Day of Rest in Kampala

 The wifi is up and working now!! Yay 😊

We woke up on Sunday morning and went downstairs for breakfast. The dining room was beautiful, and the food was delicious!! At pretty much every hotel we have stayed at, they don't give you a menu for breakfast; it's a general breakfast. Most breakfasts have included omelets, toast, pancakes, chapati, sausage, or fruit. We always have coffee 😊. In the picture below, we had passion juice! This tasted JUST like my favorite bubblr flavor, passion fruit wonder, except it was not carbonated. 

When we were finishing breakfast, we talked to the hotel manager Suubi (which means hope in the Luganda language) for a little while. He told us that he's married and has a daughter named Zhavia, which means living water. He also said that paternal grandfathers get to name the grandchildren in Uganda. That is so crazy to me! Why wouldn't you want to name your own kid?? Then, we asked if he had a good word of the day or a favorite bible verse because we were going to leave shortly for church. Surprisingly, he told us Genesis 26:18. This reads, "Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them". It was surprising because we were expecting him to say a commonly known verse or something uplifting, but this was the verse he gave. He explained that this is one of his favorite verses because during COVID, he went back to his home village and the water level in their well had become very low. He had to work hard to make it much deeper. This was the well that his father used as well. That passage resonates with him not only because it reminds him of a similar situation in his own life, but it also provides a meaning that goes deeper than the wells. Suubi said it serves as a reminder to dig deep. "In this generation, people don't always have the work ethic to accomplish certain things. If you want something and prayerfully consider it, then you must dig deep into the Lord. You want to be successful?You want a wife? Dig deep into the Lord." What an awesome reminder! Dig deep into the Lord and His word! Below is a picture of Suubi and two very jet lagged Americans.

We walked around the hotel for a little bit and found a weight room. I was feeling a bit weak, so I had to bench a little 😉😂

The grounds were gorgeous, and all the people were so kind! Everybody that we met was so welcoming and polite. Here, instead of saying "Welcome", Ugandans say, "You are welcome". This was confusing at first, but we've gotten used to it 😊. Some will also say "Yes, please" instead of just "Yes" as a way of being hospitable and polite. For example, we asked the man working at the cafe if the coffee came with cream, and he responded with, "Yes, please" 😂. We are very used to that as well. 

We punched in coordinates for church that were apparently outdated and never even found the church 😂. So, we went to this fancy golf resort and had a devotion of our own with just Gift, Will, dad, and me. It was really nice. We looked at three different Psalms. It was very peaceful and refreshing. Gift mentioned that one of his favorite Psalms is Psalm 23. In the chapter, David writes about how God restores our souls. Gift loves that verse because he thinks about how when Christ restores our souls, our flesh follows. When we try to cleanse ourselves of addiction or greed or sin in general, we cannot do it on our own. Only the Lord can restore us fully. We asked our waiter if we could pray for him and his response was, "80,000, please". He thought we said pay 😂 We told him not to worry, that we would pay, and that we would also like to pray for him. We prayed for his family, his health, and prosperity of the hotel.

Special shout out to my mom's good friend, Nancy, for helping tailor this dress for me, along with a few other articles of clothing that I brought!

We went back to the Shine Country Hotel, where we stayed the night before, and dad and Will decided to swim. I just watched and laughed as the two grown men did canon balls, hand stands, and various swimming strokes. Of these swimming strokes, my favorite one to watch them perform was the elementary backstroke AKA little bird, big bird, flap (this is how we learned it in level 2 of swimming lessons 😅😂).

On multiple occasions throughout the day, I had smelled gas or exhaust in the car. The guys put their mechanical engineering degrees to work and figured out the problem. After they fixed it, I said, "Yay! Now I won't have black boogers when I blow my nose". Will told me that I needed to put that phrase in the blog because he thought it was too funny not to document it. 

When we were packing up to leave the hotel and head for Otino-waa, Gift and I were talking by the van. He said, "Abby. You are very blessed", and I just looked at him kind of confused. "To have him as a dad", he finished. It caught me off guard, but I quickly agreed that Gift was right and that dad is good guy. It was cute. Gift had told us at breakfast about his experience with his dad growing up. He said that he had not really felt his dad's touch until his wedding when his dad prayed over the new couple. His dad was never really the kind of guy to give him a hug or fist bump. I thought this was so interesting, but along with many other times on this trip, it made me feel even more grateful for my own parents.

Because we had a few more minor car troubles and the roads were not great, our trip starting in Kampala did not end at Otino-waa. We did not want to drive too far in the dark, so we decided to post up at Restoration Gateway for the night. Once we turned off the main road, we drove through tall grass for a few miles at least before reaching RG. We got to the front gate and passed through security. Then we passed through more security after reaching the hospital. Seeing RG for the first time, although in the dark, was very exciting for me because this is where I'd be spending the next few months! We were dead tired once we made it to our guest house but were greeted by Judith and Fabiano, who let us in the house and welcomed us. We got all settled in, and it was past midnight. We had been on the road all day and needed to leave by 7ish the next morning, so I was planning on falling asleep right as my head hit the pillow. However, right as my head hit the pillow dad hit me with this question: "What are your top 5 strengths from the Clifton Strengths test?"  I said, "Nope, dad, we're going to sleep. We can talk about this tomorrow"😂.