Friday, July 27th - KAMPALA

Up with the dawn. Had to write this entry as I was too tired last night.

I feel better today. Maybe the Malaria pills and antibiotics have leveled out in my body. The worship this morning moved me. I was brought close to tears from a comforting presence. I feel taken care of and loved.

Seeing those kids yesterday at Pastor Deo’s makes me think about sponsoring a child. To see how they are cared for and loved in that facility which has come into being because of sponsorship when those kids could have been lost prompts me to action. I don’t know if I’m to sponsor a child but I hope God will make it clear. Should it not become very clear, I will likely find a child anyway. I want to be a part of helping change a child’s life.

Now, off to Rukungiri. I’m eager to get there.

OBSERVATIONS - In the populated areas, garbage is everywhere. If it’s laying on the ground, it’s become part of the ground, or it’s being burned or it’s mounded and being sifted through.

Emissions control seems to be non-existent. Fumes abound.

Elsewhere, termite mounds that appear to be as high as 10 feet or more litter the land.

And driving…WOW!! Survival is a crap shoot. It feels at times like we are playing Russian roulette with our bus. Playing “chicken”is S.O.P. here. It’s bad enough driving on the opposite side of the street, but plenty of the roads within the city are narrow and vehicles pass within inches of us at times and at high speed. NUTS!!

INTERESTING OBSERVATION - It was pointed out that people who are not working during the days of the week can be arrested for being idle. There’d be a lot of people in jail in L.A..

LATER, 5p.m. -

Still driving to Rukungiri. We left around 1-1:30 and our journey takes us through a great deal of countryside. The land continues to be peppered with termite hills.

We pass by various “towns”, roadside enclaves that, make me think of the old west of the U.S.. The buildings contain businesses for the most part by there are plenty of dwellings as well. Modest or primitive, dirty and poor are key adjectives here. The vast majority of our citizens wouldn’t make it very long here. Not sure how well I myself would fair in these conditions.

FRIDAY NIGHT -

I don’t know how to say this because honestly, I’m embarrassed as are all the men. We have been blessed so much on this journey from fundraising to travel to lodgings. I overheard in advnance that our digs tonight will be nice but I didn’t, and couldn’t fathom the fact that we would be housed in the second(or third?) home of the ex-Ministry of Health(and ex-General), Jim Muwhezi. I understand he and his wife are Christians and they are close with Pastor Elijah of RCC. This house is within a guarded compound and the property is IMMENSE…so is the house. It’s a two-story house and I think there are seven bedrooms. All the modern conveniences available including hot showers. What a blessing!! Absolutely did not expect this. Around the house are pictures of the family including pictures of Mr. Muwhezi and political figures including Bill Clinton.

Here’s the challenge - to not get too comfortable or become complacent.  My reaction to this blesssing, as of this moment, is to work even harder for these people since we’ve been treated so well.  Josh Lubeck in his devotional pointed out how we’ve been treated like royalty from the jump and he is right.  We mustn’t allow any overblown well-wishes, atta-boys or “we’ve been waiting for you so long” comments to affect our egos.  Keep the head down and just move forward; God will do the rest.

Tomorrow, we work hard for Rukungiri!

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 at 2:23 am and is filed under Uganda Outreach. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.