Sunday, June 28, 2009
Friday June 26 goodbye pictures 2
Friday June 26 goodbye pictures on the way to Entebbe Airport, views of Lake Victoria, street scenes and the airport.....
Saturday June 27th - Arriving back at SFO and back in California!
And after a good but long flight we arrived back safely in SFO and back in California.
We had indeed an extra unplanned landing in Calgary for those of you watching our flight information online and those picking us up on SFO, this was for a medical reason for one of the passengers, after initial care by paramedics she seemed to be doing a little better, and she stayed in Calgary.
Thanks for those picking us up from the airport, it was great to share our initial stories with you, and we appreciated your hospitality and flexibilities.
We'll be updating the blog some more with pictures, now that we have our full Internet capabilities and computer access.
And this is to share that we thank you for all your prayers, please continue to pray for Uganda and the work of Watoto, we feel blessed and happy that we could be together with you all a little part of their ministry and vision to do God's work where needed in Uganda through the growing and impactful work on Watoto Church.
Elsbeth.
We had indeed an extra unplanned landing in Calgary for those of you watching our flight information online and those picking us up on SFO, this was for a medical reason for one of the passengers, after initial care by paramedics she seemed to be doing a little better, and she stayed in Calgary.
Thanks for those picking us up from the airport, it was great to share our initial stories with you, and we appreciated your hospitality and flexibilities.
We'll be updating the blog some more with pictures, now that we have our full Internet capabilities and computer access.
And this is to share that we thank you for all your prayers, please continue to pray for Uganda and the work of Watoto, we feel blessed and happy that we could be together with you all a little part of their ministry and vision to do God's work where needed in Uganda through the growing and impactful work on Watoto Church.
Elsbeth.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Friday June 26th - leaving Kampala
And now it has come to our final day in our Guesthouse in Kampala.
We packed and had breakfast followed by our devotionals focused on John, where we reflected on how we are pruned to produce fruit in God's plan. We reflected on how that applied to us this week and as we go back to California.
We did a feedback session with Adrew our Watoto Guide, filled out some feedback cards for Visit Africa and the Watoto Church. We also had time to play some more card games, Uno and Nerds were the favorite games of the weeks besides the chess games with the games sets we had purchased in Uganda with their beautiful animal designs.
After lunch it was time to say goodbye to our wonderfull guest house staff Doris, Janette, Annete and Florence. They had been our hosts, cooks and did our laundry as needed, they were always friendly and helpful, and as we were the very first guests in our new Myenga guesthouse, this had been a new experience together for them too. We took our final pictures on the porch with everyone, packed the cars and left for the Entebbe Airport.
We are now in Dubai in the VIP launch as we are waiting for our connecting flight early Saturday morning. With their computer access we can update our blog, but not our pictures, so we'll add them as soon as we are back in California!
We loved your comments along the way, and it has been fun to know that many of you were able to follow our wonderful mission experience in Watoto Uganda.
We pray for all the people we met that touched our lives, that their visions and dreams my come true as they continue to walk with God and be blessed by it. We also pray for safe travels on the final leg home to SFO!
We packed and had breakfast followed by our devotionals focused on John, where we reflected on how we are pruned to produce fruit in God's plan. We reflected on how that applied to us this week and as we go back to California.
We did a feedback session with Adrew our Watoto Guide, filled out some feedback cards for Visit Africa and the Watoto Church. We also had time to play some more card games, Uno and Nerds were the favorite games of the weeks besides the chess games with the games sets we had purchased in Uganda with their beautiful animal designs.
After lunch it was time to say goodbye to our wonderfull guest house staff Doris, Janette, Annete and Florence. They had been our hosts, cooks and did our laundry as needed, they were always friendly and helpful, and as we were the very first guests in our new Myenga guesthouse, this had been a new experience together for them too. We took our final pictures on the porch with everyone, packed the cars and left for the Entebbe Airport.
We are now in Dubai in the VIP launch as we are waiting for our connecting flight early Saturday morning. With their computer access we can update our blog, but not our pictures, so we'll add them as soon as we are back in California!
We loved your comments along the way, and it has been fun to know that many of you were able to follow our wonderful mission experience in Watoto Uganda.
We pray for all the people we met that touched our lives, that their visions and dreams my come true as they continue to walk with God and be blessed by it. We also pray for safe travels on the final leg home to SFO!
Thursday June 25th back to the Guesthouse
On Thursday, it was time to wake up early with breakfast, and pack our bags back in the cars for our ride back to Kampala and our Guesthouse for a final night there.
A trip of six hours and starting with a prayer for safe travels, Stephen and Jackson (the drivers) brought us safely back to Kampala. It started our with unpaved roads with some baboons still greeting us along the way, beautiful views along the way, and many small villages, schools, and small stores where people sell their goods.
As we were getting closer to Kampala the traffic increased and the roads improved, and we were back in town for lunch together and then enjoyed a relaxing afternoon at the guesthouse with showers, re-packing for our final return home.
