The End is the Beginning

(This picture is from the week we spent doing surveys in Rwanda. My camera decided to stop working so my pictures might be limited. Although, many people have been very wonderful and said I can use their camera when ever needed! Just thought I would let you all know)

Our time in Rwanda is over now and we are getting ready to begin a new part of our journey. Yesterday we woke up at 4 a.m. to go to town in Kigali to board a bus and drive to Kampala, Uganda. It was roughly an eleven hour car drive. There isn't too many stories from the ride except at the boarder. When you get to the boarder you have to get off the bus stand in line to check out of the country. Then walk over the boarder stand in another line, check into the country and pay for our new visas. During this time there is a chance that the boarder control will go through all of our luggage, which can be kind of stressful. Now we traveled on a charter bus so we are only a small portion of the people that are riding on the bus. And we have to remember that we are in Africa and the whole concept of time and waiting is very different. Many times in Africa things happen a lot later than planned, that is just African time, but there are those times when the few people like to define their culture and attempt to be in a rush. So what does this mean for our group of mzungus (white people) that are attempting to figure out how to get through customs and need a short call (bathroom break). Well it means there is a lot of yelling and angriness. See there were a few of us that were getting on the bus and had went through customs so we had everyone's passports. And there were a few others that decided to use this time as an opportunity to go to the restroom. Now you need your passport to get back on the bus, and we had others passports, but they were yelling at us to get on the bus. We had many people on the bus telling us to hurry and get our group on the bus. And many others were asked why they were just standing around, when actually they were waiting to go to the restroom. All in all it was a very interesting experience. And to top it all off... after we started getting on the road we realized that they had left some people so we had to stop and wait. Luckily it was not mzungus, so we didn't have to hear them complain about us any more. It was a very interesting boarder experience.... and now I have one to tell when ever I think about going through customs.

So that was the trip on the bus. Today we are just relaxing. We will leave early tomorrow morning to travel to Mbale and we will begin work on Monday. I am very excited about this opportunity, because so far we have spent most of our time in a city. We have not gotten the opportunity to have a rural African experience, so this should be a real big change. I am excited about what I will experience, but at the same time I am a little bit nervous about what I will experience. But I'm sure that it will only add to my experiences and I'm excited to see how God can use me and what he can teach me! I'm not sure how much internet I will have, but I'll keep you updated as much as I can. Again thanks so much for reading!

I love you all a lot and miss you more and more every day! ..... 12 weeks until Christmas!!