Karamoja by the Numbers

Today is the one month anniversary of our plane arriving in Entebbe. Thus, in keeping with our goal of determining what our long term plans with relation to this mission might be, it seemed like a good idea to do a cost-benefit analysis of the situation. And since this is the Age of Social Media, we felt duty-bound to share; just because we live in Africa doesn’t mean we don’t want to be radically hip, too.

So, this is how it shakes down at the moment:

Cons:

• General lack of the following foods—chocolate, bacon, pickles, french fries, cheddar cheese, ice cream, apples, and lobster.
• Lack of high speed internet—by high speed, we mean anything post-1995.
• The metric system—what exactly is a milliliter?
• Most roads here are almost as bad as Fifth Avenue between B and Elm in San Diego.
• When people come to steal from you, they bring automatic weapons instead of handguns.
• Church building is also used as an emergency cattle shelter during storms (but hey, Christianity did begin in a stable).
• The age-old question: do we kill the cobra because it is extremely deadly and dangerous, or do we let it live because it likes to eat other snakes?

Pros:

• Can’t afford not to eat avocados every day.
• When the bridge goes out, food prices go up (yay supply-side economics!?).
• A visit to your family physician plus blood work plus a week of meds costs less that two dollars—when was the last time you could say that in America?
• You can have an entire conversation with someone and only know one word of Nakarimojong (ejok).
• Fantastic lineup of Irish musicians available to lead worship, play at your next Bar-Mitzvah, oversee your wake.
• What’s that, you don’t like the Irish? We’ve got Scottish bagpipes, too.
• Can take Proverbs 5:15 literally.
• Malaria, amoebic dysentery, and working 8 hours a day in the equatorial sun create a well-balanced and extremely effective weight-loss program.

So, if we total up the Cons (7) and the Pros (8), add an extra point for daily avocado and calculate, we’re still arriving at (+2) in favor of life in Karamoja. In all seriousness, we’ve had a fairly smooth transition to life here and quite a bit of fun in our new situation. We are thankful for all of your prayers for us in our adjustments. Please continue to pray not only that we would adapt but more importantly that our ministry to the missionaries and the wider community would be fruitful. We continue to seek God’s will for our future, wherever it may be.