Thursday, May 15th 2008
Hello Everyone! I arrived safe last night after nearly a whole day of traveling into the Entebbe Airport in Uganda. I met a girl who is traveling with me from the University of Texas who is very nice and we got along really well. Neither of us have been to Africa before so we were very excited. We landed last night around 8:00 pm here. The plane ride over Africa was beautiful! After the Mediterranean we flew over the Sahara desert which was amazing, then continued south and flew over the mountains of Sudan where the sun set and it became very dark by the time we landed. The landing was a little rough, and the airport is so small - there are only two luggage claims (compare that to JFK!). Reverend Jim, who runs the African Child Foundation, met us outside with his car and another volunteer Laura from Australia who has been here for four months. All three of us are 22 so we get along very well. We loaded up the car and left Entebbe for Reverend Jim's house, where we will spend the weekend. It was about a 25 minute drive (a terrifying one at that, given the lawlessness of their roads) and eventually got to his street - which was a long rough dirt road. It was so dark out and on either side of the road are families huddled around small fires- I am assuming they were cooking dinner as it is 75 degrees Fahrenheit at night, so no warmth is needed! Behind them were small wooden huts (one room) that served as housing or food stands, etc. We turned off that road after about 200 meters into Rev. Jim's driveway - there is construction around his house where there are brick frames of small houses but no inhabitants or machinery around. His children opened this large gate to let the car inside - his house has a stucco wall around it and a ten foot gate, which makes you feel safe. We got out of the car and were surrounded by kids! Rev. Jim has five biological kids and 13 more that he adopted and live with him. They are very sweet and shy - I believe they are learning English in school so they are not fluent yet - they can all speak the native language of Louganda though with their dad. His wife wasn't home because she works with the volunteers at the Katebo village (where there are 350+ orphans or children that board there during the week). We won't go to Katebo until Monday so we have a few days to relax and enjoy Kampala. Then we move to Katebo for the weeks and spend weekends at Rev. Jim's house. I am very excited. Especially because the children's village is located directly on Lake Victoria - a huge lake in Africa that is actually the beginning of the Nile River and has world-renown waterfalls, which I am hoping to see. Last night we took a tour of his house - there are two next to each other - one is the main house where he and some of his children live, and the other is for volunteers and some more of his children. We set up out mosquito nets in our room over the beds and went to sleep. Today a rooster woke us up. And kept us up. Since 5 am. I found it and am considering kidnapping it, but since it is the children's pet I might refrain. They also have three dogs which we played with this morning and we hung around with the kids after breakfast. I took their pictures and showed it to them - I don't think they have ever seen their picture before because they were all amazed by it, especially because they are so young (the youngest one I have seen is Chris, who is about 4-5 yrs old, and Peter who is only a little older). We are having trouble remembering all of their names, but so far I can recount Grace (there are two of them), Peter, Ebenezer, Rachel, Little Love, Rita, and Frank. They are all so cute and play together in the yard all day - they spent the morning making themselves porridge in a kettle outback over a small stone oven. Luckily they fed the volunteers in the kitchen so I didn't have to brave the 7 year old's culinary skills. We drove into Kampala, the capital today to exchange money (into to Ugandan shilling) and email our families to confirm our survival (I am still alive and well, don't worry!). The ride was gorgeous - the road was bumpy and the traffic was chaotic and nerve racking (much like Thailand) but with bikes and motorbikes (bota-bota's) intermixed to add to the frenzy. Along the streets were small huts and shops selling bricks or paint or fruit. Eventually it became more dense and urban, although their buildings cap out around seven floors and look more like apartment buildings. We are in an outdoor-esque mall with no roof except over some stores but its beautiful out so I can't complain. Today MC and I are hoping to book a safari for next weekend which is a few days long and travels to the Queen Elizabeth Reserve which is further south and west. I really hope to get to see some animals, especially Uganda is famous for its mountain gorilla reserves, so maybe we will get to see them too. I hope everyone is well and enjoying the beginning of the summer months (and Memorial Day weekend soon!) Sorry this email is so long- I don't know the next time I will be in town to have internet access but promise to email again as soon as I get a chance. I will be in Uganda until the 31st, so I am really looking forward to the next few weeks here! Stay in touch and take care, and I will talk to you soon! Love, Maggie
Friday, May 16th 2008
Rev. Jim had to come into Kampala today so he brought us here to let us use the internet. Everything is great - his kids are so much fun and LOVE to see their pictures being taken, so we let them hold our cameras and take pictures of their siblings. Tomorrow we are heading to the source of the Nile for the day, and head to Katebo on Sunday night. I really wish I had more time here so I could visit Rwanda for a weekend (one of the other volunteers went and said it was an incredible experience) but alas I think my stay is too short so I will have to plan to come back someday. We did however book a 3 day/2 night safari for next weekend which I am very excited about. I am hoping to start saving room on my camera for Rome, as I have already taken about 200 pictures (1100 to go!). Nothing else is too exciting, we talked with one of the older sons last night about Uganda's history, the LRA, myths and cults in Uganda, etc which was a lot of fun and very informative. I haven't heard a phone ring in the house but I am assuming that one of the numbers is Jim's cell phone number, so you can reach him on that if need be.
Saturday, May 17th 2008
hello!
we got internet in jim's house! he has been trying to get it for months b/c he has to drive into the capital to answer emails everyday which is crazy! i don't know if we will have it daily especially b/c the power goes out often here, but it is still exciting!
today we woke up and had breakfast (we had some of those mini bananas that i always thought were cute as a kid!) and got in a jeep to head to the Nile. It poured on the way there and we saw tons of cars and even an oil tractor trailer flipped over on the sides of the roads - there was red mud flooding the streets. anyway we got there and the sky opened up and it was hot and beautiful out! we went to three different parts of the Nile, including the source, where it begins. The first part had waterfalls and rapids. The second part was further back and there was a deck that overlooked the rapids from super high up. The last place was the source which was awesome. There is an island in the middle of the Nile here which is allegedly where Moses' mother placed him in the basket before he traveled 4000+ miles up to Egypt! So that was interesting. Plus we got to see Kenya on the other side. The source is just this bubbling area near an island in the middle, and when it meets with Lake Victoria it begins the Nile. We saw tons of cool birds, butterflies, and monkeys everywhere! Then we went to lunch at this very very high end resort where they had an open buffet with such nice foods (both American and Ugandan) and I think it cost us less than $20!
On the way back we stopped at another organization similar to ACF but was 18 years old, much bigger, and housed pretty much all children that were saved from the North, either former child soldiers or orphaned children, from what I understand. They were the sweetest children I have ever met. They see you walking around the yard and they run out in droves to grab your hand & arms, they give you the biggest hugs, and don't let go of your hand forever. They were adorable, so I am excited to meet all the children at Katebo because that is the way they act also, according to the other volunteers. We had chipote for dessert after dinner tonight which was delicious - it was like a fried flat tortilla that was still soft and had sugar and cinnamon on it. Surprisingly they eat a lot of fried rice (think of the frozen bags of Chinese fried rice you can get) and potatoes (but smaller). We had chicken and I couldn't help but hope it was their pet rooster while I was eating it.
Everything is great here - tomorrow we head to Jim's church to watch him say mass, which should be great. Laura has gone before and says their singing is amazing, so I will keep you posted. Then on Monday I head to Katebo, where there is no electricity (which makes me wish I brought another camera battery since mine dies after like 5 hours - lesson learned for future trips).
