Our Week of "Lasts"

Yesterday began our week of “lasts”- the last time we will do certain things before we go home.
But before I tell you about the lasts, I have to tell you about my first! On Monday I got on a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) for my first time! It isn’t as daring as it sounds (at least to those of you who know Kampala traffic) because I was in Gulu. There are only 1 million people in Gulu so the traffic is light and everything moves pretty slowly- compared to Kampala, Gulu is sort of like Radiator Springs in the Disney movie Cars. It wasn’t that long of a ride and the good news is…I survived!
Now, back to our week of lasts. Yesterday was our last team devotions with our Watoto family. When I say devotions, that sounds like a small gathering- no, it is a gathering of around 300 Watoto staff. Of course, I was in Gulu still so I wasn’t there, but Greg was. During devotions, Jack (Greg’s boss) spoke about our ministry here and more specifically about Greg’s work with the maintenance team. He discussed how Greg has made changes that have changed the way the work is being done and has raised the standard for maintenance here. He was given a standing ovation- the pastors and district administrators are the ones that are most aware of the changes and are very appreciative for the work he has done.
I recently realized that you haven’t heard much about the work that Greg has been doing. There are two reasons for that:
1. I am the one that is writing the blog,
2. The things I have been doing are much more fun and makes for more interesting story.
Don’t get me wrong, the work Greg is doing is extremely important, but describing to you how he has repaired a toilet or taught the guys about generators, doesn’t make for real interesting reading!
Yesterday I said “see you later” to the guesthouse staff in Gulu. It was very hard and we were all fighting back tears. There will be many more of those sessions in the week to come.

We did do some amazing shopping on the way home from Gulu. I arrived back in Kampala with six pineapples, 11 large mangoes, 24 passion fruit, 1 bunch of bananas, 3 green peppers and 6 red onions- all at the cost of 20,000/= ($8 USD). We are going to spend this last week eating all the fresh fruit that we can!