Kassanda

Today was perhaps the most difficult day I have spent in Uganda in the nearly nine years I have been traveling here. We traveled just over 100 km south and east to the town of Kassanda where Crosspointe has been helping the local EPC church complete a building on their land. I've been traveling to Kassanda since the very first year I came over here. I anticipated that it will be a long and tiring day based on my past experience but today was a bird of a different feather.

It began with having to travel entire 2 1/2 hour journey in a shirt and tie - something that I seldom do here in Uganda and almost never at home. It is the middle of the hot season here and the dust was incredible. On top of that, it is an election year here in Uganda and President Musevini is doing several major infrastructure projects to garner support in the upcoming election. One such infrastructure improvement is a massive widening and paving of the road to Kassanda. That meant all kinds of detours and of all things, speedbumps. That's right, speedbumps on one of the five major "interstates" in Uganda. The only way to describe the ride is to imagine traveling along a road in Dallas and having railroad crossings back to back to back for 40 miles! Throw in over 100 speedbumps and a trip that normally takes 2 1/2 hours took nearly 4 hours.

We traveled to Kassanda not only to distribute shoes but to be part of the dedication of the new church building made possible by the generosity of Crosspointe. I was an honored guest along with the town mayor and the local member of Parliament. The program began at 10 am and we did not depart for Kampala until 4:30 pm. We had more tradition African dances, praise and worship and yours truly delivering the dedication message. We then planted a tree together with the senior pastor and celebrated with a meal together. Rice, spaghetti, matoke, beef and greens were the luncheon items. We washed it down with tepid water and we were back for another message and speeches from the honored guests.

Distributing the shoes was an ordeal simply because of the masses of kids pushing in from all sides. It didn't matter what we did, we were surrounded by parents and kids grabbing at shoes and pleading that they receive a pair. We finally got things under control and began distributing shoes only to those without any shoes at all. It took only about and hour to distribute 100 pairs.
Once again, I was proud to represent the generous people of Crosspointe at Kassanda!

We piled 15 people and their gear into the van for the trip back to Uganda. Did I mention that the van holds 12? I had the pleasure of riding in the rumble seat in front of the tallest Ugandan man I know. His knees were on both sides of me like armrests for the 4 hour return ride! We arrived so late that we missed dinner at the guesthouse. Jim and I stopped by the local Italian market and got a wedge of aged Gouda and some crakers made in Oman and happily consummed them with an ice-cold Krest soda. It tasted delicious. Sometimes it's the little things that give us the greatest pleasure. Now for a good night's rest and back at it tomorrow!