Ma and Pa's turn...

Arrived Tuesday at the safari rest camp, we had a meal and then relaxing on the terrace with a Club beer . . .  that is until the guy just came along and said that there is a hippo in the camp grounds coming for his night time grazing! The silhouette of an actual hippo against the lights of a tent is something I will not quickly forget.

We are finishing our time on Thursday after a mixture of experiences, and of course you only get experience by learning as you go.

A few things we enjoyed about Uganda:

• JENGA staff were welcoming and we were impressed with their service to the Ugandan church and the various ministries
• It’s been great to see Daniel again and he is really enjoying life and flourishing with the independence
• Pineapples in Uganda must be the best in the world
• Playing football with the street kids that CRO work with
• Ugandan church on Sunday – I had to give greetings from all at Ivy
• Seeing the Nile for the first time (the actual Nile)
• Nearly beating the boys at Settlers
• Dave the dog

Some things we will be happy not to experience again:

• Waiting – for everything
• Awful roads – it takes so long to go anywhere
• The heat (do people get used to it?)
• The Club next to Dan’s house – loud music every night, even louder at weekend
• Power cuts nearly every day
• Lizards in the loo

We visited a number of projects and ministries which JENGA is connected to, including the food storage facilities being built, the church in Mooni and the nutrition project at the hospital. The hospital was sad to see, often the patients were just lying on their beds and there was hardly anything by way of drips, instruments or indeed nurses. In the A&E department we visited to pray for whoever we could there was a girl who had been scalded on hot water and her wounds were open and would have been immediately dressed in the UK. We were allowed to pray with her and also for a boy who had been beaten up and had blood clots in his skull and had been unconscious for three days. There were patients in beds all close together seemingly just lying there.

In Namatala, the slum area on the outskirts of Mbale, where JENGA work in the community, we found many families in poor living conditions and a lot of people making waragi, the local brew, and several bar areas where men spent their days. Generally we thought there were many Ugandans with not enough or nothing to do all day.

I couldn’t resist joining in the football with the street kids on the local Rec, just played half an hour in the heat but great fun, a clean game and a spectacular volley which would have made me an instant hero apparently J

There is so much to tell – the 3-day safari we have just been on has been amazing, particularly the cruise down the Nile to Murchison Falls looking at hippos, crocs, elephants and other animals along the way.

We have one last journey on Thursday morning to a Rhino sanctuary on the way back to Kampala and then it’s an overnight flight home.

It has been great seeing Dan and supporting him during our time here, Christmas has seemed another world away as we have been in summer wear for two weeks. Sure I’ve missed loads off but you’ll just have to ask us more when we return.

Dave & Iris (Dan's Mum and Dad)

jengauganda.org

The Parents have arrived!

So this week has seen the arrival of Ma and Pa, I’m gonna give them a chance to share what they’ve experienced in my next post as this week’s really been about them and therefore I haven’t really done much. I’ll let them do most of the talking but I just wanted to share a couple of important things that happened this week first.

So most of my week has been showing mum and dad around Mbale and some of the projects which for me has been really cool, I’ve seen these things from my perspective but to hear about their view has been great, I’m really glad they’ve come out and seen JENGA, it’s the best way for them to see clearly what I’ve been up to, there’s only so much I can say, I can’t really fairly convey what’s going on, I’m giving my best though.

The only thing I really did this week was yesterday: I preached at Bethel. I proper loved it. I spoke on empowering youth; Paul summed this up perfectly, ‘not a very Ugandan topic’. It really isn’t which is sort of why I wanted to do it. Began by bantering with Pastor Vinnie about the events of last Saturday and then got stuck in. For the second time just on this trip and about the fourth time in my very short preaching ‘career’, I spoke using 1 Sam 16: 1-13; when Samuel anoints David as King of Israel. I spoke about how from this David knew his calling and the promises that God had for him from an early age and therefore his confidence in God increased and he had the faith to go and slay Goliath. Then related these three parties to the people in the church: David was obviously the ‘yoof’ needing to be empowered and encouraged, Goliath is the ‘world’ and all its temptations and Samuel represents the adults of the Church/those with spiritual maturity and then went into a bit of detail about how we can better do this. I think it went pretty well. Sam was preaching the same day at a Bethel plant up the mountain so we were able to check up on each other throughout the week, kept us both accountable which was good, although of course he was much more prepared than I was..

So some time in the next couple of days there will be another post from this week from my parents, don’t miss it!

Dan x

jengauganda.org

Waiting...

Just picked up the rents from Entebbe, now on the way back to Mbale, so just thought I’d write a little something to pass the time.

After the craziness that was Monday, Tuesday was a bit more relaxed to say the least. Went to CRO again: it was proper cool this week. After Monday I found it so refreshing being around these kids, I feel so blessed every time I go to see them. Getting to know a few of them quite well now, building loving, encouraging relationships that build these kids up is so important, especially when the rest of their world is just knocking them down. Took the afternoon off to recover from Monday and then went to Madam’s for tea. Good day.

Wednesday was a standard office day. Then on Thursday I preached again at CRO. Spoke about how God is the only thing we can rely on in this world to be eternal and to never leave us or forsake us. And about how drugs can only give us a temporary high, but when we rely fully on God and trust in him, we will always be satisfied. It’s generally really good just to put loads of encouraging messages in when talking to them, just to speak life into their lives. Preaching again this Sunday at Bethel on holiness, I feel as though I’ve got something pretty cool to share and that God wants to do some stuff so I’m really excited about that.

