A day in the life of.....

Many people have asked us what our days are like here.  It's been a few years since I have blogged because I quit when Jesse got so good at it.  :-)  But I decided to write this out for some friends one day, and thought I would post it here in case anyone felt like reading it.  Grab a cup of coffee or tea and settle in for a bit!

As for a day in the life of - I can sort of give you an idea - but today is a slow day.    Right now we have two people renting our two apartments, and they come to dinner every night.  Last night they brought another missionary that is working with them because he lives in a different place and hasn't had anything to eat but bananas since he has been here (two weeks).  He came last night for a "home cooked meal" and couldn't stop eating.  He will be eating with us Tues - Fri nights of each week for the next month till his wife gets here. J  We also had three people stay the night with us in our house.  They work in Karamoja and were on their way to Kampala and then Entebbe today, but we are about the limit of their driving range, so they came to supper and stayed the night.  Just as they ALL arrived for supper last night, the dog trainer arrived (an hour late) to work with the two new dogs that we just got yesterday. AND we had no water all day because there was a break in one of the main lines in town.  Water came back last night at 8pm.  And I was up this morning at 6:00 to let the guard out, and then make everyone (except the dog trainer) breakfast before they all headed off to their respective areas.

Jesse got up this morning at 3am because the power went out and it woke him up, so he just got up an hour before his alarm went off.  He gets up at 4 am on Wednesdays so he has peace and quiet in which to prepare his Wednesday evening Bible study message.  Then as I get up at 6:00 to let the guard out, he goes back to bed till 7:00.  I get him up at 7:00, and then at 7:30 he goes out to meet our 6 young pastors for prayer, Bible study, study of a current Christian book (right now is Dangerous Calling), and tea or coffee.

At 8am the staff shows up for daily assignments, money, etc.  In the night, our worship leader's wife gave birth to a baby boy, so I gave Mary 100,000 shillings ($40) to help with her medical and she went to see the new mother and baby.  I gave Martin the key to the new van and he left for prison to go pick up the inmates and take them to the hospital.  I gave Steven money to reimburse him for the 2 new shock absorbers he put on one of our vehicles yesterday.  I made out a meal list for Irege (the cook) for today and gave him money for shopping.  I stripped the three beds the visitors stayed in and turned on the generator so I could wash them and so Jesse could make copies for his men's group.  (Power was still out.) Then Jess went outside with the guys and I finished making his copies and took them to him, and Rodah used the opportunity of electricity from the generator to iron some of our clothes.  I took turns introducing our staff and the boys that we sponsor (that work for us in holidays) to the new dogs.  The big one jumped on me (not well trained yet) and I had to go bathe and change.  J

At 9:00 Mary came back and I gave her money to go and pay the electric bills and go buy a box of paper for the copy machine.  Jess came in and made tea and coffee for the guys and went back outside.  Rodah and I put the first load of laundry on the line.  I called the electric company and asked about our power and they said they would send someone to fix it.  I tried to check my email, and received a message that our next door neighbors were leaving by the end of the month and had decided to leave their dogs with us after all and how happy they were about that.  We thought they had decided the dogs would be going somewhere else, so we had gotten other dogs.  Now we have eight dogs and should be safe from thieves at night! J

At 9:30 Jess is still meeting, and our visitors are ready to leave, so I escort them outside, help them pack up, pray for them, and send them on their way.  Then I go back in to read emails and see if there is anything I need to attend to.  Rodah's son Innocent needs to go to the Children's Hospital today for his checkup for his epilepsy, but he doesn't want his mother to go since he has begun to idolize one of the boys we support who works with us right now.  So I get Innocent's medical book, tell them to finish watering the new hedge that they have just put in day before yesterday, give them money to take boda-bodas (motorcycle transport), and tell them to go to the hospital after the plants are watered.

Then I go next door to where we have two men chopping firewood for the School of Ministry cooking, and I pay for their tea to the lady who cooks and makes chapattis, I give the two men money for lunch, and I pay them for their work for the day because I will probably be busy when they leave at 2pm.  I come back and put the second load of laundry on the line, turn off the generator, and call the electric company again.

Then Willy and Martin come and we look at the area we need to put up a shade for the new dogs, measure the area and decide what we want to put there, and then I give Martin money to go buy eucalyptus poles and paint and nails and screen wire.  I have a cup of coffee!!!!

