We're home.

So - I know we kind of petered out at the end there, but with traveling, unpacking, jet-lagging, and getting back to work, its hard to do a conclusion justice.

That being said, I wanted to thank you all for following along. We were both really encouraged by the many comments and e-mails about the blog.

We'll try to put up a real followup soon, but in the meantime, I hope your appetite for Africa news is satisfied by this picture. This is Miley, an incredibly domesticated Cheetah. She was friendly, playful, and even affectionate - as this picture was taken she was purring. It was like playing with a spotted golden retiever puppy that can run 75mph and is actually a cat...

Miley is the Nairobi Safari Walk's own Cheetah. She is about 6 years old, and lives in a pretty nice Cheetah run - very long so she can run a little, but our experience showed us that she's more interested in playing with cat toys. BIG cat toys. We were able to meet her because our guide knew the keeper and was keen for a couple shillings on this side. It was worth the $0.90 'bribe' / 'offering' to meet such a cool animal.

Our picture is pretty weak because we had left the camera in our bag - we only had the crappy camera on my 3 year old Treo. Here is a link to a much better picture of our new friend - same cat, same zoo, just a different couple in the picture :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gnuhaus/2152189129/

Best to you all, and thank you for your support!

Andy

Did that really just happen?

We arrived in Nairobi after an uneventful flight on Thursday evening. Fred picked us up, made us dinner, then drove us back to the airport to pick up Louise. On the way back to Fred's house, I fell asleep in the car. I don't sleep in cars. That road was really bumpy. I was tired.

Anyhoo, yesterday was uneventful. We ran errands with Fred and Louise until it was time to drop us at the train station, and then we bid them farewell. The train for Mombasa left promptly at 7 (surprisingly), we ate dinner, and then retired to our cabin for the night. We watched the scenery for awhile, pushed up the screen on our window, and went to sleep.

And this is where the fun begins. Andy was sleeping soundly on the top bunk. I was not sleeping on the bottom bunk, convinced that the train was going to derail and we were all going to die at any moment. And then I hear a noise and see our Mac being lifted. At first I thought Andy was bored and had decided to play on it. And then I realized that actually there was an arm in our window. I jumped over, stuck my arm out the window, and grabbed onto the pants pocket of our thief as he was trying to get onto the top of the train. I had to let go, so I yelled for Andy, who ran into the hallway screaming "Thief," trying to find someone in charge. It took him awhile. They eventually stopped the train, but it was way too late. We spent the next seven hours in a groggy state of half sleep while we waited to get into Mombasa. And then as we were pulling into the city, the train stopped. Off the rails. 20 minutes from the station. Some lovely people offered us a ride to the station so we could make a statement. And there we sat, in the Kenyan police station, giving our statements to people who have never even heard of Apple.

When we finished, the police were kind enough to call a taxi. It took us to Nyali Beach Resort - the place we were told that we were staying. Not so much. Nyali Beach Hotel was 1 km away. Refusing to pay for another taxi, we told the proprietor that we were going to walk. With all of our luggage. And it's only noon.

But then things improved. The proprietor was nice and recommended that we ride with a resident expat that happened to walk by. Three dollars saved. The bellman at the hotel brought us wet, cool cloths. Then he brought us tropical juice. After we checked in, he took us to our room, where we proceeded to take long, warm showers at full water pressure. Lunch was delicious, the beach fabulous, and the pool really warm. Andy even went kite surfing. Ah. We have arrived in our tropical paradise.

And we're flying back to Nairobi.

Wrapping up in Kampala

Not too much to report today. We ran errands around town, visited the tailor for a fitting, and met an American woman who works for the Archbishop. She was lovely, and we hope that our paths cross again.

We were absolutely thrilled to meet up with both Sarah and Emmanuel after a week apart, and we went to an Italian restaurant to celebrate our last real night together. The food was the best that we've had in over three weeks. Sarah thought it was the best food she's had since moving to Uganda six months ago. Most of the meal was spent in laughter, and our plates were clean in a matter of minutes. We are seriously going to miss these people.

Sweet Kampala

Now that we've arrived safely back in Kampala, I feel like I can post just how harrowing the trip is - especially when completed in a baby car.

The road out of Kampala is rough, filled with potholes. With good swerving action, it's possible to avoid many of them. Several miles out, construction started. Except one of the first steps of construction here is to put humps every 10 feet for 6 km or so. It was okay, we were expecting it. We came through the humps thinking we were past the worst. Then the real potholes started. These are the kind that blanket the road and are impossible to avoid, and we got really friendly with the shoulder. Once past the potholes, the road to Gulu was excellent. Potholes were rare and we made up for lost time. And then came the road to Kitgum. Oh, the road to Kitgum. It was 107 km of red dirt road, mostly washboard, and full of pot holes, rocks, people, bicycles, and bodas.

You can imagine how much we were looking forward to our drive today. We'd had a request to take some students and their teacher with us to Kampala. We told them that we had to leave at 7, and would be gone at 7:15 if they were not there. And then we forgot to turn our phone off silent. Oops. We woke up at 7 and ran out the door to find breakfast and our travel mates waiting. We were out of Kitgum by 7:45 and in Kampala by 3:30 - really good timing considering. And all of those humps - construction had progressed and most were gone. The potholes on the way in to Kampala - filled. Praise. God.

If we had not already asked our watchman to clean our car, I would have posted a picture. Instead, you will have to imagine a blue Toyota Corsa covered in red dirt. As we drove back from dinner tonight, we discovered that our headights were not all that effective what with the coating and all.

After passing off our passengers, we took warm showers, put on clean clothes, and drank cold mango juice. The maid was recalled to do our laundry, and we went to the mall food court for a mojito and a fanta. As much as we enjoyed trying out millet, we really enjoyed our pizza for dinner. And then we came home to clean laundry and an evening to ourselves. God is good.

The next two days look full, and then it's off to KENYA. Time is flying - I can't believe our trip is over halfway done!

Sunday in Kitgum

The English church service this morning started at 7 am. The Luo service started at 8:30. For purposes of sleep and cultural experience, we decided to take on the Luo service. Young children came up to sit at the front throughout, and the first girl came with a baby tied on her back. She couldn’t have been much older than 8, and I could only wonder where the parents were.

