July 1 - Saturday I left from PDX. The flight was late, they lost my suitcase with my African stuff in it. My suitcase arrived the next day. I enjoyed two days in San Francisco with Chris & Kim and Frank & Leila. Saturday Kim and I shopped and I bought a beautiful black leather back pack from Macy’s. It has served me well, especially at Airports. I also used my chair cane at the airports and later on the subways in New York and London. I didn’t need it in Africa; they treated me like the Queen Mother, honoring me by giving me the best seat and a bottle of cold water. |
July 2 – Sunday In San Francisco Chris, Kim and I went to the Korean Church. Chris preached then we fellowshipped with the college age people. Frank & Leila came Sunday night. |
July 3 - Monday morning we went hiking to a Mountain for 3 hours. Chris said it my test climb for Africa. Then we visited and shopped all day. Ice Cream in the sunshine. Frank looked for a new phone. At 7 pm Frank drove us to the airport. Chris & I took the red-eye flight to Newark, NJ. |
July 4 – Tuesday morning met nephew Simon and Dilia. They helped us with ALL our luggage on the subway to their apartment in Brooklyn. It was wonderful to be with the newly-weds and see their apartment and their life. We went to Coney Island to see the Hot Dog Contest on the 4th of July. Took the subway back. |
July 5 –Wednesday -We took the subway all over New York. We went to the Chinese and Italian Section. The Italians were all crowded around TV’s at street café’s cheering their team to a World Victory. They were dancing in the streets.Then we went to the Polish section for Gbamkie, pierlogies and Kielbasa. Good meal. I also saw the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street and the Two Towers site. Then we packed up and caught the red-eye flight from JFK to Heathrow airport in London. |
July 6 – Thursday - We toured London on a double decker bus and moved around by subway. I saw everything I wanted to see and more. I saw Big Ben, Financial District, Picadilly Square, (no, I didn’t see Fashion Café), the Parliament buildings and many more I can’t remember. Then we caught the red-eye for Entebbe, Uganda from Heathrow in London. The flight attendant asked me if I would change my seat so a little boy could sit by his family. She said there was one available in first class & she saw my cane! So I sat in first class next to a Uganda businessman that works for the government. He told me his corporation has asked him to take his pension fund out and he will be an individual contractor. I told him to be careful with it. It was $70,000. He was in his 30s. He said he has been happy in his career so far but things are changing. He said maybe it wasn’t so bad to get a self directed pension. He said the government of Uganda is paying their retirees every month if they have the money that month. If they run out of money they don’t get paid. |
July 7 – Friday -We were met by Gordon Mwanja at the Airport. I was wearing a white hat like the Queen Mother wore when she visited Africa. And so thereafter he always called me Queen of England. He introduced me to people that way until I think they believed him. He took us to an Orphanage he his has in Kampala. It has 350 children. Each of us spoke, giving them greetings from America. The children danced and sang for us. Then we went to a hall for lunch and met with a bishop and 16 ministers from the area. Each of the ministers talked about his ministry. I enjoyed talking with the wives. That night we stayed at a hotel in Kampala. I slept in my silk sleeping bag in a bed covered with a medicated mosquito sprayed net, (first time in my life). |
July 8 – Saturday - We took a bus from Kampala, Uganda to Butare, Rwanda. It was a 12-1/2 hour bus trip (Jaguar instead of Greyhound) that passed everything on the road. I cannot get over how many people are on the streets, walking, riding bikes, riding motorcycles, vans and big buses. There are no street signs, traffic signs or lights and they drive on the wrong side of the road (Uganda was a British colony). They drive 60 miles an hour with people walking on the road a foot next to them. There are people walking everywhere, in the cities and way out in the country, in the mountain roads, small roads, black top roads, mud roads, everywhere there are streams of people walking. The bus had over 10 more people than seats. They kept stopping and picking up people and shoving their stuff in the compartment underneath and them in the bus until they finally passed people and said – no more. I sat by the window and had fresh air whenever I wanted but some were not so lucky. Chris stretched out and fell asleep. We were in the front seats by the driver. Then as people and stuff came in they started sitting on the floor and on his legs and shoving stuff around him but he continued sleeping. Halfway through the trip the man by the door who decided where people should be (not the driver) sat a little man inbetween Chris and I. There really wasn’t room for him but he sat there the whole time. We were smushed but we made it. Pastor Paul Gasili met us in Butare and took us to the CASA house. The bedroom arrangements, bathroom and kitchen arrangements were very good. It is a nice place to stay. |
