"African Time"

Hello from Kaihura. Life has been pretty busy around here. Katie has begun a project this week of updating all of Bringing Hope to The Family's children profile folders. It is going to be a long process of gathering information and documentation for birth certificates, death certificates of parents, existing relatives and health records.

This past Monday I was in need of a photo of all the students GSM/KTA provide tuition assistance for. I asked BHTF’s director what she thought would be the best way of going about it. She told me to go to the school, find a teacher, get the kids out of class and take a photo. In my mind this idea was ridiculous. But, I went to the school and found the principal. And, sure enough, he sent all the students we needed out by grades to have their photos taken. In what other part of the world would this work. I am positive that if I tried this back in Mississippi I would be escorted of the premises. I love my job.

Today didn’t go as smooth. I had scheduled a meeting with an engineer to go look at a couple new possible sites to build wells. I and a BHTF staff member waited from 9 Am till 12:30PM for the engineer. And he never arrived. We gave up and the man arrived at 1:30. We rescheduled for Monday morning since while we waited for him it rained for over an hour. The dirt roads would now be far too muddy for motorcycles. But, that’s just part of life here in Africa. It’s called “African time,” and it’s real. But, it was no big deal. It gave me more time to socialize with staff members. Uganda is a very social community. They live a slow pace here where stopping in the middle of your day to chat with someone is perfectly normal, and at times thought rude if you don’t.

I hope you have a blessed week.

Chris

Students currently supported by Global Support Mission through our Know.Think.Act. program.