January 2014 Update 2
Wasuze otya! Good morning! I hope you are all having a good New Year’s Eve!! We actually forgot that it was the holiday! So yesterday was a good day! It started with PANCAKES!!! So good! And a bunch of fruit! I had a bunch of little errands to do before camp and the girls were eager to do their shopping. We won’t really have a chance to after camp before we leave for our safari. We decided to give the bodas a go this morning. These are the motorcycle taxis that are all around Uganda. They are the quickest and cheapest forms of transportation. We have some things to drop off at Children of Grace and we are borrowing mosquito nets from them for camp, so we decided to go there first. It is an easy ride. Tarah is a little bit nervous about the bodas. We made it over there, but it didn’t appear like anyone was around, so we grabbed another boda and headed into town. Allan is there and will be meeting us. Gloria and I jumped on one boda and Tarah and Lauren jumped on another. I told them where we were going and we were off. Generally the boda drivers communicate to each other. This time they didn’t and when Gloria and I arrived the other boda wasn’t right behind us. We waited, maybe they got caught up in some traffic. They still didn’t come, so I sent our driver to find them. A couple minutes later they were cruising down Main Street. I called their names and they stopped. Turns out, their driver didn’t hear where I told him to go, so he took the girls to a different supermarket. They knew they weren’t in the right place and were able to direct him back to where we were yesterday. Way to go ladies!! It was pretty funny once we reunited, but I think we were all a little tense in the moment.
We started at the grocery store gathering supplies for camp and then made our way to Ritah’s shop again. She held our things so we didn’t have to carry them all everywhere. We made our way to the bank so the girls could get their shillings. Okay, the girls are in love with their money. They say it is so pretty!! Don’t be surprised if your souvenir is a 1,000 shilling note. We went to the first shop that had a ton of stuff the girls saw yesterday. I tried to teach the girls about bartering, but I don’t think they did at all at that first shop. We went over to the Keep for a milkshake, so good!! To hold us over until dinner. Then I sent the girls on with Allan and my friend Cathy met up with us too. I told them to help them barter and I hear they did much better. I went on to the bank to do some business I needed to get done before heading out to camp.
Emma sent Dennis, his cousin to pick us up in town with all our things and drop them at the hotel before dropping us off at the river where we caught a boat ride over to the Kingfisher. This is a resort on the opposite side of the Nile. We were also able to pass by the official “source” of the Nile. We decided to spend the afternoon and evening at Kingfisher swimming and relaxing. I spent most of the time with myugandan friends while the girls enjoyed themselves. They made friends with some kids that were swimming and started up a game of Marco Polo, go figure!! We wanted to make tonight a little bit of an earlier night, so we had dinner early. Gloria and Tarah had tilapia, fresh from the Nile and Lauren and I both had spaghetti. Not very ugandan, but the girls have been super impressed by all the food we’ve had so far. Camp will be all local food, so we’ll see how they do with that. After dinner, we took the boat back over to the restaurant we ate at last night. We were able to walk back to our hotel from there and were in by 730.
We said good night to my ugandan friends and spent the evening up on the veranda of our guesthouse. This is our favorite place. The view is gorgeous, there is a nice breeze and tonight we have wifi!!! The girls journaled and then realized they could FaceTime friends and family back home. I think it was fun for them to share a little bit about our time so far with family and see the faces of mom and dad. I actually crashed out early. You can be praying for me. I have developed and upper respiratory tract infection. I thought it was just a cold, but there is a little more to it than I thought. I am hoping to sleep it off. Everyone else is doing well. We are still trying to acclimate to the time change. The girls wanted to try and stay up so they didn’t wake up before 4. They succeeded!! This morning Gloria was the early riser at 6:30. Lauren and I were awake a bit in the night, but both fell back asleep.
I was able to connect with Madi and she will be on the plane Tuesday morning your time! Please pray for smooth sailing for her and no more surprises. Today we will get a few more things for camp in town and then head to Lords Meade where we will be having camp. It is raining a lot this morning, so it should be interesting!!
Please pray for the kids as they will be anxious to get to camp tomorrow. Pray for safety with the muddy roads. Pray that their hearts would be softened that they would hear the truth of the Gospel and respond. I covet your prayers for health. Thank you!! Blessings and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!