On Friday we had JENGA praise and worship at our house so we again had all the JENGA staff round just to seek God for a couple of hours. Afterwards, there was some excitement. I was gonna stay at home and work for a couple of hours and then come into the office but Sam needed to work from the office so he went off. A couple of minutes after he left I just heard ‘Dan, Dan, look it’s a Cobra!!’, I legged it to see and saw Robert our Askari beating the crap out of this Cobra with a massive stick, a bit disappointing, but then after we left it for a couple of minutes it began to wriggle again, however in couldn’t strike because it was too hurt. So Robert killed it with a Panga and I wondered when I was ever gonna get the chance again to hold a wild snake, so I grabbed it off Robert. It was pretty cool because it still had muscle twitches so it was wriggling around in my hands. Felt a bit of food in its belly as well. Cool snake. I offered the Ugandans to hold it but they were scared, they thought it could still kill them even though it had no head. Right…

About an hour later I got a call from Ali who had just left saying that there was another one. This time it was personal, so I got MY Panga. Apparently it had seen the other snake and made some squeaky noises and then it arched back ready to strike. This one was as thick as your wrist and 5 ft long, a bit of a beast. It legged it and we burnt some rubber next to their nest, not been seen since. Still pretty cool though.

On Saturday I experienced the first part of my first Ugandan wedding, and I got absolutely done! Leah, JENGA’s finance director is getting married on the 17^th but her introduction (engagement) was on Saturday. Sam and I suited up and went down for around 11.45, 45 minutes late, however when we got there it hadn’t started yet so we sat and waited. During that time Vinnie came up to me and said that I had to prepare a 5 minute speech on behalf of JENGA for Leah, I was alright with this, he gave me a bit of time and it was only five minutes long. Easy. However then he came back and told me that the family said that would be too short, so I should speak for twenty minutes. Now I'm worrying. I don't know enough about Leah to talk for 20 minutes! So throughout the next eight hours I'm figuring out something that I could say; I've never been less inspired in my whole life. It comes to around 730 and someone makes the suggestion that we leave, so I'm right out the door (metaphorically). On the Pick-up back Tiff reveals to me that it was all a practical joke. Gutted. He got me good...

So Sunday was the day I went to pick up the parents. Went down with Pastor Sam in the car, sharing much banter on the way of course. Arrived at Entebbe Airport to pick them up and then went back to Airport Guest House, probably the nicest place I've stayed at so far this stay. This morning we came back to Mbale and went for a walk to Chat 'n' Chino's, a really nice coffee place in town. Really looking forward to this next week hanging out with them, God's gonna do some cool stuff. Please pray for them.

Named this 'waiting...' not only because it seems like I've spent most of my week waiting doing nothing but also because I'm really trying to spend more time waiting on God for what he wants for me both while I'm here and when I get back home. God's teaching me to wait.

Have a lovely week.

Dan x

jengauganda.org

Monday deserves a blog of its own...

Just to make sure my next blog isn't too long, I've decided to blog just about yesterday; one of the longest and most ridiculous days of my life.

Michael is the Alpha coordinator for the east of Uganda, so a couple of weeks ago he invited Sam and I to go to Nabuyoga in the Tororo district, a couple of hours south of Mbale, to be guests at an Alpha training day. So we accepted and took a Matatu - a small minibus that packs four or five people where there is only supposed to be three, cozy - to Tororo. When we arrived in Tororo, the farce began. We half an hour late for the conference when we had only got to Tororo. Pastor Amos, one of the leaders of the day was supposed to be taking us there in his car, but it was broken, so another Pastor had offered to let us use his car, this 'service' obviously came with a charge, he wanted 60,000 USh (£15) but we got him down to 45,000 USh (£11), and of course the Ugandans looked to the Mzungus for the money, which would have been fine but as soon as we drove off the fuel warning light came on, so we went for fuel but I only had 10,000 left because I was paying for Matatu back, so we could only put in 20,000 in total, definately not enough to get us there and back. Essentially, we got ripped-off.

On the way we soon discovered that Pastor Amos isn't the best driver in the world. He makes some pretty stupid decisions as he's driving along, sort of like a 17 year-old at home who's just got a licence and a car and naively thinks 'I can make that gap' or 'I can take that bump at the speed', and disaster strikes. There hadn't been much rain in Tororo recently so instead of the mud being sticky and making you stuck, it's really hard and rips things from your car. So Amos decides that the car definatley has enough ground-clearance to make it over a mound of hard mud and the spare tyre comes off the bottom, lifting the whole back of the car off the ground and making the left side of the back bumper loose. At this point I was stressed enough about the money situation that I was like 'everybody stand back, I'll deal with this' so I rolled up my sleeves and fixed it. No worries.