At lunch, the Bishop’s wife suggested we visit one of the child-headed households that Good Samaritan funds had helped support. Five of us crammed into our baby car, and we drove to a “development” on the other side of town. I use the term development for lack of any other word. It was a collection of small huts filled with the kind of dirty children you only see on child sponsorship ads. As we pulled in, kids crowded around us – some half naked, two fully naked, few smiling, most staring. Out of the crowd, the Bishop’s wife and the Mother’s Union worker found two girls from the household we were there to see. They were around 7 and 9, the youngest two of five, and painfully shy. Their parents were victims of HIV/AIDS, and as I thought about their lives and those of their siblings – the oldest was 15 – I was hard pressed to keep the tears from flowing. It will take a long time to get the image of Winifred and Fiona out of my mind.

I came to Africa hoping that my heart would be broken. It has been.

Saturday

We got off to a late start today, slept in a bit, and then headed out to have breakfast with the Bishop and his family. Bishop was outside, so we spent some time walking around the compound, examining the various vehicles and looking at future plans for land owned by the Diocese.

Breakfast was different this morning – chapatti and omelettes were served along with our porridge and tea. Both were delicious. Bishop told us the terrifying story of his abduction by the LRA (if you’re interested, the story might eventually get up at www.kitgum.org), and then he moved on to tell us the story of how he met his wife, Margaret. A Ugandan and a Brit arrived as he was talking, and we ended up staying for hours. Before we knew it, it was 4pm and lunch was just being served. We were kind of amazed that we had spent an entire day sitting on the same couch, listening to stories and hearing about the current state of the Diocese and the predicted signing of the peace agreement in Juba. Exciting stuff, but so much for our plans for the day.
Sometime during the afternoon, power came back on. After lunch, we rushed to the building where we had been training, hoping to catch one or two people for training. No one. I suppose you can’t expect too much on a Saturday, after all. Eventually, the Bishop came, followed by the website guy. Andy walked the Bishop through e-mail while I prepared the website guy to do final touches on the newsletter. Now he’s training the guy to set up the website. Dinner tonight will be late, our talks with the Bishop will be even later, and church in the morning starts at 7. Please pray for our sleep – it’s hot and the animals on the compound are noisy all night long.

Friday: Multiple Lunches, Power Outage and Motorcycle Lessons

As we were discussing the design of the newsletter this afternoon, power went out. I think we were all a little relived to have a break, and Andy and I took the opportunity to take a nap. Then the Diocesan Secretary called to tell us that he was leaving for the weekend and not planning to return until after we depart. He was standing by the building that he shares with the Bishop’s chaplain as his living quarters, and so after saying goodbye, we naturally went over to meet the chaplain’s family. Apparently they were in the middle of lunch. The DS sat down. Seats and plates were brought outside for us. And then came the beans and rice. It was delicious, possibly even more so because we were eating with our hands. (Utensils haven’t so much come here.) One of the woman asked me if I knew how to cook. I said yes, but not this food. She promised to teach me tomorrow.

As we were finishing, we saw the Bishop’s wife pull up to her house. She walked over, saw that we had eaten, and asked why we had not eaten lunch at her house. We explained the situation, and then went back with her because we had planned to walk with her to an adult literacy program. Lunch was brought out. Andy started to say that we had already eaten, and we would just let her eat and come back. The look on her face said it all. And then she told us that it is very rude to refuse food in the Acholi culture. So we ate lunch again. Lesson learned.

Later in the afternoon, I was walking back to the computer building from the latrine, when one of the staff on his boda-boda asked me if I knew how to ride. I said no. He asked if I wanted to learn. I said yes. Unfortunately we didn’t get very far because the rain started pouring down. He told me we can continue tomorrow. Really, though, I didn’t make any progress until Andy came out and started explaining things.

In light of the rain and the lack of electricity, we went back to the Guest House to rest again. As it started to get dark, we went for dinner. The Bishop’s living room was lit by a gas lamp. He had traveled to Pader (the district just south of Kitgum) for the day, and so we waited. Dinner was brought out as it became obvious that he was not going to get back at any reasonable hour. At 10pm, when it was really obvious that he would not be back soon, Andy drove his wife to town to run an errand. I stayed behind in the dark guesthouse with my little flashlight. When he came back, we turned out the flashlight and tried to go to sleep. We missed the fan.

Thursday: Orphans and Seed Distribution

We checked out of the Bohma and arrived at the compound to find people madly typing their articles. It was pretty awesome to see people excited about the newsletter. Most of the morning was spent helping people type and editing. It’s a good thing I like to edit.

We had been asked on Wednesday to take pictures of “the orphans.” We agreed, not totally sure of what that would entail, but sort of thinking of the really little kids that attend school on the compound. Not so much. When it came time to take the pictures, we walked across the road from the compound to a girl’s secondary school. We talked with the school’s chaplain, to find that of the 1000 girls that attend the school, 60% have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS or the war. Many of them had been abducted by the LRA and kept captive for 2-3 years. We were blown away. Definitely not in Kansas anymore. They lined the girls up and we shot pictures of 4 girls at a time. The education office for the Diocese hopes to use the pictures for many things, but probably the biggest one is to find scholarships for the neediest girls. School fees are certainly not high by our standards, but without them you can’t get past primary school.

We left the school so that we could witness a seed distribution in a nearby village. For those of you non Good Samaritans, our church raised about $20,000 for flood relief last year, and a committee here decided to use the funds for seeds. Funds were wired in February, and we were thrilled to be able to witness even just one distribution point. The village was something like 15 km outside of Kitgum, and we were excited to take the road to Sudan to get there. Aside from the ridiculous road, the drive itself was uneventful. The images we passed along the way were not.

Charles, who joined us for the drive, pointed out the remains of houses that had been burned or abandoned. Countryside which had been forest land is only now starting to grow back after it was destroyed. Satellite IDP camps are growing – people are moving closer to their homes but remain fearful to completely return to their villages. And a wooden cross marks the place where the retired Bishop’s wife was killed when she drove over a land mine.

We arrived at what seemed like a ghost of a village – surrounded by a barbed wire fence and devoid of livable housing and people. Though the school is thriving, the entire village resides in the “mother” camp 4 km up the road. The parish priest met us, and the school headmaster joined. These men were lovely people. We had beaten the seed truck, and so they gave us a tour of the village while we waited. It happened to be the burial place of the late Archbishop who was killed during the Idi Amin regime, and we paid our respects at his grave. We were informed that because the distribution team was running late, the people who were meant to receive the seeds had all gone back to the camps for dinner. When the truck arrived, the seeds were unloaded into the church, and the presentation was made. All I can say about the presentation was that we felt completely honored to be a witness. When harvest time comes, 600 families will be able to feed themselves for the first time since they were forced to flee their homes. And we had just a little bit to do with it. The joy of giving has an entirely new meaning.

Newsletter update

Hey everyone!

