Breaking Away: Jeff Block's Blog

Location: Mukono and Kira, Uganda
Friday, May 19, 2017

Glorious morning, UCU. Why? Because I slept! I figured it up, and between the time I left our home in Chicago and the time I went to bed last night (4 days later), I had slept a total of 14 hours. Not good. But last night, I added 8 to the total. Woohoo! Sleeping pills (and a ton of prayer — thank you, all!) are my friend. So, now I’m ready for more seeing God in new and dramatically different places. And that started with the same breakfast we’ve eaten every day. Ha! Actually, today I want to highlight a couple of random things in what will likely be an otherwise shorter-than-usual post. And at breakfast, it’s our friend the mango.

Every place I’ve traveled to has a particular food that, no matter where else you are, you just can’t reproduce. In Chicago, it’s pizza. It Israel, it’s humus. In England, it’s fish and chips. In Germany, it’s beer … a dozen things that I drool over just talking about them, because that’s “home” for me. And here in Uganda, it’s the tropical fruit, specifically the mango. Ain’t no Costco mango on the face of the earth that comes close to the mangoliciousness we get here for every single meal — slices for breakfast, and 100% juice drinks for every other occasion. So, a moment of stomach-growing silence, please, for our friend the mango.

Our morning today was spent visiting the Okuzimba Museum in Kira, Uganda. This is a memorial site, where a number of the original missionaries who brought Christianity to Uganda were killed.

In 1844, Muslim traders came to Uganda. In 1877, Anglican missionaries came from England. And in 1879, Catholic missionaries came from France. Of course, all three of these groups brought their pre-existing hostilities with them, and that bled over into relations between them in Uganda as well.

But in 1884, King Mutesa I (1852-84), who had invited the missionaries to come to Uganda, died. His son, King Mwanga (1884-98), then took throne and tried to wipe out Christianity, ordering the executions of many Christian missionaries, as well as some Muslims. Interestingly, it is believed this was to cover his homosexual lifestyle. To make matters worse, during this same time, Uganda experienced significant religious war. But ultimately, the Anglicans win and eventually, the Church of Uganda is formed as an archdiocese in the global Anglican communion. One of the Christians who escaped execution under Mwanga became Prime Minister of Uganda in 1927, and ultimately created the Okuzimba shrine. Eventually, a new building was built over the site and the original shrine. This is the museum we visited.

Here are a couple pictures from the museum, including a couple that are pretty gruesome. The artistry is excellent, but still gruesome.

When we got back from Kira, before lunch, we attended a global ministries lecture focused on pluralism, particularly in Uganda. Unfortunately, neither this talk nor the Muslim talk yesterday strike me as carefully considered, at least, not like the symposium was last night. So, this wasn’t really my favorite part of the day. I did however learn some interesting statistics about religious diversity in-country. Evidently, the country breaks down roughly as follows:

• Catholic: 40% (shrinking)
• Anglican: 32% (shrinking)
• Islam: 14%
• Pentecostal: 11% (growing) — This is the category for every Christian who is not Catholic or Anglican. My EFCA church, for example, would be classified “pentecostal” right alongside Assemblies of God or even more fringe pentecostal churches.
• Pagan and other: 3%

Talking through the demographic composition of the nation was really worth the price of admission all by itself. But the icing on the cake was learning this classic Ugandan (pan-African?) saying:

Westerners have watches, Africans have time.

That’s so right, but I’ve never heard it before. Basically, it means that we in the West race around keeping schedules, but we never have time for anything, where Africans pay little attention to watches or calendars, but seem to have time for everything they intend to achieve in life. It’s a question of expectations and satisfaction. I love it. But to bring any of that home to America would require a relentless simplification of American life. Possible? I think it could be.

After the lecture, we had lunch again at Touch of Class. This place is such a gift to the UCU campus. It’s so easy and so cheap to eat there. But there are also … so many bones! I got the chicken this time, and it was 70% bones / 30% chicken. I really don’t like bones in my food, lazy American that I am! Sigh.

