Making our way back home

Today I am writing from Jinga. It is Saturday afternoon and we are making our way home from Mbale. It’s been quite the week. On Wednesday, we went to Kamuli to visit the schools that ISU has partnered with to create school gardens. The school uses the gardens to produce food for the school lunches. Unfortunately, for the last 2 months the school lunch program was discontinued. It was reinstituted once the ISU students arrived last week, but it’s unclear if the lunches will continue once the students are gone. The school teaches children agricultural techniques in hopes that they will take that knowledge home to their families. It appeared that a large percentage of the students were malnourished but I’m not sure on the number – I met one Des Moines University student, Tamim, who was doing physicals on the children, but did not have figures yet. (Basil, your brother says hi.) The problem is not a lack of food, but a lack of knowledge about nutrition and how to get a balanced diet. It was a very long trip – about 6 hours each way, despite the fact that it was only about 150 km. There is a lack of infrastructure and roads which contributes to the problems of distribution of food. Oh, and we blew tire #5 for the trip so far. It was well worth the trip, and I enjoyed seeing the town, the VEDCO office, and the Namasagali Primary School. We ate dinner at the Jubilee Restaurant in Tororo (the owner traveled with us to see the school) before heading back to Mbale for the night.

On Thursday, we worked until around noon and had an early lunch. Out of the 6 single guesthouses and 3 doubles that we had planned to complete, we got the walls done and the plaster on all of the singles. Based on the budget, we decided to stop building after we laid the foundation for the doubles and potentially finish those next year. They’re smaller than we would have liked, so next year may involve expanding the foundations before building the walls. One single had about half of a roof completed and it will look very nice. The guesthouses will be small, but there will be room for a bed in the main room and a toilet, a shower, and a sink in the bathroom. Natasha and Ian, our Aussie friends working in the Malaria department of UWCM, have promised to send us photos once the houses are complete.

After lunch we packed some and got ready for the goodbye ceremony. It lasted from about 4pm until 8 or 9pm. All of the UWCM staff, the Ebenezer Village Construction Company (that’s us), and the local workers attended. We were only missing the house staff who were busy preparing a dinner for all 60 of us. The workers had gone home and gotten all dressed up for the celebration – it was really touching. The ceremony included lots of singing and dancing, people making goodbye speeches, presentation of parting gifts, and a large dinner.

On Friday, we finished our packing early and again had to say goodbye to our new family. The last Friday of the month is a prayer day at UWCM and it was quite the ordeal. There was constant praying and singing and testimonies. There were many tearful goodbyes to our yayas (sisters and brothers) and even as we pulled away in the bus, Papa David was singing and playing his guitar. We went to Iganga to visit the other group’s site. It was outstanding, but a bit disheartening. They built 2 school buildings with their budget, and both have roofs. Since they stayed within budget, they were rewarded with the opportunity to build a new brick house for a grandmother in the village who currently lives in a tiny wooden hut and is caring for 7 orphans under the age of 12. Even that house is getting trusses put on today. But I’m so happy for them at all the progress they have made. It’s really impressive. They even created a basketball court and a soccer field for the school by building 2 goals and a erecting a basketball hoop. It’s going to be a wonderful facility. We had a great lunch and enjoyed their (much briefer) closing ceremony as well. Then we headed to Jinga for the night.

We are staying at the Kingfisher Resort. It is gorgeous. The rooms are all doubles and are one quarter of a large hut. There is a swimming pool with a kids area on one side and a bar on the other. It’s right on Lake Victoria and offers boat rides by appointment.

It’s really hard to take. It’s a hard transition to know that we are staying at this beautiful, expensive resort in the middle of all of the poverty. That’s the point of staying there, though – to transition. Mooney says it’s to sensitize us to help reduce the reverse culture shock when we get home.

This morning, Jenny and I got up and headed into Jingatown. It’s on the other side of the lake, so it would have been a long walk. About half way to the main road, a motaboda stopped and picked us up for a ride into town. We went to the Source Café (the only place we know in Jinga). Jenny wanted smaller bills for shopping, so we went into the Café for drinks. We sat down with a woman named Paula and started chatting. She’s a missionary from the Netherlands with YWAM (Youth with a Mission). She had a fascinating story. She had met Edith (my host) at a conference a few weeks ago. A friend of hers, Elaine, visited UWCM a few weeks ago and I had exchanged information with her in hopes to meet up in Johannesburg in February. Small world. Paula is traveling to South Africa on Monday a few hours before we depart for Dubai. She will be working with HIV/AIDS in some capacity. We also exchanged information. She’ll be back in the Netherlands in February, but I hope to meet up with her again in a few years. I also gave her the UWCM contact information for the next time she’s in Mbale.

