After the intensity of the time in Paidah, and the drama of the trip back to Kampala, I was very grateful to have a couple of days off on Monday and Tuesday. Apart from anything else “nanna naps” were definitely the order on both days.
On Monday morning I was able to tune in to our Board meeting back home. The eight hour time difference between here and Victoria meant that 8.30am here was 4.30pm back home, so that worked quite well. The WhatsApp connection was not good, it kept dropping out, but at least I was able to have some part in the meeting, as well as getting to see the girls.
I caught up with my prayer partner back home on Tuesday, later in the day. Again, the connection was not good, and I kept losing him (although he said he was able to hear me clearly) but just to be able to talk was an encouragement. Loneliness has become a major issue for me here, which I find rather surprising. I am not normally someone who suffers from loneliness – I’m a classic introvert: self-contained, enjoy my own company, not normally really fussed about having a lot of people around me. But here I feel isolated. I’ve already talked about the situation in the house where I am staying – I feel distinctly unwelcome, so spend most of my time in my room. Then there is the language problem – 95% or more of the conversations around me I don’t understand. There is nobody here with whom I can just sit and share my heart – and nobody with whom I can pray together. So every contact from home is super precious.
This morning I was also able to call Linda, my Associate Minister. I had of course spoken to her at the Board meeting, but there were a few non-KOGMI things that we wanted to catch up on. Another bad connection, but again just good to hear a familiar voice and see a familiar face.
On Monday I go to Burundi, and it and all the other countries I will be visiting on this trip are French speaking. It will be interesting to see how much of my 60-year old French from high school I can still remember – and whether being able to understand at least a tiny fraction of what is being said around me will make any difference to that sense of isolation.
Here in Kampala I was supposed to minister last night, then Friday and Sunday morning, before heading off to Burundi. Last night there was a break down in communication – I thought Ronald would be picking me up for the meeting, as he has been my driver the whole time I have been here, but when he had not arrived by 6pm I asked one of the young guys here if he had a contact for Ronald, so that I could find out what was happening. Instead he took me to the meeting himself, and when I arrived I discovered why Ronald hadn’t come – he was leading the worship. Whether David had forgotten about this, or whether it had been arranged for the other guy to take me but I hadn’t been told, I don’t know. The communication (or lack of it) is one of the major frustrations here.
During the course of the meeting last night Ronald announced that I would be speaking again tonight and tomorrow. Again, I don’t know whether this had been planned and I simply wasn’t told about the extra day, or whether Ronald misunderstood the plans. And I have no idea what is happening about getting me to the meeting tonight.
The good news is that one of the things that has been a concern for some weeks now has finally been resolved – I was able to use PayPal to seen our pastor in Ghana the money for my visa, and he has spoken to his contact in the Ghanan Immigration Department, and she assures him that my visa will be ready by the end of the month. That means there is only the Liberian visa left to deal with, and I am still trying to find out about how to get it.