The newsletter is plugging along nicely. Carrie is the Managing Editor pro tem. She is just getting ready to use the computer so I should go!

Andy

Newsletters?

It seems God called us to Uganda for newsletters, among other things. We spent the better part of one of our weeks in Kampala helping Sarah finish the Kampala Diocese newsletter. And now we find ourselves putting together a newsletter here in Kitgum.

The morning started normally, with Andy leading the accountants through Excel, and me doing another basic course. I was amazed at the knowledge that my pupils from yesterday had retained, and Andy was impressed with the accountants’ knowledge of Excel.

Following lunch with the Bishop and his wife, we led a class on Publisher. Certificate and poster design, and then the fun started. We showed the newsletter template, and then Andy briefly mentioned how much supporters and stakeholders would enjoy receiving a newsletter. Before we knew what was happening, the Bishop announced that we were doing one right then, and the shining faces of the staff affirmed his decision.

So. Okay. This is a good thing. Deep breath. We made a list of all of the people who needed to write articles, and then sent them off, telling them to come back with a draft tomorrow morning at 11. Tomorrow will be a lot of editing, and then we watch flood relief seed distribution. Please continue to pray – we’re down to three days and the work is piling up.

Internet in Kitgum

So - the internet here is difficult to use. We can only really use it from the Bishop's computer. We have a blog entry prepared from a day or so ago but never seem to have it with us when we're on the 'net. Sorry about that. We'll be "break(ing) the silence" soon, with exciting news about Kitgum Diocese's first ever newsletter!Best,
Andy

---
Sent from my pda in Africa!

How to turn on a computer

Day two of being missionaries. We started the day with Diocesan staff devotions – quite delightful really – we were not asked to speak and rather enjoyed the singing and the discussion of Matthew 28. More staff slowly filtered in, and the Bishop came in as devotions were ending.

After introductions, the floor was open for us to begin computer training. We asked each person to tell us how much they knew and what programs they used. With that information in hand, we walked to the Childcare Building (outfitted with solar power and four desktops) for the training itself. We started with the power button. Now, most people in the Diocese are at least somewhat versed in computers, but the Bishop struggles and the Mission Coordinator had never used a computer in his life.

The morning was amazingly smooth, with Andy leading and me walking around from person to person. A midday break allowed us to walk around the Diocesan compound, and we experienced our first true northern meal. I started looking for the forks. Andy dug right in with his hand along with everybody else. The maize millet was pretty good, but the greens were delicious.

Afternoon went really well for me. I took the Bishop and the Mission Coordinator to the Guest House, where we went over the basics again. I even walked the Bishop through sending his first email. By first, I mean first. Apparently he’s dictated them in the past. Andy stayed with all of the field workers, who wanted to know about PowerPoint and Access. He was put through the wringer – they’re not programs that he uses often, and the students were really hungry for knowledge, knowing what the programs are capable of. Pray for him tomorrow if you have the chance. We plan to work with everyone on their new Kitgum.org email accounts, and then Excel with the accountants.

Once back at the hotel, we walked to the 'supermarket' for shampoo. There’s apparently lots of them around, but this one, one of the bigger ones, had three whole aisles. (not of shampoo - of everything...) Dinner at the hotel and a really bad American movie. We hope to move to the Guest House tomorrow, but the last few nights at the hotel have been good for us.

Kitgum

Well - we've made it to Kitgum. It was a long day of driving on really bad roads, but we made excellent time. Those of you from Detroit that think your potholes are bad - they're not...

We met several folks briefly, including the Bishop, but retired early as the sky was getting dark quickly. We barely missed the rain on the way into the hotel.

Please pray for us. We start our computer training tomorrow morning at 9am, and we're both a bit nervous.

Internet will definitely be spotty here. Tonight Andy took the Bishop's internet phone and laptop to fix them, so we're well connected. Unfortunatly, he was too quick to fix them - this luxury might be a rare one.

Album Launch Party and the Beauty of Ciproflaxin

It's possible that some of you are wondering what happened to me this week, since I wrote the majority of the posts last week. To put it mildly, I was not feeling well. I chalked it up to my sensitive stomach at first, and then considered the possibility that the malaria pills were too much for my delicate little system. After a week of misery, I finally took a dose of Cipro. The results were amazing. I woke up this morning feeling okay for the first time since Jinja, and with a newfound love for Cipro. And this evening, I actually don't feel compelled to go straight to bed.

But that's in the past. Let's go to today, which offered us a real cultural experience. A pastor for one of the local churches, along with a band made up of some of his youth, put out an album and hosted a party for the event. Sarah received a printed invitation and all - clearly this group had gone to a lot of work. The invitation said 2, but knowing how time works here, we didn't get there until 2:30. Upon arrival, we were a bit surprised to find that there were no cars. We asked Joseph, the 17 year old who had come with us, whether the event had started. He said that the rain had delayed it, but that it would start very soon. We went into the building where they were building the stage (using a rock as a hammer...) setting up a "spotlight" and wiping off chairs. Number of guests: zero. Of course, as the muzungus, we were directed to the chairs in the front row and were told that it would all begin in about 20 minutes.

An hour and a half later, already deafened by the volume of the worship music blaring louder than the speakers were meant to handle, Joseph and a few other kids from the youth group got up to sing some worship songs. We think they had nice voices, but it was a little difficult to tell what with the volume of the speakers and all.

Then the MC's came out. One was pretty normal. The other was wearing a black shiny suit and really liked to dance. And for anyone who has seen "Lost in Translation," think of the people in the talk show. They asked Andy to open the program in prayer and to sing a song. The mic kept cutting out during his prayer, so he finally just yelled. And then he sang with an out of tune guitar with the volume as high as it would go. Classic. They announced one opening act - a gospel singer who sang along to his album. Then they announced another one. And then another. We think the third is the last, but then the female MC bursted out into song. At this point, we're nearing 5 pm, 30 minutes late for a meeting that we had scheduled. It should be noted here that guests were dancing up to the woman giving her change as a "thanksgiving." Sarah gave Andy some money and asked him to go up. And like a true African, he danced his way over. Again, classic.

Finally, the pastor and his youth came out. They were actually pretty great, but they sang three songs and then left. We snuck out with them, pretty sure that they only came out as early as they did because we had to leave. We were also pretty sure that they would be there for several more hours.

At least two lessons were learned today. We knew that the time written on the invitation wouldn't exactly be honored, but we did have the pastor's word that the thing would begin at 2 and end at 4. It started at 4 with no end in sight. We also left with a renewed appreciation for silence - sheer volume, whether it sounds good or not, is practically considered a virtue.

