Lake Bunyonyi Bound

On Friday morning a group of ten women from the Mbarara missionary community traveled 3 hours south to Lake Bunyonyi (which means "The place of many little birds") for an over-night retreat. This was my first time at the lake, and I was amazed but not surprised by the incredible beauty of our surroundings. I'm constantly in awe of the magnificent landscapes of Uganda.

On Saturday morning, some of us went for a boat ride and enjoyed the cool but sunny weather.

The lake itself has 29 islands; is surrounded by steep, terraced hills; borders Rwanda; and is the second deepest lake in Africa. It's also pictured on the back of the old 5,000 shilling note.

It was a short but lovely time of relaxation, conversation, and laughter with some amazing women who encourage and challenge me in many ways.

On the way home, we made a quick stop at a roadside vegetable stand to buy some inexpensive produce in bulk. One of the women with us, Joanne, has lived in Uganda for 15 years, and knew exactly what to expect. The rest of us had a unique first experience with this drive-through vegetable system!

She pulled the car over on the ride of the road, we locked our doors, and she rolled down her window as vegetable sellers began to swarm the vehicle on all sides. People began tossing vegetables into the car and shouting their prices at us in hopes that we'd buy from them. Fortunately, Joanne was calm and collected and kept the madness under control as much as possible. We came away with lots cauliflower, onions, and carrots for a much better price than we could get in town.