Back from the Eastern Excursion

Hi All,

Whew, it’s been a very long time!! Sorry…we have been disconnected from the digital world for a week and it’s been both blissful and frustrating! So I want to write a bit about our wonderful week…I’ll try to keep it short and sweet, but most likely will fail! J Here goes nothing!!

We left last Sunday for Mbale. We stayed at The Church of Uganda Guest House- quite the interesting experience! It was a very nice little guest house! Very simple and clean- which was very much appreciated!! But at times, you were definitely reminded you were in a religious guest house. For example, all of the linen had Church of Uganda stamped all over it. There were rules posted on the door: including (in bold) Absolutely NO prostitution. Good to know!

On Sunday we were given some free time to explore the city. We followed a Lonely Planet suggestion and found “Tom’s Joint.” It’s this little hole-in-the-wall joint that you wouldn’t find unless you knew where to look. While it was definitely different from the Lonely Planet’s description- it was definitely nice and we had fun chatting over a Bell! Next, we moved on to dinner and enjoyed some delicious pizza at this Indian restaurant! YUMMMY!!!

We were also shocked to experience one of the darker sides of Mbale: street children. When we walked up to the restaurant, we noticed a large crowd of young males. They would try and talk to you or grab at your arm. It was a very different experience and definitely made me think about childrens’ role in Ugandan society. One of our lecturer explained large family sizes by saying that children are a blessing and they are highly valued in society. But unfortunately some of these families aren’t able to care for their children properly and many of them end up on the streets. I think a lot of them are also victims of the HIV AIDS epidemic as they have lost their parents and don’t have a place to go. Lot of food for thought was churned up on that short walk to dinner.

The next morning, we went on site visits. One group visited an organization that worked to help these street children. I got to go and visit TASO (The Aid Support Organization- I think…) which works with people living with HIV AIDS. We got to sit in on a staff meeting and then toured the facilities. It was ARV Monday, so there were tons of people all over the complex waiting to receive their ARVs. I greatly enjoyed this visit and learned a lot about what people are trying to do to curb the spread of HIV AIDS while supporting those already infected.

Next we moved on to Capchorwa. I think this is one of my most favorite places in Uganda! It was absolutely GORGEOUS!!! We stayed at the Crows Nest and had a fantastic view of Sipi Falls!! Unfortunately, I was unable ot go on the hikes that were planned due to my knee. But that just allowed me some extra time to explore the place and I found their tree swing which overlooks the waterfalls and is an incredibly peaceful place to sit and think about the world!!! Then Gayle and I moved on to these huge rocks next to the Crows Nest and sat there watching the town go about its business. So very enjoyable!!

On Tuesday, we had another site visit! This time we split up into 8 groups and my group got to meet an “Enterprising Farmer”. We had an amazing two hour visit with Jeffrey and his three friends. We learned a lot about the challenges facing the community (insecurity due to cattle raiding, land fragmentation, soil infertility, pest and diseases) and how the community was facing them. Very interesting!!!

Next…on to our rural homestays!!! For these, we were randomly put into pairs and I was really lucky to get to spend it with Tacaco (she goes to Claremont McKenna in California and is originally from Chicago)! We all got goats for our homestay gifts and we named our CourTaco (a nifty combination of our names!!!)!! Transporting our goats was quite the production! We did it “Ugandan Style”, which means strapping them onto the top of the van or under our seats. As we drove off from our first drop-off, we noticed this white blur out the window and realized CourTaco had fallen off the top of the van!! Ahh!! She ended up being just fine and spent the rest of the time inside the car, where she proceeded to pee twice! But our family was really happy to receive her and she seemed to fit right in with the rest of the goats!

Our family was absolutely amazing!!!! Our host-dad was Bugiri and our mom’s name was Mary. They have 8 chidlren…the youngest is 8 (Edgar—a super sweetie who was really shy at first but then really warmed up to us), then Barbara (really sweet girl who was also a bit shy but when you got her to smile it was awesome!), and Levy (16 and hilarious! We had a lot of fun together!)!! These three lived at home and the others were either living around town or in Kampala. We had a great time getting to know the family and enjoying their company! They were a riot and we had so many laughs!!!

In Busia, we were charged with a short research paper. I decided to do mine on the challenges that farmers faced while Tacaco did hers on Police and Community Relations. Taata Waffe (our father in Luganda) led us around town and arranged for us to meet the Local Council 3 (district) Chairman and the LC 1 Chairman (village level). We walked all around town and saw so much!! Taata waffe knew almost everybody in town and so we had no problem gaining access to different people and places.

On Friday, Uganda celebrated their Independence Day. So October 9^th, 1962- Uganda received its independence from Britain after being a British protectorate for a long time. Their first president was Milton Obote (who was later deposed by the infamous Idi Amin). We went to a local school’s grounds for the town’s festivals! We watched people march around and had quite the cultural experience! Pretty interesting! Next: we went to a prison for a quick visit! Initially, they told us we could only meet with the guards because we hadn’t gone through the Officer in Charge. So we had a quick chat with the guards and then asked to see around the prison. They agreed and then asked us where we wanted to go: hmmm….how about where the prisoners stayed?!?! Yep…we got to go in!! There are 82 prisoners (4 of whom are women) and 2 debotrs at this district prison. We got to talk to them and asked thme to tell us a bit about the issues they faced. It was amazing the things they raised. For example, one fairly young guy told us that he had been in for 90 days without a court-date. This was bad enough…but then the guard told us that this guy was actually in for stealing a piece of meat. Another man’s family did not know he was there because he couldn’t contact them…thus, they couldn’t assist him with anything. Another man, who was from Kenya (Busia is right on the border of Kenya), went to court but when he got there nobody spoke Swahili so he could not communicate. Instead of getting a translator, they took the prisoner right back to the prison. Man. All these men spoke about issues of overstaying! Pretty intense experience.

Overall…we had an amazing time with our homestay family! That night we had a little photo shoot and they had sooo much fun taking all these ‘snaps’!! On Saturday, we went back to our group. Sunday…back home.

This past week has been crazy. We met so many wonderful new people and learned so many different lessons! I am not writing very eloquently about our time…so I hope these pics can fill in the blanks that I don’t do justice to!

Hope all is well!

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