Grandparents visit (and amazing safari experience!)

May 16, 2013

I began this journal before Grace died and other things came into our lives we had to deal with, so now a week later I am able to sit down and write again.  Enjoy reading about my parents visit, our super safari experience, and seeing pictures of the memories we made!

May 6, 2013

Wow, what a full few weeks we have had.  I feel like I put most things on hold and am now playing catch up.  My Dad, Mom, great Aunt Sue, and her friend Kathy came to visit us.  My Dad has not been here since our first year – over five years ago.  So much has changed since then.  My Dad was SO excited to come and we were excited to show him our home, life, and ministries here.   My Mom was here a couple times without Dad the last time being when she picked up Lydia and Grace for us when Josh and I were in Kenya when Luka was sick.  They were here for almost three weeks so they got a good taste of life here.

I am unable to fill you in on all we experienced together but I will try to summarize it the best I can.  I have to admit I had mixed emotions having visitors.  We were just getting settled into life and ministry back here after five months away.  I did not want to travel again and upset Emalai again.  I did not want to have to put school on hold.  I was still tired and didn’t think I had it in me to entertain guests.  But I was also looking forward to showing Dad and Mom our home and friends in Obulle, having the grandparents be with their grandkids, and having Sue and Kathy teach the girls to sew.  I just kept reminding myself to enjoy it all because it doesn’t happen often.  And I did enjoy it…almost all of it. 

We traveled to Jinja where Josh went on to the airport to pick up our guests and while Sliedrechts, the kids, and I stayed in Jinja.  The road to Jinja was so bad we had four kids sick in the first hour.  No fun.  Emalai also screamed that night to let us know she doesn’t like traveling and Luka and her both ended up sick.  Besides all that, we did have a fun weekend on beautiful Lake Victoria/Nile River.  And when the grandparents and guests arrived we were so thankful to be together.  It is so special to have them here.  

After our weekend in Jinja we headed to Soroti where we stayed put for two weeks.  The first week Aunt Sue and Kathy stayed in our home while Grandpa and Grandma stayed with Sliedrechts then the second week we switched (gotta share when everyone wants time with G&G).  I was thankful we had guests while G & G were at Sliedrechts because the kids were still happy to have visitors instead of sad not having their grandparents stay with them.  Aunt Sue won the girls with telling them stories about Great-Great Grandma and Luka soon became her best friend when she played Legos and ball with him.  She is a wonderful grandma!  Our days were full.  We showed them around town – actually I was in town more than I have been in a long time.  There were lots of grocery runs, market experiences, second hand clothing market to see, even craft shopping.  We canned salsa, spaghetti sauce, and passion jam.   The ladies taught the girls how to sew three afternoons a week.  They learned to make a bag and skirt – pretty good for never have used a sewing machine before.  It got my creative juices flowing!  Sue and Kathy also did GEMS (Christian girls club) with the girls on our team who were able.  They really enjoyed their special time and us moms appreciated it too.  They enjoyed going to Amecet and seeing where some of their grandkids come from.  They held the babies and played with the kids which tugged at their heart strings.   

And of course we showed them our ministry here.  They went with Josh when he taught in Obulle, met some of our teammates and saw their ministries, and visited the orchards of two blind people.  Their two highlights were going to church with us and just visiting our friends in Obulle.  I loved that too.  I am excited about what God is doing in His people.  The beauty of knowing we are all praising the same Lord was powerful for our visitors.  To feel God’s presence and see Him on their faces touched them.  To see and know the people we work with and love meant a lot to them. 

Even the simple things stood out.  For Grandpa and Grandma to see their grandkids so at home here was special.  To realize they belong here and are comfortable.  To understand what it is life on a normal day here.  Even to better get all our struggles and our joys.  Being here to help us make each meal from scratch, see our kids play with their Ugandan friends, experience the driving here, see the beauty of the land and people, and also the great suffering, interact with their grandkids doing home school…  Just being apart of our lives was special.

