Women's First Cake - By Bethan

For those of you who have been following ‘my’ women’s co-operative who are learning baking and general café skills to open a café in Kasese town some time in the next year, you will be pleased to know the following:  The women got their first contract for cakes!  I spent two full days with a mixture of joy and trepidation as I wondered a)will the women turn up in time to cook it, ice it and deliver it? And b)will the cake turn out okay and look good/taste good/be well received so that the women get more work?

The ladies kept good time (that is, within one hour of when they should have arrived three of the six were here!) and the lemon cake was cooked to perfection.  As it cooked we experimented with making icing roses with the icing bag.  It turned into a bit of a competition as we tried to see who would do most of the icing in the future!  Most of the women were good at it but one (who has many other assets, as well as being the self-proclaimed ‘grandmother’ of the group!) was hopeless so she has not been allowed near the icing nozzles!  To cut a long story short, (that’s unusual for me!) suffice to say that the icing didn’t roll properly so had to be watered down and spread, almost causing me to break down in tears of frustration! but the rest of it went well and the cake was delivered in one piece and rumour was that it was enjoyed in ‘the village’ by four daughters whose birthday it was.

Not much profit was made from this cake, but hopefully word has got out that these women are starting business and that the cakes are yummy!  Please pray that this happens and that business can start for these women even though they have not yet opened their café.  Savings are nearing the target of 1.2million and are due to hit that peak in two months’ time so watch this space as we hope to have opened by Easter to catch the tourist trade and local students coming home for the holiday.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers of support.  Any ideas as to how to roll royal icing without it sticking to the table anyone?  See the picture of our first cake in the gallery.

Light into Darkness

This Christmas people all over the world will be re-reading the Old Testament prophecies that foretold the coming of Christ the Messiah, as a baby.  In Isaiah 9.2-7, we read that “the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;…For to us a child is born, to us a son is given;… and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

The theme of light continues throughout Isaiah (esp 49.6 & 58.6-10), and is echoed in the Sermon on the Mount, with Jesus telling us to “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven” (Matthew, 5.16).

It was a real privilege therefore during this Advent to be able to physically bring light to a community that lacked it.  Some of you have heard about Kahokya Baptist Church before, a small building on a steep slope in a remote village in the foothills of the Rwenzori Mountains which is only accessible by a narrow and steep dirt track.  Its Pastor, Baluku Mbalizwa is a man of vision and real passion who established the church after he left the DR Congo in 1997 and has also set up, at his own expense, a small health clinic to serve his community.  The people of Kahokya walk for an hour down a steep hill to get water from a tap in the valley, struggling back up with heavy jerry-cans on their heads, and even walk for an hour round-trip to charge their mobile phones at the nearest trading centre.  Their children return from school after sunset and struggle to do their homework with kerosene lamps which are expensive, dim, unhealthy, and dangerous – or don’t do their homework at all for lack of lighting.

Thanks to a generous private donation from the UK; and to some training, advice and equipment from an English NGO (www.guguplextech.com, Bury St Edmonds); I returned to Uganda in October hoping to establish a solar project at Kahokya B.C.  However, as many people know, physics was my worst subject at school and whilst I’m game for most forms of DIY I have a fear of most things electrical, coupled with a low competency!  Thankfully, Alfonse introduced me to Amisi Katalaliko, from our church (KCBC) who is a qualified electrician employed by Kilembe Investments on rural electrification projects.  Amisi generously agreed to offer his time and expertise and we did a planning visit to Kahokya along with my Dad back in October.  Fitting around Amisi’s working hours we spent much of the next 7 weeks purchasing a large folding ladder, U-bolts, a Gel-battery, wiring, switches etc; commissioning a carpenter to make a bespoke lockable wooden equipment cabinet with multiple phone charging sections on the top; and getting a special secure frame welded for the solar panel – which was done by Eric from KCBC, who is a good metal worker, and the best male singer in our church choir!  The plan was that by mid-December the rainy season would have finished, and so the road would be dry.

Meanwhile in Kahokya the church constructed a little guardhouse so someone can sleep there each night to protect the equipment, and made doors for the church’s two rooms.

