Welcome to Uganda

We finally arrived after seeing the sunset, the sunrise, and then set again. Surprisingly, I did not sleep for a good 24 hours and was not really tired. We arrived around 8pm their time and got in bed at about 11:30. Somehow the next morning I woke up a little before the sunrise,completely energized for the day. The time change really has not made me tired. The Lord has been so good in giving us all strength, we all woke up ready to go! Today was our first full day seeing Uganda. We left this morning around 8am( 12am Alabama time) and went to Bethany Village (an orphanage). We had to go into market, which was neat, and then get in a very small wooden boat and cross Lake Victoria to get to the orphanage. The orphanage held 145 kids in small homes of 14 kids each and a house mom. They also had a school, camp site, and farm. Once we left there we went and saw Gaba church, which is where Patrick, our leader, and translators go. They had also built three schools, a kitchen, and dorms for these children. I believe that there were 10,000 children that go through these schools and are apart of the sponsoring programs in America. Lastly we went to Buloba, which is where we will be working this week. This is a small village about 45 minutes outside of Kampala. This place was crazy! When we were driving there the kids saw us and started chasing the van. When we got there we could not even get out of the van because the children had surrounded the car and were trying to give us hugs before we could get out. I think we each had about 10-15 kids holding onto our arms the entire time we were there. These people were incredible! We went inside their church and gave them a sound system that they were so grateful for, people were in tears! I have never seen anyone so happy to receive something. They then gathered around and we all sang "I'm Trading My Sorrows." All these people just latch onto you and treat you like you are the king. They say " muzoogu" (not spelled right) which means white person and then run up to you. The last thing we did was go on a walk when we got back. David, one of our translators, walked with us to the slums. It was a whole other world. The kids flocked to us, asking us for money and water. They were covered in dirt and sewage water because that is all around them. It was weird that we simply walked down one street and it was like a separate town.
All I can say is in one day I already do not want to come home. It has been amazing! Everything is different here, including the sunsets and sunrises, they are gorgeous! The only scary thing is the driving. Holy cow they are crazy! I thought we were going to die several times. Patrick, David, and Amos are our leaders and translators and they are so cool. One of my favorite things has been hanging out with them and hearing their stories and learning about Uganda and some more Lugandan words. Please continue to pray for us, particularly that we will seek the Lord's will and reasons why we are here. That we will not act like tourists and take pictures but that we would really be tuned to what the Lord has for us here. Thank you all who wrote me a letter! I have not read them all, but the ones I have have been encouraging.

I am not sure how often I will be able to update. I will hopefully have pictures up soon and videos. You can look on Andi's blog, she should have pictures up. Go to andreacollette.com
I love you all! See you soon!