We had a little downtime after lunch, which I always really appreciate, but then we hopped in the car and drove out to visit Children Alive Ministries, or CAlM (also on Facebook). This was probably my favorite activity while in Mukono. CAlM works with elementary-aged children in the local villages, helping them with school and character building. Their mission is “to empower children in urban Mukono to be community leaders by offering academic support, character development, spiritual development, and recreational and enrichment programs.” Love that!

While there, we met a significant portion of the staff, including some of the secondary-aged (High School) kids who act as “street leaders” (mentors and tutors) to the younger kids. I sat down next to one youngster named Kassim, and we hit it off right away. What a phenomenal young man, who was assisted as a younger boy, and now mentors kids himself as an older student. I was very impressed with him, and we had a ton of fun playing games with the group!

Speaking of the group, we learned a little about the ministry, introduced ourselves, played games together and shared some refreshments. It was too brief a time, but I absolutely loved it. The volunteers there were so friendly and bubbly that it was impossible not to enjoy being together, and the work they’re doing is both important and excellent. This is definitely an organization worth supporting.

One thing I definitely noted about CAlM is that they are rural, and driving in rural Uganda is not for the faint of heart. Many roads are unpaved, but the roads leading out to where we went to meet with these folks were roads only the most technical sense of the term. In fact, at one point driving out to meet then, we literally had to pile out of the bus and go the rest of the way on foot … and even that was, frankly, a bit perilous. Culture shock!

Coming back to campus from CAlM, we went straight to dinner at … you guessed it, Touch of Class. In contrast with other meals, however, this time they had ordered for us … and it was amazing. Here’s a picture. And the diamond of the table was the giant vat of avocado.

Another aside worth mentioning is that the avocados here are HUGE. I have literally seen people carving up ‘cados the size of grapefruits. It’s amazing. Tropical climates are definitely the fruit’s friend.

We closed the evening out by playing Mafia in the guest house commons area. This is a game of lies and deception — a good Christian game — in which everyone playing constitutes a town. Unbeknownst to the others, some are mafia (killers), some are sheriffs (those who can take out the Mafia), some are doctors (healers, who can prevent the Mafia from killing people), and — at least the way we were playing — a donut maker, who each day of gameplay gives someone a donut … just for fun. I was random citizen #2 (i.e. nobody) twice, and one of two sheriffs in the 3rd game. Sadly, I was killed off immediately by some very perceptive mafia, so……. But that gave me extra time to text with Faith, so no worries.

Guess that about sums it up for today. However, I thought I’d share one more random note… We were walking across campus today and suddenly monkeys starting appearing everywhere, coming out of the trees to frolic around on the yard. But by the time we stopped and reached for cameras, they were heading back up into the trees and off to who-knows-where. So, there are evidently some serious monkeys handing out on campus. How cool.

Last thought, prayer requests…

• Finally, I’ve gotten some sleep. Please praise God with me for that, and pray it continues.
• Please also continue to pray for my family, given how long I’ll be away.
• Pray for CAlM, and all the children they’re reaching for the gospel and helping to get a better education.
• Lastly, we leave campus tomorrow to head to Mbale, where we’ll be involved in a number of different ministries, from preaching to hospital ministry to prison ministry to working with street kids. Please pray for the power of the gospel and for us to just be a loving presence in their lives as we go out.

God bless you. Signing off for Friday.