Last Saturday Amisi and I loaded up the car and drove to Kahokya, excited about the project, relieved that the track was dry, and slightly bemused by the unusually low cloud base we drove through as we climbed our way up to Kahokya, arriving just before 10am.  We then worked hard all day until about 9.30pm.  By getting the lighting working first, we were then able to work on through the evening under the impressively bright glare of 5w/12v LED light-bulbs. The activity of any mzungu  in an African village is usually a spectator sport, so it was no surprise that our every move was being watched by crowds of largely silent children and adults of all ages.  Word had spread that electricity was somehow arriving at the church, so leaders from other churches and local politicians also turned up to greet us, thank us, or see what the fuss was about!  It was only as the sun dropped behind the mountains over neighbouring DR Congo and the sky turned from a brief but beautiful pink to an intense blackness that I started to realise just how significant this light could be.  People who would otherwise have dispersed at sunset stayed in the church chatting, listening to Newcastle play Man City on a battery-powered radio (yes there really is no escaping Premiership football!), or just watching what was happening and enjoying the light. 

By bed time we’d also managed to connect up all the 12v car-socket phone chargers so that six mobile phones can be charged simultaneously, and fitted switches so that the battery load can effectively be controlled from within the lockable box. I say we, Amisi was the star of the electrical work, I mostly drilled holes, drove screws, stripped wire and passed him the right tools when he was balanced on the ladder!  Nonetheless by the time I collapsed into my military-issue popup mosquito net and sheet-sleeping bag I was exhausted and slept quite soundly, despite the inevitable digestive implications of having eaten large amounts of African food.  I woke up shivering cold at about 5.30am to the almighty drumming of an African rainstorm pounding onto the church’s corrugated roof, punctuated only by the raindrops that didn’t bounce off the roof but worked their way through to drip on us below.  We have the luxury of a tiled roof on our house in Kasese, but for millions of Africans the incessant din of rain on a metal roof, and the ensuing drips and dampness is a daily experience.  As it continued to pour for the next few hours it was clear that church was not going to start at 10am so I got on with teaching the Pastor’s son about how to manage the project with regard to saving money for battery replacement, managing daily battery-load, recording income from phone charging etc.

Indeed, after over a year in Uganda I’m slowly realising why time is such an elastic, if not dispensable, concept here.  No-one in their right mind goes out in an African rainstorm, so clearly church would just start after it finished.  As there’s little else to do in a Ugandan village on a Sunday it doesn’t really matter what the clock says.  Sure enough the rain stopped soon after 11 and church started at around 12 and finished around 2.30pm.  As parents of a toddler this often drive us bananas, but as I was on my own this time, it was much easier to go with the flow!  Although much of it was in Lukhongo, of which I am woefully ignorant (we’ve been learning Swahili), the service clearly had a celebratory feel.  I preached using Isaiah 58.6-10 to explain how the church should best use its new light and power, and Amisi translated.  The two main aims of the project are that the church should use its lights to host children doing homework in the evenings, and bible-studies or other community events; and that it should use the income from charging mobile phones (at 10p a time) to support its ministry and save for future projects, such as fitting guttering and building a rainwater collection tank so that those who are least able don’t have to keep trekking the hills with jerry-cans.  In both aspects it should use the extra attention/new visitors as opportunities to expand its Christian outreach.

If Kahokya B.C. can succeed in these aims, we hope to get funding for similar projects in other rural off-grid Baptist Churches around Kasese District. 

The Pastor gave us a good send-off with a delicious chicken-pulao lunch and the ubiquitous prayer for “journey-mercies”.  In this case, they were much needed as the torrential rains had washed away sections of the track, flooded others and turned parts of it into slippery mud.  When driving in such conditions less is more.  If you fight with the steering wheel you lose.  If you brake you slide, and if you stop you get stuck.  The only solution is to keep a steady, but low speed and a loose-grip on the steering wheel allowing the car to follow the ruts and rivets where it can find the best grip.  The resulting bumps, shakes, and occasional forays into the edges of fields are pretty terrifying, but by the grace of God and the strength of Toyota we made it home.  A return visit for monitoring is planned in February, by which time it really will be dry season!

Prayer Requests:

1.     Give thanks for the private donation, the support of Guguplex and the time and skill of Amisi which made it possible to install this project in Kahokya B.C.

2.     Pray that the solar-equipment will not be stolen, vandalised or damaged, and that it can be used effectively to serve the community and glorify God.

3.     Pray for all those for whom this Christmas may be a time of darkness – in any sense of the word – that they may know the love and light of Christ.

Happy Christmas!

 

The things people say. By Bethan.

I don’t write often so I’m sorry that when I do I can’t stop myself!

I felt cooped up.  Even though I had been out to Rukoki Special Needs school in the morning and arranged some very exciting music therapy work for the coming school year from February onwards and had tested my nerve with the diff-lock through green muddy puddles in which I could see no bottom, Samuel somehow made our house seem very small!

