Saturday, June 6: Shabbat in Uganda

The day began with our free hotel breakfast. Banana, eggs, toast, and African tea. The waitress overcharged us for the extra three sodas that we ordered. Yesterday they were 700 USH (Ugandan Shillings); today they were 1000 USH. I challenged her on the price, but she insisted. I gave in and paid the price she asked. I think she was miffed that I had not tipped her the day before, and decided to take it into her own hands. Tipping in foreign countries is different from the US. I did not have a chance to ask what was customary in Tororo before our first breakfast, so did not tip. Later I learned that not tipping is acceptable, and that tipping 2000 USH would be way more than is customary. I had planned to leave a 1000 USH tip today, but that is just about what we were overcharged, so I considered it even.

ACTS for Messiah has their Shabbat service at 10 AM each Saturday. It is open to the public, but only a few extra people usually attend. Their service consists of some traditional prayers with a Messianic flavor, the Torah procession, the reading of the Torah portion for the week, with teaching interspersed between each section. Russel prepares comments for the teachings. After that, they asked for me to do some songs. We ended with Hava Nagila to which everyone danced. The dirt floor gave way to quite a bit of dust before we ended. Following this, Russel preached for a little while.

Lunch was in the pavilion, and offered an opportunity to get to know more about some of the boys. WEe also had a prayer time, and then it was time to leave. Emily and Russel drove us back to the border where we met Peter, our matatu driver. He had brought Charles' wife, Monica, and their two children along. It took forever to fill in the forms, get our exit visa stamp, walk across to Kenya, fill in more forms, and get our entry visa stamped. We loaded up our stuff, and headed back to Kakamega.

The trip was pretty quiet; we were all tired. It felt like we were home from a long vacation when the gray walls of MTTF came into sight. We unloaded and greeted the children, and learned that there was no water, except what we could carry in buckets from one tank on the grounds. We do need rain. Supper was a time to chat about our visit to Uganda with the director Charles. Sarah and Lisa spent time helping the children with homework. This is a good thing, as there is very little help from the teachers. To succeed, you either need to be a self-learner, very bright, or have independent tutoring (which is expensive). Now it feels like it is time for bed. I think we will skip tea tonight.