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Published: June 27th 2010
Today marks three weeks here in Africa, Uganda. The Ames High group board planes tomorrow and begin their journey back to the USA. I board a bus and head to Tororo to spend 6+ weeks at the Tororo Parents Girls Secondary School. The last three weeks have been a nice mix of manual labor, traveling to previous years projects, and sightseeing.
This was the third and final year in the Mawalgala village (in the Iganga district) primary school project. It was phenominal to see this village transformed by the school buildings, church, and other support buildings. It was a hub for activity, ranging from education, medication distribution, fellowship, public activities-voter registration booth, and more. Each day we spent about 10 mintues driving on hardtop, followed by 30 minutes bouncing along the gravel "road" to get to the worksight. This place was definitely out in the rural/village. Very peaceful and very little motorized traffic. Each day we drove to the worksight, many many children along the dirt road would run and yell "Jambo!!Jambo!!" (Swahili for hello) at our bus full of mzungos (white person). They seemed so excited to see us, and never seemed to tire of chasing our bus and shouting the local greeting. One of the things I love the most about children is how uncensored they are. I wonder if the adults felt the same about our presence, and have simply been taught to censor emotions and act "appropriate". Our work there consisted of carrying bricks and rocks, mixing muchanga (cement) and wheelbarrowing it into the classrooms, and banding trusses. A new element to this year's project was that locals from the surrounding village were invited to spend 2 days working with us in exchange for one year's tuition for their kid(s). It was a great opportunity for us to get to work side-by-side with the families that live here, and for them to have a part in the construction and feel ownership in the buildings. They were very hard workers. When the last work day came, they had a thank-you/goodbye program for us. There were many adults from the community present, including a group of local widows who danced traditional dances for us. This was followed by probably and hour of thank-you speeches (very typical), finishing up with a feast including:beans and rice, matoke, fresh fruit, chipate, noodles, chicken, and the special treat of a roasted pig. It was bitter-sweet to leave the worksight that day.
As far as sightseeing, we spent a day hiking at Sipi Falls at Mount Elgon, hiked to the top of Tororo Rock, spent a day in Jinja, and now a weekend in Kampala (capital city). It rained on our Sipi Falls hike, so the path was a muddy mess, and about killed me walking back up-not really, but very strenuous and a mess! Jinja is a very pleasant, quite, clean town that I enjoyed very much. Kampala is very poplulated, congested, smog-filled, but easy to navigate and the locals are more used to mzungos, so care much less about our presence. Quite the variety of places to spend time, and a good mix of experiences. I am feeling more comfortable with each day here, and getting adjusted to this way of life. Time seems to move more slowly here, with the emphasis on relationships and conversation. The stress level feels non-exsistent, with no worry about meeting deadlines or getting to appointments on time. People are simply accustomed to waiting-greatest example of patience. We went to do some banking, and while talking to the manager there, he commented on how in America, we go into a bank and expect instant service, and that is normal, but here, people expect (and don't mind) waiting 10-15 mintues to be helped. Outside Kampala, the meals are very consitent-beans, rice, chipate, noodles, fresh fruit. I never realized how much variety in our diet we have at home. I miss it a lot.
Okay, sorry to jam pack 3 weeks into one blog. I hope to get a usb cable so I can load some pics on here. Some of the kids are going to make facebook photoalbums when they get home, so I will get that address onto here. We are enjoyng watching the World Cup daily, and anywhere you go, if there is a tv, it has the games on. TVs are few and far between (unless you are in a hotel), so it is typical to walk past a business with the game on the tv inside and as many locals packed around it as can see. Quite a change from me sitting in front of my own tv by myself at my home. Please know, this experience makes me appreciate my counrty so much more everyday. I was listening to them sing our national anthem on last nights football game (soccer to us Americans) and began to cry when the last words, "over the land of the free, and the home of the brave." We are. Acknowledge and appreciate this. My deepest thank you to all of our military persons and veterans, and everyone else who stands up for the rights of each human being. We are all human, and yet we don't always treat each other as such. We are all human.
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Chelle Boekholder
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FINALLY a Blog from Deb!!!!
I just read your blog Deb, I am so glad to see some sort of contact. WOW it seems that you have been gone a long time. I miss you and know that you are doing what your heart tells you too, so I will embrace the people of Uganda having my Deb for as long as it takes. I LOVE you. Mom