When we finally arrived, 2 and a half hours late, we entered the classroom where the training was taking place and were greeted like celebrities almost. As we entered the whole room stood and welcomed us, which felt really odd. I just sort of rejected it and we sat down in our special seats at the side of the room, where everyone could see us of course. The training began and Sam and I had to give a brief greeting which was OK. Amos spoke for a couple of hours and then Michael spoke for a couple of hours and then I spoke for 20 minutes, then they asked questions, which weren't at all related to Alpha for about an hour. By this point we were beginning to tire quite a bit. Sam had been away for the weekend and not got much sleep, then when he got back he was so sun-burned that he only slept for a couple of hours, needless to say he wasn't in a good mood. It was also almost 4 and we were both only fueled on a couple of Weetabix each, so we were pretty hungry, but the idea is to feed the delegates late, because often some will only come for free food, so they eat and leave, this way they have to earn it by sitting through hours of boring speeches that they often don't really understand.

Finally we ate and then Michael realised that we weren't gonna get home until pretty late at this rate so he razzed through the last session in record time. Good lad. One of the main reasons we were there though was to give out Bibles to the people who didn't have. So we brought ten to give to these people and another ten for Amos to give to some prisoners who had been saved. However, the demand was more than the supply. There were 13 people who needed bibles, so we originally gave to the first ten and then two people came to us and said they needed bibles, so we gave out of what the prisoners were getting. One of them couldn't speak English but could apparently read it, so we gave her a bible but afterwards a thought 'wait a minute... yeah she's just gonna sell it, nuts!!' They all got a photo with their new bibles and whilst Sam was taking another guy came to me and said he didn't have a bible. I didn't want to take anymore from the prison's lot so I offered him my personal bible which is small and brown, with small writing (all key elements). He took his place in line to have his photo taken and I saw him looking at it with an unimpressed expression and tried to trade it with another in line, he rejected it too. It turns out that he didn't think it was fair that he got a bible that was smaller than everyone else's, that was less bright in colour and that had smaller writing, so he went into the boot of the car and pulled out of the prison box and left my bible with one of Amos' friends, and then legged it on his bike. I was pretty discouraged by this to say the least. How can someone be picky about something he's getting for free? Gladly God's a good lad. I was really encouraged by two things that I had heard/read coming to the end of the day: On the way back in the Matatu Sam and I listened to a Bill Johnson talk and he just said this one throw away line which stuck with me, 'the spiritual world is so much more real than the visible'. Then when I got back I still wasn't feeling great so i was praying and felt God call me to continue reading 2 Timothy (this book has taken me ages, there's just so much good stuff!) so I read 2 Tim 3:12 'In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life will be persecuted' and I was encouraged. I realised that I should be taking this as an encouragement from God, that because my relationship with God has been massively accelerated as I've been out here, of course I will experience attack, because the enemy is scared, because I carry the presence of God. So as Billy-Bob said, I should be referring more closely to what is happening spiritually in relation to what is happening visibly and through that, I have been encouraged and built-up, instead of discouraged. So I learnt a lot from that, even if I am still a little gutted, I just need to have a fuller kingdom perspective.

There's more craziness that went on on the rest of the evening, like getting lost because we had to go a different way due to a road-blockage, a mentally-ill person getting made-fun of by some kids and Sam getting his teacher act on, arguments in the matatu and chatting to high street-kids who we know from CRO, but that seems like a good place to finish, plus it's bed-time.

Sorry to make my blogs a bit like London buses, but hey.

Much Love, Dan x

jengauganda.org

P.s. Doing a CRO night-walk on Thursday looking for Street kids and seeing where they sleep, would appreciate prayer x

Changing gear..

Good avo (stupid aussie speak)

Firstly I must apologise for the lateness of this blog, life is a bit hectic out here, but I have found some time to do it now.

Been a really full on week, but I'll try to condense it a bit.

On Saturday, Paul, Sam and I went up Wanale! It was a pretty improvised journey, none of us knew where we were really going at all. We parked in Mooni next to Bethel Church which is at the bottom of the mountain. We set off and collected a gathering of 'helpful' teenagers who were coming to guide us but really just wanted a bit of cash, but we got a bit irritated by them so Sam sent them away; we wanted to be manly adventurers! We asked various locals as we were going up where to go, so we weren't completely going by instinct. It took us about 2 hours to get to the top, as soon as we reached the top, it bucketed it down. We first sat under a tree to let it pass but it didn't go so well so we legged it to a nearby house to stand under the roofing, however I fell, according to Sam it was the best 'stack' he'd ever seen, apparently it was so funny that he forgot to consider me well-being and just laughed instead. Cheers mate. We stayed on top for an hour for lunch - chappatti and sausage thanks to Paul - had a pray and Sam took some photos, of course.

We decided not to walk back down as the route we took upwards as I would've been dead for sure, having just fallen on wet grass. So we decided to catch bodas down the mountain, however on the way down, I fell again, this time in front of a Ugandan. Now when Ugandans see something bad happen to you the will say 'sorry sorry', however this fall was so hilarious that he didn't say sorry, instead he laughed uncontrollably and then called his friends so the could take a look at the clumsy Mzungu.

Sunday was massively chilled. Went to another great service at Bethel which was great, then spent the rest of the day playing Settlers, we're all a bit addicted, we've even given each other nicknames, Ben is the King, Sam is the Hunter, Paul is the bear and I am the poker, because apparently I poked the bear (not true). It's kind of taking over, even the girls are getting hooked!

