Dedication of the Lugwere book of Acts!

This weekend we had the privilege of attending another Scripture dedication! We journeyed to Budaka, in eastern Uganda, just 30 km’s this side of Mbale, to see the Lugwere book of Acts dedicated and launched. We had a great time!

These dedications are always so good for me. It can get a bit monotonous sitting in an office in Entebbe week after week, not really seeing the fruit of the labors of your work. It doesn’t exactly fulfill those visions I had in college that my life as a “missionary” would be! As well as coordinating all the translation consultant checks, supervising the translators and managing all the project finances, my job also includes organizing the publication of these Scripture portions. Lots of paper work which involves applying for funding, arranging for a typesetter and getting the finished project to the printers. So its always fun to see a portion of Scripture dedicated that I a hand in arranging the consultant checks and publishing for!

Now that I have children, it also a privilege to be able to show them just why we live in Uganda and why I have to go to work everyday. It’s also a great opportunity to get them out of Entebbe into “real” Uganda and for them to experience some more Ugandan cultures and traditions. Discover their Ugandan “roots” so to speak (how politically correct am I?? Ha!).

Lynette, Jaja Jennifer, Frankie and L

The kids and I traveled up with our good friend and colleague, Jennifer, and her niece, Lynnette. Jennifer is the finance manager for the outfit that I work with so we work together quite a bit and she’s depended upon a lot. She has also been my surrogate mother and a good stand in Jaja for the kids. We don’t get together as much as I’d like so it was a great opportunity to spend some time together!

We arrived a bit before the dedication ceremony started, so convened with some other friends from our organization, at the Lugwere office. Lynette and Frankie share the same furrowed brow!

My little munchkins : -)

Our friends and colleagues, Lydia and Enoch, with Frank. If Frankie ends up half the Christian man Enoch is, I will be blessed!

We are so blessed with good friends! Lydia is a member of our organization and Enoch is a translation consultant. He started out in the Lunyole project as a linguist, translator and project leader, and then moved on into translation consultancy. I work with him a lot. My Ugandan friends and colleagues have really opened up their arms to and accepted my kids, which means a LOT to me.

At the dedication Frankie had the good fortune of being given a really cool bug (the boy LOVES insects!). It looked like a super duper lady bug on steroids! This picture is of the two of them examining it. Ella really wanted to commandeer it but I quickly diverted her.

Ella was truly a crack up. She saw the group of men in nice black suits milling around setting up the sound system, organizing things, etc, and was right in the middle of it! It was so funny to look out between the tents and see all those big men in black suits and little pink Ellster scampering around in the middle of them!

Ella then spotted these men tuning up their instruments and had to join in!

Score a musical instrument for L! She got a little hands on experience in the musical instrument department. She LOVED it!

L’s a natural on the drum! This is your usual Ugandan drum, made out of cow hide

This is Ella sitting on a traditional musical instrument that is also made out of cowhide. It’s like a cross between a harp, a drum and a chair! It’s usually straddled and the strings played like a harp, as well as occasionally being whapped like a drum.

I thought this was a pretty cool rendition of the traditional cowhide little harp thingy, made out of tin, wood, wire strings and...

... nails! It made some pretty good music, too!

This little Mugwere dude liked to play too! Little guys like him are the reason I go to work everyday – he’ll grow up being able to hear, understand and hopefully READ and study the Bible in his own language!

Here are some musical instruments in use (Ella wasn’t asked to join as she hadn’t perfected her art yet)

The Bagwere have LOTS of very enthusiastic, good, choirs -many of which performed in the dedication. They all involve dancing, usually tell a story and are often like a skit. So even if you don’t understand Lugwere you can sometimes still follow along!

Little Ella planted herself in the front row, right alongside the guest of honor, so that she wouldn’t miss any of the dancing and singing action. She is an incredibly odd five year old – she patiently suffered through the many speeches, in Lugwere no less, without complaint because she knew that another choir would follow! It was hot too, and she was sitting right in the sun. She had a little program that she would occasionally come back to “discuss” with me to see where we were at and to look where the next dancing would be. All done in extreme seriousness with a furrowed brow. And we were at this event for over four hours before we had to leave! Give her a tent, plastic chair, people, singing, and dancing and this kid is fine!

