Finally Back Online!

A "quick" recap of recent events:

We participated in the Kampala quarter marathon (10K) with over 20,000 other people! This was quite exciting for me because I’ve never been interested in running and I’ve never done a serious race like this. It turned out to be a lot of fun and not as hard as I thought it would be.

We had Thanksgiving dinner with the students and staff of the Uganda Studies Program at UCU and almost had a taste of home. The mashed potatoes and gravy really hit the spot and we ate way too many desserts, but the turkey turned out to be really disappointing. It was cut like a chicken, marinated, and thrown on the grill for a few minutes. The flavor was okay to be sure, but I couldn’t get a real bite out of it because the meat was so tough! The rule with meat here – you have to boil for some good time before doing anything else to it…it’s so tough. So, not exactly the turkey dinner I was hoping for, but at least we watched “Charlie Brown’s Christmas” (once the power came back)!

We celebrated Michael’s birthday on Saturday the 12th and ended up having a great party! I really laughed at how things worked out because it would never work in the U.S. We sent text messages to about 2 families on Friday night and called a few people Saturday morning. A few friends arrived in the morning and by 2 we had over 10 people in our house ready to eat some good pork for lunch. Haha! And we were concerned that no one would show up…

Michael is gaining business little by little with his travel company and cake making, and I’m getting new cello students here and there as well. I’m really enjoying teaching at the music school and now the International School of Uganda as well. It’s interesting teaching children and adults because you really have to adapt the teaching style for maximum effectiveness. I’m trying to market myself to other international schools and also take up a few private students, teaching in their homes. By January, when schools are back in session, I will likely have 15 students all together.

Something that we could really use prayer for is a project we are trying to start up at Salama School for the Blind. It’s a wonderful school with passionate children in whom I have seen great musical potential. A few months back, God gave me a vision for these students – that they can be great musicians if someone will take the time to teach them. Upon meeting with some of the directors of the school, I found that we were an answer to prayer. They had the same vision for some time, but no one to teach the students.

Because of my connections with Kampala music school, I’ve been able to round up the teachers and instruments we need in order to give lessons to these kids. We are thinking of calling it the “Joyful Noise Music Project” and offering guitar, piano, voice, violin, and cello lessons for now, but of course we hope to add more opportunities in the future. The project will basically focus on equipping them to play worship music – familiar choruses and hymns. They are already very passionate in their times of worshiping through music, so we hope that one day they will be able to have their own worship bands and even string trios or quartets. In the future they could even minister in churches and raise money for their school through this.

We’re planning to begin in February when all of them have returned from the holiday break. We’re very excited and we believe that God can do many great things with this project, so please join us in praying for this. I will keep you posted with more specific challenges and things to pray for as they come up.

Hope you’re all enjoying the snow during this festive season! As for me, I’m really having a hard time realizing that it’s Christmas. The decorations are sparse and the average temps are in the 80s…not a flake of snow in sight! I don’t miss the snow so much but, I miss that warm, cozy Christmas season feeling. Does that make sense? It just doesn’t feel like Christmas at all.

For the first (or maybe second) time in my life, I won’t be going to Uncle Tom and Aunt Kay’s house on Christmas Eve…I’ll be going to my mother-in-law’s house in the village to eat good African food and just visit with everyone around. Things will be quite different indeed, but still good. Merry Christmas everyone!

Oh and by the way, we’re most likely getting ourselves a puppy for Christmas!

Sorry!

Wow, sorry I've not lived up to my own expectations of writing another blog soon. Our laptop has been down for some good time. First we had to get it cleaned for viruses and in the process lost almost all photos. Now it has stopped booting up all together so we'll probably lose all documents now. It's not really practical for me to write blog updates at the internet cafes because it adds up to a lot of money.

So we're here, alive and well in the dry heat of December. Yes, I'm totally confused about the holiday season! It's so different. I'll try to be posting short updates for the time being until we can get the computer fixed again.

We miss everyone back home very much and hope you have a great holiday season!

History

This blog was actually written about a month ago and many things have kept me from posting until now. For example, as I was posting it there were riots breaking out in the street so we had to leave before it was posted. Life has just been generally inconvenient lately so this is the first I've been back to the blog since early September. Just enjoy thinking of it as an historical account! I will try very hard to post another update very very soon so that you will know the current situation. Thanks for reading!

Once upon a time...


