Leaving behind the world of CSB (despite the texts which track us wherever we go!) we entered the world of camping.  John and Loren are the first friends who have not only hosted us camping but actually taught us to love it too.  The other few we have camped with have supplied food and fun and kept us in TP and bedding but never convinced us (especially David) to come back and try it again! But all of us agreed today that it is John and Loren’s interest in teaching us, their willingness to let us try and to answer many dumb questions that let us catch their “bug” for the wilderness life.

The first night past Masindi was on the south side of the park in the “Shoebill Campsite” named after a rare kind of bird found in Murchison Park.  After a long day on the road and a hike up to Murchison falls (gloriously powerful) we were hotter than hot.  Northern Uganda is about five to ten degrees warmer than where we are and boy do you FEEL IT. Fortunately we found a cool spot to swim and spent an hour or two cooling off with drinks and dives.  Then back to the campsite for dinner accompanied by attempts by baboons to steal what they could!  The night was uneventful though the site insisted on a night guard for the camp.

In the morning we packed up and headed to the car ferry which took us across the Nile to the north side of Murchison park where most of the game is located.  We drove for several hours through the park trails spotting elephants, giraffes, oraby and hartebeest.  Around lunch time we reached our campsite, the bush camp in the middle of the park.  Located on the delta between Lake Albert and the Nile the site is simply a bit of the park itself and has no signs or markers and is noticeable only by the charred fire rings.  Lake grasses ran all around our camp site which had beautiful views of the water.  The UWA armed ranger we were required to keep with us at all times suggested that we set up our tents well away from the high grasses which shelter predators, allowing them closer than  we would like without being able to see them. (hard to forget that we have snack-sized children)

The afternoon was hot and hotter and since we had only drinking water we made a trip down to the Nile to pull up a cooler full of green water for washing dishes and hands.  Does this really make you CLEANER?, we wondered.  After cooking meat and veggies for dinner we headed out as darkness set in for a night game drive to spot the noctornal animals.  Our mission turned up a few small foxes and weasels but nothing else until we were almost back at the camp site and spotted a leopard running across the road just a little ways from where we would sleep!!  As always in the game parks, nights are filled with sounds of hippos and other wild animals but we did not have visits from lions in the night.

The next day brought another long morning game drive.  Sitting with John, Loren and Brian on top of our car we cruised through morning’s cool stillness and stopped for a potty break.  Brian silhouetted against the savanah, his tiny white self against the big colorful wildness that is Africa – peeing.  This is our children’s lives; sometimes most startling in the ordinary.

We are so thankful for these few days with the Clark composed of few deep conversations but much shared communal work and quietness in nature.   Sometimes there is little left to say when you have experienced together so much. We will hold this time close, cherished, until we meet them again ” on the other side” for the birth of their baby in June.  Another thing Africa has given us; new American friends we will keep forever.

Random thoughts as we leave the field . . . .

We left Bundi this morning.  It felt okay.  I’m sure I’ll cry later.  The kids were definitely sad.  As a mom, each time I see their tears I wonder through the decision to leave, again.  I know there will be lots of wonderings in the next months but for the record let me say: God knows what He’s doing and I’m choosing to get on board with Him.

David said once today to the kids, “bundibugyo, where we used to live” which almost made me angry.  And when talking to a European tourist today I talked about “living in Uganda” which still feels true to me but I realize won’t be true much longer.  It’s a hard hit on my heart.  Living in Uganda is a huge part of who we’ve become.  Who are we anymore? Besides His of course.

I keep acknowledging with each passing day that I would be very surprised if missions work or life in Africa is over for us.  So many signs point that way.  But I want want want to follow His voice, to be led by Him and to enter rest in whatever place He calls us.

The last few days were crazy between visitors, packing and closing the house.  David was mostly at the office or engaged with CSB people so I was on my own to pack up.  I have to comment that I HAVE GROWN A LOT.   I handled it graciously, primarily because God kept sprinkling miracles all around, and I am proud of myself, proud of us, proud of the way we have left.

The team held a sweet goodbye dinner for us and presented us with a lovely place setting gift: kikoi tablecloth and handmade napkins, one from each team mate.  It was sweet and sentimental and practical and beautiful and something that will bring many memories. Perfect.  Anna and Jack and Julia wrote beautiful African Folk Tales in honor of N and Q – they will treasure them always.  And Jennifer wrote a beautiful Lord of the Rings style poetic tribute to us, while Heidi contributed a parody of “give a mouse a cookie” which only we on the Bundi team would get.

