Day #21

6-9-09
Traveling home (random, scattered thoughts)

7:45am (Uganda time) As we were leaving King Fisher Lodge some children waved excitedly at us. It then dawned on me that being here in Uganda we have basically been treated like celebrities by the majority of the children. In addition to this, in comparison to the locals, we are extremely rich. For as long as I can remember I have always said I never want to be either rich or famous. Being here in Uganda, I'm both.

9:27am The mountains are beautiful. These people are blessed to see this every day. Although, it's harder to appreciate things you have day after day. I know I don't appreciate the beauty of the mountains and river back at home as much as my friends did when they came to visit. Why is that?

10:27am One thing I've noticed since my time here is that there are quite a few nice church buildings that probably cost a lot to build. Just like in the U.S., this bothers me. I don't understand why the Body of Christ spends so much money on buildings when there are so many people in need who could be blessed in more tangible ways than through a silly church building. I know in the OT the building of the Tabernacle was a big deal, but we are under a new covenant and I honestly don't think expensive buildings are what Jesus would have liked His disciples to spend their money on. He was much more concerned with the state of people's hearts and meeting their physical needs.

11:50am So... 30km from where we were going to stop for lunch, one of our vehicles overheated. So we are currently sitting in the other van, waiting for Sam and Chizito (our drivers) to get things worked out.
Andrea has a crowd of children around her because she is trying to learn Luganda. It's really cute. We are stopped on the side of the road, in front of a small village. So of course there are many children and they are all adorable. I think some of them are on their lunch break.
Actually, it's kind of a nice surprise, seeing all these beautiful children. Our plans for the day did not include anymore people contact and I was reflecting on how much I was going to miss the children.

2:43pm Not too long ago we passed a couple of skinny dogs and I got to thinking about how in America you see overweight dogs everywhere. But here you will never find one. A matter of fact, we probably have more well fed dogs in the U.S. than Uganda has children. This is so sad...

10:40pm I really have mixed feelings about leaving Uganda and heading home... I really love this country and especially the people of this country, but at the same time, it'll be really nice to see my family- especially since I haven't seen them since Christmas. I think it helps knowing I will be coming back. I'm pretty positive I want to do the Uganda Semester abroad program. That would be really cool. I was also talking to Lisa earlier and then got to thinking how cool it would be to do the "World Race" - traveling the world in 11 months through a missions program. If I do an internship with "Word of Life" next summer (hopefully in India) and then do a semester in Uganda followed by an internship with a ministry within the country over the summer, I could then go home for Christmas and do the "World Race" beginning that January. That would be a whole year and a half of life changing experiences. But I guess I should remember the quote one of the missionaries gave us: "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans." I guess I just have to continue praying and seeking His will.
So while we were driving from Queen Elizabeth back to Kampala, Chizito pointed out one of the Kings' palaces (apparently there are 5 Kings throughout the land). But on the way to the airport Andrea said Sam had told her how this particular King became King when he was 9 years old! I'm not sure how old he is now, though. But according to Chizito, the Kings are very influential throughout Uganda. Since many people don't like the government, if the President wants to get them to do something, they use the Kings and convince the Kings to demand their wishes of the people. The same request that the government and the King makes is twice as effective coming from one of the Kings. Interesting.