First Blog from Uganda!

Well, we made it! It was a long set of three flights to get from the midwest United States to Entebbe, Uganda, but we landed happy despite our travel fatigue. Our faithful friend Paul met us and took us directly to his home where we ate a late dinner and then hit the sack. Paul’s house was wonderful—a large clay brick home with tin sheet roofing, solid wood doors and glass windows. The house is still a work in progress as it is missing indoor running water, but it’s large with high ceilings and custom cement accents. Nikki commented that it shows Paul’s character in that it has taken nine years to get to its current state, showing foresight, discipline, and patience. The house also sits atop one of the hills outside Kampala and has a beautiful view of the valley.

Paul has a beautiful family and his wife, Topista (Topie), was an excellent host. As usual, there was more delicious food than we could eat at every meal, tea and snack. His children were kind and joys to be around. Devine (6 years) read whole passages out of Ted’s Bible; Samuel, the middle boy, reluctantly gave us hugs but was not feeling well. We found out this evening that he has malaria. Paul took him to the doctor where the diagnosis was made and he is now on medicine. Paul’s youngest, Siras, is a tank of a boy. He is comical in his thickness and his charm rivals his kilos. We brought stuffed animals for the kids to pick out and the one left for Siras was a moose. Upon seeing the appropriateness of this, we all agreed on his new nickname. Paul also has two girls staying with them who are orphans, a grace so common here, named Ruth and Josephine.

On Sunday, we enjoyed a church service at Glory of Christ - Kampala: four hours of song, dance, and praise. It was another reminder that we have a lot we can learn about worship.

This morning, we intended to meet up with the team from Lake Center Bible Church who is in Kampala for a few days. It’s always a little surreal when worlds collide (why am I seeing my friend Brian from Schoolcraft at Namirembe Guest House in Uganda?). The morning had gotten away from us so we were only able to greet each other for five minutes, but it was still nice to see and pray with them.

We had a fortuitous meeting with a man named Patrick who works with Heifer International. He is a family friend of Paul and advised him on some of OJM’s project work. We met with him today at his office to talk about potential partnerships, mainly concerning a milking cow project at the school.

From there we had a quick errand to run, which is funny because there is no such thing in Africa. We intended to zip by the Zain Cellphone office to pick up a wireless modem. Four hours and multiple trips to local computer stores later, we got a wireless modem and actually connected it (thus my ability to post this). I’m thankful to Paul for his patience and for the rest of the team who people watched from the taxi for 1/6th of their day.

Then we traveled to Kyotera and had great conversation over the 3 hour drive. We had a late snack and then went to our rooms. We’ll head to Ddwaniro tomorrow where we will see the school and begin our talks with the leaders of Glory of Christ Development Initiative. We hope for a wonderful day.