Saturday, January 16, 2010

The "money thing" and policemen

Thank you everyone who prayed about the "money issue." God is absolutely amazing, but of course, we already knew that.

My sister read the blog, and contacted an American she knows who works in Nairobi, Kenya, who had access to some new bills. I can't give a lot of details, but I did get all the money we had on us exchanged for newer ones.

The older bills in Kampala are being replaced in the next couple of days by a volunteer team from the States. Amazing, huh?

The crazy thing was that Kenya must really care about the date, because they wouldn't take our money. When I handed the Ugandan security my bills today, he didn't even look at the date. Maybe he was having a cranky day!

Oh well. It worked out for us!



We got up at 4am today, and left Nairobi at 5am, only to be stopped by the police at 5:15am.

You HAVE to have four things to drive here. A license, a fire extinguisher, a first-aid kit, and some safety triangles (that you put on the road when you are having car trouble). Silly sounding, I know, but those are the "rules."

He saw Doug's license. Doug found the safety triangles. I found the fire extinguisher after someone else in the care told me where to look, but no first-aid kit.

After packing and re-packing trying to fit 11 people, luggage, homeschool books, food, and souvenirs in two cars (and on top of one car - truly Africa), we had accidentally put both kits in one car.

Thankfully, the other car driver, walked it back to us when I texted them for help. Well, that wasn't good, so the police walked around some more, and told Doug they would have to arrest him and take him to the station because he had a crack in his windshield, and he could not drive until it was fixed.

You can see that the policeman was looking for something monetary from us, but to no avail. We finally explained we were missionaries, and he said, "You go."

Prayer at work, folks. God heard two cars of sleepy people at 5 in the morning!

The other car was stopped in Uganda for "speeding," but nothing could be proven (especially since the radar gun looked disabled), and we were again allowed to go on our way.

We arrived in Kampala 13 hours after starting our journey. No lunch, one border stop, and three bathroom breaks is all it took (plus all the junk food we ate in the car).

Doug and I took the kids out tonight for pizza and ice cream to reward them for an amazing journey in the car. They were GREAT!

Next, we bought groceries so we can cook the next 2 days, and now I'm going to go wash the dust off of me and go to bed!

I MIGHT get my luggage tomorrow, and I WILL (God willing) see my new home on Tuesday.

Is it just me, or does it feel like I've been in Africa a long time already?

4 comments:

Cara said...

So glad Doug isn't in jail. He knows we would bring him soup and sing sad songs to him if he's ever imprisoned, right? ;)

*edit* Heather said she's not coming, but she'll pray from here. lol!

Lisa Smith said...

Yaay for the money thing getting all worked out. I couldn't even fathom it. Seriously.

As for the lizard...I'll pray. You really need a cape, Super Mom!

Georgia said...

Kylie that's so cool Caleb got that lizard...thing. Guess what? I have something that eats bugs too. It's a venus flytrap! How is it there? You should make a post sometime.

jen armstrong said...

yay! i'm all caught up now. just read your last couple of posts--i love that God is showing you His presence in the details. i love you and love hearing about your journey thus far. seeing smiles on those kids' faces makes my day! i hope transformer is well... can't wait to show our kids the pictures! we've been praying for y'all as a family and personally-so excited to hear more. you are doing a FANTASTIC job keeping it "real" for all of us. much love, many prayers, and hugs from your family!!!