In the Heart of Africa

We are here in Jinja, Uganda and it's been a wonderful week thus far! We are living at a beautiful place...large property so it's kinda of like an oasis from the village and city. Keith and I have our own little room complete with a TOILET, which the rest of our teammates are jealous about because they have a ceramic covered hole in the ground to take care of business. One of my favorite things about where we're living is the huge filtered water tank that is 15 feet from our front door! Praise the Lord! It's not cold, but it also doesn't give you the runs...so that's all that matters.

Uganda is absolutely gorgeous. The sunsets are beautiful, the afternoon thunder storms are thrilling, and the lush landscape is quite enchanting. We have goats, chickens, puppies, cows, and geckos in our front, back, and side yard. :) Oh!...and turkeys! We can't forget the turkeys. Their gobbling lulls me to sleep.

My favorite part of the week was visiting and Women's Prison located right next to Lake Victoria. Myself and 3 other girls from our group accompanied a man from Y.W.A.M. who has started prison ministry over the last few years. We taught, chatted, and prayed with 30 women who were in prison. I had a great time praying with Rachel and Josephine. They promised to continue to pray for me as we continued on our journey.

On Wednesday night Keith and I stayed over at a local women's house. The Ugandan people LOVE to be hospitable so we took them up on their offer to join them for evening conversations in their mud hut living room and then stay the night. A giant cockroach stayed the night with us too! We had a great time with our host Irene and her two kids Faith and Joshua. They are 17 years old and 22 years old and served as a translator. They are an absolutely delightful family. We'll have to post some pictures later.

We haven't experienced full-blown culture shock yet, but it'll surely come.

Our entire team is stoked to be here and eager to see how God works throughout our time in Uganda and South Africa. After Easter we will leave Jinja and head NE to Soroti.

I apologize for any typos, I'm in a rush here at the Internet cafe.

Much Love from Africa,
Lisa