...We had a big reception as a way of celebrating our marriage with friends and family here, and introducing me to the family members I’ve not met. It is indeed a very big family! As Uncle Manzi was introducing the family to me he would say something like, “All the girls who are a part of the Rabichwamba family, stand up.” Then about 25 of my cousins stood up! It was great to finally meet most of the aunts and uncles and see everyone all in one place. It was also good for Michael’s family to meet Rev. Henry and some of the USP staff. We really had a great time dancing, giving speeches, and eating great food and of course, cake.

The day was basically a success, except for the fact that we, the guests of honor were about 3 hours late to our own party! We were going to get ready from the family home in Kampala but we decided to go to a nearby salon for my hair instead of doing it ourselves. We told the guy we only had about 30 minutes and we thought he would do something simple and fast. 2 ½ hours later, my hair was done! He did a great job and was going as fast as he could, but he really put us in a tough position. Our party was starting on the other side of town and of course, I couldn’t leave with my hair halfway done, so we had no choice but to come very late. Once we got to the party everything was fine, but the morning was so stressful.

I’ve finally started teaching at the music school, but only one day a week for now. Originally they told me I would have ten students and more would come in September, but many of the students weren’t so committed or serious about lessons, so for now I’m only teaching 5 of them. So far it’s been a good experience because they are all at different levels. One of them is almost as good as me so sometimes I feel like I’m not very helpful, but it’s fun to teach him because he can play more interesting pieces. My youngest student is 12 and she is a talker! I can see that it’s going to be a challenge to get enough playing/teaching time in with her.

I’m glad that I will be around for a while because the students all have great potential. I would love to help them go far in improving their playing skills. I think now that they will have more consistency in their lessons they will improve quickly. The school usually just brings in visiting teachers whenever they are available, and these foreign teachers are usually only around for about a month at a time. If no one is visiting, they simply can’t offer cello lessons. One of my students wanted to know how long I was staying because she’s been playing for seven months, but she’s already had 6 different teachers. No wonder she’s struggling with basic techniques! I’ve also had about 6 different teachers, but in the last 12 years! So I hope with some stability, she will be able to improve quite a bit.

Michael is still looking for a job, but we’re hoping that one of the hotels he applied to will call him soon. One restaurant manager almost gave him a job, but apparently he was “overqualified” so they didn’t hire him after all. Ridiculous, I know. So for now we’re just trusting God that things will stabilize soon with jobs and finances.

Otherwise, we are still enjoying newlywed life, we enjoyed the beach again on Sunday afternoon, we love our church, and we hope to get more involved and connected there soon. We’ve been attending Deliverance Church in Mukono for about 2 months now and we’ve really been blessed by it so far. One of the things we’ve loved about it is that the people there are so genuine in love and faith. The church has many ministries including outreach programs, ministry to the less fortunate, etc. The music is lively and Spirit led, as well as the preaching. They really emphasize acting upon the word and doing the things we learn about in the sermon.

Application is seriously emphasized, for example, a few Sundays back, the pastor was talking about giving and being free with our money and possessions. It wasn’t a planned thing, but he just got so fired up about it that as he was encouraging us to go out and be givers to those around us, he just had everyone stand up and give something to someone else in the church! It was incredible! The pastor gave someone his tie and his watch, Michael gave someone his sweater because it was a very cold morning, and I hadn’t carried anything with me that day so I just gave someone a hug! It’s just really refreshing to go to a church with people who are genuine and want to act on their faith.

We will be joining a home cell soon, (a small group) and this coming Sunday I’ll be playing for offertory for the first time. Michael might be joining the choir in the near future too, so we’re excited to be joining the people there in ministry.

Tooth Fairy Vs. The Rats

I don’t know when or where the whole tooth fairy idea came about, but this week I learned from our neighbor boy that they have a very similar myth here in Uganda. Since he’s of the age of losing teeth, he started telling me how when he loses a tooth, he puts it in the corner of his bedroom and while he sleeps, a rat takes the tooth and leaves some money. I was so amused by this and I started to tell him how we do the same thing in the states only our parents tell us that there’s a tooth fairy who leaves us money. I almost told him how eventually, kids figure out that it’s really their parents who give them money, but then I realized he still hadn’t figured it out and there was no way I was going to spoil it for him!

