Food & Sustenance

Our son Rod gave us some blog ideas. I picked up on the food idea pretty quickly. Dennis can tell you that when I get bored or need a distraction, cooking is going to take place.

Let me say from the outset that we appreciate so much all the support that has been given to us to allow us to have a nice home & kitchen to cook in. We are so blessed!!!

When we first came to Uganda I was concerned that things would not be sterile enough resulting in us getting sick, or that I would not be able to find enough food to eat since the shopping here is so different from the U.S. Well, God has been faithful & He has taken care of all that. I’m now confident that we will survive in Africa!!!

Home Cooking:

I have learned to cook some of the African dishes, but mainly cook what I did at home with variations. I have a stove with a gas cooktop & an electric oven. And we have a refrigerator. We’ve had guests over a few times for pizza, fried chicken dinner, etc. I’ve made salsa & guacamole for the mission teams. (The avocados are bigger than my fist & guacamole will keep for a few days here. The going rate is 500 shillings – about 20¢). Fresh fruit is our dessert of choice, but I have made a few Texas Sheath Cakes & Dutch Apple Pies. I’ve been given the responsibility for most of the birthday cakes at Calo Me Lare, the orphanage where we serve (48 kids & 6 house moms). Thanks to people at Discovery Bible Fellowship for sending cake mixes & cans of frosting – makes my life much easier!!!

The fruit that looks like a big green strawberry is jackfruit. It is pretty tasty & rare. A staff member shared it with us. See the size of the avocado in comparison to the bananas? The pineapple is extra-large. Now you know why fresh fruit is the dessert of choice. Pineapples are 3000 shillings, about $1.25, bananas are 200 shillings, less than 10 cents each.

Orphanage Cooking:

The moms at Calo Me Lare have a kitchen very different from mine. They have cabinets with concrete counter-tops & no refrigeration. They cook very much like other people in Africa…on a charcoal burner. This is a picture of hauling charcoal on a bicycle. The bags are very heavy.

Our Head Mother, Tino Joy is cooking outside the home she shares with 8 girls. Joy plans the menu for each week. Meals are prepared in individual homes but they are exactly like the meals in the other homes.

A charcoal burner looks like this.

Charcoal is transported on bicycles in huge bags weighing over 100 lbs.

This is Akello Molly, taken in the kitchen of the home she shares with 8 boys. Each mom prepares a balanced diet for the children in her house, 3 meals a day. The children are given much better food than most children in Uganda.

The moms also prepare breakfast & lunch for the entire staff at CML on a rotating basis, along with cooking for their own home.  Let me tell you, their beans & rice are the absolute best! For lunch the children usually have beans with rice or posho. The evening meal might include carrots, green vegetables, a starchy vegetable, meat, or eggs. Everything is made from scratch…and everything is fresh. There are no frozen or packaged items to be used in cooking. Milk is purchased at a local dairy & the moms boil it as soon as it arrives.

Starches include cassava (a large root vegetable - see below), white maize flour, cooked in a paste form slightly resembling grits (posho) or used in porridge, fresh maize (boiled or roasted on the cob), Irish (potatoes) & white sweet potatoes.

This is Dennis' attempt at roasting maize.

Moms use onions, green peppers, tomatoes & peppers to spice things up. Besides this they use Royco, a beef-flavored seasoning which is quite good & thickens the broth in beans, soups & sauces.

Street Cooking:
Dennis & I have been on a Mission Trip to Uganda in the past for short stints, so we thought we knew something about eating out in Lira…we thought there were only a couple of “safe” restaurants…but we were wrong. Almost any restaurant is safe; even the street vendors are OK to buy from (with discretion - avoid the beef on a stick).

A local favorite is chapati, which is an unleavened flatbread. There are chapati vendors stationed all over Lira. They use a wheel rim, put it on a stand & fill the center with homemade charcoal. They use a small metal plate – like a griddle – to cook on. Next to this they have a table with round balls of prepared dough. They use a lot of oil to bake what looks like a huge, thick pancake. It is really good. They also make Rolexes at some of the stands by making something similar to an omelet on the same griddle & rolling it up together – Yum!

Roasted or boiled maize is plentiful everywhere you go (tastes like silage, if you know what that is). Ladies walk several miles with maize boiled in the husk balanced in a tray on their heads to sell at the local market.

Gnuts (peanuts) are in season now. They are usually roasted or made into a sauce to serve over sweet potatoes or whatever you like.  Sometimes the sauce is mixed with Simsim (sesame seeds). (We have discovered this is great over homemade pancakes with bananas & syrup). A team favorite in season is Simsim balls, made with Simsim & melted sugar.

