My Friend, Butler

An excerpt from an email that Cheryl sent me back in the beginning of 2011 before I had any clue where I was going… "Maybe one day we can boot around Kampala on boda bodas together....that'd be sweet! ;)"

One of the most exciting things to happen in Jinja: the arrival of my dear friend Cheryl Butler. It was a rainy Sunday afternoon when I drove up to Flavors Café to meet her; I hadn’t been that excited in a long time. It was a beautiful reunion; tears and laughter…. Cheryl spent a couple nights in Jinja initially and we took that time to catch up, spend some time at the pool and even took a couple shifts at Al-Shafa hospital together with a new, very sick, malnourished child who has since come to live at the house…but that’s a whole other story.

She went back to Kampala but the following Saturday afternoon, I hopped on a matatu and we met her at Garden City Mall in the centre of town. After a quick dinner, as the sky was just getting dark, we hopped on a boda and made a quick stop at my favorite bakery for a chocolate croissant. The bakery is beside the entrance to the US embassy and since we knew our guesthouse was just behind the embassy, we thought we’d get a bit of exercise and walk. There were a few things we didn’t realize when we made that decision: it was a long walk, it was a fairly narrow road with hardly any lights and a fair amount of traffic. We were being cautious and sticking to the edge but at one point while I was looking down watching my steps as light was fleeting and the road was uneven, I sensed headlights coming my way and looked up just in time to see a car coming directly for me. I instinctively turned my body away from the car and it hit my back pack instead. That got the blood pumping to be sure.

We eventually arrived safely to Adonai House, a really cute place that afforded us a bedroom with two little single beds with mosquito nets with frills that opened up like curtains on the side; and the shared bathroom had a tub. I hadn’t been in a bathtub since being here and after the walk I was so sweaty so sitting in a few inches of lukewarm water was at that moment, the most wonderful thing in the world. We had a really great night just hanging out and couldn’t stop remarking on how it just felt so natural for us to be in Africa together.

The next morning, we headed to a church in town that Cheryl had been to before. It was on the third floor of a building in town and had a great view and even though I couldn’t understand the Ugandan pastor very well, they had a full band with drums and bass and as I hadn’t realized how much I had missed that; it was so nice to hear worship like I’m used to at home. From church, we walked directly to the taxi park to catch a matatu to a place called Mpigi. I had been warned about watching your bags in the taxi park as theft is rampant, but that was surely confirmed that afternoon as someone opened a zipper on both our bags. I whipped around when I felt a tug, so there wasn’t any chance to do any digging but the person who went after Cheryl got her headlamp…she was not impressed.

Mpigi is home to 10 acres that was donated years ago to my church, Peace Portal Alliance, and is now home to a church building, a few children’s homes and a clinic. Cheryl has spent a significant amount of time there, as well as a number of close friends who have gone for short term visits on teams with the church, so it was really important to me to spend some time there as well. We dropped our bags at the Wilson Inn up on a hill in Mpigi, went straight to the 10 acres and spent the whole afternoon on the compound. Not only was it beautiful but it was so great to meet the pastors and mamas and the kids that I had been hearing about for years. As cheesy as it sounds, it even struck me how cool it was to be walking the same paths that so many people I know have walked; I felt very connected with home being up on that hill. After meeting everyone, we spent a good amount of time playing with the kids and then ended off just sitting in the empty church building just talking and enjoying the peacefulness of the place. The acoustics in there were pretty amazing so despite the fact that I was recovering from a cold, I took the opportunity to stand in the middle of that simple structure with its cement foundation and sheet metal roofing and sing Amazing Grace at the top of my lungs. I suppose even that, just worshipping in that place, made that connection I felt even more apparent.

We got a ride back into town from one of the men that run the place on his boda and settled into one of the two restaurants in town for a fresh plate of chips (fries), We talked about the afternoon as the sun slipped behind the shops and the streets took on that dusty twilight haze and just enjoyed spending time in a cute little town that felt so much more like Africa then Jinja sometimes does; Jinja is also known as little America given the large amount of NGO’s and the number of white people that have taken up residence; in Mpigi, we were the only white people that we could see.

Before heading to the inn, we stopped into the small market to pick up chapatti and bananas to subsidize our dinner and met a couple interesting people along the way. One man, while we walked by, touched Cheryl’s arm and jumped back in mock terror and with a chuckle told us we looked like ghosts…like I said, the only white people.

The next morning, we stopped into a house down the road from where we were staying that houses a guitar building project called Duncan Africa. It was started by a guy that both Cheryl and I know called Jay Duncan who currently runs it from Canada. A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into getting that place up and running but all the work is done by Ugandan men and women in town who were taught, by Jay, how to build these beautiful instruments. They are built exclusively in Uganda, but are shipped to and sold in Canada. That was another place I’d been hearing about for years so it was really neat to see.

From there, we went straight up to the 10 acres so I could say goodbye (Cheryl stayed an extra night) before heading back down and dropping me off at a matatu in town to head back to Kampala. It wasn’t the smoothest of travels as 20 minutes outside the city the driver stopped and kicked everyone out. The guy wanted the full price, which I refused to pay and the lady beside me vented, “Those men are thieves…”, as we walked down the road to see about catching a ride. Luckily, a partially full coach just happened to be going by and we flagged it down.

As we were heading into the taxi park where I would be switching from the bus to a matatu to continue on to Jinja, I finished off my water bottle and was left with an empty bottle that I didn’t want to carry around with me. As I will never adopt the Ugandan way of just throwing your trash out whenever and wherever you are, I thought I would test a theory. I put it in the mesh pocket on the outside of my backpack and made my way through the taxi park. Sure enough, when I climbed in to take my seat, my “garbage” was gone. Way to work the system…

The rest of the trip went smoothly and Cheryl came back to Jinja a couple days later. The first time she came, we spent a lot of time doing our own thing, but the second time, she was much more like a volunteer then a guest. Not only did she come along when we all took a bunch of kids into town one afternoon (she took Jojo on the boda with Paul and I; a first for her), she used her nursing skills to help me, Emily and Annelise (another nurse) take blood from all the kids in our house for some testing. I have successfully taken blood from 4 kids now. There 

were a couple missed veins along the way, but I’m getting better.

All in all, it was so incredible to have her here. As special it was for her to have me come see Mpigi, a place that means so much to her, it was the same for me to have her share this place with me. On top of that, I know that having her to talk to (someone who has been here and understands life here) will help the transition of coming home.  

There are too many pictures, so here’s a quick slideshow…click here…

A few other notables:

I drove the car into town the other day with a total of 12 people, including Tasha in a carrier on my lap in the driver’s seat. That sure wouldn’t fly in Canada…

We had the most AMAZING storm a couple weeks ago. I had to drive to the clinic in town to drop off some blood to be tested and I was drenched just from running from the porch to the car. I couldn’t see anything and kept getting wet every time I would break as the the water would pour through the sun roof. It had the same intensity as driving in the snow back home, I loved it.

Also, Emily came back from America on Sunday; Jessica and I went to the Airport to meet her. When she came through the gate, Jess ran up and they had a less-then-subtle reunion. While that was going on, I snuck behind them, ducking behind people until I was standing just beside Emily. I stood there silent for a moment, until she noticed me…a double take that ended in more screaming and hugging. I got her good…