Video?

We're going to try something new.

This is a video of a road-side food establishment. You can buy roasted meat on a stick, cooked bananas, bottled water, etc.




I would love to know your thoughts on this one :)

end quote - "And that is what you need to imagine." - Sarah

Network in Kampala

Hey everyone - Carrie is working on a blog post for yesterday. It was chaos. Sorry for the delay on it.

I did want to update you on the wiring project here in Kampala, and on the equipment for Kitgum.

The wiring at the Diocese of Kampala is done. We ran Cat5 to each office, terminated all the connections, installed the switches and router, configured the ADSL connection and went live. Remembering that they were paying $500/month for dialup that only one person could use at a time makes the $200/month for the 64k ADSL an easier pill to swallow. You gotta love the developing world infrastructure.

I found the last remaining pieces of equipment today for Kitgum. A Sony DVD player. The cost was higher than we were hoping, but we've been able to borrow a car to go north instead of hiring one, so we'll just redirect the funds and call it good. We've heard that they hold outreach events in the evenings and look forward to being able to show movies to provide further incentive for people to come. (Thanks again to the youth of Good Samaritan for pledging to raise the funds to pay for the projector, and to KLM for providing the funds for the new DVD player!)

Thats enough I think - its late. Best to everyone, and please leave a comment if you are so inclined.

Andy (and Carrie.)

KLM airlines

Hey everyone - I just wanted to update you all on the luggage situation.

KLM's local office has come through in a big way. Mr. van Joolen has
mobilized funds from his local budget to cover the cost of the
essential items that were lost with the luggage. We cannot tell you what a
blessing this will be to the people in Kitgum Diocese.

We have a friend - David A. He experienced a loss in his checked luggage during a business trip. American Airlines refused to take responsibility for any part of the loss, so he has made a point to fly other carriers and has mandated those in his department to do so as well. I hear he sends a letter to them at the end of the year pointing out the details of the business they lost. The figure is quite astounding at this point, though I cannot remember the details.

All that to say, I hope to have the reverse effect on KLM's business! The reality is, not all airlines are created equal. If you fly KLM/NWA, you'll probably notice the difference. Our flights were on-time, and we were well taken care of.

Also, please note (though its marked enough at the airport...) don't check electronics in your luggage. I carried on all of the expensive items but neglected both the cumulative value of the smaller items, as well as their crucial nature when I packed them in our checked bag. I was ashamed to have to tell Mr. van Joolen that without the items in that bag, or replacements, we might as well not have come to Africa.

Of course we didn't buy trip insurance - we tried to leverage every dollar to help the people we were coming to serve - poor decision. Buy trip insurance.

All the best,
Andy!

NOTE: If anyone from KLM reads this post, I would encourage you to post a comment. We are grateful for your grace to us.

Day 9: Pictures!

Ok - we FINALLY have some pictures up! I can only upload 5 at once, so check back regularly. We'll start to insert them into the blog in the next day or so but they're all accessible at

http://picasaweb.google.com/alauppe/Africa2008favorites02

It is just the absolute best, and they're low-resolution but I think you'll enjoy them.

Today was a huge day. I had my meeting with KLM, and Emmanuel and I managed to run Cat5 (network wiring) to every office in the Diocesan offices.

Firstly, I'll thank you all for your prayers regarding our lost luggage, but please don't stop! I had a meeting with KLM's Country Manager for Uganda. Mr. Hugo van Joolen, is a no-nonsense business man who is obviously entirely competent. He employs a competent staff, and clearly appreciates competent customers. I did my best to be competent, but when you're that guy that checked expensive electronics instead of carrying them on, its hard to come across as competent (checking electronics of any kind, expensive or not, is against the rules, and no airline wants to take responsibility. I understand this.) Now, you and I know that I was carrying so much in the way of expensive electronics, that no one could possibly carry it all on, but thats neither here nor there to the airline. We expect to hear from the regional director in Nairobi soon. I have a feeling we're asking too much. They did give me $100 though :)

On to the wiring - This is/was the biggest, most time consuming task (and the dirtiest!) Emmanuel climbed around through the attic (more like a crawl space. He said he didn't smell any rats so it was okay. lol.) I climbed up the outside of the Diocesan office to run wire from the main building to the side building with 4 offices. At the end of the day we were filthy, exhausted, and fulfilled. Tomorrow we start with RJ45 connector termination. Hopefully we can get things up and running on Thursday and do testing and training on Friday.

Oh - Boda Bodas - we all rode as passengers on motorcycle taxis today. Traffic in the city has been really bad as Moammar Al-Gaddafi, the President of the Socialist PeoplesLibyan Arab Jamahiriya is in town opening a new mosque. When he drives around with his 39 escort cars, the city road system shuts down entirely. Anyway - the Bodas are crazy. The Boda drivers are crazy. See, here motorcycles can do literally whatever they want - they're practically considered pedestrians. They split lanes on the right, then jig to the other side of the lane to split there. They go the wrong way down one-way streets too. Its a blast. Honestly, as scary as it is, they drive so slow because traffic is so bad, that there are few really awful accidents, and there is no better / faster way to get around. And its cheap. Thumbs up to Boda Boda guys. (except for that guy that took Carrie for a tour around town because he didn't really know where she was trying to go. lol... Good thing she knew the town well enough to direct him home.)

Day 8: Prayer Needed

Quick request: please pray. Remember the lost bag? We got a call on Saturday from the luggage counter at Entebbe airport, informing us that they are giving up on the search. We got on the phone with Northwest, filled out an endless online form, and finally decided to visit the KLM offices here today.

The blessing for the first week was that pretty much all of our clothes made it. Now that we're in week 2, though, we're feeling pressure to get going on the Diocese networking project. Our time in Northern Uganda is rapidly approaching, and we would really like to take all of the things that we brought for the Diocese there.

Back to the KLM office. We're eligible for $100 for travel necessities, but the policy on lost luggage is to wait 45 days before a reimbursement to ensure they've covered their bases. The airline does not as a rule cover checked electronic equipment, of which the bag was full. After a long discussion with a woman at the office, I asked to speak to someone who would be authorized to make an exception for our case. I was fortunate to get in with the country manager, and God answered my prayer for humility and peace before I talked with him. I laid out my case clearly, but as I did not have the list of items missing with me, he asked me to return tomorrow.

So, prayer. Please pray that the Lord would be at work in this situation. Our desire for our time in Africa was that the Lord would use us in the best way He saw fit, and we felt that a portion of that time would be blessing people with my knowledge of IT and networking. If that's not the case, our prayer is that we would have peace about it and enjoy the time here of listening, watching, and learning from the dear people of this country. Really, please pray that God's will is done.

