Monthly Archives: February 2015

Nile horses and all sorts of others of God’s Creation

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Today was a day of celebration.A celebration of Gods beautiful creation.

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Dawn crossing the river Nile and meeting hippopotamus,and more hippos .No wonder the German name is Nile Horse.These wonderful creatures abide in abundance here. It was a day for observing .
Safari vans are strange environments and need a strong team of lookouts.Only the human will pose and we wanted to observe and be surprised  by the diversity of nature.But one surprise was the human diversity.The keen ‘through the camera lens ‘spotter, the silent,the experienced and the sleepy snoozers,were all part of our team.I wanted uniformity of lookouts but humans offer diversity too  and  it made no difference to a wonderful stage of wild creatures who did not disappoint.Almost too many to mention, all things bright and beautiful ,strange and majestic ,the Lord God made them all.Crocodile and elephants,leopard and hyena,fish and kingfishers,warthogs and monkeys ,cliffs and waterfalls. Some humans wondered why the diversity,some explained ‘survival of the fittest’ .Diversity of worldview and lack of thought of  whom to praise for the staggering beauty of trim ,fit,birds and animals was apparent in our diverse humans. Species watching and mining out worldview and.sharing our own are part of our daily task in communication.We laughed together over supper in the evening at our own need for  a little bit of people watching.

But back to the day of nature .

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And the mighty Nile reduced to a gushing waterfall width of seven metres before spreading to the descending majestic waters lined by papyrus reeds of Ancient Egypt.

And the flies.Barely a bother today
but a great contributor to the wealth of today.After Mr and Mrs Baker ,discovered the falls for the Royal Geographic Society,it was not long before the helpful locals were struck down by Sleeping sickness .Some were eventually evacuated from the area and some were left to die. With the humans reduced to exiles the animals could flourish and a game reserve and national park was formed. The carrier of disease was the Tstse fly . We owe the abundance of Gods creation in part, to activity of the fly. As I write I can hear a fly .Do not underestimate the smallest of creatures or dismiss the stranger who’s human.

The Tour and the Tourists

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It’s Mr and Mrs this week,with work turning to holiday and visits to Albert Nile and Victoria Nile,Lake Victoria and Lake Albert.
It’s strange dipping into tourist role and seeing other Muzungos.It’s great having even a short spouse sharing time.So we passed sugar cane and papaya,tea and papyrus growing commercially and limiting the preserved rainforest. Commercial necessity giving a nod to nature.

And then we entered tourist world.A strange dance of charm and mistrust,generosity and disappointment, meanness and ‘who cares ? It’s a holiday’ and elation and disbelief. Strangers become contract partners. The luggage a  supposition is that the last person looking vaguely like this one has already set the unbreakable rules of engagement. And as that happens a strange bilateral hint of unspoken dissatisfaction  smoulders. Unspoken  lest the tourist has suspicions aroused ,lest the tourist closes the wallet, less the tourist spoils the holiday atmosphere,less the local doesn’t deliver.
But these sentiments were barely a factor in our paddle to Jinja’s source of the Nile .We were treated to sights of otter,large lizards,kingfishers,monkeys,fish and a myriad of colourful birds. They circle the bubbling water that breaks out of the ground and kisses the outlet of Lake Victoria on it’s way to make power.Power,after tourism as the second,no,third after fishing, use of the Nile waters before it’s many life giving roles on it’s 4000 mile journey.
And so the Victoria Nile parts the silt and the rocks and thunders down into Lake Albert.And tourism embraces the narrowest  Nile and the  wonder of tourists pays respect to the possession of nature.
And in the relaxation camp ,maybe a hippo or a warthog will come by and add value to the moment of the tourist.Random bonanza for a cluster of foreign passer bys and justifying the special Muzungo prices.No exchange for nature that just passes by.Our forests are cleared ,our mountains are bare and our nature is squeezed. May the conservation work of nature flourish wherever it is and the tariffs paid back into nature.The love and the loathing of  tourism.

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Traffic ballet

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To my generation who don’t know Uganda,Entebbe means one thing. Days of tension,anguish ,heat and dehydration and then the storming of the hijacked plane on the runway by Israel.It was a brutal week in a land being schooled in brutality.

But Uganda has moved a long way under the current leadership and brutality is not its voice and the Lords resistance army’s active terror is diminished.
Entebbe may still mean airport,but it means connections,and travel,modernity and progress.A new connecting road to Kampala is being built.
But until then, the route is a dodge game of gap grabbing drivers of cars,minibuses,trucks,motorbikes,bicycles ,interspersed with risk taking pedestrians and impatient in-line skaters.Yes ,rollerbladers,squeezing the gaps.

