So here it is… the last Resonate Uganda Blog post. This trip
has been one of the most life-changing, incredible and inspiring experiences of
all of our lives and we cannot wait to tell you all about it when we get back. As
a group, we’ve all grown so much closer as friends whether leader or youth, and
as Christians we’ve developed so much in our walk of faith, strengthening our
relationship with God. We really couldn’t have asked for a better, more amazing
time, and no doubt will never forget the breath-taking trip we embarked on only
11 days ago.
As usual, we will start the blog off where the day started.
We all woke up, feeling in denial that our time here is so close to coming to
an end. We all however were prepared to make the most of the day ahead and jumped
out of bed, some a little quicker than others with a few gecko friends being
found in beds, and headed off for our last breakfast at the beautiful Bwana
Tempo resort. The extraordinary beauty that we are surrounded by constantly
reminds us all of the amazing work of God and all that has happened throughout
the past 12 days. As we drove through the National Park on our last full day of
Uganda with our heads though the roof of each minibus, dodging the extra
protein (swarms of dragonflies) that was dive-bombing us all, I (Charli)
couldn’t help but think God was showing us that he will continue to work
through each and every one of us once we get back to the UK, revealed by the
rainbow he placed in the sky as we continued our drive surrounded by astonishing
amounts of wild animals - as close as I think we’ll ever get to feeling like
Noah.
All packed and ready to say goodbye to Davidé and his family
that run the amazing safari resort we were staying at, in true Uganda style we
were there to wait for Odiirah and our drivers to arrive. We all piled in to
the buses and reluctantly set off on the last journey of the trip, the longest
yet – 6 hours from Murchison, to Kampala, to Entebbe Airport only stopping for
feeding time and wild wees, plus a fun hour or two of sometimes awkward haggling
and bargain hunting at several markets. I do believe we’ve now perfected all of
the above techniques. After a truly delicious last supper, we all left
completely stuffed to the point where we couldn’t even finish the Chocolate
Fudge Cake or Black Forest Gateau!! We then had the heartbreak of saying
goodbye to (in our eyes), the Queen of Uganda, A.K.A Odiirah, as she’s most
commonly known. Several billion hugs later and our no.19 was gone. The
heartbreak continued when we had to leave our trusty drivers, John and Co. at
the airport drop off point. I think we can all agree that England could do with
a few Ugandans and their joyous, ready-to-help, man-with-a-plan attitude always
brought a smile to our faces which we will never forget.
After only a few hours of driving, even on the first day, we
had already experienced members of the groups ‘interesting’ sleeping movements.
Examples include a certain Mr Nagle showing his best Elvis Presley impressions
(the classic lip twitch), and much to our concern he was swirling his neck
about like a tornado (don’t worry, we did get pictures and video clips much to
everyone’s amusement!). There was also the odd dribble incident whereby Ross’
shirt was not as dry as when the drive began due to Josh taking a nap on his
shoulder (so sweet, is there a bromance on the horizon?).
We would also like to take this opportunity to say a massive
thank you to all the leaders that have come on the trip with us. Without any of
them, this life-changing experience would not have been able to take place, and
our Uganda family would not have been the same. They have devoted so much of
their time to making sure our tour would run as smoothly as possible even with
a few minor issues of ‘Uganda time’ or as we know it better to be; faffing! Odiirah,
our Ugandan mother, also deserves a massive thank you, always being there for
us when we need her as well as being our constant feed of knowledge teaching us
of the Ugandan culture and sorting out EVERYTHING we need. We would also like
to thank all of the people at home who during this past week have been
following what we have been doing on the blog, as well as praying for us all.
It has been amazing to hear all of the support from you all at home and again
(sorry for the cliché messages), this trip would not have happened without your
support in fundraising, prayer and just knowing that you are all so interested
in our trip. A massive thank you to you all, we cannot wait to tell everyone
what God has been doing in our lives, and all the brilliant memories we’ve
created.
Looking forward to seeing you all at the airport in a few
hours! Now time for a plane nap we think, (finished at 2:08 am)
Jambo,
Charli and Alice x