This morning as we left we  experienced the Ugandan, “push”, a traditional part of saying goodbye where the friends accompany you on your way.  The farther they “push” you towards home the more they love and respect you.  We felt deeply grateful for this last-minute love by our Ugandan friends and coworkers and by missionaries as well.

So today we moved forward.  Out of Bundibugyo, into Northern, for the sites of Murchison Falls. Accompanied by the Clarks we are truly “pushed”.   Tonight we sleep in the Masindi Hotel, an old colonial style sleepy place that is comfortable and welcoming.  The kids are both sick with colds and occasional vomiting.  David is on the edge of collapse from sheer exhaustion at the lack of sleep.  Tomorrow giraffes on the savannah will revive us with their beauty and my heart will continue it’s sing-song tension between the joy of the moment and the sadness of it all slipping away.  And so many more times I will choose trust over control, faith over fear, love over longing.  HE knows our hearts best.  HE knows the way.  And it’s not just good for others or for his bigger plan, it’s good for us too.

Last night we held a small goodbye party for a few community members.  Since we moved into the CSB gates two years ago we have been too thoroughly swamped with the demands of the school to spend much time outside in the community; teaching, preaching, befriending, visiting.  But from our first year in Uganda, some faithful friends remain.  These include students who have left CSB and are now under our sponsorship elsewhere, an adopted grandmother to our children who gave Naomi one of her favorite gifts EVER – a pet chicken, the old woman who brings us lemons, our house workers and their families, and more.

Folks began to gather at four pm in our beautiful sun-filled yard which had been carefully prepared with thirty backed benches (no small feat to carry though things – but of course David and a few of his staff guys turned it into a competition of strength!) Within a few minutes rain began to fall, though and soon I and three friends were rushing for brooms and wet cloths to hurriedly clean the school auditorium so that we could gather there instead for shelter.

Our “caterers” cooked beef and rice, metooke (mashed boiled banana) and g-nut sauce and sombe and was it ever delicious.  As usual the portions were atrociously large which is ever-so-culturally-appropriate.  I was proud and pleased with the enjoyment these people took in their meal and soda.  And I had to smile when at the end of the meal each person pulled out their black plastic “grocery” style bag and put their family’s leftovers in.  Doggie bags for the next days meal! Though our group felt small and many friends did not reach because of two burials which sadly fell on the same evening, we fed nearly eighty.

Speeches were mercifully brief as representatives of four different kinds of community members spoke: the women’s Biblestudy chairperson for her women, a sponsored student for the alumni, a pastor and a neighbor.  The speeches were simple and not full of extravagant praise but I noticed two things that stood out to me.  One was several comments that the real work of missionaries is preaching the gospel and that the best work we have done here has been in the biblestudy.  It’s an interesting idea that the people themselves prefer evangelism and discipleship to health and educational programs.  And another who said that this is the most disparate group of people to ever be invited to a party; ” has anyone here ever attended such a party as this?’ he asked and they all shook their fingers and wagged their heads ‘no’. The idea was that we had welcomed the unexpected and that blessed my heart.

Amina came in at the end with a tearful speech about Naomi and Quinn which made me too break into tears, safely by this time because darkness was almost upon us.  She spoke of the love our children have for Africans, the joy and spirit with which they embrace friends and neighbors.  She spoke of her amazement at seeing white children who don’t seem to notice color and whose best friends are black.  My heart swelled with thankfulness that all the prayer, talks, monitoring of friendships, welcoming, games, feeding, tears .  . . . All that we have a family have done to help our children live “african” with their friends HAS worked.  And that this has pointed to the incarnational nature of Jesus.  Of course the main point of the speech was to make N and Q smile and smile they did!  They loved hearing their names in the speeches!

We gave out our “snap” (family photo) to all the friends present and David and I concluded with final messages to them.  David spoke from the Psalm; “they that sow in tears shall reap in joy.”  He admitted how hard this journey has been for us and yet his faith that an unknown but large harvest will come from the seeds we have planted.  I spoke on Revelations 21 and the “every tear wiped away, no death, no mourning”.  I told them that I came to live among them as Jesus came to live among us yet I did it imperfectly and brokenly.  I asked forgiveness for all the ways I have hurt them and told them that I wanted to wipe away every tear from their eyes but THERE IS ONLY ONE JESUS.  The room resounded in Amens at this point!  Someone had told me in speeches not to forget them and I said, quoting Isaiah, unless the breastfeeding mother can forget her baby I can’t forget you.  I told them to imagine I had told them that in two months I will be back in Nyahuka and I will come to your home. Would they go to visit another friend?  Would they leave their home dirty and unswept?  No, they all said, they would sweep and cook and then wait for me with their whole heart.  So we will all do for JESUS, I told them.  Watch and wait because he may come before I come.