Since then, I’ve bee wandering around Jinga. I’m getting hungry, so we’ll probably head back to the Resort soon for lunch (it’s included there, in town we have to pay out of pocket). I plan to catch up on some journaling and reading – I brought 7 books expecting to do tons of reading and just finished the first one yesterday. On Sunday we’ll travel to Kampala and then Monday we’ll fly out of Entebbe. We have no problems with any of the flights from Entebbe to JFK. Parents, do not worry. There may be some flights changed from JFK to DSM based on how long it takes to get through customs, but the airlines are aware of that and will take care of it. Everyone will be home on July 3^rd as planned.

I, on the other hand, will be traveling to Michigan for a Tobin family 4^th of July celebration as we send Kevin’s family off to Burundi. I will be back in the States July 3^rd and you may or may not be able to reach me on my cell phone after that point. I don’t know if I’ll have reception in Fennville. Also, I have gotten used to not carrying a cell phone – it surprises me when I find it in my bag from time to time because I forgot that I had one.

I’ll be in the Des Moines Area from July 8^th to 13^th. Look for one to two more posts on my reflections in the coming weeks. I love you all and I look forward to seeing you again soon.

Whitewater rafting on the Nile!

On Wednesday, the group went white water rafting on the Nile. It was a blast. We rafted class 4 and 5 rapids. Our group was supposed to be the "extreme" group – me, Jenny, Z, Dylan, Trevor, Trey, Ross, and Katie - meaning we would go right into the middle of the rapids. We did that, but the raft did not tip over once. Ironic for as hard as we were trying to flip. I think most or even all of the other rafts did. We only got thrown out once – right at the start. That was fun – I think I did one summersault out of the raft and then three underwater. I was a little sore the next day, but not bad. The Nile was really warm. It was overcast later in the day and it was actually warmer to float along next to the raft than to sit in it with the cool breeze.

We were in Jinga for two couple of days for the rafting. We tried to visit the Iganga project yesterday on our way back to Mbale, but we weren’t able to – something about timing. We have a small contingent working on the project today. I’m not feeling great – just a minor cold that’s been going around – so they sent me in to do the cooking instead of hauling bricks. We'll spend Saturday working also.

We sent Pat and Debra home from Jinga – it was sad to see them go. I can't believe we're getting down to the last week – I'm glad I'm here for the whole trip and not leaving yet. Yesterday we gained another chaperone – Mavis, and another student – Krishna. It should be good to have another chaperone around to try to keep a balance.

Tuesday was Mama Edith's birthday, so I’ve been looking around for banana bread recipes online to make. We wanted to do an American birthday party with cake and ice cream and singing, but as I mentioned ice cream is hard to come by (the electricity is a little too temperamental to trust a freezer) and the cake here could probably be better used as a hammer on the worksite, so banana bread and singing it is – if we have a pan…maybe they’ll be banana cupcakes instead…

Weekend in Tororo + photos

It’s Sunday, so happy Father’s Day to my wonderful Dad and Grandpa Tobin and Papa Roach! Papa called the other day – it was nice to hear from you. We spent the weekend in Tororo, the location where the building projects have taken place over the last four years. On Saturday morning, we started off by changing a flat tire (#3 thus far) before heading into town. I went with 2 other chaperones. Debra (our coffee roaster) and I wandered around until we found a store that advertised that it sold ice cream. ICE CREAM!!! Very exciting news. I talked to the manager and asked if he could have enough for 20 this evening. No problem. That’s one thing about restaurants in Uganda – they have wonderful menus, but that doesn’t mean the have the food listed. If you pre-order, you actually get what you want. We sat down in the café and had coffee and banana cake (bread) – also a treat. You don’t find such soft bread often.

We ran a few more errands then headed over to The Rock. Like it sounds, it’s a big rock. It may be high enough to qualify as a small mountain, but not wide enough. We hiked up and it was even steeper than Sipi Falls. By we, I mean about 45 of the 50 from our group and about 100 girls from the local school. The other college chaperones were singing some country songs, so I joined right in for the first 15 minutes. After that, we mostly focused on breathing. The climb up took about 45 minutes. The photo is taken from the top of the Rock while a few of us ventured up a nearby peak. I'm in the middle still making my way up in the teal shirt and navy shorts.

