Go big or go home. A great motto and always best if whatever it is you’re going big about is something worth doing.
I awoke this morning to great news……Joseph and Berna have new wheels! It’s true. We thought we were getting them two wheels but miraculously they got FOUR! God does things like this all the time, often when we least expect it. It really shouldn’t be a surprise.
Most of the roads in the outer villages of Western Uganda are dirt roads. It is dusty and hot. And most of the travelers on these roads are walking or riding a boda boda. When a car or truck passes by, all of those left behind are left behind in the dust. Literally. Great clouds of reddish-orange dust swirling about, sometimes so thick you can barely see the people and animals walking alongside the road. And just about the time the dust begins to settle and everyone can breathe again, another car or truck rumbles by, kicking up a new cloud.
And it’s hot in Western Uganda. Sometimes really hot. And there are things to be carried, often things that are much too big to be carried on top of one’s head or on the back of a boda boda. Of course this doesn’t stop the Ugandans from carrying whatever needs to be transported. It is the way of life there. For me, personally, I really appreciate having the roomy space in the back of my SUV that I can transport most anything in with ease where it is weather-protected, climate controlled, and will arrive without a layer of red dust stuck in the cracks and crevices. Our great God took the generous donations sent by friends all over the globe for #projectbodaboda and made it possible to provide an actual car instead of a motorbike for Joseph to get up the mountains and into the villages – a shiny white vehicle with a roof on top and seatbelts and cargo space and maybe even climate control. How awesome is that?
The coolest part of this whole thing for me is being right smack in the middle of a project that involved people from all walks of life, from far corners of the world. Donations arrived by way of family members across the US to former students of the National Cat Groomers Institute (you guys rock!), to Canadians and old friends in Thailand, and folks I haven’t seen in ages and only know because of my former days showing Persian cats! It truly is remarkable! In these troubled times of crime and hatred and petty disagreements that don’t mount to a whole lot in the overall scheme of things, it has been truly refreshing to me to see my circle of acquaintances come together at a moment’s notice to make it possible for a kind and generous and very knowledgable Ugandan man to travel up mountains to minister to people that need it the most. This is just really really awesome!
I’m totally planning on taking a ride in this new car of Joseph’s when I go back to Uganda. And when I do, you can be sure I’ll have camera in hand as we dodge pedestrians and potholes, kicking up a thick cloud of the very dust I so long to breathe in again. There is more to this story. Thank you to the all who pitched in to make it so beautiful!
Note: the children featured in the photo above are from the village of Karungu where we delivered 2 cows in June. Is their excitement not contagious?!?