Trip to Jinja-- sat. Feb.10

TRip to Jinja

Sat. Feb. 10 Trip to Jinja As I am writing this, I am sitting outside under the Ugandan stars and a wonderful cool breeze is blowing. The internet is out right now but I am so far behind on writing that I really need to catch up. The kids don’t allow too many moments of quite and now that they are to bed, I can sit down for a few minutes and continue where I left off. John had us be ready to leave for Jinja at 7 but that didn’t quite happen. We did leave around 8am. We laugh at John because he is usually very on time. The day turned out to be beautifula dn though I slept part of the way there, I saw a lot of beauty. We passed the coke plant and The big stadium where Richard accepted Christ. Uganda produces very good tea and we passed beautiful tea fields and sugar cane crops. We drove through a beautiful lush forest and many villages. We had 3 purposes going to Jinja. We were going to visit Welcome Home Ministries, an orphanage where some acquaintances are adopting from, visit the source of the Nile and visit Bujagali Falls. We had teddy bears for the kids there that the kids in our church had made. We arrived and were greeted warmly by William and were given a tour of the place. There were about 60 kids ages baby to 6 I would guess. We walked in on a bible music class for the 2 years olds and thoroughly enjoyed that. We then got to interact with them on the playground and give out sweets and teddy bears. Of course we took many pictures and you can see them on mac website. (See previous posts for link. After that we headed to the source of the Nile and it was beautiful there and it was hard to believe we were standing by the same Nile river that we had only read about. Better yet they had a little café where we could eat by the Nile and enjoy African roasted Tilapia with chips(Fried potatoes). Jana couldn’t stomach the fish with the head on it but Richard, John and the kids and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The kids did sort of gross us out but sucking the fish dry of all the bones and there was NOTHING left of the head but a clean skull when they were finished! They thought it was hilarious that Jana was getting grossed out. She had to finally go and “Enjoy” the scenery of the Nile to stay well. J We finished our lunch and headed to Bujagali Falls. For it to be a major tourist attraction, there were not many signs or notifications. We stopped a few times to ask villagers and they all gave us different directions. So needless to say we got lost! Not only that but after traveling for awhile on a dirt road and going deeper and deeper into a remote area, John decided we were not going the right way. About that time we stopped because our van was not acting right and Richard got out to see what it might be. Now the motors are on the passenger side of the vans under their seats. Jana and I made the mention to each other that if the engine ever caught fire, the passenger would be in the hot seat and have his pants on fire as well! While Richard and John and this other man were trying to figure out what was wrong with the van, Jana and I were being eyed by a bunch of kids and had plenty of photo opportunity. They loved seeing themselves after the photo was taken. We dug into our backpack for snacks and found gummy bears and mini oreo cookies. They loved those. Finally, they were able to get it running but it was not fixed. We found our way to the Falls and they were awesome! Wow! What a force of power! Our God is an incredible Creator! Talk about a place that was beautiful, this was it. We stayed for a little bit but it was getting tobe fairly late in the afternoon and a storm was brewing. John thought it was time that we leave. It was a good thing we did leave at this time because what we were about to experience next was definitely an adventure! I will tell you this before I start part 2 of the Jinja trip. As we left the Falls, we noticed lots of activity up in several trees and the closer we looked it was not birds but hundreds of bats! Instead of leaves hanging from its branches, there were these big brown bats hanging up side down. Contrary to popular belief, there is a speciesof bats that do not live in caves and come out in the daylight! I learned this fact when we took the kids to Animal Kingdom a few years ago. It was quite a sight!