Everyday heroes

Not a word of complaint from any of these!!!

Snap shots of some of the people close to me from this past week:

Samuel went to church on Sunday and came straight to his evening job here afterwards. Monday morning he returned to his home, a single room, to discover robbers had taken all of his clothes, shoes, bedding and mattress! All the belongings for his teen cousin who stays with him also were taken. Good enough, his wife had taken all of her clothes and the baby's things when she went back to the village to harvest the peanut crop. He simply reported the facts to me and the house cell that night when he came to work.
Resources available: great relationships with other Christians, salary of 240,000/= per month (about $147 to support a family of 3, a teen cousin, and others in his village).

Florence runs a small preschool with 15 youngsters from ages 2 to 6. Last Friday she had a sudden abdominal pain and all over body weakness. She rested through the weekend and has worked every day this week, in spite of major headaches and chills.
Resources: strong prayer life, son and daughter visiting who have helped a bit with the school, about 350,000/= every 4 months (in bits and pieces) about $214.

Miriam, age 20, began an afternoon tutoring 3 hour/day, 5 day/week job for a Sudanese family living about 2 miles from here. She usually walked there and caught buses back to here (3 changes required). On Tuesday while on her way, she was accosted by 3 young thugs, robbed of her phone and money at knife point and was kidnapped . When the men tied her up in a laundry sack, she became faint and they thought she had died. She was thrown into the trunk of a car and then dumped out in an abandoned area. She was able to get out of the sack, but had no money or way to call for help. She walked for hours to get back home. Additionally, for the last 3 days she has had a major tooth ache, which she is treating with raw garlic and finding a little relief.
Resources: youth, health, strong prayer life; about 12,000/= a week ( about $7.50) minus transport each day.

Ruth, a single mother with a 10 year old son, was to begin her 3rd and last year of school towards a degree in Public Administration. She finished her 6 week internship program, had two weeks of “vacation” and was ready to begin classes. I was late getting her fees and she missed the first week of classes, having to catch notes from peers for the materials covered.
Resources: Former employer who sent money to help, active Christian life, earnings from part-time jobs about 140,000/= per month, about $86.

These are not unusual people, but everyday people getting by as best they can, doing what is right, and walking with God. They are my heroes and inspiration. No whining or complaining from any of them. Would I could be so gracious!

Comparing bathrooms

My home in California had a great bathroom. There was a large tub, easy to step into, and probably made of cast iron with enamel finish. There was a tiled shower with a bench seat and adjustable height shower head. The toilet was a bit raised, making it easier for someone with knee problems. There were lots of cupboards for storing linens, seasonal bedding, etc. A window gave a great view of the camellia bush just outside. The bathroom dimensions, wall to wall, are probably 8' by 12'.

In this house I'm renting, my bathroom is about 3 ¼' by 4 ½'. There is a sit down toilet, maybe lower than standard American. 4” from the tank top is the cold water knob that turns on for the shower overhead. (The hot water knob isn't connected to anything.) The shower has an on-demand water heater attached. The switch to turn that on is just outside the shower “door” which is actually a curtain. The basin is on the far/outside wall, under a louvered window. The cold water knob works and the faucet swivels for some reason I can't figure out. When I sit on the toilet, if I am really sleepy, I just lean forward and rest my head on the wall. No danger of falling over, as I'm almost upright. A small raised ridge at the doorway prevents any water from the shower from going into the bedroom and a drain at the far, lower corner of the room takes all the water away into the drain system.

All in all, not a bad arrangement. But....I recently checked out a possible place to rent where the bathroom was designed much like mine here, only larger. To go to the bathroom, one went out a back door, down two steps, then up two steps into this totally separate room. I don't think that will work well for me. Decided not to even ask about renting that house..

It is amazing the variety of ways we humans create our housing and meet our basic needs.

Sights in downtown Kampala

Here are some sights from downtown Kampala that I noted while riding in a car on the way to do some shopping:

Young men selling MTN airtime cards for cell phones to passengers in cars/ matatus while they are stuck in traffic jams or waiting for the traffic light to turn green.

An 18 wheeler long haul lorry passes thru the space where seconds before there was a man in tattered clothes pushing a wooden wheelbarrow filled with pineapples he will sell. Immediately after the truck cleared through, the same space was filled with dozens of matatus and bodas, all full of passengers leaving the center of the city. There is no order or queuing, the bodas dart in and out and the matatus are often two in a “lane”. No, there aren't marked lanes on the roads in this left hand driving country. The main rule of the road is “give way to anything bigger than you”.

Traffic island sometimes are the stand of choice for self-appointed preachers, screaming out their message over the din of traffic, radios and sidewalk hawkers. The sides of the roads do not have sidewalks in most places and are filled with people “footing” as they can't afford the matatu fare of $0.50. People will walk miles to go to work or to school. Not many obese people in the general population.