More Paint = More Fun

The last few days have passed along without much happening out of the ordinary. On Monday, we hosted a travelling troupe of puppeteers from the Netherlands. Led by Andre, the father-mother-son combination set up their puppet theater in our dining hall and made two performances, one for the primary grades and one for the secondary. As most of the children at Rafiki, and indeed most African children in general, have never seen a puppet, let alone witnessed a puppet show, Andre has honed his presentation into an educational experience for his audience, describing the process of making a puppet out of a gourd, some cloth, and a fancy paint job. The children were delighted at the show, for, as the director of education put it, most of these kids (at least the ones who live out in the village) don't have much joy in their lives. Many of these same kids eat their midday meal at Rafiki, and that's the last meal they eat for the day. I'm trying to fathom what that would be like. I can't.

Each morning this week, I have spent several hours painting those fascia boards along the roofline of the dining hall. It turned out to be a monster job, taking about 8 hours in all to complete. I finished this morning and triumphantly marched my step ladder and paint can back to Toby and showered up, pulling my best Clark Kent and transforming from "Uncle Paint", which I was being referred to by the little passersby, back into "Uncle Gareth", or simply "Uncle".

We have found ourselves becoming accustomed to an early morning racket coming from the local mosque. At 5:45 AM we hear the call to worship echoing through the valley. Apparently they have just obtained a new speaker system. It has also become apparent to me that there are no noise ordinances in Uganda. When the wife of the village director asked one of her hired workers on Sunday morning how he copes with the loud noise (his home is much closer to the mosque than Rafiki), he wore a confused expression and said simply, "I don't hear anything. It doesn't concern me." We were very impressed by his response, how devoted his heart is to Jesus that he truly does not hear the babble of the lost world around him. Yet my heart breaks for the Muslim community.

We have heard staggering numbers of child sacrifices that still occur in Uganda, performed by the animist witch doctors. I believe the number was 308 reported in 2008. The UN and US are working diligently with the Ugandan government to put an end to the killings, as well as the steady human trafficking that is reported to be in full swing in parts of the country. Please be in prayer that the Lord protect the innocent from these heinous crimes and that such evil would come to an abrupt end.

We are eagerly anticipating tomorrow evening, when we head out for our three day safari to Murchison Falls. If you want to see where we will be going, just google it. It should be incredible. We talked to a couple who just got back this evening from the very same safari and they said they saw a huge amount of wildlife. So that is exciting.

God bless you all.