Street cooking also includes Mandazi, a pouch-shaped donut.

Conclusion: We are all so spoiled & so blessed.

We thank God for each one of you & know you are praying for us. Some prayer requests this week:

• Teachers are on break this week, so pray for creativity in interacting with the kids...& energy for it.
• PTL! Several children prayed to receive Christ today in Children's Church. Pray for us as we follow up with them. Pray that the children will all come to understand who Jesus is.
• Last night a thunderstorm took out our microwave. Our oven needs repair...not a result of the storm. Pray it can all be fixed.

Blessings,
Dennis & Margie

A Week in Uganda

Thank you again to those who are following our blog, providing prayer & financial support. God has blessed us so much by your interest in our mission!

We would like to share a typical week with you, but there is no normal week. Here are some highlights from last week:

Sunday:  We are part of the church which meets at the orphanage, called Bunga Bunga Bible Fellowship. The past few weeks we have been without a weekend driver, so we have been leaving at 8am for Dennis to transport people from Lira to the church. We arrived at the church just in time for the prayer service at 9am. Church begins at 9:30am. We have about 45 minutes of praise & worship, offering & testimonies. While Pastor Dennis preaches the children go to Children’s Church. We’ve been meeting in the school, spitting into 3 groups & rotating for worship, Bible story & activities. We have about 130 children each week. Margie teaches the Bible story three times with a House Mom translating.

Monday:  We both spent the day at Calo Me Lare (Village of Redemption), the orphanage supported by Project Hope Worldwide. Dennis planted watermelons on the orphanage grounds. He worked with the welder & attended to electrical/plumbing issues, which is a never-ending job.

We have been training the children & staff at Calo with the Character First materials. During lunch every Monday I introduce the character trait being emphasized that week with the staff. Last week’s trait was “Gratefulness.” We are teaching everyone at the orphanage from the kids to the guards at the gate, so everyone is working on the same thing. At 1:30 I introduce the charactere trait to the staff & at 2:30 I introduce the character trait to the House Moms. We currently have 6 homes with 8 children & one mom in each home. As soon as this is finished I check in Tony, who does our purchasing.  

Tuesday:  Last week Dennis & the teachers marked off the soccer field by hoeing the edges & down the center. Today Dennis & men from the community dug holes in which to plant clumps of grass. They dug up the whole field with holes about a foot apart.

 I helped just be a presence with the kids/guardians at the medical clinic for several potential orphans to help fill the houses this fall. We have 14 identified & 2 possibilities. They have some medical testing before we take their applications to help us determine how to best help them. None speak English, which is typical. Seeing their condition would break your heart. They had to borrow clothing from a neighbor for one little 3 year old guy. He had not clothes of his own. It was pretty incredible watching him walk in shoes for the first time in his life!!!

Wednesday:  Staff Meeting is every Wednesday at 9am. Dennis usually takes part in this & sometimes I meet with them depending on what is being covered & my workload. The department heads meet & the administrative staff meets after that. He spends the rest of the day running errands & fixing things.

Thursday:  Again men from the community came to help Dennis with the soccer field. Dennis hired a truck to transport the grass. The men dug the grass with a hoe & loaded it by hand. They brought 4 truckloads of grass today. We prayed for rain because the field was getting dry. PTL it rained!!!

We spent another day screening children, this time at the Lira Medical Clinic. We gave the kids lunch & a soda & they were ravenous! One little girl just looks like she can’t get any thinner, but the next time we see her she looks even thinner. This little girl never has a guardian who will come with her.  Pray for Prisca.

Friday: Dennis & others on the administrative staff interviewed for open positions at Calo. After the interview Dennis led a young lady to the Lord who was applying for a job!!! PTL! Dennis again worked on the Soccer Field. This was a fun day for him because it was a workday for the children & they helped plant the grass. The field was perfect after the great rain. I stayed home to attend to bookkeeping.

Saturday:  We normally have Saturday off. We both worked at Calo. Dennis was happy to see about a dozen men come to dig the grass to sprig & about a dozen teenagers (who play soccer on our field) to plant it. Dennis worked out there all day because when he stopped the kids did too. They dug & planted three more truckloads of grass.

I began teaching the children about abstinence. We want them to have a solid knowledge of what a family is according to the Bible. The children love books. With Irene, our Social Worker translating, I shared a book called, “The Story of Me”, which was recommended by a family ministry. We will continue to follow up with this, including reading a second book to older children.

It was a great week! We have seen God at work in our lives & those around us.

We would appreciate prayer that we will glorify God & that He will be the center in everything we do. We would also really like to learn the language. Thank you for praying!

Blessings,

Dennis & Margie