July 9 – Sunday –Chris & I went to Pastor Paul’s Church. They asked me to speak before Chris gave the message. I told them I am here to support my brother in the Lord and in my family. Chris preached two services, one on trusting Christ & the other on implementing God’s word. They speak Kinyarwandra, and so he had an interpreter. I am starting to be able to sing some of their praise songs, most are like our tunes. Then a group of college students sang, beat the African drum and several young women did a traditional dance to welcome us. Drums are a way of welcoming people. Pastor Paul preached on servant leadership. He encouraged the people to put God’s word into actions. One of the college girls sat next to me and interpreted Pastor Paul’s message. In the afternoon we went to the City stadium to the “100 Days of Hope” gathering. In 1994 from April to July Rwanda had 100 days of Killing. This year they had the Days of Hope. Many came to minister from all over the world from April through July. We were there at the last night. Joyce Meyer was there in April. Pictures of her in Rwanda are on her website. Living Faith, a ministry from Portland was there with 25 people from Portland. They seated us with them thinking we were part of the group. Georgene Rice sang. Georgene , on her radio show in Portland, talked about seeing Bill Clinton and Bill Gates at a restaurant in Butare that week-end. They were there for an AIDS conference. David Gallagher gave the message. There were hundreds there and many received Christ. Afterwards we went to Pastor Paul’s for dinner. I went a little early to meet his 82 year old mother and his three sons. Paul’s wife is in Belgium for her master’s degree in medicine. She wants to research AIDs.I sat outside in the courtyard with Paul’s mother to watch her and her helpers make a traditional African meal for guests. They cooked it on three round small charcoal burners on the ground. We had chips (fried potatoes), curried rice, carrots, peas, tomatoes, onions cooked together in one pot, chicken cooked in tomato sauce, green bananas cooked in a fruit sauce, and cream soup from Knorr’s (I saw the packet in the kitchen) Then we had fresh sliced papaya, passion fruit, pineapple and bananas for dessert. There was a colorful plate of fresh vegetables arranged artistically of avocado, carrots, tomatoes and some vegetables I didn’t know. Before we left she gave us a small very sweet fresh banana. All the foods were bought fresh and prepared that day, even the live chickens. The boys talked with me about their school and showed me their keyboard. The older boy plays the piano. The younger one played a tape for me and told me about it. The youngest one, 3, played with a toy kitty cat (he called puss) with me. I enjoyed my visit very much. After much hugs from mama, we left. |
July 10 – Monday. At 3:45 am, country people, women and children, started to gather outside on the CASA house porch waiting for us to open the doors. They are dressed in the traditional brightly colored printed African dress, fabric draped around them to carry babies or packs, and headdresses to match. They have to be in the fields working at daylight and so have to come very early for early morning devotions. Then the children go to school. There were 40 to 90 each morning in the sitting room of CASA. Robina, the director of the house ministers to them every morning. She asked each of us from America to speak a word. I spoke a word of greeting and encouraged them to trust God for their lives. We had breakfast at 8. At 9 am Pastor Paul picked me up and took me to a church meeting room for my Mama’s Seminar. I gave my testimony of God’s faithfulness in my time of distress and led them in a study of the book “Beauty from Ashes” I asked for prayer requests, most were for situations like mine, health, places to live, money to live and relationships. All people have the same requests regardless of their station in life or where they live. My church in Canby would have the same requests. Pastor Paul picked me up at 12. He took me to the Craft store to get some gifts. then we went back to CASA for lunch. Chris is reaching different groups, different messages four times each day. Craig is teaching music, guitar to the university students. Ted came to teach also later. Kim met with the deans at University of Rwanda to discuss training of professors on the use of computer technology. She has a Fullbright grant this year at the University. |
