London, Jinja..woah

I have not slept for close to 40  hours. And have just had my first shower since last Thursday. I am running on chai and excitement. Yesterday morning I landed in London and did the quickest tour of the city you could ever imagine. We have a friend, John who lives there and he was kind enough to show me around. I got all the fun facts from him: Did you know cabbies can not take a fare if their cab has any body damage? It’s against the law, and they will be fined for it. So the cars all look so nice and pristine. And incidentally are very good drivers as well. And really, where else would you see a Bentley cab? I am pretty sure I (very quickly) saw all the major touristy attractions of the city.

My favorite place of all was the Westminster Abbey.  It was the most breathtaking building I have ever laid eyes on. The history in the walls is completely overwhelming. Most of all you really can’t help but feel God’s presence in a very special way there. I even lit a candle at Westminster Abbey and said a quick prayer. And of course I had fish and chips at a pub near the river. At around 6:00 PM John helped me back to the Express because the tube workers were on strike. Okay, so John lived in the States before, this is how we met him, so he has a sort of American way of talking but for the most part I couldn’t understand a word the British said. Seriously, I felt like they were speaking a different language. I started to wonder if it was due to the fact that they enunciate a different syllable in a word than American’s and I then focus on that syllable and don’t hear the rest of the word. And I love being called madam, it just feels so prim and proper. The other thing I noticed was how well everyone dressed as compared to Americans. The British seem to dress a little more conservatively and classy. Americans are definitely more casual dressers. Not one pair of sweat-pants! Well except for mine..
And I did not see one single obese person. Not one! But I won’t get into that.

I departed London at 9PM and we arrived in Entebbe at about 7AM. I couldn’t sleep. Maybe it was all the British tea. We started to descend right as the sun had risen high enough to just see the landscape. It was so amazing and so beautiful. Believe it or not, all 7 of our trunks made it with everything intact. Our ride from the airport to Jinja (about 2 hours away) is a wonderful missionary family that lives in Rwanda that happened to be headed to visit their friends, who also happen to be the team we are meeting with here.

The drive from the airport to the town of Jinja. I don’t even know where to start. Well first, the traffic is crazy. Cars cutting each other off, mostly taxis, and the pot-holes! motorcycles pulling out without even looking to see if a car is coming with sometimes even up to three or four people crammed on one, bicyclists just barely avoiding catastrophe, and the pedestrians..there are millions of people, everywhere. It was nerve wracking to say the least. I really was worried about running someone over. Actually it was pretty scary. I am so thankful that I did not have to drive!

The poverty is indescribable. Even pictures can not fully portray how desperately poor this country is. You have to see it with your own eyes. But kilometer after kilometer this is what I saw.

There was not one single home that looked suitable for living. There were children walking home from school with no shoes on, some looked no older than three. Children begging in the city with an infant strapped to their back.

We met up with family I am staying with, the Manry family, a beautiful and welcoming family with four amazing kids. And the fifth was added just today! They are adopting a baby boy from here. We met up just a few minutes after they picked him up from the orphanage. They have lived here for close to 5 years and are getting ready to return to live in the States. What an amazing day!

My mind has melted into oblivion. I am going to try to get a good nights sleep in this wonderful and comfy bed. I can’t wait for what tomorrow will bring!
Blessings, Bonnie