March 2010
GOOD DIRT
As a child, it was always fun to play with soldiers in the dirt, or else to line up my collection of Dinky
toys and build a few roads. It seems that in all these years, nothing much has changed. I’m still
plowing dirt, clearing dirt from bad places on the road to our shamba, greasing the equipment
constantly (to keep dirt out of the bearings), and cleaning dust off every bare surface in our house
with no glass windows. It seems like a strange way for a priest to spend his time, but it surely is
fun! Phili and I get to meet a whole lot of wonderful, interesting people along the way, as well as
see some beautiful, off the beaten track places, and help a lot of widows and single parents.
Although the vast majority of agriculture here is peasant labor and subsistence farming, there are a
few exceptions. One is the new warehouse (actually it’s an old warehouse that was refurbished by
Danish Aid) where one can take maize for drying, grading and storing. Several key players of
Masindi, who have become good friends, are using this facility. Phili and I are storing our maize
there (ten tons), while we wait for the price to improve, around May/June. A major buyer here is
WFP (UN World Food Program). Another possibility is a buyer from southern Sudan. Food
security is precarious in all the countries surrounding Uganda. Yet little Uganda can feed all of
them, if properly managed. Uganda is about the size of the State of Oregon.
Our “agricultural ministry” has put us in front of many fascinating people. Here are a few
snapshots, to illustrate the challenges we face in living and presenting the Gospel.
MAWA
Mawa is our shamba boy (land keeper). We met him through the group of “boys” who originally
came to clear the land, and then he stayed on. When I went home in October last year to help my
mother recover after her accident, Mawa was a married man with five children, living in a village
near Masindi. By the time I returned in early January, Mawa had built a mud house on the shamba
and collected himself a “secretary” and two children.
One day in January, the wife went looking for Mawa on our shamba, since she hadn’t seen him
since September last year, and she has five mouths to feed and school fees to pay. She
discovered the “secretary” living with Mawa, along with the two children. You can imagine the
excitement caused, when wife met “secretary”, and “secretary” discovered that Mawa was married
with five children!
One would normally expect that wife would go home and ditch Mawa. Secretary would have gone
off also, leaving Mawa by himself in his mud hut. But this is Africa. So secretary stayed, Mawa
agreed to give all his salary to wife, and now he has two wives. It turns out that secretary’s two
children are not her own, but her sister’s, who died of HIV/Aids. So she is also desperate to find
something for them.
…. The previous Brother Fowles had disturbed the chief with peculiar ideas about having only one
wife at a time. Imagine, Tata Ndu said, a shamefaced chief who could afford only one single wife!
The chief expected us to disavow any such absurdities before he could endorse our church.
The Poisonwood Bible, p. 118
To make this even more bizarre, wife likes “secretary” even more than she likes her husband. Of
course, they are all ‘Christians’ as well.
JOSHUA
We met Joshua while plowing for an Army captain whose home is west of Masindi. I was plowing
away, and Joshua approached Phili to come and plow for him also. As with most of the folks here,
he heard the sound of the tractor and came running up to ask for help.
Phili went with him to his home and was appalled (her word). It is a truly tragic situation. Joshua is
in his 30s, and has five children. The last two are extremely stunted, a consequence of HIV/Aids.
The oldest, a girl, is 14. The mother left the family, and nobody knows where she is. There is
almost nothing to eat in the home, and everything is run down.
Joshua used to be an evangelist working for FOCUS, a British organization that tries to help with
scripture study in the secondary schools. After that, he was a truck driver going “long haul” into
Sudan. This is probably where he contracted the disease, and then gave it to his wife. He first
discovered he had the disease when he was frequently too weak to work and went for testing. Now
he is almost too weak to dig in his garden, so the children are quite malnourished. A young father
with five children will struggle in any culture, but in Africa, it is probably even worse. Phili and I have
added him to our “almost down and out” list of people who need pro bono assistance.
JAMES
James is the neighbor to the north east of our shamba. He has a cattle ranch of about 900 acres.
His grandfather was a Scot in the pioneer days, who walked all the way from the coast of Kenya
(about 1000 miles, no roads) to Masindi, hoping to grow rubber and coffee. Instead, he started
growing sugarcane, and was a pioneer in that industry. James is what we call here “point five”
(0.5), half mzungu (white man) and half black – one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. An
elderly man, he has seen it all. He was an engineer for the Bunyoro Growers Association until it
collapsed from mismanagement during Idi Amin days. His territory was roughly sixty square miles.