Day 7: Traditional Introduction, Church, and More Thoughts on the Road

Today was a big and long day. It started with church at All Saint's Cathedral at 8am. This is a vibrant community of believers in Kampala proper, the home church of our friend Bishop Zac Niringiye. The whole staff is delightful, and worship was good. There's an interesting facet to being a white visitor in Africa. It's not enough to stick out as a white person. Usually, you are called out. Sure enough, after they made all of the visitors stand and gave a welcome, Bishop Zac came up, asked both of us to stand again, and introduced us to the whole congregation. Lovely.

Then, we were hoping to fix the battery on Sarah's car with a borrowed multi-meter from the church, but we were amazingly picked up on time for the introduction ceremony. The man who 'picked us' (another one of those Ugandaisms), Gerald was a friend of the groom that sort of knew Hannington. The ceremony was great - but I don't want to get ahead of myself. Just getting there was a blog post on its own.

It is important to remember, and I say this for myself more than anyone else, that our culture is not the same as their culture. Time has a different value, logistics has a different logic, and the concept of 'bad roads' is relative.

We were 'picked' at 10am for what we believed was a 12pm event 30km away. We arrived at our friend's home 10km away at 11:30pm. We were there to pick up a sport coat to go with my borrowed Kanzu (traditional Ugandan male dress garment). We left at 12:05. Then we had to go 25 minutes out of our way, on the worst back roads we've ever seen at this point (more on this later) to get two plastic tarps. One of which was actually used.

So, we pull away from this place with our tarps and the decision to stop for food because everyone is hungry at 12:40. You remember Ugandan fast food? Same place. We stop and the car gets swarmed. We leave 5 minutes later with bananas wrapped in writing paper and 2 bottles of water. All for about $1.

We drive and drive, finally arriving around 1:15 at the turn-off to the farm where the ceremony will be held. We're thinking 'oh good, we're here.' Wrong.

15 minutes later, having crossed 2-3km of the single roughest road we've ever seen we turn onto the driveway. 'oh good we're he...' nope. 1/2km of driveway that makes the road look good.
(We're in a front-wheel-drive Toyota Corolla wagon by the way. Not a Land Cruiser...)

I guess now is probably the best time to talk about the roads. The road to the house with the tarps was rough. It was a narrow dirt two-track (no gravel) with deep gouges ripped out of it by flowing rainwater (it's the rainy season). A typical gouge is approx 8-10" wide, and crosses the whole road diagonally. Most cars can pass over but some bottom out at one end of the other. Also - these are just the things we have to drive through - I'm ignoring the 1' deep ruts and cutouts that are common on the edges but that can be avoided by dodging.

So, the road to the farm was bad - the turn off to the farm was really bad. Think the first road, but with deeper ruts, narrower roads, and thicker forests. This one had water canals on either side and large rocks that looked pretty sharp. All along the way local kids and even older people stood watching the goings-on. This is not a typical wedding venue, and you get the sense that white people don't usually come through here.

If the turn off to the farm was really bad, the driveway was unbelievably bad. It was narrower than the turn-off, with deeper ruts (I was blown away that normal cars dared to pass here regularly.) It was maybe 1/2km long, but covered almost half as much distance vertically. We climbed maybe 250m vertically in this Corolla wagon. At one point we didn't quite have enough momentum and stopped with our wheels spinning on the rocks and mud. We had to back up and try a second time on a different line to get past that section. (Remember, this is normal here. Wow...)

Anyway - the farm was beautiful. It was at the top of a hill (obviously) and had a view that a camera just can't capture (though we tried, I assure you.) We arrived at maybe 1:30? At 2pm the traditional band was firing up and the dancers were lining up. Carrie was in her Gomesi (traditional women's dress - a strange dress with pointy shoulders) and I had my Kanzu on complete with sport-coat and dress shoes.

The event itself is almost too much to narrate. Its is an elaborate role-play with two clans. The MC is the home clan's father (not always, but they pretend to be) and the visiting clan's spokesman pretends to be the father for their side. The Bride's clan/family (home clan) gets invaded by the Groom's clan (visiting). Here are the highlights.

1. Mock clan meeting.
2. Visiting clan arrives and negotiates entrance.
3. Requests audience with home clan, justify their lateness by admitting that they got lost on the way. This way they aren't technically late, they're simply 'delayed'. They bring a large container of local brew (a wine made from bananas - almost tasty) as a gift.
3.5 MC suggests home clan sing national anthem to identify themselves. (German, as the bride was a German). Then MC requires visitor's clan to sing their national anthem (Ugandan).
4. Visitor's spokesman explains the purpose of their visit (to find wives for their sons).
5. The MC consents to showing his daughters to the visiting clan, though the visiting spokesperson (we'll call them VS from now on I think...) is urged to 'look sparingly' so as not violate the girls or become too attached.
6. The first round of girls is brought out. The VS says that someone in the home clan knows someone from the visiting clan but that that woman is not there.
7. The MC requires the visiting clan to send the first round of single girls to Germany to find the 'other daughters.' He presents them with symbolic airline tickets and visas and they leave.
8. Second round doesn't suit. MC requires VC to send them back to Germany first-class.
9. In the third round, an 'aunt' recognises the visiting tribe and is made to identify the groom, who was hidden in the visiting clan's group.
10. The bride comes out.

The ceremony goes on in intricate detail but honestly, the story gets less relevant - the families that didn't know each other become introduced and joined and the couple is culturally married (they can move in together at that point), but they still tend to plan a church wedding afterwards.

It's interesting, but it goes on forever. Then there are speeches, the exchange of gifts (the brother of the bride, a German, received a live rooster, and the bride's family a live goat). Then there are speeches and the cutting of the cake. Finally a large meal with drinks and then everyone goes home. Really awesome.

Don't worry, we took pictures. I think I've even figured out how to resize them so I have a chance at uploading them from here. Maybe on the next post?

The drive home was not to be outdone. We hit traffic on the way into Kampala, where our driver decided to take us onto the shoulder to pass some slow cars. Then the traffic stopped and we were on the shoulder. We went onto the shoulder's shoulder to get around the other traffic on the shoulder. By the time we got to the traffic circle where the actual jam was, we were driving inches from the edge of a water canal. Our driver, distracted by something else, went to swerve around something and if I hadn't said 'actually, you're going to fall off the road there,' we would have.

As a side note, passing on the shoulder's shoulder is actually kind of dangerous as that's where the pedestrians and bicycles are.

