on my way home (to Arua that is)

On Saturday Oct. 3 we left the guest house at 5:30 am and began our 7 hour drive to Arua. Even though it was dark out, I still couldn’t sleep in the backseat. I just wanted to try to take in as much as I could. You could see the shop fronts in the dark and people up and sweeping in front of the doors. There were even a few adults and kids that were sleeping on the store fronts. Once daylight broke, you could really see how people in this country live. You could see the different villages and their huts. You could see people tending to gardens or the women who were hard at work carrying things on their heads and children on their backs. Some women were even gardening with children on their backs. We passed people who had to walk to the well to pump their water and then take it back to their huts. They hand wash their clothes and then lay them on the grass roof of the hut to dry.

It was really cool when we got to the Nile River. The amount of water that rushes through there is incredibly crazy and powerful. But if you want pictures of the river, you have to take them before you get to the bridge to cross. There is a lot of security by the bridge because they can’t afford to have anything happen to the bridge. They won’t even allow you to take pics of the bridge because they don’t want anyone to be able to plot destroying the bridge since that is the only way out for a lot of people. They will actually take your camera if you are caught taking a picture of the bridge or the water from the bridge. It’s pretty crazy.

Then we drove on a road where there was a history of rebels hiding out and ambushing vehicles back when you had to drive slow on it. The road has since been repaved and cars go too fast through there so it isn’t possible for them to ambush anymore. Plus there isn’t as much of an issue with rebels anymore. Around 1:30 we finally arrived in Arua and unloaded the truck with my many bags plus the food and stuff we bought for the house. I spent several hours working on getting unpacked and settled in. At 5:30 we had a team get together and played volleyball and ate dinner. It was great to finally meet the rest of my team plus the kids I am going to be working with.

Kampala (the capitol of Uganda)

When I first arrived in Uganda (on Monday Sept. 28), we left the airport in Entebbe and started our journey into the capitol city of Kampala. The drive truly broke my heart. I was expecting things to get better as we got closer to the city, but it never did. It is so poverty stricken. The slums are all over the place. Even the “nicer” homes would be considered run down in the eyes of Americans. Although there are a few places that resemble western living. There is a mall, but nothing in comparison to anything we have. It truly is a hard place to describe. The traffic is unlike anything I have ever experienced before. There is only 1 traffic light and several round- abouts. People don’t care about traffic rules, they come in from all over the place, cut people off and that is only the cars. Then you have to watch for piki pikis which are motor bikes that weave in and out of traffic worse than motorcycles in the states and bicycles and pedestrians and you have to force your way through or else you will never get anywhere. I don’t know how there aren’t more accidents than there are. It truly was a scary experience but I started getting used to it the more we were out and around. There are a couple of good restaurants there, so we did eat some pretty good food. We stayed at the guest house provided by the Baptist Mission of Uganda and had decent electricity and water. Pam (my supervisor’s wife) and I got to have good time of conversation and getting to know each other as well as us sort of discussing what will be taking place with the kids. There were many new sounds that were so fun to hear, such as a bird that sounds like a monkey. It was the funniest thing I have heard. On Wednesday, the girls on my team came down to bring Alissa’s mom to the airport and for restocking supplies. On their way down, they got pulled over for “inconsiderate use of a motor vehicle”. HAHA it truly was because there were 3 white women in a truck that was full of luggage. The police wanted them to park the truck and go to court to pay the fee. They told them they couldn’t park it there, but the police could follow them to the mission and handle everything there. The cops had taken down the girl’s information. Long story short, they ended up getting out of it, but after being harassed by the cops for a while that afternoon. But that afternoon we went to get lunch at the mall and get much needed pedicures. They were amazing and cheap. It came out to about $7.50 per person. That rocks!!! The next day I got the opportunity to go shopping with the girls for things that we needed for the house in Arua. And we started going over how things would be split and handled in our home. I am so grateful for the girls that I am living with. We get along so well. I eventually got to enjoy my time in Kampala, but couldn’t wait to get to my new home in Arua.

Satan vs. the Lord

Our orientation was over on Sept. 24th. It was a long but great 2 months and the Lord revealed many things to me during that time. I had also been dealing with spiritual warfare in the form of dreams. Sometimes that can be the scariest place because you can’t control what happens when you sleep. All I could do was pray even harder and give my thoughts, mind and my dreams to the Lord all the time. I was scheduled to fly out of Richmond on Sat. Sept. 28th. Between the time orientation was over and I was to leave straight for Africa I had time to spend with my family and a dear friend of mine. This was also time to pack. It was a time for being excited for heading off to another country for a great adventure in serving the Lord. My family left on Friday and about 15 minutes after they left I received a text message that a good friend of mine’s brother had passed away. I was also having a hard time making everything fit in to the amount of luggage I had. I was beginning to really stress out. I was also becoming kind of nervous about leaving. Saturday morning I got up to start packing again. I had made a lot of progress the night before and felt like the job could be done. But I was still having issues with making everything fit and the zipper on one of the suitcases was about to bust and I wasn’t sure if it would survive the trip to Uganda. I had a question for the airline about luggage allowances, so I called. Come to find out I was on a different airline carrier for my first flight and my flight was 20 minutes earlier than what I was told. I was really stressing. And by the way, how am I going to get 4 checked bags and 2 carry ons through the airports when I land. And what if I had to get them and re- check them when I got to Chicago because of being on a different airline? I was really nervous. Well the taxi driver came to pick me up early. Thank goodness because when I got to the airport I had to shuffle stuff around a lot because of the weight of my bags. And I also ended checking a 5th item which ended up being a big box. During that time, the Lord put people in my path to help encourage me. There was the lady back at my quad who was cleaning and getting it ready for the next group to come in, some others I went though FPO with, a man and his 2 daughters at the airport who when they found out I was a missionary prayed for me and the list goes on and on. God is so good and faithful to take care of his children. He never leaves nor forsakes us. He calmed all my fears and made everything work out. I didn’t have to re-claim my baggage in Chicago and the airport in Entebbe was pretty empty so I didn’t have to worry too much about watching my luggage as I was trying to get everything off the carousel. Carts were close by and I didn’t have too far to go before I was greeted by my supervisor’s wife. I had no issues at all getting my tourist visa. God is good!!!!!