Left is the New Normal... That's Right

Hello everyone, we are all safe and well here in Kampala. Our travels here were accomplished safely and we are settling into life here at the hotel. In Uganda, settling in looks like changing money, sleeping under mosquitoes netting, and purchasing bottled water to use to brush our teeth. Because of the internet situation I am writing this in word document form and I hope to be able to transfer it over to our group blog. Wish me luck!

Today we started our daily routine which entails; 7 am breakfast, 8 team worship and meeting, 9 am splitting into two teams (one that is meeting with the pastors and another that is working with the kids), 1 pm lunch, 3 pm visit to the slums, and 5:30 pm church service. We are very busy. Here is a brief summary of what went down this morning.

The group of us working with the children this morning included; Ally, Katie, Jill, Eileen, Gemma, Tori, Delretta, Tawny, Sarah, Roxi, Joy, myself, and our new friends Betty and Teddy. We went to visit the Vineyard Christian School and met all the children and teachers. They sang for us, did a drama and a dance and then invited us into their classrooms where we acted as the guest teachers (yeash! I was not prepared to guest teach the preschool class ;). We are affectionately called “muzungos” (white people) by all of the children. After “teaching” we had a massive game of ring around the rosy, and cat and mouse. It was very exciting. Meanwhile, Jamie, Aaron and Scott were back at the hotel meeting with a group of 13 pastors from around east Africa. They had a dialog and question and answer time about what exactly Vineyard Values are. The idea that everyone can “do the stuff” was a main part of the discussion.

Today and tomorrow should be pretty similar. On Saturday we will spend the morning with the kids from the community, do a short drama and teaching for them, play some games and hopefully feed them a meal. So, for the next couple of days we will go invite the children from the slum to join us.

Here’s a quick description of what it is like to actually BE here. The dirt is red, the air is heavy, and the people are very quiet and kind. When talking to a Ugandan the flow of the conversation is sometimes hard to follow because their responses are so soft spoken. Last night I was asked, “And, how is America?” I said that America is doing very well, thank you. And received a slow, bright smile as my response. Of course there are too many new things here to describe for you all. The food, atmosphere, and culture are all different from what we are used to. Ally and Katie love the fact that we drive on the Left side of the road. To which, Gemma informed us that Left is the right side of the road, a phrase which managed to confuse the rest of us in the van.

Some quick prayer requests and then I will try to post this;
-Injurys and pain. Gemma managed to injure her shoulder in the airport and has been in pain ever since. Tori has shoulder pain and nerve damage. Joy has a fractured tail bone (from a long time ago) and the long flight aggravated it quite a bit. Please join us as we pray that our team members will be healed and free from pain.
-Safety. Driving is dangerous here. So that is always an issue. Our friends and family will be pleased to know that our hotel is very vigilant about safety (after the bombings in Kampala a week and a half ago). We are searched every time we enter the hotel.
-Continued strength and encouragement. We are all a bit worn out from the long trip over here (one 15 hour flight, an 8 hour layover, and another 7 ½ hour flight was what it took for us to get here). We need rest and many are missing their families.

Thanks friends!
Peace to you~

Amanda