Ekyaro Kyaife Website

P.S. For those of you wondering, the web site for the orphanage in Uganda is: www.ekyarokyaife.citymax.com. Check it out!!!

Christmas!

Christmas is coming up and there are lots of children everywhere who may not get a visit from Santa. Luckily, most of them are not the type of children who just EXPECT presents at Christmas. Kind of cool when you think about it. Isn't Christmas more exciting when you are surprised with presents and touched that someone thought of you? In my opinion, it's kinds like that who deserve the most at Christmas. Not to discount the lucky few who have very large celebrations at Christmas, but you know what I mean?

So this Christmas, why not support those kids who might not receive something otherwise. Be Santa. It doesn't have to be for just our organization, although we certainly wouldn't say no to making a happy Christmas for the kids!But you can also make a box for Operation Christmas Child or buy a goat for World Vision or something. If you could see the celebrations at Ekyaro Kyaife when a gift is given, you wouldn't hesitate.

Think about it. Give because you want to this Christmas, and because it comes from you heart. Not just because something is on sale.

Almost Over :0(

I'm leaving Uganda next Tuesday. I am very very very sad about that. Although, I was rather excited to discover that the Canucks are playing the night after I get home and I'll also be home in time for Stanley Cup Playoffs. Where there's hockey, there's also Timmie's coffee. So I suppose life could be worse.

We've had some adventures in our compound lately. We came home one day and were talking to the Ugandan couple who own the main house when he mentioned that we should be sure to always have our flashlights with us at night, even in the compound which is protected by shards of broken glass and a huge gate. Naturally we asked why and he casually informed us that they had killed two snakes in the compound that week. Terra asked if they were poisonous and they just laughed and said,"Well they're snakes, aren't they?" Silly question. So I rephrased it and asked if you would die from being bitten by those ones, and they said," Yes, but as long as you get to the hospital to get treatment really quickly you should be okay. Just don't delay." So basically, it's no problem because it's not like you'd die right away or anything. After this wonderful exchange, he just reminded us to carry our flashlights again. I don't know about you, but I felt reassured.

See, the latrines are located at the side of the compound underneath a tree. There is also a pole in the latrine that would be an excellent place to curl up. To get to the latrines you need to walk by another tree and a huge pile of wood. All of these factors regarding the latrines led me to the conclusion that I am not peeing again until I get to Amsterdam.

I've been told by many of my friends that they will definitely see me before I leave next week, and Terra has been snatching her phone out of my hands when texts come in, and conversations abruptly stop when I enter the room. So somehow, I feel like Terra and Team Iganga are up to something. They should really not be trusted with any state secrets. Oh yeah, all of us mzungus (whities) in Iganga call ourselves Team Iganga...you know...'cause we're cool like that. Most of the other mzungus here are Peace Corps, so it's been an interesting time hanging out with them.

There are so few of us mzungus out here in the sticks of Iganga so we know who everybody is. When we see a new white person in town we stop and point just like the Ugandans do. We've talked about making all of the new mzungus sign a registration book when they come into town so we know what they're doing here on our turf. The majority of the white people who show up are 2-weekers who parade around town in short shorts and tiny tank tops while tossing out candy and money everywhere, which in turn makes life very hard for the rest of us long-termers. To show your thigh out here in the village automatically makes you a prostitute. And it just paints giant targets on the rest of our backs for the creepy men who really want to marry a white woman. I just want to shake those girls and make them understand that this is a different culture and they should adapt to it for crying out loud. They just parade through town and leave a mess in their wake. Seriously, you can't start a project and leave it after 2 weeks in the country with no contact after that. It's very damaging to the area. Sometimes it feels like 2 steps forwards, 9 steps backwards. But in the end it's worth it to push on here. I'm really not THAT bitter. Just sometimes :0)

Oh yeah, and we're officially registered with the district here now! Woo hoo! We're all like, legal and stuff. It's good. Anywho, I'm off to the orphanage for life skills class. See ya soon!

Re: Previous Photo Excitement Post

The other picture was Tenwa, Waiswa's twin brother who likes to hang off of my arm while I'm walking. It's me looking down at him hanging off my arm like a little monkey. He's like an extension of my body now. No big deal.

More Photo Excitement!

