We are here in Kampala at a beautiful guest house - much nicer accommodations than any of us expected! Our travel was fine with a few hiccups. We got started a little late because Raelene didn't make it to our departure rendezvous at 4:30 a.m. Turns out she had the wrong date in mind, but will join us here in a couple of days. Then at the airport, our tickets were messed up in the system, so one of the managers at United had to manually overwrite everything to get our boarding passes printed. It took an hour to get through the check-in process, interrupted at one point by a very belligerent French woman who was yelling at the United staff, - I missed my plane and NO ONE CARES!.
There also was a long line at security, and the officious woman at the Express line had no compassion for our plight. Jill flashed her expired United Premier Exec card and jumped into the Express line with Heather = then rushed to tell the gate agent that our group is coming. Jill D. had forgotten she had a big container of sanitizer and two dinner knives in her bag that at the last minute became a carry-on, so she was held up further. We finally had the last of us board at 7:40 for a 7:42 a.m. departure = WHEW! Definitely the latest I've ever boarded a plane.
the rest of the trip was thankfully smooth and without incident, except for discovering at the Entebbe airport in Uganda that 4 of our bags had not arrived. Turns out that the Brussels Airport baggage tracking system crashed and a whole cart of bags never made it on the flight. Fortunately we're well prepared with necessities in our carry-on luggage and enough things like bug repellent to share, so we're fine.
We finally got to our guest house about midnight, and were delighted at the relatively deluxe rooms. We are 2 or 3 to a room, with comfy beds of our own draped in mosquito nets. The showers felt great after our long journey, especially since most of us did not get much sleep on the flight - too excited to be en route to Africa to fall asleep.
The people we've met so far are all so gracious, hospitable and friendly. Our driver Moses and host Paul have big warm smiles and hearty laughs. We know we'll have a great time with them this week.
Our red shirts have accomplished their intended purpose of making it easy to stay together - and draw notice to ourselves as a group. We met several delightful people en route who are also here on mission trips - one group of about 30 from San Diego is here to build a playground for one of the orphanages, and one young woman in a wheelchair is coming here to teach at a school. Many people said they'd be praying for us and were so encouraging. God seems to keep blessing us every step of the way. And Pastor Chris' advice to be flexible and trust God has already proved to be very wise guidance!
We had a wonderful breakfast of French toast and the cutest, best tasting little bananas we've every had. Now we are gathering to leave for church - something all of us have been eagerly anticipating. Then we'll have lunch in one of the villages, get our money exchanged, have an orientation, and get to know a little bit more about our plans for the week.
thanks to all of you who are following us and praying for us! We all feel so blessed to be here!
In Christ,
the SS Nazarene Watoto Team
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