Homestay and more travels!

The home stay turned out to be a really great experience. Church was mostly in Kipsigese/Kiswahili so could not understand a majority of it, but every now and again they would throw in some English for our benefit… and the singing was beautiful.  We were also asked to get up and 'say a word' so we each introduced ourselves and said something small and Jeremy (the only guy of the group) gave a short message which they loved.  Church was a bout 2.5 hours and they seemed to very much enjoy it... although I think in the states most people would get annoyed with that much of their Sunday taken up! After the service we were asked to stand by the pastor so that each member of the church could shake our hands. 

Jeremy, Felicity and I stayed with the Reverend. We also had Kristen and Katie with us for most of the day until their home stay family got back from the next city, so we all had lunch together and had a tour of the land.  They lived about 10km away from Litein in a 'village' environment, but being the director of the hospital as well he had a nice place considering the surroundings. In our tour of his property we saw chickens everywhere, 4 cows, a plot of maize, banana trees, animal feed growing, and of course tea.  Its amazing how self sufficient they are.  Also on his plot of land he is building a house for his mother who is getting very old, in this culture it is the responsibility of the youngest son to stay with his parents and take care of them until they are gone.  The food was very good and they fed us and gave us tea all day, they made us feel very welcome.  The reverend also told us a lot about cultural norms and told us a little about what it was like to be in Kenya with all the last post election violence when many people were killed.... and of course we discussed Obama, as everyone you meet here knows him and is proud of his Kenyan heritage. 

After lunch we dropped off Kristen and Katie (but of course we did not leave without taking a cup of tea and visiting for two hours... this is a very relational oriented culture after all!) We also got a tour of the land where they were staying which was much more traditional with a separate cooking hut and separate little mud/clay buildings where they would sleep.  They had a tremendous amount of tea and also rows and rows of pineapples! Which we had sliced up with our tea and are absolutely amazing... you haven't tried pineapple until you eat it here! We also had guava fruit right off the tree and were shown a number of vegetables they use that I’ve never heard of.  All in all it was a great experience that I'm glad we were able to do.

Yesterday, we left Litein early in the morning and began our journey to Uganda.  It was a drive that should have only taken about 6 hours... but of course DBA (Dis Be Africa) so it took 12.. and due to some unforeseen circumstances the van we were suppose to use fell through... so 9 of us crammed into a sm range rover... after 12 hours we were struggling a little bit and all getting a little delirious! But the landscape was beautiful, we passed over the Nile River and past rolling green hills, we even got to marvel at some baboons with babies on their backs hanging out by the road after passing the border of Uganda.  Finally around 9pm we arrived at Matoki Inn in Kampala, Uganda (the biggest city in Uganda... traffic like L.A. YUCK).  The Matoki Inn is the nicest place we have stayed so far and is a missionary hub here in Uganda, its like a breath of fresh air with actual SOFT pillows, sheets I know are clean and wireless internet! I wish we could stay another night but we are leaving off to Mbarara where we will stay for the next week in a couple of hours.  Only a five hour drive today (so we have been told) and a short training session than more community work starts tomorrow. Pray for safe journeys!!