Update one, just a wee bit late

Well here I am in a hole in the wall internet cafe in downtown Kampala. I have already used up 19 of my 40 minutes getting to this page so I hope I can type swiftly and get finished in time. I attempted to post the day after I arrived but after typing for half an hour the computer lost connection and my composition when I clicked submit. Since then we have been on a 5 day village trip where we had no Internet or reception. Actually I just managed to post the previous one, a draft saved on my profile thankfully.

The journey was long yet eventful. My flights got changed at the last minute due to overbooking, I enjoyed my first full English breakfast for such a long time in Amsterdam, my bags didn't arrive, and I had an interesting experience with some immigration officers. I arrived exhausted but was quickly awoken when my van driver entered the mayhem of Uganda traffic on the way to our accommodation. The look left that I am used to making in the US is useful even here because many drive on the wrong side of the road anyway!

I am staying in a small american style house in the city suburbs with around 25 american/british college students and another 15 ugandans of slightly older ages. We sleep 4 to a room, have cold water showers, a spot to pee in the yard(for guys), and a huge pot of rice and beans most days for meals. Within walking distance are stores that sell candy, marmite, french fries, and coke in glass bottles. At least 2 trips to these has been a norm so far. On the night I arrived I was told that soon we would be leaving for a group trip to the Northern part of Uganda which has been affected by the recent war. This was news to me and a little concerning since I had made of point of making sure I was staying far from that region. I was assured that it was all safe by the Ugandans and when no-one else seemed to be too worried I was satisfied. We took a 6 hour ride along dirt roads in a taxi van, fitting 18 people when only 14 should be seated, with no air conditioning. What should have been a nightmare was in fact one of my favorite car rides ever, everyone enjoyed eachothers company and was excited about the upcoming ministry. We arrived in Gulu and found our accommodation to be a step lower than Kampala - no electricity or running water, and the guys slept out in tents. The joke at the end of the 4 days was that we missed Kampala, our home!

While we were in Gulu we visited schools and gave assemblies and preached to the kids. It astounded me that if I wanted to I could have volunteered to preach to a high school of 300 kids. Instead I said an opening prayer and told them that I supported Liverpool, to much applause. Our ongoing project was to build a house for a family in the village whose parents had both died in the war. 9 children were living with their grandmother and had too little space. We spent at least 30 hours carrying bricks, sticks, bags of cement, tin sheets etc. many miles of fields and beaten down paths. The inefficiency was quite scary. One morning we spent a few hours moving bricks in one direction only to have to carry them back the same way when we changed the site for the house. I was involved in digging a hole for the toilet connected to the house. What started as shovelling away at some nice dirt became pick-axing at rocks after a couple feet. When the job became too much for us Westerners, the Ugandans stepped in a dug down to 10 feet deep with our cheerleading. The hard working ethos of these guys is quite astounding.

So far the ministry to children hasn't been very organized but basically wherever we go a following of village youngsters builds behind us. Most of them know some English, love to hold hands and give high fives, and love to stare! We play games with them, give them piggy back rides and judging by the smiles on their faces they thoroughly enjoy it.

One boy in our group has long brown hair and a beard and gets greeted almost anywhere as YESU, ugandan for our Saviour. The kids giggle at him and point and he loves to play along with the joke.

Well there are so many other things that we have been up to here that I'm overwhelmed by how much more I could type. We visited a refugee camp, had a accident with a sharp tool and someones face, had one of our group members bitten by a rat, and have been singing some of the coolest african praise songs.

Uganda is a beautiful country. The stars are the best I've seen, the weather is fantastic, the people are vibrant and smiling often, the culture is exciting, and it is full of God. Obviously there is still a lot to be done but I'm definitely glad to be here and continue His work.

I must go now. Tomorrow we get back into ministry in Kampala as we visit a juvenile detention home. I hope we can reach out there. Love to you all reading. I hope I can write again within a week. Thanks, Tommy