July 11 – Tuesday – Digger’s Devotions at 5;30 AM Breakfast at 8, we had, every day around 8 eggs scrambled flat in a skilled served on a round dish. Also we had a pot of rice, a pot of noodles and chips. Chris wanted me to show the cooks how American’s cook. I asked for the same food, noodles, chicken and potatoes, but I would make chicken soup & noodles with small pieces of chicken in it. Then the large pieces of chicken I would put on a serving platter covered with gravy. I made mashed potatoes and gravy. The Americans liked it, Frank stayed to taste it, but the leftovers disappeared (apparently went to Jacque’s family) and we were served the same thing the rest of the meals. We were served in 5 large matching, graduating size pots. The largest was rice, then, noodles, then chips, then a small one with a sauce and about 4 ounces of chicken, beef or goat. All the meat was very tough and couldn’t be cut with a knife. Sometimes there was a pot with soup, bean or pea or creamed something soup. Every meal was the same, except in the morning the flat scrambled eggs were served. Gordon from Kampala was with us at the house. He made us Japattes. They are flat, thick bread-like tortillas. They were very good. He made us some for our bus trip, too. They were really welcome and filling! The house is a bi-level. It has a very nice looking office, facing the street in the front, with a door to the outside. Then there is a full bath, it needed some repairs that I understand they are getting done. It is very large. Then there are three large bedrooms and a storage room. On the bottom floor there is ½ bath, a large sitting room (we had 90 mamas and children there for morning devotions) with a fireplace and windows overlooking the backyard. There is a fairly large kitchen that leads to a courtyard where the cooking is done on three charcoal burners. The backyard has papaya trees, banana trees and is landscaped very nicely. It also has an outhouse. It is used very much by the many people who come for meetings and ministry. The door off the sitting room leads to a large cement porch that can be used for meetings and overlooks the hillside. It is a beautiful setting. It is a stone house with a stone fence around the property with a metal locking gate to the street. It is on the main highway to the university and to the diggers gardens.I talked to the Mamas about planting a seed. Plant a seed to be returned with your prayer request. If they need money, share the money they have. If its help, help as much as your can, etc. I enjoyed their sharing with me their everyday events and situations. Skovia, my interpreter, is a college student and a very good Christian. She took me through the market. It is like the Saturday Market but it is their shopping center. We got a few spices. Then went to a store along the main road and I got some cookies and packages of peanuts. They have small dark red peanuts. They are good. I put some cookies on a plate to have for dinner and put them on top of the refrigerator, but Chris found them and the university students enjoyed them. And so I opened another package for dinner. |
July 12 – Wednesday – Digger’s Devotions at 5:30 am.Today everything was closed because it was GAGA. All the cities and hamlets have a central meeting place (precinct) that everyone has to gather. The government of Rwanda has just been operating a few years. The people have cried out for justice for those who killed the innocent, informed on others or had a part, however small in the Genocide. They have been calling witnesses to come forward and calling those accused to stand trial. They have been having these meetings at each meeting place for two years. Approximately 800,000 were murdered. The justices were deliberating on testimonies given by witnesses of the Genocide. They took all the testimony over the last two years and on July 12 the Justices were handing out judgments. July 12, 13, and 14 the Justices handed out judgment and all businesses were closed. We couldn’t get gas at some gas stations. A commander was sentenced to death. Many were convicted and put on work farms. They don’t have prisons for them. The government is making some of the bogs into rice paddies. The prisoners are working on them. They wear pink pajamas while they work. We saw them near Butare working on the rice fields. The Rwanda government has a strong organization in place now. “Hotel Rwanda” the movie gives a true depiction of the heart-wrenching situation in 1994. Craig and I went to the Genocide Memorial. A young Japanese girl walked with me. She was a journalist for a Kawasaki motorcycle magazine. She has traveled all over the world writing pieces for the magazine. On the way home Pastor Paul told us his testimony. I have it as an attachment to this journal. We also went to the museum and saw the History of Rwanda. |
