Saturday, September 28, 2013

Uganda Blog by Liz Mendoza, September 28, 2013

Today we began our journey to Kampala. All the pastors were there to see the team off. We did pretty good, we were only 15 minutes behind schedule. The team said their final farewells and we loaded the bus. 
Next stop Musana.
Bliss. Pure bliss as we pulled up to their gates entrance. The campus is beautiful, it has such a peaceful presence about it. We got to tour the whole campus. Breathtaking. The things they have done in the past five years is astounding. It feels like walking into another world. Everything they do is for the benefit of the children. You can see the glimpses where the American culture has been of an influence. But above all else they want to make sure the kids stay very much apart of their culture. So on holidays they make sure they go home to their community and family. Their goal is to be self sustaining in the next 5 years. Incredible. They have a church on the campus with a beautiful mural on the wall that one of Andreas sisters did. It's breathtaking. Glenn spotted a drum and asked if he could play. Of course that led into song, we sang Jesus before me, Jesus behind me, Jesus inside me, Alleluia. Andrea asked if Glenn could stay, that the kids would love it. We then got a tour of the teachers quarters and the section that they lived in. It's beautiful, it feels like it's own little oasis. Very peaceful. Very freeing. It was time for us to leave, I'm glad we get to go back on Tuesday to have dinner and talk with them more. 
Next stop. Source of the Nile cafe. Off to Jinja we went. We stopped there for lunch before heading to take the team to see the Nile. The Nile is one of my favorite parts of this country. It's such a powerful water source, I literally could just sit there and watch it all day. We went to one part, but it was so commercialized. It was cool to get our feet wet with the Nile, but all the venders were a little too much. So Haji tried to get us into the new dam area....but we were denied. They said you had to have an appointment. Haji said, "this is Africa, we don't make appointments". Better luck next time. We drove around for a little longer, then haji stopped in the middle of the road in a town and asked some guy on the street something. We kept driving. Next thing you know we drive down this windy little road and we can see the Nile. That's the Nile we were looking for. The powerful waves that can knock you over. We first had our adventure of using natures bathroom. Always entertaining. Then we headed out to get a closer look. We found a huge rock to sit on. You could see the water rushing and just crashing down. I love the roar of the river churning. I could've sat there all day. I love it. It was getting later in the day and we still had a ways to go to Kampala. So we loaded up and off we went. 
It was a long journey to Kampala, we didn't make it till 8pm. Which meant that we were traveling in Kampala at night, not so fun. It's a super busy city and there's little light anywhere. Since its Saturday night, the streets were a buslin'. Tomorrow we will head to Gaba Church, then some shopping before we take the team to the airport. 

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