I'm currently typing on the plane ride back to Tanzania. It has been a good trip , and I am quite sad to say good bye to Joshua as well as his family that I had the privilege of meeting this time. I met his great grandmother and grandmother (whom he calls mom sometimes since she raised him) aunt, uncle and several cousins. His biological mom died of AIDS when he was quite young, and his dad stays uninvolved in his life. I also made friends with his soon to be fiancé Tabitha. She is Rwandan whose parents were killed in the genocide of the early 90s. We hear on the world news about such tragedies of Africa such as the civil wars and the AIDS crisis but I've been given a more personal perspective meeting people who live out the very stories that we only can imagine from our tv and computer screens. I also got the chance to see Moses again who I met on my first trip here when the orphanage in Mityana was still up and running. He was care taker and mentor to the boys who stayed at the home. Very happy to reconnect with him. He is currently working Uganda's coffee industry several hours outside of Kampala city center but one day hopes to attend seminary. He feels lead to be a preacher. Moses has an inspiring story of how Christ worked in his life. He too was orphaned like so many here bc of AIDS, and when he was in his darkest hour, God sent him Joshua who was pivotal in Moses' accepting Jesus. And that's sort of how these two got together and worked in Mityana to develop the orphanage. (And so fitting I think to have a modern day tale of Moses and Joshua : ) While the orphanage is no more, these two are still as close as brothers, and I'm confident that they will begin working together again towards community development sometime soon. Joshua continues to labor on in his village outreach project based in Senge, an outlying suburb of Kampala. We went there on Sunday to attend church, meet the pastor, and see the well that they just completed at Christmas. The pastor was kind enough to have us for dinner afterwards consisting of the typical Ugandan cuisine of mitaki (cooked mash of plantains) potatoes, rice, greens, steamed pumpkin, beans, as well as chicken and some beef. Quite nice! We get more western style food at the house in Tanzania, so it was fun for me to eat more traditional food this weekend. I'll add one other quick tale concerning my birthday. The last time I was here, I wanted a Ugandan soccer jersey but failed to acquire one. Joshua remembered this from 2.5 years ago and when I said it would be my birthday on Saturday, he went out and got me the jersey for my gift. I was completely unsuspecting and couldn't believe he remembered, so thank you Joshua. I was really touched. I had a great time hanging out this weekend, and I am hopeful we will meet again in the not too distant future. Joshua also told me that he and Tabitha will probably be 'introduced' soon...their version of a public engagement before friends and family and that he would want me at his wedding, so guess I'll be keeping that in mind for a future visit!
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