Home safe by 10pm.

Day 6: Jinja

A lot of interesting and good things happened in Jinja. But since we're a little behind and really tired, I'll try to make it really brief.

Hot water. You have to order it specially. We were told the night before that they would bring a jerry can full of boiling water at 6 am. Really, you have to ask for it at the front desk in the morning, and then wait 30 minutes for it to heat up. You smell fire outside, to discover later that they actually did use fire to heat up your water.

Batteries. When a car doesn't start, they don't necessarily have jumper cables lying around. They do, however, have actual batteries with connectors on them so that you can give yourself a jumpstart.

Poverty. Okay, we're in Uganda. We've both worked in international development. We know that serious poverty exists here. However, seeing two little kids and an elderly women staring at us in fear because we were about to drive over the flour that she was salvaging from the road was a really ugly sight. Emmanuel saw the situation for what it was and gave about a dollar for her to buy more. As we drove off, he explained that she is too old to work, but her children/grandchildren have dropped off their kids for her to care for. Just down the road, we paid about 50 cents to some boys who were filling holes in the road. Emmanuel wanted to pay them to support the work that they were doing.

Malarone. Can cause nausea. Really not pleasant when riding on rough roads and already experiencing stomach issues.

Mexican food. Doesn't so much exist here. Which is fine for us, because as much as we love it, we're only gone for 5 weeks. But for a missionary that has gone five months without, a Tex-Mex restaurant in Jinja is something pretty close to heaven. I settled for Sprite for the nausea and only a few bites of Andy's rice because of the stomachache. Sarah, on the other hand, drank her Dr. Pepper (also not to be found elsewhere in this country) and ate her chips and salsa with a joy that brings back fond memories of eating at the Mexican restaurant in Dublin after living in Germany for five months and not knowing how to cook it for myself.

Boy's schools. Women stick out at boy's schools. They stick out even more when they are also the only white people. But Emmanuel hadn't been back to his school since he left some 10 years ago, and he was positively giddy as he showed us around. The whole thing was lovely.

And there's my observations from our Jinja trip. Last thing: the source of the Nile turned out to be some beautiful scenery. Go if you have the chance.

Uganda: Day 5 - art of waiting and a new meaning to fast food

Today involved a lot of waiting. This is actually pretty typical, but today seemed like more than normal. We waited in the morning while work was completed on a parish newsletter. We waited at the Diocese for the funeral traffic, for parking, for the funeral itself, for food, for more traffic, and what what (this is a Ugandaism for etc.). Incidentally, the funeral was for a very young, very successful, and very respected member of the church that died of cancer recently. He was a friend of Emmanuel's. The funeral went long because so many people had testimonies. We didn't mind waiting.

The waiting seemed particularly hard because we were really just trying to get out of town as fast as possible so that we could head to Jinja. (We're posting via e-mail now so I'm sure Carrie has already mentioned this.)

Anyway, we finally got off, and the road here was turned out to be so much better and less congested than the traffic in Kampala. Emmanuel drove so I was able to take pictures the whole time. Thanks to Dave Tower, we are equipped with an excellent camera, and it takes video too, so I captured some key examples of the traffic. Unfortunately, I have no idea when we'll
be able to post them! :-( You'll love them though, I promise.

At some point along the way, Sarah decided that we needed to go to Uganda's fast food restaurant. Emmanuel kept asking if she was sure, so we knew that it was bound to be something cultural. We didn't really have much warning. They told us that we had arrived, and Emmanuel turned off into what looked like a bunch of roadside shacks with all of these people standing around. Our first thought was, 'really, how is there a fast food restaurant here?' This question was quickly answered when our car was literally swarmed by people shoving baskets of food into our open windows. Bananas, pineapples, water, matoke, even chicken on sticks were pushed in.. Imagine a tiny two-door car with 4 or 5 people at each of the driver and passenger side windows, a second row of people behind, and all of the twenty people trying to sell you their food. Added to the chaos was the bargaining. Emmanuel was a star, pitting vendors against each other, refusing to pay more than necessary for our waters, but also making sure that we did not get too much change from the person we eventually bought from. Unfortunately, no description will really do the experience justice. We'll try to get video on the way back of the whole ordeal. We were on the road again in a few minutes where we burst out laughing at the craziness of it all.

It didn't take long to get to our resort from there. We pulled in, got our rooms, and ordered dinner right when we arrived. Sarah's been here before and had a hunch that dinner would take some time to prepare. We went to the restaurant and ordered. We asked the waitor how long, and he said 'maybe 40 minutes. We said we would come back at 7:30 - just under an hour away - to which the waiter got a look on his face and told us that 7:45 would be better. So much for 40 minutes. We walked down to the water - an estuary of Lake Victoria, literally, the source of the Nile. There were long, thin fishing boats (turned tour boat I'm sure, in this case) and a thin pier that juts out into the kelp that lines the shores.

At the end of the pier, E looked into the water and saw a crab. He was very scared and pulled his hand out of the water - 'will that thing bite you? look out!'. It looked pretty small so I said - 'no, come here. I'll show it to you' and used a reed to dig it out. It was dead. Funny though - rather large fresh water crab. Maybe 6 inches across? Not so great a story actually, but I thought the whole thing was pretty funny.

Then some local boys came along to investigate the scene we had been making (laughing and carrying on like westerners do on vacation.) They all had names that we could barely pronounce and, after watching us for probably 20 minutes, I convinced them to pose for a picture (bribed by the promise that I would show them the picture right away!) They did pose, and laughed hysterically when they saw themselves moments later.

On our way back up for dinner, E and I saw a real live hovercraft under a tarp on the lawn. Talk about out-of-place. I was excited to explain the workings to E so the girls just kept walking.

We caught up at the resturant where we waited for our food to come, cold and at 8pm. After a relatively good dinner we all retired to our 'family cabin' which consists of a thatched roof hut, a bathroom, a queen sized bed, a kitchenette, and three single beds. We looked at the pictures I took on the way, and S went through our iTunes for music she has been missing since she left the states. Now we are safely tucked away in our mosquito-netted bed (gives a whole new meaning to tucked in), listening to the chirps of various creatures outside of our cabin. This place rocks.

___
Posted from my pda in Africa! Yay for GPRS!

Candle Making 101

Tonight as we were cooking during power out, Sarah got inventive with empty water bottles and taper candles. By inventive, I mean that she chopped off the top of the water bottle and stuck a taper candle inside. We poured in melted wax and then spent the rest of our power out time (2 hours at least), trying to replicate the prototype. Really we spent the whole time trying to melt more wax. Fortunately for all of us, the power came back on just as we were pouring the last of the wax. Phew. It was really fun, but it's possible that we all got just a little bit too excited about the whole thing.