So many capital cities catch up with ‘How to reach the airport’ years after the cumulative delay time can be measured in decades. So collecting at Entebbe twice in 24 hours was a special call on patience. Two carefully co ordinated arrivals expected on the same plane were thwarted by strength of wind in Yeadon and arrival times were shifted to a separation of 11 hours.
The very early second start for Entebbe was almost featureless,but not the first call out at 7 pm.
The traffic flow,full of disbelief and absent risk aversion included an inner circle of roundabout motorcyclists in the dark travelling in opposite flow to the main traffic.As a choreographed piece of theatre it may have looked wonderful,but the lights on the vehicles were random and the jerky braking of late see-ers spoilt the ballet .And anyway the in line skater proved unpredictable.
Then the stops.Stop.
And the motorcycles moving as if they were plaiting threads around the stationery vehicles.
And the fuel consumption on standing still and the concentration needed but teased by the texting taxi driver.
It was horrible and I don’t want to write anymore about it.
Well done,my drivers,you were superb.

Hallelujah Chorus

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I couldn’t let last Saturday go by without a note on the blog. Being a foreigner at a celebration always heightens the senses ,as the subtle understood-by-the -locals conventions trip you up . I was called upon to represent all the UK supporters and tripped arrogantly forgetting the interpreter.But the level of education in English is high and forgiveness and gentleness flow in abundance here.

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It really was an extraordinary day
Extra Ordinary in the sense that ordinary things and ordinary people achieved extra things and became extra special.Faith grasped the hand of extra ordinary love and extraordinary hope.
Seven hundred or was it eight hundred were fed and the school children had extra and the left over drinks are now lazing in the cool fridge.
The event was superb,celebratory,happy,relaxed,joyful,peaceful and so colourful.Polished shoes and shiny hair ,pressed suits and the long celebratory dresses of a Sunday Best mingled with dust free school uniforms .And a retired clergyman looked immaculate after a twenty mile journey on the back of a BodaBoda (motorbike)  on dust roads.Living with dust is an art.

It was called a consecration of a Bishop….he also had a big seat but it wasn’t called a throne.And the mitre and the crook were all in place as symbols of shepherding the people of God. And after that a new team of pastors were ordained ,twenty in total.Men and women who share the gospel with the poor in the villages and in the towns.People who know their livelihood will be lacking numerous high value shilling notes .They know their Christian calling  and they learn from their Bishop that financial wealth is dwarfed by spiritual satisfaction and fulfilment.The poor will always be with us .
And that was part of the extraordinary.That from a congregation of  the not so well off ,the generosity flowed to provide food,music, hospitality,air fare, renovations and laughter so that the poor could enjoy it,the government ministers could worship,the old and the babies embrace and the military and the civilian dance together in a loud hallelujah ..Ugandan style .

Dressing up

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Busy,busy busy. Everyone is busy.Painting plastering polishing, and still planning. Tomorrow is a very important day as the new Bishop is consecrated. This will be my fourth celebration of a new Bishop in under a year. Not York Minster this time, but under canvas and the open skies of Uganda. And this time, I am very much in on the celebration preparation as my Anglican trained host is to be consecrated. With so many new and vibrant churches,this great teacher has been asked to shepherd the pastors.

Instead of the cathedral, the campus here will be the site of worship. As it is each Sunday. Any  tidying and  improvements will be lasting for the school church community here. But  I  have to stand back a little bit and admire the paced coolness of last minutedness ,as the preparation has had to match the budget and the income comes in at the very last minute.
It’s definitely an African new outfit day with smartness paying respect to dignity.Smartness an act of joyful worship to God.
I’ve seen the Bishop’s robes, but the mitre will be ready 16 hours before its needed. Priorities lay elsewhere. Uh? Bishop’s crook?
Meanwhile  I’ve just been out for a lastminute smart new bag.

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We expect an amazing day of celebration and worship. Pray with us  please.Psalm 23. The Lord is my Shepherd.

http://www.revivalcentrematugga.Co.UK

North South Divide

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If you are a sailor of the seven seas knowing where you are is important. Well, that’s true for landlubbers too.
But sailors used the plughole phenomenon for centuries to know if the equator was crossed.Now they tell me the white line across the road is it.

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Back to the plughole.
Clockwise?  The north

Anticlockwise the south

and straight down… Right on the equator

Then people forgot the old skill and then they said it was fairytale. But a real divide, not an artificial East West of Greenwich.

