Nile Porch and shopping

Saturday, March 13

Today is an easy day - pretty much what ever we want.  Breakfast at 8:30 and then taking the bus shopping, and for some - a boat ride to the source of the Nile.  Some had a short shopping trip - Dale & Tim - it was us! and the others spent more time downtown.  There was 8 of us that went on the boat ride, Pastor, Rene, Shay, Virginia, Cindy P, Kate, Karen and Betsy.  They enjoyed it a lot.  So many interesting things that everyone came back with.  There was swimming & relaxing with the view.  Dinner here and we will be havng communion tonight.  Pack up and get ready for tomorrow.

Tomorrow - leave for Watoto church in Kampala, stop and vist the Baby Bulrushes - Watoto's baby home, lunch at an Indian Restraurant and then we need to head to the airport.  From that point forward - we have lots of sitting and waiting.

We can't wait to be home but it's hard to leave.  We wished we could have done more.  But our job was to plant the seed and God will make it grow!


I don't think I will be on anymore before I get home but please stay tuned.  I will post pics when I get home as well my journeling on the uses of the essential oils that have been used while on the trip.  Thank you for following and we are so excited to share with you all that we have experienced.  There has been talk of the team gathering one evening and sharing with you.  If this get's organized - I will post it here and we would love for you to be there.

Safari & Chimp Trekking

Thursday March 11 and Friday March 12th.

We left Gulu at 4:30 am, needed to get to the park by 7am.  The Acholi had breakfast ready for us and we packed the bus last night.  We got to the park shortly after 7am and our guide was not there - so we started w/o him and we were to meet him somewhere in the park.  So awesome the animals that we saw - up close.  we all have great pics and can't wait to show you.  I will not be able to post any pics until I get home - these computers are free to use but as old as the TSR- 80's.  (maybe at the airport - Virginia & I will work on that - we want you to see them)  We saw elephants, giraffe's, antelope (there is a couple of kinds), wort hogs, a rare bird, beautiful colored birds and butterflies.  We met up with our guide - George.  Yep - go on and say it.......  "George of the Jungle"  We decided to look for lions, so we took the tour bus off road - poor Charles - he thought we would get stuck. By now the sun was getting high - it was about 11am, a couple of times we stopped cause the antelope were still and looking in one direction.   Off road we were heading to a known den and guess what we saw...  the lion - so awesome.  This doesn't happen very often - we saw all the possible animals in the park.  We saw hippos when we crossed the Nile.  We needed to get to the ferry in time so we wouldn't be late for our chimp trekking.  We made it...  did I tell you that we have an awesome bus driver.  There is a video of him driving thru places that seemed impossible.  

We got to the Chimp place - we will be staying there.  Nice accommodations but we were spoiled by the air conditioning at the Acholi.  Half went on the trek and the other half stayed back and chilled.  Jerry & Carol had chimps sitting on their porch.  There was no cell service there - well there was but you had  to walk about 1/4 mile next to a sign and then stand on the rock - then it would work.  The other half went trekking in the morning at 7am.  All groups saw chimps - going thru the bush - it was awesome.  Shay has a great video of following a chimp on the trail.  He would stop and hang with us and then slowly moved on.  So cool.   We needed to get out of the park by 10am. - of which we did. 

We had a long bus ride to Jinga but so worth it.  6 hours on the bus.  We are staying at the Nile Porch in Jinga and it is breath  taking.  What a wonderful way to end our journey.  We had dinner overlooking the Nile, watching the monkey's and the birds.  After dinner - we walked down (1/2 mile trek) to the rapids and waterfalls - we put our feet in the Nile!  Devotions and then to bed.  They have these cabins that are tents that are right on the edge of the river.  So beautiful.

Olinga - IDP Camp

Tuesday, March 9 and Wednesday, March 10.  II Corinthians 3:18b

The power went out in town this evening so I'm trying to write between flickers.

Left Gulu at 10am for a 2hr drive north/west to a satellite IDP camp(Olinga).  The main, (Pabbo)camp at one time held 61,000 people, the largest camp of all.  The road is unbelievable.  You know when you can humm over bumps and it makes your voice jiggle.  Well, that's what we did for 2 hours.  When we got to the camp - the kids came from everywhere - so excited to see us.  Today we have 2 groups - kids camp and the discipleship group.  While we were waiting for the adults to come - they were in the fields working - we wondered around the camp and looked around.  Not all the huts have people living in them anymore.  They are marked.  A = someone is living here.  B = getting ready to move.  C= no one here anymore - can be torn down.

