House 4: Ready... Or not

Ever since arriving, we have been taking up residence in Sozo House 1 while awaiting House 4 renovations to be finished. House 4 will be the interns’ home for the summer. We thought that we would move down the hill on Thursday. We loaded up our bags and headed down the dirt road only to find that the house was not ready. Left a few things, carried the rest back up. Came to try again on Friday. The electrician and plumBer (they pronounce the “B” so it sounds like plum-ber) were still working. We took one change of clothes back up to House 1. Saturday, took a few visits down. At 9:00 pm we decided to make the move. Only to arrive at House 4 with only one working bathroom, and our side of the house still not finished. 

Some of the Sozo kids came with us to mop… Which ended up being a hose down and scrub of the floors. Or as Angela said, “The Nile is rushing through.” 

All of that being said, we are one step closer to unpacking our bags (now that we have been here almost a week…) and should finally be settled in for the summer.

With all of our extra time at House 1, I sure have enjoyed loving on our sweet Sozo babies. They keep asking, “Auntie Lauren, for how long are you staying?” Every time that I remind them it is the end of the summer, their face lights up with a big smile. I love the million times a day they say, “Auntie Lauren… Read me a book.” “Will you help me shade (color)?” “Auntie, pray with me.” Or, “Come, we go.” as they grab me by the hand and drag me off.

Tonight at devotion we studied Psalm 139:14, “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” As I thought about each and every child in that room, I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed with thinking about how God designed each and every one of these children to be unique and special. He gave each of them gifts and talents to be used for His glory. I praise God that He brought Sozo into their lives, despite rough backgrounds and childhoods, so that they can be taught of what He has done for them. Not one single thing that has happened in their lives is an accident. It is all a part of their story so they can grow up to bring glory to His great name.

We are here!

May 27, 2014

After spending two days (30+ hours plus an 8 hour time difference) en route to the beloved Uganda, I decided the best way to update you was to compile our “Top Five Travel Memories.” Please enjoy!

5. The Detroit airport has a hidden jewel: an underground light show tunnel with accompanying instrumentals that tries to make you forget how far you have to walk to the next terminal. Only to find that Terminal A has its very own monorail to take you from Gate 1 to roughly 197 (not sure how long the never ending terminal actually was…), passing the calming water feature smack in the middle. Can you tell we had about 5 hours to kill?

4. The moment that Rebecca and I realized that on our 8 hour flight from Amsterdam to Kilgali, our seats were not together. Then the scheming began to change up seats. We had a delightful gentleman sitting next to Rebecca who was sitting alone, but when asked about trading seats, his response was, “We’ll see.” So, we got our sweet flight attendant on board with our plan. She found us two seats together up about 10 rows in the plane, which included a window seat for sleeping and an aisle seat for stretching (by far the best possible setup). Once we took off and got the nod from the back of the plane to “go for it” we found another lovely gentleman already occupying one of our seats. After a little “back and forth” between our new fight attendant friend and this gentleman (while Rebecca and I were just ready to go back to our old seats), we were able to claim them, only to hike back once during the flight to our stranded bags.

3. The number of times that my travel companion, Rebecca, had to say “Sorry about it.” to the people in the airport/planes/trains from either taking them out with her rolling bag or pillow that stuck out a good 18 inches from the back of her pack.

2. Leaving Rebecca to guard the luggage (which is quite cumbersome after hours of lugging it around) while I made a quick bathroom stop in the Amsterdam airport, I came back to see four armed guards with very large machine guns questioning everyone in the area about their flight, requiring to see boarding passes and travel documents. Not sure what that was all about, but we passed the test.

1. Getting off the plane FINALLY in Uganda. Made it through Immigration, only to find another team grabbing our Sozo tubs off of the baggage claim. We got their attention, they loaded them on a cart, we added our checked bags, rolling carry ons, pillows, backpacks, and the two of us were a sight to behold. We headed out the door of the airport and saw NO ONE that we recognized. Scanned the crowd again. Security won’t let us back in the airport, started walking very slowly, and finally, Mato’s face appeared in the crowd. SOZO FAMILY!

We made it! On a more serious note, I was overwhelmed with emotion as I sat on our last plane that we would board to take us to Uganda. I’ve been waiting for this day for a whole year, ready to return to the country, people, and Sozo kids who stole my heart. I’m so excited to see what God has in store for us this summer, because I know He has done a great work in my life in the past year preparing me for this time. It hasn’t been an easy year, but I’m confident that it has been a part of the journey to “…live the life of love…” (Ephesians 5:1-2) that Christ has called me to live. Thank you for being a part of this journey for me this summer!