Soldiers of the Tanzanian army tried to kill him at his ranch home when they came through to drive
out Amin. He showed us the bullet holes in the walls.
Until recently, James and his wife were so traumatized by this experience that they had essentially
abandoned the ranch and lived elsewhere. Now he has returned to start again, and we are able to
help each other and be good neighbors. I hope to help him with various agricultural projects, since
his influence is far reaching. For example, until last year, he was Chairman of the Kinyara Sugar
Outgrowers Association, which represents several hundred farmers supplying the Kinyara Sugar
factory. His work is recognized nationally.
SALLIE
Sallie is an elderly British woman who owns the biggest hotel and restaurant in Masindi town. She
was raised in Tanzania on a cattle ranch with over 10,000 head, and so East Africa is in her blood.
After serving many years as a headteacher in England, she “retired” and came to Uganda as a
consultant to the Ugandan government for schools in the north. Her territory was vast, and she
frequently had to fly, which has its own challenges in Africa (the most dangerous place in the world
to fly). After many years, she “retired” again, and bought the hotel (in her late 60s). Today she
struggles with many challenges – employees stealing, equipment breakage, loans, the tax man,
and so forth. Phili and I have become close friends, and she comes here at all hours of the day
when the pressures of the business get to be too much. This is not exactly ministry in the cloistered
walls of “The Church”, but I still think it is ministry. Sallie professes not to be a Christian, although
she does attend occasionally. The hypocrisy and fraudulent behavior of the church leaders really
bothers her, which is too bad, because I think she is sensitive to hearing Good News, especially in
her 70s.
Sallie will be helping me find suitable homes for all the donations of books and educational supplies
that have been accumulating at St. Michael’s, Ridgecrest for the last two years.
PROJECTS
I was blessed last Fall to see several old friends and generous supporters in California, and am
working on the following at present:
-getting a trailer for moving implements, sand, water, construction materials and whatever else on
these lousy local roads – something that can be towed by a tractor, and yet can be repaired in
Masindi at my favorite welder’s, if necessary.
-obtaining another plow (chisel variety) which can handle the toughest assignments here. The
current plow uses discs, and does very well: but it doesn’t like opening land, which is much of our
work.
-hoping to get a container in California, in which to ship the chisel plow, educational books, medical
equipment and other donations to Masindi sometime later in the year. I will try to organize this
container project during the summer, while at home, along with help from several Christians in San
Joaquin Valley.
-assist the Christians of Kijura church (our “local church”) with their construction project of a
permanent church. They want to begin an income project of some sort. The church is mud walls,
with a grass thatched roof – just my kind of church! Services are in Alur and Swahili, neither of
which I can speak – makes for interesting worship.
-assist the Kijenga Health Center with its many needs. Just as the Buliisa Hospital project has been
successful (because of the perseverance and skills of Bill Sullivan and his teams), I am hoping to
do something similar for Kijenga.
-graduating Phili’s fourth class of girls through the tailoring school in April.
CHALLENGES
Our mission support from the Diocese of San Joaquin was cut $12,000 for this year, along with that
of other foreign missionaries. Of course, no notification or explanation was given, so we are left to
draw our own conclusions.
We need help with the container project. If you have any expertise in shipping containers
overseas, or know someone that does, please let me know. And of course, contributions to the
shipping expense are welcome. The most expensive part of the shipping is the last part, in East
Africa (naturally). Once again, I am looking for donations of medical equipment and supplies for
our little health clinic.
I could use a small bulldozer, for clearing land and repairing local roads. Maybe you know
someone that has a spare? It has been so rainy this season that it has been almost impossible to
plow with a regular tractor, to say nothing of trying to traverse the local roads. Only this week, Phili
had a serious accident with our little truck sliding completely off the “road” to our shamba, and
almost flipped over. Fortunately, nobody was hurt!
We thank you once again for supporting us with prayers and contributions of so many kinds. And
we wish you a blessed time of renewal during this holy season of Lent, in which our trust in the God
of all mercies is restored and strengthened.
