Outreach '09 Part Two

I don’t honestly know what I expected Uganda to be like. Every African country I’ve been to so far has had it’s own unique atmosphere and flavor. Mozambique is very Latin. South Africa has a very strong European influence that is especially evident in the cities. One of my first thoughts on the long drive from Kampala to Jinja was how very African Uganda seemed. Even at midnight, the streets were bustling with bicycles, motorbikes, and taxis and the beat of a thousand radios was the city’s lullaby.

From Blogger Pictures

Physically, this wasn’t an easy outreach. Unless we went to down and found a western restaurant all we ate was Ugandan food, which meant that for breakfast we had two dry rolls and sweet, milk tea and lunch and dinner usually consisted of rice, beans, and grisly meat. Oh, and possibly Matoki which was a very popular mashed green banana, but not sweet at all. The mosquitoes were vicious and the humidity unrelenting. Also, they have this red dirt that stained everything. Your clothes, feet, skin, shoes, sheets. Everything. At the beginning of the trip we walked everywhere and dehydration was a problem.

From Blogger Pictures

That all makes it sound like a miserable trip, but in reality it was the best outreach I’ve ever been on. Yes, there were tough situations, but everyone on the team handled them beautifully and without complaint [or at least not too many complaints!]. We spent most of the outreach working with a YWAM ministry called Orphans Know More. Their goal is to place orphans in family situations, rather than institutions. We would visit a family every day and some of these homes had almost twenty children. We never quite knew what we would be doing exactly, but for the most part we would play games, do bible studies, crafts, and pray for the family.

From Blogger Pictures

Jinja is located just on the edge of Lake Victoria and right near the source of the Nile. Unfortunately, you can’t swim in either as there is some kind of deadly bacteria in the water, but just being able to float down the Nile was amazing.

You’ll be hearing more stories from Uganda in the near future! At the moment, I am on vacation and enjoying relaxing and taking it easy before I start back into the regular swing of things.