There is no ruling- the attorneys went to court this morning to be seen at 10:00 and then called us at 12:00 to say that they were to return around 2:00. They finally called back at 4:30 and said that they were to return tomorrow. The court system here is very unreliable as you can see....so we continue to wait.
We are headed to Jinja tomorrow for a field trip. Steve and I are so excited to be doing something different we can hardly stand it. It will take us about 2 hours to get there and we will stay for a few hours and then head back home. I understand that the city is really pretty and we will get to see the mouth of the Nile River. We must be back home before dusk for safety reasons so we will not be there long before we head back towards Kampala. We will take lots of pictures-sure you are getting a little tired of the kids in the bath tub and in the yard.
I tried to blog last night and the computer wouldn't let me in. I wanted to share with you a conversation I had with Florence and Teddy. They came by the house to let me see all the receipts and acceptance documents for Teddy's nursing classes. In the midst of the conversation we started talking about babysitters. They are called maids here because not only do they stay with the children they also do all the housework. Unless the Ugandans are very wealthy generally babysitters as we know them are unheard of. When she asked me how much a babysitter made per hours I said 5.00- ok so it has been a long time since I have had a sitter. Don't let this scare any future sitters for me. In all honesty I was a little embarrassed to tell her that they can make as much as 10.00 per hour. She was shocked and said she would babysit for me anytime. She shared with me that you can work full time as a maid and bring home about 30,000 shillings in one week. That equals $12.74 per week in American money. You can see why Uganda is the third poorest country in the world. It is appalling to see how 95% of the population lives here while the other 5% drive Mercedes and live in big compounds completely separated off from the rest of the people. They live in a house similar to what we are staying in.
We also had the chance to walk today with Olive to see the house that she and her sister are renting. She was proud to show it to us. It is a two room concrete building. There is a living area around 12 x 12 and a bedroom 8 x 10. The bathroom has a shower head in the wall that pours out onto the floor where the sink and toilet are. It is a 5x5 stall. The cooking area is located outside of the front door in what looks like a small storage room. If they are lucky enough to afford a refrigerator or stove it will go in the living area. The house had a bulb hanging in the center of each room and of course no air conditioning. The doors are metal with bars over them and it was bolted in 3 different areas with large locks. I asked Olive how much it cost them to live there and she said $215,000 shillings per month. ($91 US) Now you can figure with the income that a maid would make that most people can not afford to even rent a house much less own one. Olive and her sister both work full time and they are so excited to have this home. They were especially thrilled that they had running water inside and that they had their own bathroom. Most families with multiple children live in literally one room homes where the only running water is outside. The neighborhood of one room houses all use the same toilet area. We passed a man brushing his teeth outside his front door today on our way to Olive's house. It is really amazing to see the attitudes of the people here and their ability to survive with the little they had.
I have to be honest and tell you that yesterday as I was complaining to Steve that I was tired of wearing the same clothes over and over-God really convicted me. Most Ugandans are wearing clothes that someone else has given them and they have very few pieces to choose from. It is times like that when I want this experience to "stick" with me. We have so much to be thankful for and Steve and I both are reminded daily as we look around.
We took a picture of the kids watching Little Mermaid for the first time. Derrick lasts about 5 minutes with a movie but Edith really was enjoying it. Derrick spent the afternoon playing with my computer cord. Steve taught him how to roll it up...like this...like this... and Derrick repeated that in English the whole time he was rolling it up. He is beginning to say a few words. Steve and I are getting really good at understanding his grunts and uh uh uh uh. We have learned a few important words in Llugandan so we can at least communicate some.
We will let you all know as soon as we know something tomorrow. Please keep praying!!
Love and miss you all soooo much-
Debbie and Steve
No comments:
Post a Comment