This week in the office I've been back on Mailchimp (yay...) doing the new JENGA prayer letter which has actually been a lot easier, I learnt a lot from the last Mailchimp adventure so it's a bit easier this time round. It's also challenged me to think about how much I've been praying for the work of JENGA, I guess I shouldn't have been struggling through what tho write if I was truly engaged in prayer for JENGA, so I'm working on it.

On Tuesday we went back to CRO once again. Another really great time of speaking truth into the lives of the these kids, my heart really is to see people be able to reach their full potential, that whatever they want to go for, they can go for it, inspiring hey?, but all the same it's really something that makes me angry, especially when these guys have been thrown out of their homes, any opportunity to live life seemingly taken, which is why CRO is so great, they give a second opportunity. Also I of course skilled Sam a few times, which is always good, but then I got skilled be a 7 year old, not so good.

Wednesday morning we went out on a prayer walk to Musamaga (probably spelled wrong) where Dao - the JENGA staff member in charge of prison ministry - lives. Musamaga is about 90% muslim, there are many mosques and muslim schools and very few churches, I saw one that was about the size of my bedroom, apart form the fact it had no walls. Talking to Dao about Musamaga though he seemed a bit hopeless about the place, it was like the all too common British attitude of 'this is the way it is and nothing can change it', which was very sad. However, Bethel is trying to start a church plant in Musamaga, which would be fantastic for that community.

Thursday we did hospital ministry again, I prayed for a boy who had basically had every bad disease in existance, he has Malaria and TB right now, but he had just suffered from Pneumonia as well. There was nothing to him, just skin and bones. But what was really encouraging was that his parents were Christians and just had faith that God's will would be done, to see the desperation of the the Father was really touching. I'm really looking forward to taking my Mum to the hospital in two weeks as she is a nurse, so I think it could move her profoundly.

The last three days of the week were the best for me, easy. On Friday morning Sam and I led the JENGA praise and worship time which was really great. Talked about humility, that leads to unity, that leads to advancing the kingdom. We did minimal preparation which was a bit of a winner as it just meant that God was really speaking through us. It was the first time that I really felt I had something sizeable to bless these JENGA staff with. It was also quality as I'll be preaching in two weeks so to get the encouragement of the JENGA staff was really valuable.

I've had a very introverted weekend. Did football with Michael on Saturday morning with Sam and Tim who has been visiting JENGA with his wife for a few days. Then in the afternoon, Sam and Ben went to Jinja for the weekend to do some rafting, so I got the house to myself, just me and Taloola: my guitar of course. Had one the best times ever just me and my guitar, an hour felt like 10 minutes, so I really feel like I'm changing up a couple of gears in my relationship with God now, which is exactly why I'm here.

Finally I just had to take a break from writing this blog to kill a mouse with my Panga (machete). I feel manly. 2 down, who knows how many to go.

When I appealed the other week for you to e-mail me, the response was pretty poor, step it up guys! challis_908@hotmail.com

Hope you have a lovely week. God Bless.

Dan x

jengauganda.org

7 weeks in...

Evenin'

Hope this finds you well after having had a good week! Here's how my week went.

On Saturday Sam and I went down to Saturday morning Football with Michael. It was a great one because we were able to give all the kids brand new kits, mostly thanks to the work of Kit Aid. So instead of Skins vs. Shirts, it was Reading vs. Guernsey. It made the game better i reckon, the kids really loved getting them and seemed to play more professionally than usual. Also, I managed to embarress Sam with a bit of a Craig Bellamy magic. I mugged him as he was calmly passing back to the goalie... then shot wide with my left, OH GOOD! We then got Mendazi for the kids and headed shopping before crashing at home. Then we welcomed Paul back from the West with a beautifully cooked tea.

Bit of a standard Sunday, I went to bethel church again. Beginning to get more into the swing of things at church now, getting to know people and that. Good times. Then lunch at the Elgon. I loved the fact that we go there so often that the waiter knew my drink - "I'll have a..." "Stoney?" Regular.

Monday was a fun and successful day. We had the Monday Morning Meeting, however Tiff re-named it the "Monday Morning Morman Meeting" because me and Sam both dressed in Black suit trousers and white shirts, hilarious... Then after many moons have passed since we started designing it the Jenga News-update was sent off. Victory. Now the Prayer update... Then I went to a new place! Sam has been commsioned to design the JENGA Christmas card with means taking loads of pictures in different places, so acted as tag-a-long. We went to Musoto, one of JENGA's three main areas of work. Sam and I voted that we'd ride in the back of the pick-up, poor shout. We didn't see the massive black rain-clouds up ahead and got our Morman attire soakd. Aidah, one of the staff, lives in Musoto so we dropped her off and then Madame Rose acted as tour-guide. We visited the JENGA bore-holes and Sam took photos, whilst I got mauled by kids.

