Nalongo

Today (Friday) we were privileged to meet Nalongo, which translated from Lugandan means 'mother of twins'. She is an 89 year old lady living at Kyampisi. She lives in very basic accommodation, looks after her 5 grandchildren (their parents have both died) and has been of deep encouragement to Peter's commitment to Kyampisi. She says she has a golden front door, provided by God, to keep wild animals and intruders out of her house - in reality, it is an old and torn sheet. Her faith is very strong and extremely inspiring. She epitomises the reality of many Africans - she had very little from an earthly perspective but a great deal spiritually.

After visiting Nalongo, Peter introduced us to a practicing witchdoctor at Kyampisi. Peter and I visited his consulting room, a little square building (made of clay bricks) with a tin roof - unlike the witch doctors shrine at Mpigi which was a big round building (also made of bricks) with a grass roof. Inside his room was an assortment of plastic bottles, each containing herbal remedies. There was also a collection of dry leaves that he mixed with the herbs when treating patients. On the wall was a Certificate issued by the Uganda Traditional Healers and Herbalists Association. It's a little unclear to me the difference between a traditional healer and a witch doctor. I'll keep asking questions about this.

After praying with the witchdoctor, Peter took us to the Kyampisi church where we met with Robert, the builder engaged by KCM. We discussed the Master Plan for the community of Kyampisi, including the new school, the new church, new clinic and other general infrastructure. The vision of community transformation is extremely exciting.

Prior to driving back to the Jesus House, we visited Prayer Mountain at Kyampisi. Prayer Mountain is the highest piece of land as far as the eye can see and is littered with huge boulders of granite. Peter is wanting to buy this land and develop it as a House of Prayer. The view in all directions from Prayer Mountain is breath-taking - looking over Kyampisi is especially significant.

I drove back to Kampala on this occasion. Apart from the clutch getting stuck and the amount if pot holes in the road, the journey was quite uneventful. Peter bought us roasted sweet potato and roasted maize (corn) to tie us over until dinner.

Dinner was rice, pea stew and a potato side dish.