Uganda & South Sudan ... from my perspective

Getting ready to leave for Chicago.

So again I made the decision to go to Uganda and South Sudan for a missions trip with Clint and the team. I made this decision in the spring.

I was excited about going and seeing our friends in Africa. By now we have relationships there that are for a lifetime. Pastor Solomon in Kampala, Uganda and Pastor Stanley in Yei, South Sudan.

I do have to admit that as the time got closer for us to leave for this trip, the more I wasn't sure that I wanted to do this.

Why?

Because I knew what was ahead of me. I had been there before and I now knew what it was like to be on the other side of the world, in a totally different culture... out of my comfort zone.

I knew what it was like to...

1. leave my children for 10 days.
2. be dirty and dusty for days.
3. not feel really clean for days...even after taking a "shower".
4. have to sleep under a mosquito net every night.
5. have to travel for 24+ hours just to get to Uganda.
6. sleep on the airplane while sitting up.
7. not have any alone time for 10 days. ... I need my alone time!
8. constantly look out for cockroaches. In Marc's words "...so big that you could throw a saddle on it and ride it."
9. not sleep in my own bed for a long time.
10.  not be sure what the food menu was going to be for each meal.

I knew that all these reasons for selfish. These are all simply not wanting to be out of my comfort zone.
In the end, I did have to work through all these issues while on the trip. You know what? It was ok and I pushed through the issues and I made it through with flying colors.

We did leave Chicago on Monday afternoon and got to Uganda on Tuesday evening. (That's with jumping ahead 7 hours.)

Checking in our 16 bags in Chicago. That's a lot of bags!

on one of the 8 hour flights... 

picking up our bags at the Entebbe, Uganda airport

Central Inn

By the time we got to our hotel, I was so tired and relieved that I didn't have to sit in an airplane for a couple days.
We checked in and discovered that this was much nicer than the hotel we stayed at last time. This was a pleasant surprise.

our room

our bathroom

the dining hall