Gulu Trip 2013

Greetings from Gulu, Uganda!

Sarah here, first volunteer as guest blogger for our trip.  A little background on myself, I am the second youngest on the trip, a grad student at St. John's University in NYC (an online program) studying Global Development and Social Justice.  This is my second trip to Africa, though my first time to the Eastern portion.

Well, to start off from where we were on our day of departure...we left from MBS around 3:30 pm, proceeded to Chicago, then on to Brussels, Belgium, stopped in Kigali, Rwanda, and finally arrived in Entebbe, Uganda on February 23 around 11 pm at night.  Thank you for keeping our travel in your prayers- our travel mercies were clearly manifest due to all the snow and flight delays throughout the country.  Thankfully, we made all of our connections!

For me, the stopover in Kigali was emotionally jarring; as a student of Political Science and focusing my master's thesis around genocide and internal conflict, Kigali presented the first time for me to set foot in a nation that not ten years ago was committing horrendous atrocities, neighbor on neighbor due to social unrest.  I'm still processing everything about that stopover, even though it was a brief 30 minute stint.

Our arrival in Entebbe was uneventful (and that's a good thing!  I've had some customs and country-entering horror stories...) and we met up with Laura from World Vision as well as her protege, Carrie in the airport.  Rachel and our two drivers (Joseph and Bright) from World Vision Uganda met us in the parking lot and escorted us to the Beach Hotel in Entebbe.  We started our Sunday with some beautiful devotions and God was totally there!  It was a wonderful time of fellowship and an incredible way to start the day.

We also met two gentlemen staying at the hotel who were from their church (Hazel Dell in Indiana, one with which I'm personally familiar due to recently moving to Midland from the Indianapolis area) and working with Compassion International.  The drive from Kampala to Gulu felt long- it was about 5 hours- but there was so much to see!  The people, children, animals, landscape, and everything else is awe-inspiring; add to that baboons and monkeys as well as crossing the NILE RIVER!!!!! makes the journey feel not so long.

As I previously mentioned, this is my second journey in Africa and it's been nearly three years since I was last on the continent.  I did not realize how much I missed this place and the way it feels and smells and looks.  I'm not experiencing any culture shock- mostly just taking in the experience and soaking up as much of Africa as possible.

Tomorrow we meet our sponsored children and meet the rest of the World Vision Uganda- Gulu cluster staff.  It'll be a busy day, so please keep us and our continued strength (through jet lag) in your prayers.  Keep watch for pictures!  We've all been snapping some shots of the journey and will be uploading them as we're able.  Thank you all and we love and miss you!!

In Him,
Sarah K.
Gulu, Uganda