So, Terra and I were brushing our teeth last night when we heard some commotion and what sounded like a stick being banged on a rock or something. We peeked outside and saw Loi (the houselady) holding a giant stick above her head and smashing it down on some kind of creature while Gertrude (a girl who stays in the house) was holding a flashlight for her. At first, we thought it was a huge snake. Then, when we looked closer we saw more of a body, not just the tail. It was covered in scales that were like armor, and Loi just kept beating it over and over with the gigantic stick because it absolutely would not die.In the end, Terra and I decided it kind of resembled an armadillo, but we're still not sure because neither of us have seen an armadillo before. Some sort of armored scary creature that had apparently been terrorizing the chickens and just happened to sneak up on Loi at night. Bad move on his part, I have to say. Loi is a tough woman. Anywho, we took some pictures, but unfortunately I don't have them with me. Oh, Africa, I love you. Never a dull moment.

The greatest news in the world is that we got some of our beds delivered for the kids!!!! We still don't have all of them, but it's a start and it is beyond exciting. The kids (and us) were freaking out when they arrived. I've posted some pictures below, but it keeps changing the order when I publish the blog, so I'll just say what they are and you can match it.Pictures AND a matching game! What fun! The bed pictures are obvious, then there's a picture of Waiswa when he fell asleep really awkwardly between my legs. So cute. Also, there's Sanga and I (I wrote about her before)aaaaand...to be honest I can't remember what the other picture is and I can't see it right now. The whole computer just crashed so I'm going to publish this really quickly before I'm forced to go home and drown myself in frustration. Oh yeah, and sorry if one of the pictures is sideways. You know how it is *sigh*.

Otherwise, life is great here! Really REALLY hot, but great. Stay tuned for more fabulous adventures and occurences...oh, the suspense!

You know...stuff

Soooooo....what's up in Uganda now? Hmmmm...well, I've gotten into a routine now where we usually do paperwork, meetings, or run errands in the morning and then we head out to the orphanage at lunchtime. At this time, most of the older kids are still in school, but the nursery kids are out already. They are pretty much the most fantastic kids ever. Not that I'm biased. But they really are so entertaining and each one of them has a very distinct awesome personality.

Isaac is a little 4 year old monster who you could watch for ages and never get tired of. When he's bathing he sits in the bucket and throws water up in the air with glee, then splashes the water with his palms and starts throwing it in the air all over again. By the end, there's hardly any water left in the bucket. When he's eating, he's like a true carnivore. He tears food apart violently with his teeth, and even when he's peeling a sweet potato he peels it very deliberately and then throws it down to the plate, not caring if he hits the plate or not. Plus, he can consume intense quantities of food for a kid his size. Just everything he does is interesting to watch so I try not to miss much of the Isaac Show.

Semaia is a 5 year old who's about the size of a 3 year old. We call her the little pixie, not only because of her size but because of the mischievous smile she has when she's up to something. For a girl that little she's surprisingly strong, though. When the other nursery girls were playing with my hair, I all of a sudden had my neck snapped backwards because Semaia started "petting" me. We're trying to add "gentle" to her vocabulary...we'll see how that goes.

Speaking of hairdressing, little Sanga is one of my favorite kids. Don't tell the others. She's so smart and she's almost like a little mother to the other kids even though she's the same age as them (about 5). To me, it makes sense that her name literally means "Aunt". She loves to sit with me and be poked in the belly and exchange Lusoga words for English ones. But mostly, she loves to play with my hair. One of the factors that forced me to go through with cutting all of my hair off was when Sanga was contentedly playing with my hair one day while I was talking to Terra and all of a sudden I felt a "snip" on the back of my head. Turns out that little Sanga had found some scissors and took a nice chunk of hair out for her collection. Luckily, I had already talked with Terra about cutting my hair, so we went home and finished it off that night.

All of the nursery kids have a tradition of sitting on the mats with me under the mango tree and copying parts of the newspaper out onto my legs. Obviously, white legs are meant for writing on. Plus, they draw pictures of things and write the English words underneath to practice. On Friday they learned jug, chair, and stool. So my legs were covered with multiple illustrations from all of the little ones. I want to take pictures of everything they write before I wipe it off every day, because it's so great. Terra calls them my gnarly tattoos, and I have to agree. I don't mind one bit, I actually really enjoy discovering what they're decided to draw. And we both get so excited to see them learning new things! Maybe it sounds dorky, but it's true. Those are just a few of the kids, but every one of them is so unique and we just want all of them to be noticed for each special thing about them. It might be easy to blend in a group of 81 kids, but we don't ever want them to feel unnoticed.

