let's be social!
Day 15.
Saturday was such a blessing! Leaving Sudan was exceptionally difficult, but waking up in Kampala on Saturday morning, sharing breakfast with my team, and enjoying time to relax and decompress was such a gift. It was also an enormous blessing to be able to talk to Blaise the night before; I didn’t realize just how much I missed him until I heard his voice. It was such a different feeling, though, because I missed him and wanted to see him, but I wanted him in Africa…I was still not ready to go home!
After a very relaxing morning around the Hendersons’ house, we loaded up into a matatu (taxi bus) and headed out for some lunch and shopping!
Snapshot of Saturday:
-Another fabulous meal prepared by Neltia…she is an amazing cook!
-Front porch sitting, picture taking, and memory making time
-Drive through the bustling and chaotic city of Kampala, Uganda…love it!
-Lunch at Palm Cafe Pizzeria and Bar with the team
-Shopping at an Ugandan market
-Another gorgeous, tropical night of laughing and talking with Mandy, Chris, Buay, Jengmer, and Kang in Kampala
Sora!
That morning after breakfast, our team leaders left and went to visit a guest house for future reference. While they were gone, we had time to just relax…no packing, no leaving, just relaxing. I walked around the Hendersons’ and took some pictures of their beautiful home. Kampala is on the equator, and the weather is absolutely perfect! The temperatures are in the 70s and 80s, there is very little humidity, and there is always a nice breeze. Their property is full of gorgeous tropical plants, and their house is so pretty and feels very tropical…
Kang and Buay took some time on the computer…
Inside of the matatu just before we loaded up and headed out…
So, it was really interesting in Kampala. It is much more developed than Sudan, but Uganda is still a developing country so it is a little chaotic and there is trash everywhere. Some shops are in little wooden shacks, but then there are also modern shopping malls. It is a city of contrasts. The other interesting thing was that (and some of you probably remember hearing about this) just before our trip, Kampala was bombed and several people were killed. Also, the big African Union conference was being held in Kampala during our trip. So, security was insanely tight everywhere, including market parking lots! I didn’t feel comfortable overtly taking pictures, so I set my camera in my lap and captured drive-by shots as we drove through the city…
Here’s the Palm Cafe. We ordered pizza, which was different than American pizza, but it was SO good!
This was my first Coca-cola in a couple of weeks…and it was divine!
So, I am all about trying new things, and I had been told that in Uganda, everybody tries the grasshoppers. This guy walked by selling them, so Kerry bought us a little bag of deep-fried grasshoppers. I ate two of them…
More drive-by shooting…
The motorcycles are taxis. They call them boda bodas, and they are crazy!
I didn’t get any pictures at the market because of the security situation and it just felt too weird to walk around taking pictures. I exchanged $100 USD to 200, 000 Ugandan shillings, and shopped my heart out! I bought several scarves, a wooden carving of Africa, a hand-carved chess set (for Blaise), a wallet (for Blaise), a necklace for me, one for my mom, and one for my mother-in-law, and a drum for my dad. In all, I spent about $60…so I still have a LOT of shillings left over!
Highs:
-The whole day!
Lessons God Taught Me:
-My service in Africa is not over…in fact, it is only beginning! God led me to Sudan to discover how BIG His love is, how powerfully transforming it is to wholeheartedly trust Him, and how our top priority as Christians is to faithfully follow Him wherever He leads us. It is so hard to describe how it felt to leave Sudan and to think about leaving Kampala, but in my heart I knew that my time away from East Africa would not be permanent. God gave me a heart for serving the Sudanese, and I will not hesitate to follow Him back whenever He asks and for however long He wants. Before I even left Sudan, God was already opening doors that will lead me back to Africa, and I cannot wait to find out just what He has in store!