Early on Tuesday Sam and I went with Andrew, a JENGA staff member working with secondary education and goat projects, to visit the goats so Sam could take more photos. This meant taking a boda a bit of the way up Wanale. However, I got the crap Boda driver who was slow and didn't know where he was going, so we got lost and he got angry. The view from the goatery(?) was lovely, it over-looked Mbale on one side, and you could see the waterfall on Wanale pretty well on the other. What was pretty entertaining was the way Andrew described their breeding programme, they tie a mummy goat to a shed and let the daddy goat "service" her. In the afternoon I continued with the Prayer update, which is going well after learning much from doing the newsletter. We went round to GJH again for games night. Paul boguth me and Sam Pangas (machetes)! Used on wednesday night to kill a mouse. So now we feel very manly. Then in the I disgraced myself. Paul encouraged us to play Iris snap. Like normal snap but with the added rules that the first player says 2 then 3,4,5... as you go round, if the card you play is the one you say, there is also a magic card, when it's put down you snap, you also do 2 hands if a double comes up. Paul described it as though it's pretty much impossible to lose, however about 10 mins in I began to collect some cards, clearly not that good at it, I collected some more, and some more, until Sam had one and I had the rest. I somehow managed to lose. Oh dear. I won't be playing again in a hurry.

On Wednesday the Christmas card production took us to Namatala. We visited Violet again took some photos of her and her legend of a nephew Levi, visited her house again, she insisted on buying us drinks, again. Then she took us to visit mary's house (mentioned in a previous post), her house is now roofed and she is living in it, which was great to see.

On Thursday we went to Tororo to go to Andrew's father's Burial. The burial was pretty interesting, it was an open casket so some people got the opportunity to see the body. It was great to be able to support Andrew at that time, he and peter seemed to really appreciate it. On Thurdsday night we had our first edition of Mzungu worship, I led it round at Tiff's house, it was just a really cool time with God and hopefull we'll continue it.

Today we did some more sorting! The garage at our place is pretty much a mess and we didn't know what was in there so we got it all out, arranged it, and put it back in again. Then me and Sam went out to Nurali's for lunch, had a really great chat about how we were each doing and then did a little planning of the possible preaching around churches, we reckon we'll do a two-part series on accountability, so please pray for this.

Had to rush the last little bit because just about to go out for a curry!

Have a lovely Friday night. x

jengauganda.org

Life

Aloha!

Apologies for the lateness of the blog, ran out of batter in a power cut yesterday. Shocker!!

So I thought this blog was going to be pretty uneventful midway into the week. That was before Wednesday and Thursday happened. Wow. Here's how my week has gone so far:

On Saturday we came back from the beautiful Jinja, I really gained a lot from that conference that I've been pondering during this week. God really did some cool stuff, I feel like a lot of forgiving and forgetting as well as some receiving went on in my heart, which was really cool. We had heaps of time just one-on-one with God which was great - and something which I really feel I needed.

On Sunday we went to Bethel again. As soon as we sat down (Madam) Tiff was whisked to sit at the front at the Preacher's table, so we realised that she'd been hiding the fact that she was preaching! What was quite comical was that she gave each of us the chance to bunk of church that morning, it's less nerve-racking preaching without the presence of mzungus. It led Sam and I to have a cool little chat in the evening about getting involved in some preaching at churches while we're out here. So we chatted to Madam on Monday about it and the plan is to start off preaching in the smaller Bethel church plants, then we'll move on to preach at Bethel, hopefully. So I'm pretty excited to see how that's gonna pan out!

Monday and Tuesday we pretty standard office days, working on this flipping News-update which was supposed to go out about half an hour ago, but we've had yet another set back (sarcastic woop). So just waiting for Tiff to come round and hopefully we'll sort it!

On Tuesday evening Sam and I went round to GJH (Girls JENGA house) for Tuesday games night, a new tradition that is proving to produce high amounts of quality banter each time. On the walk home Sam and I saw a huge plume of smoke coming from town, with a bright orange glow at its base. There are so many fires roudn here that I thought nothing of it (the burn their rubbish here), but Sam had a nudge from God that we should pray for that fire so we sent up a little one and carried on our way. The following morning we saw our Askari, Michael, who looked anxious and even more exaggerated in speech than usual. It turned out that the big clothes market in the center of town had been burned down the night before. We went with some of the JENGA staff to visit the site. What laid before us was just a field of ash and charcoal. Everything destroyed. We took a walk round and visited Annette, Tiff's tailor, she looked shell-shocked. She told us that she had lost everything, apart from her sewing machine. When she heard about the fire she rushed down to here her stall to see it ablaze, she managed to grab her machine and get it to safety, but when she grabbed some clothes she was beaten to the ground by some opportunist robbers waiting outside and the legged it with her stuff. With this, the magnitude of what had happened to these people had dawned on us. These people have lost their livelihoods. It would have been better if it was a food market. Fruit and veg with grow again, there is always more, but these people had spent hours on each piece of clothing they sell. I saw one of the street-kids I know, Icinda, picking up bits of scrap-metal to sell. We spent the rest of the morning in prayer and intercession. I still don't think I've fully processed what I saw there. In the evening I talked again with Machael the Askari. He told me that his Uncle had a stall in the market and had taken out a loan from the bank of 190,000,000 Shillings (£42,000 approx) and now has no income with which to pay it back. And since I've heard of many worse cases. The amazing thing about Ugandans is that they just get on with life, accept the situation and keep living. They have to in order to get food on the table and to keep the roof over their heads. If you pray, I hope you will give time to these people.