As a child, it was always fun to play with soldiers in the dirt, or else to line up my collection of Dinky
toys and build a few roads. It seems that in all these years, nothing much has changed. I’m still
plowing dirt, clearing dirt from bad places on the road to our shamba, greasing the equipment
constantly (to keep dirt out of the bearings), and cleaning dust off every bare surface in our house
with no glass windows. It seems like a strange way for a priest to spend his time, but it surely is
fun! Phili and I get to meet a whole lot of wonderful, interesting people along the way, as well as
see some beautiful, off the beaten track places, and help a lot of widows and single parents.
Although the vast majority of agriculture here is peasant labor and subsistence farming, there are a
few exceptions. One is the new warehouse (actually it’s an old warehouse that was refurbished by
Danish Aid) where one can take maize for drying, grading and storing. Several key players of
Masindi, who have become good friends, are using this facility. Phili and I are storing our maize
there (ten tons), while we wait for the price to improve, around May/June. A major buyer here is
WFP (UN World Food Program). Another possibility is a buyer from southern Sudan. Food
security is precarious in all the countries surrounding Uganda. Yet little Uganda can feed all of
them, if properly managed. Uganda is about the size of the State of Oregon.
Our “agricultural ministry” has put us in front of many fascinating people. Here are a few
snapshots, to illustrate the challenges we face in living and presenting the Gospel.
MAWA
Mawa is our shamba boy (land keeper). We met him through the group of “boys” who originally
came to clear the land, and then he stayed on. When I went home in October last year to help my
mother recover after her accident, Mawa was a married man with five children, living in a village
near Masindi. By the time I returned in early January, Mawa had built a mud house on the shamba
and collected himself a “secretary” and two children.
One day in January, the wife went looking for Mawa on our shamba, since she hadn’t seen him
since September last year, and she has five mouths to feed and school fees to pay. She
discovered the “secretary” living with Mawa, along with the two children. You can imagine the
excitement caused, when wife met “secretary”, and “secretary” discovered that Mawa was married
with five children!
One would normally expect that wife would go home and ditch Mawa. Secretary would have gone
off also, leaving Mawa by himself in his mud hut. But this is Africa. So secretary stayed, Mawa
agreed to give all his salary to wife, and now he has two wives. It turns out that secretary’s two
children are not her own, but her sister’s, who died of HIV/Aids. So she is also desperate to find
something for them.
…. The previous Brother Fowles had disturbed the chief with peculiar ideas about having only one
wife at a time. Imagine, Tata Ndu said, a shamefaced chief who could afford only one single wife!
The chief expected us to disavow any such absurdities before he could endorse our church.
The Poisonwood Bible, p. 118
To make this even more bizarre, wife likes “secretary” even more than she likes her husband. Of
course, they are all ‘Christians’ as well.
JOSHUA
We met Joshua while plowing for an Army captain whose home is west of Masindi. I was plowing
away, and Joshua approached Phili to come and plow for him also. As with most of the folks here,
he heard the sound of the tractor and came running up to ask for help.
Phili went with him to his home and was appalled (her word). It is a truly tragic situation. Joshua is
in his 30s, and has five children. The last two are extremely stunted, a consequence of HIV/Aids.
The oldest, a girl, is 14. The mother left the family, and nobody knows where she is. There is
almost nothing to eat in the home, and everything is run down.
Joshua used to be an evangelist working for FOCUS, a British organization that tries to help with
scripture study in the secondary schools. After that, he was a truck driver going “long haul” into
Sudan. This is probably where he contracted the disease, and then gave it to his wife. He first
discovered he had the disease when he was frequently too weak to work and went for testing. Now
he is almost too weak to dig in his garden, so the children are quite malnourished. A young father
with five children will struggle in any culture, but in Africa, it is probably even worse. Phili and I have
added him to our “almost down and out” list of people who need pro bono assistance.
JAMES
James is the neighbor to the north east of our shamba. He has a cattle ranch of about 900 acres.
His grandfather was a Scot in the pioneer days, who walked all the way from the coast of Kenya
(about 1000 miles, no roads) to Masindi, hoping to grow rubber and coffee. Instead, he started
growing sugarcane, and was a pioneer in that industry. James is what we call here “point five”
(0.5), half mzungu (white man) and half black – one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. An
elderly man, he has seen it all. He was an engineer for the Bunyoro Growers Association until it
collapsed from mismanagement during Idi Amin days. His territory was roughly sixty square miles.
