Greetings from Nairobi, Kenya! We’re here until the 28th for a few days of team debrief where we spend time with other Passport teams in East Africa and have time to rest and reflect. On Friday afternoon we packed up some of our belongings and walked to the bus stop in Lira, Uganda to hop on board the bus for what would become a 20 hour adventure. We boarded the bus to discover that there weren’t quite enough seats for our group of 13 so a few of us spent time lying down in the aisle. After around 6 hours we made it to the border where we spent two hours filling out departure forms and getting entry visas to Kenya. As soon as we pulled out from the border we got a flat tire and spent another hour fixing some problem around 4-5 am when another bus pulled up and we transferred on to it. This bus had more seats, however, they suspension system was apparently completely absent – an unfortunate situation when both Kenya and Uganda have some questionable road quality and an unbelievable amount of speed bumps haha. At long last we landed in Nairobi at Milimani Backpacker’s Hostel where we’ve been since yesterday. It’s nice here – a bigger city with more of an American feel – we’ve taken advantage of some American food and it’s been nice to have consistent power and computer access. Today we visited a market and had a chance to feed giraffes at a local wildlife preserve. It was so fun to see the giraffes up close and many of us (myself included) fed the giraffes by holding a piece of their food in our mouths which they bent down and licked up (slobbery and really rough tongues – but a top notch experience overall haha).
grabbing some dinner on the floor of the bus.
me and my friend the giraffe!
Since my last blog we were busy with several activities in Uganda. Our weekend in the village around Amolatar, Uganda was a good experience. We slept in huts, killed our own chickens, had some interesting rides on motorcycle taxis on incredibly dusty roads – sarah and I got some legitimate air when we hit a renegade pothole, swam in Lake Kyoga, ate way too much food in an attempt to not offend our hosts, put a program on at the church and school and heard some wisdom from an old Ugandan man, our host Charles Okullo, while sitting around a fire. We also went to an introduction (kind of like a backyard engagement party where the husband to be is officially introduced to the bride’s parents and dowry is exchanged) of a couple from VOC. It was quite fun and an interesting cultural experience – lots of music, food, colorful/ornate dresses and a sermon tossed in the middle.
aftermath of our harrowing boda boda ride!
Mary and I also spent one day following around two doctors at the hospital in Lira, building relationships, praying with people, and learning about the diseases and treatment of them. I was paired with Dr. Florence who seemed like a quality doctor. After following her around I have more respect for the hospital here – it’s not that the staff is incompetent they are just severely overworked and undersupplied. I realized how many conditions are the result of infections from small incidents that just weren’t treated properly the first time around. We saw a couple cases of necrotizing fasciitis, many cases of osteomyelitis, and everything else from burns to traffic accidents. It was interesting to hear Dr. Florence’s insights about things like discharging patients early to make room for more serious patients, having to delay operations for weeks to make sure the emergency surgeries get taken care of, and lack of adherence with patients.
I’ll have another post coming soon – so many experiences, so little time to update!
thanks to you all for the prayers and thanks again to all of you who contributed to help me get here – grace and peace to you all.
-john