On Saturday afternoon all 50 people in our group visited the Tororo Parents’ Secondary Girls’ School, which did not exist before Global Builders came to town. The girls gave us tours of the classrooms, science lab, and dormitories. Nora and Mary were my guides. They’re both 16 and in their 3^rd of 6 years in Secondary school. It was a very nice facility. The meal was catered from a local restaurant. No utensils meant eating with our hands. Not bad, but the rice and beans got a bit messy. After the meal, the girls sang and danced for us. Everyone was very appreciative and thankful of our help in building the school.

From the celebration, the Global Building Group headed back to our weekend home, The Rock Classic Hotel. Yes, in Tororo, the Rock is a big deal. We swam for a bit and then enjoyed a poolside barbeque. There was a lot of meat, which was also exciting.

Once we sent the Iganga group back to their African home, the Mbale group went into town for ice cream. It was delicious. We’ve been wanting ice cream for at least a week. It was vanilla with some sort of fruit pieces in it, but no one could tell what. We also enjoyed banana bread on the house. A great end to the evening.

In terms of building, we are just finishing laying the foundation – almost to the point where the project should have been when we arrived. Still, we have been helpful and worked hard, regardless of when the work was done.

Today Anne and I visited a local church service. It was full of singing and dancing and two very animated preachers. It was held in a school classroom with a congregation of about 30. When were dropped off, one little boy ran up as fast as he could and gave Anne the biggest hug. Another woman, his mother I think, came and greeted us with hugs as well. The service was said in both English and the local language, so the two pastors appeared to be talking back and forth, the translator mimicking the actions of the first speaker. The service began at 9:30, and ended around noon. The pastor escorted us back to the hotel, about a 25 minute walk. We were worried that we would be late for our Noon lunch, but not to worry, we arrived an hour early. That’s African time. You order at 10am for a meal at noon and by 1:30, it’s time to eat.

We’re now back at the UWCM. Janet had washed our sheets, but we figured we would make beds when we got home today. They were made and the floor was swept when we arrived – the room is the nicest it’s looked since our arrival! (Ok, so on Friday over lunch break I also cleaned a lot of the clutter and trash away – I love living with these wonderful girls, but 6 girls with 2 suitcases each in little space take up a lot of room and it is nice to see the floor from time to time. My 1^st semester living experience has made me love clean floors more than ever. For those of you who saw my dorm first semester, don’t worry – the room here is still cleaner than that.) This photo is of us hanging out in the main room of the girls 'apartment' one evening after dinner.

Thanks to everyone who is commenting and sending me emails – it brightens my day so much to hear from all of you!!! I haven’t seen an international newspaper in a few weeks now. Last I saw, the news was talking about a potential 2^nd Cold War with Russia if we built a wall in Europe. There was television in the hotel lobby this weekend (the first I’ve seen in a few weeks – and I am in no way complaining). I saw snippets of Angelina Jolie on Larry King Live, Oprah, and news from Gaza on Aljazeera, but not much of US news.

I'm trying to add more pictures, but they're taking about 15 minutes each to load and I should probably head back to the house soon. First, I must introduce you to Fred. Last week, we met Fred in passing one morning. I saw him again at the church service last Sunday where he explained what was going on. We'd arrived at the end of a service performed in a language other than English and at the end there was a woman holding a large pawpaw - papaya - and yelling. There was also clapping involved. Turns out people who cannot afford to tithe money instead give what they have - an animal, a fruit, and egg - and the items are auctioned off at the end of the service with the money going to the church. This particular fruit had been purchased, then donated back to the church and purchased again - all in some local language that we did not understand. Anyway, he's a Briton who has come to Uganda for 2 summers now. He works with his church's partner organization here in Mbale, but when he has time, comes over to help us with construction at the UWCM. Anne is currently reading the 6th Harry Potter book and asked him to come over and read to us in his British accent. He has no children, so we figured we would adopt him as our collective grandfather. Fred came to read to us on a night when the electricity was out (which happens about two of every five days). Here, he is reading to the entire group by candlelight!!! Three chapters!!! Fred leaves this coming week, but we're hoping he'll come by once or twice more to read to us some more.

