UGANDA

Over Christmas vacation, four of us girls headed to Uganda for the week.  Unfortunately, Rhoda got sick the day we were planning to leave and Stacy's family was around, so I was the only one from Kisumu.  Delores, Jan, and Janell left Nakuru Sunday evening and I joined them around 1:00 a.m. when the bus came through Kisumu.  We had such a wonderful time!  I could write SO much about the week, but I think I will just mostly stick with pictures...

Uganda National Mosque, Kampala Hill
It was just huge!  It can seat up to 15,000 worshipers & can hold another 1,100 in the gallery & an additional 3,500 outside!

View of Kampala

So, so, so many steps... Can't remember how many, but it was a lot!

The four of us... L to R...Delores, Janell, myself, and Jan

Trying to tell the piki drivers where we wanted to go sometimes turned into a big committee meeting with more pikis showing up by the minute...  Also, getting used to the currency took a little... 1 US dollar was approx. 3,500 Ugandan shillings... so it felt like we carried HUGE amounts of cash around and spent equally huge amounts...

The red, red dirt!!!   

This was quite the day and quite the experience.  I've never before been asked to photograph a proposal...and just for the record, it's a little difficult to be taking pictures with her phone and videoing with his phone at the same time... and then he had told me that I should clap when she said "yes" . . . but my hands were just a bit too full... 

On Tuesday, we wound our way in and out and down and around all of these matatus and found one that would take us to Jinja.  We spent the rest of the week there. 

Our hotel was just RIGHT on the Nile, so we had an excellent view of the river...

When the train went through in the middle of the night, you surely didn't sleep through it!

At the source of the Nile :)

Not my plate, but all three of the other girls ordered a pretty fish like this...

The wonderful night BEFORE Jan got so sick...

After Jan's sleepless, miserable night, we took her to Nile International Hospital where we found she had a severe case of typhoid fever.  LONG story here, but I'll leave out all the details... Bless her heart, she was so positive through it all.  Even though we all felt so sorry for her, it somehow added a dimension to our week that we would have never had before.  Our middle of the night memories and unplanned for situations are the memories that will stick...It also provided us with a new set of jokes and most of all, a closeness that we wouldn't have probably gotten if we had all stayed healthy all week.

Spending the day in the hospital...and making little friends ;)

 So glad to have Jan feeling a little better again, even though she needed to be careful not to overdo it.

Esther, a little Ugandan sweetie whose mom was in Instruction Class...

This view of the Nile from my bed...you just CAN'T beat that!!!!!

Uganda's colors :)

Jan, Lois (teacher in Jinja), Janell, and Delores

The three Nakuru girls :) :) :) 

Lois and Janell... Such great times!!!!!

Waiting on our bus...

...and waiting...and waiting... and laughing and talking... and waiting...

Homeward bound... We welcomed 2017 while we were sitting on the border between Uganda and Kenya...

On Thursday, Janell and I went whitewater rafting...We were so disappointed that Jan wasn't able to go along too.  It was hard leaving the girls at the hotel for the day and going ahead with our plans...The next post will have pictures from that amazing day :) :)