More car trouble

Sunday, 11 November 2012

So the story of the last few days: Get invited to a village, they slaughter a goat for us, car breaks down in village, walk 10 km to nearest town to get help, friendly missionaries tow us back to their place to fix truck. Thursday we realise truck has serious issues. 

Friday we drive in convoy down to Mbale to get parts and fix engine. Get stuck in mud and rear axle falls off said vehicle. Front light gets smashed. Have to drive the rest of the 7 hrs in 2WD. Get properly bogged 10 more times. Get pulled out 10 more times by Jesse VanGorkom (so grateful). Arrive in Mbale. Just. Saturday 9am hitch a ride with rock n roll lovin, rodeo junky Texan missionaries back up to north Karamoja (Kaabong)... Awesome fun.

10 hrs later arrive in one of the most beautiful places, body is sore but God is gracious. Saturday arvo hear that Bob Wright and the OPC team have fixed our engine and are getting the axle fixed now now. Amazing how things work out right?

Team Update - car trouble

Team Update - car trouble

8^th November 2012

Hey everyone, I am just writing to give you a bit of an up date since the last post. This week we had a car problem! Unhelpfully, Summer and I know as much about cars as we do about astrophysics and when you are out in Karamoja, that is not always a good thing. Don't worry yet though, it has a happy-ish ending but I am considering trying to squeeze in a mechanics course to go with my vet degree!

So, on Tuesday this week we headed out to the village of Naboru's husband. Nabor is a KACHEP employee with the chicken project as well as a neighbour and friend.  Her husband, Akol Paul had invited us there to thank us for helping Nabor when she and her newborn baby were diagnosed with tuberculosis about a month ago. We helped with some medicines and food for her while she was sick.
 When we finally arrived at his village, through the torrential downpour of rain that was happening as we drove through the mud, he brought us a large and handsom he-goat and wanted our approval of it. He was going to give us one of the biggest of K'jong honours, to slaughter a goat for us! The men made a fire out of wet thorn bushes and roasted the goat on top, resulting in a delicious smokey flavour. So we had smoked goat, danced with the women and then had a Karamajong slumber party in a mud hut, sleeping on cow skins. Paul, not a Christian, has 5 wives all of whom have different huts but we slept in the 1st wife's hut.
 In the morning, we headed out to the vehicle as we were going back to Nabilatuk to plan for Thursday's program.
On Thursday we had planned a 'Keeping Healthy Animals' day at a village we hadn't had much contact with before. The theory behind the day was that the men of the village live too far from Nabilatuk township and so don't bring their sick animals to us, they just buy antibiotics from town and carry them back to their villages. The problem is though that the people here are mostly all illiterate and so unfortunately can't read the directions on the back of the medicines and don't really know how much meds to give. So very commonly they are under-dosing their animals, leading to bacterial resistance and they end up having to bring their cattle to see us anyway. Our aim was to spend the day teaching on the basics of doing a physical exam, estimating weight, common diseases and available treatments, just to give them a bit more of a knowledge base in their strive to keep healthy animals!
 As we all piled into the truck to go back to Nabilatuk, Summer tried to start the car and it gave a few pathetic whines but never sparked to life. She tried again, with the same results, so we popped the hood and saw that one of the wires coming from the battery was smoking. So, imagine if you will, us, two whites and four K'jong, in a broken down car, in Africa's version of whoop whoop. Thankfully we were able to contact OPC, our neighbourly mission friends who live an hour away. They drove to a semi-central point that we both knew, we walked 10 km to meet them and then directed them through the bush to the village and our car. Thank you God for mobile phones and friends. We were towed to their compound and made the executive decision to postpone our 'Keeping Healthy Animals' day for another day, hopefully in two weeks time.
Jesse, an engineer, and son of my mission leader from CVM, worked on our car for the rest of Wednesday and some of Thursday and worked out that it was a short in the positive circuit of the battery and when we turn the car off, the short drains the battery. So by disconnecting the battery every time we turn the car off and then reconnecting it again we can use the vehicle, but it's not great. We are driving down on Saturday to a mechanic to get it properly fixed (praying!).
 By around Thurs lunchtime when we had realised all of this we headed back to Nabilatuk to pack some more clothes because all we had with us were what we had from our village stay and we smelt. Badly.
When we arrived, it was to find that our neighbour had died and a funeral was going to take place that afternoon. We were worried that the afternoon rains would catch us on our drive back to OPC, but it was all fine in the end. We attended the burial, giving the family a sheet to wrap the old man's body in. It was so sad in particular because the daughter had drunk her sorrows away and was wailing at an excruciating volume. You know when you're in a situation where one person is doing something a bit out of the ordinary, and everyone knows it. I was a bit like that and it made me feel sick to see her sorrow so on display. Not that it was wrong for her to show her anguish, of course, just that I had never seen someone in so much obvious emotional pain, people usually do a good job of hiding their true feelings.
So although we are fine, it hasn't been the week we'd planned.
We know 100% that God is looking out for us and protecting us through these things but it is still a bit disappointing to be out of ministry action for a while, while the truck gets fixed.
We hope, however, that we can use the time to go up north to Kaabong and Lotim, where the team was originally meant to move to and still might. Summer has some business to sort out there before next year and I've never been and am a travel monkey so I'm along for the ride!
 - Pray for safe travels on the road on Friday and that the truck would get easily sorted out.

