Traveling to Uganda

8/11/16 - You wouldn't believe how hard it has been to find time to write...and the struggle with guilt and frustration I've had the last five-and-a-half months as I know the writing isn't happening. I'll miss it, and YES, I already regret not journaling closer to when we actually traveled, but it is what it is. Mostly, we have just photos now as the details are so fuzzy. I do still want to share our memories -- photos and crumbs from my mind...

Will and I went to Uganda on a shoe distribution trip for Parental Care Ministries. While we were gone, Ben, Maddie, and Jon stayed with Gramma and Granddad. Allen's cousin's daughter was doing a Flat Stanley project (taking photos of Stanley at different places in the US.) We took Stanley with us and got a few pictures for her, too.

Allen was able to take the day off work and he was one of two who drove our team to Houston. From Houston, we flew to Amsterdam, then Amsterdam to Entebbe. We stayed overnight in Entebbe, then took the PCM bus to Mbarara.

The only time I remember being stressed on the trip was the first evening we were in Mbarara. I had already seen a giant pile of shoes -- I am talking about 2000 pair of shoes, no boxes, piled high against a wall. Know this: my four kids each have two pair of shoes and I get frustrated seeing those 16 shoes unmatched and piled in the closet. Can you imagine how much my heart raced to see almost four THOUSAND black shoes unmatched and piled?!?!

I was told the PCM staff HAD started matching and packaging them, so I was quite thankful! When we arrived at the garage where the shoes were stored, they were paired and bagged -- about 30-60 pair per bag. What stressed me out was that we had no way of knowing what sizes we had, and I knew we needed to sort them out again to see what we had. The stressful part for me was that our whole team was looking to me for answers about what to do, but I didn't want the Ugandans upset to see us UNdoing everything I know they spent days doing. Lori (our team leader) asked me what we needed to do first and I replied we needed to pray. I asked for a few moments to think, and I think she saw the tears fighting to stay in and she pulled me aside to pray with me (without the group). We got the shoes sorted and got to know each other a bitter better in the process. After several hours of sorting, we counted and recorded all the numbers, then headed back to the hotel for dinner around 9:30pm.