July 13 – Thursday – Digger’s Devotions at 5:30 am. Today the mamas gave their testimonies on God’s faithfulness. There were 30 there. Three of them had AIDS and were planning the future’s of those they will leave behind. Right now the AIDS victims in Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi have no medication available. They just get counseling, if they can get it. The Christian community has stepped in to help with the devastation that AIDS will leave. All people here carry water in Gerrycans – looks like a 5 gallon yellow gasoline can. They carry them on their heads. 99% of people in Africa cook with charcoal outside. Most public buildings, universities, hotels have generators as all the countries are subject to an erratic supply of electric. Every day towards evening the electricity goes out. Whoever has a generator starts it. Those who do not have generators, use candles. Although CASA has a generator, we still used candles a lot. It does play havoc with any refrigerated food and there is no frozen food. It wouldn’t stay frozen with electricity working just half the time. The government supply is limited and when it is all used up for the day the lights go off. Rwanda was the Belgium Congo. The second language after their native Kinyarwanda is French. Since the CASA house is close to the campus and many students learn English at the University as a third language, the students served as interpreters and counselors for us. The teaching by all the team was carried out by their help. |
July 14 – Friday - Digger’s Devotions at 5:30 am. Today I had the last Mama’s meeting. The women gave many testimonies and told me which parts of the scriptures I presented helped them. It was very gratifying to see the faith-building. We gave them certificates and had pictures taken. They gave me gifts. One Pastor’s wife told me of how she thought she would try the seed lesson we had. She said she fed a hungry man that came to the door when she had little food and the next day she received school fees she had prayed for. They all said a kind word and told me how much they appreciated my coming. They said just my coming to see them meant so much. Another woman gave a testimony on God’s faithfulness by turning an adulterous man to God. She said she wore his clothes and went to Uganda to Prayer Mountain there to fast and pray for his soul. Her advice to all wives with an adulterous husband is to listen to God and have patience and longsuffering. She said to wait on God to do his marvelous work.In the afternoon I went to Chris’s seminar at the University on “Sexual Integrity”. There were over 100 there. This is a subject they voted on and wanted. He said to wait on God until a Butterfly comes and lands on your shoulder and God tells you, this is the one. They loved his teaching.In the evening we had a CASA board meeting discussing incorporating CASR in Rwanda. It was from 7 until 10. All aspects of the CASA and CASR were discussed. |
July 15 – Saturday – Digger’s Devotions at 5:30. Breakfast at 8 am. We packed and got ready to leave for Burundi. Kim returned at noon. Chris, Kim, Jeanne, Ted , Craig, Gordon, Immaculate & Paul went in two cars. We drove from Butare, Rwanda to Bujumbura, Burundi. We followed a truck full of Drummers, colorfully dressed in red, white and green. They were beating the drums as the truck moved. We saw them again, or someone like them, at Lake Tanganyika. We also saw trucks, driving up the mountains with 4 or 5 bikes hanging on the back of the truck to get a free ride. That trip through the northern mountains of Rwanda and Burundi is where the Congolese guerillas operate. We were told to watch out. How could we watch out? The rule of the road here is “the biggest rules”, the rest get out of the way. First, big trucks, then small trucks, the SUV’s, vans, cars, taxis, then boda boda, motorcycles, then bikes and then pedestrians have the right of way. There are many police checks. They look in the car then let us go through. They are looking for Congolese people. There are three different groups of uniformed people walking the roads in the mountains. There are the UN, only a few, the Rwanda government and then in the towns private police and city police. They all carry AK47s. As we traveled we saw groups from two to 6 or so walking together along the mountain road. When we got to the border of Burundi, we had to show our passports, fill out entry cards. They looked at our luggage and let us go. We arrived at