Our travel to Uganda was long, but relatively drama free. We left from Boston and arrived in London a few meals and a few movies later. We had a twelve hour layover in London and went into the city. Josh fulfilled a lifelong unspoken dream by being a London tour guide and taking the team to church, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, Trafalgar Square, West End, and four national protests (Turkey, Palestine, Venezuela, and Israel). Welcome to London!
We traveled to Heathrow airport via the Tube and arrived well in time for a flight to Nairobi, Kenya. 10 hours later (more sleep, fewer movies), we landed on African soil. Next up was a few hours flight to Uganda. At this point, we were growing weary but very excited to finally be in the country we'll call home for the next few weeks. We got through customs, and we encountered our first opportunity for a God-sized miracle. Two people's bags were lost...and they've already been returned after kind sharing from the students for those that needed to borrow a skirt, toothpaste, and the like.
After troubleshooting the bag situation at the airport, we met Uncle Sam and the Ugandan students for the first time! It was an amazing thing to ride through the Ugandan countryside and see the rich reds, lush greens, and hear all the introductory cross cultural conversations. What a sound! Almost as soon as we arrived in the home where we're staying, we started up part 2 of our orientation with Ugandans taking the lead with programming. Some things we learned.
"You are so welcome" is not just something Ugandans say as a response to thank you. They use it to greet people. You're so welcome to this blog!
"Bambi" is a phrase people say when they're expressing sadness. We're not sure if it has to do with the infamous scene in a certain Disney movie.
"Are we together?" is a phrase used to give people time to admit confusion, get on the same page, and to promote agreement. As you can guess, we use this phrase a lot.
The last thing we learned. Americans get sleepy after forty hours of travel. Even during orientation sessions. Are we together?
Prayer Requests:
Pray that we would retain the information we learned the first few days as we interact more and more with people from Kampala
Pray that our American team and the Ugandan team would be unified as a blended team and would continue to bond with each other. Just like the team from the US, the Ugandans are just getting to know one another!
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