God seems to be closing doors and opening windows, or it feels that way anyway. After many weeks and numerous e-mails, the vendor has still not provided us with the information we need to purchase the portable water-testing laboratory, so we have not returned to Kampala as planned. Instead, we took a three-day trip to the district of Soroti in northeast Uganda (about a 4½ hour drive from Jinja). Our widow friend Esther and her family have formed a company called Vital Seeds for Africa to assist widows and needy families in Soroti. Northern Uganda has historically received less aid money and less attention from the Uganda government than the south, so help is desperately needed. Therefore, we are partnering with Vital Seeds as part of our widows program in hopes of reaching some of the poorest of the poor. 
While in Soroti, we stayed in Esther’s family compound, where they cooked traditional African foods for us and made us feel extremely welcome. Esther’s granddaughter Emimah celebrated her third birthday with a cake. I am known to Emimah as “my mzungu” since I was the first white person that ever held her and touched her, but Gordon’s quickly becoming “my mzungu” too.
Clay Pot Refrigerator
Temperatures are higher in Soroti than in Jinja, so Gordon suffered from heat exhaustion after we arrived on Saturday. Saturday evening I accompanied Esther to her mother’s village. The sun was beginning to set, and the village life seemed so peaceful, and yet it is so hard. This picture shows their refrigeration in the village – a large clay pot for holding cold water from a well approximately 2½ miles from their village. I really enjoyed the trip, and I’m trying real hard to learn some essential phrases in Ateso – another new language besides Luganda and Lusoga, which are spoken in Jinja. Esther’s son was actually quite surprised at how well I was remembering the words, since “old people usually don’t have such good memories”. (Ugandans say the darndest things!)
By Sunday afternoon, Gordon was starting to feel better, so we visited another village where Esther had married and had three children. Unfortunately, Esther’s husband was shot and killed at the age of 33 during one of several insurgencies that have occurred in the north, and it brought back difficult memories for her.
On Monday we visited the agricultural college at Busitema University in Soroti. We met with several of the faculty, were given an incredible reception, and they have invited Gordon to be a Senior Lecturer and teach classes in soil and water. Their campus has been around since the 1950’s, but much of it was destroyed in the looting and battles that have taken place in the last 30 years. The economy of the Soroti area and almost all of northern Uganda is based on agriculture, so the key to improving lives and alleviating poverty in the north is to improve their ability to grow crops and raise livestock. This is potentially a very useful way for us to help needy families on many different levels.
We left Soroti on Monday afternoon with a trunk full of luggage, three turkeys and a hen. The hen was a gift to us from Esther’s sister, and the turkeys were being transported back to Jinja so they could be sold. Every time we went over a bump (which were too many to count), the turkeys would let us know that they didn’t like it much – it was quite comical. We were also spared a bad collision with a large truck when we were about 30 minutes from Jinja, so we are grateful.
Esther’s sister, Esther, Esther’s Mom, and me
Two days after we returned to our home, I was asked to be the bookkeeper at Amani Baby Cottage, an orphanage in Jinja. Our landlord’s wife is the Director there, and their bookkeeper is leaving, so they need someone immediately. It’s a way that I can serve, and it’s for a good cause, so I’ll help them out, at least for now.
We would like to ask for your prayers for Esther’s health. She has many serious medical problems, and we are taking her on Monday to a clinic for further evaluation. As always, please continue to pray for our health, safety, and God’s guidance in serving here where there are so many needs. We need to seriously consider whether to continue with the groundwater program and bookkeep at the orphanage, or whether we should shift to Soroti for Gordon to teach at the agricultural college, while I work more closely with Vital Seeds. If you are partnering with us and have any strong feelings regarding this decision, please e-mail me. Thank you!
“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” Proverbs 16:9
Stories from Uganda 