Howdy folks. Sorry, meant to throw out one last post at least…mostly to say that we sent out an update letter about our trip so if you weren’t on the list to get that, shoot us an e-mail (malovelace@aimint.net) and let us know so we can send it to you. Seems like forever ago that we were over yonder in the Pearl of Africa even though it was just a month and a half ago that we got back. I’ve started back up with volunteering at SALT as of this week, Matthew is back at school, we’re both doing an after school program one day a week up in North Minneapolis. We’ve started a neat thing at church–rather than small groups where you meet with the same group throughout the year, this year they set up this rotation thing so each time we meet (once a month or so) you’re with a new group of people at a different leader’s house. So by May, provided everyone attends and we’re always able to go, we’ll have shared a meal with just about everyone in the church! We’ve met once so far and it has already been a blessing of connecting with people and getting to know one-another.

We’ve decided to take a leave from the US Ministry team with AIM. We’ll see where we’re at after six months or so and see where to go from there. Need to send out a newsletter about that too… Not sure what the long-ish term plan is, but we just know, for now, that we feel very satisfied with life and ministry here in Minneapolis and really feel at peace with God having us here. Africa is never far from our minds, but for now, we think this is the place for us.

K, just felt like we left you hanging…so even if no one out there reads this, at least I’ll feel better and will stop having to think: boy, I should really write again on that blog… Thanks for following us on our journey! And i might keep writing to update on ministry stuff we’ve got going here. Better check back once in a while…you just never know when I’ll get the 6am urge to blog!! :)

Yes, yes…we’re home. Sorry for the lack of updating! We arrived yesterday around noon. My cousin picked us up at the airport and dropped us off amidst pouring rain. Oh well…we were definitely in need of a shower anyway! We were gross and sweaty before even leaving the Kenya airport. Maybe I’ll let Matthew give an update on our day Saturday (another adventure) and I’ll just stick with Sunday. It was actually a somewhat relaxing day. We had breakfast, went to church, then I came home with the ladies and we just sat around for hours–had tea and lunch in there somewhere. Matthew found a gym somewhere in the neighborhood. Then when Stanley got back from church (he’s the pastor–not sure we’ve ever mentioned that) after three services and I’m sure some counseling and socializing with church members we went with them out for coffee/lunch/dinner…not sure what it was, but it was tasty! Then we rushed home to finalize packing, said hi and g’bye to some people who had come to see us and we were off…just like that. Our visit there was over much too quickly!! We were at the airport in plenty of time, which gave us lots of time to sweat and people-watch. There had to have been something wrong in that airport cuz it was boiling hot. It was just miserable sitting there–crowded, tons of people. Then we got into the tiny boarding area to wait more before getting on the plane and we heard that the flight was delayed. I think we left an hour and a half or so after we were supposed to. Apart from the hotness, it didn’t bother us any as we had plenty of time in Amsterdam to catch our next flight. My tragedy of the trip was shortly into the flight I was re-adjusting my ponytail and somehow managed to flick my hair thing up out of my hand to who-knows-where?! I asked the lady behind me, but it hadn’t flung into her lap. Who knows where it went. Of course I didn’t have a spare…that would’ve been too easy. So I was stuck with a poof of hair for the rest of the trip that I couldn’t contain. Alas.

Upon arriving in Amsterdam we were glad to find the McDonalds as the previous meal had been a bit dodgy. It’s so funny how comforting familiar food is. And coffee!! Yes, even McDonalds coffee. Well, it was better than the kind that would’ve cost $10!! Didn’t have long to wait there and we were off on the last leg of our journey! Arrived just in time to beat the thunderstorm that might have delayed us. Like I said, it was raining hard by the time we got home, but that didn’t hinder a quick  run into the grocery store.

God greeted us with a little piece of Africa upon arriving home. We had an ant invasion! The dumb critters have made a path from one end of the house ALL the way through the living room, dining room, around the corner into the kitchen and up a wall to who knows where. We’ve been killing them non-stop, but need to get some stuff to spray them with. The other issue we found was lots of mold. All of the humidity here while we were gone and no air in here must have made the house a little mold-generator. Our last crisis was this morning when Matthew went to go check on the cars before I headed off to work. He thought my tires needed some air so I was going to take his car and as he moved mine to get his out of the garage the tire popped and then slowly deflated and we were left with a very very flat tire :( So anyway…that was Matthews day, trying to get that sorted out. My day was spent trying to stay awake at work, which I managed to do fairly well. About 3:00 the headache won out and I called my chauffeur to come pick me up.

