Spontaneous Adventure

 

 "...So even if I can't contact you again before then," I wrote to the stranger I'd been trying all day to get a hold of, "I can have a bag packed and ready by tonight in case someone shows up to get me!"

 

Not that I had any idea where I was going. Or exactly who I'd be staying with.

But let me start at the beginning...

(Yep--"Read More" to continue!)

The weekend had been looking bleak. First Plan A, an overnight village trip was canceled, and then Plan B, a prison ministry trip, was canceled. Now before me stretched the blank canvas of a weekend on which I'd have to paint my own adventure.

I started with a phone call: some certain family friends of ours have family friends of theirs who work here in Kampala. The mom of the family, Mrs. Orr, is a specialist in attachment issues and crisis intervention for children out of trauma situations, and is busily working teaching at orphanages here. (Turns out she's also taught a modular class on Children at Risk at the Bible College where my brother attends, which I thought was pretty cool.)

Having a few things I wanted to ask her, an invitation to overnight at their place, and a free weekend to use it, it seemed to me that an excursion was brewing after all! Only one problem stood in the way: a power-out. It took some doing, but three stops, one email via borrowed internet connection and several back-and-forth calls on a borrowed phone later found me climbing into the back of an unfamiliar van by Saturday evening. We drove across Kampala, me munching on a cob of chewy roast maize--complements of the driver, until pulling up in front of a house with a big yard...

...Suddenly I was caught up in a happening household 'teaming' over with about seven kids, a few other guests, and a dog named Play-Dough. (Originally Plato, but you can imagine how the name might have changed...) Another family came over for games night, and I ended up in a pleasantly crowded, bean-bag furnished living room eating popcorn, weaving friendship bracelets and making balloon guitars. What a night!

The grounds of the school where the church was located

The next morning we all walked down to church at a nearby international school. This was my first experience at an International Church in Africa..."International" meaning mostly American and European! It was like being from Africa and attending an African service in Canada...only opposite!
(I must say, though, that the worship leaders had smashing accents.)

As I sat buckled in the van, about to head home later that afternoon, Mrs. Orr came and pressed a spiral-bound book into my hands. It's a textbook she actually wrote for Bible School students about safely, effectively ministering to children out of trauma situations--a big need here throughout the culture! It will be great to show around the college. I also gave it to Jjaaja Rita for her to look over, and she's as excited about it as I am. We're actually hoping to meet up again together with Mrs. Orr to talk about ways to improve teaching/learning methods at the Baby House! (One of the interesting things I learned a lot about this weekend is the physiological connection between feelings of fear or security in kids and their ability to learn. It makes a lot of sense!)

So in an answer to prayer, it looks like the weekend turned out to be profitable after all.