After a long, bumpy ride on dirt roads through Northern Uganda, we arrived at the game reserve on Sunday night. We drove through Gulu and then past many displacement camps where people are still living. We saw many malnourished children in the camps as we drove through and very little farming activity in the surrounding area - the land is thick with brush after many years of neglect. The people in this part of the country spent many years in camps and many will struggle to even know where their family's land is after all that time, or have the resources to farm it.

The game reserve has offered some respite from the sensory overload we have experienced over the last 10 days! We went on a morning game drive today, seeing giraffes, water buffalo, many types of antelope, elephants, and warthogs. We spent some time drafting partnership documents upon our return, before heading out for an afternoon boat trip down the Nile River where we saw hundreds of hippos, among other animals. The day has been quite the change from the rest of our trip! We are thankful for the opportunity to enjoy a part of God's amazing creativity.

We will leave from here tomorrow morning and head to Kampala to do some work with CRWRC at their offices before starting the journey home on Wednesday

Yesterday we began the day starting on African Time. We are learning a new phrase "setting the climate". That is waiting for people to show up, greeting each other, arranging the "program" and all kinds of pre-task work. Sometimes it is hard to be patient waiting for the temperature to be right! Once the meeting began we were all seated in a traditional hut. There were representatives from both Ugandan churches, the diocese, CRWRC, and PIH - at least 15 people present. We began a draft document and all partners seem satisfied and eager to begin working together. We will share the details at home. At the end of the day we went tiredly to the hotel where Julie was approached by a waiter to see if she wanted to buy a monkey! Today we laid low in Lira, did some shopping, and tried to get internet. We did have some driving adventures and everyone is safe and the truck is in tact.. Tomorrow we go to Boro Boro for church where Pieter gets to preach twice - once in English and once in Lango. From there we become tourists and head to Murchison Falls. On the way we hope to stop at Gulu which in the past was hit hard by the rebel activity.

On Wednesday we had the opportunity to visit Otwal, the other community that is interested in partnership with us. We expected to see much devastation and perhaps a downcast spirit among the people as it is a war torn community. There was much rebel activity there in the last number of years, with most people being driven from their homes and having to live in IDP (internally displaced person) camps. Children were abducted, raped and trained as child soldiers, and homes were burned to the ground. In the last two years people have been returning to their land and beginning the process of rebuilding, persisting through famine and psychological impact. Despite all that they are dealing with, we were greeted with song, dance, hugs, and huge smiles. The people of Otwal were very gracious hosts and so excited about working with friends from Canada. We met with local government leaders, school teachers, health workers and church leaders. All were very motivated to rebuild their community and had good ideas on how to move forward. The people of the church set out a feast for us with traditional Ugandan foods, and as we set off in the evening, presented Kristin with a gift of two live chickens which they named Kristin and Pieter :) Today, we are in the main town in the region, Lira, preparing for our final partnership discussions with the leaders of Aduku & Otwal tomorrow.