Image credit:

1) Mukono – The Real Uganda
2) Mango – Modern Thrill
3) CAlM – Urban Promise International
4) Velvet monkey – 123rf.com
5) Rest are mine

Location: Kampala and Mukono, Uganda
Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Departing Kampala

I woke up early so I could get my shower first, and be able to spend some time with God before we hit the road. We stayed two-to-a-room, so we had to juggle schedules, and it was clear I was the early riser between the two of us. She water pressure was weak, and it was a challenge to juggle wearing flip-flops at all times while — I was advised to avoid being in bare feet, especially in the bathroom — but the shower was hot, and that was a pleasant surprise. I was careful not to get water in my mouth or eyes, brushed my teeth with bottled water, got dressed — sadly, it’s all about dress clothes, no matter what you’re doing, so I was in dockers and a button-up — and had some time to pray and journal.

Our balcony also gave us a nice view of the city of Kampala, though there’s a lot of pollution. So, I was able to snag a couple pictures of the city.

We took breakfast back in the little café at the hotel. Plantains, Weetabix, corn flakes, hard boiled eggs, corn muffins, fresh tropical fruit, coffee and tea were available. They also made me an eggs and veggies omelet, which was delicious.

I thought you might also be interested in a couple pictures of the hotel where we stayed. Pretty nice, isn’t it? I forgot to take a picture of the room, but it was very simple. Mosquito nets were included, just as promised, which was huge. And there a towel. But other than that, no extras of any kind. Good thing I brought soap and everything else I’d need. And, as I implied in my post last night, the staff was incredibly friendly and helpful. In fact, I’m getting that vibe from the culture in general.

Surviving the Travel to Mukono

After breakfast, we drove into the city (Kampala) to exchange money and make a supplies run. And in so doing, I got my first taste of the insanity that is driving in Uganda. I’ve never been to India, but any time I talk with those who have, they comment on how crazy driving is there. This is what I will now picture when I hear those stories going forward.

It was insane. The roads are sometimes paved, often not. Potholes and bumps that would eat my car are pretty much everywhere. There are no lines. No signs. No sidewalks. No street lights — well, that’s not true; we saw four (count, them, four) street lights the entire day. One, we drove straight through the red light. And another, I think all the lights were red, but it was hard to tell because I was too busy fearing for the lives of the people weaving in and out of traffic on foot and on bikes.

There are no lanes. Where your car fits … that’s a lane. Uganda was once a British colony, so they drive on the left and love their roundabouts. So all perspective for this American was completely skewed. The only reason I didn’t fear for my life continually is that we never got above 20 mph. Unfortunately, that was because of the congestion. Without ANY street lights or signs, every vehicle simply fended for itself, which didn’t exactly result in fast and efficient flow.

Not only did we not really observe any lanes in our van, but the streets are covered with a) pedestrians and b) bikers. When my family was in the Philippines, we saw a ton of little minivan-like cars called Jeepneys, which served as taxis and all-around inexpensive transport. The equivalent here is a boda. This is essentially a small motorcycle that the Buganda (the Ugandan people) use as taxies or to zip around through the ridiculous traffic. And it’s amazing what they can strap on the backs of these things. I saw furniture, mattresses, half a dozen kids, and so forth. Impressive.

But the worst are the people who just walk wherever they want to on the road right in the middle of all this traffic. There are no sidewalks, so if people are walking, it’s on the road. And there’s no way this country has jaywalking laws. In fact, the interaction between the cars and the pedestrians is so extreme that we were encouraged not to keep anything valuable near the windows, because it’s typical for a walking passerby to reach in and swipe a purse or other valuable. And I’m not kidding, our guide showed us a picture of an elephant reaching his trunk into his car window and stealing treats off the front seat.

Okay, enough on the traffic. Right about the time I was getting over the shock of riding into town, we arrived at a money exchange place, with which evidently our trip leader has a long-standing relationship. Our trip leader opened the conversation demanding a good exchange rate, so I did the same. So, I ended up with a pretty sweet rate. I highly recommend haggling in this situation. The rest of the team are all much younger than me, so I felt good about being available to help them understand currency exchange, which was fun. I felt helpful.