My favorite was when one of the speakers asked the "[our organization] team from Entebbe" to stand up and little Ella in the front row was the first to stand! So cool that she actually feels part of the team too :).

Here is Sam, the Lugwere Project Leader, on the right, giving his speech. He is an incredible man. He started working on translating the Lugwere New Testament in the 70’s, completely on his own initiative. This man has dedicated his life to seeing that his people can read and understand the Word of God in their own language. He is also one of the most kind, gentle, humble men I have ever met. If Frank turns out half the man Sam is, I will be blessed!

I never realized before how much liquid intake a five and two year old can take on a hot day, or how often they need to pee. If one wasn’t needing to go the other one was! Many trips were made to the bushes : -) Old Auntie Lydia stepped in once to escort L since I had a sleeping Frankie on my lap. Unfortunately he’d also had a lot of water, was sleeping really hard and let loose. Jennifer tried to give me comfort by telling me of a saying in her language (Lumasaba) that if a child loves you enough they’ll pee on you, or something like that. Um, whatever!I still had a wet spot on my lap!

Back to Mto Moyoni!

Once again, we spent the night in Jinja at Mto Moyoni and once again, we had a great time!

What really amazed me was that over breakfast I actually struck up conversation with the other expats there. This almost NEVER, ever happens. I am easily turned off and have some really bad attitudes towards missionaries, due to some not so good experiences I’ve had, but apparently I’m making progress!

There was a really friendly little ten or twelve year old boy who come to find out, was born literally just over the hill in Red Lodge, Montana!! Well, what do you know? No WONDER he was so nice! ;) I chatted local news (and Bearcreek pig races) with his mom, adoption issues with a Ugandan gal, and some other chit chat with another gal. I have to say, God has really used my kids to open me up and cause me to be a bit more friendly to other expats. Perhaps my snarling and glaring days are over?! Ella’s rubbing off on me : -).

However, Ella actually DID have a shy moment during breakfast! Pretty amazing, really, but all those expats made her clam up and QUIETLY eat her breakfast for once. It was actually FRANKIE who was giving us a LOUD running commentary on what everyone else was doing – “The boy is eating his bread,” “That people washed her hair,” “He is drinking his tea,” etc! Luckily he wasn’t commenting on any ones physical features or anything else too embarrassing: -)

The wee ones standing in front of our room

I really think that I could use Frank and this pathetic face to solicit money for abused and disadvantaged children or something. He really is a happy, cheery little boy, until you get a camera out – then it’s this sad, pathetic little face!

I’m all about child labor! My Ellster is a strong little girl : -)

After sharing a room with the kids for one night, I’m REALLY glad that I don’t do it on a regular basis! Luckily the two kids were in one bed but Frankie’s “musical diapers” woke me up once – diapers really amplify noise! He then got startled during the night and started praying in a REALLY loud voice, too. If he ever gets married I pity his future wife! For now I pity his sister :)

Meet Cowboy Frank and Princess Fluffy

Last Sunday I got a huge kick out of dressing Frankie in his "traditional Montana dress", with his jeans, belt, plaid shirt and his great grandfathers bolo tie. Very snazzy if I might say so myself! Ella donned her Princess dress which automatically transforms her into Princess Fluffy. I threw one of my outdated Sunday dresses at the last minute and looked minutely better than I did after I'd just climbed out of bed. At least I remembered to put a dress on in the first place, and didn't go to church in my pajamas!

"I don't like standing on this stool and I think I want to cry"

"Ha ha!!! Don't get a picture of my smile!"

"Anybody seen where my belt buckle went? I know it was down here somewhere - I just can't seem to find it..."

" Aww yeah, I guess I kind of have a big gut!"

