Tuesday, February 26, 2008

OVER THE EDGE!

And in Nyamarwa at last. We've been at Kibbuse less than a week and are already in a good work and life routine, so things have gone very smoothly since our departure on February 12th. It seems a year ago since we celebrated our son Jim's marriage to Rachel Meyer, hurried through our final packing frenzy, made our way to a frozen airport, prayed and wept just a little with friends and family and boarded the plane to Detroit.

I had hoped to accompany this entry with lots of photos. Unfortunately, the camera battery died just as I was about to begin composing this blog - so you won't even get one picture until my next visit to the internet cafe in Mubende (40 miles from Nyamarwa on moderately bad roads) - probably next week.

Jim and Rachel's wedding, though definitely a distraction, was a great blessing for Brenda and me as we left. We had the great joy and privilege of seeing our younger son joined in marriage to Rachel Meyer by our older son, Pastor Aaron Bequette, who flew up from Texas for the occasion. We shall always be thankful for the love that brought him that long distance from his family and busy church life to give a few days to his beloved younger brother.

The wedding took place on Sunday the 10th, the last and best of many wonderful events that have been framed by our Home Street Home. Jim and Rachel's friends had done a wonderful job of decorating the house, Brenda fashioned a beautiful wedding dress for Rachel, finished just hours (or was it minutes) before the wedding, Rachel's Mom and Dad brought a huge buffet of food and refreshments and we had a great party. This in spite of zero degree temperatures and drifting snow that kept only a few of the couple's friends from showing up. In the end, we had nearly forty attend the wedding, including a number of close friends from Madison Square Church.

Monday and Tuesday after the wedding were a blur of activity - too flurried to allow for any anxiety to set in, though we knew we would be forgetting many things as we put the last suitcases to right - 50 lbs each, no more. Five huge suitcases and four carry ons. We were sure we were ready when we went to the airport, but ended up surprised when we found out that the one suitcase we had deliberately overfilled would end up costing us more than taking a sixth suitcase of normal weight. So, we purchase a hot pink large bag from a kindly desk attendant at Northwest (the only one they had available) and redistributed our luggage into six bags.

Then we gathered with our friends, prayed, ate our last meal for a long while in Grand Rapids and boarded the plane. Without too much delay we had jumped from GR to Detroit to Amsterdam and finally, just 30 minutes late, to Entebbe, at about 9 pm Wednesday. Rev. James was right there to greet us, along with Michael, a fine young man from Frank's Hostel, who gave us two trips for the price of one to take all our luggage (and us) to this humble, but clean and inexpensive hotel just a few minutes from the airport.

The next few days were another blur of shopping and greetings with old friends as we shopped and shared time with the Turumanyas in Kampala (organized by family secretary Anna, who came all the way from Jinja for the occasion, in spite of the fact she had to leave her infant son with a caregiver back home). We really enjoyed a wonderful visit with them on the yard of the Kolping Guesthouse where Brenda and I and our Habitat team had stayed back in 2001. It was good to be in a place we were familiar with - but WONDERFUL to be with the Turumanya children - all now in their late 20s to 40s and doing well in life and business.

We shopped for a vehicle (looking for a dual cab diesel truck, but finding them far too expensive), put money down on a van (which we are now convinced we should not buy), shopped for needed household items and food, shopped for generator prices, shopped for Kibbuse school supplies (Brenda and Rev. James had a great time in Kampala's "garment district" which is an absolute TRIP!) - shopped till we dropped!

Then, on Saturday afternoon, we packed our van with all the suitcases, bags of goods and ourselves and headed for Hoima. The Hoima Kampala highway is now a real treat and we were there within three and a half hours, just like last May. Our visit to Hoima was relaxing and pleasant. It was HOT, but duh! where are we anyway?! We had wonderful times with Bishop Wilson and Sayuni Turumanya, Thad Cox, and many friends from the Diocese. The only person we didn't see was Shirley Morris, our friend from Sewickley.

We did some final shopping there and then headed south over more than moderately bad roads to Nyamarwa. Thankfully, we still had a professional driver. We arrived in Nyamarwa in the afternoon to a warm greeting from the students, who met us waving branches and singing praise songs about a half mile out the village road from the school. We were tired from the five hour trip over rough and dusty roads, but relieved to finally be at our desired destination. The first thing we did, after receiving embraces from our new "family", was to thank our loving God and heavenly Father for the favor and blessings we had enjoyed throughout the long journey.

My next post will say a little more about the greetings, include as many photos as I can reasonably download and describe our new life here. One preview - it seems I am now the "designated driver" for the school. I have already posted about 150 miles going back and forth from the two nearest towns for errands. I'm actually enjoying navigating the bumps and ruts and trying at the same time to preserve the Suzuki from bad wear and tear and getting to our destinations within a reasonable time.

Keep us in prayer. We love knowing you are reading this. SORRY FOR NO PICTURES THIS TIME. I'll do better, God helping!

In His love, bye for now.

1 comment:

Nurse Carol said...

Hi Bob and Brenda! So glad you made it to Nyamarwa safely. I have been praying for you and loved reading your blogs. Give my love to Rev. James and Aida. We are madly planning for June.
Makama asiimwe, Keep in touch,
Nurse Carol