We've been looking around for some land for the possible expansion of the project. Last Sunday we went to look at a wonderful stretch of land, which we're still thinking about. The main problem is that it's a bit farther out from town, but it's also kind of what we want because there's a lot more need in the villages than in the town. It's 15 acres when measured in the "old way", but by our standards it's actually 20 acres. We'd only have to pay for 15 though, because that's how they chose to measure it. And they're willing to sell it for 800,000 Shillings an acre, which is an amazing price. It works out to around $519 an acre. Incredible! Plus there's swamp for our agriculture project, soccer field, garden, dormitories and a school building. There's also fresh water and really fertile land from what we can tell. The owners are also willing to let us conduct any investigations we'd like, which is a very good sign around here as far as land ownership goes. Finally, there are no squatters on the land, and it's a full strip all together, which is also hard to find. So we're seriously considering our options. We're still just looking around, but that one's still sticking out, at least in my mind.

I wish you could all see what I see every night here. It's cheesey, but I have to say it. I walk outside to brush my teeth and look up and every night the stars are IN-CREDIBLE. Even when there's clouds, there's something about them that is just so much bigger and amazing. I can't really describe how immense everything seems here...but I love it love it love it. It's actually one of my favorite moments of every day. I much prefer it to the stupid roosters, chickens and goats who wake me up every morning...I hate that rooster. It perches right on our windowsill and crows over and over and over, sometimes when it's not even really light out yet. Someday I may kill it. I helped slaughter a chicken yesterday and it was stragely satisfying when I pretended it was the rooster. Sorry for you vegetarians out there. That's all I'll say on that topic.

Anyways, there's so much more to say, but I know I've written way too much already. I hope life's trucking on famously for everyone! I'll be back on your side of the world in a month...oh...now I'm sad...

Picture Extravaganza!!

Okay, hopefully these photos work. It's been hours of work, so they better!!!! The first one is little Ikamba, the boy who lived in our compound and was wondrously entertaining. He was really into my iPod, even though he called it a TV. Crazy dancin' fool. The next is a few of the kids at the orphanage, being wonderfully pleasant. And the last photo is at Terra's Princess birthday party that we had. We all made tiaras and wore dresses, then we watched the movie Enchanted. Even the boys made tiaras, but those photos are for another post when I have 6 or 7 hours to spare :0) But see, this is proof: I'm still alive!!!!

I'll write again soon. Peace out.

She's back!

So, here's the good news: Viola has been found! She was gone for about 38 hours and that was 38 hours too long, let me tell you. They ended up finding her in Mayuge District, which is quite far from here in the wrong direction from Bugembe, which is where she was headed. She was most definitely lost. She walked all that way, it's crazy! Some man saw her walking on a street that ended in a swamp and he didn't recognize her from the village so he stopped to see who she was. Luckily, he turned out to be a nice man. It could so easily have been the opposite. He took her home and contacted the LC1 (village chairman) who then questioned her a bit. She said she was heading for Bugembe, but all she could tell him about her family was that her grandmother sold milk there. So he went to Bugembe and started asking for an old woman who sold milk. He talked to the LC1 there, who we had already told about Viola. So they called Paul and he drove out to Mayuge to meet them there and see if it was her. Paul and Afan spent hours driving around on a motorbike looking for Viola. They were both covered in dust and absolutely exhausted, so when they got that call they were rejoicing. Paul hadn't slept, and actually not many of us had. Terra and I met them in Iganga and pretty much collapsed with relief when we saw that it was really her. The police told us that it was a good thing that her ears had been pierced. Apparently a child with pierced ears won't be picked up by a witch doctor because they are unfit for child sacrifice. So we're thinking we'll pierce all of the kids' ears...good plan.

Viola told us that she had not been the one wetting the bed, it was the other girl that she shared the bed with. So she was tired of being blamed for something that she didn't do and decided to leave. Logical solution in the mind of a kid. Anyways, we've got some work to do with the staff to help them be sensitive to the kids about things like bed-wetting. It's not really accepted here as nicely. But still, Viola's back and we are soooooooooo relieved. Whew! Hard times, but good in the end.

Pray for Viola

We have a problem here. A very big problem. If you are the praying sort, please get busy now. One of our girls from the orphanage ran away yesterday morning and she is still missing. She's a 9 year old named Viola and she's very timid and quite easily frightened. She ran away because she wet her bed and was afraid that she would be punished for it. You see, in Uganda the common solution to a problem is still to "beat", meaning they whack you on the back of your legs with a switch or something. We've had all of our teachers sign a form which indicates that we're trying to teach problem solving at the school so they are not to use physical punishment. But the idea of beating is so stuck in the kids minds still. Viola was so scared when she had to get a needle that she wouldn't even go into the hospital without screaming and crying. She's just an overly sensitive kid.

