Uganda Day 1 by Suzy

After arriving with the rest of the group we finally got to Banana Village about 2 am. We were so exhausted. Asked and Stacie Parker (Miller) were already there. The beds we so small in my room that I bunked with Alex since he had extra beds. Got up early the next morning to be met with heavy, cool rain. Now the fun began! We had to load up all of the bags plus the two electric wheelchairs dad bought for Paul and St. Jude. It was tough to do on the rain. We were so lucky that the big, heavy wheelchair fit perfectly in the front seat of the bus.  After loading up we started our journey to the African Hospitality Institute about 3 hours north in central Uganda. We arrived without incident and were shocked to find this place of great comfort and beauty tucked in a the middle of a what looks like the Garden of Eden! AHI trains young people in the hospitality industry and transforms lives whole they are under the tutelage of Maggie Josiah, an eccentric American Women who lives a humble life in the bush of Africa. We were welcome with fresh pineapple juice and wet cloths to clean up from our journey. We were all totally exhausted and thankful for the beautiful mean that was waiting for us. Because AHI is training students to get jobs at big hotels, everything is made to perfection! After our meal, we took a tour of the ranch which is really where the "people" live. It was about a mile long tour where we saw the two schools we will be teaching at, and even had a little boy in the to of a tree shake some fresh mangos dinner for us. We then enjoyed another gourmet meal and wrapped up the night with and incredible devotional around the fire. Maggie shared her own story of heartbreak as a sex slave for almost 30 years and related it to the suffering of her brothers and sisters in Uganda. She asked the group to go back and act upon their intentions of helping others and to not forget our Ugandan