Wednesday May 9, 2012 Uganda update

Amazing - It would take me a novel to express all that was experienced this day, but I will try to share the day...

We started our first full day in Uganda with a working breakfast at 8:00 am. The architect, who will draw the plans for a proposed medical clinic, met us at the hotel to review the project with Dr. Benitez and Fr. Lawrence. Then, we headed east down bumpy, muddy roads with women carrying bags on their head, motorbike taxis (pikis) weaving in and out of traffic, individual cows and goats tied up on the side of the road, and through chaotic busy small villages. Everything that you would imagine to see on an African road, we saw. Women drying coffee beans on a blanket were next to butcher shops hanging the sides of meat in the open. Mobile phone kiosks are on every corner. "On every corner" is used loosely as there really are only "main road", so there aren't that many street corners.

Most of the day took place between three different places run by the Little Sisters of St. Francis in the Nkokonjero region. The first stop was the Stella Maris primary school, which is an all girls boarding school. The school was off for holiday, but two full classrooms of 7th graders were there studying extra for the end of year exams. One's performance on end of year exams determines if and where one goes to high school. The girls were excited to see us, asked questions, and all smiles.

The next stop was at the hospital. The hospital has a sonogram machine that had been broken since last July. Dr. Benitez with the support of Rotary Club of Arlington bought the replacement part that was need to fix the machine. Talk about appreciative, they were over the top happy to have the replacement part, which was a computer circuit board - an expensive and difficult to find part. Dr. Benitez also brought many medical supplies and spread it all over the conference room table.

Next was Providence House, a home for disabled children and adults. They hosted us for lunch and put on a show, as the children did a song and dance. We had a big lunch of matoke (green plantains), rice, spinach, tilapia, and small piece of beef. The highlight for the kids is that soda was served. Again, all smiles. It was incredible to see how each of the children took care of each other. The House runs a commercial bakery that bakes bread which is sold wholesale to shop keepers in the area and restaurants. They recently opened a retail shop for the locals. It is here that we bought 600 doughnuts to take with us out to the village for the children. Providence House has also recently added a banana plantation and corn fields to its property through the generosity of U.S. donors. One thing here is that most people farm their own plot of land for their own use. The banana plantation is large enough that the harvest every two weeks enough for the whole the house. Before we left, we met a little girl, who had been hiding from us. She had never seen a white man, "mguzu", and was scared. Sister brought her to us, her apprehension was real. I gave her a bracelet that my children had made and hopefully made a new friend in the process.

Our next stop was completely sighting see trip. We drove to the town of Zynga, a small fishing village on Lake Victoria. We saw the ladies selling the dried fish, shop keepers selling flour, beans, and other dry goods, and the men in a boat building dry dock make the local fishing boats. It is a very busy and vibrant town, with people of all ages, out and about. Children running around having fun and the ever present cow.

The evening was spent visiting at the new diocesan Cathedral. The Bishop was out of town, but the Fr. Richard gave us a tour and ended up hosting us for a dinner of potatoes, cabbage, pork ribs, and the best sweetest pineapple in the world.

Tomorrow, we shop for some supplies, including soccer balls, before heading out to Fr. Lawrence's home village of Kayenje. I am not sure when I will be able to send out another update, but as soon as I can I will.

Until then..