We think she may have been heading to her grandmother's home in Bugembe, but we don't think she even knows the way. It's really easy to get turned around once you make a few wrong turns here. She left yesterday morning and there's been no news of her yet. We've contacted people in her area, but nobody's found her. We've also had announcements on the radio and we've gone to the police to report her. Paul (the head teacher) and Afan (another teacher) are going around to all of the officials in the area with her picture as well and the teachers are going around the areas on motorcycles looking for her too. She's been gone all night and it was raining last night, so we're really praying that she found somewhere safe to go, but maybe she's just afraid to come back now because she thinks she'll get in trouble. Also, Paul is kind of nervous that the police might detain him if we don't find her. He's the head teacher, and he was really nervous to provide his contact information to the police because he does stand a very good chance at being detained, given the way the police usually operate here. Can we say corrupt? But we had to go to them, or there would have been more trouble if we didn't report what had happened.

I don't know if you're aware, but child sacrifice is a very big problem here in Uganda. Businessmen will have a witch doctor behead a child and bury it under a new building they are putting up to ensure its success. There's a lot of other reasons why it happens, too. But it is a very real problem, and even in our area here. Not only is it already a problem, but it's also on the increase. So we are just praying really hard that the wrong person doesn't pick her up...it's pretty scary. I don't want to say too much about that because it's pretty disturbing and we see enough of it in the newspapers. It's just horrible.

It's been just over 30 hours...pray hard or think about her if you're not the praying kind. We want the message out that she will not be in trouble when she comes back, we just want her to be found safely. No matter what, we just hope she's safe.

The Incredible Journey

Who's in Rwanda? IIIII'MMMM in Rwanda!!! It's a magical, magical land filled with coffee and traffic laws. I almost don't know what to do with myself, to be honest. So I know I promised I would post a lot of pictures, but here's the problem: Some of the little gremlins at the orphanage (otherwise known as kids) found my camera and decided to play with it. Needless to say, they broke it. So I've been trying to find somewhere that can fix it, to no avail so far. Luckily, I brought my other camera too, but it's a film camera (I know, old school) so I'll have to post those pictures when I get home. There's still hope that the digital camera will be fixed, though.

So we had a bit of an adventurous journey to Rwanda. Certainly not over the top as far as travelling in Africa can go, but still kind of fun. We knew that it was about a 10 hour bus ride from Kampala to Kigali, so we were settled in for a long day. I was at the window, Terra was in the middle, and a random lady was sitting on the other side of Terra. The first part of the ride was just the usual. We'd stop occasionally so everyone could get out and go to the bathroom in the bushes or buy some meat on a stick off the side of the road. Luckily, we had our own toilet paper in our bags. Whew! Never travel without it. Terra was coming back to our seats after going to the bathroom and managed to get a meat stick to the side of her head. Meaning, the guy knocked her behind the ear with it and actually drew blood. The typical part is that he noticed, but just walked away. Niiiice.

We continued the journey, and then all of a sudden we turned off the main road onto this tiny dirt road that seemed waaaay too small for our gigantic bus, and we actually almost tipped over as we made the awkward and slanted turn. I was a little confused because it seemed like a strange route to take to Rwanda on a major bus line, but it IS Africa so I just accepted it. Terra, however, has been to Rwanda before and did not remember such a funky detour. She threw out the idea that maybe we were sneaking into Rwanda the back way. Seemed logical. Of course, no one around us spoke English so we were really clueless for the first while. We were travelling along, flying out of our seats like it was some kind of a really bumpy amusement park ride when we suddenly came to a stop. Here was the problem: We were face to face with another bus on this one way road. On our left side was a nice hefty drop, sufficient to turn our bus over a few times. On the right side was an upwards slope, covered in bushes and trees. Hmmmmmmm, what to do. OBVIOUSLY, we started to back up right along the edge of the drop with one guy standing there in case we started to slide over. Because you know, he could hold us up on his own. After about 20 minutes of manuevering, we were actually able to let the other bus pass by us, while we teetered on the side of the slope. I covered my eyes the whole time. Sorry Mom, I did think of you while it was happening :0)

