When President Pistole brings you to meet the US Ambassador to Uganda

Hello! It's been an eventful last couple of days. I only have time to write one story of many that have occurred because it's currently 1 AM and we are leaving to travel to The Village tomorrow which will consist of us pitching our own tents and encountering many different bugs and animals 😆

Although I've had my fair share of bugs! I noticed a lot of bright red bumps on my arms that weren't swelling like mosquito bites so I had my host check out my bed just to be sure they weren't bed bug bites. Turns out that he didn't think there were bugs in the mattress, but instead they were infested in the wooden frame of my bed and then making their way into the bed. He fixed the problem right away with an entire new bed. However, along with the hungry mosquitos here and bed bugs, my arms and legs are quite bitten up. 👍🏼

With that being said...I'll start where I left off in the last blog. On Friday morning my team and I had a very rare opportunity to meet the US Ambassador to Uganda at the US Embassy in the city where we are staying in of Kampala. 

We were given this opportunity because of our team member, AU's President John Pistole's (PJP) extensive work with the government. He asked to have a brief meet and greet with the US Ambassador when he was in Uganda and also invited us to join him. 

Prior to the scheduling of this meeting, the Ugandan president was inaugurated just the day before we met with the US Ambassador, so it was a very busy time for the embassy. (There was a lot of drama that happened during this inauguration, you can look it up if you're interested in reading) Anyways, the embassy was gorgeous and the security was almost as intense as airport security...we couldn't even bring our phones in! 

However, Ambassador Malac talked and discussed with our team for about an hour and a half! We had great discussions with her about her previous work serving as the US Ambassador to Libya just a year ago during the Ebola crisis. We really enjoyed listening to her speak about the behind the scenes work that she did during the massive outbreak and what she did to protect the US citizens in the country at that time. 

PJP said that the meeting was NOT what he expected in a GREAT way. He expected that the Ambassador would come in to meet and greet the team for only 15 minutes because of other work they must do. PJP said that he was very impressed with the hospitality and genuine interest that she had in our team and the discussion. So that was a successful visit! 

In summary over the last two days, our team has been spending most of our time at Kasubi Church where the Church of God Headquarters are! It's been a great week & I can't wait to see what this next one will bring!