Back in Uganda

The joy and excitement of being home with family and friends was all too quickly replaced with loneliness and exhaustion as I stepped off the third plane in 24 hours and finally set foot back in Uganda. I was thankful to have had the time at home with family and dear friends, and especially to have had time with my father during his recovery from surgery. Even though I was home for over a month, it went VERY FAST. Thank you to everyone who made my trip home such a blessing!

The trip back to Uganda was relatively uneventful. However, the 5 hour layover in Amsterdam and the 4 hour layover in Nairobi, combined with the 19 hours of flying, made the journey feel extremely long. I arrived in Uganda at 11:30pm and finally made it home around 1am. I already feel bad for Julie in anticipation of her making the journey alone with Emma & Grace in a few weeks. The girls always travel really well, but it is a long journey for anyone, especially children.

Being here in Uganda without my family is definitely different. I am trying to stay busy so I don't spend too much time thinking of how lonely I am without them. It is amazing how much further away Africa feels when they are not here.

Since being back I have tried staying busy, but mostly just recovering from jet lag. I am not very good at sleeping on planes so I arrived in Uganda after being awake for about 36 hours. I slept for about 9 hours the first night. However, my body was not adjusted to the 8 hours time change so the second night I couldn't sleep, I was awake the entire night. Even though I was awake, I was too tired to do anything productive so I just watched mindless movies, Austin Powers trilogy (yeah baby). I thought I would stay awake all day and try to get back on track that night, but by 10am I was too tired and thought I would “just lay down for a little while.” I woke up at 4pm, oh well. Hopefully, I am back on track now.

I think I have gotten situated pretty well here in Kampala, so tomorrow (Saturday) I head to Gulu. I'm looking forward to seeing the team there and jumping back into the work. As always, thank you all for your prayers and continued support. (Sorry, I tried many times to add photos but the internet is too slow right now. I hope to have some photos next time).

Carl

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