Into Africa, Part Deaux: Day 8

DATELINE:  Near Byali, Uganda.  10:43 P.M Village time.  That’s 2:43 P.M. CST for those of you keeping score at home.

I’M IN DE-NILE!

This morning our team had a wonderful and unique opportunity.  Because Cindy leaves tomorrow, she needed some time alone with the children to explain to them about what is happening over the next few weeks.  Mike suggested that this might be a great time for us to go exploring on the Nile…and who were we to argue with that logic?!?

So off we went…in the tipper once again.

Unlike last November, there was no sitting on the floorboards in the back for me.  No, my friends, this time I rode like the wind, standing tall behind the cab…and holding on for dear life.

Perhaps I should back up and explain a bit here.  Last night was a rough night for those of us in the “Experiencing Africa” hut.  First of all we discovered upon arrival that we had a nest in our hut near the doorway, filled with about 3 eggs.  All day yesterday there was a chicken that was desperate to get into our hut.  She kept pacing around the doorway, attempting to sneak past us whenever we opened the door.  Finally she gave up and flew through the window.  Sure enough, next time we went in our hut, there were 6 little eggs in that nest.  Last night, it rained on and off all throughout the night.  I was enjoying the sound of the rain on our little grass roof, and especially pleased at how dry and cozy we were…until I felt a “THUD” on my mosquito netting…followed by scritching and scratching noises underneath my cot and the feel of something crawling below me.  That scritching and scratching continued for quite awhile around the hut, interspersed with the sound of gnawing and chewing.  Finally, I heard the scratching proceed up the wall near my bed and – presumably – out of our hut in the small space where the wall meets the roof.  Though unconfirmed – I truly believe in this case ignorance is bliss – I’m pretty positive we had a rat exploring our hut.  It took me awhile to wrap my mind around that one and calm down enough to get to sleep, so morning came awfully early.  And when it did, the floorboards of that old tipper were awfully puddly and muddy.

We still had a blast bumping down the road, shouting “Bump!”  or “Branch!” as we rumbled along.

The locals all waved at us as we passed by.  I was able to once again pretend to be the queen of the parade as we waved at anyone who could see us.

We bounced our way to the mouth of the Nile.  It’s really not that far from the village, surprisingly.

As we were milling about, waiting for directions, one of the dugout “drivers” came up to our group and barked, “One!  Two!  Three!  Four!  You!   With me!!   Come!!”  and the four people he pointed to dutifully boarded his dugout.  Seinfeld’s Soup Nazi has got *nothing* on this guy.  I ended up in a dugout with Rob, Charles, Mike, and Jon…all good strong men.  Handy to have on board in case of an emergency.  Once again, I was queen of the canoe.

Some of the canoes had more interesting passengers than others.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWBp8jYIzWA[/youtube]

And in case you weren’t bored out of your mind from that first video, here’s another.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZnnTtWXNUE[/youtube]

You can see it was really exciting stuff.

We crossed over to the other side and explored a bit.

It was amazing to see how swiftly the current moved while were on the other side!  You don’t realize it when you’re on the river but that thing is MOVING.  And of course, we had to document our survival in making it to the other side.

As we explored, we saw some very interesting things.  First of all, this fishing net:

And some old, broken dugouts:

And these plants, which looked like something straight out of Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who or The Lorax.  I half-expected them to be called “foozaloop trees” or something like that.  But instead, they’re called “papyrus.”

We also saw a stone chair…under a tree…in the middle of nowhere.

And sheep with REALLY long tails.

But I think the most interesting thing we saw – at least from my perspective – was this piece of driftwood lying on the ground:

Look carefully, folks.  That’s MAHOGANY there.  Just lying on the ground.  Probably $1,000 or more worth of beautiful hard wood.  I found out several days later from Rose that what we call “Mahogany” and “beautiful, expensive wood” in America is also known as “firewood” in Africa.  But I guess that’s okay, because in Africa, an “exotic” rabbit is also known as a “cottontail” or “jackrabbit” or “nuisance” in America.  Oy.

