The Pearl of Africa

Ken and I are home safe and sound from what was the journey of a lifetime.  We are working on getting back to our "regular" life, but both know there is no such way.  You see, our lives have been changed as expected.  I'll do my best to explain with stories here and there and photos but that takes time.  We are still processing our experience (and waking up at 4am) but all worth it!!

The trip to Uganda is long no matter which way you go.  We flew through Ethiopia and half the plane ride was super excited and the other half super anxious.   But when we arrived it was another 5 hour drive just to get to Misindi.  We boarded a "taxi" - dedicated to our group for the week.  All the luggage was put on top which gave enough room for 12 people in the van.   

The trip to Misinidi was very very colorful and we all watched with wide eyes as cattle, goats, and chickens roamed freely through the villages while curious children wandered among the shacks and makeshift businesses (such as little stores that sell canned drinks or washbasins or airtime for cellular telephones).  We witnessed men and women shucking corn, cooking, talking among themselves or simply sitting beside the road quietly taking in the happenings of the village life.

A highlight of our mission was to visit Issac & Susan at Family Spirit Orphanage in Misinidi.  We pulled in and over 140 little nuggets were screaming and clapping as if Santa just showed up. To say that everyone in our group was in love was an understatement    "I think many people would have looked at these children and seen their filthy clothes, ringworm on their heads, mucus that ended up in a crust around their nostrils, or the fact that most were HIV Positive.  They would have looked around the dormortories of the orphanage with its smooth hard cement floors where rats and cockroaches made themselves and home and have been a bit disgusted."  By the grace of God our team did not see these things.

We played and played.  They showed us all around their home and school which was poverty at its worst.  Some children clung to us and loved and laughed while others cried having never seen a muzungu (white person) before.  I laughed as one child carefully examined my blue veins through my translucent skin.

"At first glance, it would be easy to feel sorry for these children   Their clothes are tattered, they sleep on old, dirty mattresses, they walk everywhere barefoot even in the rain and most of the time they have no electricity.  But we should not pity these children.  At their young age thee children know what it is to be filled with the Holy Spirit.  These children know the greatness, the wonder of our God. "

And that can be said for most of the population of Uganda...that they know the greatness of our God.  Its tough when you come home to explain why a piece of your heart will forever be left with the people you have met.  I believe its because the people that we met were the poorest we had ever met and yet they overflowed with the riches of the heart.  They live in houses of stick or stones and mud; they slept on hard dirt floors.   It appeared that these people had every reason to be downcast and angry, but they were the most joyful human beings I could imagine   I learned so much from them as they made frustrations seem small and petty and taught me just to rejoice in the simple pleasures God had surrounded me with.  After the first hour of clinic I was able to do this and I embraced each person feeling closer to God, to myself and to the people and more alive than ever.

More to come............