Day 3 - Sights and Smells

Greetings from Uganda!

We landed safely in Entebbe late on Saturday evening and got a few hours rest at the Central Inn, just a few minutes from the airport. It's been a long, exhausting journey (as Brad reflected, probably one of the worst he's experienced with any previous team).

Early Sunday morning we loaded up the bus and headed towards Jinja taking in the sights along the way - lush green rain forests, the coast of Lake Victoria, and the busy streets of Kampala. I had forgotten how hot the sun is here at the Equator - it's been 30 degrees and sunny since we arrived. Perfect. As we drove the smell of diesel fumes, burning grass and garbage wafted through the air breezing through the bus windows.

We met up with Pastor Ian at Mto Moyoni and drove into Wakisi village to attend two church services. Thankfully we were only asked to sing at one of them! We enjoyed the singing, dancing and passionate worship of the believers in Wakisi. We look forward to the celebration service next week at Pastor Simon Peter's newly renovated church.

After the services we were invited to the soccer pitch where we would participate in what has become a traditional event for our teams - Canada vs. Uganda. When we arrived the field was empty, but after a few minutes of kicking the ball around we had drawn a sizeable crowd. There must have been one hundred or more villagers in the grand stands, ready to cheer on the Canadians! Of course we lost the game - though honourable mention goes to Pastor Ian and Brad for valiantly guarding our net! Final score was 4 to 1.

Today we visited the construction site at Gospel Messenger's Church in Wakisi Sub-County (our thanks to John Dinner for this coordination of this project). Progress is well under way and Otto, Paul, Wayne and Curtis were excited to get there hands dirty. All the windows and doors are complete, the floor is finished and the masonry work is almost complete as well. For those on our team who remember the original structure, we were amazed at the transformation. The rest of the team visited Baby Justine in Jinja town to purchase more necklaces for the @the Source Beads team.

Family Kit distribution will begin later this week and we're all looking forward to getting into the village to share our story with the widows and orphans.