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!