Every day the ladies from Pastor Martin’s family can be seen
toiling…all day long. Add having visitors and that day just got longer. These
ladies prepared the most lavish meals using food transported from more than
four hours distance…because there is no food in Takora. The cost of that food
tripled by the time transport is added to the mix.
Some of the ladies work as nurses at the next door hospital
and when they return from that job they work more at home. I watched them
either preparing meals or cleaning dishes nonstop. Literally. After a simple
breakfast they began preparing for our lunchtime meal. After doing the dishes
from the lunchtime meal they began preparing the dinner meal. Somehow laundry
and hauling water got done as well, I think by the younger girls. Any effort I
made to assist was met with a fierce rebuke.
Not being the domestic type, I very much appreciated all
that they did…and they did it with little expression of appreciation because in
Karamoja and most of Uganda…”that’s their work.” The sentiment is something
akin to why appreciate them for something they’re supposed to do anyhow.
There’s no malice or flippancy, it’s strictly a cultural mindset.
None the less my heart was filled with gratitude at how
faithfully they work and how much harder they had to work because of the
ministry event. I longed for a free moment with them to tell them how much God
sees their faithfulness. We carved out 30 minutes after our lunchtime meal to
watch NOOMA She. The film was
perfect for these women, particularly given the example Rob uses of how women
in Africa walk hours to haul water… They felt so respected and acknowledged
because of that one line in the film.
We joined together in prayer for one another and for some
very specific needs as well as in celebrating the knowledge that women are
important, valuable, and essential to the voice of the family and the church.
While the men were not invited to our gathering, I did take the opportunity to
tell them about the film and to emphasize that if they were not already
including their women in discussions about family and church matters that they
were missing out on a perspective that God purposefully created in his own
image.
NOTE: As our time of ministry wound down, the women said the
men raved about NOOMA Rain and
that they wanted to watch too. I thank God for fully charged laptop batteries.