Temporarily Delayed

Greetings from Uganda!

Last night we drove to the airport through the chaos of Sunday night traffic in Kampala. You cannot even imagine and we certainly will have difficulty adequately describing how nail biting a simple drive through town can be. With 6 million people moving about, mostly on foot, bicycle, or motorcycle, combined with taxis and other vehicles literally pushing their way in and out of traffic. And if that isn't tenuous enough, having to dodge the crater size potholes makes the ride an adventure of a lifetime. I will try to never complain about Jamestown roads and I86 again! Want more adventure? Do you want more? Even in downtown Kampala, vendors are lined up along the street and some even meet you at your car window while stopped at a red light trying to sell you sunglasses, tennis raquets, cards that have cell phone minutes on them, not to mention beggers - some who have leprosy and other disabilities. Then there are the cows, sheep and goats that are tethered to the side of the road and sometimes decide to move out into the road, which prompts the honking of horns like you have never heard.

We got a late start and traffic was much heavier than normal and we were sure that we would miss our flight because we arrived only one hour prior to departure. What normally takes 45 min to an hour to get to the airport took us over 2 hours!

When we arrived everyone was put into motion with their individual jobs and in a blink of an eye all the luggage was unloaded and on carts ready to check them in when we found out that our flight had indeed been cancelled due to the volcanic ash pluming over Europe. We were disappointed for missing our flight and relieved that it had been canceled rather than missing it due to our tardiness. We have decided that we are leaving 4 hours ahead of time the next time we go to the airport.

We are indeed blessed because while many travelers might be scrambling to get a hotel room, our "hotel" is still available to us and they will extend us credit if we need it. :) Tim and Colleen have been the most phenomenal hosts. We couldn't have asked for better people to help us through a challenge like this.

The other blessing is that we earned enough money that we were able to take extra and we planned very conservatively and as a result overestimated our expenses for this trip and still have money that should last us several days.

We have been joking that we feel a bit like "Indian givers" because we have given our clothes away and taken them back twice. Thankfully we only gave a portion of our clothing away in the village and saved some to leave here in Kampala. So we are doing some laundry but don't have to go and buy a new wardrobe (Of course there are some on our team that wouldn't see that as such a travesty!).

I know that you are probably seeing the most extreme and difficult of circumstances on the news reports at homes. I can only imagine what the television is showing you. However, we are being treated like royalty and we have very comfortable accomodations here in Kampala. Everyone has a bed, we're eating 3 meals a day and it's only costing us $20 per person per day - way better than sleeping in an airport and buying their food!

I am going to the KLM office this morning with one of Tim's drivers to discuss what is happening and what we can expect as far as a departure time home. The others are excited about sleeping in as all but 1 morning has started from 5:30 - 6:30 am. That wouldn't be as bad, but our days rarely have ended before 11:30- midnight, and not all of us do well with little sleep. This afternoon, we are going to help assemble bicycles that we were able to purchase for pastors who have no transportation to move about, and then hopefully we will be on our way to the airport at 5:30 pm tonight (10:30 am your time).

While we are certainly disappointed to be delayed in coming home as we miss you all so much, we are thankful that once again, God has provided everything we need reminding us that his timing is always best.

We cherish the fact that so many are praying. We ask that you continue to pray for all of our team members that we can handle this change of plans with grace and love in our dealings with each other and those whose paths we cross.

We love you and look forward to seeing you soon!

P. Roy