I feel awkward sometimes writing updates like this. The past month has reinforced the already present feeling of being on vacation more then being at work. It has been wonderful and we have seen the country and made connections and met people. I keep saying this, but we are still in transition and I feel that it’s legitimate to use that line for about another week before it becomes a cop-out.
Anyway, my feelings aside and for the sake of transparency (and maybe to entice more of you to come visit us!) here’s the run-down of our latest month long adventure.
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| Benj and Izaac at the Source |
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| Bringing bubbles and a ball to play at Welcome Home |
On March 1st Christina’s mom and sister arrived and we spent a few days doing some of the tourist stuff around Jinja. We took a boat ride on the Nile and visited “the source” where the longest river in the world originates ands its waters that sustain and even define the lives of millions begin their long journey north. We went swimming and took walks and ate at great local restaurants and enjoyed with them this town we now call home. Just a few days after their arrival we all loaded up and headed to a place that ranks right near the top of my list of favorite places on earth. In the foothills of mount Elgon, near the Kenyan border, there is a river with a series of waterfalls that is beautiful and mostly undeveloped and feels to me like close to what Eden was like. We spent two days hiking, climbing and exploring. We spent a night in tents, lulled by the sound of the falls.
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| Sisiyi Falls |
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| Hiking to Sipi Falls |
At this point our group split up, with Ruudy, Beckie, Sarah (Ruudy’s niece who lives with them) mom, and Meredith heading on to Soroti and us, after spending an extra night on the mountain fixing car problems, heading back to Jinja and then onto Entebbe to pick up our next group of visitors. Christina’s best friend Anna, her brother Joe, and our good friend Allison from PA arrived a day late due to their plane catching on fire on the runway in Brussels, and then spent an extra two hours in the airport in Entebbe trying to track down missing luggage that they were transporting for us. After that somewhat rough start to their visit, we spent 2 days in and around Entebbe. We went to the zoo and spent time in the botanical gardens and got chased around by monkeys and played soccer in the park and tried to get over some stomach issues. It was then time to say good-bye to mom and Meredith and head back to Jinja to do some of that tourist stuff again with this new group.
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| Don't you just want to give him a big hug! |
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| Nile Crocodile (we got much closer then this!) |
About a week into their visit, we hit the road. This time the itinerary included the falls again then on to Soroti for a night where we linked up with my sister, Jennifer, Ruddy, Beckie, Sarah and Goretty (a young lady who lives with us and helps us in Jinja). From there we left Soroti early in the morning to drive across the country to Murchison Falls National Park. Almost immediately upon entering the park we were surrounded by gazelle, Ugandan Cob, Hartebeest, and waterbuck. We soon saw warthog, water buffalo and a family of giraffe right next to the road. Later in the day we picked up a guide who took us to a place where a pride of lions was spending the heat of the day in the shade of some bushes off the path. We spent nearly an hour about 2 meters away from these majestic beasts. After reluctantly leaving the lions, we traveled down to the shore of lake Albert and saw some hippos. We had to leave the park at dark and slept briefly at a lodge nearby. In the morning we drove down to the river and took a boat upstream to see the falls that are the namesake of the park. This is a point in the river where a massive amount of water passes through a seven-meter gap in the rock. It’s really quite a sight. On the way up and back we saw a ton of hippos, got uncomfortably close to some very large Nile crocodiles, and more variety of birds then I can even remember.
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| Definitely not a fan of these guys |
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| Murchison Falls (this picture does not do it justice) |
It was then time to leave the park. The plan was originally to head from there to Entebbe to drop off Joe so he could catch his flight home, but because of the events in Brussels, his flight was cancelled and rescheduled through another airline a day later. So we split up again, with our visitors going to Kampala with Jennifer and us coming home to Jinja.
That now brings us to today. We broke bread together with family and reflected on the last supper of our Lord and now we wait in eager expectation to celebrate His resurrection, the reason for our hope, the purpose behind our love and service, the very act that allowed us to be adopted as sons and daughters and to be in relationship with our Father!
So here is my conclusion in light of this season: we experience all these things, these life-giving relationships with family and friends, these adventures of travel and experience, of waterfalls and loins, through the lens of relationship with the One who crafted them. He designed and authored them and gave them as gifts to us, us, His children, His beloved, the joy of His heart, and the objects of His desire. And we can experience them as gifts, as small demonstrations of His unimaginable love for us because we have been brought into a place where we are called His children, where we can know Him as Father because of Jesus, who died on a Friday and was alive again on a Sunday!
Grace and Peace to you, in His name and because of His unfathomable love!
Happy Easter!
Benj, Christina, Izaac & Ellie