 - Praise that God had help and provision for us in our time of need and that we now know of this problem before we were really out of reach.

 - Pray for the villages we won't be able to get to for our Bible studies next week that they would continue on without us.

 - Pray for our trip up north, again for safety on these crazy crazy roads and for a good, efficient time of business and for a bit of fun as well.

 

"In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps."

Proverbs 16:9

Update Summer

I am in Kampala. Not an expected destination, but here I am. I have had many unexpected experiences this week: being soaked by the rain and then wrapped in a blanket in the middle of a village, eating goat intestine and drinking the local brew; having my camera drop into a cup of milk tea; smoke rising from my battery cables and my truck refusing to start; being towed to Naakale; attending our neighbor's funeral; realizing that the truck problem is greater than first expected, so we had to go to Mbale; on the way to Mbale, the axle on the truck comes off (not good!), we remove the axle and stuff it with a rag, good enough to limp down to Mbale; get stuck in the middle of the river and have to be pulled out (this is where my phone stopped working); leave the truck in Mbale, with Bob Wright (the incredible), and hitch a ride with friends up to Kaabong; have a meeting with the elders in Lotim to settle some land issues (hopefully I'll be there in January to participate in a training put on by the Baptists); then travel to Kotito to catch a flight to Kampala with MAF. So now, now I am in Kampala, waiting for parts for our truck. Please pray that we will be able to find them quickly. We are stuck until we get those parts.

Grubers in Germany, almost Karamoja



R-Tom, Jean, Joseph, Simon, Carina, Summer, Christina, Daniel -April 2012

 I've been in Germany this week with Simon & Carina Gruber, who will soon join Summer full-time in Karamoja. It was a delight to see them at their home base and answer as many questions and concerns for them - to pray together and feel our collective, strong passion for the work and needs in Karamoja.

This picture was taken at the Kaabong strip in a flux of transition; Summer's friend had just landed -a week later Grubers left following their 2mo survey visit. Summer had been back for around 6 weeks and Melissa had just arrived from Australia. When the picture was taken, Melissa was back with Miriam in Nabilatuk tending to an illness that attacked our chicken flock. Meanwhile, Tom and I were soon leaving to USA for medical & counseling - completely unaware that we would not be returning...

I've gone through many 'what ifs' since this day - one of the biggest ones -would I have ever left Uganda at April's end if I knew all of the changes in my life and work? would I have, once again, tried to 'tough it out' on my own and 'make it work'? I'm at peace, and increasingly so, that God has a plan - He just keeps making it more clear to me each step of the way. 

So, now another transition will take place this next two months - Melissa will depart and the Grubers will return. Give Summer wisdom and stability. Pray for this team to continue to listen and hear the Lord's still voice as He urges us when to turn left and when to go right.