On Thursday morning I took my first visit to the hospital. Every fortnight on a Thursday JENGA pays a visit to Mbale Referral Hospital to pray for the sick. We first visited the malnutrition ward. We found a shelter with no walls whcih is like a feeding zone. We met a child who was 4 years, except he looked about 2, tops. his stomach refuses food, whenever he eats any sort of decent meal he vomits straight after, Sam put his hand on the boys shoulder whilst he was praying for him and could feel the tendons and bone. We then visited the children's ward to pray for them, I prayed for a Muslim boy called Medi who had Pneumonia, he then bled and almost became anaemic. The strange thing was that usually when I see children of this age they yell at me in a beautifully nasally tone, "Mzungu Byeeeeee", but these children didn't, they didn't smile or laugh like the others. Especially in the malnutrition unit they've seemed to have lost their joy. It made me angry that these kids don't get as good a shot at life as kids of the same age in the west. Why is this? Their lives aren't of any less importance to mine or yours. I could rant about this for about another 1000 words, so I'll stop now before I get going.

So that's another installment of my blog. Still really loving it over here. Feel like I gained some more vision on matters of my future this week, which is great, but not developed enough to announce publicly!

Out for a curry in a sec at Delicious Dishes, no lamb Balti, but it's pretty darn tasty anyways.

Big Love, Dan

P.s.If you'd like to get in touch, chuck us an e-mail on challis_908@hotmail.com I'd LOVE to hear from you.

jengauganda.org

Once in a life time

What a week! Got quite a bit to say but I’ll try to be brief.

So Friday brought the arrival of Sam, the new JENGA volunteer from Australia. He’s a bit of a lad. It was a bit of a wild goose chase round Mbale to try and find him Friday night because he had not been dropped off in the right place by the bus so he was trying to give directions to Tiff about a place he had no idea about. We got there in the end – once we knew the sort of area it was easy to pick out the only mzungu in a crowded area at night. Sam, Tiff and I all went for a curry with a bunch of other Mzungus working out here, which was nice.  The curry places out here don’t sell baltis though and nowhere in Uganda does lamb, so my usual lamb balti is a no go, pretty gutting.

Then on Sat I took Sam to Saturday morning football with Michael, it was pretty hot and also this time not many turned up so we had to play continuous! I feel like I’m acclimatising pretty well now though so football is becoming easier. We also managed to get the kids some food this week; with the JENGA budget cuts there is no money to get the kids food after they play, which is the main reason that the number seems to be dropping. But we decided this week to buy them Mendazi, which is like a plain doughnut with no sugar on it. To buy enough for 25 was only 9,200 shillings (£2) so this seems like a financially wiser decision than buying a saucepan for porridge and then the porridge supplies every week, the pan alone would be 70,000 shillings (£16), so Michael and I decided Mendazi is the way. I spent the rest of Saturday showing Sam round town with Paul, we went to the market to buy some fruit and veg. I’m growing relationships at the market now and am beginning to know who to trust for the best prices. My favourite guy is Abdullah. He sells us everything very cheaply, has great English and even gives us free stuff to show his appreciation. Lad.

Sunday was standard. Then Monday I got the day off! Properly chilled out, then went out to town to buy supplies for tea that night. I made a beautiful discovery. One of the main supermarkets called Mbale Shoppers now has a new British range. They’ve imported foods from the UK. Very exciting. Got my hands on some Chocolate Digestives, they also have Horlicks, proper pasta sauce, Special K… the works. I decided to grab some passion so Sam and I could make some Passionfruit Juice. So it took us about 1hr and a half to make the stuff, then I had a MARE. I diluted the juice with tap water, absolute shocker. We ended up boiling it and it actually tasted better than when we’ve done it before.

Since Tuesday, me, Sam and the wonderful Ali Ball have been at a Transformation of the heart week which is a lot about talking about the past and how it affects our present. It’s been pretty cool, even though I've been bitten like crazy. Most of the bites are from the Tse Tse fly which look like house flies, but their bites don't feel like it - itching like crazy!!. Our accommodation is on the Nile River. It’s one of the prettiest places I’ve ever been to. Me and Sam went paid off a Fisherman yesteday afternoon to take us on a little tour on the area. We hopped on his little canoe and set off. Sam knows a bit of Ki Swahili which is useful as it’s most locals’ third language. The strength of the current was really evident as they struggled against the flow, this is probably the heaviest their little boat had ever been but these guys really knew their stuff. We wanted to stay on to watch them do some fishing but the older of the two wanted us to get off so he could ‘work’, I don’t think he realised that by keeping us on the boat he was earning way more than if he was just fishing. Never mind, it was great fun anyway. Once in a life time. 

I think the coolest thing about this time in Jinja though has been getting to know Sam. We get on really well and I really like him. We went out for beers last night and he said that we’ve probably set the world record for getting to know someone really well in a short space of time. It’s crazy that I’ve only known him 7 days but our accountability is already ridiculously good. I really feel that God has anointed this relationship. He has put me and Sam here in Uganda at the same time for a reason. 

I feel like God has really done some stuff in me this week. I feel challenged and renewed. Looking forward to getting back to Mbale tomorrow though. 

Beginning to miss a few things about home now, especially Ivy Manchester!