After the other bus passed by, we kept driving for awhile and we met numerous other slopes and ditches, and hit one bump the made every person on the bus fly out of their seats and scream. Fun, eh? You know it's crazy when even the Africans are looking a little nervous. Then they just laughed awkwardly and continued on, which was even funnier to Terra and I. But eventually, after about an hour we came upon another bus off to the side of the road. It looked like they were stuck in the mud, but they were waaaay off the road so we had no idea how they could have possibly ended up there. Anyways, 3/4 of the people on our bus got off and we drove away. Terra and I looked at each other and then just accepted this crazy process as natural and decided to eat our lunch. A few minutes later, we did the mother of all turn arounds. There was much manuevering, backing into bushes, and skidding in the mud, but we made it. We drove back to the place where we had left our passengers and they got back on, tired and muddy. Then we headed back the way we had come and it started to rain. Back muddy roads in the rain in Africa on a big bus...always a good idea. But we made it to the main road okay. So clearly, the only reason that we took this massive detour was to push that one bus out of the mud. A bus that had no business being back there in the first place. Africa? Africa.

When we made it back to the main road, everyone applauded and the journey continued. Then, it started to rain again. Of course, it would be too much to ask to have a window that actually closed. So all the way through Western Uganda I had a steady waterfall on my shoulder and pants. I was quite pruny by the time we reached the border. When we got to the border, there was all of a sudden an "every man for himself" feel to everything. We had to fight our way off the bus, using our passports as weapons, and run over to immigration. When we were allowed to leave Uganda, we ran through no man's land past all of the men promising to give us a "good exchange rate". Code for RIP-OFF, which we're not stupid enough to fall for. We got our passports stamped on the Rwandan side and noticed that there were 3 identical bussed parked next to each other and we weren't sure which one was ours. Eventually we found it because our luggage was being torn apart by immigration outside the bus. Very helpful. Once we fought our way back ON the bus, a guy came on and told us that the immigration guys had used the wrong stamp in our passports. It was the 2010 stamp instead of 2009. So what did we do? We fought our way off the bus again, elbowed people to get into the line-up at immigration, yelled at a guy to tried to throw his passport over our heads into the window, and got the guy at the desk to handwrite 2009 in our passports. Then we scrambled back on the bus right before it took off to continue the journey.

So that's a little summary of the trip here. It was wonderfully amusing, I have to say. Now we're staying at our friend Ian's house (a Rwandan pastor) and we're trying to enjoy our little vacation from the craziness of Uganda. We just drank Rwandan coffee...mmmmmmm...that also probably explains why this blog is so long. I can't keep control of my fingers! They're going a mile a minute! But yeah, we're going to visit some of the genocide memorials on Monday and hopefully go and see Ian's school and maybe get some ideas for our own project. Kigali is a wonderful place and I think Rwanda is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. I know that there's a lot more beautiful places in the world for me to see, though. To me, that's really really exciting.

Au Revoir!!!!

What's Up With Us

Okay, this was supposed to have pictures with it, but my patience has ended after a few hours. I'll try to post pictures again another time. The blog below was written by Terra with the able and unparalleled assistance of a Miss Andria Young.

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Jambo mukwano! That means “hello friend” here in Iganga District of Uganda. Here at Grace of God Children’s Home and Primary School we have just started the first term of the school year after returning from holidays. We have the orphanage set up so that the children are with us full time at the site during the school year and then they go back with their guardians during the holidays. We are trying to create a community partnership rather than a place where the guardians can abandon children that have become a burden to them due to the level of poverty that they are living in. At the end of last term in December we had our first staff/guardian meeting. It went really well, as we were able to establish the mentality that these children are a blessing however abandoned and parentless they may be. With that, we also stressed to them that they can take pride in helping and getting involved in something that is positive for their community and for the children they have found in their care. Also, when they are a part of something that is working well and ensuring that their children achieve a higher level of education, they can take pride and ownership in the achievements too. It was a very encouraging meeting. We had guardians say that they would let us use their land so we could plant more food for the children or that they would bring food, while some said that they would help with sewing and cleaning. I think that sometimes people feel that there is no way they can help, but when they realize there are ways they can get involved it is like they have been given something themselves.

So, after ending last year with that meeting we started the year with another meeting with the guardians on February 2^nd, which also involved the different levels of local government. Many of the guardians brought corn and beans for us and any funds they had to help us this coming term. We are going to be welcoming 8 more children from our surrounding area. They are going to be brought to us by the Sub-County Counselor. They are going to be orphans that are not getting taken care of by the guardians who they have been left with. They are the ones who are just sitting there without the opportunity of going to school. So we are very excitedly awaiting their arrival. As well, we are going to be getting more day school children from our surrounding village. These children will also be orphans and vulnerable children who would not be getting the chance to go to school. At the moment, there are going to be approximately 80 children benefitting from the boarding school and many more will be benefitting from the day school.

