Kampala Walking Tour & Dad Goes Home

I am pretty sure I just stayed in the hotel and slept most of the day on Saturday (10/8) because I had such a bad headache from the exhaust fumes and the long car ride wiped me out. I also was really down about going home after I had been planning this trip for months. So, Saturday wasn't that fun of a day, but Sunday was 😊. We had breakfast and then went to see our friend Fred at the little hotel cafe. As I walked over to the window, he saw me, stretched out his hand, and when I grabbed it, he said, "Good morning. I love you. How did you sleep?". It was very sweet. He made us coffee and told us that he wished we could meet his wife and seven children. 

So, dad asked, "What time are you off work today?".

"9 pm", Fred replied.

"When did you start today?"

"6 am."

"15 hours today?"

"Yes, please."

"How many days do you work?"

"Every day."

"Fred, that's like 100 hours a week!"

"Yes, please."

"Do you ever get vacation?"

"4 days." 

"4 days?? That's a lot of work!"

"Yes, please. I have a family at home. As a father, you do not just have one stomach. Seven children plus their mother and me is nine. Nine stomachs."

We were shocked. Imagine working that much! But, he does what he has to for his family, and he does it cheerfully. Fred is amazing. Unfortunately, we were never able to go meet his family though. Below is a picture of Fred😊. 

After breakfast and coffee, we drove to KICs, which is short for Kampala International Church. It was a great service and the preacher talked about how we need to trust God's plan and how His ways are higher than our ways. The whole time during church I just felt like I needed to stay in Uganda. But, we were already in Kampala, which is 30 minutes from the airport and about five hours from RG. 

We drove back to the hotel and decided to go on a walking tour of Kampala. Yusef (pictured) was our tour guide. He was great! He's currently studying tourism and management. His family story is crazy. He is one of 67 kids from his dad. He is number 64 and born to his dad's last wife. His dad died at age 73 when Yusef was only 5. When his parents got married, his dad was 60 and his mom was 17. I've heard of some pretty large age gaps before but nothing to that extent! 

We walked all around Kampala, making many stops that included monuments, a university, a market, the taxi park, shops, and the slums. The fact that we got to visit the Independence monument was really cool because it was actually the 60th anniversary of Uganda's independence day (10/9). The statue shows a women whose legs and feet are bound and who is holding a happy child. The bindings represent the British that controlled Uganda before it gained independence. The happy child symbolizes the next generation of freedom, growth, and prosperity of Uganda.

The markets here in Uganda are always interesting. I love seeing all the different foods, but the sellers who get up in your face, the super crowded pathways, the constant buzzing of flies, and the uncovered hanging slabs of meat make me less excited about going through the markets 😬😂.

The taxi park is a very chaotic parking lot for all of these taxi vans. Less than a year ago, it was not paved, and the vans would get stuck in pot holes and trenches of water.

We decided not to go down some streets because of how saturated they were with people, equipment, products being sold and more.

The craziest part of the tour was the slums. Yusef was not sure if he even wanted to take us through there. He told us to hold everything close, watch where we step, and not to touch anything. The pictures speak for themselves but do not capture just how potent the smells were. We tried to hold our breaths as we passed through the heavy stench of animal feces, rotting food, smoking coals, trash, and sewage. 

We ended our tour on one of the hills in Kampala at St. Mary's Cathedral Rubaga, but I failed to take a picture there. We drove back to our hotel to pack up. Suubi, Fred, and the rest of the staff were sad to see us go, but we promised to keep them in our prayers and visit Shine Country Hotel if we ever return to Uganda. Driving to the airport I was pretty sad, and I think Gift could tell. We stopped to eat at a restaurant, and after finishing my meal, I went into the sitting room in one of the restrooms. I sat on the couch and thought about returning home. When I walked out, dad was standing there and said to me, "Abby, if you want to stay, you can. You have my blessing whatever you choose". I felt like previously he had really wanted me to go home and that it wasn't really my choice, but hearing him clearly say that it was my choice and that I had his blessing no matter what was exactly what I needed to hear, And so...I stayed 😊. We dropped dad off at the airport, Will and I went back to the hotel (his flight was the next day), I called mama Janice, and we arranged that I would ride back up to RG with a group who had just flew into Entebbe. Little did I know that this group would become my new family at RG and a blessing that I will never forget!