Almost everyone knows the start to our story in Uganda since May of 2011. But here is a quick synopsis. I took a position with Samaritan’s Purse in Uganda the first of May, MariAnne graduated from seminary the second week of May, and I moved to Uganda the third week of May while MA stayed behind to pack up the house and finish work. MariAnne joined me in Uganda the third week of June without knowing what it would hold for her. She came willingly as the wife without any expectation of employment or what she would be able to do. All she really knew was that she loved me, that we had spent the last couple years letting her finish her Masters degree in Christian Counseling, and that the job in Uganda was a job I really wanted to do. Good enough for her!
End of 2011:
Well four months later we decided it was time for her to head home to get some quality time with her family in as well as to squelch my desire to (lovingly) strangle her to death. You see, the first few months proved to be tougher than originally thought for MA but I will let her tell her side of the story if she desires. The biggest adjustment to being in Uganda so far has been my business and MariAnne’s lack of business. It has been a hard adjustment for MariAnne to leave her super duper busy life of completing grad school, working 35 hours a week counseling refugees and building a counseling program from scratch for World Relief. Who could blame her for being stir crazy at the end of a long day with no electricity, no internet and nowhere to go and all along her husband is working from 7 am till 7 pm Monday through Saturday, and at the end of the day all he can do is sit on the couch and stare into space. Needless to say, no sooner had MariAnne gotten on the plane than I began to miss her immensely. Over the next six weeks loneliness would be a constant theme.
Finishing 2011 was not made easier by the fact that MariAnne was so far removed. Things kind of blew up in the month of November. Work was slow, it should have been busy, the rain went away which meant it was hot and dusty and I was unhappy, we got bed bugs, which meant I had a billion bites and was relegated to sleeping in my tent in the living room, and all the small things at work started becoming big things and to top it all off our landlord went crazy. This was all compounded by the fact that I did not have my best friend to talk to at the end of the day or to suffer with me in my misery (bedbug bites).
Finally December 8th arrived and I started the long journey to Kampala. Nine hours later we arrived hot, exhausted and smelling like diesel fuel. Quickly we made the executive decision to abandon showers for the time being and head straight to dinner. You might be thinking how someone could eat like this, but to those of us who live on beans and rice for six to eight weeks at a time, food is priority in life upon arrival in Kampala. After filling our bellies I finally head home to shower and catch some rest. The next day is followed by the only Christmas shopping available at the local craft market and mall. I briefly celebrate Christmas with other ex-pat staff and head off to the airport in a taxi. Home is so close I can almost smell it…?... or wait, that’s actually the water treatment plant-It’s awful! Finally, an hour and a half past the given departure time, I board a crowded stuffy plane for London- civilization awaits!J
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