Uganda 2024 Day 8

I woke up early to try and help Mama Esther and Sarah with breakfast. They were no where to be found. I asked someone in the kitchen and he took me to where they were. Funny thing is it was their room. Sarah told me they don’t make breakfast so they can rest, but will tomorrow. So, I went back up to my room until closer to breakfast time. When I came back down breakfast was not ready. I was able to spend more time with the guys while we waited. Although, about 45 minutes later, Martin asked if I wanted to go pick up the team on the first flight from the airport. Sadly the team split into two groups as one plane was unavailable due to being fixed. He brought John Basco and I with him so we could help with luggage. The team was later than expected. It was so good to see them. Surprisingly, I did not miss them unless I thought about the fact I was not with them. That is how much the Ugandans are part of our team. Dr David said a couple times that I was crazy for doing the long drive instead of the short flight. I get it, but it was such a great time… even though we were just sitting for hours. The fun thing about picking them up is to find out Rembrandt was the one flying the plane again. He flew the plane I was on the last two years. He is so nice and it was good to see him. I asked Bethany how the world changers were yesterday, but she said she did not see them. Her and Dr David went to a tv station to meet someone. One of the people there asked her what she was doing here and she mentioned going to Karamoja. He asked her if she was scared. The Karamoja tribe is the warrior tribe here. There are many bad stories of the people of Karamoja and that is the only way most of not all the people of Uganda know this tribe. Bethany said she is not scared and told the guy about what we do, the people, and the boys in university. The guy was shocked about the boys being in university and what they do. She told him that he should interview them. It sounds as if he might. She had him meet Papa Moses (who oversees the boys) and told the boys about this potential opportunity. If this works out, it could mean good things for the people of Karamoja and inspire many children there. Back at the hotel, I made peanut butter sandwiches for John Basco, Joanne and myself because we did not get breakfast. Some more from the group that arrived ate too as we had mama Esther with us and they did not have anyone to cook, so a couple of them made toast as that is all they could find that was easy early in the morning. 

 We are headed to our first day of clinic in Karamoja not long after that. There was not as many people there as I expected,but there was a lot. JoAnne had me in church service. As we only had half of our team, Jodie and Spencer did the first service messages. I think we only did one more service after that and I did a message for that service. Before we arrived at the clinic I asked John Basco to intérprete for me. He was pretty busy helping everywhere today, but happened to be there when I shared my message. It made me to happy to have him in front with me. That made talking a little easier. In my intro I said who I was, that I had family there (while I put my arm around JB), and told them they were my tribe. They were so happy. Sadly we only had a half-day for clinic. So we had to close the gates for patients early. Just like been a group of girls that were on stage dancing and singing. One of these girls was Joyce, John Basco‘s sister. She is such a beautiful young lady! Joyce was visiting from Usuk and I believe a couple more girls were too. I was so happy to see her! These amazing young ladies would dance and sing between each service and before we even started for the morning. The great thing is that when they were done at church service they were able to go to kids church until they were needed again. Lany and Yoan were running kids church this morning. They are Rockstars! This is not an easy job as we have maybe around three or 400 kids there. Due to our small group of people, JoAnne pulled Lany to do education for the people after the church service. That meant that Yoan was alone with all the kids… And the teachers that were also interpreters. And the other half of our team arrived, they brought lunch. In this group were all the people in their first uganda trip and Tony.  Had closed the gate to patients by this time, so after lunch, most of the team went and helped with kids. I think some helped in the pharmacy and education as well, but it was mostlyhelped with kids. I was very impressed by all of them! They acted like they knew exactly what they were supposed to do and where they were supposed to be. It was almost like they didn’t miss the first half of the day. When all the doctors were done, we loaded up the three vehicles and headed back to the hotel. I was blessed enough to be in the party bus. I told some of the new people that’s where they want to be when they head home. The interpreters from karamoja are in the bus. They always have the driver turn up the music very loud and sing and dance to it. It is so much fun! When I am in Uganda… Especially Karamoja  I do a lot of dancing. At home, I don’t even like dancing around my parents. I have much more free here for some reason. When we arrived at the hotel, I put a couple things in my room and went down to the kitchen. I was helping Mama Esther and Sarah with dinner. At one point, Martin came in with his speaker on. We had a little dance party in the kitchen. I tried to teach them a move, but they couldn’t make their arms do what they needed to. It was pretty hilarious. After dinner, we spent some time hanging out and preparing for bed. It has been such a great day.