This boy is quickly becoming our friend as he loves to come by to “converse” and see what we’re doing. When he wants to kick a ball around, he knocks softly on the door and asks me, “Is the neighbor in?” It’s so cute how he doesn’t call Michael and I by name, just “neighbor”. This boy has incredibly good English, in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever heard him speak in his native language. Once he starts talking, it’s hard to get away. One day after talking with him for some time I went inside to continue some work. When I came out a few minutes later he was there waiting and he said, “We are still conversing.” Some of the things he talks about cause me to think that I’m talking to an adult and then I remember that this boy can’t be more than 7, maybe 8 years old! I look forward to getting to know him and his family more in the future. We visited them once and they’re a great family. Lately we’ve gotten into the habit of gift giving...like the other day, Michael baked some bread rolls and told the boy to give them to his family. Immediately after taking them over, he came back with some bananas for us!

After some motherly nagging, I’ve finally made an apartment video tour as promised, so at the end of this post there is a glimpse of where we are currently living. Unfortunately my camera doesn’t record sound so it’s a silent film. Basically right now we have more space than we know what to do with. We’ll fill it up eventually but we decided just to get by with the basics until we are both working. Decorative things, and plants and flowers will come later, and we’re even doing without a fridge and a dining table for now. Those things are such necessities in the US, but it’s so easy to live without them here in Uganda. Most people don’t have them and would probably feel awkward anyways as eating at a high table is very Western. Our second bedroom is lacking beds right now but eventually we’ll be able to host visitors overnight. I can’t really compare the floor to anything in the US, but it’s basically a smooth, polished cement.

Anyways, we’re just enjoying having the place to ourselves and hosting visitors whenever they decide to come over. Our place has become quite the hot spot on Sunday afternoons! The last couple of weekends we’ve had 6-8 friends/sisters/cousins over at a time. I’m really loving Michael’s friends and family so much...we have the best time together eating, dancing, playing games and watching movies. I never expected to have such close friends this early on, but I’m so thankful for them.

Last Saturday we were tired of sitting around the house so we went to the beach in Entebbe with some friends. The waves were so good at Lake Victoria that day and we basically spent the whole afternoon jumping in the waves. I assumed that because this beach was the closest one to the airport that there would be a fair amount of tourists there...I was wrong. All eyes were on me and even when I was in the water everybody wanted to swim close to me. Maybe those who have a more outgoing personality would enjoy this but those who know me well won’t be surprised to know that this made me very uncomfortable! One high school boy even asked Michael if he could take a picture with me, as if I was some kind of celebrity! Thankfully I have a great husband who kindly said "no, sorry, this is my wife."

It just cracks me up because so many people on the street here look at me as some kind of big, important, celebrity and sometimes I just want to tell them how incredibly normal I am! It’s not easy to get used to this when the last thing I want to do is be the center of attention. It really gets to Michael too. Now he just stares right back at people, which makes them quickly look away in shame. We’re learning that if you don’t want to be stared at, you just have to stare back, because almost nobody wants to be stared at!

One Sock Short

I don’t buy it. I used to think that washers and dryers were sock eating machines, but yesterday I found myself coming up one sock short as I was laying them out to air dry. Even here in Uganda where we’re washing clothes by hand, we still end up with an incomplete pair! I don’t care what you say, you can’t blame the washing machines for stealing your socks.

I apologize for taking so long to write another update...I think there is a way that stability and routine will help solve that problem in the future. So much has happened in the last few weeks so I’ll try to just give a “quick” recap...we’ll see.

-We celebrated our 1 month anniversary on Tuesday, the 16th, but it feels like we’ve been married a lot longer!

-We’ve booked an apartment in Seeta (pronounced “Say-tah”), the town next to Mukono. We haven’t started occupying it yet because we’re still buying furniture, but we’re planning to make this Saturday our moving day. I’ll post some pictures as soon as I get some! In the meantime we’re staying with a friend of Rev. Henry named Rachel. I couldn’t stay at Reverend’s house anymore because we discovered that the cold/flu I thought I had was actually a result of staying in that house. I’m allergic to something, possibly bats, the furniture, who knows? All I know is that I begin sneezing and coughing almost immediately upon entering the house. So Rachel has been kind and generous enough to let us stay with her until the end of the month. It’s really a pleasure too, because she has a 6 month old baby named Jed who is just the happiest and most peaceful baby I’ve ever seen!

-Last week I applied to the Kampala School of Music to teach cello lessons and a week later I already have the job! I won’t be starting until August 10th but they assured me I have the job. This is definitely a God thing because it was just way too easy! I met the administrator a few weeks ago and talked with him for about 5 minutes. He told me to email him my resume and after seeing it he told me to call him. When I called he said we should meet to discuss a few details, but then called back a minute later and said that the visiting teachers are leaving in August so just come August 10th – that’s your starting date. Way too easy!!!!! Also, they apparently provide housing for their staff, so we may be getting even more help in that area in the coming months.