Soldiers of the Tanzanian army tried to kill him at his ranch home when they came through to drive
out Amin. He showed us the bullet holes in the walls.
Until recently, James and his wife were so traumatized by this experience that they had essentially
abandoned the ranch and lived elsewhere. Now he has returned to start again, and we are able to
help each other and be good neighbors. I hope to help him with various agricultural projects, since
his influence is far reaching. For example, until last year, he was Chairman of the Kinyara Sugar
Outgrowers Association, which represents several hundred farmers supplying the Kinyara Sugar
factory. His work is recognized nationally.
SALLIE
Sallie is an elderly British woman who owns the biggest hotel and restaurant in Masindi town. She
was raised in Tanzania on a cattle ranch with over 10,000 head, and so East Africa is in her blood.
After serving many years as a headteacher in England, she “retired” and came to Uganda as a
consultant to the Ugandan government for schools in the north. Her territory was vast, and she
frequently had to fly, which has its own challenges in Africa (the most dangerous place in the world
to fly). After many years, she “retired” again, and bought the hotel (in her late 60s). Today she
struggles with many challenges – employees stealing, equipment breakage, loans, the tax man,
and so forth. Phili and I have become close friends, and she comes here at all hours of the day
when the pressures of the business get to be too much. This is not exactly ministry in the cloistered
walls of “The Church”, but I still think it is ministry. Sallie professes not to be a Christian, although
she does attend occasionally. The hypocrisy and fraudulent behavior of the church leaders really
bothers her, which is too bad, because I think she is sensitive to hearing Good News, especially in
her 70s.
Sallie will be helping me find suitable homes for all the donations of books and educational supplies
that have been accumulating at St. Michael’s, Ridgecrest for the last two years.
PROJECTS
I was blessed last Fall to see several old friends and generous supporters in California, and am
working on the following at present:
-getting a trailer for moving implements, sand, water, construction materials and whatever else on
these lousy local roads – something that can be towed by a tractor, and yet can be repaired in
Masindi at my favorite welder’s, if necessary.
-obtaining another plow (chisel variety) which can handle the toughest assignments here. The
current plow uses discs, and does very well: but it doesn’t like opening land, which is much of our
work.
-hoping to get a container in California, in which to ship the chisel plow, educational books, medical
equipment and other donations to Masindi sometime later in the year. I will try to organize this
container project during the summer, while at home, along with help from several Christians in San
Joaquin Valley.
-assist the Christians of Kijura church (our “local church”) with their construction project of a
permanent church. They want to begin an income project of some sort. The church is mud walls,
with a grass thatched roof – just my kind of church! Services are in Alur and Swahili, neither of
which I can speak – makes for interesting worship.
-assist the Kijenga Health Center with its many needs. Just as the Buliisa Hospital project has been
successful (because of the perseverance and skills of Bill Sullivan and his teams), I am hoping to
do something similar for Kijenga.
-graduating Phili’s fourth class of girls through the tailoring school in April.
CHALLENGES
Our mission support from the Diocese of San Joaquin was cut $12,000 for this year, along with that
of other foreign missionaries. Of course, no notification or explanation was given, so we are left to
draw our own conclusions.
We need help with the container project. If you have any expertise in shipping containers
overseas, or know someone that does, please let me know. And of course, contributions to the
shipping expense are welcome. The most expensive part of the shipping is the last part, in East
Africa (naturally). Once again, I am looking for donations of medical equipment and supplies for
our little health clinic.
I could use a small bulldozer, for clearing land and repairing local roads. Maybe you know
someone that has a spare? It has been so rainy this season that it has been almost impossible to
plow with a regular tractor, to say nothing of trying to traverse the local roads. Only this week, Phili
had a serious accident with our little truck sliding completely off the “road” to our shamba, and
almost flipped over. Fortunately, nobody was hurt!
We thank you once again for supporting us with prayers and contributions of so many kinds. And
we wish you a blessed time of renewal during this holy season of Lent, in which our trust in the God
of all mercies is restored and strengthened.
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