After money exchange, we stopped at a local grocery store to get water and snacks. We have seen many roadside stands as we’ve driven around the city, selling produce, furniture, clothes, etc. But this store was amazingly similar to a supermarket in the US. At the recommendation of a team member who had been here before, I bought a “Stoney” ginger-ale drink. It was super cheap (like $0.40), which was good, but incredibly strong ginger taste, which was not so good. Not really my thing.

Finally, having loaded up on snacks and the all important water bottles, we set off for Uganda Christian University (UCU) in Mukono.

Arrived at UCU

Trinity partnered with UCU to host us for three days while in Uganda, and create an environment in which we can interact with the students here. So, four students from the UCU “Honors College” are “assigned to” our team for the entire duration of our trip, even for the 10 days after we leave the UCU campus.

Upon arrival, my first impression was how pretty the campus is.

We started with a tour, and that resulted in my second impression… “Wait a second, the roads are all dirt / clay.” And a lot is under construction. So, the net result is that this is a very easy place to get dirty … and we have to be dressed up while we’re here. It’s customary for the men to wear dress slacks and a dress shirt (and a jacket and tie if we’re meeting someone important). Needless to say, it’s pretty foreign to me to be walking around in dress clothes on muddy dirt roads. But I’m adjusting.

After the tour, we checked into our rooms. Here are a few pictures of that. I’ll describe more in later posts.

After check-in, we ate at a local campus restaurant called “Touch of Class.” Great little place right on campus, which is evidently quite the favorite watering hole around here. Our guide ordered for me, since I had no idea what I was doing and because the room was dark and I couldn’t see the menu. As a result, I had matoke (a staple here; essentially mashed cooked bananas) and chapatti (similar to a soft pita bread) for the first time. And they topped it off with fried beef stew and an amazing mango fruit drink. It was all pretty good, but not something I’d want to eat all the time. Plus, I don’t even want to think about how many carbs we’re talking about here.

After lunch, we met the president of the honors college. We assembled in a classroom, and he came to address us. It was a formality, equivalent to our meeting the tribe’s elder. Very interesting. A fellow theology student and I also got pulled up in front of a chapel service to introduce ourselves, since they were a room full of fellow theology students. The leadership there encouraged them to talk to us while we’re on campus, so hopefully that will lead to some interesting conversations.

Next on the agenda was to get our electronic devices registered, so I got to experience the technology lair on the 3rd floor of the library. That was fun, and it resulted in the most stable internet connection I’ve had to-date on the trip, which is wonderful. I’m so glad to be able to talk to my family whenever we get a few minutes of downtime!

We then walked into town together as a group to visit a massive local market. The plan was to take that in, and then eat dinner in town. The walk there was as crazy as the drive to campus had been. There were no sidewalks, so we were constantly feeling like we were dangerously close to the traffic, and once we got into town, we crossed streets with impunity and got up close and personal with the bodas. I think it would take a long time for me to get used to all that!

On the way to the market, we passed a number of roadside shanties, where the obviously-very-poor live. But we also passed a number of houses, which were enclosed by walls, some of them topped by barbed wire. Our guide, Jordan, explained that this is a) for security, but b) because the Ugandan culture has a sense of privacy that strongly desires having a wall around your house. In other words, they would feel that the suburban houses in the States, even if their yards were enclosed by fences, were very open and exposed. They would probably even say that this kind of “exposure” constitutes an inherent invasion of privacy. Fascinating.

Once at the market, it was very dirty, very loud, and very hectic. Zillions of shops, many of selling the same thing as the shop a few doors down. There were lots of clothes, food, shoes, backpacks, and some furniture.I just don’t see economically how anyone could buy all that, or even enough to turn a profit. Granted, the cost of living has to be near zero, but still. It wasn’t like Israel, where people were essentially trying to force you to buy things. Also, there was a lot of cat-calling. A couple times people even (jokingly?) offered marriage to some of the women in our group. I think it’s just their form of banter, but it was a little uncomfortable. In reading to prepare for the trip, I did read how Caucasians / westerners are viewed as beautiful and desirable, even superior, so maybe that plays into it. I definitely wrestled with feelings such as wanting to help them to improve their situation. I also felt at times like we were a parade of white people. I haven’t processed through all those feelings, but what I definitely do know is that 1) it’s not a situation to be “fixed,” 2) as people, we are in no way superior to them, and 3) giving them more and speeding up their lives with affluence and modern technology wouldn’t necessarily be “helping” them. What if they’re happy with their lives? What if success doesn’t really have anything to do with money?

