Farewell Uganda..... and ...... finally home

 We were packed an on the (replacement) bus by 10.30 Tuesday morning for the trip to the airport.   We left with plenty of time, as we knew that about 15 minutes before the airport we'd find a KFC.. and there was quite some interest in checking that out.. as well as the well stocked supermarket (especially with lollies for Ben!) In Uganda, there are many interesting/funny/weird business names... caught a pic of one on our way.....  But, it was a relaxing way to begin the journey, which we would discover was needed considering the mayhem at Entebbe airport trying to check in and lines so long, a few of us visibly aged.. waiting....

We settled on board eventually for the trip home... as usual the team was boisterous and lively (which would wane relative to the length of the trip!). Ben was so impressed with the landing in Doha, that he began to clap loudly.. causing half the plane to erupt in applause....( a repeat of that in Perth did not have anywhere near the desired effect - we figure Aussies are less impressed!)

We're home.. and over the next few days we will work through our memories, impressions, and so much more. BUT, we are all deeply convinced that God has not only been with us, He has, but He has blessed us enormously... way, way more that we had imagined, and way more than we blessed others.. We will not be the same........

We want to thank you our blog readers, those who have been praying for us, those who gave generously to support the work, our fantastic team (family) in Uganda, and our church (Connect Christian Church) for being such a great support, and not least, thank God for the opportunity and privilege.

As the sign at the gate of Village of Hope says: 'May all who enter here be a blessing, and may all who leave be blessed'  For us as team 31, we can say amen to that!

 

A day of rest before the journey home..

 A low key day today, to reflect, relax and prepare for the long trip home.

We began together with a great breakfast, then spent the morning debriefing, sharing, swapping stories and praying together.... We're still so full of impressions and it will take time to give them all a place.  We're all convinced that God has revealed Himself through the people and the culture here, and challenged us in many ways... and sharing with each other what that might look like is both vulnerable and encouraging!

For the rest of the day, it was food, walking up to the main road and finding a Ugandan 'salon' where Jordan and Riley got a 'fade' done... and our group were the local 'spectacle' ....  Then a swim when we got back... finishing the evening with a lovely dinner.

It turns out that our bus is not easily repairable, and 3 guys came today and removed the whole engine, in the car park, by hand!!!!  Luckily, Robert, one of our local staff has arranged another bus for us to the airport tomorrow!!

Thanks for following our journey!! Some of us will be back again, and all of us will be encouraging more people to be a part of the work here.....

Andrew.

Early Church, packing our bags, ..0ff to our debrief Hotel

Up early today... We wanted to go to Abundant Life church again, but if we were to do that, we needed to go to the 8am service so that we would have time to pack and clean Suubi house before leaving at 1pm.

We enjoyed the worship and loud music and mics, until the power dropped out  .... phew... Then they had to use their voices and, in our opinion anyway. that sounded so much better, they have beautiful voices when they aren't competing with loud music and drums....

After the worship, Andrew preached on Deuteronomy 30, reminding us to remember all God has done, and to choose 'life' by following Him, and not forgetting Him and His goodness to us in our own 'promised' lands.     Before we left, the church wanted to gather around us and pray for us, which was really special!

Heading back to Suubi, we finished packing, cleaning, ate some lovely fresh pancakes made by Juliet, and said goodbye to the community kids around Suubi.  The bus arrived a little after 1 and off we went, watching the landscape as we drove off.  We were making great time to our hotel in Mukono district.. until about 2/3's into the trip the engine started making some loud and strange sounds!!!  We stopped while our driver, Robert & William tried to figure out what was wrong... meanwhile the team saw a lonely Chapatti stand right there and cleaned to young guy out of all his chapattis!!  The issue with the engine remained a mystery, so we limped at 30kph, all the way to our hotel..late... but we made it...!

After getting our rooms, getting settled, we enjoyed a dinner of various dishes (all that were way too much for us!!).  For some reason, the pool at night beckoned to some of the team, so much that the temperature didn't really factor.... so a night swim was enjoyed, as our Ugandan driver and team looked on confused!!!

Tomorrow we will spend some time debriefing together and relaxing, as we prepare to head home on Tuesday....

Andrew..

                             

                              

                                       

 

Swimming, dancing, laughing, speeches and........................goodbye

       Today, we had an amazing breakfast of chapatti, rolex and pineapple when we woke up, which set the day off to a great start! (There was some fried cassava there too, but unfortunately I was too full to try it). An update on Jordan’s baby, our chicken mascot – Henry laid an egg!