“Right!  We’re going for a walk!”  I ordered.  I got out the factor 50 and chased Sam round the house lathering it on his protesting face.  “Go use the potty.”  I said to my newly-potty-trained toddler.  He has been doing so well with very few wee accidents and it is in fact very comical to see him sitting playing quite happily then all of a sudden grab his bottom and shout “ME NEED POO!  QUICK!” and sprint to the bathroom as though he was being chased by a hippo!  Just as we thought we had cracked the potty-training, two incidents occurred today: Firstly the wiff of guilt as a fresh poo lay on Jonah’s play-mat and secondly Samuel squatting on the floor over another pile.  “What happened Sam, why didn’t you use the potty, it’s only two metres away from you.”  “Me fall over, mummy.” Was the reply followed by “me do poo.”  Oh toddlers, you are so very amusing and frustrating in one cute little package!

I digress.

The boys were creamed, Jonah was packed into his carrier and we set off through the gate with red pick-up and nee-nor car.  Our neighbour’s drive made for a perfect “doof” scenario so we sat for a while in the shade while Samuel played out the previous week’s car fiasco.  “Mummy wheel big hole – doof!  Daddy get out help car back on road.”  He narrated to himself as the red pick-up helped the nee-nor car out of a miniature ravine in the dirt driveway.  Toddlers hide no secrets and I was permanently reminded of my little wheel-stuck-down-a-hole transgression.  I was just going into a dream with Jonah hanging off my front in his sling when a man carrying two small jerry-cans greeted me.  “Good evening.” He said.  (It was only 3.30pm but apparently that makes it evening.)  We exchanged pleasantries (at least I did.  Samuel grunted and squawked as is his embarrassing way currently when a Ugandan greets him).  “I am a mountain dweller,”  said the man, matter-of-factly.  “I wish I had a stallion because small boys like to use those mules but I am a mere mountain dweller.”

“It’s okay, really.”  I replied, not quite sure what to do with this information or what the information actually was in the first place.

“The face is like a map of Africa.  The hands can raise hair above the head and that is why Africa has to be so humble.”  He paused as he saw the look on my face trying to catch his drift.  “It is a metaphor.  Are you getting me?”

“Oh yes,” I lied.  He turned as if to go and wished me a nice day.  After a second thought he turned on his heel and said to me “Do you know Jesus?”

“Yes.” I replied.  “I know him very well.”

“Good.  I was taught in school that you people brought us that religion from Europe.”

“Well that’s not strictly true,” I pondered.   “There was a disciple called Philip who was traveling through Ethiopia and spread the Gospel to an Ethiopian man who was then baptised long before anyone in Europe had heard about Christianity.”  I hoped my details were correct.  People who know me know I’m not one for remembering facts!  This information set him wondering and he went off to collect his water in his two small jerry-cans.

I told Samuel that he should rescue his red pick-up once more and then we could continue on our walk.  We had, after all, in half an hour, only reached the neighbour’s drive!  He dutifully unearthed the nee-nor car from under a pile of rubble (with red pick-up’s help of course) and trotted next to me saying “nee-nor car – doof!  Red pick-up help nee-nor car.  Help help help!”  “Yes Sam.”  I replied on auto.

We walked to the digger-park where there are two decrepit diggers and four other types of diggers (sorry can’t be more exact on what types they are despite reading Sam’s digger book to him several times a day).  This is a day-trip in itself as Samuel gets so excited about it and, let’s be fair, there’s not a lot else to do to entertain him!  At the digger park a man greeted me and asked me if I was married.  “Yes” I replied.  “To a mzungu.”  I added that last bit because he had that look in his eye that people get when they are about to say the following: “You should marry an African so that you can have good coloured babies.”  And yes, that is what he said.  I had read correctly!  “Eh!  I’m sorry, but I only want to marry one man and I already have him.  I cannot marry a Ugandan now.”  I knew what was coming next.  “Do you have sisters?”  he asked, in all seriousness.  “No.  I’m Muhindo and last born.”  This was an intrinsic way of saying I have only brothers since Muhindo means a change from one sex to another in the birth order.  “But what of others.  … Surely your father must have siblings and they have family that may help me?”  “I have cousins but they are married.” I lied.  Well he doesn’t have to know, and my female cousins will thank me for not landing them in being the (probably) third concurrent wife of an aging Ugandan man!  He suddenly lost all interest in the conversation and left without even saying goodbye.  I shook my head to myself at the randomness of today’s conversational offerings.

