Jan. 3

Ministry Partners,

I have to let you know that the dinner at the English Restaurant was wonderful and inexpensive. I had lasagna and I had the chef at some pineapple to the coleslaw, everything was absolutely delicious but the lasagna was so large that I had them wrap half of it in tinfoil for me to take with me and it made a wonderful lunch today. I put it on the dashboard of the van while we were doing ministry and at noon it was toasty and warm.

But I cannot say the last night stay at our hotel was as wonderful as our dinner. Once again, when I went in to bathe before going to bed, there was no water, again. I do not know when I have ever gone to bed feeling so grimy. They told me they were working on the system but I waited as long as I could but I was too exhausted. Not having water to bathe or flush the toilet or just a couple of the essentials that I think I need. I was thankful that when I got up this morning that there finally was water. Interesting how we take such a simple thing so for granted.

We got the van loaded this morning and then went in for breakfast and things just kept getting more comical. At 7:30 the breakfast still was not completely ready so we opted to have the pineapple and wait for the rest. Unlike most hotels where your breakfast is comped and it is a small buffet, here they bring it out one by one and serve you the amount they think you should have. The long buffet table was there with, and I am not kidding, 12 girls lined up standing behind it. Now I have not seen but two or three other people the entire time we have been here so I am not quite sure what all those girls were there for or what they do the rest of the day.

So, a huge plate of Irish potatoes was brought to me to eat, I am thankful Aaron agreed to eat most of them. Then two portions of scrambled eggs arrived. I got a cup of tea and asked if one of the piece of bread could be made into toast for me and I returned to my seat but before the toast could arrive four double triangles of toast (4 pieces of bread) with egg in between arrived for me to eat. I started giggling!!! Then my toast arrived and I asked for some Bluebonnet and was told, “Sorry” there was none. I decided to take the toasted triangles and omelet type eggs with me to have for an afternoon snack. Aaron decided to take his a portion between two pieces of bread to eat for lunch. It made an interesting sandwich for him as he likes the bread also coated with peanut butter and jelly. Hummmm, not too sure about that kind of a sandwich but he seems to enjoy it. We got to laughing so hard table I am sure all the girls lined up behind the buffet table had no idea what we found so funny. I only write these things so that you get a brief idea of some of the unusual and interesting times we have here and the ways we try to add humor to everyday.

The prison today was a small one with 250 men, 22 females that they brought in from an adjacent area and one baby. The OC greeted us and told us that he had been waiting for us and had the prisoners all assembled. He was another young good looking man and appeared to have a very kind heart and way about him as he spoke of the prisoners, I liked him immediately. He quickly took us to his office where we chatted just briefly before we were told we could begin our program. The building was a U-shaped and the prisoners were all sitting under the shade of the covered porch in front that went all the way around. The center portion was cement and in the sun so it was nice I did not have to be concerned about stumbling over rocks.

Please continue to pray as your prayers are being answered for we continue to see salvation’s, forgiveness of themselves or others and apologies. It was so nice of the OC to give us all the time we needed for our program and we were not rushed. The OC said lots of nice things and so did 4 of the inmates but Aaron is not here to refresh my memory so I will not be able to share them tonight. Sorry, but my memory is too tired by this time of night.

It was really hot today as we drove back towards Kampala, too bad that the van was wanting to overheat so we were not able to use the air conditioner but we did get back safely.

A beautiful water feature at a new rest stop on the way back to Kampala.

It was good to be back at our regular hotel in Kampala and although they told me when I left that they were not sure they can keep my regular room, because of a conference, I found that they had it for me minus the fridge. I really appreciate having my regular room.

Aaron took off to see if he could get that windshield replaced and see if the shop could do something about the issue with the overheating. Aaron thinks he may ask the company for a different vehicle for us to take to Kenya.

There is a church conference going on here so I did not have to eat alone but I met a nice couple. And now that I am back in my room I can hear them singing praises, "How Great Thou Art" so nice!!!

Tomorrow we do just one prison and it is not far. I hope we can do it before it get so hot in the afternoon, I will decide in the morning.

It is hard to believe that our time doing prison crusades in Uganda is half over.

Signing off for tonight.

That none would be lost,

Arlene