Sorry for not keeping y’all updated the past few days, we moved to a hotel that doesn’t have Internet unless you are in the shop, which closes at 10…

Today is our last day…in the past few days, we’ve definitely stayed busy. We’ve been to the shops in Jinja several times, helped rebuild Agnes’s brothers house, visited the Karamajongs and bought more beads for 147, had Bible study with people from the community, visited Amani Baby Cottage and Our Own Home, gone on a boat ride (all 20-something of us), and spend A LOT of time at Katie’s with her girls.

Building Agnes’s brother’s house was hard, but rewarding. We separated and stacked bricks, made cement, fetched water from the well (I’m still sore from carrying those jerry cans…I can’t imagine having to carry them for miles…), and Mallory Prossy and I made PB sandwhiches for all 30ish of us. It was a good day, and I think we all felt pretty accomplished by the end of it.

Spending time with the Karamajong women in Masesse was awesome as well. We met the women who make the beads, held their kids, talked to children from the village, and had a prayer request/praise time with the women where they were able to share and have Katie and our crew pray for them.

What was really weird was going back to Amani. There are 8 kids (soon to be 9!) that live in Nashville that have been adopted from Amani, and I hadn’t been there in 2 years. The last time I was there was when I met Josie…it was so strange to think that if we hadn’t adopted her, she would still be sitting there in that yard, probably much sicker than she was when we first saw her. I can’t imagine not having her at our house, running/waddling around screaming and singing and laughing.

Last night we went on a boat ride on Lake Victoria. We split into 2 boats: Dad, Katie, Patricia, Mallory, William, Prossy, Agnes, Margaret, Lochoro, and I on one, and Michael, Annabelle, Joyce, Sarah, Sumini, Zuula, Helen, Scovia, Grace, Jane, Tibita, and Mary in the other…it was so fun. We were able to relax and fellowship with each other, and just enjoy the beauty of the lake. We saw monkeys and a (huge) lizard, and lots of other interesting animals, as well as the “source of the nile”. I think it’s safe to say that we all had a ton of fun.

Today is our last day here, and I don’t think any of us are looking forward to saying goodbye. We had to say goodbye to Katie, Grace, and Tibita last night because they had to go to Kampala early this morning so we won’t be seeing them, and it was HARD. Tibita cried, which caused us to cry…and that was only saying bye to 2 of 14. Today will be rough, but I’m lucky enough that I get to come back in June with my mom and Gwen, so I can say that I will see them soon.

Michael is going to post his thoughts on the trip when we get home, so that should be up in a couple of days...our flight flies out of Entebbe at 8 tonight (about noon Nashville time), so we should be home tomorrow night. I’ve had an amazing time and can honestly say I feel at home here. I can’t wait to be back again (hopefully for longer next time J).

Grace

PS-I tried to upload pictures, but (like I said), the Internet is not cooperative. So I'll upload when we get home!