Wednesday, May 15th, 2013

Dear Friends and Family:  We have not had internet here since we arrived so we have been unable to post - Sorry.  In fact this is actually being posted on Thursday May 16th at 2pm Uganda time but not in a simple manner.  To transmit via the internet, Dave has to go outside of the Empowerment Centre to a certain spot in the front corner of the property where he is lined up with the towers in order to transmit, but since it is sunny today he has to go back in forth from the inside of the building to the outside to type (so he can see it) and then transmit.    Let's catch up!  We (Dave ad Karen) arrived safely on Tuesday evening, met at the airport by Generous, and her entire family except Richard (who is away on business) Christopher, our driver and John Waechter.  We were so happy to be together!  While we were traveling, other members of the team exchanged money, prepared the cell phones, shopped for a DVD player and TV, met with Minister Banyansaki who grew up in the Muko area, visited the market at the National Theatre and had a feast at Generous' home.  Their day was busy and productive.  A 32" TV was purchased for the MUKO Empowerment Centre and the salesman assured us that any DVD would operate in it - we will see!.  On Wednesday, we left for Generous' home by 8:30 a.m. Generous prepared a short update meeting and fitted all the women on the for Ugandan clothing appropriate for Alexander's wedding.  We planned to leave between 10-11 am to hit the road for Kabale and arrive there before dark since the roads are quite difficult.  We left at 10:45 a.m.  We enjoyed a lovely lunch at the Equator on a porch with a pleasant breeze and devotions by John.  During the long drive, we noticed that many sections of the road had been improved since last year, however, there were times that the road disappeared or there were potholes big enough for a pig roast.  Our expert driver, Christopher, negotiated every challenge and we arrived in Kabale after nine hours of driving.  In spite of leaving as early as possible from Kampala we still had to drive in the dark for over an hour which added to the scare factor.  When we arrived in Kabale we were lost when Christoper took us to the Cephas Inn (a place were a previous team stayed).  Everyone was confused and Dave made us laugh when he said "Turn right here.....Trust Me! or go straight?"  We are not letting him forget this!  We finally had to ask directions!  We ordered dinner right away, unpacked, and finally ate around 10 p.m.  Most of the dinner conversation consisted of shared stories of critters invading our homes. (When I get home I am going to ask Sue Waechter about a dive bombing raccoon.)  The team is glad we are here - the travel is accomplished.  We thanked God for His guidance and care and prayed to be His hands and feet in the coming days.  We are truly looking forward to seeing Josiah, Alexander, and Tito, the large contingent of volunteers who will assist us and some of our older children tomorrow (now today).  We send our love to you and pray for internet at the hotel tomorrow.

Thursday:  Briefly, since I (dave) have to go outside and stand at the corner of the property to send yesterdays update I want to add a short note that we arrived in the village around 10:30 a.m. and were greeted by a large contingency of Ugandans.  It is now 2:30 our time, we have had a great day so far, have laughed a lot while planning for tomorrow.  We were joined by Julius who is a local trained ag person,.  In fact they are leaving right now to visit land plots.  We will prepare an update this evening and probably walk down to the IT store to send it out.  By for now.