Jess finishes with the young men and goes to work on the white van that he needs to get running so we can sell it so we can pay to get this land changed from Leasehold to Freehold so that Called Christians will own it instead of leasing it from the City Council. (Nice run-on sentence,  yes?) He has been working on it for almost two weeks and has taken it completely apart and is putting it back together again now that he has it running (sort of).  He comes in for a few minutes and I talk to him about the neighbors and their dogs.  He says tell them "no way" but in gentle terms.  Sigh. If they had only written one day earlier!

I go find John, Paul, and (not Ringo!) Willy to help Jesse put the seats back in the van.  Another missionary woman calls that she can't come over to tell me all her problems as planned because one of the children in her orphanage has acute pneumonia and she needs to keep him in her house with her for a while.

After the seats are in the van, Jess comes in for lunch and we eat lunch together.  Then we go to lie down for 30 minutes, and just as we shut our eyes, the electric company calls and they are at the gate.  I get up and go let them in and take them to the transformer that is on our property because that way we can protect it from thieves stealing the transformer oil out of it at night (which would cause it to burn up and us do without electricity for a month or so).  They work on the pole for a while and electricity comes back and I give them $2.00 each to buy lunch and they take off (after I check to make sure the power really is on!).  I come inside and Jess has just gotten up and is going back outside to work on the van.  I lie down and read for 15 minutes and then get up and try to answer some emails.  

I get a call from a Calvary Chapel pastor in Fort Portal that the man we have sent his way has arrived. The man had spent 24 years in prison under sentence of death, but his sentence had been commuted to life and he was released, but had no way to get started again.  He had traveled all the way here for several hours to get assistance from us.  So we kept him here for three days and then paid for his transport and some food to go back to Fort Portal.  When he arrived there, we were going to send money (you can do it pretty instantly here by phone) to the pastor who would help the man (John Baptist) to buy farming tools like a hoe, a machete (panga), a shovel, a watering can, and a sprayer.  After they bought those things, then there was also extra money to help feed John for about a month. I gave Irege the money and sent him downtown to send the money.  I throw the bedspread in the wash because Jesse accidentally got his shoes on it when he took his short rest.

I come back to the computer and start to answer some emails.  Irege comes and says that I have to check the Avocado tree that is hanging over the fence because that is how thieves got into Johnny Long's yard, and they could easily get into ours.  I go outside and find out he is right and ask that he and Willy cut off the offending limbs.  Then we start a search for the bow-saw which is always in the tool hut but is not there today.  Thirty minutes later we ascertain that it is out at the prison where Martin and Andrew took it on Monday to build an extra room on their pig house, and they would need it again this week so they left it with one of the guards.  I gave Andrew the money to take a motorcycle taxi out to the prison and bring the saw back, and Willy and Irege hacked the limbs off with a machete  panga) before Andrew got back.

Jesse came back inside and right now (4:30) we have a staff meeting.  And then tonight is Bible study from 5:45 to 7:00pm. (I have to remember to take out the keys to the gate to give to the night guard when he comes to Bible study, and also the key to the new van so that after the service, Pastor Steven can take home all the people that come from Danida, a slum area about ten miles away.) And then we have our two paying guests and our extra visitor over for supper.  After supper, Jess will go into our room (the office) and Skype with a woman who wants to bring a team out in June and have us host it.  I will sit on the couch with my computer, hoping to answer an email or two and entertaining our guests.  

During the meeting we decided that we CAN take the two other dogs and have them patrol a certain area of the compound with the night guard, but we will have to build an extra pen to keep them in during the day.

And just as I was sitting here finishing this email, Steven came back and said we have a "situation."  As he arrived in Danida, where he teaches a Bible study, one of the Bible study women's three year old son pulled a pot of boiling water onto himself and all his skin is peeling off and he is terribly burned.  So they took him to three different hospitals until finally Main Hospital admitted him and gave him a bed in the surgery ward.  But the father has no money to buy any drugs or needed materials, so Steven came here and we gave him money and medicines that they will need and he has gone back to the hospital to give those things to the father.

Now Jess and I are sitting on the couch with our two visitors, and we're hoping it's the end to a long but good day.  Hope this wasn't too long and tedious, but it is certainly a picture of a “real” day around here!