And the Adventures Continue

Hello there people of planet earth (AKA. Canada for the most part) haha… Well wanted to say hello and let you all know I am still alive and well once again having a wonderful time here filled with joy, life, and many experiences in which I can’t write them all down. Well where did I leave off.. Ok so Mel was pick pocketed in Zanzibar. The next day we went on this amazing day trip there in Zanzibar. We had the wonderful opportunity of going snorkeling!!!!!!! I LOVE SNORKLING! It is seriously sent from the Lord almighty! WOW the beauty of down under! I saw some sweet fishies, some sweet coral, radical sea urchins, went free diving for amazing shells, and blah blah! B-e-a-utiful. Then we went to see the SEA TURTTLES! They were humongous! About 4 feet around like dinosaurs or something. The oldest was 150 years old! It boggled Melanie and I as we watched those neat turtles munching on greens (they don’t eat meat thank God). I was taken by surprise when one decided my sarong tied around my waist looked tasty and took a bite out of it! Haha ha. As the day continued I ended up getting so sick that we were more than sure I had malaria!! So the beautiful aqua waters that awaited my arrival had to take a break because I wasn’t ‘feeling the mood’ for the moment... I felt horrible and laid in the shade, I took a couple dips but mainly stuck to shade... We ended up going back and it took me walking around Stone town for 2 and a half hours looking for a malaria testing clinic. Then I found out it was negative!!! HALELUJAH! But it turned out I had a parasite or something.. Doctors here are never too sure. So I took medication and had a huge fever blah blah Mel touched my arm and she moved her hand so quickly because I was so hot to her fingers. So after all the yicky yucky sickness we left the next day on a trip of 2 days total to Arusha, Tanzania! The traveling concluded an over night ferry (the sleeping didn’t really happen with a fever and all). Oh and over the coarse of the night a rat was spotted and Melanie had the pleasure of having a spider scurry over her arm 2 times! How delightful! Oh joyous times. Ok so then we took a long bus ride… so we arrive and had the pleasure of meeting one of Melanie’s friend’s friends (she met in Canada) and her new family! We had much fun laughing relaxing inside a real home (been a while) and meeting her new baby and husband! We went shopping, had our noses pierced (we thought it would hurt way more), chilled out with her brother in-law who is our age and really cool, and BOOKED A SAFARI! Good times. So the following day we went on our 1 night 2 day safari! It was awesome ‘like totally wow for sure’… we saw giraffes, elephants, zebras, major big daddy lions, baby everythings, monkeys, baboons, rhinoceroses, hippos, (no leopard, almost saw the BIG 5).. we saw many other breath taking animals and sights! The surroundings were enough to make it worth it never mind all the amazing animals! You just drive and you see these animals chilling out, maybe hiding, but close enough to blow your mind! I love it, you feel like you are looking at a ‘Where’s George’ book!! We had fun spotting animals and being amazed by what God has created! Beautiful I say. We went to a Masi (sound: Mass-I) Village!!!! IT was so cool. The people are so different we saw they huts, clothes, jewelry, stretched ear lobs, little babies, their 15 wives and one husband blows my mind (sketchy), they say there is no competition between the ladies, but I wouldn’t think so. I enjoyed meeting the village people and seeing such a different culture. Fact of the day for you: ‘Masi people only eat cow, cow milk, and cow blood, and that’s it.’ Let that boggle your mind. They pierce the vein of a cow just enough to let the water (blood) seep out enough to drink and then put a leaf on the cow and it heals up for the next drainage of its precious blood. They do this until they would like to eat the cow. Yick. So after the sweet safari and mind blowing masi people we had to head back to Mbarara where Melanie has all of her stuff (junk) that she has accumulated over the 8 months of her being here was. (I call her the ‘pack rat’) I thought I was bad hahaha.. good times, I don’t feel so guilty for how much I get at times. So we took 40 hours traveling straight on buses and sitting at 2 in the morning in Nairobi waiting for our bus that ‘was coming’ and sleeping on the side of the road for 4 hours… freezing I must say. Ugh. We made it back and woke up the next day to find that God had mysteriously planned for us to go to Rubingo (where Melanie was volunteering for 6 months). David Moore the director of Acts was going at 9 that morning and they realized that they had run out of car insurance so they came back, realized we were here and we were divinely invited by David who is sure it was God’s invitation for us to come and experience the goodness of the village. I agreed. We went and it was so worth the trip! We went on visits which consisted of hiking up crazy hills (Rubingo is in the hills no flat ground there). We would come to check up on people, encourage, and help them through money for medical needs, housing, and food and so on. I helped by taking pictures, smiling and I don’t know what else to say. It was neat to see Melanie at work. The worst case I saw was this lady who had elephantitous. It was so sad, she was in excruciating pain constantly because her feet were covered with a disease that covered her feet with swelling, cracked dry skin, and bleeding. You could hardly tell if they were feet at all, so deformed from it. When she walked she tried to walk quickly then sat on the ground. The lady was elderly and full of so much pain, it broke my heart to see. I pray God will heal her body quickly. We were supplying her with more meds to take the swelling down so soon she should be better!! God thanks for medication. We heard the choir sing that night. Beautiful sounds meshing together making music that comforts the soul and brings peace and confidence with the continual beating of a drum. The choir is made up of all Aids positive people. Touching. We were only in Rubingo for 2 days but that was enough to experience it. We are back now to pack all of Mel’s stuff and getting ready to go and minister in Kampala!!! We are very excited to go and serve there. The church we are helping at is one that is affiliated with the foursquare in Courtenay, Pastor Scott has come to Uganda before and knows Pastor John here. We are very excited to meet him and do some ministry. I am continuing onto the second half of the journey on the 13th of May. It will hold many good things. Holland, Switzerland, Prague, Sweden and then home. Miss you all. Love Adele