Settling In

Well, it's nearly a week after moving in my new house, and I'm so thankful for it! What a blessing it is to me and I pray that I will be able to bless others with it also, as a place to stay for guests who visit Uganda for short-term trips. So far, I was able to get my bed, a dining table and 6 chairs as well as a cooker/ stove. I've enjoyed my Mondays off from work at church as the office is closed; giving me time to go through the bins I'd brought along from Canada, as well as going through the boxes I had left behind here before leaving for Canada last July. It's been alot of fun, digging up things I had forgotten about, and looking for certain things, digging through bins and boxes and finding them in the end! This weekend I hope to sit down with my sewing machine to do a bit of mending, hanging a bunch of photo's on the walls, and going to Entebbe for a friends son's 4th birthday party. So far, it's been a busy week, working at church has me up by 6am, to be out the door, heading down the hill by 7am, hopefully not waiting very long for a taxi on Entebbe road and heading into town, through traffic jam, and reaching town, walking the remainder to church and reaching sometime between 8 and 8:30am. It's not too bad...the morning traffic jams are nothing compared to the late afternoon and evening jam! This past Wednesay I left town at 7pm, and once i'd made my way to the taxi park, we pulled out the park around 7:10, than we drove about 100ft, sat in the exact spot, engine turned off, and just sitting for abot 40 minutes. As we sat there, time kept ticking by, and there is absolutely nothing you can do, but sit and be patient. The drivers wait for the Police to signal them it's ok to go, and until they give you the signal you sit.. sit.. and sit some more! As we sat there, a few of us started some small talk, making the most of our time there, and as we talked we watched a traffic police officer walking towards us, and even the drivers started the taxi...only to watch the officer, now talking on his phone walk past us and keep walking... Yes, God has been testing my patience this week, and this, grr...we all began grumbling. After sitting at the clock tower for over 40 minutes, we were hot, sweaty, stinky, and sticky and ready to get home!! Well, as we continued to sit there, another officer gave us the signal to go, so go we did! And when you get a couple hundred taxis that have sat so long a signal to go, any pedestrian better be far out of the way!! We made it about 200 ft and got to sit again for about 30 minutes. By that time, i was exhausted so along with most others in the taxi, we tried to get some 'shut-eye' while sitting there. It was over an hour and a half later that I arrived home. Nothing else exciting happened, it's just a long trip home after a long day...but the comforting thing about it, as bizarre as it is, is it's not just me stuck in traffic....it's thousands of us!!! Welcome to traffic in Kampala!