PEARL OF AFRICA

Photos: Hong Kong Island the night we departed; KPC worship in Uganda

We have finally arrived in Uganda at 230pm Tuesday, local time! We are all well, not sick, just tired. It is very humid and hot! Kind of like a tropical climate. It was probably around 30c with partly cloudy skies. Moses, who works for Watoto, met us at the airport and drove us to Kampala where we are staying. It took us a while to get out of customs because we needed $50 each USD to pay for the entry visas. So Anton ran out and got in the bank, but was told he had to go to the ATM, take out local Ugandan shillings (1,750 shillings equals $1 USD - work that exchange rate out! - Chips for $3,000USH!). We finally got out of there and drove off to Kampala. We have someone who will be with us the whole time - Sam - great guy. We had dinner with him tonight. And discussed the week.

Rewind a bit: We left Hong Kong around 1240am on their Tuesday. The plane was full and of course, I had the pleasure of sitting between Anton and a very robust African woman. I had about 2/3rds of a seat, no leg room, and strange odours (not from me this time). Was challenging!!

We arrived in Dubai at about 5am and the airport was full on busy! People everywhere from everywhere! The duty free shopping mall looked like a Saturday morning before Christmas at Fountain Gate - prices were better though. We got a free breakfast thanks to Emerites Airlines. We had about 3 hours to kill in the airport and then we were off to Uganda via Addis Abiba. 3 1/2 hours to Addis, a 45 minute wait for new passengers to board, then another 2 hours to Entebbe! That must be the longest Tuesday of my life!

Tomorrow we are meeting with Natalie Locke who is the Marketing Director of Watoto. We will talk about all the costs and schedules involved in the time here. Then we will be off to the 'Bullrushes' house where Watoto take in babies from Prems to 4 years old. We'll have about 2 hours there and then back to the office to have lunch with the entire staff. These guys are so organised.

We got to our hotel by 5pm and there was a vision meeting for the leaders of the church at 530pm. I thought, why not go? So we had 30 minutes, 1 towel between 2 of us and then off to KPC and Dona Crouch from Hillsong was speaking - the house was full of Aussies (yes I am saying I am one - don't snicker).

God was in the house and here is why. For those in our life group, you all know how this Africa trip started from going through the 10 session Erwin McManus study on the life of Jonathan? Well when Donna had us turn to t 1 Samuel 14, I couldn't believe it! I just thought, 'God, you are too funny' - There are no coincidences in God's work.

Uganda was called the pearl of Africa by the first Christian missionary to Uganda and he was thinking about the Kingdom parable that Jesus uses to explain His Kingdom - too much to explain now but that is pretty cool.

OK I am off to bed and I will upload this on our Wednesday. Love you Sharon, Ezra and Juby!! PS: Edwinsmith gets back on the 23rd so I will miss him. Oh well.