Friends, food, and the gospel.  That’s what I call an all around good party.

A big rat and his wife!! The big one is the one that has been making my life in the kitchen a bit miserable. I caught him running across my counter after dinner and that was ENOUGH! Chasing him into the kids bedroom we discovered another rat hiding there and killed them both! Someone’s been praying since my last blog post – thanks!

And yes, it does give me such warm fuzzies to think of rats running around in my childlren’s bedroom, especially since Quinn sleeps on the bottom bunk.

Please do pray for Quinn, he really looks a bit miserable. Pray for the medication to have fewer side effects than normal. It takes twenty to thirty days of meds and they are not fun ones, especially as we travel.

It hasn’t been the easiest week.

The fridge isn’t working.

All our tanks are empty so we have no running water.

Our power is extremely low necessitating more rationing than usual.

Rats still rule in the stove workings.

David and I both feel cruddy.

And Quinn seems to have picked up an intestinal ameoba which explains several months of gradually worsening stomachaches and more recently serious pain and lack of appetite as well as a swollen belly.

Add this to CSB handover work, visitors, clean out, attempts at packing, cooking with marginal fridge, oven, water and the nevver-ending war against dust, dirt and insects and you’ll appreciate that we’re a bit tired.

Thanks for praying.

To post this!

From Quinn:

We’re leaving that soon?? The 24th?? This month??? AWWWWWW, MOM, I don’t WANT to leave Uganda. It’s my country!

From Naomi:

I’m trying to get my feet used to closed shoes so I will be ready for America. But they sure are uncomfortable. Maybe I’ll just wait till I get there.

From Quinn:

So what’s TV? Is TV different than a movie?? Is it like at the ARA? (american club where we watch cartoon channel in Kampala)

From Quinn:

You mean in America you have to wear shoes ALL THE TIME?? Even in the stores??

From Dad:

Do you know that Cairo has the only McDonalds in upper Africa? And we’re going there in a few weeks.

From Mom:

We’re only going to pack clothes that are decent enough to wear in America; you know clean and without holes or bleach stains . . . . Hmmm . . . . Well, I guess we don’t really have any clothes like that. Oh well, just pack your favorites.

From Quinn:

Mom make sure you bring sombe (pounded cassava leaves) to America with you, since it’s my favorite food.

From Mom:

I’m determined to shave off every pound of packing weight. We don’t need hardly any of this stuff anyway.

From Naomi:

What’s a microwave?

From Mom:

Speak proper English Naomi and Quinn; your Gramma will kill me if she hears you talking like that when we get to America.

From Quinn to a Ugandan friend:

Of course we COULD come back to Uganda. There are two ways we would come back to Uganda: if God told us to or if God said we could pick anywhere we want to go. THEN we would go back to Uganda.

From Annelise:

I know, let’s start a cocoa processing plant in Bundibugyo! We’d provide jobs and avail the world of organic fair trade chocolate all at the same time! I think it’s our destiny.

ojhb

I don’t seem to manage blog posts these days though there’s so much to say.  So i’ll just summarize here.

1) Hair raising trip to the village to have sodas and boiled eggs with friends Milton and Peninah.  The road was terrible on the way there and THEN it poured during our visit.  The ride back was the closest thing to total wipe out that I have experienced.  THe kind of ride that makes you say Praise the Lord fervently when you reach the good dirt road. And you know it was bad when all the Ugandans in the back seat say “AMEN” loud and clear.

2) motorcycling up to Kalindi with a friend to visit another friend.  Heading up and down, up and down the road in a fruitless attempt to find her home which I remember so clearly as being ” next to the other mud hut in the kind big village.”  Smelling alcohol on the breath of our 17 year old driver and sitting three to a cycle so close that I feel awfully familiar with this young stranger.   Finally home two hours later, windblown and dusty, never even found the ladies house, had a lot of fun.

3) Baking lessons with two staff/wife friends.  Trying out cassava bread and laughing at the awful dirty-feet stink it made in the house (seriously people, do not try this at home).  Cooking eggplant parmesan straight from the garden and enjoying it with friends.  Washing dishes together.  Eating our bread together with hot tea.  Trying again the next day.  Dreaming with them about a bakery business.

4) Conversing with a young man who took a terrible turn when he picked up a drug habit at CSB this past year.  Talk about feeling like a failure – how I feel we have failed M.  But several months later, after a serious change in habits and reinvigorated walk with God I meet up with M and find him childish again, grinning and bashful and proud.  Redemption?