We did terribly on kicking jet-lagged, but it somehow worked for us. We got home Monday afternoon and did some stuff, but then about 3:00 realized that we were never going to be able to stay awake until  8 or 9 so decided to take a one hour nap. Apparently my alarm didn’t ring loud enough to arouse someone from a jet-lagged slumber and we woke up about six hours later. I was so frustrated cuz that’s the worst thing ever you could’ve done and I was wondering how I was going to survive the day of work the next day… But we were up for a bit. Matthew ate, I swapped the laundry and then we went back to bed and slept until about 4. Not bad for coming from a time zone 9 hours away! So anyway, the day has been tiring, but manageable. But sleep very soon here sounds really nice…

I’ll have Matthew update on the gap I left…and we’ll post some more pictures.  But just wanted to be sure we told you all we made it here! Sorry that little note is a day and a half late! Thanks for keeping up with us…

Ahh Kenya. Land of magnificent animals, beautiful safari parks, breathtaking shorelines and dangerous roads. Friday was a very typical day with the Mutangili family. A family I have come to love over the years. We had selected Friday as the day to travel “up country” to see the Mutangili’s extended family many miles outside of Nairobi.

In the morning we had a quiet time of drinking African chai (tea) and eating breakfast. Originally scheduled to leave at 10:30 Stanley returned to the house to pick us up at 12:30! Still somewhat on time by African standards so I wasn’t too dismayed at this; I knew it would be a long day. However, I was really looking forward to being in real Africa, away from the city and congestion and chaos. Of course, I had forgotten that the real chaos is the winding ‘take your life in your own hands’ road systems that we have in Kenya.

Mombasa Highway is the ONLY major highway linking Kenya’s two largest cities. Imagine Washington DC and New York being linked by ONE road system and that the highway is a two lane highway. Now picture hundreds of cars vying for the spot ahead of them, passing recklessly as extremely slow moving lorries (semi trucks) lumber down the road. I can’t count how many times we had another vehicle speeding in the opposite lane heading straight toward us attempting to pass before squeezing into their lane at the last moment. Thankfully our car had two seat belts. One for Stanley and one for their daughter Judi! In America it seems crazy to strap a child into the front seat (if not illegal) but if that is the only working seatbelt then that is what you do.

After a stop at a gas station in rural Kenya for another hour (Stanley had to meet some church members) we were again on our way on the road from you know where. Either to rural Mukaa, Stanley’s birthplace, or Heaven.  Eventually we pulled off the highway and then spent another forty minutes driving through the country-side. We saw a lot of a land area Stanley’s purchased to build their home outside Nairobi. At this point, nearly four o’clock in the afternoon Stanley says, “Matthew, it is getting late, we must be going.” As we left the rural building site I was amazed by the dryness and bareness of the land. Very little rain and hot temperatures makes for tough living in the Ukambani, Kenya area.

Our second destination was to get back on the deadly speedway and go to another home area of Stanleys. This would be his birthplace. The drive off road was breathtaking and horrifying at the same time. Maybe Amber should describe it…

Ok fine…Amber here…It the drive was rather like a roller coaster, only in a car. It was really beautiful–up and down and around steep hills with gorgeous scenery. I suppose it’s a little like driving around in the Black Hills for those of you South Dakotans…kind of going around mountains like that. Well…with a few differences: dirt road, not paved (granted it was a really good dirt road!) and also it was only narrow enough for one car with a steep drop-off down the other side and no guardrails such as would be on those types of cliffs in the Black Hills. But apart from those things, it was just like driving around in the Black Hills :-) Praise the Lord there was no traffic whatsoever to meet–only motorbikes, bicycles and pedestrians…

The time with his family was great, many kids, curious and scared of the mzungus came running up to greet us. it was just a typical day in Africa but so far removed from the tourist Africa which 99 percent of all western people experience. As it was getting dark Stanley was rushing (a very unAfrican thing to do) and wanted to get on the Mombasa Highway to head home ASAP.

But before we could get onto the main highway we had one more stop. A stop which saw both Amber and I address nearly 300 girls at the local secondary school. Yes, let me repeat that, Amber spoke to hundreds of people impromptu style. I was proud of her. We distributed hundreds of books, spoke to the girls briefly, than were on our way again for the fourth time that day.

Finally, we were on the highway, This time though with no sun to guide us. Just the blinding headlights of the vehicles on the opposite lane. It was on this highway that we passed several horrible road accidents all the while Stanley pointing to various spots on the road where friends and acquaintances of his had been killed by cars.

And it was then that we saw it… a man who had been tragically hit head on by a car going at a high rate of speed. Stanley and I were in the front when we began to see scattered debris in the road and then in the darkness that only the headlights illuminated we saw the remains of a young man who had been crushed just moments earlier. He had almost certainly been attempting to run across the road to get home when a car had collided with him. His body was strewn in the road, blood everywhere, with Stanley and I in disbelief.

