Hello family and friends, So as of right now it is approximately 5 days until I leave Uganda andgo back to the States. It is crazy to think that I have been gone for59 days!!! I am excited to get back to you, my friends and family;however, it is and will be hard knowing that I will be leaving thepeople here. I have made great relationships with several people herein Uganda and I will miss the local church too. They have been myfamily. So I have many mixed feelings but God has governed this timeand I know He has something BIG for me when I get back home -- likeMARRIAGE!!!Anyway, it has been a while since I updated you on what has been goingon here. First of all I wanted to tell you that Africans think thatWesterners (white people) have so much money that they don't have towork and even don't know how to work. When I say "work" I mean manuallabor. Well the other week I had an opportunity to serve the church.They wanted me to play the guitar for them because someone told them Iplayed (for those that know me well, you should know this is wrong! Icannot play a lick). So when I got to the church I saw a man outfront shoveling gravel for the church's walk way. Well thanks to myup-bringing, despite what Africans think, I can wield a shovel well.I immediately dove in, took the shovel from the exhausted man andstarted movin rock. Not only was he stunned but everyone at churchand the people walking by. Well the other church members would ratherme play guitar for them than shovel gravel so they basically orderedme inside (in a polite way). So they gathered around me and told meto play for them. Well I told them I really cannot but I will do mybest. They expected me to play notes that matched the notes of theresinging. I could not do this to save my life. After a short time, afriend from EMI came by who is musically talented and took over. Iwas so relieved and ran outside, before they could tried to get me todo something else musical, and helped the man shovel gravel. It wasso funny to see Africans walk by and stop to watch me work. They wereso stunned I knew how to shovel and use a wheel-barrel. Anyway I hada great workout, shed a lot of water because it was so hot and in themiddle of the day...incredible time.After I served the church in this way, I could tell I gained a lot ofrespect from the locals. They did not think muzungus (white people)could work hard. I was thankful for this opportunity God gave me toshow the Ugandans that Americans are not all lazy.I also tried a flying ant for the first time the other day. We wentto the directors house to play some games with the other staff when wenoticed hundreds of little insects moving in his garden. Weapproached the garden corner to see tons upon tons of flying ants(pretty big compared to our ants). Someone had told us that African children LOVE catching and eating these ants so I figured "now or never" --- so I tried one. You have to take off their wings (that iswhat the locals do) before you eat them. The ants do not taste like much and I was hungry at the time so followed my first ant with a fewmore of his friends. No other muzungu ate them but I thought it wouldbe okay.Well that is really all for now. We are working hard and long to makesure and meet our deadlines. I am excited to show everyone the reportfrom our work. It looks great!!I will share more stories for those who want to hear them when I gethome. God is doing great things here. Please be praying that He willuse me to impact lives even though I only have a few more days here.God bless friends.
John