From this point forward, let's just assume that early mornings are a given so I can stop writing that as the first line of every post. Today began with delicious omelettes at breakfast and frantic wifi usage with the newly acquired hotspot. We then unloaded the 18 bags full of team supplies such as t-shirts, shoes, and endless Skittles. After sorting through all the materials and getting them stocked for the rest of the trip, we set out for the Mugabi home.
Rose Mugabi is an incredibly gifted woman who does it all. My friend Elizabeth and I have been talking to her since March to learn about her chicken farm and help her decide what investment to make next. The chickens are a partnership between the Mugabis and Baylor, formed after the Bear Pit last year. Rose began with 200 chickens and has gone through several stages of her business in the last year. She now has 200 of a different kind of chicken, and has begun work on a larger space for the chickens to reach 1000. Currently, her needs for the farm are a brooder to begin her own hatchery rather than purchasing the chicks, a solar panel to provide heat and light to the chicks as they develop, and a truck to deliver the chickens when purchased as the family currently has only Peter's company car, which they do not use for personal purposes.
Rose is a teacher by trade, a pastor's wife, the director of the women's ministry at PDN, and the mother of 5 children ranging from ages 15 to 2. And then runs this chicken business on the side. Casual. We met her and her husband Peter at dinner last night for the first time, and they welcomed us into their home in the village this morning.
We arrived and met Rose and Peter's 4 youngest children, Patience, Priscilla, Aquila, and Jubilee. Rose gave us all a description of her business and her dreams for growing it, then took us on a tour of her home. They were so hospitable, and SO excited we were there. Rose told us we were the first "muzungus" (white people) to visit their village, so we got quite a few stares as our bus bumped through town.
After our tour, she put us to work. We split into teams to level the ground in the new chicken space and pull weeds to plant new vegetables.
When we had finished our portion of the work for the morning, Rose assembled us to complete the "chicken challenge," as she named it. Here's the gist: slaughter and defeather a chicken. We slaughtered 3 between the 19 of us. Let me be clear that I was not one of the 3 to participate. It took everything in my weak stomach to snap this picture of Becca...
The Mugabis gave each of us a keychain and graciously thanked us for our help before we set off to the next place. We had lunch at a nearby hotel where we changed into our "business casual" (which here just means a long skirt and anything that isn't a t-shirt).
Our next stop was Uganda Christian University, which Dr. MacGregor calls the Baylor equivalent in Uganda. Ken Starr visits here as well and teaches at the law school. We received an introduction to the faculty from Vincent, a lecturer at the university, and a tour from Shine, an economics tutor. The campus is really beautiful, and the grounds are very quiet and peaceful.
We left the university and Richmond had Fred drive us up to Prayer Mountain just above the university. This is more or less a park where people go to sit and rest, just for some peace and quiet and beauty removed from the noise and harshness of the city streets. We walked past lots of people just laying, soaking in the presence of the Lord. Richmond said a prayer for us at the top and asked blessing on the conference to begin on Thursday.
We walked back to the cars, and I ended up riding to dinner in the van with Jayson, Richmond, Dave, Annie, and Barbara. I got to chat with Barbara for the first time, and she has an incredible story. She has been in Uganda for nearly a year now, after picking up and leaving her life in Chicago. She works with the PDN and just moved into a new role as the programs director, taking on the responsibilities that Peter Mugabi held previously. We dropped her off at her home in the city and marveled at the way she peacefully walks through streets where she is truly the only white face. What a picture of trust.
Dinner was at the Good African Cafe, very near downtown Kampala. All that really means is that it took us nearly an hour to get there due to traffic at 5pm. We were met there by some of the winners of the "Bear Pit" session from last year's PDN conference. This is the session Jayson and I will teach this week, and the end result will be selecting 4 contestants to go before a panel of investors who will help them start or build their business ideas (think: Shark Tank). These pastors told us about their businesses and their churches and their stories over the course of dinner (which included milkshakes!).
After dinner we drove back to the center where the conference will take place to get a feel for where we will be teaching our sessions. We planned out our spacing, touched base with our partners, and prayed over the conference and the pastors who will attend. Unfortunately, as we were loading the bus back up on the street, a man ran out of the center (which I would equate to a rec center of sorts) and snatched a laptop out of the hands of the seminary student on our team, Dan. He was rightfully upset by the loss of the computer, but the issue escalated when he remembered that his passport was inside. He and Dave Hurt, the other professor on the trip, will spend tomorrow at the embassy to resolve that. Becca, our student team leader, was quick to lead us all in prayer while Dr. MacGregor and Dan worked with Richmond to file a police report.
We arrived back at the hotel and detoxed from the day, but mostly the last hour. I was so grateful in that moment for our incredible trip leadership and the way that they handled themselves and the team in a moment of crisis. I'm continually reminded of the blessing it is to attend a university with faculty who jump to prayer and Scripture in every situation, and this trip has continued to exemplify that.
As we begin the conference, please pray for humility and wisdom to conduct the sessions we've prepared. We are so excited to watch God work through our interactions with these pastors, but also to see the changes He will begin in us.
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