Last Sunday we had the pleasure of celebrating our first anniversary! We thought through a lot of different ways to celebrate like going to Murchison Falls on safari, going to a nice restaurant in Kampala, or having a big party and celebrating with friends. Originally I was ready to go the American way and have a romantic dinner for two (after the realization that safaris can get expensive!). Later on however, we realized my birthday would be taking place 5 days after our anniversary, so we just decided to have one big party to celebrate both events.
It turned out to be a great day of eating good food, cake, playing cards, and having serious debates. Yep, that’s right. We “discussed” (at the top of our lungs, sometimes sitting , sometimes standing) things like politics, religion, where to buy your clothes, DSTV, and the meaning of a “simple” life. What else can you do at a party when the power’s out all day? We were afraid it would be too quiet without music and movies...little did we know we had great debators in our midst who all prefer to shout at the same time.
In the evening we decided that instead of sitting in a dark house we should enjoy the great outdoors, so we actually carried all our furniture outside and set up a new living space on the lawn. Probably the biggest hit of the day was our wedding album. It is a beautiful storybook album with the pictures printed directly onto the pages. The comment of the day was “This is not in Uganda”, meaning that technology is not yet used here for things like personal albums. Wedding albums here are simply full of regular pictures, and it’s common for friends and family to take a picture or two for themselves once they see the album. When people see our album, their first response is to complain in a joking way that they can’t take any pictures home with them. Personally I’m grateful it worked out that way...OUR wedding pictures! You can’t have them!
The last year has been so good but also extremely challenging. At least my challenge of missing American food has been taken care of for now as I will soon be receiving a package from Mom and Dad which contains Mac & Cheese! Also, some of my friends from Britain that I work with at the music school treated me to lunch yesterday at an American style coffee shop with really good sandwiches. And of course, I’m so grateful for my wonderful chef of a husband who is always willing to step in and make me french fries when I get tired of African food.
Seriously though, besides that “crisis” we have not had an easy time with jobs and finances. My work at the music school is part time and many of my students are unreliable. Michael’s travel company has not picked up a lot of business yet either, but of course it is common for new things to take time and even get off to a rough start. We are really seeing that with our music ministry at the blind school as we are still struggling to get consistent transport to the school every weekend.
However there are many opportunities coming up for us that we are praying will keep us busy in the near future. There’s a good chance I and a violinist friend of mine will begin playing in some of the big hotels around Kampala to provide dinner music for various functions. Also, a job has opened up in the Uganda Studies Program at UCU that I have half a chance of getting since I’m a former student. There is a good chance that Michael will be working one or two jobs in Gulu as a chef and hotel manager in the very near future. While he would be living a long distance away most of the week, we still see it as a good opportunity for a time until something else comes along. As for the project at the blind school, we have discovered that there is a missions organization in our area that sometimes rents out their vans, especially to other ministries.
These are just a few of the possibilities we are looking forward to in the near future. Despite some of the challenges we have faced, God has allowed us enjoy our first year of marriage and grow in love for each other. In fact, the challenges that we have come through have been good reminders that without God we can do nothing. We owe him everything. He has kept us going in ways that we never could have on our own and brought us through situations that could bring anyone down if not for God’s help.
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