African Caracals and Matt Redman

Last night was the first night I've ever spent in the same room with a couple of wild lynx.

How did this happen? It all started very dramatically at 4:30 AM with these words:

"BLESS THE LORD, OH MY SOUL, O-O-OH MY SOUL..." my alarm was going off at full volume, waking up the entire Upper Guesthouse on our first day back here. (We just moved back from the Lower Guesthouse yesterday.) Trouble was, I couldn't turn it off. As I struggled to frantically cover the speakers with as much material as I could find, I heard Alyssa whisper, "Our new roommate came in last night." Great.





"I'm SO sorry," I said into the darkness, continuing to introduce myself. "I'm Elise," a voice groaned in response from somewhere to my right. Matt Redman sang on.

Finally managing to turn the phone off, I climbed out from under my mosquito net to find a wide-eyed Alyssa beckoning me over to the far end of the room. There stood a box, and from that box peered two tiny faces. Kittens? But the steel blue eyes and black tipped ears of these animals spoke of something a little more wild than your typical house cat.

"They're Caracals," Elise explained, "a type of African Lynx." What a morning!
Someone brought the orphaned kittens to Elise a couple of weeks ago, so now she's here to take them to the Entebbe Wildlife Centre. I'd love to go along for the ride, but am leaving with the Guthries for Jinja (pronounced like it's spelled: JIN-ja) on Lake Victoria this weekend. It's just for a getaway, as it's Andrea's week off from School. So I'll be gone for a few days, but will be sure to share lots of pictures upon returning to home base.

Feeding the Caracal Breakfast

A couple of prayer requests before I wrap up: one is that I haven't been feeling 100% physically these past couple of days. None of us has gotten too sick so far this trip, but I pray that I can just get over this illness/fatigue quickly to continue work in strength. The other request is about our visas. All of us Canadians were given one or two month visas, even though we wrote that we were staying in the country for an amount of days requiring a three month one. To get them changed, we are told, will probably mean doling out up to a hundred dollars each unless negotiations can lower the amount. Please pray along with us that everything goes smoothly, and especially that as little extra expense is involved as possible! Thank you!