Uganda: Day 4

We did not sleep last night. In a deliberate attempt to sleep on our own without the use of drugs, we chose not to take Ambien and went to bed at a reasonable hour. And then we laid there, hot and sweaty, for hours on end, until light gradually began to dawn. It could have been one of the longest nights of either of our lives. Naturally this was the morning that we had to be somewhere.

Insert a word of explanation about our situation here. The Diocese shares offices with All Saint’s Cathedral, and so while the two are not necessarily connected, there is overlap every now and then. Our new friend Emmanuel works for All Saint’s as the sound engineer, but has become the technical guy for the Diocese by default as well. Emmanuel and Andy are new best friends, and Emmanuel is showing Andy around the “technical” parts of the offices as he prepares to do all the wiring for a proper internet connection.

Back to today. There was a funeral scheduled this morning at All Saint’s, and so in order to meet Emmanuel, we had to make a deliberate effort to get there at a reasonable hour. We decided on 9 yesterday but actually did quite well to make it there by 9:30 considering we did not sleep. Fortunately for us, but quite sadly for the family, the body did not make the plane in South Africa and so the funeral was postponed until tomorrow.

Andy successfully drove to the Diocese, where he immediately ran off with Emmanuel to dig around the offices. Meanwhile, I had a woman waiting for me with a gomezi, or a traditional Baganda tribal dress to try on for the introduction ceremony on Sunday. Africans typically love it when Westerners wear African clothing. And so there I was, in the “dressing room” of the Archbishop’s office, while several women dressed me and then proceeded to tell me how sharp I looked. Andy took a picture but the real ones will come on Sunday at the ceremony itself, when he is dressed in his traditional kanzu. That being said, there really isn’t enough bandwidth to upload pictures, so you might all have to wait until April.

Moving on. We met several people at the Diocese and Cathedral offices and then the four of us – Sarah and Emmanuel included, hopped into the car so that Sarah and I could go to the fabric district and the new best friends could go on to the electronics store. The fabric district is amazing. It is comprised of probably 50 tiny shops, all carrying bolts of pretty much any fabric you could imagine. Sarah, experienced ex-pat that she is, drives a hard bargain. And so we came away with beautiful and inexpensive fabrics that will go to the tailor next week to make some clothes for both of us.

Aside from the fabric, the best part of the day might be the bodaboda. With A. and E. back at the Diocese, we were on our own to get back. So we hopped on the back of bodas and for just about 50 cents apiece, arrived back at the Diocese in short order. I love this place. Sarah warned my driver that it was my first time, and he promised to be nice. I really felt quite safe. My favorite memory is probably looking over at Sarah while we were driving and seeing her calmly texting away. I saw who she was texting when we arrived and A. and E. were at the gate, eagerly anticipating the sight of me on a boda. They were in great moods because of the deal E. struck with his friend at the computer store. I won’t go into details, but they felt the same about their buys as S. and I did about our fabric.

After talking our route over with E., A. and I headed off on our own in the car to have lunch with Hannington. This was really quite successful, considering that there was only one turn that we were unsure of, and so went around the roundabout a few times before exiting. Lunch was great, except for the fact that we promised to treat Hannington, and then didn’t have enough money to pay the bill. We sort of failed to remember that we needed to change more money this morning because A. was buying all of the computer equipment. Hannington was a saint and pitched in the dollar or so that we were short. Key things to remember: a) it’s important have enough money when you’ve invited someone to lunch; and b) even though it’s awfully tasty, juice is expensive here and should not be ordered when the money supply is limited.

We spent some time in Hannington’s office working on his computer, and then headed back to the Diocese to pick up Sarah. We were blessed with an amazing lack of traffic up until the road was closed. We managed to maneuver around a bypass and made it home in what could probably be labeled as record time. Good thing – we’re all exhausted.

Tonight we eat last night’s leftovers for dinner. Considering we had tacos, that is a good thing. There are a few things to note. Taco seasoning, although it is not available here, is easily made and tastes wonderful. Beans and ground beef cooked together are really great. Cheese here is not necessarily good on tacos. Guacamole can probably be made in most every part of the world, and here where the avocadoes are some of the best I’ve ever had, guacamole is equally as good. Yet again, I have to say that I love this place.

Tonight we expect to be power off, which happens approximately every 3 nights. Fortunately Sarah is well equipped with lanterns and candles – and wow – there it goes. Such timing. It’s so incredible when you compare our lives here and at home. A power outage is unacceptable in the US, especially one that lasts for more than a few minutes. And yet here, it goes for three hours at a time, at least twice in a week. It’s a natural part of living here and it is what people are accustomed to. While it isn’t the worst inconvenience, it is hard on appliances, and the refrigerator suffers for it.

One final thing for today. We came home to clothes drying and a clean kitchen because the maid was in. I would not have a maid at home. Here, it is wonderful.

Tomorrow we go on vacation. We’re traveling to Jinja (this is where the source of the Nile is) because while Andy and I don’t need a vacation, Sarah and Emmanuel do. Plus, who wouldn’t want to see the source of the Nile? We’re staying overnight and don’t know what the internet connection will be like, so there might not be an update from us. Don’t worry, though, we’ll take lots of pictures and I’m sure there will be plenty to say about our travel adventure.

Uganda: Day 3

Jet lag is starting to wear off but it is still very present. Last night we went to bed at 2:30 am after talking to Sarah, and slept until noon! We felt pretty lazy, but we needed the sleep.

Sarah, bought a little car - a '94 Toyota Corsa, and brought it home last night. It has good tires and drives well. She has been here for 5 months or so but has not driven except for during the test drive. I have no doubt that she will learn quickly and be an excellent driver, but in the meantime she is perfectly content to let me do the driving. They drive on the left here, which I've done in Africa before, so I was deemed qualified.

So - here are my thoughts on the driving rules and customs in Uganda.
1. Whoever gets there first wins - no hard feelings. Road rage does not exist until someone hits someone else and then no one gets hurt.
2. There is no right of way unless your car is preventing another car from doing something - then you have the right of way. (i.e. going after stopping at a stopsign involved creeping forward until cross-traffic cannot pass. Only then can you pass.)
3. Motorcycle drivers only survive here because of a developed flock instinct, much like birds. They swarm like flies in and around all moving things on the road (even pedestrians). The only way to move in traffic is to be blind to their presence. You have to trust that they see that pothole you're going to swerve to miss, and that they will swerve with you.
4. Blinkers here are as good as putting your car where you're intending to go. Same with arms out the window - if you signal that you're moving into or out of a traffic circle or from the shoulder, you can feel free to cut everyone else off to get in or out, on or off.
4b. The circles go clockwise. If you are continuing around, you leave your right blinker on the whole time.

