Uganda and Rwanda

Just over a year ago I got on a plane from Entebbe airport to return to the UK after living in Uganda during my gap year in 2012 and 2013... And now, over the past 3 weeks, I've had the incredible blessing of being able to return to Uganda. Living 4000 miles away from most of my best friends over the past year has been really difficult, but I praise God that we have been able to maintain relationships during that time and that he has provided for me to cross borders so that we could come together again. My prayer and hope is that this is just the first of many returning trips to my 'African Home'. 

I flew with Esther, but we stayed in Kampala separately with local friends. We spent the first week catching up with friends and visiting projects that I used to be a part of such as Goshem school in Kuffu where we used to live and teach, the Smile Farm, and Blessed Word of Life Church among other things. Seeing the progress in that building project was incredible and looking at the almost completed building, I felt really proud to know that I quite literally helped to lay the foundations there a couple of years ago!
Visiting Goshem was equally special, especially as the kids didn't know that we were coming back. It was great to see that many of them have now progressed to the next class and to remind them that we still think and care about them.

P3 class at Goshem School

After a week, an impressive number of people from Kampala traveled to Kigali in Rwanda to celebrate the wedding of Alex - the project manager of Smile Charity Uganda. I took a 12 hour bus trip with Brian; leaving Uganda for the first time in his life... It was a blessing to be able to share the experience with him and although I had been dreading such a long journey we actually had a lot of fun. We met up with friends from Kampala when we reached Kigali and a big group of us stayed at Angello's Uncle's house. We had such a brilliant time - it was nice that everyone was away from their normal work and routine so we all just enjoyed being on holiday together.

Travelling to Rwanda

With friends in Rwanda

On the Friday evening we went to a concert by a worship group from Kampala called 'VOW' (once we eventually found where it was!) It was such good fun, especially at the end when they sang a kiganda song and I got to show off my 'skills' in dancing the traditional kiganda dance (...kind of!). We also enjoyed a performance from the LT Warriors dance group.

The wedding was the next day and it was absolutely beautiful. We had fun dressing up together and then we took bodas to the wedding ... doing your hair and then getting on a motorbike (which in Kigali, involves wearing a helmet) probably isn't the best idea, but it was the only way to get there in time and was good fun!
It was so special to see Alex finally getting married and I felt so proud to be there and so happy for him. 

Alex and Beni's Wedding

The next day we attended a local church where someone kindly translated from Kinyarwanda to English and Luganda for us, and also for another visitor who spoke French... I think we counted 5 different languages that she was able to speak! Church was great fun, but I had to leave early with Marina and Brian to take Joe to the airport as he was returning to UK after almost 3 months in East Africa... it was really sad to see him go.

Angello and Brian in Kigali

Marina, Brian, Angello and I left very early on Monday morning to travel back to Kampala. Again, the journey was enjoyable and I had no trouble getting a visa at the border; the guy who served me asked how long I was staying in Uganda for and then told me that I should stay for longer so he gave me a visa for 2 months (Don't tempt me!!!)

Over the next few days we all just made the most of our time together. It was really special to spend time with Brian and Terry's daughter; Berindah who I used to look after a lot. Even after being away for a whole year of her short life, it was amazing that seemed to remember me and was incredible to see how we were able to communicate now that she can talk... she's a bright girl, so when she used a luganda word that I didn't understand she would find a way to teach me. I also got to meet her baby sister Breanna who was born in October.

With Berindah

I can't write about everything that I did because this blog would go on forever, but let me just say that this week has been absolutely beautiful and I will treasure the memories.

Its hard to describe the way that Uganda holds my heart. I was worried that this trip would be difficult because I wasn't there with Smile and because everything was so different from my gap year, but if its even possible, over the past weeks Uganda has become even more rooted in my heart. It is the home of some of my best friends, and although I have a family and a home in UK too, I'm so blessed that I also have a home in Uganda.

SPREE

With 2 days to go until I fly to Uganda, I've managed to misplace my voice...

This weekend I was at 'Spree' - an event run by Urban Saints that we took some young people to. It was brilliant and was great that as leaders we didn't have to worry about organising and  running it! We spent most of Saturday in the swimming pool, with general swimming before lunch, and water polo afterwards! The young people then took part in a massive water fight and had a go on a big outdoors water slide. It was really good to get to meet some people from different backgrounds and lots of people who had come over from the mainland (that's exciting news to islanders!) and for all of our young people to mix with other Christians their age, hear some teaching and share in worship together.

Water Polo at Spree

For the rest of the week I've been preparing to leave for Uganda for the next couple of weeks. I've trained up a couple of my helpers to lead Rock Solid whilst I'm away, and tried to get everything organised for the upcoming events that we're inviting our young people to. I also helped out at toddler group again this week (I thought I was a 'youth' worker?!) and 'all the rest' that's not really worth blogging about...

So tomorrow I leave the island ready to fly out to Uganda on Tuesday! I'm not sure yet whether I'll get a chance to write a blog whilst I'm there, but I'll make sure to take plenty of pictures. I'm so excited to see everyone that I haven't seen in over a year, to hopefully visit one of the schools that we used to teach at and to watch Alex and Beni get married. Its also a bit scary though because a lot will have changed in the past year, so I'm anxious to see how my relationships with lots of people will be different and how it will feel to be back in Uganda again. And I'm hoping that my voice will return soon! Prayer would be much appreciated for that, and for good health in general, also for safety and most importantly that God's purpose for this trip would prevail :)

Thanks :)