Dreams DO come true!

Well peter and I have arrived in Uganda...and lets just say dreams DO come true!! God is soo good and gracious.

So it took forever to get here and im soo thankful we are here for soo long, I couldn’t imagine having to turn around in a few weeks and do that journey again…but it was a nice flight, nearly 9.5 hours to Amsterdam, enough time to watch THREE movies…Leap year (don’t bother), The Last Song (bree I loved it!!), Its complicated (pretty funny..but a little slow at times). I think I watched another, but can’t remember it right now, obviously wasn’t all that memorable, oh yes a Single Man with Colin Firth. And then they gave us like three meals on that flight with snacks!!

Our second flight was about 7.5 hours and our layover in Amsterdam was a few hours. Both flights were seriously packed, and I was slightly amused because our flight from Seattle to Amsterdam was packed with international people going home probably, while our flight from Amsterdam to Uganda was packed full of Americans going to do good works =) Made me really think about how things are done there...I mean here in Uganda. How would I feel if loads of foreigners were coming to my country to MAKE A DIFFERENCE, to CHANGE LIVES, to HELP. I would wonder if we were not adequate enough to do it ourselves? I mean we (foreigners, Americans) come in do what we can and then pack our bags for home and leave a few weeks later. I have really been reevaluating the whole concept of short term missions. Who does it really benefit? Is it us, the foreigner going in, or the recipient? I have been on many mission trips, and ultimately it is the long term trips that leave ME feeling more satisfied. I learn more about the country, the people, and humility. I learn that maybe MY way isn't the BEST way of doing things. anyhow, I should save my thoughts for another entry for another day.

So then on our second flight to Uganda, I was exhausted and cranky and not the nicest person to be sitting next to on a plane and I just couldn't get comfortable for the life of me. All i wanted to do was SLEEP, but they kept those gosh darn overhead lights on. BUT we had great food on our flight to Uganda and we even had ICE CREAM!! However, I could only bring myself to watch parts of Law Abiding Citizen, didn’t get the chance to finish it actually, but maybe on the way home. Got in only to be greeted by the 75 degree heat at 8 at night..yikes!! haha, but ALL our bags arrived. PRAISE JESUS! And Pastor James and our driver Jimmy were there to meet us. Piled all our bags in the back of their truck, and man we have A LOT of luggage and then began our nearly 2 hour drive to our guesthouse. On the way there, I rolled my window down, closed my eyes and took in the new sounds and the new smells, and boy does it smell delicious here!! It truly does smell so tropical, which i suppose it should because we are in the tropics.

But one thing I truly cant get over is how DARK it is here. It gets dark here around 7, so we drove a few hours in the dark to our guesthouse. I couldn't' see much, but i could smell the air, and its soo tropical, you can smell the moistness, you can smell the trees, and the earth...simply amazing!! and as we were driving in the dark, i said to james...gosh its SOO dark - i mean no street lights, no lights on the hillside and the lights in the shops are soo dim, but people are everywhere...chatting in the shops, sitting beside candlight, playing pool and cards with one light overhead...loads of people were out walking the streets in the dark. i am surprised we dint' see anyone get hit. Scooters are weaving in and out of cars creating an illusion of a third lane.

Anyhow slept alright in the guesthouse - had a little fan blowing on us and also slept beneath a mosquito net, happy to announce that neither one of us got bit last night. However, we didn't sleep for long, and only realized about an hour ago that our clocks were WAY off. We thought they had adjusted to the local time, only to realize that they in fact had NOT. We discovered this when we woke up..and it was still dark outside, and I thought to myself GOSH when does the sun come up around here? I asked Peter..umm how come no one is up yet?? I mean it is Africa..and we are on African time, but not even the guesthouse lady is up, and she said breakfast started at 730. Hmm...well much to our dismay and after googling the time in Uganda, the computer in the lounge which stated 5:59 AM was in fact correct and we woke up at 430 AM instead of what we thought was 6:30. I mean we were going by our clocks that adjust on their own to a different time difference right? Well turns out our clocks never actually adjusted to Ugandan time and they actually said 8 PM on May 2nd, while much to our dismay it is currently 6 AM on May 3rd in Uganda. Too funny. We went to bed super late last night too, or so we thought, the clocks said 1:30 …thought it was AM, but must have been PM. We won’t ever forget this one!!!

I had one scare that I lost my little, little makeup bag. I thought I might have left it on the plane, and after looking through everything and pouting just a little. I had finally come to the realization that I can do without makeup for the month..no big deal at all, and then as peter was closing up his bag, he gasped and said look and it was under his suitcase. he said…gosh you never lose things, I knew you hadn’t lost it!

Also, I took a shower last night because I just couldn’t sleep without getting myself clean, and hesitated for a moment once I got the shower going because I thought…oh NO there isn’t any hot water, this is the absolute last thing I want right now is an ice cold shower…but then sure enough..a little hot water came trickling out of the faucet, oh the little things we take for granted, so please when you are taking a hot shower and drinking water straight from the tap this next month, think of me…

So this is the beginning of an adventure…the true beginning of an adventure as a married couple…well I suppose marriage itself is an adventure..but you know what I mean! But please never forget that dreams DO come true!