Ministry Partners,
What a day, it is 7 o’clock and we are finally back
at our hotel in Kampala, it was a 5 hour drive that ended up taking 6+!
The place we stayed in Kisoro had a had a lounge
like most places here so at midnight the woman across and her two fellows
decided to have a very loud fight outside my door waking me up. When it didn’t
stop I went to my door, and with it closed and locked, banged hard on it and
shouted, “people are sleeping.” I am thankful there was immediate silence and
of the course the sound sleeping guys did not hear anything in their rooms. The
desk apologized and informed me this morning that those guests were all inebriated,
well, I could tell that myself.
We had a good breakfast with a plate full of pineapple,
watermelon, papaya and a tall glass of juice, I chose pineapple of course. That
was followed by an omelet, crêpes and African tea.
Then it was off to Mbarara Prison Main which was only
a few minutes away. It is a high security prison with 1,540 inmates and the
very feel of it was so very different than the other prisons we have been in so
far. We were told to unload our sound system and things at one gate and then
told to drive around to the far side of the enclosure to the O.C.’s office.
I found the O.C. Peter to be a tall, older, man who
was ever so pleasant and welcoming but very much in charge. He was very
appreciative of the Bible/Discipleship Booklet set and even the donated ties
were a welcomed gift for him to wear to church according to him and they were
just the colors he liked. I was very thankful when he said he approved for us
to have 2 ½ hours for our program. He was in his street cloths so when I asked
if I could take a photo with him he said yes but after we finished our program
as it would give him time to put on his uniform.
The staff from Mbarara Prison Main w/ Arlene, Geoffrey & Alfred
We then drove back around to the gate where our
things were and got out of the van so Aaron could park it in the parking area.
Once again the inmates loved the music from our
sound system and joined right in as Geoffrey and I started dancing. It took a
bit of time for the women prisoners to be counted and brought from their enclosure
to sit on a large mat under the tree right next the open sided large tent they
had brought for us to be under. But most of the time I was in front of the tent
at the edge of the seated prisoners, from the men to the women under the tree. Since
it was a hot sunny day I was happy that the women had shade to sit under.
Alfred said later that the prisoner’s eyes were
glued to my, well, you know I am a bit of an oddity; outsider, woman and white
(Muzungu) person that I am! We followed the same format as before and watched
the Holy Spirit do his powerful work.
Before we left eight of the men prisoners sang for
us while others used two large drums for rhythm and two men and one woman gave
testimonies about how our time there had impacted them.
As we were finishing O.C. Peter, the Senior Superintendent
of Prisons appeared and he was gracious to allow our team photo with him.
Then it was time to head to Kampala but about and hour
into our journey Aaron pulled off the road saying that the van was overheating.
We waited quite some time for it to cool down the he tried to take the radiator
cap of but it was still too hat and the steam burned his hand. Good thing we
carry a first aid kit.
It was also a good thing that we had a full case of
drinking water as they poured the water from about 12 of them into the radiator
before we were on the road again. We made a stop along the road at a house to
fill our bottles with water …….. just in case.
When we arrived at Masacka (?), where Aaron lived,
we left him off to be with his family until tomorrow evening when he will
rejoin us. Tomorrow will be a day for us to do banking and get other errands done.
We unloaded everything from the van as they are
scheduled to come and get it tomorrow and give us a loner until it is fixed and
then had fish and chips for dinner.
We are all exhausted so not having to travel out of
town tomorrow will be good.
Blessings to you all, thanks for the prayers.
That
none would be lost,
Arlene
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