We got to sleep in on Sunday; the van didn’t arrive until 10:00. There was very little traffic as we drove to the church and we were entering by 10:30. It was cloudy, which was unusual for this time of year because the rainy season should have ended in late May.
We went in and were greeted warmly by the congregation. We learned that the chair people were unable to meet our order, but that they had loaned us 100 chairs for the service. Everyone had a seat for the first time in more than a year!
As we started in, Joseph told me that he and I needed to take a ride in the van while David preached. He said that a new church was forming near Najeera and they wanted to join us in the EPC. He said he would tell me when.
The music was wonderful! Joseph had set up the service around traditional music, but there were no drums. I asked and was told the drums were in the office. Since the church now has a keyboard, they rarely use drums, so I figured they weren’t using them at all anymore.
Joseph asked me to talk about the chairs and to introduce the visitors. The congregation was so excited to learn that they would have another 100 chairs of their own the following week!
Joseph introduced David, then walked off the stage, motioning to me as he went. I followed him to the van where Vincent was waiting. The sky was a menacing gray as we drove through Kiwatule. We turned onto a side road, then again onto a narrow, rutted dirt road. We followed it down a steep hill to a swamp, then up out of the swamp to a house with a trail beside it that wasn’t big enough for a mountain bike. Vincent turned into the track just as it began to rain. We had to pass so near a house that I can’t believe the door handles remained attached to the van!
Vincent drove about 100 yards down the track and stopped. We jumped out and Vincent handed me an umbrella. The rain had turned from steady to downpour. We hurried across a small field to the church, two pieces of corrugated metal suspended above six wooden polls. The structure was attached to the back of a storage building. Twenty worshipers plus at least as many kids were waiting for us, and they clapped when we got under the roof. I met Pastor Elliot, a friend of Joseph’s. They had been studying the Bible together for some time, and Elliot decided that he wanted his new church to have some accountability in it so he chose to approach the EPC.
Six members of the congregation came forward to sing. Their voices were incredibly pure and the drummer was very talented. And the drums looked very familiar. Joseph saw me looking. “Yes, they are the drums you bought us. We have loaned them to them because they have none.” I never understand this about Uganda. It would have been easy to tell me this earlier rather than saying they were in the office!
Suddenly, the sky opened up and it rained as hard as I have ever seen it rain. The sky was visible through the joint where the two corrugated sheets came together and there were also several holes in the roof. I was suddenly drenched! We moved to the opposite side of the structure while the congregation moved their chairs up onto what was meant to be a stage. It’s a good thing this stage was higher than their seats because water was nearly ankle deep there. I tried to talk to them through Joseph’s translation as the rain grew harder still. The pounding on the roof was deafening and I almost had to scream to be heard. The blowing rain made being there miserable.
After my comments, Joseph made a few more, then Elliot a few more after that. Finally, Joseph said it was time to go. The field we had crossed earlier was thoroughly soaked. Several areas were badly flooded, but with careful navigation, my umbrella and I managed to stay in areas that were simply muddy and as slick as glass, not the place my feet need to be right now. But I made it to the van, and so did Vincent and Joseph.
I wasn’t sure how we would get out, but Vincent put the van in 4 wheel drive, and we pulled into the mud road without any problems. Once on normal mud, he drove as fast as he usually did and we arrived at the church just as David finished. We visited with church members I hadn’t seen since Christmas and Lisa hadn’t seen in three years! Kiwatule felt like home.
We’ve often laughed that the van is like the old Volkswagen at the circus that pulls up and lets up person after person after person. On Sunday, we saw an amazing feat. There were the six team members in the van with Vincent driving. Joining us were Michael and his wife Mabel, Joseph and his wife Lydia, and Dan and his very pregnant wife Robinah (which we quickly learned is never mentioned in Uganda!). That’s 13 in a van approved for 14 passengers. But Vincent wanted to take his kids home. He has twelve, and he squeezed every one of them into the back seat! That’s 25 in a van that holds 14!
We took Vincent’s kids home and waited for his wife, Aggatha. She finally came up the steep hill from Vincent’s house and we set off to eat fish. The flash flood had settled to steady rain now, and there were very few cars on the road. Vincent wound through town, then turned off at a road I didn’t recognize, then again into the road leading into one of the nicest resorts I’ve ever seen anywhere. It is also quite expensive. But there was bumper-to-bumper traffic between us and the gate and a huge sign welcoming people to a conference. We decided to move on.
We went to a much different resort, one where we’ve eaten many times. The ride in is disconcerting. It is a neighborhood of terrible poverty. The road is dirt and rutted and it is lined with tiny wooden shacks with people selling just about anything you can think of. There are always cows and goats in the street and the people never wave at all. There is a gate at the end of this street, and it swings open to reveal the resort.
Apparently the owner has started a large number of projects, from a six floor hotel which has a wall missing to a series of buildings right on Lake Victoria, each in some early phase of construction. The result of all of this is that the grounds of the resort look like a post-apocalypse movie set. Vincent parked by the kitchen, the only in tact building on the grounds, and we climbed out. There was an overwhelming smell of very old frying oil. We tried to ignore it as we walked past the open door. A waitress who never once smiled led us down to one of the unfinished buildings near the water. Joseph ordered a large fish and chips for all of us. David, however, was feeling sick and didn’t want one. Joseph made the order, however, so it was too late to cancel it.
Although it was still a bit cloudy, the rain had moved on, We sat under a metal roof in this unfinished building and watched the lake traffic. Everyone on the commercial ferries had on life preservers, something we had never seen before. We learned that this was the result of a sinking a few months ago where more than 30 people died. The government mandated life preservers after that.
Our fish finally arrived, three unbelievable trays of huge fish. They sat them in front of David and he quickly turned green! We asked for plates, but the waitress didn’t even acknowledge the question, so we began eating with our fish atop our chip bowl. The plates came as we were almost finished. As always, the fish was delicious, although mine was a bit too done this time. And as always, our team collected up every morsel that wasn’t eaten. They took the picked over fish home for their kids to eat.
As we walked out to the car, Bill stopped me. “I must say when I smelled that grease, I set my expectations very low. That fish really beat what I expected. I actually liked it!”
Traffic had really picked up as we started back into town. We crawled through the still damp streets until we reached our hotel. We said our goodbyes, and went up to our rooms. There was no thought of dinner. We were stuffed.
Our bag had not been delivered. The people at the front desk assured us that the manager was on top of the situation and we would have our bag on Monday.
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