A Little More of Gulu


Took a walk around our neighborhood this morning.

Children walking to school.  Look at those faces...so beautiful.

We passed what looked like a small restaurant.  It was closed early this morning but here you see the "oven".  In virtually every home, most of which are huts, the washing and cooking is done outside.  This oven is outside the shop on the ground.  Coal is place down the holes you see on top and food is cooked on top of the coals.  Each coal hole has an air intake below as you can see.

This is an oven for making bricks and are found everywhere.  Folks make their own bricks for building something they need or more likely to sell...just another way of living off the land as there are really so few jobs to be found.

Finished product.

In Gulu city...one of many bike shops.  For sale and being repaired.  These bikes are 1950-1970 vintage.

A material shop...maybe 10'x10'.  Pam bought some material to make a dining room table cloth for our apt.

One of our branch sister members needed to drop off her little 1 month old boy at our apt yesterday.
I was exhausted but still had to take my turn holding him.  We eventually fell asleep together, he in my arm.  His name is Smith, pronounced Smeeth.  Of interest is that children bear no name relation to their parents...like Brooks Moore and children Brooks Moore, Wyatt Moore, Cece Moore, Lawrence Moore.  Children here are given any name the parents choose so my children might be named Brandon Smith, Kobi Mutombo, Maureen Rogers, Tom Melton.  Makes doing family history a real challenge!

Our outhouse.  Well, not ours but it is on our premises.  The security guard uses it.  It's tumbling over because termintes have gotten the best of it.

I spent a couple of hours this afternoon with a prospective missionary.  One of the things we senio couple missionaries do is help those preparing to serve a mission to more fully understand the Gospel.  Many of them are recent converts to the Church.  Of the 350 or so members between the two congregations we have in Gulu, 250 have been members less than 2 years.  Not having grown up in a gospel oriented home, these fine young men and women need extra training.  And when these young missionaries return home from their 2 year missions, they will become the foundation of the Church for generations to come.  It is a slow process but we understand the principle of "Line upon line.  Precept upon precept".

Factiod...due to the mortality rate in Uganda, as I've been told, half the population is 15 and younger.
The average age of a Ugandan is 19.  One of the poorest countries in the world people can't afford medical care and die relatively young.