God Bless

Dan

jengauganda.org

Clearing up

I'd just like to make clear that in my Blog this morning I wasn't attempting to insult CRO or make it seem bad. Every organisation has things wrong with it that need to be sorted, some of these things have just been made clear to me this week and I hope that this will enable you to pray for CRO more specifically and give you a clearer perspective of what is going on. Without the fantastic work of CRO these kids would have literally nothing.

One thing is for sure; the world is better off with CRO a part of it.

God Bless

Dan

jengauganda.org     http://croug.org/?jc=CRO_Mbale

Happy Thursday!

So I left you last week on a bit of a cliff-hanger as I was just about to go to preach the gospel at the Thursday Lunchtime Evangelism session that JENGA facilitates for CRO. The whole experience there left me a bit dubious about the charity. Firstly we only have a half-hour slot on a Thursday lunch from 1230-1 because the children finish classes at 1230 and must have lunch at one on the dot. However, it appears that CRO has decided to have a programme change and not tell us, Michael says it’s because of those pesky international volunteers that come in and change the programme. Banter. Anyway I got the chance to share at 1250, which was great. My issue isn’t so much that I would get more time to be able to preach, rather the lack of communication, if I get to speak truth and encouragement into their lives at all, even just for a short while, then that is amazing. I spoke on 1 Sam 16 – Samuel’s anointing of David – speaking about life with a purpose, no matter what has been spoken over us, or what life has chucked at us. The major issue at CRO is drugs. Whenever we go there are always about 10-15 kids lent against the wall of the court where we go to minister, so high off their faces that they can’t even stand. This issue is in no way helped by the staff and volunteers at CRO who know who the dealer is, and even allow him into the compound. So even though there are so many good things happening at CRO there is also a lot of dodgyness worthy of you’re your prayer. I hope you will stand with me in this. Rant over, I promise.

On Friday the JENGA staff took part in a See Jesus conference, held by the two American blokes who had been living with me until this Tuesday. See Jesus is a sort Alpha course variant that seeks to teach about the nature of Jesus, aiding recipients to act more like Him everyday. The conference was acting to equip leaders of the area in facilitating the See Jesus course to others. At lunchtime I learnt to eat rice and beans with my hands properly, which was good comedy for those around me.

Massively relaxed weekend; played football again on Saturday morning, it seems that every time I play I get sun burn, no matter how much Sun cream I put on I seem to sweat it off immediately, re-application doesn’t even work, never mind. Had a day of sport at Elgon Hotel on Sunday, firstly watching the Rugby World Cup final and then being the only City fan in a United bar next to the Elgon car park to watch probably one of the best things I’ve ever seen, but I’ve done all my gloating already so I won’t continue.

The only other thing really of note that has happened during the week is that we have more rodents in the house. Paul managed to slay the last rat with his Panga. However we were sat in the lounge one evening and I saw another one sprinting through the kitchen and hiding under the sofa, unfortunately it managed to get away: gutted. I also spotted a mouse running into an actual mouse hole, thought that was just in cartoons. Perhaps I’ll leave a little wedge of holey cheese on a mouse trap.

Paul left the house this week to live back with the returning Doctor across the other side of the village. It’s been really fun living with Paul; I think it’s safe to say that we make a dream team. However, Ben from West Kirby is also living with us and the new JENGA volunteer Sam is arriving from Australia tomorrow, which is very exciting, we need more lads!!

I can feel God moving in my life already, he is revealing things about my character and restoring them to the way his will determines. It’s challenging but amazing at the same time.

God Bless

Dan

jengauganda.org

Comings and Goings

Good Morning! I have realised that 2 blogs a week may be pretty impossible right now so welcome to Thursday Blog-day; I'll probably think of a better name...

This week has been a bit mental to be honest. I moved into a new place last Thursday with Paul, a volunteer working in admin at Joy Hospice. He's a good lad and we've had a good laugh having people round for dinner. Yes that's right, I've been cooking! We decided to cook Cottage Pie for the girls house and it suprisingly went pretty well, even though there were some interesting flavourings going in there. We've also just welcomed three new guys into the house, Ben who is working in cotton and will be living with us until Christmas, and two Americans, Jonothan and Brian who will be working closely with JENGA for the next week.

On a sporting front, I played football again on Saturday, this time with a very good U16s team who got to the National finals, I could definately tell the difference. I reverted to my usual role on the right flank, winning a penalty with a classic Dave Challis floated cross that seemed to hang in the air for ages, then keeper apparently fouling one of our players and a penalty was given. Because of my mzungu-ness they insisted that I take the penalty, usually not a good choice, however I slotted the ball home comfortably. Then was a mad rush back to Mount Elgon hotel to watch a disappointing Rugby match.

I have also continued to work closely with Michael who is in charge of the youth projects here at JENGA. We have been regularly going down to CRO (Child Restoration Outreach), taking part in football on a Tuesday morning and then Evangelism on a Thursday lunchtime. On outward appearance the organisation doesn't look in good shape, with most of the street children coming in high on glue. Therefore throughout the lunchtime teaching there are about 10-15 kids at the back, some of them only looking about 8 so off their faces that they can't even stand, or do anything, and the ones that can just have a mass brawl. However speaking to Levi, a local Jenga volunteer, who gave the teaching last week, they have been encouraged because there is much improvement in the numbers of these children who have drug problems, there are a few who have even gone to University or got very good jobs because of the work of CRO, without their intervention their standard of living is increased as even is there chances of surviving. I have been really touched and also a little humoured by meeting a young boy, who had better English than most of our Ugandan staff, and was telling me more about Rambo and Jackie Chan than I will ever know. He,s incredibly clever and personifies the potential that can be found in so many of these amazing children. Most of these children have either been orphaned, rejected by their parents or have run away from home due to abuse. They have no-one obligated to care for them. It must be the church who takes responsibility for these children. For more information on CRO please visit http://croug.org/?jc=CRO_Mbale. In a couple of hours I will also be giving the Lunchtime evangelism teaching.