-I’ll be talking soon with some of the USP staff about ministry opportunities in the area so that I can start volunteering and serving somewhere soon.

-A couple weeks ago we had a family reunion of sorts for Michael’s Mom’s side of the family. We all met in Jinja at Grandma’s house and feasted! We ate in the traditional way of only using our hands, and it was quite entertaining for the kids to see an American eating this way! After feasting there was dancing of course, and I really got a kick out of watching the older folks jump up and dance. I think what really made it hilarious was actually the song that everyone first started dancing to – the new hit song in Uganda that is about bread and butter! The first time I heard it I couldn’t stop laughing because it’s these guys singing to their girls, “You are me bread and me buttah, me bread and me buttah”. Imagine your whole family getting up and dancing to this song...quite entertaining.

It was great to see Michael’s mom again and spend that weekend with her. My baby nephew Okello apparently doesn’t remember me at all from last year because he cries and hides every time he sees me! Hopefully he’ll get used to me as he gets older!













It’s official...we’ve deemed this the picture of the week! On our way back from Jinja we passed someone transporting goats in a most unusual way. He strapped 2 of the animals to himself and even made the boda driver carry one as well! Needless to say, they were ashamed.

Life is still a little bit hectic right now but God is providing for us all the time and I think life will be taking shape more in the next month or so.

Home Again

It’s good to be back in Uganda...I never realized how many little things I missed! Simple things like the natural sounds you hear at night, African tea, the sweetest pineapple on earth, and even Blue Band! Blue Band is basically the only brand of butter here and it’s so much sweeter than ours. Of course, I missed the people most of all. It has been amazing to see everyone here. In fact, it feels like I hardly left even though it’s been a year.

We arrived around midnight at the airport in Entebbe completely exhausted, but excited to be home. The most exciting part about our arrival for me was discovering that my cello was completely intact and even tuned to the same pitch that I left it in! I had heard so many horror stories about people putting their instruments under the airplane with the rest of the luggage and finding them crushed when they reached their destination that I swore I would never check mine as baggage. I was planning to just ship it through DHL but apparently something of that size costs about $2000 to ship that far...not an option! Since we found this out the day before we left for Uganda, we had no choice but to check it with the rest of our luggage and trust that God would get it there safely. Needless to say, God came through for us again! A big “THANK YOU” to all who prayed for it!

After spending the first night in Entebbe, Michael’s sister Barbara picked us up and had us stay at her house for lunch. She has 4 beautiful boys who I am proud to call my nephews. They were fascinated with my “guitar” and also had fun with the camera. I’m telling you if you just give kids here a little bit of trust and lend them your camera, they will take the best pictures. Here is some of their work...I think you can tell which one is Mr. Personality

Later that day I met some more of Michael’s family that lives in Kampala, and finally ended up in Mukono in the evening at my host family’s new house. My host father from last year, Musumba Henry, insisted that we stay with them until we find a place of our own...how could we refuse?! It’s been so good to be with this family again, especially Enoch. Sometimes he can be just as fun and sweet as he was last year, but other times he really lives up to the stage that he’s in...the terrible two’s. He’s talking a lot more now, and his favorite new words seem to be “motocar, vroom, vroom!” He really only speaks and understands Luganda, but he’s very good at copying and mimicking words and sounds – even when I cough or clear my throat he also does it!

So far we’ve been looking around Mukono and Kampala for cheap but decent apartments. There are definitely plenty of good options but it’s hard to decide where to live when we don’t know where we’ll be working. There’s a beautiful apartment in Mukono with a lot of advantages but we’ll most likely end up somewhere in Kampala. Michael’s friends and family have been so great, looking for places for us...people here really take care of you.

Unfortunately I came down with a cold about 2 days after we got here and throughout the week I’ve had it all – runny nose, sore throat, cough, fever, and aches. I’ve been taking more medicine than I knew what to do with and just to make things worse, on Friday I woke up with a very fast heart rate and almost no strength to do anything. I finally went to the doctor only to find out that it was just a reaction to some of the meds I was taking to get rid of the cold. So I guess that’s good news but we spent a lot of money to find out that information and walk away with some basic pain killers and vitamins.

Anyways, we’re really doing fine overall, though still very tired. Michael has been meeting often with his business partners about their travel company, and I’ve been attempting to rest though it’s still not enough. It’s going to take a while to adjust and really recover from the trip, so please pray for rest and strength in these next few weeks while we also look for jobs and housing. God has been so faithful every step of the way and we’re excited to see where exactly he takes us next!