5) Tears falling down the cheeks of T.B who is a young man and would never shame himself by crying – except he is so desparate.  Trying to explain to him that our leaving isn’t the end.  Trying to teach him what little of faith we know.

6) Packing and finding our commissioning video from Mariners.  Watching with friends and shouting in amazement at the beautiful faces of so many old friends.  Realizing that I’d forgotten how many people know us and love us in America.  Feeling less alone in the transition.  Smiling at the thought of the hugs.

7) RATS – Ruwenzori Adventure Training School.  Naomi and Quinn’s alternative to RMS during our final two weeks is RATS; an all-Ugandan time of exploration and discovery with Anna.  They learn each day about stars and tadpoles and cocoa and weaving and anything else Miss Anna can come up with.  And they get to bring Ephraim along which makes it all so much more fun.

My heart flows freely between excitement at going “home”, anticipation for our future, and expectation of experiences ahead to grief, loss, fear, sadness, hurt, overwhelm.  One moment I am grinning, the next crying.  My poor friends just have to hold me through it.  Two weeks left.  Can my heart bear this place of change?

From Quinn:

We’re leaving that soon?? The 24th??  This month??? AWWWWWW, MOM

The time between Christmas and the 4th was “Nothing Week” this year.  And what a delicious time it’s been.  Although David did work some it was not the pressured intense work he usually does.  And I completely shunned the very notion of CSB work whenever it entered my mind, instead focusing on nurturing my family.

We woke up late each day and ate two meals; breakfast not until around 10 or 11 and an early evening meal.  Just not having to cook as often was luxurious!  Most meals were shared by friends who are staying with us or nearby.   During our days we listened for hours on end to Naomi’s Christmas gift from her Gramma Elizabeth, the Laura Ingalls Little House series on CD.  Naomi and Quinn set up playmobil Little House configurations endlessly until we finally finished the CDs we have today.  Gramma you better buy some more for when we arrive home!!

The Nintendo DS’s we invested in this Christmas (trying to buy gifts that were small, lightweight and portable and useful all around the world!) have gotten continual community play as well.  I love that almost all the play is done together, not shut off alone somewhere but sharing the adventure with friends or a sibling.

The evenings have been devoted to Monopoly marathons with two young guys who are hanging out here.  Naomi and Quinn have really discovered the game for the first time.  So much laughter and fun for all!  We played other games too, sometimes all afternoon and then into the evenings, eating as we went.

David and I spent time throughout the week creating a holiday book for our children that will hopefully last a few generations.  I wrote and he illustrated and the results were pretty terrific if I do say so myself.  We presented the book to the children during the traditional New Years Day Scavenger hunt as the final prize.  They loved the pictures of themselves and learning more about Christmases around the world and the tradition of Santa Claus.

Meanwhile, Naomi and I sorted through clothes to begin winnowing down to clothes which will travel with us.  She is sentimental about her clothing so we chose which special friends to give different items to and then chose a few that will be included in a memory quilt for her.  From these I also pieced out some American Girl doll clothing for her doll.  I had great fun sewing together the tiny clothes as we listened to our audio books and presenting them to Naomi one by one.  I also began knitting a beautiful scarf for my little sunshine-haired princess to wear in her much-dreamed-of Paris as we pass through next month.

On New Years eve we had a small impromptu bonfire with a few staff friends and stayed up till midnight to make noise along with the rest of the town.   And on New Years Day we cooked our traditional Flanagan Family Olibolen (Dutch Donuts) for breakfast and had Nancy’s family to eat with us.  She laughed and cavorted and showed off in her fancy Christmas dress and generally made the morning delightful.  In the afternoon we headed up to Ngite Falls with Kakungulu, Ephraim and his big brother Tim.  For the first time Naomi and Quinn climbed all the way up and down unaided and Quinn swam in the falls.  What a sense of pride and accomplishment!!  It was an amazing day.

On the 2nd we continued in the adventurous spirit and headed up to Sempaya National Park where we trekked through rainforest jungle paths and saw the hot springs and boiled our plantains and eggs in them.  Another full day of beauty and wonder shared in community.  Delightful.

Now the reality hits me.  19 more days to do it all.  Tomorrow we will leave behind these idyllic “nothing” days and plunge into crazy work mode.  Wednesday the children will begin “RAS” Rwenzori Adventure School with Miss Anna for two weeks – a quest to suck the marrow out of life in Bundibugyo and end this phase of their education with a bang.  Meanwhile I will pack, purge, give away, write policy, consolidate documents, work on the library.  And David will begin the great handover in earnest.

Excitement, sadness, joy, grief, anticipation, hope . .. . All mingle as we move forward.