrific news with karina, a girl from the U.S. who’s heart is to stay permanently on the islands, she told me of an even worse story that happened to her. She was in the latrine and a rat (big one) fell on her head than slide down her body into the bottom of the latrine! Okay, suddenly I didn’t feel so bad!!! Than she proceeded to tell me that when the old latrine was almost full, she would often times have a rat peak its head up through the hole that you go into!!!!! And if that is not bad enough…. Okay, I can’t tell this next one, my mom reads these blogs! let me just tell you, I will never use a latrine that is almost full!!! Why is it that at times other peoples pain makes us feel better?


There is a time to laugh and a time to mourn…
After waiting an hour for the public taxi-bus to fill (4-people to a row with kids and luggage all on our laps… believe me these taxi-buses have the same width of a regular size car… but much less comfortable seats!), we headed off in the taxi bus on the way to the funeral of Uncle Samsong’s Mother; Me, Robert, pastor Moses, Uncle Shem, Uncle/Pastor Samsong’s wife and two Kids. Our vehicle soon came to a hault as the electrical wiring of the vehicle started smoking. We all jumped out as quickly as possible and obviously refused to get back in. We sat only for a few minutes before another vehicle came and we all boarded. I took Dora (age 3 or 4), Uncle Samsong’s daughter on my lap along with my bag. We were off for Mbale. Dora was quickly sleeping in my arms, Just over an hour I felt as though Dora has just messed her pants or at least something just happened down there!!! I told Robert, that I didn’t know what just happened but something happened, only to be sure of my next statement! “Dora just su-sued (peeed) all over me!!!!!” I couldn’t believe it! My legs are dripping with warm urine, Dora is still sleeping, the taxi of course is till driving on, and here I am with no where to go  so I just smiled and laughed, what else was I going to do?! Thirty minutes later the vehicle came to a stop, our tire is out of air! So we all get out again, on the side of the highway… my skirt soaking with urine, I find this half-built, non-inhabited hut, I went inside changed out of my skirt and put on a wrap that I had in my bag, that I had intended to use as a blanket for the night to sleep. We were off again to Mbale. We finally reached 3-hours or more later to a village deep inside of Mbale. It was beautiful; a huge mountain off in the distance, lush green-bushes everywhere. We walked down to Uncle Samsong’s home to find about 50+ men and women just beginning to enjoy a dinner feast. We had missed the actual burial by about 30 minutes, due to all of our delays. People seemed to be in fairly good spirits; as good as you can be when a loved one dies. I walked over to the grave and prayed for the woman and her family. Later, all the village kids kept smiling at me because of my white skin… I can only take so much fame :) so Robert and I walked around to see the land. On our way back I could hear this loud wailing off in the distance. What was that?! I asked Robert…. A woman, who had arrived late, had gone over to the grave and started wailing very loudly. This I find out is an African tradition, to wail loudly when someone dies and than immediately after you are done you go on like nothing happened. Traditionally when a parent dies, it is the oldest son’s responsibility to feed all family and visitors for one month, to sleep outside for the month, to shave your head, and not to have any relations with your wife if you have one. Many people still do it like this today, but times are changing. Uncle slept outside for the first night, he is in charge of feeding I think for about a week, and he will not shave his head (well maybe, but I was told some people don’t anymore). Following a talk from Pastor Moses, it was time for bed! The women gathered their mats, curled up together and slept for the night outside. Because I was a visitor, I was escorted into one of the mud huts. I got to sleep in a bed (honestly I was expecting the floor, I didn’t know, so I was so thankful!!!) with kids next to me on a mat. The whole day was quite an experience. And I learned a lot about the African culture (by the way pastor Moses gave me a blanket to sleep with!!! Thank you Jesus!

The heavy news:
The gov’t is refusing to budge on the $1000 on my work permit. I thought I would just cross the boarder and keep crossing the boarder until my time is up…. But since my permit is approved and they have enough technology at the boarder to check and see that I have been approved, this action is not advisable. So…. I am unexpectedly on the mainland right now, obviously because you are getting this blog entry, because of the funeral of one of the pastors mother. On my way to Mbale for the funeral, I received a phone call from the national office informing me that my plan to cross the boarder is not going to work. So here I am. I will be on the mainland, until I don’t know when, since my current visa is expiring soon, December 1st. Uncle Sam (he is the Ugandan national leader for YWAM… but he has taken a year sabbatical) is helping me to work on this. We have tentatively set for this Friday to go down to speak with the authorities in charge . So I am unsure of exactly when I will be heading back to the islands. So the authorities will tell me one of three things… give me an extension while I raise the money (pray for at least a 3-month extension), send me out of the country December 1st… was I really a math teacher because that is only two options!


