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.