Sunday I had a journey to Kapchorwa. That was pretty fun. The word Kapchorwa actually means home of friends. This was a rather apt name for the place. The people there were excellent. The views were quite awesome. The Mt Elgon National Forest/Park thing starts right there and goes over into Kenya. The service was rather long. We were there for 3 hours before I started teaching. The service was roughly 5 and a halfish hours. Then when we were leaving we met 3 young fellows who are aspiring musicians. That was a good time. They were funny and friendly chaps. They played for us. They were pretty good.
On Monday I was trying very diligently to work on my messages for Spiritual Emphasis. This is not going all that well. One of my spiritual gifts is procrastination. One of my other spiritual gifts is not writing. That puts me squarely at struggling.
Tuesday Kennedy and I went on a vagabondage around town in search for an importation permit. We went here and there and everywhere and finally found the proper person with the answers. The answer was that we needed to travel to Entebbe. That was not such great news since that is about 5 hours from Mbale.
Anthony and Sarah had a friend at their place this week. Her name is also Sara. They all went to seminary together, and Sara spent the last month in Soroti. So she spent a few days in Mbale before going back to the US. On Wednesday afternoon I went to Sarah and Anthony's house for supper with the 3 of them. We had pizza and no bake cookies. This may have been the most fantastic meal I've ever eaten in my life. Not that I don't enjoy African food, but it is pretty much all the same. A rather tasteless starch with a good soupish thing poured over the top. The best part was having mozzarella cheese. This cheese was made by Jerome. (A dutch fellow that is now a resident here since 1989. He came first as a missionary. He now has a Ugandan wife and dairy farm. He also owns a cafe in town where he sells his goods. He is a pretty cool fellow.) The next best part was the no bakes. Most Africans are not real big on sweet things. There really isn't such a thing as dessert, except something like... bananas... Speaking of bananas I will almost definitely will not be potassium deficient after this trip.
After we ate we played speed scrabble. I found out that this is not my spiritual gift either. I did make them feel better about themselves though, so that is good.
Then on Thursday we went on a most fantastic adventure. Sarah and Anthony had heard of this game park called Pian Upe (Pee-on Oopay) at the Uganda Wildlife Authority. You would think that the folks there would be well versed in their parks, but we were in for a surprise. We found a private hire driver and a vehicle to whisk us to this location (about 2.5 hours away from Mbale). We even found one with a nice vehicle for taking on the game drive. We then get to the park at about 9:00. This is where the problems started.
When we arrived the people there told us a different price than what we heard in Mbale. In Mbale they said just 20 dollars for a guide. At Pian Upe they said 20 per person, plus 20 for a guide. We got them to accept 60 total since they told us wrong. Then we get back in the car. Along with the guide. They also wanted to send us with 2 more guides (all toting AK's) but we didn't have room so we just went with one guide. Her name is Susan.
We take off down the road, and then she tells us we've driven past the entrance. This should have been warning number 3 that we should not go. There was no road through the game park. She had us just driving out accross the bush through 7-10 foot grass. "Don't worry this won't last long and we'll make it to the road" Susan says. About 100 yards later we make it to the road. This "road" looked much the same to us as the non road did, perhaps we don't have the highly trained eye that Susan does. We then drove for about 1/2 an hour this way. Sarah was having massive allergy attack. Sara was getting car sick. We didn't see any animals. We got the $20 guide fee back but lost 40 bucks on entry fees. We also lost the money on the private hire. We did have a good time though.
Friday I went with Sarah and Sara to Kampala. We took the 6:30 bus. This cost 10000 Sh. Which is roughly $4.90. The trip was 4ish hours. I then met Julius in Kampala and went to Entebbe. I got my stuff done for importing "soya beans" from Brazil. We then went back to Kampala. This journey is about an hour by taxi. We then ate lunch and met the Sara(h)'s at the African Craft Village. There is some cool stuff there. I got a few things. Then we came back to Mbale. Well Sarah Systma and I did. Sara stayed in Kampala because she was going on a real game drive today and then leaving the country in a couple of days.
I saw more Mzungus in this trip than I have seen in the past month put together. Some looked like they could live here, but most were touristy, wearing shorts and looking a bit foolish. When at the craft market I wondered how many Mzungus just go in there and buy stuff for the price they are told. That would be rather a silly thing to do.
Hmm... so today I am trying to do my sermons... see I'm working on them very hard? Then I am going to a church here in town to do stuff with the youth there. I am probably going to be working with them during the week now so I'm excited about that.
Tomorrow I am going to Sironko District again to Mary's church. Anthony and Sarah said that when they went to this church that it was the longest service they've ever attended. Well I have probably rambled long enough for today. Hope none have slipped into a coma whilst reading my random musings.
I still cannot upload pictures here. Sorry about that.
Actually, I did slip into a near-coma a couple of times, but after a few hours rest, I was feeling better enough to press on. Well done.
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