Unfortunately we gasped out loud and that attracted Amber’s attention who then saw the deceased as well out the window. I’ve been in Africa for many years and have seen dead people but nothing that horrible, further compounded by the fact that NO ONE!!!! had stopped, as if a squirrel was on the middle of the road.

Appalled at being in Africa at that moment and disgusted that nothing was being done I told Stanley that we couldn’t just let a dead man lay there in front of incoming traffic. Before we could discuss further we suddenly came across the vehicle that had hit the man. Stanley pulled over and began calling people. The man who had run over the pedestrian had fled leaving a woman with a badly hurt child in her mother’s arms. Anyway, we can write more about this Sunday before we leave perhaps. I wanted to get out of the car and help but Amber wouldn’t let me… which I guess was for the best. The rest of the night was a blur. We got home, later than even I expected, and somehow managed to keep up our spirits.

Today we will be less busy. And NO highway driving for the next few decades. Blessings, Matthew and Amber

K…finally getting some internet here, sorry for being so quiet! The two posts following this one were written yesterday morning, just that we didn’t get opportunity to post them until just now. Scroll down and read mine first, then Matthew’s saga. So, yesterday all afternoon we were out and about traveling, but again…I’m going to let Matthew tell you about that. He knows the people and places better than I do. They sure are keeping us busy, but it’s so good to be here.

My version of traveling into Kampala on the morning before our flight goes something like this…my brain wasn’t working!

Traveling into Kampala is an hour long trip of stopping and going, getting stuck in traffic and then walking through the congestion and debris to reach at your stop. I knew we had to leave by 11 in the morning, and I had PROMISED to see my friend from Nakivubo Gym (Katamba) one last time the night before. I couldn’t not go into town to say goodbye, though in hindsight, Amber’s right, I should not have tried it.

After leaving Matoke Inn at 8:30, I finally reached the city center by 9:45…or so. I had been stuck in traffic, surprise, surprise and was beginning to lose my mind watching the valuable time tick away. To make matters worse when I left the taxi to walk across the street a bicycle rider carrying a load of stuff accidentally knocked my phone (my sole means of communication) out of my hand into the middle of the street. As if in slow motion I moved toward the phone in the middle of the road only to see a motorcycle run it over! A good Samaritan picked it up and handed it to me. It was dead, but I removed the battery and hoping for the best started it up again. All the while beginning to get nervous that time was slipping away. It did come back to life after the restart.

I found Katamba at 9:50, thinking I would send greetings and then be on my way. Apparently I forgot what continent we were living on. Katamba walked me back to his place of business, now 10:00 and then called his wife to have her travel to say bye to me as well. Again, it took me nearly one hour just to get to Kampala’s city center! And now it is nearly 10:10 with our ride to the airport leaving at 11!  And he is calling his wife to and asking her to travel across town to see me off… thankfully I did not inform Amber as to my whereabouts. She was on a “need to know” basis at that point.

I sat as calmly as possible in his place of business and began to tap my foot relentlessly. Time, the thing that westerners live their lives controlled by was now my enemy. It was 10:15 when Katamba walked up to me and said that his wife was getting dressed and would be here soon! At this point leaving on a matatu taxi from the city center to our residence was almost out of the question. I began to get desperate, yet was “technically” not allowed to leave as that would be extremely rude. Stuck between cultures.

10:30 now, and our ride was leaving at 11:00…and I was an hour away from the ride. At this point all I could do was realize that unless I took a motorcycle and went flying through traffic at a high rate of speed and bypassing the main roads would getting there in fifteen to twenty minutes be possible. And then Katamba’s wife and little girl showed up on a boda boda. We prayed together inside his exercise room (which was a big deal…I’m really glad we got to do that) and then began to get a motorbike to take us all the way back from the city to the outside of town and eventually Matoke Inn.

At 10:45 Amber called! Panicked and in tears. Though because of the loud engine noises, bustling people, honking horns and usual chaos I had no idea what she said. I just got out, “on the way” which was finally true, and had to hang up to hold on for dear life. I was on one bike, Katamba on the other, and his wife and little girl on another. We were quite the caravan traveling all the way from town.

We traveled at high rates of speed, with no helmets of course, dodging slow moving trucks, trailers, animals and other foreign objects in the road such as human beings. I had never seen any of these back roads and thus had no choice but to enjoy the ride. My only other option was to get thrown off and be badly injured or tell Amber that I would be even later by taking another vehicular option. I chose to hang on for dear life and take a motorbike ride which would endanger my life.