In the near distance are some tall hills.  For some of these people - their village is near those hills and it was in those hills that 1000's were killed and the villagers are afraid to go back.

The kids camp set up and they had a drama, crafts - making bracelets, decorating little bags and also bandannas. They then played games with the kids.  They were so excited.

The discipleship group broke into 4 groups.  Elders, 40's, 30's and young adults.  We talked with them and answered questions - some very interesting.....  "I am interested in believing but I have 2 women - what would you suggest I do?"  "I'm only 15 and I want to have fun while I'm still young"  We had material with us to help answer these questions and we were also able to hand Acholi bibles to them on the 2nd day.  They were so thankful.  Currently they had one bible per 30 people.  There were only 4 bibles in this camp.

They had so many more questions - wish we could have spent more time with them.  Watoto - is planning on starting a discipleship program and they will be back to this camp soon.

An interesting thing happened both times we were there.  The witch doctor had a ritual she was doing.  We could hear music and they were in her hut.  She would start shortly after we got there and would go for about 1 hour - then stop.   

Notes:
Ann had a ride on the back of someones bike.
They eat white ants.  With salt, roll in a ball or make them into a paste.  It's interesting on how they catch them - I'll let you ask....
Men are able to marry 3 -4 wives.  It's not the normal practice - that is tribal.
Most huts have no door.  2 reasons .. the LRA would think nobody home or for a quick escape.
Goats are mainly for meat.

Our translators were the staff from Watoto.  They were awesome.  Florance, Francis, Joel, David (who learned Spanish from Claudia on the bus ride) and Benson.  They really relate to the people in the camps - they were a blessing to us!

Our work is done.  We wish we had more time here - there is so much to do and the people are so grateful of any kind of help they can get.  We are packing the bus tonight and leaving at 4:30 am.  Heading to a safari and chimp trekking.  We will be staying in the park for a night and then to Jinga, where I hope to fill you in then.

Hospital visits

Monday, March 8th.  International Women's Day!  The banks even close for this!
Our verse today is 1 Peter 4:10-11

Today we were suppose to head out to another IDP camp but it is a Holiday here, so we changed our plans.  This IDP camp is pretty much disbanded but they can come back for special gatherings.  Watoto goes around to the villages and lets them know what's going on in the camp.

Carol, Pastor, Cindy G, Rene & Jerry went shopping for shoes for the House of Hope. There were some sizes we were missing. They brought the shoes and the gifts of the mamas.

The rest of us went to visit a couple of places that we were not planning on even going.  First we went to St. Jude's Children Home.  This is not a Watoto sponsored home but is similar to House of Hope or Suubi but bigger and not as nice.  It's 2 complexes as one. The second one is for disable children.  Between both houses there are 17-22 children per mama and there are 17 mama's.  We handed out bibles to the English speaking staff and beanie baby's to the children and foam stickers, which they tore in small pieces and stuck to their ears.  We only stayed for about 2 hours.  This was hard emotionally for a lot of us.  These children need so much and it was hard to leave.

We went to the Acholi for a picnic lunch. 

The next visit was to Gulu Regional Hospital to visit the children's ward and the maternity ward.  It is a public hospital.  When you go there - you should bring someone with you because they don't feed you, so there are people hanging out in the hall ways. Julie, Marrie, Cathy, Claudia and myself went to the maternity ward.  We asked if we could pray with them and we brought boiled eggs and a bar of soap for them and gave the extra soap to the head nurse - who's name was Florance and she was dressed in the white nurses outfit with the matching cap. Cute.  There was one women there in labor.  She was on a big metal table, with a black plastic bag on it and she was in the room by herself.  Family was in the hall and when I say hall - it's outside. 

Holly, Katie, Cindy P, Betsy, Karen, Virginia, Anne and Shay went to the Children's ward.  They visited 3 wards.  The 1st ward had mostly children of various ages with malaria and their mamas were with them.  Some were responding to the meds but there were others that were not.  Bracelets/necklaces that were made by Sophia Shad from 1st Baptist were given as well as beanie babies.  The group prayed with the children and also mama's had specific requests for their children.  The 2nd ward was the malnutrition ward.  There were more requests  from the mama's for their children. More gifts given.  The 3rd ward was mostly infants that mostly were crying.  Gifts and prayers were given to the mama's and baby's but when we tried to give the gift - the infants were afraid of us.

