First Experiences

Since this has been my (Kendra) first trip to Africa, I thought I would share with all of you about some of the "first-timer" experiences I've had in the last five days.

• I went shopping at a supermarket in Kampala for the first time. I spent 67,000 shillings on only 15 small items!! Before you go into shock, that is only the equivalent of about 30 US dollars. It was still a little hard to spend that much money though!
• I attended my first church service in Uganda on Sunday. We were asked to come up to the front so that they could introduce us to everyone. After being introduced, we were told to stay up front so that they could pray for us...well, about 15 minutes later after several other prayers and announcements, we were finally prayed for and allowed to sit down!
  
• I was told that John had "bad manners" by a Ugandan girl. When she picked him up to greet him, he wanted down instead of smiling and greeting her back. To Ugandans, this is very bad manners even for children!
• I had matoke with peanut sauce (traditional Ugandan food) for the first time. I actually thought it wasn't that bad!
• I've eaten the best pineapple and bananas almost every meal since we've arrived! I always liked both of these fruits in the states, but there is definitely no comparison to how good they taste here!

Well, those are just a few of the things that I've been experiencing lately. At times, being in a completely different culture has been overwhelming, but God continually provides people to encourage us as we go through this process of learning. We really appreciate all of your prayers--we have definitely been feeling them all along the way!