you are most welcome back to uganda!

Finally, I am here.

It took far too many flights and layovers and I officially hate flying.Minor detail and price to pay for being in Uganda again. In the last week I have re-discovered my love for this country.

I arrived Tuesday afternoon into a sweltering 30 degree humid world where time doesn’t matter and cold beer is dirt cheap. I was picked up by my Ugandan co-worker Emmanuel and we drove to Kampala where I met up with Dennis, whom runs Adrift Rafting (GIVE international is partnered with them). After picking up my cell phone, getting some notes and info from Dennis and saying hi to the Adrift staff, we drove to my hometown of Jinja, about 2 hours west? Of Kampala. I passed out the entire drive. That evening I met my first two volunteers, who got here a few days before me. James is from Chilliwack, (of all random places to be from..) and Miko is from Surrey. So, that’s pretty funny. We have mutual friends all over the board (James knows Shantani and Stephen and a few others from theatre, Miko used to work with the West’s at Camp Charis.) they are 23 and 26, super chill and good to hang out with, so we have been doing lots of visiting. My next volunteers come on Monday morning (a family with two younger boys) and then the week after that I’ve got three girls (20/22/32). It’s going to be a busy overlap.

The next few days Emma took me around Jinja to all of the newer placements we have for volunteers that I haven’t seen yet from two years ago. There are some exciting things going on, but lots and lots of help is needed. Some of these placements are:

Home of Hope (Tentpeg Ministries)- a home for disabled and abandoned children. This is shattering to your heart and soul. Most children have Cerebral Palsy, and other things I don’t know what they are and can’t pronounce. There’s no toys and not many blankets. There are beds with mosquito nets, thank goodness. They have a few old ratty wheelchairs that were donated, most kids in them just sit in them in the same room all day long. There’s barely any money- so the most basic medicine is a struggle.

Damali’s baby home- Damali is a wicked 23 year old Ugandan girl who was raised in Good Shephard’s Fold orphanage (one of our placements) and Ryan, my boss, has known her since she was a kid. Now she’s decided to open her own babys home (what orphanages are called). She has rented a house, and had donation money to get some bunk beds. That’s about it. She has maybe 15 children and 5 staff with her helping. The biggest thing is money, as it always is and there is no money for medicines or toys, so there is the cement floor for the children to play on, or the grass outside. We are arranging to take all her children into a clinic for HIV/AIDS testing as that hasn’t been done yet either.

God’s Gift Primary- this school is owned/run by a wonderful woman named Baby Justine, who works for GIVE international as well. Her and her husband got the piece of land with a small building on it for their wedding, and as they already had a place in jinja they decided to put a school on the property for the village children of kitigoma (about 10 min. outside Jinja). As a rural village school, there again is not money and Baby Justine pours everything she has (which isn’t much…) into it. the biggest thing right now is they have started building new latrine’s but ran out of funds half way through..so they are still using this old holes that has started pouring out everywhere, so they’ve tried to come up with a system of where you can pee/poo. There are about 100 children here.

New Victory primary- this school has a lot more than God’s Gift, but still isn’t a lot. It’s much bigger, and they have a huge field to grow their own maize and potatoes, and hoping that when they have the money they can grow beans as well, so the school will be self-providing for meals. About 20 of the students here are orphaned, so there is a small room with bunks where they sleep at the school. There are some construction projects that could be worked on that we are looking at, like putting in windows/shutters and finishing the new latrine’s as well.

Visiting all those and several others I didn’t mention has taken up the majority of my time. However, I have had time to visit Welcome Home, the orphanage I worked at 2 years ago. What a shock, to see how much the children and babies have grown in 2 years, how many have gone back to their families or been adopted, and the biggest shock of all. When all the toddlers came running out of the house to see me, one of the workers asked me if I could pick out Brenda, my favourite baby from 07 whom I saw from her most unbelievable near death state when she was dumped on our front step.. (check out some old blog posts to read about Brenda). The worker called for Brenda, and a chubby little girl came running up to me. This could not be Brenda- no WAY!! But it was. All the workers came around while we waited to see if she would have some recognition for me- and would you believe it- she did. It took a few minutes of her studying my face with a frown, and then like a light switch went off her face lit up and her arms were thrown around me and I carried her around for a good hour while I visited with the workers. It’s wonderful and truly a miracle from her state just two years ago. Amazing what can happen when you actually feed a child.

I’m unfortunately not staying at the guesthouse I was at last time and wanted to be in again, I’m at Zamo hotel (for those who know) which is right next door, though definitely not the same vibe as the guesthouse. However I have been over there for tea with Annette(the woman who owns it) and met some good people who are there, thank goodness..we had an epic Jinja night last night from Nile Reflections (formerly Ginger on the Nile) to Cool Breeze, and of course Sombrero’s… dancing till the early hours of the am.

Have I mentioned ever that a 500 ml beer is 2000 shillings, (roughly a dollar)?

I love my job.