After dinner we walked to our favorite icecream store Ciao, and then closed the day with sharing our highlights and key moments of the weeks together while we were working, learning and being receiced with some much hospitality in the Watoto villages, the church and our questhouse. Highlights included Bulrushes with the baby orphans, lunch with the moms/kids at their homes, Sunday service, meeting our sponsored children, Building our class room in Bbira side by side with the workers and learning from them how to build and more about their lives, Safari, visiting the other village Suume with their vocational schools (sowing, catering, woodworking (the cribs for Bullrushes), and learning about the Watoto work in Watoto Central and the cells distributed North, East, South and West and in Gulu where they now also have churches and small group work, the dinner with paster Edi and his wife Martha in the nice restaurant, and all the moments were were able to be with the watoto kids, people, our guide and Stephen our wonderful and always friendly driver....
We were feeling good about all we had been able to do and experience, it feels sad that the Uganda experience and our Watoto weeks are coming to an end. Elsbeth
A trip of six hours and starting with a prayer for safe travels, Stephen and Jackson (the drivers) brought us safely back to Kampala. It started our with unpaved roads with some baboons still greeting us along the way, beautiful views along the way, and many small villages, schools, and small stores where people sell their goods.
As we were getting closer to Kampala the traffic increased and the roads improved, and we were back in town for lunch together and then enjoyed a relaxing afternoon at the guesthouse with showers, re-packing for our final return home.
After dinner we walked to our favorite icecream store Ciao, and then closed the day with sharing our highlights and key moments of the weeks together while we were working, learning and being receiced with some much hospitality in the Watoto villages, the church and our questhouse. Highlights included Bulrushes with the baby orphans, lunch with the moms/kids at their homes, Sunday service, meeting our sponsored children, Building our class room in Bbira side by side with the workers and learning from them how to build and more about their lives, Safari, visiting the other village Suume with their vocational schools (sowing, catering, woodworking (the cribs for Bullrushes), and learning about the Watoto work in Watoto Central and the cells distributed North, East, South and West and in Gulu where they now also have churches and small group work, the dinner with paster Edi and his wife Martha in the nice restaurant, and all the moments were were able to be with the watoto kids, people, our guide and Stephen our wonderful and always friendly driver....
We were feeling good about all we had been able to do and experience, it feels sad that the Uganda experience and our Watoto weeks are coming to an end. Elsbeth
Wednesday June 24th - Safari Day 2
We woke up at 6:00 and had breakfast at 6:30 for our 7:00 safari!In the beginning of the safari we decided to take a differnt route to have a higher chance of seeing a leopard. We saw many baboon and antelopes and amazingly a hyena mingling and chasing some animals. After 30 minutes or so the 2 cars split up the car I was in the one that went to the bank of the river, and saw 2 crested crains (the country bird). We also got about 20 or 30 feet away from the lazy hippos, this was at the delta, close to Albert Lake. We were lucky enough to see some of them yahn. When we were on our way back almost to the main road there were 10 giraffes on the road and along the side of the road, we took many pictures and were amazed by their grace. When we got back from our 3 hour safari experience we did the devotionals at the pool and then jumped in the water for a refreshing swim and with a beautiful view on the Nile.
At 4:00 we went on a boat safari up the Nile to the water fall we had been to the day before. On the way there we saw a huge elephant eating and drinking on the side of the river some people were on the top ( roof ) of the boat and had a great view from there. Then it started to rain and rain with some lighteening and thunder but it was over soon enough. Our boat driver took us up close to some hippos and we saw them running it was amazing! Another time when we were close to some hippos 1 charged us...... then fell over in the water... Up stream a ways we saw some fisher eagles on the top of dead trees. Next came the crocodiles, we saw some that must have been 20 feet long!! The crocodiles wers close to the fall. As we got close to the fall there was a little island that we went on to get a standing view of the fall. On our way back we had to hurry because were running out of time so we only made a few stopps. We had dinner at 7:30 after that we all gathered and andrew gave us a closing prayer and shared with us his personal journey with Christ, and his hopes and dreams to be able to bring in his art or art therapy into the work with or along his Watoto work. It had been another wonderful day. Liam.
At 4:00 we went on a boat safari up the Nile to the water fall we had been to the day before. On the way there we saw a huge elephant eating and drinking on the side of the river some people were on the top ( roof ) of the boat and had a great view from there. Then it started to rain and rain with some lighteening and thunder but it was over soon enough. Our boat driver took us up close to some hippos and we saw them running it was amazing! Another time when we were close to some hippos 1 charged us...... then fell over in the water... Up stream a ways we saw some fisher eagles on the top of dead trees. Next came the crocodiles, we saw some that must have been 20 feet long!! The crocodiles wers close to the fall. As we got close to the fall there was a little island that we went on to get a standing view of the fall. On our way back we had to hurry because were running out of time so we only made a few stopps. We had dinner at 7:30 after that we all gathered and andrew gave us a closing prayer and shared with us his personal journey with Christ, and his hopes and dreams to be able to bring in his art or art therapy into the work with or along his Watoto work. It had been another wonderful day. Liam.
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