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Jinja, Uganda via London, UK |
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Written by Mark Manry
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Friday, 13 May 2005 04:54 |
 The spiritual journey Lori and I have taken into mission work over the past year finally became an actual journey to Jinja, Uganda, where we plan to meet with the mission team there and explore the place we’ll be calling home at the end of the year. On Saturday, May 7, we boarded a British Airways flight to London with our three children and Ashley MacKinnon and Bethany Laster, two students at Rochester College accompanying us on this trip. Seven hours later, we landed safely at Heathrow Airport at 6:30AM although it felt like 1:30AM to us. Our mission over the next two days was to get over our 5-hour jet lag so the 2-hour change from London to Jinja wouldn’t be as difficult. Thankfully, London has plenty to offer jet-lagged travelers trying to stay awake.
 Mind the Gap
Traipsing around London with three young children is an adventure within an adventure. Throw into your mental picture much of our luggage for the next month and the fact that hardly any of the London Underground (public transport) stations contained lifts (elevators) to the train tubes sometimes 60 feet below the surface, and you have a vague idea of the awkwardness with which we traveled. Our kids were troopers though and Ashley and Bethany thankfully helped us “mind the gap” (the gap between trains and landings which train operators remind passengers about at every stop) during our time there. We experienced much at the British Museum, Hyde Park, and the shops and stops on the old streets of London.
 Next Stop: Jinja, Uganda
Two days after our arrival in London, we boarded our next flight, this one direct to Entebbe airport in Uganda where we safely landed 5:30AM local time (it felt like 3:30AM to us). We were greeted warmly by our waiting team and moments later greeted by an beautiful African sunrise scattering colors over a rolling landscape and the blue waters of Lake Victoria. We took our time going from Entebbe to Jinja, visiting a few places in busy Kampala for supplies (some of which we hardly much different than the America we left behind). Despite the fatigue from our travels, our senses were filled with new sights, sounds, and smells along with the joy of conversing with familiar friends. There is not much I can say yet about Jinja or Uganda as I’m still processing much of what I am taking in. I can say that is different that I expected (although I’m not sure what I expected): more diverse, more beautiful, and more intriguing.
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