Explain. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-somebody-finally-sett/?WT.mc_id=send-to-friend http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-somebody-finally-sett/?WT.mc_id=send-to-friend s it.http:// http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-somebody-finally-sett/?WT.mc_id=send-to-friend http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-somebody-finally-sett/?WT.mc_id=send-to-friend s it.

Web Logger’s Cramp

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Wednesday  18 th February 2015

I  was sure I wasn’t going to write today.All this blogging by finger on a phone getting a drag.And then the auto spell thing coming up with just the word  I  don’t want.And I need to upload by WiFi and not the more usual 3G. It’s hot. The Internet cafe is closed.

But  there’s lots to blog to express rather than blog to impress. The everyday.Shopping. Walking home and buying from the numerous stalls. I aim to use a variety of local shops.It’s must be ssooooo boring sharing a dusty sheet with tomatoes,onions and pineapple.Or a bowl full of  delicious mango.

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Waiting and hopeful to sell.Waiting all day before they all shift. But that’s not as dirty as selling charcoal and the colours of the fruits here are numerous. The charcoal black black and dirty. A few sellers are active whilst they wait, the dressmakers, the meat friers,but many sit silently, some cast a watchful eye on their youngsters playing in the dust nearby and some chat chat chat. Yesterday’s shrove Tuesday pancake has a creative element to the selling process

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The nature of so much commerce worldwide and an non considerable occupation for those of us shielded by education,privilege and power. I don’t mean non considerable for us to do.I mean we don’t consider the tedium of the necessity for so many.  Some have shops,less dusty but dark, and they stock  the things I want today.Nail varnish. Scissors. Toothpaste. In my arrogance, I’m always surprised what a dark tiny shop can stock.Isn’t this what we are fighting for in Europe.. to keep the highstreet shop? to support the farmer’s market.

I’m wondering how many of these shopkeepers are confined by necessity. How many might have moved off the dusty road side if opportunity had given them wings to fly?
Some students lose education because they drop out through lack of money,too much pressure to achieve,or illness or pregnancy. Few through lack of ambition.All want a bright future . Most school children  board. It frees the parents to work and avoids the congested school run. it brings order and focus and stops the children being goatherds.Students need to bring most things with them and they get to school however. Here,with mum and possessions on a motorbike, staying for three months at a time.

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My mile walk home brings lots of interaction with locals at work.The very small start that some seller’s make is to be applauded and is to be supported. We haven’t had a glut of produce at home  as a result of.my encounters,just exquisite mango and pineapple. No long food chain,no refrigeration no supermarket forcing the producers to an unreasonable price.Sellers doing a great job, needing brisker trade to encourage and rise up from the dusty sheet.

Giving

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Sunday February  15 th  2015

I’m about to sleep in a quiet place tonight up on the hill where the water goes anticlockwise down the plug.It’s a beautiful African  night with the frogs croaking, and no cockrel. I might sleep too well but I hope I see the sunrise over the lake.

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I’m giving thanks to God for meeting some very special people this evening and this weekend. For  their generosity in giving their time, money, resources and lives to helping others.It is good to hear their stories, listen and learn.

Beatrice and her husband are well educated Ugandans with good jobs.They largely finance their missions to areas of North East Uganda where the hens roost high in the trees and the trauma of the Lord’s Resistance Army still affects man and beast.(Is he that is on trial in the Hague not victim and perpetrator?) They educate and give health care,support churches to serve and rebuild their communities. We laughed a lot and shared news of common acquaintances. We tried to found a FB page for their organisation whilst they relished fish and chips with Internet.Faith inspiration.

I’ve  never heard of a doctor celebrating 50years of work, but this evening I have met a very rare lady.Tales of tooting her horn at a tank  and miraculously seeing it move out of her way in a war zone in Angola .Pioneering work in Uganda for those with consequences of obstructed labour and a lasting legacy of a teaching healing facility. I’m going to learn a lot  here from this long serving nun.
http://renouncereverb.com/2012/05/29/a-new-beginning/

And today we remember a martyr of Uganda. Archbishop Janini Luwum.
Killed by Idi Amin.It was the price of his Christian discipleship that made him say ‘ I live as though there shall be no tomorrow. While the opportunity is there I shall preach the Gospel with all my might and my conscience is clear before God.”    see link
The preacher at the memorial service will be the UKs best known Ugandan, and sufferer under Amin, Rt Rev John Sentamu, Archbishop of York.

Www.archbishopofyork.org/articles.php/2365/janini-luwum

And we hear of Coptic Christians martyred today.Sudanese, Iraqis, Pakistanis, Nigerians,Syrians,Indonesians, all have recent Christian martyrs in their number.And silent news on others. Giving their lives as they live out their discipleship of Christ.

Is  there a response?