A Blog by Josh Agerton

TIA…THIS IS AFRICA

Posted on 13. Jun, 2008 by Josh Agerton in Formation, Uganda

A little phrase we have learned here is TIA…standing for “This is Africa”. Learned this from Patrick, our Ugandan liaison for Cornerstone. So when we are driving and a motorcycle is speeding in between our van and a mac truck on a narrow dirt road we all say…”TIA”. Or when we see cows eating garbage on the curb of one of the main streets of Kampala…”TIA”.

Or when someone is riding down the middle of the street on a bicycle with a a mattress on their back….”TIA”. But aside from all the TIA business it is an amazing place. So much to share about this trip. Much will never make it to the blog. But here are a few snapshots of experiences and thoughts:

LAST KING OF SCOTLAND…Watched “Last King of Scotland” last night…move about the dictator Amin who killed over 300,000 Ugandans in the 70’s. Driving down the streets today I understand more of this country.

DIGGING…Spent last two day digging a 4 ft deep ditch for the footing of the walls of the church. Something that a Bob-Cat or a small dozer could do in about 2 hours. Will take weeks to finish this. I keep telling folks that we are standing on the ground where many people for generations to come will hear the gospel and have their lives changed for eternity…helps with moral when you are digging with a hoe.

TO MY CORNERSTONE FRIENDS…if you are reading this I can’t tell you how important it is that we sponsor 300 kids to go to school in Buloba. I have seen with my own eyes and held in my own arms the kids that need our support. Go now to the Cornerstone website to make a commitment for this…Andi will follow up later on. You will hear more about this from me later on.

Did I happen to mention how important it is that we support 300 kids! I’ll try to connect the dots at a later time. And then figure out a way to come here yourself! Hope you can hear my intensity in this.

INTERPRETER FRIENDS…Have become very good friends with our interpreters…Amos, Timothy, Henry, Julius. Most of them are young church leaders in their 20’s. Amazing thing about them is that they have been working their tales off helping us dig. They could easily just hang out at the van and not get dirty. They are working machines…working me into the ground.

I’m having the most fun working with these guys. They just came off the Passion Conference here in Kampala last month…so they are huge Chris Tomlin fans now….we sing this stuff all day long. And, they love the peanut butter cheese crackers I brought over.

THE WELL…I carried a 5-gallon jug of water from the current run-off well back up to the church at Buloba. It was about ½ mile carrying 40 pounds of water. I thought that I could handle this with no problem but it was humbling. Broke my heart to think of having to carry this water up several times a day, every day just to survive. It was much tougher than I thought…going up hill through narrow trails of the bush. Just ahead of me was a little 3 year old girl who was barefoot carrying a 10 pound water jug on her head.

She did not have a cap for her jug so some was spilling down all over her dress. She was all by herself…half a mile away from her parents carrying water through the bush. Thank you Cornerstone for the Well…they will be starting on this very soon. We are going to announce this to the people of the church this Sunday and hopefully next week we will have an engineer in to help determine a site to dig. Got to run…about time to eat. Check out Cornerstone’s Mission Blog for more. Much Love – Josh

Tags: buloba, kampala, tia, Uganda