Once I recovered from that discovery, it was time to head back.   We dutifully loaded up in our proper dugouts, and Jeff actually took the helm in his.

Robert will tell the tale of how he – singlehandedly – saved our entire dugout from great peril, at tremendous risk to his own life, while paddling from one side only and taking pictures at the same time.  Here’s proof of this amazing, heroic man at work:

For my part, I was responsible for keeping the balance in the boat, apparently.  Since I was the only passenger sharing a seat, I had to sit closer and closer to Charles to keep the boat leaning to one side so Mike could bail and the driver could battle the current.  As he kept telling me “move closer!  move closer!”  I figured at some point I would end up on Charles’ lap.  His response, “It’s okay.”  I’m sure it was, Charles.  Just see how happy he looks?

We did make it safely to the other side and rode the tipper back to the village.  Even in Africa, you still gotta deal with traffic jams:

On the way, we picked up two villagers and dropped them off at the village center near VoH.  Of course, all the children came out to wave at the mzunga’s.

When we returned, Cindy was done with her meeting and shared with us how it went.  God really granted her strength to be able to explain the situation with clarity and level-headedness, and also to deal with the emotional reactions of the children.  I know it’s hard for her to leave with so much uncertainty but we have assurance that our big, loving God is in charge.

We prepared for our afternoon session of English, crafts, Bible story, and singing.  It went much more smoothly than yesterday.  We kept the kids in one large group rather than dividing them up and that helped.  We were able to do much more in a shorter amount of time.  We taught them “The B-I-B-L-E” and “Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah!”  They especially loved the second one.  Because teaching comes so naturally to me, and because I love to sing and interact with the kids, I felt like maybe I overstepped my bounds today and did more than I should have.  Mindee seemed okay with it – I was constantly asking her – but I’ll need to make a conscious decision to take a step back tomorrow.  But honestly, it is just too much fun!!  After our lessons we had some time to just hang out with the children.  Geoffrey came up to me and started to fill in my Acholi book with singular and plural phrases.  It’s so cute the ways they think of to teach the teacher!

The afternoon “free time” session was spent with some celebratory dancing in honor of Cindy’s last night here.  For a couple hours, the children danced and sang for us.

This dance is a girls’ dance…designed for girls to just have fun dancing after a long day.

There is even line dancing in Africa!!

The boys make up the “drumline”…and it is LOUD.  Even outside.

As we watched the children dance, teacher Denis came up to me and asked to spend some time with me tomorrow as he had some questions regarding the music curriculum.  Are you kidding me?!?  I get to spend time with the teachers going over CURRICULUM?!?  I had to pinch myself…that this was actually happening!!  I have no idea if I will be able to answer his questions – particularly regarding solfege – but I am so honored and excited for the opportunity to even be asked.  Since we will have large blocks of time with the children tomorrow I think it will be easy for me to step away for part of the sessions.

Denis continued to visit with me – asking lots of questions about life in America.  His questions were very pointed and we spent a great deal of time discussing the different traditions particularly regarding marriage.  We both came to the conclusion that neither the Ugandan way of arranged marriages nor the American way of choosing your own spouse is a perfect system.  There are definite abuses of the way God intended for men and women to come together in marriage in both cultures.  But when it works, in either country, the result can still be honoring to God and a beautiful reflection of His love for us.

After the dancing, we enjoyed another delicious dinner under the big African sky and twinkling stars.  This was our last dinner with Chris and Maddie and Cindy, and we commemorated it with a game of “Two Truths and  Lie.”  We began it with just the mzunga’s playing , but pretty soon we had the staff and teachers joining in!  Richard had – by far – the most creative one!  It was so much fun to learn about them.

After another awesome evening worship with the children – with the rain pouring down hard outside – we bid the children good-night.  They tried to teach me how to say, “I love you all” and “I have you in my heart” but I’ve forgotten the words.  Once they were safely in their houses, we finished off our night with – yes, you guessed it – another unforgettable game of Hearts.