Saturday, August 14, 2010
Friday, August 13, 2010
Uganda!
After a few days of radio silence in Kampala, we find ourselves up north in Gulu, Uganda. At a nearly new hotel with excellent internet access. Who knew?
This morning we travelled 5 hours by minivan through the bush country of Uganda, across the River Nile (spectacular, and a first for me, really), into AcholiLand to the town of Gulu. Along the way we ate G.O.A.S. - goat on a stick - (delicious) and grilled casaba root from roadside vendors, fed bananas to baboons right out of our windows, and had 437 near misses with trucks, motorcycles, bikes, and walkers. Every day's an adventure.
To catch you up, quickly, here's a little rundown of our time since we left Kigali on Tuesday.
After a relaxing morning of coffee, bird watching on the deck, breakfast and one last quick soccer game with the kids in Carter's yard, we said goodbye to Rwanda and headed for the airport. Travel to Kampala and losing an hour to the time zone ate up the rest of the day.
Wednesday, plans got thrown for a little loop. A former president of Uganda died earlier in the week, so Wednesday became a national holiday. He was buried somewhere near the slum we were supposed to visit and work in, so that was out. Everything there was on lockdown. No cars in or out. Turned out there was a national team soccer game in the afternoon so we scored some tickets and got to see Uganda outplay Zambia. A nice treat. And such is Africa. You make a plan. Something throws a wrench in it. You wait a few minutes and sure as sugar, something good comes up.
While we waited for the game, we took a couple hour walk from our hotel through a nearby slum, saw living conditions that are hard to believe, ate jack fruit, and played hackey sack with a ton of kids. Oh yeah, we did that in the rain. That accentuated the difficulty of the living situation. This is the dry season. Much of the year, it rains part of every day, flooding these packed communities. That's rough.
Thursday we split up. I stayed back at hotel as, beginning about 4 am the night before, it became critical that I be near a toilet. After one try with Immodium, I started to hit the Cipro hard. It had me in and out of bed for about 12 hours. Could have been worse. But it wasn't awesome.
Mike headed off to the orphanage where our friends, Andy and Sarah Ribbens' little baby is waiting for paperwork to be completed so they can come pick him up and take him home to Santa Barbara. He was able to deliver a care package and hang out for a few minutes with the cute, little guy. It was good.
Meanwhile, Josh, Garth, and Bryan headed into one of the slums where Sports Outreach guys are living and working. Moses, now 32 yrs old, and one of the SOI staff members moved into this paritcular slum 5 or 6 years ago to better understand how to serve and help the people living there. Along the way he has adopted 9 boys, who were living alone on the streets, ranging in age from about 4 to 14. Crazy to know they were all alone, with stories like Amos', now 18, whose parents died of aids when he was 6, no siblings, no extended family, literally living off trash all by himself for two years. He told the guys regarding those years, "I was very sad." Has there ever been a greater understatement? Others took him in at age 8 until he began to play soccer with Moses 6 years ago. There are hundreds, probably thousands more like him just in this sprawling city of Kampala, but for those 9, life is very different now. Moses and his 9 boys run a small bakery, a feeding program for kids, a kindergarten for 35, and a soccer club much like ours at home, with Under 12, U14, U16, and U18 teams. The U18's could give a US college team a good run. There are probably 200 kids playing on the various teams. It's an entre into the kids lives and a point of hope.
After a celebration dinner with the staff and another team from Ohio, we hit the beds tired. We are now sitting at our hotel waiting for our ride out to the Koro farm, the center of Sports Outreach operations here in the north. We've been told to be ready to see some amazing things. We'll let you know if we do.
I hope to pop some pictures up if we get some time tonight. We have lots more good ones.
This morning we travelled 5 hours by minivan through the bush country of Uganda, across the River Nile (spectacular, and a first for me, really), into AcholiLand to the town of Gulu. Along the way we ate G.O.A.S. - goat on a stick - (delicious) and grilled casaba root from roadside vendors, fed bananas to baboons right out of our windows, and had 437 near misses with trucks, motorcycles, bikes, and walkers. Every day's an adventure.
To catch you up, quickly, here's a little rundown of our time since we left Kigali on Tuesday.