What else did we do?  We celebrated Grandma’s 61^st birthday since she would have her birthday just after leaving.  Grandpa, Sue, Kathy, Josh and the girls climbed Soroti Rock and enjoyed an awesome view together.  Unfortunately, quite a few of us also experienced sickness.  All apart of it I guess.  We had an Indian meal and saw the Hindu temple with our friends from India who own the grocery store.  They had their fill on Ugandan food too I am sure.  I was impressed with how well they did trying everything and even asking to go out for local food once.  We even got to go to a garage sale our missionary friends were having – made Dad and Mom feet right at home. J   

We had so much fun sharing our lives with them the time quickly came to an end.  Good thing we saved something fun for last.  We went on safari.  Dad and Mom haven’t gone on a real safari – I don’t count our Nigerian experience as a real safari.  So needless to say they were very impressed!  There are so many animals at Murchison Falls and it is just simple beautiful.  We saw a lot of elephants this time (probably over 40) and many tiny, tiny babies.  They were so cute running after wart hogs as big as them and following their mothers by holding their tails.  I always love giraffes.  They are awesome.  We saw a hippo up close on land for the first time.  They are HUGE!  Amazing!  We even found a new place to stay that was really nice.  We were having such a good time – animals, scenery, good food, nice place… until night when we were all overly tired, really hot, and Emalai decided to let us know she was not happy about being away from home.  Then our fun was done and I was too.  I told Josh I was not doing this again this year.  But the next morning came, even nice and cool, and we had an amazing safari experience…     

We woke up early and saw all the normal animals, but we wanted to see a lion today.  Dad and the girls stood up to look out of our sunroof while we drove.  After a couple hours we spotted two trucks by a large bush.  One was a vet response unit truck and one was full of park rangers.  I told Josh I wanted to wait and see what they were doing.  They were looking into the bush.  Josh tried to walk by them once but they told him not to but gestured to wait.  I was intrigued.  Something was in that bush and we were going to see what was happening.  Then one man began to throw large rocks into the bush.  We began to think we were going to see our lion after all.  Sure enough next thing we know the truck full of rangers go into the bush with their guns and hull out a male lion! 

They put the lion on a trap and the vet started working on him.  We didn’t know what they were doing or if he was dead or alive.  Later we saw someone go around the bush and come back with a tranquilizer dart so we know the lion was alive.  They had also covered the face of the lion.  We watched for about 20 minutes then the vet came over and talked to us.  He told us the lion had gotten into poacher’s traps and had a snare around its neck.  Two years ago this lion got its foot in a trap and they removed the leg.  He is now a three legged lion but he can hunt and everything.  Then he asked if we wanted to see the lion.  What?!  Seriously?!  If you had told me I would be getting out of my van to see a lion today I would have laughed in your face, but here we were going to see a lion.  Oh my word! 

Our van full and Sliedrechts van full all got out and stood with the rangers and vet looking at the lion.  My girls were nervous so they looked then headed back to the van.  Can’t blame them it was so weird looking at a lion in the wild lying there breathing.  My heart was pounding.  The lion’s face was still covered but we took pictures of his big paws and massive body.  Then just as Tim was taking a picture and touched him he lifted his head!!!  The ranger yelled for us to go the van and we booked it out of there!  What a funny scene.  Ok not at the moment.  I had Luka by the hand and I didn’t look back to help anyone.  Once we were in the van I did laugh to think about the lion lifting his head and all the white people running.  The rangers told us all to go but the vet was calm.  He came and talked with us again.  He knew the lion would not just spring up and attack.  We watched as the lion lifted his head again, laid down again, got up, fell over, got up, fell over, and then went into the bush again.  I could not believe what we just saw and experienced.  Who gets to do that?!  It was so National Geographic!  What a once in a life time thrill.  

It was a great safari and time with my parents, Aunt Sue and Kathy, but all good things come to an end.  We stuffed our van with 6 adults, 4 children and lots of luggage drove over 6 hours and waited over an hour for construction to get to Kampala.  (One last experience to remember Uganda by.)  Oh, on our way in we stopped for something to eat and there was a postcard with "Abraham the three legged lion at Murchison Falls".  We saw him!  In Kampala we did a little craft shopping, had supper and said goodbye.  And yes there were tears.  What a bummer to see them hold Emalai once last time as a baby, to see Luka have to let his buddy Grandpa go, and to hold Grace as she cried.  But we are thankful for the time we had.  God is so good.

And now here we are, settling back into life and routine at least as much as we can in the mist of mourning Grace’s death and other stuff happening.  We are back into the swing of school and ministry.  We are thankful to be home as a family.  Our next guests are right around the corner though.  You can be praying for Jimmy, Autumn, and Zipporah three teens from Lake City CRC.  They will be serving with us for six weeks starting the end of May.  We look forward to having them.  Thanks for all your prayers!   

(The lion video should be posted tomorrow - sorry couldn't get it on today)