the Swedish Compound in the evening. The Swedish Compound was built by Pentecostal Swedish people in the early 1900s. It was a retreat for Christians. It still is. We shared a kitchen and living room with two Australians, Robin Joy and Ozzie. They were there working with orphans. We enjoyed our visit with them. Bujumbura is the most western of the three counties I was in. It was a part of the French Congo and the second language is French. The UN has a large presence. They have miles of storage buldings and helicopter landing fields and all types of equipment near Lake Tanganyika.When the UN came in the people did not like it. They said the prices of everything went up and the soldiers took girls and created problems for people. There was a woman leader in Burundi that told them to leave the northern border by the Congo. When they did the Congolese came they killed several hundred adults and children in a refugee camp. There definitely is a European influence here. Hotels, restaurants, stores and resorts have western products you do not see in Rwanda and Uganda. UN trucks are parked in strategically locations all over the city. They are in front of food stores, by restaurants, any large gathering. But after seeing “Hotel Rwanda” I wouldn’t trust them to protect anything. This country is the least secure. There are 3 or 4 soldiers with rifles patrolling every 5 miles in the country and every few blocks in the city. There are still guerilla fighters that raid the people. One tribe refuses to sign the peace treaty.We had dinner with Pastor Jeremy and his family at the Chinese restaurant in Bujumbura. It was a very nice place. We shopped at the food store (with the big white UN truck outside and two soldiers sitting on a bench with AK47s). We purchased breakfast food and snacks. They had a good selection. Then we returned to the compound and visited with Robin and Ozzie. |
July 16 Sunday – Chris, Kim and I went to Immaculate’s church. Pastor Edmond’s church has 6,000 members. I greeted them and spoke a few words. Chris gave the sermon about the monkey. Paul & Ted went to Pastor Paul’s friend’s church, Craig & Gordon went to Pastor Jeremy’s church. After Sunday church we all went to Lake Tanganyika for lunch. We took pictures, watched the drummers, like the ones we saw in the truck and was serenaded by a guy with a gordy instrument. He sang “ Fat wives eat all your food and Thin wives take all your money”. We had fish from the lake. We had an enjoyable meal. Jeremy left and got an Official and his wife and they talked with Chris & Kim. The rest of us returned to the compound. On the way we looked for Hippos but it is said they come out at 5 am and it was 3 pm. At 5 pm we went to Immaculate mom’s house for dinner. It seemed all the Africans wanted us to come to dinner. I found out they feel honored when muzumgus, white people, come to dinner at their house. All the neighbors come out and watched us go in. |
July 17 Monday – We went to 6:30 prayer meeting at Pastor Edmond’s church. Chris shared on John 21. After church we went to Pastor Edmond’s house for breakfast. It was by the Lake. His wife is a home economics teacher so they have a microwave and cook differently. It was the most updated house I was in. He has a personal body guard. Some Congolese young people came to his church and started attending and working with him. The government people arrested him for consorting with the enemy. He was in jail for 10 days. He then went to America for a month and England for a month. He now is very careful, not only about the Congolese guerillas but also about the country government. Chris made a remark that he noticed but he said it shouldn’t cause any trouble. I hope not. After breakfast we returned to the compound packed up and said our good byes to Robin and Ozzie. Then we went to the market & the men bought a keyboard for CASA. I wanted to stay in the vehicle and just look at the market and the people. They were shoulder to shoulder in the marketplace.(Like Saturday Market). People mashed everywhere. Chris said I should go into the market and enjoy the ambience. But I told him I was enjoying the ambience in the car. I had told Immaculate I wanted to see some African animals. I realize now there is no wild animals in Africa, just like there are no wild Buffalo herds in the western United States. All the wild animals in Africa are in game preserves. So Immaculate said I know where a zoo is. So we went to the Zoo. Only it was a reptile zoo. It had just snakes and alligators. Chris and Ted enjoyed having the Boa around their shoulders. I looked in from outside. Then we went to the alligators. The handler threw a cute fuzzy guinea pig in and the alligator played with it in it’s mouth awhile before he chewed it up and