Uniquely Ugandan: Trip to Kidepo National Park

The road to Kidepo National Park.

Karamoja; lots of animals, mainly cows, but a few donkeys too.

The closest we got to Wal-Mart on our trip. When we returned
there was someone selling things here.

Yeah it's me, with several hundred Cape Buffo

I trust you had a good Christmas celebrating Christ's birth and catching up with family and friends. I spent the early part of the Christmas season traveling. I left the Pentecostal Theological College on the 12th of December and headed north. The first half of my trip consisted of visiting two of our students' churches. Both students are pastors at their churches and are organizing their church members to begin a farming project to help the people in their church. I will tell more about that later.
The second half of the trip included visiting Kidepo National Park up in the northeast corner of Uganda, very close to the South Sudan border. I met my friend, Emily Arndt and her friend, and toured the Safari with them. There were not many other people there, probably because the Safari is so far off the beaten path. On our way there, there were times we would get to a fork in the road, which was only a little more than a field lane, and wonder which way to take. Often there were no signs telling us where to go. This part of the country is drier than most of the rest of the country. In fact, they told us that before the people in the area had guns in the 1980's, there were wild animals all over this part of the country.
We arrived at the Safari on Friday evening, December 19th and left Sunday noon, December 21st. The best part about the trip was that Emily took her vehicle and the safari allows people to tour the place with vehicles. So the whole week end we drove around on these trails in the safari and looked at animals. Since it was the Christmas season, we were listening to Christmas music. It is kind of interesting listing to "walking in a winter wonder land" while driving through an African safari.
There were lots of animals to see! We saw almost 100 elephants, 2 lions, a male and a female, 20 giraffes, hundreds of cape buffalo, a hyena, jackals, monkeys, many different types of deer, zebras, and wart hogs.

Cape Buffalo with Elephants in the back.

One of the funnest things was what we got to see the animals do. One time we came up on a group of elephants. Two of them started fighting and even trumpeted. They were only 50 yards away. To scare us, they faced us and flapped there ears out trying to look scary. It was scary, but fun at the same time. Then we got to see two lions jump out of a tree 30 feet away and go try to attack a small cape buffalo. The hunt was unsuccessful, but it was still fun watching. The lions snuck up behind the cape buffalo and then pounced at the young buffalo. Just that fast, the mother cape buffalo whirled around and faced the lions. The lions were scared, but tried one more time before giving up. Oh, and we even got to see two giraffes fighting with their necks from far away.

Once they get old, they are kicked out of the herd.

The cape buffalos were interesting. Most of them moved in a herd of several hundred, but once they got too old and their horns started breaking, they would leave the herd. So as we drove around, we kept seeing these old cape buffalo by themselves and with two or three others. Our guide called them "losers".

African safari.

The guide was optional, so we hired him for Saturday morning, which was worthwhile because then we knew where to go the rest of the weekend. Plus, he was the one who spotted the lions in the tree. We almost drove right underneath the lions without seeing them in the tree above us. They were just there resting; we spent a lot time just watching them. It was really interesting watching lions in the wild that close up.
One of my highlights was just the wide, open expanse of the safari. It was the first time I felt like I was really in an African safari. Grass, and occasional trees, with plenty of wild animals roaming around. The fact that we could go on any trail we wanted to by ourselves was a lot of fun. And then seeing the animals fight and the lions try to attack the cape buffalo was really fun to see.

Nice close up of an Elephant.

I got back to the college on the 23rd of December. I did feel a little lonely over the Christmas season, but I went to another missionary families house for Christmas day. What made it feel even more lonely was that all of the students from the college were gone, as well as most of the staff. Next week school starts and some of the staff have come back already, so it is starting to feel more normal here at the college.

Hey there giraffe.

Here kitty-kitty

Over this Christmas season, I was reflecting on God's mercy and care on the Old Testament characters Ahab and Jacob. 1 Kings 21:25-28 says Ahab was the most wicked king, but God still had mercy on him when he repented. Jacob too was a deceitful person (his name actually means "he deceives"), and yet God still looked out for Jacob and took care of him. This really gives me hope; I struggle at times with thinking that how well I obey God and do everything right is how well God will treat me. And yet, this was not the case for these two Old Testament characters. God was still faithful to them even in their unfaithfulness. I don't say this to allow us to live reckless lives, but to encourage us and help us live our lives without fear of messing up. I am thankful for God's mercy and care for my life, because most of the time I don't deserve it.
Well, that is going to have to do it until next time.