We started our day off with a devotion led by Trish on kindness. We tried to keep that uppermost in our minds as we served the people of Mazimasa today.
This was the first day in our third church this week. Thankfully, it was only a short 24 minute drive from the hotel. The final leg of the journey was down a “path” that had obviously not been created for vehicles but we made it. Jimmy, our driver, is nothing short of amazing…but his driving can sometimes be a little scary as well. Dodging motorcycles, bicycles and people, egads!
The church was surrounded by fields of corn and casaba plants as far as the eye could see. It was the first church we saw this week that had only a dirt floor. Assuming that’s because it is a less affluent area. We were surprised to find a very small crowd of people waiting for us and were told that everyone was in the fields working and would most likely show up by 11:00 – and they did! After 11:00 there was a steady stream of patients which continued throughout the day. At one point this morning, we had all the children, who did not need to see a doctor, line up to receive mosquito nets.
It is sometimes hard to determine if a baby or toddler is a boy or girl as they do not always wear gender specific clothes. So worried I’ll offend a mother by telling her that her daughter is beautiful and it’s actually her son. I was surprised the other day when all the boys wanted pink mosquito nets and the girls wanted blue mosquito nets. So different than back home.
One of our favorite foods is Chapati which is similar to a tortilla but slightly thicker. Each day at the church site James cooks us lunch - he is a great cook and has been making our lunches for as long as we’ve been coming to Uganda. He agreed to teach us how to make Chapati today. After lunch, Trish, Karen Eisele, Karen Underwood and I went to the pastor’s house for his “class”. Thomas was assigned the role of videographer so that Leslie and Donna (who were working while we goofed off) would have access to James’ teaching. It was a lot of fun, although James made it look much easier than it actually is.
We ran out of mosquito nets around 3:30 so we had to shut down the clinic early but Pastor Apollo told everyone we would be back in the morning. This is the first day that we arrived back to the hotel early enough to have afternoon tea.
So tomorrow is our last day of mission. A little bittersweet as I’m sad to leave but excited to get back to the States. Sunday morning we leave for Entebbe and the long flight home.
Blessings,
Debbie