Village Life

We have spent the last two days and nights in a village of one of the pastors who works with CLD. It is outside of Kalero, in eastern Uganda. There was no power or running water, but shown gracious hospitality by the families we stayed with. Our meals were simple with porridge for breakfast, rice and beans for lunches and dinners. We slept on the floors of the concrete house under mosquito nets (Jared, Greg, and Matt sharing one net and two pads was a bonding experience).

Our time there was spent encouraging the village pastor, Jacob, and visiting both a primary and secondary school. The visits allowed us an opportunity to hear from the students about their hopes and give them a chance to ask us questions about American life. The weather over the last two days has been challenging as it rained on and off most of our time there. Despite the weather our team played a soccer game against the secondary school, losing 4 to 2. The students found great joy in seeing the "muzungus" defeated by their schoolmates. Last night we distributed both candy and toothpaste & toothbrushes to the people of the village before they showed a movie on the projector we brought from Kampala.

We are now in Jinja where we will separate from the rest of the CLD team for the next two days. Our team along with Jennie O are going to spend some time at a campground on the Nile river about 20km outside of Jinja. The retreat campground is called the Hairy Lemon and we have heard you take a boat to reach it. It should be an interesting adventure to conclude our time here in Uganda with.

Our time here is coming to an end and we are grateful for the opportunity to spend these last few days reflecting on our experiences and debriefing them with Jennie O. We look forward to sharing more stories and pictures of our time with many of you soon. Thank you for your prayers over the last few weeks.