Beauty of Africa

Before coming to Uganda the stories I knew of Africa were mostly of tragedies, pictures of war, AIDS, starving children, corrupt politics & so on. Now I know a different place. Even though tragedies exist just as they do in other parts of the world, I’ve found Uganda is a place of incredible beauty. For the past two months we’ve been spending time with the youth at Amazing Grace Orphanage. Each time we come, their faces light up in recognition. On Saturday, Derin, Andra, Rick, Jaclyn & I drove to the orphanage with a car full of balloons and a bucket of mangoes. We gathered the children together on the papyrus mats under the big tree, greeted everyone, and explained the program for the day: singing, Bible study, and a “field day.” We made sure to explain that a field day meant games & fun, not returning to the fields for digging as they had already done for two hours before our arrival. (pics)

After teaching the children on John 3:16 and explaining a little more in detail the love of God in Christ, we brought everyone together for the games. We had a ‘mango on a spoon’ relay, a ‘balloon between the knees’ relay, water balloon toss, and the always popular sack race. It was wonderful seeing all the kids, including the big ones, come to life & enjoy themselves. To end it all, we gathered once more under the big tree, this time hand in hand for the song, “For God so Loved the World…”

The following day we got a text message from Benaya, the man in charge of the orphanage. It sums up why we go to the neighboring village each Saturday: “I’m busy with agric[culture] work sorry that I ve missed U. Thank U for your LOVE on us. Benaya.” I hope the kids also know, in some way, how much we love being with them.

Monday was also filled with beauty, but this time a different kind. For Esther’s 72nd birthday, we headed to Arra Fishing Lodge, located next to a lagoon on the Nile River, for a bird watching boat tour. The lodge owner, an Austrian man named Horst, greeted us when we arrived and directed us to the water’s edge where our boat was waiting. We carefully stepped inside the long, green wooden boat that had only been a good picture before and rain bucket as far as we could tell. Luke, our assistant ‘captain,’ bailed water out of the bottom with a small bucket, placed towels on our seats and pushed us into the lagoon with a long bamboo pole.

Thankfully the sky was overcast and we began our delightful tour of the place we’d only experienced by land before. The boat nudged its way trough the moving land masses of green, out into the open Nile. John, our ‘captain,’ guided us skillfully over fishing nets held in place and marked by more bamboo poles, and slowed down at certain points so we could oooh & ahhh over all the amazing bird species. We saw storks, king fishers, cormorants, a type of hummingbird, several fish eagles, and to top it all off the infamous Shoebill Stork. It is a majestic bird standing about 5’ tall, looking like something out of the prehistoric era.

The sun was hot by the time we entered the second lagoon and made our way toward its island. We pulled alongside two dugout canoes belonging to some fishermen who were smoking their catch, a three-day process! We then climbed & climbed for about 25 minutes before we reached the top, and were blessed with a 360 degree view of the Nile & surrounding mountains. It felt like an undiscovered place, beautiful, vast, untouched…God’s raw creation at its best. I can’t remember the last time I’ve felt that way – in complete & utter awe.

We made our way down, back to the boat & on to the fishing lodge to meet up with Jeff & Michelle for lunch. The sound of thunder greeted our ears and the sight of dark rain clouds in the distance. Rain clouds move quickly here, and the rain came pelting down before we could reach the lagoon entrance. Pelting turned into an extreme, torrential downpour with wind and our attempt to enter the lagoon was met with a mass of water logged plants that continued to move & shift around us. With no way of breaking through the floating greenery and massive headwind, we backed up and headed for the ferry landing station just nearby. We took refuge in a fish market shack, surrounded by wide-eyed Africans and dry, smelly fish. Rick was our hero for the day and took off running for the lodge, about two miles away. He came back with Jeff & the truck to rescue us. After we dried off, changed clothes and sat down for lunch, Esther officially declared this birthday, of all 71 prior to this one, as the most memorable.