Frankie saying "cheese." Yeah, go figure!

"And here's a kiss for the little lady!"

Princess Fluffy accessorizing her princess dress with a cowboy fleece. The girls stylin!

Five year old Princess Fluffy joins a Lugbara fellowship

Our very nice neighbors are members of the Anglican church here in Entebbe. Being as this is a very urban, mixed community, people live here from all over Uganda. Our neighbor, Gift, is from Arua where Lugbara is the predominant language. So Gift and his wife, Kathryn, hosted the Lugbara fellowship from their church at our compound yesterday.

Kathryn had told me the day before that they would be hosting it and were expecting around 30 to 40 people. No problem thinks me – I mean, if we can handle drunk Russians and prostitutes partying until 2am on our porch, what are a couple handfuls of nice, God fearing Lugbara gathered here to fellowship in the afternoon? I’ll just tie up the dogs and that should be the degree of the H’s involvement.

Um, WRONG. I had sort of forgotten the extent of my five year old extrovert daughters enthusiasm for all things that involve people, music and soda, not to mention the opportunity to HELP.

Imagine my surprise yesterday afternoon when I got home from work to see this in our compound!

By golly, it looks like a small church!

They set up the tent during L’s nap. Ella was beside herself with glee when she saw it resurrected in our yard and promptly went about straightening chairs and shadowing Kathryn everywhere “helping” her. Fortunately Kathryn is a PATIENT soul and spends quite a bit of time with Ella. They are indeed friends.

Ella helped Kathryn fix up the “guest of honor” section and fill this vase with flowers. Bridger is looking on wishing that the vase was just a little bit lower so that he could mark the flowers....

Ella quickly decided that she was under dressed for the party and changed into her princess dress before continuing on helping Kathryn fold napkins. Gift and Kathryn were very patient with her fumbling little five year old fingers! Princess Fluffy also helped great people at the gate, among other things.

This fellowship lasted three hours and Princess Fluffy was there for it all! Frankie and I wandered in for the singing and dancing but then our interest petered out as everything was in Lugbara. We know about as much Lugbara as we do Mandarin Chinese therefore when the preaching started we wandered home to read, play, make a cake, dinner, etc.

Now most five year olds would quickly lose interest in a three hour event that wasn’t geared for children and was in a language that they didn’t understand but not my L! Or Princess Fluffy! She held out during the entire sermon (doing what I don’t know!), came in for a quick drink, then joined in the last hoorah’s of singing, dancing, and the well deserved refreshments. Gift gave her an entire 350 ml soda and she admitted to eating FIVE samosa’s, so little Princess Fluffy got pretty hopped up! I even looked out once to see Princess Fluffy feeding the neighbor children samosa’s through the chain link fence!

Sadly, this fellow threw a major tantrum at being tied up and not being able to participate with Princess Fluffy in the Lugbara festivities. His tantrum resulted in the destruction of part of the hedge and a small shrub.

Only in Uganda will you hear dogs barking wildly, screams/shrieks, and then lots of laughter. This happens when someone gets a hankering to use the loo at the far end of our compound and forgets that Bridger’s on a long cable. After being tied up for 3.5 hours he gets rather cranky about it ;) Great entertainment for the rest of the Anglican Lugbara fellowshipers!

Princess Fluffy is more than just a pretty face. Or dress as the case may be. She also helped the guys take down the tent– mostly by hopping about giving helpful advice and getting in the way.

Princess Fluffy’s adaptability and friendliness astounds her introverted, socially awkward mother. She is equally at home amongst a bunch of BLACK Lugbara (not a politically correct term but by golly the folks from up north are BLACK! My youngsters looked down right pale in comparison!) adults, as she is amongst a bunch of Americans, her urban, English speaking Ugandan buddies at church, or all the men translators who I work with. All she needs is living breathing people, whether she can understand their language or not, and she’s happy!

Princess Fluffy hopped up on her soda. I couldn’t get her to stand still enough to take a decent picture!