Hello my dear friends and family!! It has happened a loooot since our staying in Kampala at Bethel. Carl Chr. Was sendt to Mombasa-Kenia to take the Elder’s School there!!! What a privilege! Visited the missionary home in Mombasa, stayed at some brother’s home, just some meters from the sea... beautifull, even got a fishing day together with another elder from Egypt and got a fish of 5 kilos!!!!! I’m very glad that he got that experience, now we know where to go on vacation.. he-he-he!! While he was there, I was invited to something called ”THE INTRODUCTION”. It’s a BIG happening between a couple, right before they’ll get married. The bridegroom is ”introduced” into the bride’s family and he has to pay ”The price of the Bride”!!! It is a custome here and even our brothers do that with big pleasure. We dressed up for the party (I wanted to have an Ugandan dress, but since there was no sisters at that moment at Bethel to help me with the meters and meters of textile that I supossed to wrap around me, I just couldn’t figure out how to tight up all that, but ok, it was so hot that I didn’t regret at all!!) First we came to her parents’s home. While everybody was coming inn, my eyes couldn’t believe what I was seeing!! The sisters went on their knees (se arrodillaban) when they greeted her father and other gathered men... ”OH NOOOO!!! It’s just as brother Noumair said in Gilead!!! Women have to knee for gathered men in Uganda!!! I remember I said ”I’ll never do that!” But here I was, alone as a white woman (”Musungo”), just Matts a swedish missionary brother was there too, he and all men were dressed in the Ugandan special dresses!! Now I was aproaching the entrance and all the faces turned to me, the next woman coming to them... I felt my blood was cooking!! ”When in my whole life would I have dreamed on doing this???” My sister July and my brother Jimmy would have loved to see their ”feminist”- ”rød strømpe” sister at this moment, my knees went stive but my concience repeated to me all the lessons of ”Missionary service” in Gilead about adapting to a new culture!! So there I was, bending my knees and greeting in Luganda to each one of them! I could see they had a big smile and they answered very kindly. Actually I didn’t find it humiliating, it was a beautifull sign of respect and men don’t make fun of it. Even the small girls bend their knees when they greet adults and it looks so beautifull!! I was happy to do it, specially when we got to know that her father is not a witness and that this is the very first time he asists to a gathering with the congregation!! Even during the party, we had to knee several times and it became just fun!! The ”Price of the bride” consist in many gifts, they were so many that a truck(camion) was needed!!! Some brothers helped out with putting the big baskets(canastos) in the girls heads... I was in the line too.The baskets were filled with papayas, pine apples, vegetables, fruits, a lot of heavy things. Ouuppss!! It almost killed my spine(columna), and I was hardly balancing the basket on my head, the film camara and this high heel shoes... puoffhh, ...while the ugandan girls were walking so gracefully and elegantly as if nothing was on them!!!... there’s no way to match them!! Then we had to go on our knees with the gift and put it nicely i front of the bride’s family!! After a whole show, some sisters came with water and soupe so everybody could wash their hands, very kind, since the food is supposed to be eaten just with the hands!!! Interestingly, they had a kind of ”tamales”, just as in Colombia, food wrapped in banana leaves... the smell brought me home.... Actually, I would have liked to have an ”Introduction” when we got married... My mom would had gotten a polar bear skin or a flock of reindeers or a moose!!! He-he!! Well, Carl Christian means that he is still paying ”the price of the bride” ha,ha,ha!! J 3 days after, we got the visit of 4 good boy-friends from Norway!! Jan Erik, Glenn, Øyvind and Kolbjørn. That was wonderfull!! We knew we wouldn’t need any safari after their visit, J he,he, they are ”wild entertainment” enough!! J He,he, we had so much fun!!!! The morning after their arrival a brother from Bethel drove us to Mbale... 4 hours of interesting views, a lot of laughing in the car, enjoying the country of good peanuts and taking many pictures of the people around!! So we came into the missionary home!!! It was like a dream made true!! We met our dear missionary partners, the Rappaneckers, lovely, fun couple. Gary (the husband) found quickly that these boys could take almost the whole meeting!! So they did!! After being in service with the local bothers the two first days, each one of them had a talk at the meeting on Friday!!! Everybody was applauding them happilly!! That was an unforguetable meeting for our dear local ugandan brothers!!! One of the elders came up and said: ”We are a little confused with all our visitors from Norway... we actually don’t know who our new missionaries are, could the missionaries stand up please??” That was sweet!! I wish I could have pulled two of them up, so they have had to stay here...:) Hi, hi, J Poor the brother who had to welcome them, he just couldn’t pronounce their names, but some of the sisters were working hard to memorice thier names, so after they left, a sweet older sister told me, very proud, that