Anyway, lots of questions, and frankly, I’m glad I don’t have to have all the answers. What I know is that Jesus is the only true “enough.”

And that brings us to the last activity of the day: dinner. Right down the street from the market is the Colline Hotel, a very upscale hotel (for the area) where westerns frequently stay. It’s evidently a sister hotel to the one made famous by the movie Hotel Rwanda. It boasted a huge buffet, and we ate like kings, while enjoying some debrief from the day.

When we left the hotel, it was dark, and I was seriously wondering if I was going to survive a walk home in the dark. Fortunately, we hailed a taxi, and … I kid you not … squeezed 17 people into one minivan, and headed back to campus.

When we got back, everyone else took in a movie about Uganda, but I turned in, using it for some writing and down time. Plus, since I hadn’t slept much the first night or on the plane, I had hoped to get some real sleep.

And with that, I’ll sign off. Thanks for being on this journey with me. Please keep praying, primarily for restful sleep, stamina, and the power of the gospel.

God bless you all!

PS — Did you figure out the title? TIU = Trinity International University (us), and UCU = Uganda Christian University (those we’re visiting). 

Location: Kampala, Uganda
Tuesday, May 16, 2017

I arrived at Trinity’s campus right on time. Our leader had given us a ton of extra time to orient us and to make sure that if anything went wrong, we had buffer. That gave enough time for two interesting events to occur. First, as the other members of my team arrived, some did so accompanied by parents who were anxious to see their son or daughter leave the country for the first time. In two separate instances, I got had lengthy conversations with them, reassuring them that we would be okay and that Amanda (our team leader) and I both had significant experience traveling abroad. It felt good to be of use in that way, as an older person going on the trip. Secondly, a number of us got a chance to just walk around campus together and hang out a bit more before embarking on this trip.

We left campus for the airport on time as well. It took us forever to get through check-in at O’Hare and get all our bags checked, but the security lines were short and we went through quickly and easily. We had a bit to eat together (at the food court in Terminal C) and departed on United to Brussels, Belgium. The flight was about 8 hours, and we were in economy, so there wasn’t much leg room. But the plane wasn’t jammed full, so we got to do some moving around and stretching out at least occasionally. Unfortunately, however, I still didn’t get much sleep (I never do sleep well on planes). But I also discovered that I didn’t have a pair of “normal” headphones with me – just the ones that work with the iPhone thunderbird port – so that was a bummer. United didn’t have any to give or purchase, either. So that meant that I didn’t have any access to the extensive movie library on the flight. Oh well. Between reading, chatting with people, working, and listening to audiobooks, I kept busy. I didn’t work on my sermon for Sunday nearly as much as I’d have liked either, but I’m having a hard time getting dialed into that even now (and it’s Wednesday).

We arrived in Brussels about 30 min early. Our stop there was very brief, but long enough for me to buy an overpriced pair of earbuds from duty free. But other than that, we had just enough time to shuttle our way to another part of the airport, and take off on the second leg of our journey to Uganda. Basically, each flight was 8 hours long, but when you add the time we spent at Trinity, O’Hare, and Brussels, our total travel time was about 25 hours from my front door to wheels down at the Entebbe International Airport in Uganda. Once on the ground there, we went through customs seamlessly, then drove about an hour is crazy traffic on barely paved roads from the Entebbe to the nearby city of Kampala, the capital of Uganda, where we would spend our first night in-country.

