On an adventure

First, keep praying for the recovery of the motorcycle, but the good news is that one of the two bikes was stored in a separate location last night and therefore was not stolen as we had feared. So only one is missing. The bad news is that the Masso garage was only one of six buildings breached by the thieves: they rifled through papers and wreaked havoc in the translation and literacy offices, the BundiNutrition office, the classroom used by the Deaf School on our property, even some store rooms. A laptop used by the Lubwisi literacy program was later recovered in a ditch, with some recording equipment.

Now back to the adventure: This post is being sent, amazingly enough, from wireless internet in ENTEBBE AIRPORT, which has become a truly modern over the last few years. Caleb finished his Beginning of Term exams and I saw all my patients this morning, then we hopped on a small MAF (Cessna 210) plane in the afternoon, with Juliet who was taking Arthur to meet his maternal grandmother for the first time. We lifted over the ravines where river-side laundry casts a colorful confetti drying in the sun, saw kids scrambling for views of the airplane from the dust of their compounds, glimpsed the orderly rows of huts at the main army barracks and the sprawl of tin roofs which is town. Then over the bare shoulder of the mountains, the volcanic craters of Fort Portal, the countless miles of papyrus swamp, heading due east all the while, to Entebbe. Arthur was perfect, Juliet was enjoying herself, and Caleb and I were GREEN. Delicacy prevents me from disclosing how many bags were filled from our stomachs, but let me say that the lion's share was not mine. Sigh. Afternoon flights, pockets of warm air ascending, lead to turbulent times down in the no- extra-oxygen small-plane strata. We are glad to be sitting here in the airport on solid ground for a couple of hours, until the next phase of the adventure. We will reach Nairobi tonight and then on to Kijabe Saturday morning. Luke turns 16 on Sunday. I sat a few yards from here with him as an 8 month old when we landed in Uganda for the first time, a bit lost and alone (our ride arrived a few hours late . . .). It has been an adventurous 15 1/2 years since then, and I am thankful to be rejoining him for the commemoration of this special Bday.