I finally dragged Sammy away from the diggers and we hauled ourselves up the hill in the heat to our house.  You will never guess who was waiting there sitting outside our drive-way with his jerry-cans now full, ready to continue our conversation!  “I was waiting for you to come back.  I have been thinking of this Ethiopian man and it made me realise that God was revealing something to me to tell you.”  Uh-oh I thought.  “What do you think it was about Mary that made her become the mother of Jesus?  You know that girls should grow their hair beyond their knees then when they breathe out the spirits go into cows and they may bear angels or cherubs.  It is Bibilical!”

“Oh?”  Well what else could I say?

… I can’t even go on to describe the direction the conversation took from here but it involved all sorts of fantasies about young virgins giving birth to small cherubim and as I turned into our compound (I had opened the gate to let Sammy in) the teenage boys who were slashing the grass looked at me and burst into laughter.  “Do you know him?”  They taunted.  “Uh, no.  But he is certainly an interesting character!” I responded.  “He is crazy!” they said and almost rolled around on the floor laughing at the conversation I had endured.  Aha.  There indeed is one in every village…

Graduation

It’s been a busy few weeks since our return to Kasese on 15^th October.  It was wonderful to have my Dad with us for the first fortnight, and he made himself very useful helping us fix various things around the house and building a tree-house for Sam in our garden.  Thankfully our initial tummy-bugs cleared after the first week or so, and we were able to return to our normal pace.  On his last day in Kasese Dad accompanied me to Kahokya Baptist Church, which we had first visited shortly before we left Uganda.

Getting to Kahokya is quite an adventure, as you drive down towards the equator and then turn and climb up the beautiful road which heads towards the DR Congo.  Long before the border however, we turned off the tarmac road and drove 16km on dirt tracks of ever deteriorating quality and increasing steepness through farms and villages, until we finally reached Kahokya in the foothills of the Rwenzori mountains.  The vision for Kahokya is to install a 65W solar system which will provide the church with light for the evenings, and the capacity to charge multiple mobile-phones during the day, and so earn an income (more details to follow).  During this visit we had good discussions with the Pastor and made all the measurements of the church required to make a detailed wiring plan.  The Pastor then took us back to his home to meet some of his ten children and many grandchildren.  As we left, Dad was presented with a chicken – a great honour for any visitor here!

Uganda is a wonderful place to visit and very hospitable to outsiders.  We’ve had some recent reminders, however, of just how tough life is for so many Ugandans. One of the toddlers who comes to Daycare was badly burned by a cooking fire whilst at home and died after a few days in hospital.  One of the reasons for establishing the daycare was to reduce the prevalence of such tragedies, but of course we only operate during the working week.  The following weekend Daycare was broken into and money stolen from the cashbox, probably as a consequence of Alpha School’s nightguard having recently been killed in town, therefore leaving the school and project site much more vulnerable, until a replacement could be found.

With these sad things in mind, we were particularly keen for our first Graduation of 15 trainees from the tailoring and carpentry courses to be a success on Friday.  Under Bethan’s patient instruction, the women’s co-operative from Central Baptist Church spent two afternoons making and icing a massive graduation cake, while the rest of the committee were busy inviting local leaders, making certificates, buying refreshments and decorating Alpha’s School Hall with beautiful bougainvillea branches (from our garden wall) and “local streamers” (ie rolls of toilet paper!).  Typically, the 2pm ceremony started at gone 3pm and the local politician and his entourage, who was our guest of honour, didn’t turn up until 5.15pm.  However, an extra-long sermon from our Chairman Rev Sitarico, and a couple more songs from Alpha School’s choir padded out this waiting time, and no-one seemed to mind.  Sam mostly entertained himself pushing around some bottle-cap wheels on the end of a long reed-pole, in true African style, and Jonah was passed around for cuddles from almost every woman there, so we were proud and relieved that our two small boys didn’t disrupt the lengthy proceedings.  There were many speeches and presentations in different languages, of varying lengths, but it was pleasing to hear local leaders referring to the skills training project as part of a “new Acholi Quarter”, turning its back on its reputation as a hotbed of crime and despair.  That said, its status as amongst the highest in the country for rates of HIV infection, shows that there is still much to be done here.  One surprising, but very touching event was that the co-operative formed by our first class of tailors and carpenters presented Bethan and I with a matching African dress and shirt that they had made.  We were touched that they wanted to do this for us, and seriously impressed that they fitted us so well without any measurements being taken!  The quality of this shirt and dress are testimony to the skill of our tailoring teacher Zhile Kighoma, and to the hard work of his students.  It was dark by the time the ceremony was complete and the delicious cake had been eaten, but it was a wonderful day, and it was great that Bethan’s Birthday should fall on such a positive occasion!  (We deferred celebrating her Birthday properly until the weekend!).