We stayed at the Namirembe Guest House. It’s a pretty nice place, up on a hill overlooking the city. I took pictures, though there’s a lot of pollution, so they’re only fair. Here’s one picture to at least give you an idea.

Upon arrival, before we even checked in, we ate a late dinner at the little restaurant at the hotel, which was really nice. We even ran into a Ugandan guy who had been on the plane with us, which is crazy. Such a small world! They served the freshest, tastiest mango and pineapple ever, along with grilled egg and veggie sandwiches and tea. It made for a good snack before hitting the hay.

I was so exhausted, since I slept very little on the plane, so I was eager to get up to the room, let my family know I was okay, and crash. There were no elevators, so we all had to lug suitcases up a couple flights of steps, which was a bummer but not the end of the world. Of course, what that did do is remind me that Faith had encouraged me to get everything down to one suitcase. So, this was the first (but not the last time) I regretted packing as much as I did. The moral of the story is that your wife knows best! That said, I’m not sure how much I really could have lived without in my packing. As it is, I’m discovering a few things like towels, etc. that I wish I had packed, but didn’t. But of well. Next time, I’ll at least make a large check-on bag + a duffle work.

At any rate, once to the room, I decided not to take a shower until the morning. The room was warm, and I didn’t want to get clean only to sweat all night. So, the last thing to do was get a message to my family that I was safe, and maybe even chat with them for a few minutes.

We’re using Viber for VoIP texting / calling, and Marco Polo as a “video walkie-talkie.” MP is a pretty cool app, to which I was introduced only a few weeks ago, allowing you to record a video and send it to a person or group. They can then record one and send it back. So, it’s not live / real-time communication, but it is a way to do asynchronous video chatting. At any rate, the hotel gave us a password to their Wi-Fi network, so in theory it should have been easy to get connected. Unfortunately, not so much. We couldn’t connect. After spending quite a bit of time (unsuccessfully) trying to send a message, I finally gave up and tried to go to sleep. Unfortunately, as tired as I had been at dinner and while getting everything to the room, the second I hit the pillow I couldn’t sleep – probably a combination of jetlag and anxiety over not being able to contact my family.

After 30 min or so of trying to sleep, I finally decided I was going to go down to the lobby and solve the Internet connectivity problem. So, I went downstairs – bashing my head on the top of the low-hanging entrance to the stairs in the process (lol; curse my clumbsy tallness) – and talked to the folks at the front desk. They were fun to hang out with, actually. They joked quite a bit and tried to talk me into switching to the “What’s Up?” app. It took me a while to convince them it was a connectivity issue, not an application issue. So, after emphatically insisting that I wasn’t cool enough to use their fancy international social app, they got me connected to the other wi-fi network – the one supposedly only available in the lobby. And that did the trick. I was immediately able to get Viber messages out to Faith, who happened (by divine appointment) to be getting up just then. So, we got to chat for a bit, I watched a couple Marco Polo videos she had recorded, and then called it a night. Unfortunately, it still took me another ~90 minutes to fall asleep, but at least I finally did. Praise the Lord!

It’s amazing to look back on the trip and realize that our travels consumed an entire extra day. Flying against the sun like that is like traveling into the future. The sun came up for us on Tues, 5/16 while we were on an airplane, and set while we were still on an airplane. Absolutely amazing. So, as hard as it is to believe, as I write this, it’s the end of our first full day (Wednesday) in Uganda. So much happened today that I can’t wait to tell you about, but it’ll have to wait. For now, sleep calls again. Let’s just hope jetlag doesn’t revisit me.

Thank you, friends and family, for all your love and support. Please continue to pray for me. First, that I would sleep. Second, that my stomach would settle down – it’s been a little angry and rebellious given all the travel and foreign food. And third, and most importantly, that I would demonstrate the light of Christ wherever I go.

God bless you all!