Molly's got visitors from home!

Written by Molly's mother:

We arrived safely after hours and hours of plane time, and were greeted by Molly, Fr. Simon Peter, his brother and sister,the sister of one of Molly's friends at CRO, who had flown from Norway,and another man who was the driver of the second car. Lots of hugging! What a sight we were! 4 Ugandans and 4 "muzungus" (white people) and lots of luggage! The Heineman part of that group is staying at a hotel that has an armed guard, but very friendly workers, and Molly can speak to them in Luganda and her dad and I are trying to learn a few words.

Today we walked around Kampala and then took a drive to the area where Molly lived when she first arrived. It's trulya whole different world-both from America, and even from the city of Kampala. Traffic here is crazy, streets packed with cars, taxis (mini-vans stuffed with riders), bodas (motorcycles with a driver who carries a passenger on back), and brave pedestrians. On our way back from Molly's first home, each of us took a boda, so we were weaving in and out of all the traffic on the backsof motorcycles- it was quite a fun adventure, and clearly the most efficient way to get around in the city. Molly wasn't sure we'd want to ride that way, but her parents are a little more adventuresome than she thought!

Tomorrow, we go to Mass at Fr. Simon Peter's and then he will drive us 4 hours east to Mbale, where Molly worked and lived for the past 6 weeks. We will all stay there a few days, see her students' Christmas show- which I'm sure will be different than the oneI missed at my own school, and connect with her Dayton friend Matt, who is spending this entire year in Malawi. He will join us for the next week's travels. We'll be leaving all the t-shirts, hand sanitizer, protein bars we brought from folks at home with the people at CRO (Child Restoration Organization) for the children with whom Molly worked. Also hope to do the paper work to set up some type of scholarship support for young people who've completed secondary school, have been accepted to university, but can's go due to lack of funds. Then we'll head way west- going on an animal drive in Queen Elizabeth's Park, and then to Rwanda for the genocide memorials. Then it will be to Masaka, Fr. Simon Peter's home village, where we will celebrate Midnight Mass with him, spend Christmas with his family, and visit the area where a school is being built with money from the students and parishioners of St. Joan of Arc.

Won't have internet access very often during the time here, so thought we'd send a post right away. It's wonderful to be here with Molly and learning about a wholoe new part of the world for us.