Update before Uganda

Hello Friends and Family -

I know that some of you may have gotten a letter with updates from Erin, but for those of you who didn't, here it is:

Sorry I've been so bad at keeping this journal current. We have 4 journals to update between the two of us and things have really picked up now that we're traveling solo. Tonight we fly to Nairobi, Kenya and then catch a plane to Entebbe, Uganda where Ben and Holly will be waiting to pick us up. Then we'll have a bumpy, dusty, 5.5 hr. drive to their home in northen Uganda. We've already been traveling via bus for the last 2 days from Jerusalem, so we'll be ready for a bit of a rest when we get to their home. We are so excited to see them and their little home. We have purchased a bunch of new clothes for them and some toys for playing with their neighbors kids. We're also looking forward (sort of) to seeing the Internally Displaced Peoples camps (refugee camps for Ugandans). We're not sure exactly what we'll do there but I'm certain the needs will be many and we're looking forward to just being creative in how we serve those people. We also want to do some home mods for Ben and Holly... maybe a water heater, maybe a generator, maybe a roof repair, who knows. Wow, Uganda is going to be so different than many of the other places we've been !

We really enjoyed our time in Jerusalem. They say that Jerusalem is like the 5th gospel (Mathew, Mark, Luke, John, a visit to Jerusalem). It was SO interesting to see pretty much the center of 3 major world religions (Islam, Judaism, and Christianity). Everywhere we went whether on a tourist siteseeing trip,or to the grocery store for eggs, we were bombarded with history. We went to the Israel Museum as well where they display many of the ~960 Dead Sea Scolls. Amazing! We saw the entire, well-kept, book of Isaiah written on parchment.

Erin and I are busy as bees these days. In between our frequent travels and arrangements for travel, I am applying to graduate schools. I have finished my application to CSU for a Masters in Biomedical Engineering and will start the application process for a Masters in Prosthetics at Georgia Tech and possibly U. of Wash. soon. So much is in the air, it's actually quite stressful to be so far from home and facilitating/implementing future plans. We're trying to find the balance between being in the moment and effective for good where we are, and being wise about planning for the future. Erin is working on finding a job that she'll love. She's looking through the ads for nursing in Ft. Collins related to Infectious Disease, community nursing, mabye wound care, maybe cardiac rehab, and maybe even a doctor's office. It's nice to have the Internet here in Cairo, we're told it's pretty sketchy in Uganda... VERY slow at best. Speaking of which, we'll probably not be able to update this much from Uganda (we haven't anyway right?). We're really looking forward to visiting you all in CO and AZ this Oct. Keep us in your prayers if you pray. :)

With Love,

Josh