Heart and Reality- Lost in Translation

Feb 12th
Heart and Reality- Lost in Translation

I woke in my new room from a good nights sleep on the mattress on the floor. Today was the day I set aside to organize my room and unpack but Robyn asked me to join in on a talk to the 4 senior students, Pricilla, Barbra, ? John Travis, whom haven’t started school yet. We needed to discuss helping out with cooking and chores. I started out the talk with a verse from my devotional that morning, 1 John 4:20-21. Daddy Brian spoke to the children about the situation. They all understood that they needed to learn things like cooking because it will help them as they go out on their own. It will also show love to the others in the family group.

After the talk it started to pour down rain so Jim, Robyn and I unpacked and organized the house more. It was very good. I felt like I was settled into my new home. About 1pm we walked into town, about a mile, to start our errands for the day. We decided to stop off at the bakery for lunch since Jim didn’t want beans and rice again and I was already glad that he had made the decision.  We had meat pies and meat samosas….very yummy!

Then it was off to starts the errands for the day and whittle down the large list the Robyn had prepared. We were just headed to our 1st errand to drop papers to Ritah at the child protection agency. As we passed by the local jail Robyn and Jim ran into a young girl, Nicato they had meet last year. She hugged Robyn tight and teared up, as she told her that her father was in jail and had been slain. She also needed 30,000 shillings to take his body. Of course Robyn’s heart melted as she deciphered the broken English from the girl, translating that her father had been killed in prison and she needed 30,000 shillings to move the body from Masaka to their village. Jim being the reality side of the couple asked the girl if they could talk to the authorities at the jail about the situation. Jim went straight to Alice, a police officer on the youth correction side of the jail. He asked her to find out about the situation and translate for them with the girl. She said sure talk to the girl and her mother who had joined us and went into the main jail. When Alice returned outside she had a man with her and stated that the man was Nicato’s father. Hum, was he Lazarus raised from the dead or did we really botch that translation? We all proceeded into a room to talk about the situation and get the correct story. It turns out that the father had been caught doing marijuana and opium and was put in jail. His bail was 30,000 schillings. Of course we weren’t going to post bail for that. Nicato got down on her knees and apologized to Robyn for the misunderstanding. Robyn had Alice translate as she talked to the man about repentance and accepting Jesus. He said that he will accept prayer but didn’t feel worthy to come to the Lord until he was out of jail. Robyn stated that she would pray for him but right now is when he needed God the most and that God loves him now matter what situation he was in. He still refused so we all gathered hands and prayed for him.

As we left the jail we headed to get minced meat for tacos for dinner but the shop was out. While Jim and Robyn were in the shop I started talking to a girl that was sitting on the step out front. She was Ali from Maine. She said that we were the first Americans she had met in Masaka. She was in Uganda to help out with a Farming and Gardening Project in a village outside of Fort Portal, but would also be back and forth to Masaka. She was traveling alone, so Robyn insisted that she know where we live. That was she could visit and stay with us when she was in Masaka. Ali’s driver, David, drove us all down to our house and we exchanged phone numbers and emails to stay in touch. It was so nice to meet her. I hope she comes by the house soon.

Oh my, it was finally time to work on our errands!  We spent the rest of the day, till dark purchasing, everything from wastepaper baskets, to toilet seats, to wash basins for the house. We finally got home around 7:30pm and had dinner of beans, rice and cooked cabbage. I don’t think we went to bed until 11:30. It was quite a first day in Masaka!