Day One in Uganda

We have arrived safely in Uganda.  Our first flight out of Boston was delayed by an hour. We were on the runway ready to take off when the pilot said he had a "low tire pressure" warning!  So, we headed back to the terminal, had that checked out and were on our way.  We were all able to sleep except for Deanna who decided that it would be fun to stay up all night and watch movies on the plane.  Needless to say, she paid for that when we landed in Amsterdam.  She had a slight meltdown, which Bill was able to manage with lots of love and a back rub.  We only had a 3 hour layover in Amsterdam which was just enough time to find our next gate, brush our teeth, get a coffee and do some journaling.  Our second flight was uneventful but seemed extremely long.  I ended up sitting with Dee who decided that she was going to get caught up on her much needed sleep and laid on me the entire flight.

We landed at Entebbe airport right on time.  We were the last ones in line for immigration but made it through without any problems, retrieved all 7 of our 50 pound bags, walked right through customs and were greeted by Linda, our in country hostess with the mostest!  She arranged a driver for us, Cherbon, who managed to navigate around a "jam" (Ugandan term for high traffic) and get us to our apartment at 10:30 pm without any difficulties.  The girls were both extremely tired.  Dee was very emotional and cried that she wanted to go home.  Oh no...this might be a long trip!!!  After some consoling and a promise that "things will look better in the morning after a good night's sleep" she managed to fall asleep and we all rested very well (until the 4 am morning call for Muslim prayer!)  Dee awakened without a fresh perspective as I had hoped.  I think the cold shower did not help (we hadn't figured out the water heater yet-a problem that we have now resolved).  She kept saying that she wanted to go home and she didn't like it here.  She didn't understand why we had to come here.  We had a good conversation together as a family about how difficult this was going to be for all of us.  That there were going to be times that we all would struggle and that we needed to be there to support each other.  We discussed how God had called us to be uncomfortable for a short while so that two little girls would not have to live a life of misery.  It took some time but she managed to pray, find something to thank God for, and turn her perspective around. 

I, too, had struggled this morning before Dee had even gotten up.  I was struggling with being here myself. I think God had me work through my own issues so that I could help Dee deal with the same issues.  I have to admit that there are so many things that are uncomfortable for me.  I was really struggling with finding any contentment in this.  I had to force myself to find something to be thankful for and found myself in the shower (I had the only hot shower of the day) thanking God for hot water and "enclosed drains" (as I had had visions of African things crawling up my shower drain i.e. SNAKES!)  I know it sounds stupid but offering up any thanks to God gave me a sense of release.  It was as if I was admitting to Him that He was in control of this and I WAS NOT!

We spent the morning exchanging money (2200 Ugandan shillings (UGX) to 1 USD), buying some supplies for the apartment (a fan for Bill), getting groceries, buying a SIM card for our phone and having lunch at "Good African Coffee".  It was very different to see things in the daylight.  We currently reside in the center of Kampala, the capitol of Uganda a.k.a. The Pearl of Africa.  Our apartment is very nice...two rooms, kitchen, bath, living area and patio overlooking the pool and courtyard.  The city is very busy and we are told it is even worse during the week.  There are security checkpoints throughout the city and we had to stop and have our car searched before entering the shopping center.  Linda says the security is heightened since the bombings in July.

We spent the afternoon meeting with our travel agent, Mark and making phone calls to our lawyers to let them know that we are in town.  We already have several meetings scheduled for Monday and it sounds like that may be a very busy day.  We have hired Cherbon to be our driver throughout our stay here.  He will drive us wherever we need to go and he will wait for us while we are at our various appointments which is very nice.

Tomorrow we will attend the Watobo church with Linda.  There church has grown so much that they have had to split into 5 different congregations throughout the city.  She attends Watobo North which is held under a tent (how cool is that!?!)  They have 4 services and we will attend the 8 am one.  Tomorrow afternoon should be a low key day and I will try to write more and post some pics of our apartment.

Thanks for your continued prayers and support.  We can certainly feel them!




We landed at Entebbe Airport at 7:30