Words from Aeri as she settles down in Kampala

July 1st, Thursday

Beloved church family,

I arrived safely in Uganda yesterday afternoon, as did all my luggage, thanks be to God, via a long 15 hour flight to sweltering, as in, 109 degrees Fahrenheit at 7pm, yet extravagantly opulent Dubai , then another 7 and a half hour flight to Entebbe via Addis Abbaba. Here I am, back in my old room at RTC with my mosquito net that is full of holes, my 2 shelves fashioned out of old vine stalk, my rickety desk and chair, a bed with slats that dig into by back all night long, and occasionally stepping on dead cockroaches and lizard droppings. Nevertheless, I am enjoying my own opulent surroundings, relatively and contextually speaking of course, enjoying the sweet, earthy smell in the air that never fails to greet me whenever I land in Uganda, getting used to the fine brown dust that settles on everything constantly, and enduring the barrage of mosquito bites that have already made their mark on all my extremities.

This morning, I am waiting for the electrician who was to come and fix the electricity on my side of the guesthouse building (there is none at the moment, I am writing on left-over juice in my computer battery), before heading out to town to take care of some errands : turn on cell phone service, exchange currency, and procure necessities like TP, candles, soap, and water, bracing myself for another set of exhilaratingly death-defying boda-boda (motorbike) rides through town, all before the afternoon Sun becomes too scorchingly hot, what with it being the dead of dry season and all.

Last night as I lay awake listening to the eardrum-rattling music of crickets, and the occasional thud of avocados falling onto the tin roof of the guesthouse, I was filled with a sense of grateful wonder at God bringing me here for the 13th time since that life-altering first experience of 1997. Thinking of the depth of human connections in which I was privileged to share here in Uganda, I can only sing along with the Psalmist: ‘Lord, who am I, that you should show such loving kindness?’ This weekend, I will be sharing at a worship conference that my Ugandan musician friend and former student, Bosco Andama will be holding in Kampala. I have no idea as yet what I will say, but as I await insight from the Lord, I expect to witness God at work once again in ways that always capture my imagination anew. So here I go once more, grateful at the chance to practice the always exciting, unexpected, and scary work of trusting in God. As always, I know that I am cocooned in the prayers of my community, without which none of this would be possible. Please excuse my Faulkneresque, stream-of-consciousness style of run-on sentences. I haven’t slept in more than 2 hour stretches for the last 3 days….

Love,

Aeri