ate it. So much for my visit to the zoo. After the zoo we went to Pastor Jeremy’s for lunch. Chris kept saying we had to get to the Frontier before dark, but he didn’t tell me why. So, he said, we can’t stay long at lunch. We had a nice lunch with Pastor & family. He has 6 kids, some are relative kids. His compound is very nice, too.We left for the Frontier after lunch. We got there just in time. At the Frontier, when it gets too dark to read the passports, they close up. If that happened we’d have to wait until morning to cross into Rwanda. We were the last ones through. Kim said some Koreans got caught like that and had to spend the night in their car at the border. We drove back to Butare. That night Chris had to go to the University and Teach. He asked if we would go to Pastor Zebulon’s house for dinner at 8 pm. I said I would. So Pastor Paul, Ted, Kim, Pastor Gordon and I went. He is a Nazarene minister. He has a little church in Butare. We had a nice meal in a very small house. We had cooked green bananas, rice, noodles, a few pieces of goat meat on a bone in a sauce. Then some fruit. No matter, rich or poor, people prepared their guest meal for us. Kim prayed for them. I had to have help sliding down the stone hill and slipping up the hill in the dark to the car. But I made it. After we left his house we went to the University to Chris’s outdoor meeting with his students. Kim was the cheerleader. She got them to sing loud and strong. Craig and Ted played their guitars. |
July 18 Tuesday – Digger’s Devotion at 5:30. Immaculate and I walked to the University Arboretum at 6:30 AM. I wanted to see the monkeys and the baby monkeys in the trees. We looked and looked. What we saw was many students in groups and alone under the trees having their morning devotions. We had a wonderful walk around the university. After breakfast we went to visit the Batwas, a pygmy tribe. We presented them with 6 goats. They live on the ground. They haven’t mixed much with the other people there. We took pictures and saw how they lived. They were very happy people. Two lady officials from the government Tourist office came and talked to the Batwa and asked them not to eat the goats because they will have little ones if they don’t. But she wasn’t sure they were listening. Afterwards, Paul and I drove the ladies back to their government office. I asked them about their pension system for government workers. They said the government is only 2 years old but those that retired before that get a pension check every month if there is money left for the checks. If not they don’t. Sort of like the electricity, when it’s used up there is no more, just like the money when it’s gone they don’t get their check. They have a strong government organization in Rwanda that is trying to work for the people now. They have banned cutting trees for charcoal. They have to get them from Uganda. They have claimed the swamps to be made into rice paddies so they can have an export. They export nothing. They have no resources to export. They enforce speed limits of 60 MPH. We got a ticket for going 90 on a country road with nothing in sight. Rwanda is more secure than Burundi. The government is more stable. The people want it that way. The Tutsis and the Hutus have stopped fighting. They don’t talk about the tribes now, in the circles I was in – pastors, university presidents, politicians and students. The killing was done by a rogue group of Hutu tribes similar to Al Kaida in the Muslim world. Both Tutsis and peaceful Hutus were victims. |
July 19 Thursday – Diggers Devotions at 5:30. We packed to leave CASA and head for Uganda and eventually the plane. When Kim came home at noon we packed up and headed for Kigali, Robinah’s home town. Before we left we had a short communion service. Chris had dad’s communion set he had taken to shut –ins when he was an elder in the First Church of Christ. It was a very meaningful time. Chris, Kim, Jeanne, Robinah, Pastor Paul, Ted, Craig, and Pastor Gordon left CASA at 12:30. We went to the Miracle Center, Robinah’s church for evening service. Her pastor said to me “You coming here to our land is a testimony to us that America and you are praying for us.” We had dinner at Robinah’s home with her niece and brother, Frank. Then we stayed at Chez Rose Hotel. While in Kigali I saw Hotel Rwanda, all the country’s buildings, Parliament and the new American Embassy being built on the edge of town near the country’s government buildings. Robinah & Frank came in the morning and we all left for the Frontier between Rwanda and Uganda. Pastor Paul drove us. Paul showed me the part of town he lived in May of 1994 when the men killed his wife. He says he still owns the property but doesn’t go there. When we came to the Frontier