MY UGANDA GIFT -- WORTH A LAUGH

Shortly after our arrival in the States in April, 1996, I sent a gift to several of my Ugandan friends, ladies at the orphanage where we lived.  Mostly Margaret, Margaret, and Sarah, Anne, Gertrude are the ones I recall about this.  And, what did I send?  Flowery-fragrant shower gels with, what is referred to today, as colorful mesh bits or sponges ... not the same as back then when were considered scrubby or scruffy.  I sent green, purple, blue, and white.  Since the Dangers, who started this orphanage, was an American family that lived there, and had begun to use these already, I assumed the Ugandans would understand that gel and the shower scrubby "washcloths" would be well known.  And would be received happily.  Believe me, in general, showering there could be a challenge, especially as we would perceive it, and I wanted to bless them, help them enjoy showering.

 

I received a letter a couple weeks later from my dear friend, Margaret Achengo.  [Somehow I've lost her, and I'm so sad!]  Made me roll my eyes and laugh!

When the package arrived the ladies met at Sarah's house and brought their mesh pieces.  They didn't know what they were, or what to do with them.  They shared some thoughts.

One said she would wear it as a flower in her hair as she was going to a wedding. The others thought that was a good idea.  They would, too!

Sarah said she would put it on the table as a decoration.

They hadn't kept them connected with the gel which I had assumed would be right there in front of their thoughts.  Uh, uh.  Didn't happen that way at all.  And, in those days, there was only soap, usually hard and scruffy, to say the least.  So the gel and the non-washcloth was a whole new world for them.

I still chuckle when getting into my shower, using the gel and the "bath sponge" and thinking of Margaret's descriptive letter 17 years ago.  Hasn't left my heart or joyful chuckling ever since.

Oh, and here's part of what it always reminded me of.
  
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ELEPHANT AND THE BLIND MEN

Once upon a time, there lived six blind men in a village. One day the villagers told them, "Hey, there is an elephant in the village today."
 
They had no idea what an elephant is. They decided, "Even though we would not be able to see it, let us go and feel it anyway." All of them went where the elephant was. Everyone of them touched the elephant.











"Hey, the elephant is a pillar," said the first man who touched his leg. 

"Oh, no! it is like a rope," said the second man who touched the tail. 

"Oh, no! it is like a thick branch of a tree," said the third man who touched the trunk of the elephant. 

"It is like a big hand fan" said the fourth man who touched the ear of the elephant. 

"It is like a huge wall," said the fifth man who touched the belly of the elephant.

"It is like a solid pipe," Said the sixth man who touched the tusk of the elephant.

They began to argue about the elephant and everyone of them insisted that he was right.
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Now, my friends didn't argue, weren't blind... just confused.  NOW, they know it all.  And I miss ALL of them, too.  [And have a video taken in our yard there where Margaret and I and a few others are doing country line dancing ... Uganda, Canada, England and U.S. represented by that music.  What a hoot!  Love watching it, and, again, loved being with my friend(s).]