3 pools of light could be seen in the distance of the dirt road. Heat lightning rolled overhead lighting up the sky every few moments while fireflies danced around Heather, myself and a handful of elementary aged school children. The pools of light were getting closer and the soft chorus of a repeating praise song could be heard. The children were asking Heather all sorts of questions like “Do you have cows in America?” and “Do white people know how to dig holes?” Every evening Heather and I walked around the ranch encountering scenes like these, “AH-MAH-GEE” the children would chase and shout out after us. Amaji (Sp?) is the Lugandan word for Eggs and was one of the first words a handful of the children had taught us, but apparently the story had spread quickly and now we had gained a nickname. The pools of light now revealed themselves as three lanterns held within a line of about a dozen young men who were all singing and clapping as they walked.  The men were from the Cornerstone Leadership Academy and tonight was Thursday night which was “Fellowship Night” on the ranch.  The children all ran to greet and file in behind the young men, jumping right into the singing and clapping. Heather and I followed along, not knowing the words I just clapped in rhythm and followed behind the pools of light.

We entered a small round brick structure, something like a rotunda, with a wooden bench carved out around the edge of the wall.  The three lanterns eerily lit the room as more and more people filed in singing and dancing and clapping.  More of the CLA students arrived, a few I had already built a friendship with; Eric and Bonnie shot right over to me, greeted me with the usual under then over then under again handshake, and asked if I remembered them. When I said their names their faces broke out in huge toothy grins (count it as grace, more often than not I don’t remember names) and they told me they were so happy to see us again. Heather was occupied with school children now crowded around her, whispering to her more questions as they rose to their curious minds. As everyone settled into the room the drummers began and soon the celebration began in full force.

The singing and dancing went for a long time, broken up here and there by various forms of prayer.  Then special groups would go forward in front of everyone and sing.  When a children’s choir went up to sing, Patrick, another friend of mine from CLA (“It means Noble!”) who happened to be the shortest of the young men (I know, ironic isn’t it) went up with them. All the CLA guys HOWLED with laughter at Patrick singing with the children. Bonnie, worried I didn’t get the joke, whispered over to me that this was funny because Patrick was singing with the children because he was so short.  Randomly people would break out of the crowd and would place a coin in the hand of a performer they enjoyed.  When one little girl walked up and placed a coin in Patrick’s hand the whole room erupted in laughter again.  Later a pair of girls walked up and began singing with loud, out of tune, warbling voices. At first Heather and I just looked each other unsure of whether anyone else noticed how bad they were. The crowd was patient at first but as the song continued on and on soon people were shouting at the girls in Lugandan and laughing as a few seemingly shambled up with coins as if to say “I’m paying you to stop.” Some of the CLA men were even covering their ears, but the girls would not be denied and they finished their song to cries of joy throughout the room. Heather and I had just witnessed some of the most polite people in the world confronted with something out of a very bad American Idol audition. Yet at the end everyone was in good spirits and soon the communal singing, drumming, clapping and dancing broke out again.

That is a sliver of our new life, and it is a very different life indeed. Yet something about the ranch reminds me of my childhood, of growing up going to Patapsaco State Park with my family. Fireflies and Heat Lightning (and Cicadas) all remind me of Maryland, new experiences for Heather but ones that were just part of living on the East Coast.  Don’t get me wrong it is definitely clear we are in Africa, but the things that are sometimes most striking to me are not the differences, but the similarities, and it’s not just nature, it’s the people as well. Hakim nods his head like he’s from Baltimore, Umar likes country music, wants to know all about Cowboys and Texas (can they really just carry guns?), Ben could easily be mistaken for a manager in the states, and when Sylvia is wearing her hoodie pulled up around her head she looks more at home on a concrete alley than in the bush.

There is one different between here and home: THE BUGS!  If anything was going to send me packing and screaming all the way home it is the sheer amount of insects.  Our house is in a constant state of war once the sun goes down and the lights turn on.  I try to distract myself, but often I end up pacing the house with a can of bug spray killing anything that creeps, crawls, buzzes or flies. Heather, as we all know, was homeschooled so she likes to study and take pictures of the moths, which by the way can grow to the size of a baby bird, but I’d rather just kill them all.  Luckily we have some geckos who live in the house with us, merrily eating bugs.  You sometimes find their poop around but that is a small price to pay.  Also, I have a strict no spider killing policy; I tell the spiders so long as they don’t bother me I will let them live.  After all this is war and the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I also have an intricate system of how to turn on lights based on which doors are open so that most of the bugs stay out of the bedroom. We have a mosquito net (two actually, I put one over another to cover any holes) over our bed but still you never can be too cautious. I wouldn’t say I’m so much afraid of bugs as much as I just hate them.

Heather and I have been focusing on building relationship with the staff at AHI first. Maggie explained that we should reach out to them first and then the students.  I have quickly made such good - and what I suspect will be lifelong - friends among the staff here and I hope in these weeks of blogging to introduce everyone to you. Every morning at 10:30 is the best open fire roasted tea and chapati bread you will ever taste, but even more importantly it is a small moment of rest at the beginning of everyone’s busy day and such a great time for conversation. Politics and football are the two most common topics, and everyone asks me about Obama almost like I know the guy. Agree or disagree with his politics, for those in the bush of East Africa, seeing Obama as the President of the United States is pretty inspiring.

So what are we doing out here? SO MUCH! On the Practical side Heather is teaching new recipes and I am teaching as much as I can about computers. I was so excited when I left retail to never do another inventory, so of course when I got here Maggie asked me to build a complete inventory system for the Guesthouse and Kitchen (“never say never” she told me laughing). I am working with Ben (principle of AHI) and some other local entrepreneurs to really hash out business plans and look for ways to make them profitable. Heather is working on starting a women’s bible study which seems to be an urgent need on the ranch. But possibly the biggest task Maggie has laid before us is to somehow unite Ekitangaala.  There are about 5 or 6 Christian “organizations” (I use that term loosely since they are all in some way connected with one organization Cornerstone)   here on the Ranch but they are all acting mostly independently of one another. No one has had the time to bring them all together, until now.  This is pretty overwhelming, so please be in prayer for us that God would build the relationships and community needed to make this work. The first step was the big party Heather talked about last week.  Next we will be having a small dinner with just the Principals of each group in a couple weeks.  Heather and I are doing so many different things that I’m sure I left some out but God has answered prayer and seems to be moving swiftly to really enable us to get into gear and support Maggie (who seems more excited about us each day).

Heather will be posting her favorite clips from local newspapers shortly and I assure you they are not to be missed and also the first pictures should start showing up soon. Join us next week when we tell you about what Church is like in Uganda and how to make a radio that needs 3 batteries work with only 2! We love and miss you all, please don’t cease praying we can really sense your prayers with us, God is showing again and again that He is in control.

-- PHD