Relaxing night away?!

April 23

Josh and I woke up at 5am Monday morning to leave for our night away at Muchanson Falls (game park). Jennifer came over to sit at our house until the kids woke up and then took them to Dwire’s house to stay with them for the night. I have been looking forward to our get-away for a long time now. It is always exciting to wake up before the sun to travel somewhere. I was enjoying my vanilla coffee, watching the full moon in the West, and the sunrise in the East. We were less than an hour from the gate it would be 8:30 and we would have the whole day to enjoy the animals and the hotel. But then…

We broke down. Our van over heated. We waited a half an hour for it to cool down before we added water. I actually enjoyed my quiet time with God beside the road. But we also got a call from Jennifer letting us know that Grace woke up sick and throw-up. Great. So I called Amie who said it would be fine and she had no problem caring for Grace. Thank you Amie! It seemed our get-away was being attacked so we prayed together.
Josh filled the radiator but it was leaking. We knew we were about 3km from the next town so we slowly went forward. We got to a police post and someone there took Josh to get a mechanic. He was an Indian man who just moved from Kampala up to this town because the whole area had no mechanic – thank you God! He checked the van out and found that the water filter/pump something was broke. He drove us to his shop (under the trees in his yard surrounded by huts and kids) and began removing parts. He said it would take two hours. By this time Josh let me know he wasn’t feeling well either. Really?! I decided to nap while Josh made sure they were doing good work. Two hours later the mechanic went to get the new part and found out there were none in town – surprise, surprise. We should have known better. He would have to go an hour away to get the part and come back. I had been doing really well up until this point. I stayed calm and just tried to enjoy our time together. God knew our problems and there was nothing I could do about it. But now I really wanted to go our day was being wasted.

Josh went to get a vehicle to take to Muchanson. He came back with a taxi van. I thought oh Lord could it get any worse. We put our stuff in and headed for the gas station. I attempted to put up the window and it broke, it was so dirty I didn’t want to touch much, and Josh realized the breaks were barely functioning. We stopped went back to the guy asked for our money back (gave him a little for his inconvenience of course) and found a nice small station wagon type car to rent. The man was a bit nervous about letting us take his vehicle but who wouldn’t be – this is crazy. What a lot of extra money this trip is costing! But we were finally on our way again. Just Josh and I and our little car.

This was the first time I could tell Josh was really stressed, nervous or something. He was not feeling well at this point either. Every odd noise on the car we almost panicked. But it did have AC and we did make it to the park – four hours late but finally there, yeah! The car did not handle the game roads like our van but as long as it didn’t rain we should be able to get out. So we continued to pray. We saw lots of antelope, some giraffe, and elephants on our way in. I am not sure if we just wanted to get to the hotel or if seeing the animals isn’t as exciting as the first couple times, but we kinda flew through to be done driving.

Josh and I splurged and stayed at the really nice lodge this time. It was so nice! The view was beautiful and service was great. We ate lunch (all the meals come with the cost) but Josh was probably at his lowest sick wise so he didn’t eat much. I just took in the view from our table, good food, and quiet time together. I was so thankful. After lunch I let Josh rest while I walked around and just sat and enjoyed my diet coke. I love being away. Letting go of schedule, to do’s, worries…and just relax. After nap time we went to the pool. Dad and Mom you will appreciate this, I even collected small, round, smooth river rocks to take home. By now it was time for an evening safari.

We only went for an hour but it was so fun. The colors were vibrant with the sun setting. We got nice and close to a group of giraffes and to some elephants. The elephants were actually on a bridge we had to cross so we sat and waited for them to move. Seeing animals in the wild is really cool. Josh even enjoyed it and was feeling much better. We got back and had a wonderful, candle lit meal together. I loved every bit of our long meal.

We slept in and had breakfast together looking out over the Nile River. It was so peaceful. Our only bummer in the trip was we failed to see lions, but we did see more giraffes and elephants pretty close up. Our ride home was thankfully uneventful. We got our van back and gave our car back. We stopped in Lira a town about an hour and a half from Soroti because Josh was told someone we know in Kampala sold his soft serve ice cream machines to someone there. Sure enough we found it! Some missionaries who run an orphanage opened a café with ice cream, homemade cinnamon rolls, pizza, coffee…it was so nice and good! Why can’t we have that in Soroti? Maybe someday. We also stopped at the Kenyan sellers who were in town and did a little shopping. We got back at dark and picked up the kids. Amie had supper all ready for us – she is so thoughtful.

That about wraps that up except as I write this the mechanic in Soroti is going to buy a new engine for our van. Yikes! Oh well it has to be done. It was the third mechanic who told us we needed a new engine and this time he added we wouldn’t make it two hours away from Soroti like it is. Hopefully we will have a new engine by the end of the week and miles and miles and miles…of driving without any break downs!

So I am going to send this/post this so I can get on to writing about Easter and the time we had sharing with the street kids. So stay tuned for more…