Stressors

Last week, Lily was driving home from church with the kids.  She swerved to avoid a head on collision with another car.  The cars missed each other.  In swerving, however, Lily’s car cut off a bicyclist.  The bicycle collided with our car, and the cyclist was thrown into the gutter.  He sustained two abrasions.  Crowds gathered and police came.  It was all very traumatic for Lily.  It took a few days for her to recover, and she remains reluctant to drive into town.

Auto accidents are a known risk for living abroad.  The top killer of missionaries is auto accidents.  We even knew someone in Ghana who was killed in a head on collision.  Lily’s near miss made us reflect on the things we expose ourselves to and the daily stresses we experience living here.

Lily and I developed a list of hazards and stressors that we live with on a daily basis.  Please know, however, that we are doing very well, all things considered.  I also hope you can read it and get a laugh or two.

• Cars and motorcycles driving on the wrong side of the road
• Visiting a friend in the hospital where the Ebola patients are
• Flying 4 inch cockroaches in our house.
• Neighbors playing loud music until 2 am
• Jumping spiders that bite
• Remembering to look with ways before crossing a one-way street (motorcycles don’t follow traffic laws)
• Electricity off for the whole day
• Water off for the whole day
• The asking price is double or more because I’m a foreigner
• “Spider Season” – spiders everywhere in our house in March
• “Ant Season” – giant biting ants in our house in April
• Cockroach droppings on my floor.  Yes, they’re big enough to notice.
• Farm fresh eggs also come with guano & feathers
• Store bought eggs are occasional rotten
• Potholes that span the entire street
• No street signs (they were probably stolen and sold for scrap)
• In any week, probably one family member with diarrhea
• It’s cash society.  Frequent trips to the ATM.
• Risk of robbery.
• Terrorism risks from Al-Shebaab.
• Remembering to check the beans to see if they have worms before we buy it
• Counting the items that go into the bag (to make sure the shopkeeper isn’t cheat me)
• Nobody returning a phone call (even when they know I want to buy something from them)
• Smoke from burning trash blowing into our house
• The bath water is light brown before I get in the bathtub

In a way, developing this list is therapeutic for us.  It is a reminder of the hazards and stressors that we live with.  We are encouraged since we are doing well here.

I hope you have a sense of what missionaries go through, and I hope you got at least a laugh or two.

“We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—“  2 Corinthians 4:8-9

From Kampala,

John Eastham

(new missionary to Uganda)