21 February 2007

Hello everyone from a very sunny and hot Uganda. I am not trying to brag. I would rather have your snow. I am not sure where I am or what we have gotten into, but amazingly I still have peace. Let me start from the beginning though...

Everything went well with traveling here. A real answer to prayer. Lydia is defiantly older than last time we flew. She was SO cute pulling her little backpack in the airport. She was so excited and let the whole plane know, “We're flying!”. We landed in Detroit and she asked if we were in Uganda. I decided there isn't anything fun about flying to Africa though. What a LONG trip. The girls did great and we had extra seats, so that was good. Lydia played so good with all of her goodies and loved watching Dora on her own TV. Even the little girls played, were quiet, and slept. Tim and Angie didn't get sick but our girls did! Grace throw-up once at the beginning of the first flight and once at the end all over herself and myself. We stunk! I am so glad Angie was with us and came prepared with extra clothes. Lydia got sick the end of the second flight. Poor thing. She was white as a ghost and used a couple of those wonderful bags.

We arrived in Uganda and Lydia came off the plane saying, “Where are my Ugandan friends?” We spent two hours at the airport. All of the bags came in except two of Tim and Angie's. It was hot, buggy, and the girls were tired. That's when I began to wonder why we left America. It is pretty frustrating, tiring, and lonely. Thankfully our driver was there waiting for us with a bus that fit all of our luggage just fine. The driver was speaking to someone in some Ugandan language and Lydia asked him why he was speaking Spanish.

It was dark driving to our guest house but I could tell it was Africa. Our guest house isn't anything special but it is nice and very clean. We had a king size bed that fit our family just fine. Our room was different than Nigerian places because it had a bug net, fan, and no TV (cooler temperature and more mosquitoes). About 12:30am we crawled into bed. However, Grace wasn't ready to sleep yet so we looked at books for a little while. Josh and I could hardly stay awake so we gave Grace Benadryl. That did the trick. Then about three hours later Lydia thought she was done sleeping. She wiggled around in bed for about an hour until she was given Benadryl too. Next thing I knew it was morning and Josh got up. I felt so sick every time I put my head up so I kept sleeping with the girls. I eventually got up a little after 11am. (By the way we are 8 hours different than you guys – that's a long time!) We woke the girls at noon. I don't know if I have just forgotten, but I don't ever remember feeling this yucky after traveling.

We are staying at Adonai. The workers are very nice and the landscape is beautiful. It is very quiet here (way different than Nigeria). We just hung out for a few hours deciding our next move. We are all alone in a big city where we know nothing and we need everything! Oh my. I think God sent us an angel. A man named Chipper, who Tim and Angie have been talking to about the vehicle, came and told us he would be our taxi driver today and help us find what we need. Can you believe it? A man helped us strangers just because he is nice. Chipper is from Texas but grew up as an MK in East Africa. He lives here now. He took us to the shopping mall where we had lunch and got cell phones. Angie and I are now back at the guest house so the kids can nap. The guys went with Chipper to get our new vehicle. We found out that Chipper is a famous race car driver around here. How cool.

About the mall, it was not America but better than anything in Nigeria. We ate in a food court where they bring the food to you. We had Indian and it was good. We didn't get to do much shopping. I don't know how we ever will with the little girls – they are a lot of work they are. So far my first reactions of Uganda are pretty good. It is cleaner, quieter, and the people are nice. The driving is different because it is on the left side of the road but it is not as bad as Nigeria so far.