The power in the town is very unpredictable.  The hotel has a generator but some times that means nothing.  That also applies to the Internet.  So just in case ...our schedule for the next few days is.

Tuesday: head out to an IDP Camp and have a VBS sort for the children and also spend some time in discipleship with a group of about 100 adults that have gone thru the trauma program.  Answer questions etc..

Wednesday: Back out to the same IDP camp and do the second part of our programs.

Thursday thru Saturday:  Leave Acholi Inn at 5am for chimp tracking, Murchison Falls and head over to Jinga.  Not sure of internet access there.

Sunday: Church in Kampala and head for the airport - Going home.........


Notes: I would love to post more pics and I might do that Wednesday.  The internet takes so long to load when I have all the pics on.

Sunday Worship

They have 2 services - 8 and at 10.  A full house at each one.  The service is very much like Faith Community service.  They have communion once a month like First Baptist and today was the day.  Lots of singing and lots of praising God.  Taylor played for the offertory at both services.  He did a great job and the congregation loved it.

After church we all went different ways.  My group jumped on boda's and headed to the craft place only to find out that it's not open on Sundays.  Walked thru down town, to the market.  The children come running and tried to hold your hand.  There were two little girls that just kept hanging on and we were afraid that we would end up with them away from where they were suppose to be.  We noticed their sisters following close behind.  Going thru the market was interesting - so if anyone of you wants to know more about their meat dishes - you won't get it from me.  No way!  We ended by walking back to the hotel and were able to kick back.  Went and had a massage.  Cost me 20,000 shillings, ($10)  why not!   She was awesome.  Nana is a mother of 3 children that are living in Kampala with her sister while she works.  She gets paid 200,000 a month. ($100) Nana goes and visits her kids once a month.  Tonight we are going over to Carl and Julies for a BBQ and volleyball with the staff of Watoto.  Should be fun.

Notes:
They used ox to plow their fields before the LRA came thru.  They had taken then and now there only a few.  The children clear the fields and the adults use hoes to work the ground.

They pierce their children's ears to make them unpure in the eyes of the people that sacrifices children.  This is happening today.  This is in Kampala and we passed by it a few times.  We have pics.

They like their music - especially at night

Most buildings have walls around them, with barb wire.  They also have guards and they carry guns.

When the kids had a eye exam (Marrie & Betsy) and they were asked to cover their one eye - they covered both.  They had to show them how and also how to look out of the other.

Living Hope, Laborra & House of Hope

Friday, March 5th 
Big day at Living Hope.  The ladies that were suppose to have come but were not sure of us, did show up on Friday.  We were scheduled for 72 women that day and we were able to pamper 108.  As tired as we were - we were so blessed by these women.  At the beginning of the day - 2 women gave their testimonials - I recorded it with translation but haven't had a chance to refresh my memory but I do remember thinking -  traumatic and touching.  A couple of comments from the day "This is the Lord's love" and "The Lord takes care of orphans & widows and I live by that"  We finished the day - I think at the Acholi for dinner.

Saturday, March 6th.

Repacked suitcases and off we went to Laborra. 1.5 hour drive and it was raining.  Laborra is similar to Suubi, a house mama with 8 orphan children. 1 or 2 can be their own. This is also sponsored by Watoto.  7 of us pampered the mama's (14) and the rest did kid's crafts for the kids (113).  We left after lunch time and had lunch at Acholi. 

We had some down time and then went back to House of Hope to see the swing set that Karen and the guys built.  We also handed out shoes and toys to the kids.  We played with them for a while.  While we were playing, the kids outside of the fence had climbed on the wall to see what we were doing.  Hard not to include them.  We worshipped with them and at the end, the children laid hands on us.  Each child, singing, walked around the room and laid their hand on each of our heads.  WOW!
Ended with dinner and devotions.  

As I write this down to remember what we did on this unbelievable journey - I can not even touch on how we feel here.  The mama's when they hug us - "Bless God".  These people have gone thru so much - more then we can even comprehend - keep going.  They live in conditions that we would not even have our animals live in and "it is good"  We see so much despair but we also see hope.  You would love to do more for them but it's impossible by ourselves.  Most of these people believe in our God - and with that belief  "all things are possible"