the muzumgus went on in a taxi and Pastor Paul and Robinah went back to Butare. We traveled 8 hours across Uganda to Jinja.We stopped at the Equator. We took pictures. It was so interesting to see the water swirl counter clockwise south of the equator and clockwise north of the equator and straight down right on the equator. The land looked alike to me, how can they tell the equator is there? Uganda was an English colony. Their second language is English. There are 52 tribes with different languages but Swahili is the one all can understand. Uganda has large red anthills. They stop at the border of Rwanda. Gordon said there are swamps that are natural borders to districts and tribes. In Kampala, a very large city, we came out of a downtown restaurant and a few chickens were trying to cross the road – to get on the other side. On the way to the Entebbe Airport – in the city’s main street, I looked down the side street and saw a huge stork like crane, nearly 3” tall walking on the sidewalk. Entebbe is surrounded by Lake Victoria. There are many water birds there. As we crossed Uganda on the blacktop highway the driver honked his horn and passed everything on the road. I held onto the side of the door and when we would get close to anything, cars, trucks, people, bikes, motorcycles, etc. I would put my head down between my arms. I told him when we got to the hotel that he was a very good driver and should consider being a pilot. He said there’s too much competition. He was sure flying. I decided to forget the speed and assume the attitude I was on a safari. I was in the passenger seat in the front on the left, an English car, so I would watch the countryside. What I saw was structures close to the road, maybe 50 feet back from the road, like storage units all attached to each other. Each one had a family or more in them. The women were cooking on their charcoal stoves, the children were playing and the men were sitting in a circle talking. Just like everywhere else. They were all happy. We stopped at a Korean Pastor’s Compound and visited with the people there. The electricity, pension, cooking, etc. is the same in all three countries. Uganda does seem the most secure. There are police check points. They look mean but they just let us go through. When we arrived in Jinja we went to a nice hotel. I had a TV and watched soap operas from India. They were really strange to me. We went to the Sheraton and I saw were the very rich stayed. It is just like staying in an American Sheraton, except the electricity in the city goes off in the evening. But they have a big generator there. It is strange to see the whole city black. They don’t have any street lights or any kind of public lights anywhere in all 3 countries.In the morning Pastor Gordon took us to a Garden Restaurant for breakfast. It was very nice. We traveled to Fairland College after breakfast. We met with the Chancellor and the deans in his office. Chris taught that morning on Sexual Integrity. Then we went to a Church for a prayer meeting. Chris shared John 21. It was a very large tent and a lot of people. We went back to Fairland College and Chris asked for questions. They were kind of hard questions, but he handled them well. They treated me like the Queen Mother. They sat me in front, brought me cool water. They asked to to say the closing prayer. It was a very good experience. Afterwards we went to Victoria Falls and saw some swimmers float over the falls on Gerrycans (gasoline cans). There was also an acrobat that could do feats on a pole and move his pectorals. We went to the source of the Nile. Where Lake Victoria meets the Nile river and then it heads north to Egypt. It was evening and thousands and thousands of bats, some as large as seagulls flew over us heading for the lake to get mosquitoes. Then we went to Jinja and had dinner at a café Gordon arranged for us in a back room. The next morning we left the hotel at 4:30 am. There was a guard with an AK47 in front of the van watching us. He was a private guard the hotel hires to guard their guests.We left Entebbe 5:30 am It was 8 hours in the air to London, 4,220 miles. We arrived in London at 3:30 we spent 3 hours in the airport. Left London for New York, 7 hours in the air to New York. 4,220 miles to London, 3,446 to New York. In New York we went to Times Square, Broadway, 42nd St, then we left for San Francisco. Got there in the morning Jack & Barbara met us. We went to Chris’s house. In the morning we went to Tibron Church and then had ice cream and visited on the way to the airport. I got home at 6. My whole family was there. Don & the 5 kids and grandkids. They came to my townhouse, we had KFC, and they LISTENED about my trip for 2 hours. What a wonderful family I have. Praise the Lord!! |