Through your help and the help of other donors, we have been able to get beds built and purchase mattresses for all of the children. Last term we were continually dealing with Scabies, as the kids were sleeping on the ground and it was difficult to keep things clean. So it will be wonderful this term for the children to be sleeping under their treated mosquito nets on a mattress in a bed. The beds are scheduled to be completed this Friday the 6^th, so it is going to be quite a celebration. Some of these children have never slept on a bed before! We are also getting more desks so that the children will all be able to sit in a desk. We are hoping to be able to raise the teachers’ salaries as they are currently earning 1/3 of the proper salary. The teachers are really amazing and they go above and beyond their regular teaching responsibilities. On Wednesdays and Sundays some teachers stay with the children to worship and praise. On other evenings you’ll find a teacher staying late to teach the children new songs, dances, and skits.

The need is so huge; we are in the Busoga region, where the HIV/AIDS rate is approximately double that of the rest of the country, although the rest of the country is on the rise again. There are so many children who are not getting the care and education they deserve. Many of our children’s guardians are grandparents who have been left with the responsibility of their children’s children. Also, we have many older siblings who have been left with the responsibility of their younger siblings. There are so few jobs that a degree holder will search for years for a job. So you can imagine how difficult it must be for an elderly grandparent and an uneducated sibling to provide for the children left in their care. Many of our children come from deep in the village; they live off the land, they eat what they grow, and earn little to no profit with seemingly no access to income-generating activities. As we are situated within a village community; we are planning to start projects that involve and employ local widows that will aid them and also aid the project. There is an African Proverb that says, “It takes a village to raise a child.” Through the village life style we can work for balance and love to the benefit of everyone.

We are all God’s children and we are all a part of His work. These children who have been left parentless still manage to shine with incredible joy and love. They are not hopeless, they are beautiful. Their situation and story may sound tragic and without love, but I think that God’s presence shines more clearly than ever when amongst the most abandoned and supposedly forgotten children you can hear laughter and joy. These children have taught me so much about true love and true joy. With their incredible personalities, charisma, and nature of perseverance you see how they deserve the future that God intends for them and that they are not of this situation.

Simon is twelve years old. His father died and his mother disappeared. He was being raised by his older brother, who was only five years older than him, in a mud hut with their three other brothers. Simon is one of the most confident people I have ever met. He has amazing charisma, he can sing beautifully, and he’s got some incredible dance moves. He says he wants to become the president of Uganda.

Jaclyn is seven years old, and her mother and father both died of AIDS. She and her 3 brothers were left with her Grandfather. Her Grandfather was too elderly and poor to care for them, which made them like a burden in his home. Jaclyn has been at the orphanage for two years now; she came from the village where they just spoke their native language. She has already learnt English so well and she excels in school. Since being given a box of crayons she has drawn and colored beautiful pictures. She is so clever and gifted. She wants to be a nurse.

Isaac is four years old. His father died of AIDS, and his mother is currently living with AIDS. Isaac’s father had three wives, but two died of AIDS, while the other is still living with it. His father left behind many children; they split the children up amongst different relatives. At four Isaac is his own little man; he has his own way in which he goes about everything. When he hears music he can’t help but swing his little hips. He marches to his own tune, and it is always interesting to see his approach to things, because it is always very much his own. He wants to be a policeman.

The background information and standard of living may seem like a devastating story, but the beauty of the people I have met here paints a different picture. It’s a story of love that extends through difficult times, and is seen in the grandmother who welcomes in any visitor as a blessing and gives them all the food she has. It’s a story of hope, which is seen in the little girl who has lost her parents and was left without food but is now learning to read. It’s a story of faith and thankfulness in knowing that God is the one that has sustained you, which I’ve seen in the singing of the HIV positive women as she sings praises to God. All efforts are important and worthwhile in working in love with others to give back what is deserved to a fellow human. We are so thankful and encouraged to have friends in Canada who have helped to ensure that the futures of these children are not reflective of their past. It is only through God’s networking that these things could happen, and we are excited and blessed to be a part of His work.

