Soroti Suffers Again

April 17

We had a big storm Tuesday night. It came so quick and it poured buckets! The wind was so strong that we couldn’t get the windows closed and once we did the rain still came blew in through our vents. The lighting was a constant flashing like a strobe light. I laid in bed praying for our safety and that the storm would stop. I had no idea how big the storm really was until the next day.

Some people are saying it was the worse storm they have ever seen. Josh’s language teachers’ roof blew off and all their things were ruined. Josh went over there in the afternoon and was literally shocked by what he saw. Power lines are down everywhere and are lying on top of houses and huts. Trees, BIG trees, have fallen. And house after house without roofs and some left with no house at all just rubble. People were busy drying their things and gathering what was left of their roof. (One sheet of metal was wrapped right around a power pole.) Josh came back feeling very helpless.

I just had to see this so we went for a ride before supper. I heard about it from Josh and looked at his pictures, but when I saw it I just couldn’t believe it. I saw total destruction and devastation. It looked like a tornado or hurricane had come through. How can this much suffering happen to people? One of the gas stations canopies was totally tipped straight up and down by the wind. (It is something to see!) We went by our church and so many homes are ruined and trees are down. To be honest you wouldn’t have known unless you had seen the homes before because so much of Uganda looks like condemned homes. But they are homes where people live and now they are without roofs or worse yet walls too. We heard that over 12 people died in the storm mostly from walls falling on them. These areas definitely got the worst of the storm.

We got to our church and I was amazed. The whole roof was lifted up and fell on the next one room home. Our church! It ruined the walls too. I couldn’t believe it – the whole roof. I am so thankful no one was in there. What if it was during Bible study or something? Then we went across the road to Stella’s. Stella goes to our church and her sister Faith just died from HIV. Her whole house was gone! Just bricks remained to show you where the house was. The roof lay a few feet away. How scary it must have been! One lone room remained standing where they all had gathered in the storm – God kept them safe. They told us about several people around who died in the storm. Stella was pretty much herself even after this tragedy. They just keep living like it is just a part of life. We would be in a state of emergency. We would be crying and complaining about our home and things. I was in awe over it all. The kids sat on the tree that was blown over and their clothes spread out drying. Everything was soaked and most of it looked ruined. Where would they sleep tonight? What would they do? How could they rebuild with no money? I felt so sad and overwhelmed. What would I do if it was my family, my children? God have mercy on them!