WE ARE FINALLY HERE 48 HOURS LATER

Well, we are here and it is absolutely AWESOM E!!!  We got to the New Orleans airport Thursday around noon.  We had a very nice guy to help us unload ALL of our luggage.  Our biggest obstacle was the 2 glider rocking chairs.  The day before the trip, it took many hours to get those rocking chairs under 50 pounds.  Though we thought we had it under 50 pounds, when we got there, it weighed at 53.5 pounds.  The nice gentelman let us go on through with it.  We flew to Chicago and had an hour layover. During which time, Summer "realized" that she had left her phone on the plane. So she and Charlie ran all the way back to our first plane and asked the flight attendant to check and see if she could find it, but she was unable to. When Summer and Charlie arrived back at our gate, Summer found the phone wedged in between her pillow and teddy bear. After the Cell Phone Fiasco, we got on the plane to Brussels, it was an 8 hour flight.  It turned dark and some of us slept just fine were as others could only dream of getting just an ounce of sleep.  I would have slept better but I was SO lucky to get to sit by Shauna the whole 8 hours, and since John wasn't there, she needed a shoulder to rest her head on.  When we FINALLY made it to Brussels, we had to go through security, yet again (which took Forever) then we had to go through customs.  After that, everyone had to pile up in a shuttle that would transport us to our gate.  We had a bag of cheese that we had been hauling throughout the entire trip, known as Claudia's Cheese.  Everyone had to take a shift carrying the cheese.  Well, it was Anna's turn at this time, and she left it on the shuttle.  So Maggie ran back to the shuttle to grab the cheese for Claudia.  As we literally ran through our gate, they were calling out, "Last Call."  We ran and got on the plane and got seated when then the pilot came over the loud speaker and said the plane had a minor problem.  The "minor problem" took 2 long hours to fix. Every so often the French pilot with a terrible American accent would come over the loud speaker and give us "comforting" words that went along the lines of, "Excuse me, Umm, we are having minor problems and actually, it should not take long to fix them, they are working on it and well I don't know, maybe it will take a while, I will keep you informed."  Then, AT LAST, we were on our 2nd 8 hour flight.  We made it to Entebbe at 9:30 Friday night.  Claudia and Mark were there to meet us along with some of the children.  They took us to a hotel where we stayed for the night.  We got up this morning, and ate breakfast, which consisted of freshly squeezed orange juice and toast. Then we all loaded up our things and headed to Kampala for shopping, lunch, and money exchange.  One of the security guards  saw me sitting in the bus and called me "Big Man."  The team really loved that. 

So now we are here and it is extraordinary.  God is so amazing.  We had an awesome greeting from the kids and the staff as we drove up on campus.  We were able to get out and do a little dance with them.  Dinner was actually edible! The missionaries made us spaghetti with the options of tomato sauce, meat sauce, and alfredo sauce (made with fresh milk squeezed this morning). For side dishes, we had warm bread, cookies, and brownies. It is going to be an AMAZA ZING week here!

Written by: Ryan K. Smith with MAJOR help from Summer De Loach