It's Sunday morning, the 15th of July, and we're approaching the midpoint of our experience here in Uganda. We're waiting to find out what is happening for church this morning, and waiting is a common theme for us here. We can't drive, so we are dependent on others to get around. This is not a problem really, but so different from home where all three of us have licenses, we have two cars, and can get around our entire town in 10 minutes.
Speaking of waiting, yesterday, one of the staff at the children's home got a call from Joseph to tell us that David (Joseph's brother and right hand man) would be picking us up at noon to go to a boarding school where four of Agape's high schoolers are currently enrolled. We immediately went back to the house for an early lunch. Noon came and went, as did 1:00, and 1:30. At 2:00 the van arrived. Isaac was driving, but there was no David. We still had to cross town and pick him up, get gas and change a tire. When we finally picked up David, he was joined by Monica, a high school girl who still lives at the house.
Finally we were on the road, slowly making our way out of the city of Kampala. I noticed that there are virtually no traffic lights in this city of over a million people. We encountered one in the capital district and that's all we saw. Yet the traffic seems to follow agreed upon rules of yielding one at a time at intersections...except for the motorcycles, whose only rule seems to be the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.
Upon leaving the city, the countryside was beautiful. Rolling hills and, had it not been developed into farmland, it would be easy to see that this was once jungle: very green and plush. The school is set very far back or a rugged dirt road in what I think the locals call a village. Here we saw homes of brick, cement block, and even some of mud. We saw many children waiting at pumps to lug water home. Goats and chickens roamed freely, and for the first time in my life, I saw papyrus growing wild. It looks like huge (7 or 8 feet high) dandelions gone to seed, except the puffy part on top does not blow off in the breeze.
We arrived at the school and met the teens from Agape. One was Monica's sister, which is why she was on this visit with us. David had brought a meal that we all shared in one of the classrooms. It has been five years since our oldest daughter had served at Agape, but they all remembered her with fondness and laughter.
The school, whose name I do not remember right now, has over 150 teens. We met the pastor, administrator and some of the teachers including a very friendly geography teacher names James. The classrooms are simple cement block, with wooden benches and narrow wooden writing surfaces. Think "Anne of Green Gables". There is a chalkboard at the front and little else. The kids tell us their classes consist of taking lots and lots of notes.
The grounds themselves are beautiful, with a spectacular view, a soccer (football) pitch and, among other vegetation, plenty of banana plants. When the kids showed us around, we saw the dorms. There is one room for the girls and one for the guys. That's it. 75 or more of each gender, and they all live in one room chock full of bunk beds.
After our tour, we were invited to do a show. We didn't know if this was going to happen, but I'm glad it did. The entire school, staff, and many parents- we learned it was parents weekend, which is why we were able to visit- assembled on the soccer field and waited until we were set up. I can honestly say I believe them to be the best audience I have ever performed for in my 42 years of juggling. They were so enthusiastic and we had a lot of fun. I told them that I also teach in a Christian school, and I know they are learning a lot about Jesus, but there is a difference between knowing the stories and truly believing and trusting the Lord with their lives.
I think we went long, or at least our late arrival caused us to go late, because there was not much time to visit again after the show. But we did get to say good-bye to the students we specifically came to visit, got back into the van and returned to Kampala.
And now it is Sunday morning, and we are waiting to find out what is happening about going to church.