First Impressions

I've arrived and I'm amazed. I'm excited. I still can hardly believe that I'm here. It's a little surreal somehow. You see images that you've only seen on tv and realize that you're actually living them. Like vehicles stuffed with people, people carrying loads of things on their heads or on the backs of their bikes. It's a beautiful country with beautiful people. Their faces are so beautiful. Their smiles. Yesterday afternoon we happened upon a church youth group competition. We stayed and watched. Some presented plays in Luganda and though we couldn't understand the language we could get the gist of the plot. Other groups danced and sang and drummed. The passion that was evident was beautiful and impressive. We were the only white people in the room and we were definitely conspicuous but they made us feel welcome.


The car ride from the Entebbe airport to Kampala was so interesting. We drove through suburbs and markets, rain showers with poor windshield wipers, passing in an imaginary lane. We saw people walking and working. 3 people on a moped at a time, a whole family with a small child on a moped at the same time. The potholes coming up to the guest house are huge. We're staying at a Christian guest house in Kampala for the weekend and are getting settled in.
http://www.namirembe-guesthouse.com
It boasts to have a million dollar view. Yesterday there was a wedding reception in the garden. We watched as the guests all danced up their gifts to the bride and groom.

This morning we went to church at the Anglican cathedral here on the hill right near the guest house. It was an interesting mix of high Anglican style, with traditional hymns like Great is Thy Faithfulness and To God be the Glory, and also southern Baptist gospel praise songs on powerpoint. The church was packed with people. People kept arriving throughout the service too.

The sermon was on decision-making. Interesting topic. Moving on to the promised land. Sometimes we get comfortable in certain places, we get trapped by the comfort and don't stick it out to the end, to the promised land. God calls us to move on toward the promised land. What is the promised land? How do we know when we're there? Trusting God I suppose is the key.

Today we're having a quiet day I think. I'm going to try to get in touch with my new Kampala contact, Katharina's nephew who lives here. Tomorrow we head to Masooli.

Peace.