Long day

(another photo of the village where our teamhouse sits)

"At least it'll make a good blog post, Mel" Phil said to cheer me up. :)

Monday was quite a long day. I was travelling to Kamwenge. It was to be a 5 hour trip. Usually quite beautiful, but not this time.

I had a brand new driver, George - this was his first day of work. We got directions and he drove the Pajero (small SUV) back from the garage where it was getting fixed. They took it for a test run to make sure it wasn't a lemon and we hit the road, optimistically - already two hours behind schedule.

Two hours into our trip we lost power. All I know is that it wouldn't accelerate anymore. I had one bar of cell network, so we made some phone calls and told our team in Kampala what was happening. Praise God we could communicate!

So we turned the car around and tried to head back, but with little luck. The Pajero stopped again just 5 miles down the road and this time we were really stuck and I didn't have cell phone service. Time for decision-making, Mel. So after hesitantly parking the car at the local police station (not really safe in Africa), I hopped in a taxi (aka. Mini Bus) back to Kampala.

About an hour later I got cell phone service and was told to get out of the taxi because our mechanic, Felix, was on his way to fix the Pajero. So I yelled at the driver to stop the bus, jumped out, throwing money and immediately saw Felix driving past. Only God could have orchestrated this timing! I flagged him down and hopped in his landcruiser and we drove an hour back to the Pajero.

It was getting a bit late, but I really wanted to get to Kamwenge, so they offered to take me in the Landcruiser - promising only two hours - which would get me there before dark - and I said let's go! Not driving at night is important in Africa for security reasons.

So three hours goes by, it was dark and we're driving super slow on this dirt road that seemed to be going to nowhere. I was sceptically wondering if I was ever going to make it to Kamwenge. I was all tense, super hungry, and getting tired. Bad combination.

Praise God, Phil called just as I was just about to break. He made me smile and laugh and assured me that everything was just going to be okay. And he was right! We arrived in Kamwenge at about 9pm - only 6 hours later than expected. It was a long day, but it ended well - my friend Stephen even had food waiting for me. Now I'm in Kamwenge and working with my team again. Tuesday was a good day - Praise God!

Oh these beloved rides to work - they make for interesting blog entries at least. And I didn't even include the huge snake part....let's just say I tried to get George to kill it, but we missed.