Update 1 from Uganda

Check out this update from Scott and Georgianna's trip to Uganda in May.

Greetings from Kampala! On late Thursday night after a 20 hour journey, we arrived in Nairobi, Kenya. We were fortunate that our flights were not affected by the volcanic ash, although many airports in Europe are still experiencing delays and closures. We spent two days in Nairobi with my parents, Reverend David and Jennifer Hatley of Christian Ministries in Africa. We enjoyed spending time with family and visiting the ministry headquarters looking at the new building projects they are working on and seeing the children in Grace Children's Centre, a home for orphans, some healthy and some with HIV. We gave out some dresses that were hand sewn and donated by RSVP, a group of retired seniors from Plainview, Texas, who have provided us with around 100 dresses. Thank you RSVP for this generous donation. The girls were very excited to receive the new clothes.On early Sunday morning we set our for Uganda. We had a fun “only-in-Africa” experience at the airport where after we had been security checked and seated in a very small, airless pre-boarding room for our flight, an airline official came out and informed us (without any kind of PA system, which led to much confusion, as the majority of people couldn't hear him) that we might not be flying due to “personal problems”. We weren't quite sure if meant personnel, or something else! He assured us he would be back in 10 minutes with more information. 30 minutes later he returned to let us know that a crew member was “missing” but they had found a replacement and we would be boarding soon. We did indeed board, and we were off.We were met at the Entebbe airport by Pastor Jackson, our associate here who made the initial trips to the Gulu area to look at locations and meet with government officials, and our driver Lamek, who will be with us throughout our stay.After a brief lunch, we were of to Kira district on the outskirts of Kampala city where we had the opportunity to meet and speak to a group of pastors from Church on The Rock Uganda, for whom Jackson serves as overseer. These pastors had gathered from the far reaches of the nation for a conference. It was quite an experience for us because although we had initially thought that we were only to greet the pastors, thank them, and offer some words of encouragement to them, we were informed in the car on the way to Kira that we were the main speakers for the afternoon session and scheduled to speak again the next afternoon! It turned out to be a very special time and we were amazed to see men who had struggled to get the money to come to Kampala to gather together and who also are so supportive of us. For many of these men, visitors from America was a new experience. Their welcome really touched us and started off our time here in a great way. One of the young men in attendance, Elvis, who served as translator, spoke about his discouragement because of his inability to complete his education due to lack of school fees. Elvis spoke again at the end of the conference, and told us that our words had encouraged him to not give up the struggle to finish high school. This spurred us on in our vision, because we saw firsthand how important education is to the young people of this country and the need for affordable quality schooling for so many Ugandans.Yesterday morning we were able to take some time to be tourists and visit the source of the Nile, which is in Jinja, about an hour drive from Kampala. We took a boat out onto the Nile river and actually traveled to what is known as the zero mark, where Lake Victoria ends and the river begins. This experience in itself was amazing, and the trip also gave us an opportunity to see more of the Ugandan countryside. This is a beautiful area of the country, green and lush with an abundance of crops from plantain bananas (a staple food here) to sugar cane to tea. On the way back we stopped at a roadside stand for a lunch of roasted chicken on a stick and fried plantains wrapped in notebook paper, and then we were off to the for another afternoon at the church.We have two more days here in Kampala meeting with some other contacts and preparing for our trip to the North. We are very excited to see what is in store for us over the next week. Thank you for all your support. We will have another update for you soon. We have posted some photos to the page—be sure to take a look at them!Georgianna and Scott