Brace yourself. It’s been a roller coaster over the last week, so this post could get quite lengthy. Hold out though, because this will finish up all the travel adventures I had in Africa. Meaning, yes, I am back on American soil! 🙂

After long, emotional goodbyes to my new RG kids and family, I hitched a ride to Kampala with a team traveling to the airport. I was on a time crunch, which I should know by now is a foreign concept in Uganda. I had to make it to Kasubi, the school where my sponsor child, Betty, attends, before school got out that afternoon. Naturally, the driver had to make a few unannounced stops, the car had to break down a few times, we had to make a trip to the mechanic shop, and we had to take a wild goose chase to find an actual toilet for a girl who struggled with a bush toilet (she never got a real toilet). Eventually, we made it to the lunch stop, where I was parting ways with the group. The driver was concerned with my stomach, and told me there was plenty of time for lunch. Also being concerned with my stomach as well as time, I informed him that’s why Americans invented pre-packaged protein bars and away we went. (Disclaimer: I don’t actually know who invented protein bars, but I thank them anyway.)

I safely made it to Kasubi and surprised many of my Ugandan friends. What a joy to see their faces 🙂 Betty walked into the office beaming from ear to ear. I gave her a new back pack full of little gifts, and for every gift inside, she gave me a hug. It’s incredible to see how something so simple to me made her entire year. Sadly, many sponsored kids never get the privilege of meeting their sponsor, and some don’t really have any correspondence with their sponsor, so this was extremely special for both of us. Betty had a little surprise for me, too. She got permission to take me to meet her mom, Miriam, and siblings at Miriam’s little market stand. She proudly held my hand and practically running, dragged me down the streets and through the alleys. (For all my fellow Disney fans: It was like Aladdin when he sings “One Jump Ahead”, dodging his way through the crowded city.) Betty tore into the back pack again, showing her mom and siblings all of the new things, especially the candy, which she did willingly share — proud mom moment for Miriam and I! I feel so honored to have a special part in this family’s life.

I was very happy to be hosted by and see the Stevenson family again! (Side note for all that know Tim and Colleen: they got their Ugandan citizenship just a few days ago!) Their staff is wonderful and I was elated to see them as well. There was a small mission team from Butler, PA at the Stevenson’s that I joined in the border-town of Busia. This team’s affiliate church is starting a partnership with a village called Businywa on the Kenyan-Ugandan border. There was so much security that we almost couldn’t drive down the road without hitting a police officer. I laughed when our driver told us that was because our President was making a visit in Kenya soon. It seems that current news is sometimes hard to come by in the bush, but apparently, he really did visit.

In Businywa the PA team spent several days teaching a Sunday School clinic, doing wellness physicals for the children and mothers, playing games with the children, going on home visits to those with HIV/AIDS, and pouring a concrete floor for the church. Every previous Thursday, the women of the church had spent the day collecting cow dung and spreading it on the church floor before church on the weekend. This is now such a huge burden lifted from the church! I spent my time going on all of the home visits and playing games with the children. The home visits are always an incredibly humbling and surreal experience. Each of the people we visited are a part of TAPP (Tumaini Aids Prevention Program), which is a program that helps support those affected by getting them proper treatment, food and support for them and their families. Many of the homes were women who knew they were affected, but the husbands were uncertain because they were unwilling to get tested. We visited twelve client homes in all — one man, one 14 year old boy, and the rest women. Sadly, even when the women knew they were positive, they would still have more children; thus, many of the children were positive as well. By far, the most striking part of this experience for me was visiting and learning about the lives of those in polygamist relationships. Hearing about polygamy is one thing, but seeing it firsthand and experiencing the emotion and evil that goes along with it is powerful. I spent most of these days trying to put myself in the shoes of these men, women and children, which was overwhelming and rocked my world. The reality of these families lives is devastating on so many levels.

The team opted to pay to stay at a guest house, rather than camping. All of our rooms backed up to a courtyard, which held a going away party on night one and a wedding reception on night two. On a good note, we didn’t have to leave our rooms to be a part of the parties. On a bad note, the windows did not close so we could never leave the parties. The sub-woofers did help us out with vibrating massage beds, that we didn’t even have to pay for…an added “perk”! On the last night I was there, we may have found nerf guns in the donation bags the team brought and caused a little bit of our own disturbance. There was a full on war with the muzungus and the hotel staff. I think we sweat more running through the halls that than we did during the heat of the day in the African sun…such a blast!

Our team had to split up three ways on Sunday morning for different church sites. When visitors come, they always deliver the message, and the PA team had only come prepared with two people to preach…can anyone guess where this is going? “I think I heard Kelsey say she was willing to help out your team in any way she could,” said Colleen with a grin. And that was that. In the villages, church services tend to be a short 5-6 hours long; therefore, sermons easily last an hour or two. Like any good preacher, I had spent my night preparing to deliver the message by bonding with my new team through styrofoam bullets and plastic guns. Before I went on the trip, I thought it might be a good idea to prep a little sermon outline and gather biblical passages, in case there was an off chance I would need them. Funny how the Lord always takes care of us, isn’t it? The Ugandans have a simple song that says, “When the Lord is on your side, things already better, things already better, things already better.” Amen to that. Service was beautiful. My message delivery was smooth (props to my translator, David Wafula). The Lord was praised.

The next day, I headed back to Kampala with Colleen and her son, Jesse, because he and I both had to fly out before the team returned home. We spent the next day together relaxing, hanging out with the staff and enjoying each others company. I picked up a friendly little parasite somewhere along the way. We got along great for a little while, until he tried to set up camp and take over my insides. He and I battled it out, while I continued to finish up my days with shopping, packing, and visiting more friends. My team traveled down from RG the day before we flew, and Dr. Margaret gave me medicine to kill the parasite, so thankfully, that killed it quickly and I was able to fly with no problems. All travels and flights were smooth sailing and our team arrived home with only one missing piece of luggage!

Stay tuned for one of the most important blogs of all: debriefing. I will be posting soon, after I get some of these thoughts and emotions collected enough to write them coherently 🙂 Thank you for following and living vicariously through me! Your support and love is always felt and appreciated.

Love,
Kelsey