WEEK TWO - GULU, LERA, BUGEMBE, AND ZONE CONFERENCEs

Elder Ballstaedt talking to Rose who is an employee of the Seminary and Institute program for Uganda.  

These children were on their way to school.  All the school children wear uniforms.  We met them in the town of Bugembe.  The Branch President of the Bugembe branch took us to visit a lot of the leadership so we could invite them to District Conference

More children on their way to school

President Jackson at the baptism's in Gulu

The Baboons sit at the side of the roads waiting for someone to throw them a meal.  There are always tons of them on the road to Gulu just after you pass the bridge over the Nile.

They look cute but they are pretty mean.  Just hanging out here..

One of the members we visited in Bugembe.  We went with the branch President to invite all the leaders to come to District Conference.  This is one of the nicer homes.

President and Sister Jackson with the Gulu and Lira Zones.  Zone Conference about a 7 hour drive from Jinja.  I took this picture after all of us had been sitting in a hot room for 9 hours.  There isn't air conditioning, but the windows were open so we did get a bit of fresh Diesel smoke with our air.

There were 8 convert baptisms in Gulu last week.  The baptismal font is a white dumpster at this location.  Mpumedde has a blue baptismal font dumpster

Another thing we saw a lot of on the way to Gulu was truck accidents.  The roads are narrow and drop off on the edges.  When two trucks pass each other, one or two will catch the edge and roll.  We saw four trucks that had rolled within the 7 hour drive.

We visited some members in Bugembe.  They keep their homes very clean inside, but this red dirt is everywhere.  Including in our washing machine.  We are pretty red ourselves from the dust.

WE visited this Sister who just had a baby.  She is the RS president in the branch, her name is Edith.

I can't even tell you how much they worship Obama.  This child has a t-shirt on, but there are also stores and gas stations named Obama.

Elder Shipley with Edith outside her home

This is inside the window of a private school in Bugembe. No teacher was there yet.  If you think this is bad, you should see the public schools.

I took some pictures out the window of the car...

You can see these sights along the road wherever you travel

Everyone is going somewhere.  Not necessarily to work since jobs are non-existent

Notice the "Boda-Boda" or motorcycle.  That is the means of taxi service for most people.  You might two or three people on the back, and sometimes a mother with her babies going somewhere.  It costs about 25 cents to get a ride.  Most members will travel to church this way

They will buy their produce in the market each day because very rarely does anyone have electricity to store food.  In fact even with electricity, it goes out a lot.

The markets are amazing.  Notice that the people mostly wear western attire, and dress very modestly.

Working hard selling their wares

The women often carry things on their head

More

Just scenes out the car window....

The children always want to hold your hands and stare at you.  Our skin color is a puzzle to them and they call us ; "Mazoombas"  Sometimes the children are afraid of us that we might be a ghost.  This was in the villiage of Bugembe while we were visiting members homes.

There are places where they fill their "gerry cans" of water. These yellow containers are called Gerry Cans. They hold about 5 gallons but you will see people carting them to their homes, even little children. They probably weigh over 50 lbs. Most people have to cart their water long distances, they could never afford water taps at their homes.

We visited a new member in her home, one of the nicest we have ever seen.  This girl is a councilor in the YW.  Sister Shipley

We were walking around around the lunch time.  We saw several women like this woman cutting up cabbage and onion to cook over her little charchol stove for lunch for her family.  The chickens and goats run wild all over.  In this case it looks like a duck.  That is why everyone lives on dirt, because the animals eat everything green in the yards possible.

This is a brother and sister of the same family who are the Elder's quorum president and the YW president in the branch. They live with their father who is Muslim so he hasn't joined the church but has allowed them to join.

They transport everything on a bike or on their heads.

The children follow us everywhere we go.  The smaller children are always on their mothers backs, and the toddlers are usually naked running around.

You see a lot of cattle on the roads

Kitchen in Jinja Chapel

Garbage in back of Jinja Chapel.  There is no such thing as garbage pick up in Uganda.  You have to wait for the trash pile to get really big and then you burn it.

Front of building in Jinja Chapel