Arrival in Uganda

This was supposed to be posted on September 5, but technical issues prevented the post until this evening.

Dawn broke as we few towards our destination in our British Airways 767.  We had boarded the plane after an eleven hour layover in London Heathrow airport and had tried to rest after an evening meal of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.  Ki had initially slept for an hour or so but then awoke and bounced around in his seat occasionally looking at his monitor to watch “Horton Hears a Who” or the Cartoon Network.  His lack of rest through out the night seemed like a foreboding hint of the task ahead of getting him over jet lag. 

As we exited the plane and walked down the steps we were greeted by a cool sweet air.  After an entire summer of upper ninety and one hundred degree temperatures in our American corner of the world, it was a refreshing relief.  Even though Uganda sits on the equator and can be hot, it has apparently been raining.  The elevation of the runway is about 3700 feet and is situated right on Lake Victoria.  If the brakes fail on a plane, I imagine it would end up in the lake.

After a fairly uneventful transition through immigration we waited to collect the 10 pieces of luggage that we had checked to accompany us.  It sounds like a lot, but we each only had one suitcase of clothes.  The rest consisted of 2 car seats, one pack and play, one stroller, some supplies including Kraft Macaroni and Cheese to last us for two months, and some old clothes to donate.  Fortunately we were able to collect nine pieces and the only exception was the fold up “jogging” stroller, and this was promised to us on the next flight from London.

Our field director, Jonathan Mayo was waiting for us and after loading up our stuff, we travelled to Kampala where we plan to make our headquarters for the next two months.  The smells of Africa were pleasant as we exited the airport.  Tropical plants were everywhere as usual.  The beautiful pineapples for sale along the road began to make my mouth water and reminded me how wonderful our stay in Uganda was going to be.  As we approached the various World Gospel Mission properties in Kampala we saw some of the plants that we had planted in years past reminding us of how much easier gardening is in the tropics.  Gardening during long hot summers in our rocky red clay in Alabama is not nearly as satisfying, especially when a significant portion of our plants don’t survive past the first month.

 It sounds like we are going to have a busy schedule, and we head to Jinja tomorrow for a CHE retreat with the group that we first trained starting 2 years ago.  This is to be followed by more training in Kampala and then Arua.  However, we look forward to getting to work as we resettle into our familiar surroundings.