she could remember all of them: ”Erik, Glenn, Urvin and Scorpion!!!” Ha,ha,ha J!!! I didn’t want to correct her, I just added that some norwegian names describe the personalities!! J During the meetings, the children were looking to all of them with big eyes and open mouth... some even deared to sit beside them to get a closer view of these unknown and undeveloped creatures (They never got the 4 last strokes of color!!) JJ Their visit was an unforgetable gift to all brothers in Mbale, all wished they could stay here, and assist the great need with their good skills. And actually, after reading parragraph 17 in the Watchtower (Dec 1,2005- p.26) for this week, why not?? (!!??!) We had even time to go together to Sippi Falls on the Mount Elgon... just a breath taken experience, climbing through banana platations and the heat of the tropical sun, then enjoying the view of two magnificent waterfalls and even standing under them!! Cold and refreshing!! We enjoyed every evening of their company and we’ll have a looong taste of their upbuilding and encouraging visit, a remarcable start in our missionary life!! Million Takk gutter!!! Well our norwegian friends didn’t get scared when we told them about one of the most important culture features of Mbale... they practice circumsicion!!! For real!! There is a very traditional tribe here whose all male members have to be circumsiced. So even brothers that are from that tribe have to follow that. And if they discover that any of them is not, they would take that one and do the needed procedure during a procession that take place in the public gates during these first days of January!!!! A missionary that has served as a circuit overseer in this area told us that he has been asked directly: ”Are you circumcised??” He taught Carl Christian some tactfully ways to answer that question, but if the answer is not clear enough they would even ask for a more clear, visual proof!! But don’t worry more than what you are allready, they won’t expect you as a foreign to be sooo ”adaptable” to the strong local Mbale culture!! I just have to tell one thing more!: We had a thorough cleaning (limpieza profunda) at the Kingdom Hall last Monday. Many brothers and sisters came early... but ... are they going for field service?? The sisters had on their fine ugandan colorfull dreses!!! Well,, no! They came to clean, but it looks like coming to the K.Hall, even for cleaning is a big occassion so they dress up ”propperly”!! The strong sisters were cutting the grass with machetes, children were putting the grass into baskets, then carrying it on their heads to a place were brothers could burn it, others were re-painting the sign of ”Kingdom Hall” on the wall, and some young girls were cleaning inside the hall. Carl Christian was cutting the grass outside while I aproached the girls inside the hall and told them that I wanted to help to clean the floor. They quickly answered: --”No, sista’, we waak, yuu don’t!!” (No, sister, we work, you don’t!) But I insisted, off course I wanted to share the work with them!! ”So just tell me where the mopps (moppstativer-traperos) are so I can start” --*Mopps?? We don’t use mopps, sista’ ”- they replayed with a little smile. ”Well, then just give me some cloth-towels (trapos) to clean with, please” --- They just saw smiling to each other and then they showed me pieces of old blue-jeans pants and sweaters they had for cleaning!! Then they instructed me: --Take off your shoes, up with your bump (rumpe-colita), down with your arms, and then swing with your body left and right, left and rigth, while you go back lenghts!!! --”Do yuu think yuu can do it, sista’?” - Ehhh... I suddenly got a little unsure, but I couldn’t give up now... the other option is to swing in the same position with the machete under the heat... so... ”Off course I can do it!!!” I can tell you, it was fun the first 28 seconds, it wasn’t very smart to take this jobb after climbing the Sippi Falls two days before!!! My body felt like a rusted armor!! After all, I have never used myself as a ”moppestativ”!! (moop or trapero!!!) --”Have yuu eva’ (ever) done this befo’? They asked smiling. -”Puohhh, Neeeeveeeer!!! I said, and we just laughed and I just had to tell them that I admire their iron bodies, their strenght and flexibility! After a not long time, my aching back ”noticed” that the windows needed to be cleaned too, so I quickly offered me to clean them, hi,hi,J and that saved my afternoon with studies with my missionary partner, Angela. No lunch break, the studies that were helping to clean, came right to study with us under the trees at the Kingdom Hall souroundings. Affortunately, Gary and Angela had taken some bananas from the miss. home so we could share with everybody, others had sugar canes and we sent some children to buy some ”chipatti”, a kind of delicious local tortillas... mmm, they tasted as mana in the dessert!!! Well, I have still many interesting things to tell about the ministry here, wich is the best part of the experience here in Mbale, but I’ll save them to another day, now it’s late at night and there’s morning worship tomorrow (Tuesday 3.jan-2006 )at 7am, No mercy!! J (At least no early mornigs on Sat. And Sunday!!! Jippiiii!!!) Our missionary partners, Gary, Angela, Bosse and Lillian greet all of you too!!! Big hugs from us, Los queremos, Sandri J Carl Christian