Caught your attention? Good. We’ll get to that cobra business presently. For now, let’s just start reading at the beginning. Where do the days go? If there isn’t a sudden shortage of some important medicine or emergency maintenance request, there’s a regular stream of conflicting
reflections
I often find myself lost in the midst of weeds and I wonder if I’ve drunk the wrong bottle from Alice’s wonderland or if the forest itself is somehow bewitched. I push past the everyday maze of Ugandan English to find its seeds sticking to
Come ye thankful people come, raise the song of harvest home: all is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin; God, our Maker doth provide for our wants to be supplied: come to God’s own temple, come, raise the song of harvest home. The
Two deaths this week for two families of church members, employees, and friends (and it’s only Thursday). Sunday, the young niece of Acia Nicholas died. Months ago, the mission helped to get her to Mbale where she had a brain tumor removed. And while she
How would your behavior change if your insurance policies, savings accounts and retirement funds were entirely dependent on the people you knew, favors you could call and strangers you could cajole? I’d like to think it would make me a nicer, more sacrificial and persuasive
Let’s have a quick survey: Raise your hand if you sung about prostitution and/or murder in your church service yesterday? I’m guessing, if you did raise your hand, that you are probably a missionary serving with OPUM and that I probably sang alongside you yesterday.
Pastor Dave had the singularly uncomfortable job of preaching from James 5:1-6 on Sunday. It’s a good text to preach when one is on furlough raising support, but it just doesn’t come as easily when on the mission field, especially in rural East Africa. The
With apologies to those hoping for some big news from the mission, this post may not scratch you where you itch. I just came across this interesting article that was too strange not to share. You don’t often expect a web designer to draw lessons
Our workers get a lot of flak for being lazy, often deservedly. Or we couch the accusation in anthropological terms—that taking advantage of those with more resources than you, viz. the employer, is an essential aspect of the Karimojong culture. That way, instead of saying
Exactly what I was expecting when we returned to Uganda, I’m not sure. Our lives are full of little oddities that are easy to forget when we are away, and so remarkable when we return to what we call normalcy. I did not expect how
If you haven’t heard, our daughter was born March 15. She was born Carmel Ariadne. Almost everyone who hears her name asks about the origin, so it seemed fitting (if a bit self-indulgent) to provide the definitive guide to her name here at Verdickmoja. Carmel
“I feel pregnant!” was my recent response to a simple inquiry into how I’m feeling. I am often asked how I’m feeling. This seems to be the most socially acceptable way to ask a pregnant woman how she is doing. In retrospect this response may