Oli Otya! Wasuze otya nnyo?
Hello all! How was your night? (A morning greeting in Lugandan).
I'm writing from a hostel in Kampala, Uganda's large capital city. This has been the first chance I've had to update you all because internet is not available to me in my volunteer placement. The closest internet cafe is 2 hours away by Mutatto (taxi), which does not leave for our destination until the van fills up its 17 spots. Interestingly enough, these Mutattos can fill up to as much as 27 people...literally hanging out the window and sitting 5 or 6 to a row meant for 3!! T.I.A...(a common phrase to explain such things. It means "this is Africa"...translation: "roll with it!"). We are here with 7 other volunteers at different placements around Uganda through GVN. We usually all meet up on the weekends to get a break from our projects and fuel up on things like internet, water, and food other than the same meals we recieve daily.
I am placed at House of Hope with an 18 year old girl named Elise. She is wonderful and a great confidant to have while we adapt to Africa. She came to Uganda from 3 months volunteering in Kenya...she's my hero! House of Hope is located in a VERY rural, mountainous area of southern Uganda. The sunsets are beautiful, and very quiet (after evening "prayer time" where the kids sing and dance and clap and pray after dinner). On a clear night, you can see a million stars. During the day, I can look across the hills and feel as if it would perfectly normal for a pack of elephants or gorillas to wander through!!
It is a wonderful sanctuary for around 200 children (50 of which live there full time), 1 dog "Canada", and 1 kitten "cat". They ran after our car when we arrived and swarmed around our barely opened doors! We couldn't even close the doors before greetings from 200 little ones giving hugs and saying "Wellll-Comm Auntie!". The House of Hope choir then sang 4 welcome songs for us while we sat in places of honor in chairs in the front row. Then the older girls (aged 15) danced a traditional Ugandan dance for us. The choir was accompanied by 3 or 4 drummers...these kids have Rhythm at like 8 years old! Our guesthouse is spacious for the two of us, with a private room each, and a small "shower room" for bucket showers. The toilets are squatties. Every morning, we eat sweet white bread with red plum jam and black tea. Lunch is posho (think tasteless mashed potatoes) with beans (close to refried beans). Dinner is white rice with tomatoes, avocados, a tasty cabbage, beans, and posho again. We buy our own bottled water to drink throughout the day and with meals. The food is good. The guesthouse staff ("Sarah") is very sweet. Although we noticed that the adults know less english than the older students. And the very young ones know little to no english at all.
The kids are adorable and curious about us "muzungus" (white people). They like to poke our skin and watch it turn white to regular pigment. They brush our arm hairs, and stroke our straight hair. They will take and run away with anything you have on you that's not secured (sunglasses, head bands, watch, rings, jewelry, etc) so I learned real quick to not wear much more than my clothing when I'm with the children! They love to play "cow cow goat" (equivalent to our "duck duck goose"), london bridge, jump rope, a hand clap game, soccer, "net ball" (basketball for girls), volleyball, or just sitting with muzungus and teaching us Lungandan. They are awesome. I will update videos and pictures this afternoon.
Jennifer, the founder of House of Hope, is extremely impressive. Her english is impeccible. She explains things to westerners that we might not otherwise understand about Ugandan culture. And she is running House of Hope with a non-caning ("caning" is when the teachers beat the children on the back of the legs with a cane for misbehaving) policy. She is runing a very unique project in a very rural village in desperate need of education for the children in Kyazanga and surrounding villages. She is basically the Mother Theresa of this whole area of Uganda. I am confident and happy to report that she operates on a completely honest budget and I admire her vision for future developments at House of Hope. Vision is not common for Africans. She is doing something amazing in Southern Uganda, and is doing it "right" - void of corruption.
We did some home visits last Sunday. We went to a village in another hillside above House of Hope to some elderly women who have taken in orphans. These saintly women have little to nothing and have from 5 to 8 children living with them, completely reliant on them, and not-related. The live in tiny one or two bedroom mud huts and work on the banana plantation they live on for rent. We gave t-shirts, kerosene for lamps, soap for laundry, and flour and salt to make posho (Uganda's staple food). They were ecstatic. It is unbelievably humbling to even remember how grateful they were to recieve such small items. They have next to nothing in this world. And yet they still gave Jennifer a live chicken as a thanks and showed us great hospitality as we sat and met each of their "adopted" children. It was funny hearing the chicken squaking in the back of the Land Rover as we drove away!! Ahhh...Africa. Next time you invite me over...maybe I'll bring you a live chicken! I hope these women feel the depths of gratitude I felt for their selflessness. I am so grateful to live the life that I have.
Monday we taught Enlgish for 1.5 hours to the oldest classes (P6 and P7). The director's father came to our breakfast and announced that "The children in P6 and P7 are ready for your lesson. They are waiting in their class for you." We stared wide-eyed before running to fetch some english lessons I had made before coming. Elise too P6 with their teacher Daniel, while I took P7 alone! It was a fun hour of learning the english words "creative" and "inspired" before I just showed them pictures of home and my family, which they LOVED! They said my brother Graham looked like a professional soccer player in England, and they were scared of my black dog Ella, until I told them she loves children, just like Canada.
The mosquitos are nasty here, and I am adamant about my deet spray after recieving about 10 bites on my arms and neck! It has rained here for the past 4 days, but only in the morning, and usually ends around 9am. However, the roads are VERY muddy and slippery. Yesterday, our mutatto drove through a flooded street...up to a grown man's knees!!!
The Ugandans are all impressed with my Lugandan, and it inspires me to keep practicing and learning more! They appreciate when a muzungu knows their language! And it keeps the taxi prices down!
Today is Saturday morning, before Easter - a big holiday in Uganda where people go to church and then spend the day with their families eating and drinking. I think we will go to a cafe today for some coffee and hang out while we try to avoid the rain! I must go as there is a line of travelers waiting to use the internet, but I will attempt to upload videos and photos later today.
Weraba Mukwanos! (Farewell Friends!)
Jillian