      After breakfast, our plan today was to farewell the amazing kids and young people from the Village of Hope, and we were going to start that morning by taking them to the pool. It was an incredible time at the pool. Some of us got to try our hands at being swimming teachers; others got to participate in diving competitions, creating whirlpools, and just sitting on the edge and chatting. A boys-vs-girls game arose of tossing a soccer ball back and forth, and it got very competitive at times. It was a little cold for me to stay in for very long at a time, but everyone had heaps of fun! Afterwards, we piled into the two buses with the kids, and travelled back to the Village of Hope with them. The buses were VERY full (and thus went very, very slowly, especially up the hills), and everyone had a great time singing all the way home. It was super loud, but full of laughter and music.

      We had a bit of a break for a couple of hours after that, and had the usual amazing lunch of fresh bread rolls, coleslaw, and so much fresh fruit and vegetables. A lot of free time followed, so we spent that time in note-writing, singing, phone calls home and just generally chilling. (I personally just took a nap!). Eventually it was time for our farewell at the Village of Hope, so we walked back up the road and greeted the kids there again. We had a gathering in the hall; in between speeches and words of thanks, there were a couple of amazing dance routines the young adults had prepared. We got to do a couple of dances too – the boys gave an impromptu routine (lots of twerking involved!) and the whole team had (somewhat) rehearsed the Cotton-Eye Joe line dance – made all the better by Jordan cracking out the Worm! All of us got to dance the Nutbush, then we broke off into a lot of free dancing. A couple of the young women tried to teach us to dance; turns out, I’m not very good, but it was a lot of fun!!

      Unfortunately, it eventually had to come to an end. We all had to say our goodbyes, and it was very hard. (A bunch of us are thinking we have to come back some time!) It was an incredible and heartwarming evening, and we’re all left feeling very blessed. Dinner was an amazing chicken curry, and we’re having to prepare to leave Suubi house tomorrow. It’s going to be very tough to say goodbye and leave.

As usual, words don't quite paint the full picture, so enjoy the pics.... thers a few today!!

- Heidi 

               

                                   

                                   

                                   

                                   

                                       

                                       

                                       

Earthy Markets, High School kids, volley ball whipping.....and a chicken

Hello,

Welcome back to the blog! This morning, we woke up tired, but excited for what we had planned for the day, and got to start it with Juliet’s signature pancakes, which never fails to fill us up. 

We then headed to town, driven by Uganda’s best driver, William, who dropped us off in Jinja to get some more shillings in our wallets. From there we went for a gander in the streets of Uganda, and made our way down to Jinja Central Markets. Not knowing what to expect, we were welcomed by the mixed aroma of farm animals, fresh fruit and offal. Alongside the smells were salesmen that couldn’t sell a stick to a dog but would badger you until you bought their ‘real’ Gucci Flip Flops. After navigating our way through the labyrinth of family run stalls, we approached the overwhelming smell of animal manure to find scores of dirty chooks. Instead of being deterred by this stench, one Jordan Matthews decided to adopt one of the crustiest, ugliest, feral hens. With time running out to get to lunch, the boys managed to make their way back to the main street, but not without getting the young, handsome and lovable Henry the Hen his own personal ‘real’ Calvin Klein duffle bag. What can we say, Jordan can just bag them chicks.

After all the kerfuffle about the new team mascot, we found some locals who were happy to give us a ride on the back of their motorcycles for the right price (less than a dollar!). Following no road rules, fast manoeuvring and not slowing down for speedbumps, with the exception of Harry’s snail-paced, old man Driver, we all made it safely, including Henry, to Java House for a well needed feed. 

To avoid the unneeded attention on our new enkoko (Chicken in the local language), we found her a nice, shady resting spot, whilst we dug into, what feels like, the first bit of meat this whole trip. While most of the crew were enjoying the fresh food, Mr Matthews couldn’t help himself checking out his new chick every 10 minutes.

Once we had finished up, we all crammed in Willliam’s van and punched back to Subi House, before rushing down to the Hope Community High School, where we were invited to take a tour of the school and meet some of the wonderful students and staff. We were then challenged to a game of volleyball against the best players from the school. After losing the first game, the school team decided to take it easy on us and yet still smoked us in the next two games. Even though we lost confidently, it was still a great experience to engage with the students and staff, who couldn’t have been more hospitable and kinder to us mzungus.

We made it back home from the short walk from the school, to be welcomed by the smell of tradition Ugandan tucker. After a quick run around with the local children, we sat down and begun the pilgrimage of new tastes and textures. Whilst some of us were able to create enough saliva to consume the posho, matoke, cassava and local sweet potato covered in g-nut sauce, Harry took his sweet time, especially having trouble with the dry and starchy cassava. In the end some of us have to resort to adding the popular Nutella and tomato sauce to make it palatable. While the others were occupied, Hailey and Alex were busy teaching Juliet and Dorien how to make Olliebollen. After tucking Jordans beloved Henry to sleep, we all got stuck into our dessert of pineapple filled Olliebollen accompanied by teas and watching marble racing on a phone.

That’s all for today bloggers.

Written and illustrated by Jordan and Riley