We zoomed out of town at illegal speeds and passing cars on the main Entebbe Highway. I will never again judge a South Dakota motorcycle rider for not wearing their helmet. At 11:03, yes 11:03 we all arrived at the entrance of the Matoke Inn guesthouse where Amber was waiting at the gate with flames shooting from her eyes. Thankfully, she saw Katamba’s cute little girl and sweet wife before she saw me. That meant she couldn’t do anything too severe to me as there were now witnesses.

We found our other passengers, two men from South Africa and England, and then said rapid fire like goodbyes to our terrific staff, such as Godfrey and John and then began to pack up the van. Once at Matoke Inn Katamba asked me one last time to pray, which I did and gave thanks to the Lord and thanked him for being such great friends that they would travel all the way to see us off like this… Within a few minutes we left and then saw the Katamba family one last time at the end of the road. What good friends. And a good story. Even Amber agrees…honest.

Well, sorry for not posting quick on Wednesday to let you know we were heading out of Uganda and on over to Kenya. It was a bit of a crazy morning, which I’ll let Matthew tell you about. All I’ll say about it is that I probably should not have let Matthew go into town the morning we were trying to leave by 11! But alas, it’s all history and it all worked out, just a stressful moment or two along the way :)

We had a good time wrapping up in Uganda—I think we did good seeing most everyone and squeezing everything in. I forgot what I last wrote about (I’m not actually on the internet right now…just typing this in faith that we’ll get internet eventually), but I suppose I was pretty well up to date. We (well…”I”, Matthew was in town, remember) had one more nice tea time with the staff, said adios to people. We did get on our way to Entebbe (the town in Uganda where the international airport is) and had a nice lunch (pizza!) with G & K who lives there in Entebbe, then they took us to the airport. The only issue with our ‘running late’ morning was cutting lunch with them short, but I suppose that was better than being late to the airport and missing a flight! :)

Flight over to Nairobi Kenya went great. It’s amazing how you can either sit in a plane for an hour or bounce and swerve in a bus for 12-14 hours…both will get you from Entebbe to Nairobi, but you will probably arrive in very different spirits. Obviously the bus is way cheaper, but we didn’t have the time to spare in this short little visit to do that. I think we said this before, but we’re staying here with the couple that Matthew did a home stay with way back when he first arrived in Kenya 8 years ago. Ever since then he’s stayed with them off and on when he’s back to Nairobi for visits. They now have two kids, Judi Hannah and Manasseh.

So it’s been great to be here so far. We’ve seen lots of people (most of whom I don’t know) who Matthew knew from before. Even saw someone they (Matthew and Stanley) knew as we were driving back from the airport. If you saw this place, you’d understand how crazy that is, but we were stuck in a traffic jam and he recognized Stanley so they talked back and forth a bit. This place is nuts as far as the traffic goes. Definitely making some improvements to the roads, but a person could easily spend half their day stuck in traffic.

Yesterday Stanley dropped us off somewhere in town and I sat and had coffee while Matthew went to his “Nairobi” gym (yes, he has them in every town…and where there is none, he makes one). Then we went to the AIM guest house here in Nairobi—Matthew knows all the staff there so had to stop in and say hi. Got in on a doctor’s appointment for little Manasseh, then for a great lunch of chicken and chips. Good thing I had had a snack with my coffee in the morning cuz lunch was at about 3. They do a good job, though, of remembering that we’re muzugus and that our eating schedules are a little different than around here.

Today we’re heading upcountry to…well…hmm, I’m not sure where exactly we’re going, but I guess I don’t really need to know.

Matthew’s right, Sunday was a great, African day, however, I think more details would explain just how very African it was. If there was one day of the week that it’d be nice to have a car, it’d be on Sunday–at least for where we try to go to church. It’s such a long ordeal doing the boda–taxi–walking–taxi–more walking…covered in dust thing. But…it was worth it to see everyone there one more time before we head out. Sunday was one of those days where at the end of it you wonder why did I bother washing my hair that morning, or putting on makeup or even taking a shower. A minute out the door you’re covered in sweat and dust. By the end of the day you don’t even notice it, which is kinda scary.

Anyway, after church we went back into town and I got to see the infamous gym–I had only seen pictures before this. Many improvements have come in the two years since I saw the pictures though: carpet, new paint, etc. So we hung around there for a while, then when Matthew’s friend got there we walked to his business and looked around. Then we took a taxi (much in the direction we had just come from church, we just didn’t know where we were going to end up–plus, I had to see the gym) to their neighborhood, then a winding bumpy boda ride up to their house. A highlight of visiting any Ugandan house is trying to converse over the loud tv and/or radio that is on at the same time. They watch these American movies or Spanish soap operas that the original language is blocked out and then someone is explaining the whole thing in Luganda…it’s fairly interesting to watch.

