We made it to Uganda!

We are happy to report that we made it safely to Kampala. I can't tell you how excited I am to write our first newsletter from Uganda! Thanks so much to all of you who have supported us and made it possible for us to be here. None of this would be possible without you!

Our trip over was smooth, but long. We had 2 flights, both over 8 hours with a 3-hour layover in Amsterdam. God blessed us right at the beginning of our journey. First, the lady who checked us in at the KLM counter had a broken scale so that removed any stress related to bags that might have been overweight. Then, she also allowed us to check our extra bag for free which saved us $200! From there, our flights were on-time and the kids handled the travel stresses very well. We praise the Lord for His provision during our trip!

We are getting settled in here in Kampala. We've spent the last few days getting our things organized. Everyone has adjusted to the time difference and to sleeping under mosquito nets. The weather here is amazing- about 78 degrees every day with a nice breeze and about 68 at night. We've had a few rain showers as this is the heart of the rainy season here.

We've learned our first word in the Luganda langauge- "muzango" which means "white person". I've been out running a couple of times, and I hear it dozens of times- "Hey muzango" or more commonly "Bye muzango". Running here is great, but there are some difficulties. The paved roads are jam-packed with people, motor bikes, and diesel cars and vans, and they don't exactly yield to pedestrians. And when I run on the dirt roads, they are in such bad condition that I have to be very careful not to turn an ankle. Then there are the very steep hills, which is something I certainly didn't have to deal with in The Woodlands. Finally, I get lost very easily. Since there are no street signs and the roads are so windy, it is a challenge to find my way back. Today I ended up running an extra 2 miles because I missed one of my turns. To be honest, I could probably use the extra exercise to work off those extra pounds I added while in the States! I often have kids join me for a short distance, shouting "Muzango, muzango" the whole time, which is a lot of fun.

Suzy leaves on Thursday for her first trip to Sudan. I will forward updates from her trip as I receive them over the next couple of weeks.

Here are a few things to be praying for:

1. Pray for Suzy's team traveling to Kulu. We just found out that they have cleared the nearest air strip which is a tremendous blessing because now they will only have to walk 12 miles from the air strip instead of 18. Pray for safety and protection for this team and that the Lord will give them many opportunities to share the love of Christ with the Jur people.
2. Continue to pray for us as we transition to life here in Africa. There are many challenges here. In particular, pray for us as we learn to drive (big challenge!) and for the kids to make friends.
3. Pray that we will be able to find a house. Specifically what we would like to find is a compound that has 3 or 4 houses on it. We would then be able to have 2 or 3 Aid Sudan families living on the compound and have a guest house for the short-term teams that come in. We have 16 teams coming in next year, so it would be a real blessing to have plenty of space to house them. And it would be great for our team to be together in one place instead of spread out around the city.

Thanks again for your prayers and support! Hope you all have a blessed week!

Bob, Suzy, Elise, Brody, and Milenia