I think you may know that my heart is to stay and finish this year…not because its some great and noble accomplishment but because I feel that is what God called me to. I’ve been brought to tears twice in the past day even thinking about leaving. And even typing this email my eyes are welling up. But I have to trust God. I have told myself regardless of what happens God has used me these past six-months and he has done much in my own life. I don’t know what God has intended for me right now… I do see closure for some things but at the same time I see new life. come Dec. 5th, teachers, students and even most of ywam will go home for the holidays….i wanted to take this time to confirm some things I felt God spoke to me concerning the next phase of my time here. I really felt like there were things he has planned. Time will tell.

thank you all who continue to check in on my life here! i love you.
mandy

Makere Universtiy

So I had the privilege of staying on campus at Makere University with two women. I spoke in the evening about prayer to a group of about 20 – all students that stay in the same hostel. The time of sharing was really great. And I learned a lot about student life in Uganda… I was impressed by their dedication to there studies. The girls I stayed with had a weekly schedule posted in their room. They wake up at 2:30am just to begin studying!!! Than they begin their daily routines at 5am… impressive. currently students at Makere University are on strike, because they are not being taught by the lecturers who were on strike first because they want a pay raise… so because the students were rioting early in the day, the law enforcement came in and have blocked off all campus roads and are monitoring everything very closely. Tear-gas has been brought …really the whole works because of this strike. It is so sad; it’s like what I learned about at UW-Madison in the 70’s. In one hostel some students were throwing soda-bottles at the officers so the officers tear-gassed the whole place; innocent students who were in their rooms were forced to run out only to be beaten by the law enforcement. The whole thing is so sad and disturbing.

Kampala

journal entry... walking through kampala and realizing the wealth - the western mindset/culture and how it is destroying God’s faithful here –how fast money, success… can bring us to trust in the money, trust in the good job, trust in ourselves… anything that keeps us from crying out to God for his mercy to keep us, care for us, watch over us. Wealth comes in and we forget about God –the dependency we should have on him alone – we start feeling comfortable and we get spiritually lazy –we no longer need to cry out to God on our knees – we no longer look to him for guidance –things seem to be okay with out God –ahhh what a tragedy. What a plan of the enemy to make us rich, do anything to keep us from crying out to God …its happening here in Africa – a poor nation, Uganda, once ruled by a terrible dictator Idi Amin, where people ran to God… now the nation is being rebuilt and people are getting comfortable again.. God you are restoring the brokenness that once was, and now because of the restoration people are trusting in their own wealth, good work, etc…. its becoming like the west, you God are becoming harder and harder to find.

News flash

Updates first….

• 
  Joy and David officially got married at 8pm the night of their wedding day! I forgot to tell you that the day we were traveling up to the wedding there were some friends we met along the way!! Baboons!!! And they come right up to the side of the road unafraid of all the cars passing by. Our vehicle slowed down to get some photos. I gave papa O some biscuits (we didn’t have any banana’s) to throw to them to entice them to come closer to the vehicle to get a better photo. When papa was trying to open the package the baboon seemed as though he was going to jump through the window to get the biscuits. Needless to say I jumped into the seat next to me and Papa O threw the treats out the window and the vehicle took off so the baboon didn’t jump through the window. You know we were laughing!!!!
• 
  
  School Housing! From the $2500 that came in is going to be used to construct teacher housing and student hostels using mudd huts… the intent is to eventually have brick/cement housing for the teachers but that cost is $22,000, and the head teacher was expressing at the BOG meeting that even if the teachers had mudd huts that would not only save money for the secondary school from paying rent but it would start bringing everyone together, into community, since now they are all separated though the camp. I asked during the meeting how much it would cost to construct the teachers unit, the pastor said about $2000, than I asked how much to construct both a teacher unit mudd hut and a student hostel… he said about $3000… but that it was possible that we could stretch $2500 and make it work for both. They are working out the budget this week since the money just arrived! This is great because this will keep our students safe by having them all together directly under the teachers care.
• 
  My stomach virus/bug has died!
• 
  The $150 that was sent will be used to send two orphan boys home to see their two other brothers and one sister near soroti, which they haven’t seen in almost 4-years. Also it will send a student home to see his family, which he hasn’t seen in almost two year! It may also provide a gift for each student! I was asking around what is something that really blesses someone during the holidays and they said a new outfit. So depending on these three boys needs, we may be able to provide for them a new outfit, which I am sure they haven’t received in years!!! Very exciting.
• 
  The secondary school created a school song from the mission statement we created last week! Exciting to see how things are coming together for the teachers.
  

New News…

• 
  So my visa problem has returned with full force! It seemed everything was smooth sailing…. Seemed that way! Well my work visa has been approved but because of new gov’t regulations that have just been implemented (seriously, I think I might be the first one they are trying to enforce this on) they want $1000 for the year. Robert from the national office who is working on my visa, is going back to the gov’t offices on Tuesday to request that I still fall under the old policy. If not, I requested him to get my passport back and I will start crossing the boarder every three months until my time is up…sounds like I am a convict..
• 
  I am going to speak in Kampala on Tuesday. I have been asked to speak at Makere University to a girls/boys hostel about prayer and fasting.
• 
  I am finishing teaching on the disciplines this next week in Discipleship class and will start to teach on relationships. I need wisdom with this because of the cultural differences!

okay, well that is the scoop. i love each of you. mandy