Personally, I love it. I mean, I love driving here. I do hate the system - there is no sense of common good on the roads. The drivers don't seem to care about anyone but themselves, or at least they drive like they don't. Don't get me wrong - I don't know a single Ugandan who would not be horribly distraught if they hit a motorcyclist or person (people run right across the road in front of you - like frogger.) But then, they all know the system and don't drive fast enough to cause lethal damage most of the time. Its chaos...

Anyway - we drove to the Diocese from Sarah's apartment, then to lunch at the mall, and then home after a quick stop at the grocery store, then to the apartment. We drove through a small patch of 'bad' traffic on the way out of the area where the grocery store is - I thought I did pretty well :)

Tomorrow I start the preliminary steps to wiring the Diocesan offices, and Carrie gets to visit the fabric district.

Uganda Day 2: Mid-day

We had a relatively lazy morning for the second day in a row, though Andy was up at 4 am. Apparently Ambien isn’t as high up on the great list as we originally thought. Anyhoo, I woke up to the rooster crowing outside our apartment feeling hot and sticky. Compared to the weather in Philly, it felt great. I ate breakfast while Andy went out for some air time on his mobile phone, then we went outside to take pictures of the area surrounding the apartment. Peter, the same driver that we had from yesterday, picked us up along with our delightful host, Sarah. They dropped us off at the craft market where we picked up a few goodies, and then walked to the Kampala Diocese offices. We waited for our friend Hannington to pick us up for a traditional Ugandan lunch at St. Anthony’s restaurant (very good food, but now I know that I’m not such a fan of matoke). Now we’re sitting in the Geneva Global office with Hannington. American breakfast a la Andy is up for dinner tonight along with Sarah and her boyfriend. And that is the detailed summary of March 11.

Uganda: Day 1

Things that are wonderful
1. Avocadoes
2. Ambien
3. Yogurt and granola
4. Hot water heaters
5. Clean sheets
6. Getting most of our luggage (see number 5 below)
7. Friends (especially ones you haven’t seen in a while.)

Things that are less than wonderful
1. Traffic in Kampala
2. Dirt
3. Developing world communications infrastructure
4. Exchanging money when your home currency is falling.
5. Not getting some of your luggage.

There you go – the wonderful list outnumbers the less than wonderful list, so we’re content. ☺

Uganda in the morning

After a wonderful, drug induced sleep, it is now morning. Hot, sticky and noisy. Just how I remembered it :)

So - I have really big life-news. Its off topic but I'm going to post it anyway. Some or most of you may know that I was adopted at birth. Recently, Carrie was asking me if I ever wanted to connect with my biological family (yes) and what was stopping me (nothing). So, we wrote them a letter, hoping the family still lived in the same place.

Upon our arrival here in Uganda I was able to check my e-mail, and to my unbelievable surprise, I had e-mails from both my biological sister, and grandfather. What an awesome thing. I won't post the details here but I was very graciously welcomed back into the fold and everyone is looking forward to catching up. My sister, Kristen, even sent pictures which I was able to download and view here (though they took for EVER on this 64k ADSL line.) So great.

Thanks to those of you that prayed about that letter for me.

Best to everyone,

Andy

We're arrived

After a series of very long but uneventful flights, we have showered and are sitting comfortably on our host's couch. We met some very nice people, got just a little bit of sleep (Ambien didn't work so well for Andy), and were quite calm (Adivan worked for me). Yay!

The airline only lost/misplaced one bag but we feel good about finding it before we leave.

More tomorrow after we've had some sleep.

Itinerary

We've had a few requests that we send our itinerary, so here it is in a web version. Sorry for the boringness of the post. :)

UGANDA
KLM Flight: 5769 Operated by: NORTHWEST AIRLINES
From: INTL, PHILADELPHIA Saturday, March 08, 2008, 12:43:00 PM
To: DETROIT METRO, DETROIT Saturday, March 08, 2008, 2:36:00 PM

KLM Flight: 6068 Operated by: NORTHWEST AIRLINES
From: DETROIT METRO, DETROIT Saturday, March 08, 2008, 5:40:00 PM
To: SCHIPHOL, AMSTERDAM Sunday, March 09, 2008, 7:35:00 AM (1:35amEST, 9:35amUG)

KLM Flight: 561
From: SCHIPHOL, AMSTERDAM Sunday, March 09, 2008, 10:50:00 AM (4:50amEST, 12:50pUG)
To: SCHIPHOL, ENTEBBE Sunday, March 09, 2008, 8:50:00 PM (12:50pmEST)

March 24, 2008 (approximate)
Travel to Kitgum, Northern Uganda

March 31, 2008 (approximate)
Return to Kampala


KENYA
KENYA AIRWAYS Flight: 413
From: SCHIPHOL, ENTEBBE Thursday, April 03, 2008, 3:05:00 PM
To: JOMO KENYATTA, NAIROBI Thursday, April 03, 2008, 4:20:00 PM

Friday April 4, 2008
Nairobi – Mombasa train 7 pm
Arrive Mombasa 9 am Saturday April 5, 2008

Mombasa – Nairobi train 7 pm Thursday April 10, 2008
Arrive Nairobi 9 am Friday April 11, 2008

KLM Flight: 566
From: JOMO KENYATTA, NAIROBI Sunday, April 13, 2008, 10:05:00 PM (2:05pmEST)
To: SCHIPHOL, AMSTERDAM Monday, April 14, 2008, 5:30:00 AM (11:30pmEST, 7:30amUG)

KLM Flight: 6039 Operated by: NORTHWEST AIRLINES
From: SCHIPHOL, AMSTERDAM Monday, April 14, 2008, 8:00:00 AM (2:00amEST, 10:00amUG)
To: DETROIT METRO, DETROIT Monday, April 14, 2008, 10:40:00 AM (6:40pmUG)

KLM Flight: 5768 Operated by: NORTHWEST AIRLINES
From: DETROIT METRO, DETROIT Monday, April 14, 2008, 1:45:00 PM (9:45pmUG)
To: INTL, PHILADELPHIA Monday, April 14, 2008, 3:29:00 PM (11:29pmUG)

We're going!

Details are to follow, but the bottom line is, Carrie and I are going to be in Uganda and Kenya from March 8th until April 14th! Check back here for details. We'll post updates and pictures as we go.