Dubai Layover

Our first few days in Uganda have been exciting and tiring and we have had minimal chances for reflection and photo-taking. We will take some more photos, get our bearings and post more Uganda news soon. Meanwhile, here are some photos from our stop-over.

The cheapest flights available to Uganda included a transfer through Dubai. We decided to extend our trip to accommodate a 3-day layover. Holiday pay from our previous jobs allowed for some much-needed R&R before the mission began.

Because it was Ramadan (the Muslim month of fasting), eating in public before evening was frowned upon. We had to laugh as we snuck around looking for hidden corners and stairwells to eat in like it was illegal (in some places, like the mall, it was)!

It is summer in Dubai, which means temperatures were in the 40's (celcius) and very humid. Stepping outside felt like taking a hot bath. The moment the camera went outside from an air-conditioned building or car, the lens fogged up.

Dubai city and mall displayed such wealth. It was as disturbing as it was magnificent. Julie found the cuddly toy she always wanted but never knew existed!

Touchdown

Well, we made it to Uganda! We arrived yesterday and had our orientation today. We met with the head of the I.T. Department, our new work colleagues (the development guy, the technician and the Mac guy) and a bunch of other Watoto Church staff members. Apparently, there are about 600 church staff and many people we met couldn't wait to get us to come look at their computers. It looks like the work we will be doing is mostly in coding languages and operating systems that we like and are used to, so hurray for that! Other opportunities include teaching regular classes to the older children from the children's villages, about computer stuff and where it can take them.

The place where we are staying is about 1/2 – 1 hour's drive (depending on how much "jam there is on the road" lol) to Watoto Church where we will be working. It is pretty spacious (which is very nice for us, especially considering how crowded this city/office is) and clean. We even have a shower head with hot water coming out of it (though it doesn't fit in the holder)!

We still have a few more stages of orientation to do, but we will probably make a start at the work set for us tomorrow.

We are very tired and busy getting settled in at the moment, so more updates/photos will have to follow shortly.

Thank you so much for your support and prayers. We really appreciate you!

Bits and Bobs

We just spent a week packing, moving stuff into storage and cleaning our house. It was a very big job. Most nights, we went to bed after midnight. The last day, we were up for 22 hours. It was hard, but we made it with God's help and a few well-timed, helping hands.

On Sunday, Massey Presbyterian Church presented us with Woolly, a sheep puppet which is meant to be the 'ambassador' from our church's children. It will be coming with us to 'see what life is like in Uganda' (and get lots of photos with the children in Africa, etc. to send back to church!). Then the pastor prayed for us to send us off.

We are now 'homeless', with all our worldly possessions (aside from those we are taking with us) locked away in a storage facility. We are staying at Jordan's parents' house until we fly off on Friday afternoon.

Here's one of the turkeys we are currently living with!

Nearly there!

We are finishing up at work, finalising arrangements with Watoto, and getting ready to pack up our house!

So, things are heating up for us now with under 4 weeks to go. So far we have received about 65% of the financial pledges made. For those of you who have made a pledge which is still coming, thank you again for your gift. If you could organise a payment in the next week, that would be greatly appreciated.

We look forward to updating you when our intrepid journey begins!

Solidification

We have bookings!! After many long months of generic planning and uncertainty (and three straight hours at the travel agent), we finally have bookings! Oh happiness! =)

Our travel plans, so far, are thus:

We fly out of Auckland on the 12th of August and will be in Uganda for just over three months. It turned out that the cheapest flights were Emirates both ways (yay!). The total airplane time is 53 hours and 10 minutes. We can watch 20 movies!! Or sleep. Or we can simply sit there, knowing we are making all of Julie's siblings green with envy.

One of the layovers is Dubai, and we are planning on using some of Jordan's holiday pay to explore the city for three days. We are getting pretty excited about the all the things we can do there. We have never ever been to such a wealthy city and we're not quite sure whether Dubai or Uganda will be more of a shock to us. =P Ah well, it's all an adventure.

And so it begins...

We got some exciting news today. Our Watoto applications have been approved! =D Now that we know we are definitely going, we can start to make some concrete plans, which is both exciting and scary.

We are glad God is coming, too. =)