Bored in a Cafe

Another day has past. It is now Sunday and I am at the internet café again. I am trying to upload a video for Chardon United Methodist’s church service today. It is a video of a Rock Foundation School child (well, past student) reading the scripture for today’s sermon. Friday, we, Dave Weir and myself) spent close to 4 hours in a Ugandan Post office trying to upload the first YouTube video of a interview between Pastor Dan (from Chardon UMC) and a former Rock Foundation student. That upload only took about 9 hours. The internet here is all satellite based and is between the speed of dial-up and DSL. Hopefully this upload will go a little faster. The internet slowness is the main reason why I have not been able to upload any photos from our trip so far.

Today is church day. Apparently they start singing around 8:30am and the service starts at 11:00 or 11:30 (African time is like Costa Rica time, Pura Vida. It will happen when it happens.) The service might be over by around 1:00pm. Hopefully I will be able to get back to enjoy some of the service after this video uploads.

Meals here are quite different. I have became a vegetarian for the most part. I think most of us have. Breakfast is served around 8:00am. Bread, hard boiled eggs and a fruit. The pineapples here are delicious! They are more mellow and do not have the sweet sour taste, just a nice blend. Lunch is around 2:30pm. Rice and Beans are always the staple. Maybe some cabbage is thrown in there. Snack is at 7:30 or so. Coffee, Tea, Ginger Snaps, and coconut snaps are served. Dinner is around 10:00pm. Usually a chicken or goat is prepared, boiled is the standard way of prepping it. Noodles, rice, mango, banana puree, are the standard. This has been tough to get use to.

Yesterday a former student from Rock Foundation came to visit. He brought 2 gifts for the group. Two live chickens! They are currently tied up in the back and might be dead by this time tomorrow. Yummy…maybe…probably not.

Mrs. Christina has been feeling well. She is still taking it easy, but starting to get into the flow. Yesterday we dug a 40 foot trench by a couple classrooms so we could build a concrete landing. Also we sanded and painted a classroom and a staff room. So work is starting to get done. I do not think Dave and Nikki thought we would work this fast. They figured it would take two days to paint and about a day to dig the trench. All got done within 5 hours.

The newness is starting to wear off here. We are still enjoying ourselves, but are starting to think about home again. Christina talks about her mother and hopes she is doing well. I thought about my parents and the garden yesterday and was taken back a little. I sometimes forget that we are around 1100 miles away from our families. I do hope our garden is producing and that someone is watering it…hint hint mom and dad (Tim and Jean :) )

Okay enough writing for now. It has been around 40 minutes and the video is 21% done. That only means I will be here for about 2 1/2 more hours.