Sunday, June 14, 2009

Sunday, June 14, 2009 9:15 p.m.

The sun is setting over London as our British Airways Boeing 767 begins to taxi down the runway – we are leaving the glass ceiling, high tech terminal building with the high end department stores like Harrods and Sony off for our adventure in Uganda. As I look around the plane I see many dark faces dressing in colorful fabrics, a few with head wraps and quickly jump to the assumption that this might be a first or second plane ride. But a second glance and I realize that many from this group are already wearing the head sets and tuning the TV sets embedded in the back of the chair in front of them – a reminder that we can’t jump to conclusions in an environment that is so new to a least 5 of this team!

A little girl in the seat in front of Scott keeps looking at me and smiling when I walk to his seat. She said her name was Salama and that she was 5. The lady with her was blonde and they were obviously together. Laura shared that she was bringing Salama back to Uganda to her Mother. She has been with this family since she was 14 months old and the family heard that if she did not receive a new heart she would die. Laura and her husband opened their hearts and their home and gave 4 years of their lives to give Salama a future. Several surgeries and a pace maker later Salama was excited to return to her Mother. She expressed concern that she would miss Oscar the dog she had in Texas. Laura said that Ugandan families do not have dogs like this little Bichon for pets – there are a few guard dogs but she had never heard of a house pet, certainly not one like Oscar who enjoyed the privledge of sharing Salama’s bed for 4 years. What an amazing yet difficult story!

A group was also seated around us wearing red tee shirts inscribed “Libraries of Love”. This group was going to set up a library in Kampala with the thousands of donated books that preceded their trip. They will train a group of Ugandans in Dewey decimal sorting so that when they leave they can feel confident that more libraries will be set up using this system.

Yet another group of about 10 young men came in wearing tee shirts that said “Uganda 2009” and the Gardens of Love inscribed underneath. They were flying half way around the globe to help Uganda recover from devastating wars and adverse poverty. The plane is full... and many of the seats are filled with people who are giving their time and energy to make a difference in people's lives that are in serious need! How hopeful for our world!

Few of us were able to sleep with our imaginations thinking about the adventure ahead!