You Are Most Welcome

Tuesday, March 11

Day 1

Our flight from Denver left about an hour late which meant we arrived in London about 45 minutes before our connection to Entebbe. Unfortunately, although we were willing to run to our next gate, British Airways told us in no uncertain terms that we would not be making it onto that flight and that we would be re-routed. They put us on a flight leaving that afternoon going to Doha, Qatar. (I was pretty excited about that because growing up I always thought it fascinating when we had a stop over in any Arabian city and I had never been to Qatar before. Michael, taking so much after me and my adventurous spirit, was pretty excited as well. Everyone else was unimpressed.) We had a very short layover in Doha and then jumped on a red-eye to Entebbe (which we barely made), putting us into Uganda at 6:30 am.  This meant that we missed our good night's sleep in a hotel before hitting the road to tour Uganda with Restore. Turns out that we didn't miss much. Had we arrived on time the night before we still wouldn't have been to our hotel until 1 am and not in bed until after we all showered. With a 7 am departure time for the group, we probably ended up with more sleep on the airplane than we would've had in our hotel beds! (Trying to keep it positive!)

The Restore bus driver (Hubert) was holding the "Restore International" paper for us to identify him and we loaded up. After a long and very slow drive to Kampala, he pulled the bus onto a dirt side street where we parked and waited about an hour and a half for the rest of the group to join up with us. We were hot, very tired, filthy, and starving. Actually, filthy doesn't even begin to describe it. We hadn't showered since Saturday night (MST) and it was now Tuesday morning (or late Monday night MST). We were desperate for showers! We neglected to convert our US dollars into shillings before leaving the airport so we were stuck with no money on the side of this road. Thankfully, Mike has a very winsome personality. And he's never met a stranger. He talked Hubert into spotting our group of 12 with some Ugandan cash so that we could by some bottled water (to share) and a chapati each. I think he spent $35,000 shillings. (A chapati is a kind of flat bread. Delicious!)

Bakota House girls welcoming us to Uganda.

Soon the vans began arriving with the other members of our group. We followed them on foot up about a half block to a safe house Restore has built for young girls who have been sexually abused by family and/or through trafficking. (This safe house is called Bakota House.) We were greeted by about 15 young ladies with hugs and words of warm welcome before they broke into a traditional song and dance to celebrate our arrival. It was beautiful to hear them sing in perfect harmony, keeping rhythm with their feet. We LOVED it. Then they brought us all inside their home and we squeezed into a tiny living room with Ugandan girls filling every spare inch of the floor. Each girl went around the room and shared her name, age, and what her testimony was (what God was recently doing in her life). To say that this was emotionally moving would be an extreme understatement. Each girl had been severely traumatized at some point in her past and now she was finding strength and healing in the safety of this home surrounded by others who understood what she had been through. As you can imagine, my heart was gripped and the lump in my throat grew larger and larger until it was causing me pain in my efforts to hold back my tears. I had no desire to shed tears of sympathy or sorrow but rather to weep tears of joy and praise at the power of God to heal, bringing peace and hope to these beautiful young women. It was a special, special time we had with them. Denise, who was one of the women in our group (who we hadn't really met yet) asked the girls what they want to be when the grew up. Each one stood proudly and excitedly to her feet and stated that she wanted to be a Teacher! or Lawyer! or Businesswoman! or in Hospitality! or a Counselor! It was so fun to see their enthusiasm for their dreams and we prayed over them before leaving...that God would continue to grant them the desires of their hearts, keeping them safe in the palm of His hand.

From there we went to a department store of sorts, something like a Walmart, and broke into teams each with a different list of household supplies. We were shopping to stock another safe house that Restore is opening soon.  Bakota House was full to over-flowing and there were still more girls that needed a safe place to live. Restore decided to remedy the problem by opening another home! This new house would be called Kyambogo House and we were tasked with selecting rugs, bedding, towels, dishes, pots & pans, sanitary supplies, toilet paper, ironing boards, flatware, trash cans, etc. You name it, we bought it. We loaded our purchases on to the bus (along with our group of 29 and all our luggage) and we delivered it to the new home.  This home was nearly like the first one in its layout, with the one big difference being that this one sat up on a large hill and had a beautiful overlook of the city of Kampala. The remodel was nearing completion and soon the new girls would be welcomed into this safe place. You can imagine how full our hearts were at being invited to participate in the opening of this  new home even in this small way.

This is our team at Kymbogo House after delivering the supplies.

After delivering those supplies we hit the road for a 3 hour drive up to Maggie Josiah's place in Ekitaangala. She founded the African Hospitality Institute (AHI) where young Africans can learn hospitality skills in caring for Westerners. Her students greeted us with steaming hot wash cloths and freshly squeezed pineapple juice as we stepped off the hot, dusty bus. (Remember, our group has still not had a shower and I was still dressed in my Sunday clothes from worship at Valley on Sunday morning! This was not at all the appropriate attire for the 80 degree, humid weather of Africa!) Those wash cloths were a most welcoming touch!

Christine

We were led to our room in this beautiful guest house by Christine, a senior level student in the AHI program. They assigned three rooms for our family: one for the boys, one for the girls, and one for Mike & I.  Each room had its own bathroom and each bed was equipped with mosquito nets. (Something the kids had been quite anxious about after watching an informational video on Compassion's site about the dangers of malaria.) Those beds were so inviting...but we weren't permitted to climb into them just yet.

We were running late for dinner so we had time only to drop our bags and walk the half mile over to the dining hall for an incredible buffet dinner served by the culinary students.

Quinoa salad, eggplant parmesan, chicken, lamb, pizza squares, pita bread, mango salad...goodness! The list of food items goes on and on. Our dinner was beautifully presented and incredibly delicious to these tired travelers! We had the honor of meeting the students and Maggie at this time and they each did a wonderful job of doting on us, making us feel most welcome. (In Uganda, everyone greets you with "You are most welcome." This greeting, while catching us off guard at first, simply means "You are most welcome here...we are happy to have you.")


Finally, after what seemed like an incredibly long but fulfilling day, we were able to head off to shower and go to bed. We couldn't wait! The hot water felt so good on our dirty bodies and afterward we quickly fell into our beds and off to a deep sleep. I don't remember having much trouble with jet lag at that point. I think the fullness of our first day in Uganda took care of getting us on schedule pretty quickly. At some point in the middle of the night we were blessed with an African down pour of rain -- and as the deluge hit the tin roof over our heads, my mind and heart felt right at home. One of my favorite sounds in all the world is rain on a tin roof -- especially when I am tucked into bed. (Thank you, Lord!)

And if you think this post is incredibly long just remember - it only highlights our first full day in Uganda! (Phew! Makes me tired just thinking about it!) 

Bragging rights of the day: The kids were AMAZING and didn't complain one bit. They just went with the flow.