Since Vince is doing such a good job at keeping everyone informed, I’ve taken over this post. Since the last post, we have done a lot of things. First, we went on safari to Murchison Falls. We traveled with Pearl of Africa Tours and stayed at Red Chili’s Rest Camp. It is a cheap lodging alternative, but it is clean and fairly well run. We saw elephants, hippos, crocodiles, buffalo, lots of birds and the highlights being a lion, an adult leopard, and 3 baby leopards. We got very lucky with seeing animals. The day we left, it was raining, so the tour drivers decided to go a different route out of the park thinking it would be better roads, but what should have taken 1 and a half hours, took over 5 hours. We ended up walking a mile or 2 in thick mud, pushing cars out of the mud and out of ditches.
After returning from safari, we had a day of TAPP visits (visits to the homes of people affected by AIDS/HIV), and Jaja visits (visits to the homes of grandmothers who are caring for their grandchildren). These visits are always a lot of fun, but also very sobering as these people really have a difficult life. After the visits and a quick lunch at the Kitchen at Kasubi school, we went to visit HIS the Heritage International School. We had a short tour around the place and headed home to prepare for our speeches at the youth convention. Friday and Saturday were spent at the youth convention participating in various areas. Pastor Cris, Eric, Tanya, Jessica, Jacquie, Marla and myself did speeches on various topics at the convention. On the Saturday afternoon, we said goodbye to Toni and Cris, and later that night to the Appelt family who left on their own safari. Saturday night, the group had an awesome dinner at the house of Sande, Glenna’s driver, then started packing up to leave Stevensons (the girls to travel home to Canada, and the rest of us to move into Glenna’s apartment).
Sunday, we had a quiet day at the Stevensons and sent Jessica, Jacquie and Tanya to the airport with Vince, and then home to Canada. Marla, Vince, Walter and I moved to Glenna’s in the evening at supper time. We had a day to rest (on Monday) then Marla and I spent a very long and sobering day at Mulago Hospital in Kampala. We met many very sick kids in the hospital, many of whom had a poor prognosis. One little boy was dying of a very quick growing renal cancer. It was really upsetting, but I think we managed to get through the day without sobbing.
So all this week, whenever there was spare time, Vince has been at the International School fixing computers and doing Vince-like things to help out and get their system sorted out. Wednesday and Thursday, we had quiet days of packing, shopping, and preparing for our upcoming village trips. Then Friday headed out for the weekend to Gulu and Lira. First, we went to visit the family of Sande in Bobi (near Gulu). We met his mom, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles and grandmother. Sande’s grandmother gave Walter a rooster whom we called Bobi-after the village where we got him. Walter was so impressed with the chicken that he carried him around the compound and spent the day petting him and chasing him around. After a nice afternoon tea underneath the mango trees, we went to Gulu to stay in a hotel. It was clean, but not real fancy. But it was safe. The bed mattresses were really thin, and we didn’t sleep very well though.
On Saturday, we went back for a short visit and breakfast with Sande’s family, then headed to Lira to visit with Pastor Martin’s family and to visit with our sponsor child and her family. We had a really nice time of reconnecting. We were then ushered to our hotel (brand new only a week old). It was super clean, well run and really nice. Our room had a fan, TV, and fridge to name a few things. It was called the Gracious Palace and was a guest house only for Christians. Our rooms had never been slept in either. It was a really nice place.
So now we reach today, Sunday. We spent the morning at church in Lira. During the worship service, Walter had a really great time clapping and singing. As we made the greetings to the church, some of the congre, then Marla and I taught the Sunday school class and handed out gifts to the children. After church, we headed home to Kampala to Glenna’s place.
