6/23/14

Being the least experienced world travelers on this particular endeavor, it seems odd that we would be writing one of the first entries on the blog for this mission.  Nevertheless, we will try to give the wonderful nation of Uganda justice.   

Today we had the opportunity to go into Jinja and wander through the market.  Along with general looking around and browsing through goods, we (Ahnika, Hannah, Martha, and Sarah) bought cloth to have traditional African dresses made for our friend, Bosco’s, wedding.  While we were doing the fun shopping, Robert, Ken, Eli, Miles, and John all went to go buy rice, beans, sugar, corn flour, and soap for our bush village outreach efforts. 

After shopping and a brief stop at Sarah and Robert’s house, we traversed the bumpy roads up to Fountain of Hope School. On the way, we made a stop at True Worship Church, a 3 minute walk from the school. That’s when we had our first interaction with the beautiful children of Uganda; the students had just gotten out of school and greeted us in the road. We shook lots of hands and asked ‘how are you’ multiple times, only to find the answer was always destined to be ‘I am fine! How are you?’ We then walked down to the school and were introduced to the people in leadership. We also had the opportunity to speak to one of the high school teachers, Elisha, who had many interesting stories to share with us.

From the school, we made our way down even bumpier roads (which was previously thought not possible) to Mpumudde [Em-poo-mu-day], meaning ‘resting place’. There, we were supposed to host an event in which we would play loud music to attract the locals in the village, so that we could discuss Christianity and the love of Jesus with them. Unfortunately the generator running the speakers was not cooperating, so instead, we spent time with the many children there. We sang, danced, clapped hands (turns out Eli must be really good at clapping, because they were laughing at/with him quite a bit) and even showed them the joys of photography. After we were finished at Mpumudde, we proceeded back to Robert and Sarah’s for dinner and relaxation.

Overall, we had an amazing first impression of the bush villages and what our time will be like here, and are looking forward to the next few weeks. God’s creation and his people are truly remarkable in every aspect and we thank Him for this opportunity.

Much love to you all and God bless,

Hannah and Ahni