Just another ordinary Saturday?

Things are done differently here. Some things make sense and some don’t! We’re slowly learning to adjust to our new way of life and go with the flow! (Literally – even when stuck in traffic going in the wrong direction!). And as much wrong, corruption & poverty as there is in this country, there are as many wonderful things – we’ve met some of the most lovely, humble people you could ever wish to meet, the country is filled with exciting creatures & amazing beauty to explore, and God is moving. We feel SO privileged to be here!

Anyways, for those wanting a peek into our new life – this was our Saturday. Not our typical Saturday because no two days are really the same here, but this is what life looked like for us that day!

We got up and had breakfast, then packed water bottles and headed out for a quick trip to look at a guard dog (I don’t know what we were thinking when we thought we’d be home in an hour – nothing is quick here!)

We stopped on the way to pay a local Ugandan lady for an “African cookbook for Americans” that she’d brought round for me to help me learn to cook local food! Then continued on our way to meet a man who would take us to look at the dogs. Halfway there we get a phone call saying we’ll meet somewhere else (about 2 mins from where we live) so we turn around and go back to meet him. We didn’t know who to look out for or what vehicle they were driving, but told him to look out for a carload of muzungus (white people!) A nicely dressed man on the side of the road waves to us as we approach our meeting point and gets in our car, obviously we’re not going to be following him but taking him! We drive for about 45 mins seeing parts of the city we hadn’t yet seen so good little tiki tour! We finally arrive at a small farmlet type place and wait for the building the dogs were in to be cleaned before being shown them. We were told they were boer boels (type of bull mastiff), turns out the dad was and the mum was a local mixed breed. They were a lot smaller than we expected and not what we were looking for & not worth the US$350 so we said no. BUT…….. there was the runt of the litter that was super skinny, bony, tiny and scared with those awful puppy dog eyes calling out “save me, save me”. Its fate wasn’t looking so good and the rest is history. We now have a supposedly 7mth old dog called Chloe which we had to pay to rescue!

before she threw up everywhere on the long, bumpy ride home!

Because we still didn’t have the guard dog we needed the man who showed us the dogs (a dog trainer) makes a few phone calls then says he can show us a much bigger 9mth old dog ready to be trained as a guard dog. We say yes, and we drive for another 45 min to look at another dog we say no to!

We then take the dog trainer home. Man alive. This man is married with one child. He works as a dog trainer and also travels out to remote villages to share the love of Jesus in word and action. A really neat guy. We stop to pick up his 3yr old boy as we enter a slum area and continue to make our way through the deeply potholed (more like ravenes) narrow dirt alleyway to his 3X3 metre mud brick home. Humbling. He knows the true meaning of being a Christ follower and he’s not letting his circumstances stop him from ministering to those around him – both near and far. It puts our christianity to shame.

We leave his place & head home in time for a late lunch! After lunch we decide to head into the city to grab a few items we needed and see if we can find a particular church we thought we’d go to the next day. We'd been given directions from 2 people so should be quite straight forward. Or not.



furniture shopping on the side of the road - also doubles as hats!



scaffolding- Ugandan style! No building regulations here!

now to find the church we jsut need to take a left somewhere by Shoprite - easy!

ok, so the left turn was obviously the wrong one & now don't have a clue where we are!

 

If you look carefully, you'll see a typical Ugandan road scene (though this one is a well maintained street). People, boda (motorbike taxi) with huge load, police woman/man directing traffic, and the ute in front of us with loud sound system & person on back yelling something. This ute actually just stopped in the middle of the road a bit further ahead and stayed there to say whatever they had to say, while we sat behind waiting, eventually we found a way around him to carry on!

Eventually we made it home, after lots of asking which way to get out of here! Didn't find the church, nor get to pick up the items we needed, but found a few other places we weren't looking for and made it home in time to cook dinner!