Life 'n Stuff

There's a lot to say about being here. But maybe it'd be good to give you an idea where "here" is. I'm living in Iganga, which is in the southeastern part of Uganda. I'm living at the home of the former mayor of Iganga. Well, not actually in the house. We have our own little place in his backyard compound. There's one room that has some chairs in it and a propane stove for cooking, which is AWESOME and another room where Terra and I sleep. That's it! But it's fantastic.There's no running water actually in our place so we fill up Jerry cans for drinking water and cleaning. Then (don't worry Mom) we use Water Guard to purify the drinking water. It's just like camping without the tent, basically. Which rocks for me because I'm that kinda girl. We brush our teeth in a cup, shower with cold water and listen to the pitter patter of little cockroach feet as we're in the squatty potty. For me, life is good :0) Except for the fact that we still don't have power. Now there's none at all so we can't charge the phone, cameras or my iPod. Sad day with no music, because unfortunately for Terra that means I have to create my own music....mwahahahaha. Stay tuned for "Volunteer" The Musical featuring classics like There's A Rock in my Shoe, The Corruption Blues, and Just Blame The Equator. Coming soon to a blog near you...



We've been pretty busy lately because yesterday was the first day of school! Woo hooooo!!!! It's been so fantastic to see some of the kids again, and I know that more of them will continue to appear as the week goes on. See, the deal at the orphanage now is that for holidays the kids go to stay with their guardians. Possibly an aunt or grandparent or something. That way their connection with their home village is preserved, which is a pretty big deal in Uganda. There's only one child who has absolutely no one to take him, so he went with the matron for Christmas. He had such a good time, it just makes me so happy to see him like that. The generator just died in the middle of this, but luckily I had saved it. There's a long line of impatient Ugandans waiting for the internet so I'm feeling the pressure to wrap up. Let's just say, in summary: The kids are back, Iganga is basically a bunch of dust with a few buildings, things are very busy, and we're heading to Rwanda in two weeks. Yaaaaaaay! I have some more feelings about some reason political problems we've been having with the LC1 (head of the village of Bukeye) but I'll save that for next time. Too much pressure! In short, the dude thinks he's the king of everything and keeps saying how he has the power to shut us down even if it isn't legal the way he does it unless we find a way for him to benefit financially from the project. Nice guy, I really like him.

Okay! The end for now! I hope everything's great at home and I also hope it's not too long before I can communicate again. Power power power *sigh*. But things are good! Hip hip hooray!

Powerless

So this will be a quick one because we're on our way to Kampala at the moment. So yeah, we STILL don't have power. We've had a few hours here and there, but we've never had a whole day of power. Apparently it's even worse because the power company is "fixing" something so it could be anywhere from 15 to 90 days. Quite the time span, eh? So pretty much the entire time I'm here. Nice. I'm getting comfortable with candles again, though.

Right now we've just been doing a lot of prep because the kids come back on February 4th for the school term. We (by we I mean Terra and I came along) bought books, beans and paint. Starting on Monday I'll be painting some murals to make the place a little happier. Woo hoo!

So as for the Italian construction company...they are crazy. They truly do wish to donate a lot of money to the orphanage, and we went to a party of theirs the other night to "schmooze" with them. Oh...Italians. There were loud speakers, pounding music, and the most AMAZING food I've ever had. In Uganda it felt quite strange. They're having another party and they were like, "Oh, don't worry, we'll send a private car for you." Pardon? And the dude has a helicopter to fly between his homes in Rome and Greece. So altogether quite the hook-up for us because they're just throwing money around. So I guess we have to eat nummy food with Italians in the jungle *sigh*. Oh well...it's for the children.

Anyways, the battery is dying on the laptop so I should go. I've only injured myself twice so far and had one unfortunate experience with the local food. I definitely feel like I'm back now. Okay! Take care, and hopefully we'll have some more power so I can write a bit more!

I'm totally in Uganda

Yes! I'm alive! I'm in Iganga now but I have not been able to email as the power has been out since I got here. There is this one place with a generator that we are finally using. It is SUPER slow, but at least I can have some contact. I have not been able to check my messages yet, though. Sorry!

Okay, these first few days have been quite busy. Terra met me in Kampala and the next morning while she was out at the ShopRite she met a street boy named Waiswa. Usually there is no point with street boys and you feel bad but they are so unwilling to be helped. This one seemed different though, and he really wanted to go to school. So Terra decided for the first time to bring this guy with us and see if we could help him. He came with us to Iganga and we had some of the teachers interrogate him to find out what his story was. He was such a helpful and polite boy, but when it came to giving us the details about his life, he would not provide and he refused to go to the police with us so we could get proper documentation. He said they would beat him, but he still seemed like he might be not telling us something. In the end we took him back to Kampala and we said he could think about telling us more and we'd go see him on Saturday again. So we hope things can still happen with him.