Trip to the Mountains

It is Thursday afternoon in Mbale, Uganda, and it is hot. Yesterday I went on a visit up into the mountains. It was a long journey – partially because of the roads, but also because it was very far away. I went with two Concern Ministry workers and 3 students to sit in on a meeting about building staff quarters at a primary school. Often teachers walk 6 miles to get to school, so they arrive midday and not much teaching gets done. Staff quarters at other primary schools were able to improve education exponentially, based on standardized test scores.

After the meeting, I stepped outside of the building and was immediately surrounded by children running from hundreds of yards away. Many of the young children had never seen a white person before. We played soccer with the 300+ kids (probably closer to 500, but I’m not the best with estimating numbers). It was a blast.

On the way, we got a flat tire, but in the most perfect spot. I was sitting in the covered bed of the truck at the time. We didn’t even notice a tire was flat until the driver stopped the car and told us it would be a while (tells you something about the roads). We got out of the car and heard a waterfall, so we wandered down the mountain into a cave and found it – beautiful area!!!

I better keep working on the buildings - sledgehammering rocks is so much fun.

Love you all!

My First Week

Mulembe! It has only been one week, but it feels more like one month - in a good way! We arrived in Mbale on either Tuesday or Wednesday - I forget which. With all the travel the days ran together. We are staying at Ugandan Women's Concern Ministry. The accommodations are nice by Ugandan standards. We have 3 girls in my room, 2 in the main room, and another chaperone gets the 3rd connecting room. The 6 of us share a bathroom connected to the main room. It is mostly bug free now that all of our screaming scared Harry away after the first night. Harry was our welcome spider. Imagine a regular water bottle. We cut out the bottom of one to trap him inside because only person (not me) wanted to be humane and let him go outside (far, far away). He didn't fit. He was that big. So that was the first night. The boys, by the way, didn't come to our rescue, but one of our hosts ran from her shower to save us! The showers here are great after a long day of work - nice and cold - all the time.

The weather is very nice. About 80 to 90 degrees daily, occasional showers but no humidity. But the sun is hot. We've been doing a lot of work on the project. We're building guest houses first. Mama Edith was telling me that she has wonderful donations coming in, but everyone wants the donations to go towards a project. She has no way to pay her staff, so often she trains them and then they leave for a better paying job. These guest houses (and the piggery that we will convert into a conference center next) will allow her to have a source of income to pay her staff and continue the wonderful work she does. Everyone is very welcoming and happy to have us. We're building 6 single guest houses and 3 doubles. We started with a circular ring 4 feet deep. For foundation, we laid many heavy rocks, then covered them with broken bricks. We used sledgehammers to break the rocks that were too big for us to move. It took about 4 hours to make handles for the 2 hammers and about 30 minutes to break both. On top of the bricks went aggregate (concrete and rocks) which is setting now - not bad for 2.5 days work.

Today we met up with the group we left in Iganga (they're working to build a primary school there) to go to Sipi Falls. It was beautiful. I wish I could upload pictures to show you, but I will later. We hiked straight up a mountain and visited 3 waterfalls on the way. I stood at the bottom of one as the water fell - pretty amazing. The most fun, though, had to have been jumping into the "pool" at the top of one of the waterfalls. It was only about 15 feet down to the water, but a blast! Very cold water, but well worth it.

In terms of the cultural adjustments I feel like I am doing very well. It's been pretty "sheltered" up to today. I knew I was in Africa, but it didn't feel like it since we were always on the compound and living with "Mizungos"- the local term for white people (not a derrogatory term, just a fact).

It's so great to hear the stories that Mama Edith and Papa David and all of the staff have to tell. They are Ugandans highly respected in the area. They have a wonderful community-based approach to all of the work they do. They focus on HIV/AIDS education, care for orphans and vulnerable children, assisting single mothers, and an Australian woman is now on staff for the next two years to start new malaria prevention program.

They make us food all of the time - some African food and some Western food like popcorn and chips (crisps here - British influence - they also drive on the wrong side of the road). Don't worry, we are very safe. The head police chief in the area came by to meet us and assure us of our safety. Last night and tonight we are staying in Mbaletown at a hotel to get cleaned up and give our hosts a break. We came into an internet cafe. Walking around town, I finally feel like I am in Africa. We're off to dinner now. I hope everything at home is going well and everyone is safe.

Happy Birthday, Fr. Pat and Traci!