Africa Update- Part 2

In Ft. Portal we meet the Cash’s who have been in Africa for 13 years as missionaries. They have four great kids. We spent the evening talking with them. Then we got a great night sleep. I didn’t get out of bed till after 9 AM this morning. YIPPY!!

Today we spent the morning driving around and seeing some of what the Ft. Portal church is doing. They meet in a circus tent on their own land. We got to meet the woman who lives behind the church and her goats. We drove out to the Christian campground they run. It’s beautiful. It is located on a peninsula at the lake close to Ft. Portal. And we also went out to see the airport here in Ft. Portal. Jeff Cash is a pilot and maintains the grass airstrip in Ft. Portal. Jeff is working on a plane he has brought over from America and is planning on doing trips into the Congo to help support the local churches there. The Congo is still in the mist of a war. Andrew has been so excited all day long. We ate lunch in town and walked through the market. We came back and spent the afternoon hanging out with the kids and relaxing. It has been wonderful. Jeff also told us many stories about living in Uganda. They were missionaries here during a time of Gorilla Warfare. Jeff also shared stories with us about his when he brought the plane over from America.

May 31, 2009

Church was wonderful this morning. We did not get to stay for the whole service because we needed to leave early to head out for Jinja. We were there long enough for a devotional thought and some singing. Most of the singing at the beginning of church is in Swahili. It was awesome. I really enjoyed listening to them sing and I TRIED to sing along. They had the words printed out but that still doesn’t mean I sang them correctly. I was actually wondering what I was really singing. Translated I should have been singing “God is love” but I’m wondering if I was pronouncing it in a way that I was singing something like “God has an itch.” Whatever I was singing I enjoyed singing it. I guess that is where the intention of my heart comes in. We had another long drive today to Jinja. We are staying in a Christian Guest House called Arise Africa. We will leave in the morning for rafting on the Nile. Julie says it is within walking distance. We said “good-bye” to our driver today, Isaac, was wonderful to have during this trip. He was very nice. He also shared with us some of the things about the African culture and told us what that animals were when we went on our game drive.

I’m starting to miss my boys, A LOT. I’m to the point now that we’ve spent some time with Julie, we’ve seen some of this beautiful place and I’m ready to go home to my boys. I think the next few days may be hard emotionally.

June 1

I cried today because I miss my boys. I wonder at times what my life would be like without kids. Truthfully I will never know. This past week has been fun for Andrew and I. We have enjoyed spending the time together, not worried about nap or sleep schedules or when the boys are going to want to eat. Now that I am a mom, even when I am away from them for long periods of time, the boys are always there. We talk about how much Ty would have loved the animals on the Safari, how cute are boys are, funny things they’ve done, and how Nolan is refusing to walk. Once you become a mom you can never go back to how things were before. I enjoy my time alone and Andrew and I enjoy time just the two of us. But in a way it seems something is always missing. Weather it’s running into the store by myself or spending a week in Africa, things just seem better when the boys are around. The world becomes a brighter and more colorful place.

We did have a great time today. We did a full day whitewater-rafting trip down the Nile. There are not Crocs or Hippos in this area so the danger did not come from being killed or eaten by animals. I was very nervous before leaving this morning. I had never been rafting and thought I was going to get majorly hurt today. Other then getting a little sunburned and a few bruises we are fine. I did not fall out of the boat even once. Andrew fell out twice. We went through one rapid and when we came out of it we looked around and three or our team where no longer in the raft. The three of them had been tossed out, including Andrew. The other time Andrew fell out was so funny. The trip ends with a series of rapids. The first set are class 6, the highest, everyone gets out and walks around these. The last two are a class 5 then 4. This series is known as “The Bad Place.” So we get back in the water and go through the class 5 rapid. We opted to go through down it the 50/50 way. Which means you have a 50% chance of the raft flipping. We made it through without flipping. There is a very short break where the water is calmer, not clam just calmer, before you start the next rapid. At this spot all of a sudden Andrew just falls out of the raft. Our guide starts shouting for us to “quickly, very quickly pull him in.” We get him in the raft. His head is still in the bottom of the boat and his feet are up in the air when our guide yells for us to get down and hold on for the next rapid. We all got safely through and began to laugh at Andrew for just falling out. It ended with a ride back to the campground the company owns and dinner on a deck that over looks the Nile. It was beautiful. Now I am ready to go rafting again.