Uganda 2024 Day 7

I woke up about 3a and heard moment happening in the main house area. I laid there for a few minutes deciding if I wanted to sleep for 20 more minutes or not. I decided I would just get up. It was Mama Esther and Sarah making breakfast for us so we could eat before we left. I helped Sarah with the toast while we waited for the guys. Sam came in to do something and I said I was ready to go. He totally thought I was joking. Then I walked over to my stuff and moved a couple things in case he needed to load my carry on. Then he knew I was telling the truth. He said, “you are really coming, I thought you were joking.” He looked so excited! Then the three of us ladies had time to relax because the guys were not there yet. A couple minutes later, Pastor John, from Usuk came in with his wife and one of the girls. I was so happy to see him and his wife! They are amazing people! Next, Bruno walked in. I told him that I was going with them. He gave me a shocked face and asked “really”. When I said yes and he could tell I was not joking, he looked so happy. It was after 4a by this time. When Martin arrived he said we did not have time to relax while eating our breakfast or to do dishes, so we put our food on napkins. John Basco said we were going to ride with Martin in the Land Cruiser. With us was Paul, David, Dr Martin, and Bruno. I sat in the middle row so I could talk to anyone in the back. When David got in the car, he told me Mama Esther made him put a couple eggs in his pocket so he could eat them. At some point while trying to leave David was standing and put the eggs on his chair. I grabbed them so he would not sit on them. It was about 4:45 when we left the guest house. When we were heading down the bumpy hill one of David’s eggs fell on the floor. It had rolled up to where Bruno was sitting. I told David it was pre cracked so he could open it faster to eat. I handed him his other egg and a few seconds later dropped mine. We were laughing hysterically. Or at least I was and they were just laughing hard. We did end up eating them. We picked up Dr Martin at the bottom of the hill, another one of the guys down the road and then went to a hotel to pick up Mary… a Washingtonian who is here spending time with Paul and our team because that is a way for her to have extra time with him while he is ministering. We pulled off at a gas station and the guy who we picked up before Mary went to the other Land Cruiser so he had an actual seat. Brian and Richard met us there. David was in the seat next to me. He would point out different things while we were driving. We actually drove near his university. He seemed so excited to tell me where his university was. We drove through Jinja near the beginning of our trip. I became very excited when I saw a sign there. It was a sign that pointed to Amazima school. I have all the books the young lady wrote who started this school. The first book is called Kisses From Katie. We also drove on the Jinja bridge which means we drove over the source of the Nile river. Some other things I saw throughout the drive were fields of crops… mostly sugar cane and rice. We actually drove past the biggest sugar plant/plantation in Uganda. I took pictures of all the guys sleeping during the drive, except David. The night before we left, I promised him I would not.

We stopped at a restaurant for lunch which was needed for all of us. We may have been sitting to eat, but that is different than being in a car. I ordered from the local food section. I actually got what David did. He got rice and chicken stew/boil. It was so much food! I ate maybe half and tried to get the boys to eat it, but they were to full. When lunch was over, we started the last leg of the journey. Martin’s speaker was charged at this point, so David put on his worship music. I really enjoyed singing the songs! I think I knew all except 1 and they are from about the 1990s. I was so excited when I finally started seeing areas I knew. Some were in ????soroto, Usuk and the mountains (hills according to us Washingtonians). There is one fairly long stretch of land that does not belong to Karamoja or the neighboring area. It is called no man’s land. When we were almost to the first village in Karamoja, John Basco said that a couple of the kids in the compassion international program live there. He also said that Moroto (where we stay) is in central Karamoja. He has been to central and south Karamoja, but never north Karamoja. He had an opportunity once, but it did not work out. We finally arrived and got settled into our rooms. I kept waiting to hear the bus so I could help unload kitchen supplies, but I never did. It had broke down about 30 kilometers before the hotel. The other Land Cruiser was with them, so they loaded the couple passengers into the Land Cruiser and rented another vehicle to bring all our supplies to the hotel and store them in the lunch room. For dinner, mama Esther and Sarah got a break from cooking. I believe our dinner was from the hotel restaurant. I stayed after I finished dinner until the guys were done. I had them try the rest of my pop rocks. They enjoyed them and were cracking me up. I decided to go to bed not long after because I was exhausted. I grabbed my big suitcase to take it to my room, but Moses was nice and carried it for me. I went to sleep about 9p.