Uganda life

Oh the Life We Live…

/ Gina Sawyer / Leave a comment

In the past, we have shared different blogs about the funny, beautiful and challenging things about living in Uganda – things that make us smile, things that drive us crazy, things we marvel at, and things that give us a serious laugh. I’ll list some old blog posts at the bottom of this post about the different aspects of life here. But in all of it, we regularly say “oh the life we live…”

For example, every morning, we wake up to ask the question “Is electricity and water on”? We have a small community WhatsApp group that is regularly messaging about power or water issues. It’s an every day thing! We are used to it, mostly. But there are time when electricity or water has been off longer than anticipated, so we have to ask others to determine if it’s an area issue or only at our home. There is solidarity of community in “suffering” when electricity or water is off for everyone, rather than the panic and going into “fix it” mode when it turns out to be just our house.

There are many times when products are no longer in stock – staple items that you might not fathom could be out of stock for months at a time. There was a period of several months when the ladies in the community were having ongoing conversations about how butter had been gone, and we were not sure how long it would be gone, so when some of us traveled to Jinja (about 2 hours away) for a weekend and found 6 sticks of butter – we bought them all! Frozen chicken and beef are regularly not missing. Yes, I could get a live chicken and slaughter it myself, but I have my limits. 😂 A good brand of toilet paper many people really like went out of stock without any knowledge of when it will come back (and yes, we have a favorite toilet paper). You might be thinking, just get another brand of toilet paper, but that’s easier said than done. Most of the options are either like using a soft sand paper or tissue paper – not ideal. 🤨 I don’t usually trust box food (cake mixes, cereal, oatmeal, bread crumbs, etc) because I’m unsure how long it’s been on the shelves and I have found them full of weevils on many occasions. No thank you! We also get excited when a new product comes into town for a little while, like chocolate chips, shampoo/conditioner, cream cheese, or American-recognized brands. We can’t expect them, so it’s a nice treat when “special” items arrive. We never know how long they’ll be there, but we rejoice for the moment. And we often take photos to share with one another, in case someone else might want the product.

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Thankful in the Midst of Hard

/ Gina Sawyer / 1 Comment

I am in a season right now where I am feeling HARD of life in Uganda! In our training at Missions Training International, we learned that as missionaries, we wake up at a higher stress level than we used to when we lived in our own passport cultures by almost double. We have learned to adjust and adapt, and even thrive in our lives here in Uganda. But sometimes, all the things that we can normally manage become overwhelming: things that shouldn’t take as long as they do; having to go to several stores and still not finding the food items we want for months on end; instability of consistent water, electricity, and sunshine (which the combination is needed to do laundry); household items that continuously break without the ease of buying a new one or getting it repaired correctly; good mechanics are impossible to find and roads tear up our vehicles; having work done on the house NEVER goes how we expect or want, often with errors, lack of appropriate tools or supplies, and any mistakes are at our expense; and don’t get me started on driving with the “mosquitos” we call bodas (small motorcycle taxis) that swarm the streets in ridiculously large numbers. We typically manage these daily challenges, and they have been part of our lives for the past 10 years. We have not only adapted to these things, but things have also improved with more options available in town, people we can call when we need repairs, people who help us find things we need from town and even deliver them to us, and a community of friends that is always willing to help in all sorts of situations. In the midst of the HARD, I can also see the GOOD.

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