a surreal reality...

I haven't said much about the upcoming elections in Uganda because most of the main things are public news and the other things are all uncertain and can lead to fear, worry, and confusion. So, I have just kept quiet and prayed.

Today, as I moved through the tasks before me, I felt a sort of oddness. I'm not even sure how to describe it. I don't think there is an adjective that really means what I felt, but surreal is as close as I can get.

We are here in our village, on our fenced property surrounded by our co-workers that are also our friends. We are working hard to finish a long list of tasks so that our children can all come to school this Sunday and begin classes on Monday with a great start.

We are cleaning classrooms, moving folks from one place to another, tearing down walls, setting up an office, and other random tasks. On top of that, I decided last week that I'd bake everyone a loaf of banana bread as a small gift and token of my appreciation for them. I wanted to do something nice for them but also I have a ton of bananas to use. I asked my friend Grace if anyone around was selling bananas (the long, sweet ones because here we have to specify). She showed up at my house with a neighbor from the village. They were carrying an entire branch of a banana tree (that's how they grow - you cut the stem to get the bunch from the tree). I paid her 6,000/= for the entire bunch. I thought it was too little but she said, "you are my people, I can't charge you more." So, to be clear, in the US it would be equivalent to buying about 15 pounds of bananas for $1.75.

Needless to say, I have more bananas than I can use. So, today I baked 10 loaves of banana bread to give away.

We also moved two families from the dormitories to the new apartment style staff housing. Grace and Merabu are both single moms that work at our school. They've been staying in a dormitory for a year but the staff housing is almost ready and they moved in today. Everyone was getting in on the action.

Even little Edgar is carrying his load.

I guess he's really pulling his load. :)

Prosper has his hands full!

I love how they fix an old jerry can into a sort of drag along wagon for the kids to help out.

I promise Tyler carried some heavy things as well. 

Andrew doesn't wear shoes and he always manages to hurt his feet, but he's actually smiling here. 

Raegan and I tried to carry things Ugandan style, but we're years behind in practice. Merabu definitely put us to shame. :)

While we were moving things, the guys re-did the floors in both of the huts, put glass in the windows, added electricity and took the time to knock out some of a wall to make a passage way between rooms.

We had 4 dorm rooms that were a bit crowded and only had exterior entry points. By knocking out a passage way, between two rooms, we can give the kids more space and the matron can supervise all the children throughout the night. We connected two rooms for boys and two rooms for girls. It saves us from having to hire more staff and gives a more home-like feel to the dorms.

 I'm telling you, these guys are quick! This was just a few hours total, now the cement just has to dry.

Henry has installed windows in every room of every building on the property. Here he is crushing the left over, small pieces of glass to make them fall down into the latrine. This keeps the glass from falling around the ground where people could step on it. Once it goes down that hole, it's never coming back. :)

So, here's the surreal part. Today we were rushing to get a lot of work done and even more that I didn't share pictures of. We are all exhausted, tired, and dirty. But, we had to get as much done as we could because some folks left tonight and everyone else is leaving in the morning. 

Everyone is going to be with their family and we're going to a place in the city where Pastor Makumbi asked us to stay for a few days. You see, the presidential elections happen on Thursday and there is a lot of uncertainty. Never in the history of Uganda has a change-over in leadership happened peacefully. The last change-over was in 1986 at the end of a 5 year war. The same man has been president since that time and many people want a change. But, he doesn't want to give up power and there are issues with intimidation, ballot stuffing, corruption, and all sorts of other things. Already, there have been some bad situations. 

So, the oddity is that while today seems like a normal day, it is not something we've ever experienced before. We work to get as much done as we can so that our kids can come to school on Sunday. But, then we wait for 3 days to see if a war breaks out. If it does, who knows exactly what will happen (don't worry, we do have contingencies in place and we'll listen for the Lord's direction, and we'll follow the instructions of our pastors). If war doesn't break out, maybe it will just be riots and a few hours or days of craziness and then we'll get back to normal life. Or maybe it will all go smoothly and on Saturday everyone will meet back here at the school and we'll finish getting ready for kids to come on Sunday.

Nobody knows, but everyone is thinking about it, even if they aren't talking about it. We've packed our "go bags", we're going to the place that we've been asked while we sit this out, and all of our friends will be at their homes or with other relatives. When people leave, they tell you to be safe and it isn't just a general, "drive carefully" or "I hope it all goes well," it is a genuine statement of hoping that everything is fine and reminding everyone to be careful.

Again, please don't worry. I'm only sharing this to give you some idea of the oddity of the situation. Who has discussions about what to do should a war break out? Unfortunately, it happens all over the world but in the US we haven't had to deal with it in over a century (I'm referring to war on your homeland, not on the other side of the world). 

I only know that God is sovereign. I do recognize that sometimes war has to happen. It doesn't happen because of religion or a mean God or any other strange reason that people philosophize about. It happens simply because men seek money, power, control, or some other self-gratification. Sometimes good people have to suffer, to stand up fight for what's right. When we let evil win, or we let someone have the power and control out of fear, we're not keeping peace. We're just prolonging the start of war. We're leaving it to those younger than us to have to deal with it. So, I pray for the people of Uganda to do what they think is right without acting in fear. Doing what's right is not usually the easy way.