Love and miss you all

Dan

jengauganda.org

"something just crapped in my bed..."

Haven't blogged in almost a week! So I thought I'd let you know what's been going on this week...

First thing on Monday I had my first experience of a Jenga team meeting, great to see everyone together, bantering, praying and discussing. Although the meeting was limited because the server is still down, meaning there is still very little work going on in the JENGA office as most of the work that needs to be done is on the computer. Not good. Then we did more sorting, of course...

Yesterday I had my first experience of Ugandan football. My thoughts before the game were that the stereotypical African player is skilful on the ball, but perhaps weaker physically, so naturally I thought 'what would Tony Pulis ask me to do?' I played the Jonathan Walters role. Baiscally playing as 'British' as possible, seemed to pay off with 2 goals amd one assist. Michael has invited me to come and train with thhe u16 team that he is managing on saturday which is gonna be hard work i reckon, I'll let you know.

This morning Tiff and I went down to Namatala slum to visit a lady who is building a new house, something which she massively deserves. For the last while Mary had been living in a 'house' with five other family members. This place is smaller than your classic box room in the UK, about 8ft x 4ft. In this house was a single bed which covered most of the house, Mary and three others sleep in this bed, with one of her children sleeping under the bed and one on the floor. She then bought us a couple of sodas and invited us to sit in her house, these will have costed probably 2000 shilling (50p ish). Not much to us, but to her it's massive. I found her generosity even in how she lives very humbling and challenging.

The biggest comedy moment of my stay so far happened about 20 minutes ago. I went into my room to Skype with my parents for a bit and throughout smelt something a bit odd. I thought it was my shoes because I had walked in them in Mary's semi-built house which is being built with something that smells like cow dung. However half-way through the conversation I realised that it in fact wasn't my shoes. Phoebe the cat has defacated in my bed!! Nice..

Love Dan


jengauganda.org

I have arrived!

Actually I arrived on Monday, but only got internet now. We spent most of Monday in Kampala chasing up this container (to be explained later). Pastor Sam and I drove from Kampala to Mbale that afternoon, along the way experiencing the joy of chicken on a stick - beauty! I met the rest of my house and then pretty much crashed after only getting about 2 hours sleep the night before, and no sleep during the day. Yesterday I pretty much just chilled and recovered from the long journey.

And then comes today! Today the afformentioned container arrived. This container is full of donated items given by people around the UK and had been shipped last December, arrived in Uganda in April and after many many complications and probable dodgy dealings arrived this morning! This meant that we spent today sorting through clothes, toys, books and the like, to be distrubuted to the poor of the area over the next while. This meant that I got to meet the rest of the JENGA staff today, who were all really welcoming and very encouraging. We managed to get through the majority of the container today and will finish sorting tomorrow. Also had my first experience on a Pickie (motorbike taxi) today which was much less scary than first thought, and we didn't crash! Result! So all in all, was a pretty quality day.

Really enjoying Mbale so far. The next couple of weeks will be looking round projects that I'm interested in and seeing which ones I can get involved with.

I'll keep you posted

Dan

jengauganda.org

(p.s.this is actually from yesterday but my internet went!)

6 hours to take-off!

Just a quickie.

Sitting here in Chorleywood with 6 hours to go until I take off. This week has been one full of Goodbyes. Just tried to catch up for the last time with as many people as I could. It's been a week of 'lasts'. I've had my last church service at ivy, my last meal at my house, my last pub trip to the Fletch among others. And even though I will miss all these things and the amazing people that make up my life in the UK I'm so excited to have a week or more of 'firsts' starting tomorrow.

Dan

jengauganda.org

Pre-match nerves?

So this time next week I'll have just finished my first full day in my new home for the next five months. In my mind, I don't think I ever really prepared for this moment, for me so far going to Uganda has all been about getting prepared and ready for this trip, but my mind hadn't yet twigged that I'd actually have to leave! This thought came to me through I conversation I've had with my Dad; he said that 3 or 4 days into being in Mbale I will have a moment of realisation that actually this isn't just a little holiday at the end of which my parents will come and pick me up, but that I am now staying here and I can't just nip back to the safety of home.

This may all seem so far like some sort of apprehensive rabble. It's not really. Last Sunday I went to my final two services at Ivy Manchester, in whcih I gained a further understanding of what a loving and encouraging church that i serve in. The generosity shown by the people of Ivy has been amazing, whether it's been a one-off sizeable donation or encouraging and praying for me I am equally grateful to all. It is through this love that Ivy and many people outside Ivy have shown that means that I don't go into this next phase of my life with apprehension, but with courage.

I'm so excited to see what God will do over these next few months.

 Dan

jengauganda.org