A Little Patience

For my first night in Mbale I slept very well (mosquito-bite free), however I was literally woken up at the crack of dawn by the cockerels from next door (and this has continued for my entire stay so far), which is something I'm sure I will adapt too. For the next few days I had been instructed to do nothing, and those of you who know me well, will be aware that I'm not very good at this. I like to keep busy, which is probably the reason I end up organising things constantly. 


Instead of doing completely nothing, Nat took me to town on my first day to get my Ugandan sim card and internet access for my laptop.  We then spent the entire day sitting in Chat 'n' Chinos, a coffee shop where many muzungu's go. Quite a westernised place,  I came to this conclusion early on as Jason Mraz and Taylor Swift played on the cafes sound system. However, I soon came to realise that if you want to eat or drink something, you order it a while before you actually want it because the Africans are in no rush to serve you. The next few days were like this, relaxing and settling in. 


Every Friday morning the JENGA team have a prayer/worship session, so this was going to be my first one and I had been looking forward to it all week. Every single person on this team was loving, welcoming and true men and women of God. This  was a great group of friends, who also enjoyed to take the complete rip out of each (of course in a loving way, which reminded me of friends from back home, which was a great comfort). The worship and prayer was electric and there was so much freedom from all of them. They have no feeling of reservation and they hold nothing back, this got me really excited about my time here! 


On Saturday, Nat took me towards the slums where they served the nicest pork I have ever had! With these pork stands, the trick is to phone ahead so you are not having to wait. However, on this occasion we ended up waiting for over 2 hours for our meal to be ready! I think God is trying to teach me some patience! Safe to say we won't be returning customers, but was that meal good and we truly ate it African style (hands and all, though we  did decide to avoid the bones!)  


Later that day I went to one of the churches, where all the children from the village who attended the bible class gathered. Every two months the children would get to exchange the points they had earned (through attendance, behaviour etc.) for books, pencils, soap, shoe polish - such simple, basic things that wouldn't exactly thrill us, but was a real blessing to them. Afterwards I had the opportunity to play with the children and all it took was a digital camera and a couple of clapping games to capture their attention for a good while!  


My first Sunday was spent attending Bethel church, where Robby was preaching on this particular occasion. Similar to Friday's meeting, these people were so free and genuine about their worship, not caring about what those around them might think (something I will have to get use to and adapt to). Such a welcoming congregation, that I even received a personal welcome and then had the opportunity to introduce myself at the front. These people were so thrilled with my presence, and were even for excited when they discovered that I knew "Duncan from Scotland!" (a friend who spent three months here last year). The real work starts Monday morning, where I find out what projects I will get to be involved in. 


Hopefully hear from me soon - Hannah xxx