On Wednesday we had the privilege of taking Pastor Francis and his family out to their village. Their village is about one and a half hours away on crazy bumpy roads.  We packed up all their luggage around 9:30 in the morning, which included bikes and mattresses on top and a chicken by our feet. We packed eleven of us into our eight passenger van.  Thankfully we have air conditioning in our van! We started out from their home with Benjamin(a church member) praying for to safe travels.
We drove to Lake Kyoga first, and saw many cool things. In the one picture, Drew is holding and looking at a hippo tooth that was along the shore. We saw a funny looking duck and her cute little ducklings fighting over a minnow that one had caught. We were then told that we could take a boat ride across the lake to see many monkeys. The boat ride over was so nice with the breeze blowing on our faces and surrounded by our friends. When we arrived on the other shore we did not see monkeys immediately so we trekked back into the land in search for monkeys.  Along the way, we saw exotic birds, colorful butterflies, cows, and many unique plants and trees. We did finally see some monkeys after trekking a ways. We then got back on our boat and started back. We then saw monkeys in the trees right by the shore.  They were giving us a show.  After we observed them for a little bit we took off and then returned back to the other side.
We then drove to Janet's(Pastor's wife) village. We visited her mother and some of her siblings.  It was a beautiful village and we relaxed for a little while and got rehydrated. (We were all a little dehydrated from the boat ride since we forgot to take water. ) Steve found out later that she has only seen her mother twice this year and even now their wasn't much conversation.
Pastor Francis's village was our next stop. It was beautiful with orange, lemon, avocado, papaya trees and other vegetable plants. We visited while they prepared us a meal. The chicken we brought along was slaughtered and then the boys chased another chicken and that was also on the menu. We watched them prepare them so carefully for us. It was done with such love and care. They know we are more picky with our meat and they prepared it beautifully. It was really humbling! When the meat was complete they served us first and smiled broadly as we enjoyed the meal they had just prepared. They all had to be hungry, but in their custom they serve the guests first.
It was a wonderful day full of many lessons on culture. We are so thankful for their friendship and the blessing they are to us. We will miss them for the two weeks they are in the village.