Prayer-Requests:

·         Give thanks that we recovered from our initial illnesses and for my Dad’s successful and safe visit.

·         Give thanks for all the funding, hard-work, skills and prayers which have sustained the Skills-training and Daycare projects through their first year, despite all the challenges in Acholi Quarter.

·         Pray for the trainees who have graduated, for their successful future employment/own businesses, and that the investment that has been made in them will bear fruit for their families and the community as a whole.

·         Pray for the current batch of trainees, and for our staff, that they will be inspired to do even better on this course, and build on the progress already made.

·         Pray for the family of the child from daycare who died from burns, and for all the other families who suffer too often from needless and preventable deaths.

Home Assignment and Return to Kasese.

The rumbling thunder, chirruping of birds outside and the revving of motorbikes climbing the hill to Kilembe signify that we are in our house in Kasese.  The hungry cries of our 3-month old baby Jonah however, remind us that we haven’t been here all year, but just returned this week following 4 months of parental leave and Home Assignment in the UK.

Clearly the most significant event of the summer was the safe arrival of a second healthy boy Jonah in July, and we thank God for blessing us with such a calm baby, who seems to have taken all the changes of his first three months comfortably within his little stride.

It was a busy summer, and we weren’t allowed to let the grass grow under our feet.  In June and September we spoke at 17 church services, 2 youth groups, 1 harvest supper, 1 ladies’ fellowship and 1 scout troop all over England and Wales.  Gareth also completed a research paper for BMS.  Although this schedule was tiring for a young family, we were bowled over by the generous hospitality we received wherever we went, and by the interest and enthusiasm shown for the work in Kasese, often combined with support through prayer and giving.  One of my favourite passages of scripture is 1 Cor 12 where Paul describes the church as the body of Christ, united through the integration of very different component parts.  We were really reminded of this as we travelled around the UK and witnessed the passion and commitment with which so many churches are addressing the challenges of their own communities, as well as supporting work overseas.

It was a good summer to be British and in Britain with the Diamond Jubilee and London Olympics and Paralympics, and thanks to my brother’s knack of seeming to know exactly how to procure tickets we had the pleasure of going to both tournaments and being inspired by everything we saw.

Undoubtedly the highlight of the summer was spending so much time with our families, especially for Sam to play with his grandparents and his many aunts, uncles and cousins.  It was also a real pleasure to stay in our own house and community in Cambridge and re-establish old friendships – often accompanied by eating cheese, bacon, sausages and other delicacies not available in rural Uganda!

Such a long period in the UK therefore, made it hard to uproot ourselves all over again, but it did also give us plenty of time to think, read and reflect about the work we’ve returned to and to make plans.  We got on the plane on 11 October, mentally and emotionally refreshed and excited to be returning to Kasese for another two years.  The journeys went smoothly, greatly aided by my Dad who has joined us for two weeks and helped us to shepherd our two children and mountains of baggage through the airports.  After a weekend in Kampala we made it back to Kasese safely in our heavily loaded car followed by an even more heavily loaded pick-up truck full of tools and sewing machines from the excellent charity “Tools With A Mission”, despite torrential rain which flooded parts of the road.

It was wonderful to return to beautiful Kasese and to catch up with all our friends and colleagues here who greeted us with genuine warmth.  Unfortunately our bodies have not yet caught up with our minds and seem to have gone on strike in response to this move.  With the merciful exception of Jonah, all of us have been ill with combinations of high temperatures, vomiting and severe diarhorrea, which, when combined with incessant heavy rain and long power-cuts, have really sapped our strength and dented our enthusiasm for being here!

If you wish to write to us our address remains:

Gareth and Bethan Shrubsole, PO Box 91, Kasese, UGANDA,  - and post normally takes 2 weeks.

Prayer Requests:

·         Give thanks that we’ve been able to return to Kasese for another two years’ work and for all those whose support to BMS make this possible.

·         Give thanks for baby Jonah, and for his health and his little charm.

·         Pray that we all recover so that we are strong enough to get on with the work we’re here for.

·         Pray for Sam (now 2yrs & 4mnths) who is far more aware of the changes to his life than he was on previous moves, but doesn’t always understand them.