The Downs...

It's hard to know how much I can write on here... I know many of my friends would say, "just write everything! I want to hear about the reality of your experience!" That's a nice thought... but I have realized lately the "reality" of life in Africa is so far removed from the reality of American life. For me to write about reality means that a lot of you might think that I have completely gone off my rocker!!! You might think that I have become cynical or an angry, bitter person. I'm really haven't but it may seem that way because it is very difficult for the American mind to wrap itself around a culture that is so unfamiliar to our own. Please don't think that I am insulting Americans... I'm not. I AM one of those Americans who has had a hard time wrapping her mind around this foreign culture for the last ten months!

That said, let me tell you about what we've been involved with the last 2 weeks. One of our goals upon arriving here was to get more kids sponsored for Christian Relief Fund. That task was a lot harder than it sounds. You can probably imagine the millions of orphans you here about lined up along the streets, totally innocent and in dire need of assistance. It's not that easy. We decided to emmulate a program that the Mbale team is using to find AIDS orphans in their area to be sponsored by CRF. It involves an application, reference letters from a pastor and the area chief, death certificates, and a home visit. Many orphans stay with grandparents or aunts & uncles. We have also taken into consideration single parent families, with the mother still alive. (The woman's place in society is so low it makes it difficult to provide for her family.) So, we made our applications, talked with our church evangelists (overseers/leaders for the churches), and started the process back in April. We took in several applications, weeded through them until we found the ones who seemed to be in the most need, and scheduled home visits.

Last Wednesday we started conducting the visits. Carrie & I went out with one of the evangelists each day from Wednesday through Saturday. We found ourselves in several different homes where we were very welcomed each time with some sort of food. We asked several questions and took pictures of each family. The home visits are important to clear up any confusion on the application, and to validify the orphan's situation. Africans are not ashamed to ask for anything (very unlike our culture), and will not stop short of telling a few lies to get something for themselves (very like our culture!). Because practically everyone here is in need, we really have to be careful about who we help. We have to retrain our minds to African standards instead of American standards. For instance, there is a difference between a nice mud hut and a not nice mud hut. Does this mud hut have a lot of well built furniture in it? Or merely a mat on the floor? At the same time, we are looking to see that the children actually live with the people who are claiming to take care of them. Where does the child sleep? Where does she go to school? These are things we've been looking at and asking about for the last two weeks. We felt last week was very successful. We didn't feel bad about any of the people we visited. They all seemed to be very honest and very much in need.

This week, however, has been a different experience. First of all, we had a pastor in one of the areas who thoroughly confused his church members as well as us about when the visits were taking place. He also had several church members who had already disqualified and had received letters of rejection. They were not happy with him or with us, so the first thing we did on Wednesday morning was have a meeting at his church with several of his members. The rest of that day was very difficult as most of our scheduled visits were told that we were not coming to visit them that day. (This was done in Swahili, and not translated to us.) We only ended up visiting one mama that day. And I ended up chewing out the pastor on the side of the road on our way back to car. I was angry, and I didn't feel well anyway, but that's no excuse. My behavior was embarrassing to me, but also to him. It was a major cultural faux pas. The next morning I apologized for my very un-Christlike behavior. I told him he was forgiven for his misgivings, and asked for forgiveness. I'm not sure I've been forgiven. He was pretty much done with us and our CRF program, but he did agree to show us where his church members lived so we could conduct the interviews. In each of the four interviews we conducted yesterday, we found at least one lie, which was very disheartening. The children are innocent, and families are in need, but if they can't tell the truth about what school their child goes to, how can we trust them with the money we would give them for school fees? This work can be a deep conundrum of dissappointing reality.

I guess I wanted to share this story with you because of the reality found in it. Living here is hard. I won't deny that. There are those great days when you get to dance because of the rain, and then there are those days that you find yourself chewing out a pastor on the roadside... I hope I have not ruined my credibility with you. My heart just longs to share this reality and be understood... I'm not sure if the understanding is entirely possible, but I can hope for it! I continually thank our God for his grace and mercy, and for His unending understanding of us. The more of life I experience, the more grateful I am to have such an incredible God!!!

Love,
Alita

Kanisa (Church)

Yesterday Greg & I went out to a village with Timothy Wamalya, one of our church evangelists for church. They were having a cluster meeting, which means that several church from around the area were all coming together to worship as one big group. The service got started around 11 am, and concluded around 3 pm. We had sheep, rice, potatoes and beans for lunch, followed by Kenyan chai. While we were eating lunch, a large storm started outside, dumping massive amounts of rain. It hadn't rained for a couple weeks, and people were starting to get concerned about their maize crops going bad. The rain usually stops after 10 or 15 minutes, but yesterday it just kept coming and coming. Timothy told me that when it rains when visitors have come, it means that the visitors are a blessing. Before we knew it, all the mamas in the church were up dancing and singing along to the keyboard that had brought in special for church that day. One of them grabbed me and I was in the middle of it all within seconds. It was so much fun! We all had cups of chai sloshing about as we stepped back and forth to the music. The joy was so evident on all of their faces. Thank you, God for the rain. Thank you, God for joy in the midst of struggling!