Like Matthew said, we had a wonderful lunch. She is a great cook! And the little baby was very entertaining. It was fun seeing some of his weightlifting videos–some home-video type things from local things they did, but also some international sports show interviewed him and he had a copy of the show so we got to see that. They did a really great job of it.

There were a couple of points in the day where my Mzungu American-ness got in the way of enjoying the day :( We only had two guests for dinner and we had warned them that we might be late–they’re veterans of the place so it wasn’t a big deal. I figured we wouldn’t be back in time to put the hot dish in the oven, but surely we’d be back in time for me to be able to set the table and get everything else ready. Wrongo!! It was about 4:15 when I was getting anxious, just knowing how long it takes to get anywhere. Had we left right then, we would’ve gotten back just about right. I was a bit dubious, though, because I had heard mention of seeing people on our way out… I said something about leaving and ‘yeah, yeah…we can get going’. T.I.A. 5:15, we left their house. Walk, taxi, another walk: 6:15 we left the first stop (her relatives place). Walk, taxi, another walk to his mom’s place. 7:15 or so we headed off for town. I’m convinced we only got out when we did because it started to rain and we all said we should hit the road to try to beat the rain… So we caught a taxi to town, then another taxi out to Lubowa…whew, finally reached home sometime after 8…I don’t know what time it was exactly because we had our Sunday chores to dive into when we got back: clean up dishes, make the guard’s tea, feed the critters, set the breakfast table…

But it was a great day. So fun to connect with people and experience life here a little bit. I still hold that the best part of any day in town is when you get off the taxi down at the main road and hop on a boda (motorbike). After all the sweat and masses of people…you get the cool air blowing, an amazing view down the valley of the city lights…it’s great.

Anyway, enough of that. Yesterday and today we’re busy finishing things up. Packing, handing over the cashbox, one last trip to the store–partly for money to pay our rather large bill for staying here and partly for the last few items on my ‘must get’ list. Last night my good friend from church came for dinner. It was great to see her one last time–she’s such a dear friend.

Well, as it goes…I had this post mostly ready to go hours and hours ago, then got distracted with a whole bunch of other things going on…and now internet is hardly good enough to get it posted so I’m going to post it even without the pictures that I couldn’t seem to get working…! Will post those separately. Maybe the internet will be better this evening.

Often in Africa Sundays are anything but days of rest. A normal schedule of a Ugandan, or ex-pat, venturing to church would include leaving an hour before the worship actually starts, walking long distances to arrive at a small bus stage that takes 30 minutes to get you into town. Upon exiting the taxi you are bombarded by thousands of people, honking horns, buzzing motorbikes and vendors. Then one must wade through literally hundreds of “neatly” organized mini buses at the taxi park all revving up their engines trying to attract costumers to their destination. And if the local city officials are clearing the sewage system that day then…well, your clothes will never look or smell the same. Church usually is another two and then the long journey home begins. Wow, I sound like a whiner.

After church we had an equally long and tiresome adventure, but it was a great experience with the Katamba family. I have mentioned Katamba in a previous post; he is a champion power lifter from Uganda and has represented the nation in several other countries. Last week we had him, his wife and little girl over for dinner. Sunday we visited his home and had a late lunch (after I took Amber to see the weight room of course) and enjoyed a feast.

He offered that I pray for the meal and I thankfully obliged. Africans are so open to things of a spiritual nature. As his family is Muslim, I appreciated that he respected our faith and allowed us to pray to the Lord.  We ate a tremendous meal, meaning it was all African foods: matokee, posha, beans and roasted meat. Afterward we watched videos, talked about life and then left their home to visit several other relatives who lived in the surrounding area of Kampala. This included another trip to a weight room (are you noticing a theme here?) where I saw another old friend who had just finished serving two years in Iraq. (We’ve realized that many Ugandan’s are in Iraq, serving with US troops that are there.

It was not until close to 7:30 when we said goodbye and began our trip to the chaotic taxi park, only this time it was nightfall. I was reminded how thankful I was to have a partner in all this, Amber’s such a good sport and takes all the turmoil of African life very well. We reached our stage and then found a motorbike driver (Sula) to take us back home. Sula has been our trusted motorbike man during our time here in Kampala. We reached home exhausted but appreciated the opportunity to be in real Africa. Matoke Inn is a bit more sanitized, Muzungu version of Africa, which is good and makes for a peaceful stay, but I love Africa because it is so chaotic and congested and busy with people.