Black Outs

Well its hard to believe that its already Saturday Night in the big town of Soroti. A lot has happened since my last post, but we have not been able to post anything. The place we usually stay at in Katakwi is full. They are in the middle of putting up a bunch of electrical poles. The poles are going up, but there is not wires being ran. Miss that place!

We spent Thursday night in a little boarding house that was in the back of a general store. They finally fired up a generator, but the power lines coming into the rooms was what looked like thermostat wire that had been pieced together, and the wires were laying bare. We tried to plug our power inverters in, but it shut the generators off. So, the bottom line was....... No Power!

The Hope Chest Team here in Uganda has been great. They were very upset with the accommodations and decided that we would go back to Soroti, and just drive each day. Accommodations here are wonderful, but unfortunately, we have had rolling blackouts here. Power is on now, and everything is charged up.

Here is the funny thing. I hope it doesn't sound like I'm complaining, because none of us are. This is a fabulous group. Nobody has complained. We have all just learned that, as they say, TIA, This Is Africa!

So enough about us. We just spent our third day visiting our Care Points. The kitchens are being constructed and are coming along nicely. The cooks are excited and the communities see a permanent structure that tells them we are committed.

The kids........ right now they are on holiday. The good thing about that is that we get to spend more time with our sponsored kids. The bad news is that we don't get to see as many of the others. Our kids still come so that they can be fed. This is where it gets tricky. You see, the way it works is that our sponsored kids get fed. There's a lot of joy in that. We get to see our kids go through a line and get a bowl of food. In fact, they even let us give them the bowls of food. Then, something strange happens. The cooks suddenly charge into the line and demand that this kid and that kid get out of the line. We question to ourselves what is going on. That's when reality sinks in. Those are the unsponsored kids. They don't get to eat. After all of the sponsored kids had eaten, there was a little bit of food left over so they sat the unsponsored kids into circles of 4 to 6 and gave them a bowl to share. It wasn't much, but it was all that was left. Sometimes reality sucks.

I can't leave you on a bad note though. I was uplifted and amazed to see sponsored kids sharing their plates with younger kids who didn't have a plate. I'm telling you, for every bad things that we see there are 10 good things. I am simply reminded that God Is Good All The Time!

Keep us in your prayers.

Tom Cox