March 1st

I tried washing baptismal clothes by hand on Monday. Andrew was laughing at my attempt. Needless to say, washing machines mean a lot more now. From what I hear, I will be doing that every week in Brazil. Bring it on!

Today I had a little PMG study group with Douglas and Andrew, who are both leaving for missions this month. We studied "humility" under the Christ-like attributes chapter. They taught me so much! These guys have mastered humility and their thoughts on it were inspirational.

I think it's interesting that people from different cultures face completely different trials, and subsequently have different collective strengths. While America as a whole may struggle getting caught up in climbing the social latter, many Africans have strained relationships with their parents (see last post). It's almost as if God uses cultures to "personalize" our experience here on earth. For instance, if someone was lacking in the humility department, one might be sent to a developed nation, where pride would surround him/her. For example, I heard one slightly humorous story:

One American we know was talking with some mothers from a village in Tanzania. One mom asked, "In your country, how do you keep your kids from spending your church offerings on sweets when you ask them to take them to the bishop." The American responded that in her homeland kids went everywhere with their parents. The Tanzanian with 7 kids responded, "That must be so stressful. I'm so sorry." She went on to say that her children would walk the three hours to visit their grandparents on a few minutes notice and come home three to four days later. I guess not knowing where your kids for half a week isn't stressful.

So I've been praying a lot about this trip I was thinking about making to these islands in Lake Victoria. It would be three days with a long boat ride there teaching Malaria/AIDS/nutrition/sanitation/filming a fund-raising video. Today I felt completely at peace with the idea so I am planning on going. We are thinking maybe March 9th.

Uganda is making me pro-affirmative action. My dad has done his fair share of car shopping and said that every dealership he visited was Indian owned. From what I hear, people from India operate all of Uganda's business sector. Of course successful Indians surround themselves with people who share their language and culture, perpetuating the division. So you have a distinct hierarchy: whites, Indians, blacks.

Anyway, life is going great. I'm officially treating the next week and a half as a vacation to spend some more time with my family before they start international school.