Our recent cyber silence was caused by a flurry of activity here in Naakale. Last week, I found myself alone for the first time in Africa (if you can call being within 100 feet of 15 other people alone). Christopher drove down to Kampala for a few days with Pastor Dave in order to take care of some embassy business, do some shopping and get a feel of the city in general, should we ever need to get to the airport without an escort. He returned having driven in the big city and survived!
Meanwhile, I spent the time preparing to move into another house on the mission compound by sorting through miscellaneous junk left by visitors, finding the appropriate dishes to ensure we could eat once moved and killing a small, but frightful snake on our new bedroom floor. For the first five months of our stay, we’ve been housesitting for one of the long-term missionary families while they were on furlough. They arrive in Uganda today and Karamoja (most likely) on Thursday. Therefore, we’ve moved.
Our new home acted as the guesthouse for visitors for the past two years. In the original arrangement (pre-OPC), our new place was the servants’ quarters. It’s been spruced up since then – we even have a plaster ceiling! We’re enjoying our new pad thus far. It has two rather oblong bedrooms on either side of a living space and kitchen. One side of the house is hugged by a screened-in porch, the other opens into a courtyard where our numerous cats and kittens spend most of their time. (We’ve even enjoyed watching the six kittens we have presently in various odd contortions or heights of trees or strange sleeping locations! You can imagine they must be quite the charmers for us allergy-leaden folks.)
As we continue to settle in, we would appreciate prayer in how we navigate the smaller space with continuing to be hospitable, sharing the house with whatever visitors are placed there and adjustment all around. The change is only about 100 feet to the north, but it is amazing how one’s world can be flipped in so short a distance.