Going to Uganda - Jan. 25, 2013

The departure for Uganda is Friday afternoon, January 25, on Delta to Amsterdam then a transfer to an even longer flight to Entebbe, Uganda, arriving late Saturday evening.  This is a volunteer trip with Give Us Wings, a Twin-Cities based non-profit, with which my church partnered to build a clinic in Kayoro, a rural area near Tororo a city of about 50,000 population at the eastern edge of Uganda.

The clinic building had just been completed at the time of my visit in 2011.  In the two years since, staff have been hired (a very lengthy and complicated process in Uganda), the staff and building have been certified to operate by the government (an even more lengthy and complicated process), and the clinic has opened (March, 2012).  There will be a formal dedication of the clinic during our visit this year.

There are eight of us going on this trip, five from my church, St. John the Evangelist in St. Paul, MN.  In addition to the dedication ceremony we will be undertaking a variety of volunteer activities, but our primary mission is to listen to and get to know a little the people living in Kayoro so that we can carry their needs and their joys back to the U.S.

One of our trip participants lives in Washington, but the remaining seven of us were given a blessing and send-off on Sunday, January 20, at St. John's.  This is a photo of us (I'm holding the Ugandan flag) taken in the church undercroft in front of a painting of the clinic building presented to the church by Give Us Wings.