Something SUPER exciting is that it looks like a construction company here is going to pay for all of the beds for the orphanage, desks, chairs, solar lights and food for 5 years!!! I'll keep you posted. We're meeting with the guy again tomorrow.

Finally, a sad thing is about my friend Isaac. He was my guard at Samuel's house and my friend and companion for the whole time I was there. I went with him to meet his family and we became quite close. I just found out that he had a bad boda accident (motorbike) and his face is pretty disfigured. On top of that, his wife has left him and his only child, baby Gift, died. So he is really struggling and it just breaks my heart. I'm trying to find him, but he has slipped a long way down and is hard to trace. I hope to find him.

Okay, I should let Terra use the computer while she still can. But this is mainly to say that I'm here, things are happening, and I'll try to write more when we get power back! Pleeeeease. I miss power. Bye for now!

This is what? Another post.

I've been trying to remember lately how I was feeling before I left for Uganda last time. I do believe that I was terrified but no matter how hard I try, I can't remember. Maybe I've blocked it out. So this time, I thought I'd record a few things before I take off so I know where I stood before I was reimmersed in Ugandaland. Of course, this is all in the spirit of cultural understanding :0)

10 Things I Remember About Uganda:

1) Having dirty feet ALL the time. And most importantly, not caring.

2) Being called "Sir" everywhere I went.

3) Being called fat and learning to accept the fact that it was actually meant as a compliment.

4) Learning that you can point directions out just as well with your lips as you can with your hands.

5) Choosing a restaurant by what type of bathroom facilities there were.

6) Asking for ice and being told to come back later because maybe they could make some for me if the power doesn't go out.

7) "Customer Service" consists of either being completely ignored until such a time they feel like talking or being told that they don't actually sell anything on the menu and being looked at like an alien for even thinking they would.

8) Just eat it, don't ask, it's all you're getting so pretend it tastes like roast beef.

9) We were baptizing people in a lake where crocodiles were just spotted around the corner and we were just laughing about it...what?!

10) Learning to add questions in the middle of what? A sentence.

Uganda in 4 days? Don't mind if I do...

I've been asked the same question a lot when I tell people that I'm going back to Uganda, so I figured that this might be a good way to start this blog journey off. The thing is, people want to know why I'm focusing my work in Africa when there are so many problems right here in Canada with the natives, homelessness and such. I understand why people are asking me this, so I'll try to answer the question the best I can.

I know there's some mystery behind how a prairie girl with a panic disorder ended up going to Uganda in the first place. All I can say is that going to Africa is something that has been in my system and on my mind since I was about 10 years old. I always knew that I didn't want to just travel and go on safari, but I wanted to go there and work and get to know the people so I could in some way become part of Africa myself. It's just always been inside me and I don't know exactly why.

It's not that I don't understand the issues here in Canada, or that I don't care about them. I do. There are people out there who feel that their calling is to work on East Hastings St. in Vancouver, when a lot of people wouldn't consider even driving down there. I understand why they're so passionate about what they're doing because it's the same thing I feel for Africa. I mean, why do some people focus on the natives when other people work with the homeless and others feel something for sex trade workers? It's about humanity, not about countries. Nobody gets first dibs on help, or at least they shouldn't. People see a need and it speaks to them in a way that lights a fire underneath them to make a change. Nobody can change everything themselves, so it's up to people who feel that fire for something to act on it. If we spread out the work to where our hearts lie, we can chip away at the issues the best we can.

I'm not going to Uganda again because celebrities say it's cool to adopt black babies. I'm going because I have seen the effects of the war, AIDS and poverty on the people, and despite all of that I still feel so at home there and like I've finally found where I belong. Some people have always known they wanted to be a teacher or a doctor and no one questioned it. Well, I've always known that I wanted to work for and in Africa. Maybe my work is going to be charitable, but it's still what I want to do. I don't know where exactly all of this is going to head, but I feel more comfortable with this than with anything else I've considered doing with my life.

It's also important to add that I'm not closed to the opportunity of working here in Canada too. And, it's not like I never do anything to help while I'm home in Canada. Of course not! I don't just turn off my wish to help people when I'm home. Again, people are people and it's all about humanity. But Africa's still got my heart too, and now it's time to head back there again.

So there you go. Andria's impassioned speech about Africa. It's okay if you still don't get it, sometimes I confuse myself. But as far as I'm concerned, bring on the cockroaches, sunburns and severe lack of customer service!!!! 4 days, baby...now I just need to see if I can sleep until then.