As the adventure has begun...

We are now in Jinja, Uganda. I am sitting on a cool tile floor in the wonderful home of Pam and Paul Hunter, simply enjoying the opportunity to stretch my legs. After travelling for over 48 hours I can honestly say I am exhausted, but there is a joy that cannot be described within my heart knowing I am "home". I have missed Uganda. It's a totally new experience being here for the second time. I can not say I felt the same thrilling adrenaline excitement throbbing throughout my body as I did last year. It was a different kind of excitement this time. A peace. Touching down on the red tinted runway I felt as calm and collected as ever which was a bit surprising to me. I would have thought that after dreaming of that moment for an entire year I would be bouncing off the walls! Not that I mind having gone with the more toned down excitement.
Our time in London was fun. We took the tube into the city and spent over an hour simply walking, trying to get our bearings and find the best route to the "main attractions". We finally received some much needed help from a man who was visiting from Spain on an extended stay who of which only had to say "Ciao Obama" when we told him we were from America. We took the trolley to the nearest stop by Buckingham Palace had a nice walk around. There were tons of people in hats, everywhere, so we asked one if there was some kind of event taking place. Turned out the queen was having one of her annual garden parties and the requirement for her guests was they had to wear a hat. Very British.
Totally exhausted and drenched from getting caught in the rain we hurried to the underground tube so we could make our way to the airport. It was a long, but pleasant day.
I am so excited to see what tomorrow will bring. We are planning on going to rock of Ages in Mbiiko to begin our work for Hands4Uganda. We don't have a specific plan yet but this is Africa. Plans tend to fall into whatever God seems to have on His agenda for us so I am not worried. I learned two new words today, topapa, and kakana. You say both of them slowly as they are closely related in phrasing and usage. Topapa means "Slow down" and kakana means "Chill out". As Americans we tend to lean the opposite way of both of these words. We so often get caught up in the most efficient way and the least time consuming process that we forget to enjoy the journey of making the product. If anything that is a main goal I have for my team and I, to enjoy each part of the journey, whether it is boring, busy, hard work, easy work, sweat, rest, happy, sad. I want to embrace very part of this journey, topapa, and kakana.