Kampala, Uganda

After a trip up to New York, orientation for a couple of days, befriending an Indian couple who invited me over to their house in India for a delicious curry meal (and actually gave me their curry dinner on the plane!), a 15 hour layover in London (which included me falling asleep on the floor of the British Museum with my bags tucked under my feet), and eventually getting off the ground in London to land in Entebbe, Uganda; I finally made it to Africa. Kai! After being away from Africa for so long (almost 4 years) I had forgotten how much I love Africa! However, this being Africa, upon my arrival here, I found out that my MAF flight to Ikotos, was canceled on Tuesday, so now I have to wait till Thursday to fly into Ikotos.

But I have been enjoying my time in Kampala. Kampala, for me, has a lot of the same feel as Jos, my home city in Nigeria, except bigger. The first day I got here I was surprisingly awake enough to go into town (despite my two nights of "sleeping" on the plane). Megan Nelson, the short term coordinator, took me to a traditional Ugandan restaurant where I got to sample some of the local cuisine. Uganda is no place for dieters who don't eat carbs! There were all of the following: matoke (a banana type fruit that is pounded into a very thick ball, just like pounded yam), white potatoes, sweet potatoes, cassava, boiled yams, rice, chapatis, pumpkin, beans, cabbage, and a groundnut stew that was poured over the starches. This is not a diet one can eat a lot of without feeling very full! After that meal we went to some craft shops in town, which would beat any craft or home decor store in America! Although I must say I am biased to African goods! And of course, before I left town that day I had to make sure I bought a couple mangoes, and nothing can beat a good African mango. I have been trying to get my fill of good pineapples, bananas, and mangoes before going to Ikotos because I have heard over and over again the food choices are lentils, beans, rice and beans, rice, lentils, and then there are some rice, lentils, and beans...not much fresh produce.

While I am in Kampala I have had some orientation to short term missions work; what is expected, what are AIM's goals, and making sure one's relationship with God is cultivated if one expects to minister Jesus to others. Oh, and did I forget to mention being pulled over by a police officer for running a redlight, just after the missionary I was driving with finished telling me that the lights in Kampala don't work :)! Naturally, the officer only wanted a bribe but not until he made us drive to the police station and told us we would have to leave our car there, get a receipt from the police station, and only after we paid the bank (which it being Sunday would have to wait till the banks were open on Monday) could we pick up our car and take it with us. However, Africans are relational people and after befriending the officer, talking to him in Swahili (the missionary is fluent in Swahili, French and Luganda the Ugandan language!) and asking for forgiveness, we got off free without having to pay a bribe or leave our car there overnight.

Of course I make time for some runs in the morning around a road outside of the guesthouse I am staying at. Unfortunately there are two problems to running here. One is, Kampala, being at a little bit of altitude, has left me huffing and puffing as if I had never run before. The second problem occurred when I asked the guesthouse keepers if I could run around here. Their reply, "Sure, but you need to run with the dogs. One on a leash and the other one following you." My heart sunk. I absolutely hate dogs. I almost considered not running. Needless to say, dogs know nothing about pace, and I definitely won the race of the day to who made it back to the compound first :)! Yet between running at altitude (I believe it is about 3600 feet) and pulling a dog on its leash through half of the run as it either wanted to bolt off one way or the other, I was quite spent at the end!

Prayer Requests: Some of you have requested I post prayer requests on this site and if you don't have time to read the entries you can just read the prayer requests and pray for me!
1. I am getting pretty excited to travel to Ikotos, but I realize and hear from a lot of missionaries that it is a tough place to live just with the temperature (easily reaching 40C), food, and other daily accommodation that make life easier in more westernized settings. So pray for my adjustments in daily life.
2. There are no written materials in the Juba Arabic language which they speak in Ikotos, so while I am in Kampala I have no way of getting a head start on all the learning I will have to be doing. So please pray for my brain to be like a sponge when I get there!
3. I have been having some trouble with my anti-malarial medication. Apparently, almost a week ago I didn't take my pill with enough water and it has irritated my chest/esophagus, which has made it particularly painful and uncomfortable to eat and swallow. So please pray for my chest to start feeling better and for my body to not react this way again, so I can keep taking my anti-malarial in Sudan.