Leaving Uganda

Friday, November 13, 2009

We had a very late night last night. After getting to the hotel and unpacked we went up to the restaurant where Larry and Russ ordered a plate of french fries (they call them “chips” here) and we all got something to drink. By the time we had finished our “supper” it was after 10:30pm. We went back to our room and since we had internet access, we used Skype to call home and caught up on our e-mail. It was after 2:00am before I went to bed. Since we weren’t supposed to meet with Eli and Jeremiah until 10:00am we were able to sleep in a little. In the morning we made some calls to the Sagala family in Mois Bridge, Kenya to make arrangements for our visit there tomorrow morning.

As the morning progressed the skies became increasingly dark and finally at around 10:00am the rain moved in. Lightning lit up the sky, and thunder ringed in our ears, but it was not a heavy rain and it moved past very quickly. The storm had rolled in from Lake Victoria, and eliminated any possibility of our seeing the beautiful African resource. I was quite disappointed!
Eli finally arrived at around 11:00am and the hotel called us a taxi to take us to the University where Eli went to school. Eli just graduated from Kampala International University with a degree in Business Administration and he is looking to return to get him Master’s Degree. He is actually from Arusha, Tanzania (where Pastor Jeremiah is) but left Tanzania to go to school in Uganda.

While Eli was at school he spoke with others about Lutheran teaching, and gathered a small group at the KIU campus. Pastor Jeremiah has been traveling here several times a year to meet with this group and teach them more. They have formally organized as the Kampala International University Confessional Lutheran Church, and have even elected officers to run the church. As the hymn writer penned: “The LORD works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform...”

Kampala International University group

We met with the KIUCLC members for about an hour and a half, meeting the members, presenting a sermonette, and then discussing the work they are doing. They have members who are returning to their home areas and taking the Word with them. It will be interesting to see what the LORD works through all that as well in the future.

After our meeting we departed for the bus station to buy tickets for our return trip to Kenya. We decided to stay away from the minibus in favor of a big bus for this voyage. None of us had ever ridden on this kind of bus in Africa previously, so we decided to give it a try and compare it with what we have used. We purchased four tickets (Jeremiah was traveling back with us) to Eldoret, which is between Kampala and Nairobi. We boarded the bus at 2:45pm and were on the road a little after 3:00. The bus was big, but it was very old. Most of the seats didn’t work, the roof leaked, and windows wouldn’t open. Other than that it was alright! I was able to sleep a little at the very beginning, but once I was awoken by the conductor (who was checking tickets) I was up for the remainder of the nine hour journey.

Beautiful and prosperous rice fields of Uganda

We had a bit of trouble at the border. After getting stamped out of Uganda and then into Kenya, we were waiting for our bus to be inspected by the border police. While we waited we were harassed by a police officer who asked to see our passports and vaccination cards. He wanted to know if we had been vaccinated against the swine flu. We told him that the vaccination was not necessary when we entered the country three weeks ago, but he was persistent. Jeremiah later told us that he was looking to get money from us. During all of this, our bus past us and I thought we were going to be left behind! Jeremiah finally talked the officer out of bothering us and we hustled through the dark to catch up with our bus.

Not long after boarding the bus and starting down the road again we were stopped by the Kenya police. Everyone had to get off the bus and have their ID’s checked. It was completely dark and the passengers stood in two lines in the headlights of the bus: The men on one side and women on the other. A male officer checked our side and a female officer the other. Sometimes they would do a pad down search, other times, not. The officer who came to us spoke some Swahili to us and we responded. He was a bit surprised and proceeded to test us with other Swahili words and phrases. After this test he barely looked at our passports and bid us a good night! An interesting night to say the least.

We finally arrived in Eldoret at about midnight and had to get a taxi to take us to Kitale. We found one who offered to drive us for less than others and loaded our luggage into the back of his little Toyota station wagon. We asked how far it was to Kitale and he told us “Five kilometers.” We arrived in Kitale an hour later – it was actually over 70 kilometers! When we arrived we looked for a hotel, but the first one we checked didn’t have enough rooms. The second one was closed for the night and the third was still under construction. Finally we found one called the Mid-Africa hotel that had enough rooms for all of us. Exhausted, we climbed five flights of stairs to our rooms with all our luggage, knowing we were going to have to bring it all back down first thing tomorrow morning. You can’t say that I’m not getting any exercise while I’m here! Try it yourself – it’s quite the workout!

Another big day tomorrow with the people of Holy Cross Lutheran Church at Emmaus Milimani. An exciting opportunity.

In His service,

Nathanael Mayhew

“Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2).