Observations from Uganda

in no particular order...some I may go into in more detail at a later time, others I will not. If you are wondering about something, ask me.

Bicycles and "boda bodas" (motor cycle taxis) act as pick ups. (I witnessed one loaded up with 6 long benches and another with a wooden box strapped on the back carrying at least 4 live, unhappy goats.)

Women almost always ride boda bodas side saddle...and often without holding on to anything but the bag or package on their lap.

Only the most major roads are paved.

Speed bumps are almost the only form of traffic control...they are probably as prevalent as cattle...and there are a lot of cattle in Uganda.

People don't wear deodorant.

All furniture is locally crafted, sturdy, and beautiful.

The dirt is red.

Kampala - the capitol city of 5 million - is largely without plumbing or electricity.

A bus licensed for 9 people can hold many, many more. (And remember, none of them are wearing deodorant.)

Huge, heavy loads are carried on women's heads.

Brooms, hoes, machetes, etc are used with very short handles necessitating that everyone bend over at the waist to sweep, cut grass, etc.

Everyone has neck and back pain.

People walk everywhere.

They drive on the left. If one car is passing another and a third approaches, they often fit all three across on the road.

Laundry is hung out on clothes lines...or bushes, fences, front yards, etc.

Groups of men on motorcycles are not gangs. They are boda boda drivers waiting for fares.

It's more expensive to ride a boda boda than a bus.

Toilets are rare, toilet seats rarer.

Cows (and goats and chickens) wander everywhere. Through front yards...busy streets...everywhere.

The current exchange rate is 2300 Ugandan shillings to one US dollar.

Almost everyone has cell phones. Airtime costs one Ugandan shilling per second.

Plants we have as house plants grow wild in Uganda.

Public transportation mini buses all have spiritual messages like "Jesus Saves" "Praise Allah" "God's Will" etc on front and back windows.

All major Kampala roads end up at one roundabout.

Most mannequins in dress shops are cheap plastic, fair skinned, and have hoops added around the middle to make the hips wider.

There are cell phone shops and paint stores in every little town or village.

Laundry and cooking, even at the retreat center where we stayed in Fort Portal, is done over a fire.

There is so, so much more. I've only scratched the surface. I'm forgetting so much of it already.

The music continues

Every morning before leaving for our various jobs, the group ate breakfast together followed by a few words from our group leader and a couple songs sung together as a group. The songs were simple choruses, most I had heard before, and probably not paid much attention. There is nothing like context to make something ordinary stand out in a way that it never has before. I know I listened and really heard the words more on those mornings, accompanied by one soft acoustic guitar than I had before, even at large conferences with professional light and sound and 3000+ other voices. It was truly meaningful. But when I got home it became even more meaningful. The Sunday after I arrived home, a college music group was visiting and leading songs that morning. I'm not usually a big fan of those kind of groups. They seem a little cheesy and way too in-your-face happy, especially early in the morning. They began leading music and I looked over at my husband and said, "We sang this in Africa." That happened with at least 3 songs in the first minutes of the service. I had left Africa, but it had not left me. By the time the group began Chris Tomlin's Our God is Greater, I had tears rolling down my cheeks and I had lifted my hands up in awe. Every week (with maybe one exception) for 6 weeks after I returned, that song was sung on Sunday morning. It has become my Africa song...the song that takes my heart back there.
"And if our God is for us
Then who could ever stop us
And if our God is with us
Then what can stand against."
In many ways, the people of Africa have a lot that is against them, but God is for them and God is with them.