After a relaxing morning of coffee, bird watching on the deck, breakfast and one last quick soccer game with the kids in Carter's yard, we said goodbye to Rwanda and headed for the airport. Travel to Kampala and losing an hour to the time zone ate up the rest of the day.
Wednesday, plans got thrown for a little loop. A former president of Uganda died earlier in the week, so Wednesday became a national holiday. He was buried somewhere near the slum we were supposed to visit and work in, so that was out. Everything there was on lockdown. No cars in or out. Turned out there was a national team soccer game in the afternoon so we scored some tickets and got to see Uganda outplay Zambia. A nice treat. And such is Africa. You make a plan. Something throws a wrench in it. You wait a few minutes and sure as sugar, something good comes up.
While we waited for the game, we took a couple hour walk from our hotel through a nearby slum, saw living conditions that are hard to believe, ate jack fruit, and played hackey sack with a ton of kids. Oh yeah, we did that in the rain. That accentuated the difficulty of the living situation. This is the dry season. Much of the year, it rains part of every day, flooding these packed communities. That's rough.
Thursday we split up. I stayed back at hotel as, beginning about 4 am the night before, it became critical that I be near a toilet. After one try with Immodium, I started to hit the Cipro hard. It had me in and out of bed for about 12 hours. Could have been worse. But it wasn't awesome.
Mike headed off to the orphanage where our friends, Andy and Sarah Ribbens' little baby is waiting for paperwork to be completed so they can come pick him up and take him home to Santa Barbara. He was able to deliver a care package and hang out for a few minutes with the cute, little guy. It was good.
Meanwhile, Josh, Garth, and Bryan headed into one of the slums where Sports Outreach guys are living and working. Moses, now 32 yrs old, and one of the SOI staff members moved into this paritcular slum 5 or 6 years ago to better understand how to serve and help the people living there. Along the way he has adopted 9 boys, who were living alone on the streets, ranging in age from about 4 to 14. Crazy to know they were all alone, with stories like Amos', now 18, whose parents died of aids when he was 6, no siblings, no extended family, literally living off trash all by himself for two years. He told the guys regarding those years, "I was very sad." Has there ever been a greater understatement? Others took him in at age 8 until he began to play soccer with Moses 6 years ago. There are hundreds, probably thousands more like him just in this sprawling city of Kampala, but for those 9, life is very different now. Moses and his 9 boys run a small bakery, a feeding program for kids, a kindergarten for 35, and a soccer club much like ours at home, with Under 12, U14, U16, and U18 teams. The U18's could give a US college team a good run. There are probably 200 kids playing on the various teams. It's an entre into the kids lives and a point of hope.
After a celebration dinner with the staff and another team from Ohio, we hit the beds tired. We are now sitting at our hotel waiting for our ride out to the Koro farm, the center of Sports Outreach operations here in the north. We've been told to be ready to see some amazing things. We'll let you know if we do.
I hope to pop some pictures up if we get some time tonight. We have lots more good ones.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Day In Kigali
Election Day - thankfully calm and orderly.
Soccer with kids - 90 minutes of fun.
Unexpected preschool visit - village kids coming out of the woodwork.
Lunch with an Anglican Priest, who came home to Rwanda in 1994, in the heart of the genocide. Amazing stories.
Belgian genocide memorial.
Hotel Rwanda - The Mille Colline.
Kigali market - color, flavor, and all kinds of stuff
Amazing race home on moto taxis - with nothing but the name of the neighborhood we're staying in. Prizes for the winner. My (Fred's) driver might have overtaken Bryan's in the last 300 yards to seal the victory! Not that I'm bragging.
Yard games - frisbee golf, bocce ball, and more soccer (big guys only).
Drive by the national stadium where the election celebration is in full force.
Fine Indian food for a send off dinner.
Not a bad day at all.
Tomorrow we board the plane for Uganda and the flavor of the trip makes a big change.
Soccer with kids - 90 minutes of fun.
Unexpected preschool visit - village kids coming out of the woodwork.
Lunch with an Anglican Priest, who came home to Rwanda in 1994, in the heart of the genocide. Amazing stories.
Belgian genocide memorial.
Hotel Rwanda - The Mille Colline.
Kigali market - color, flavor, and all kinds of stuff
Amazing race home on moto taxis - with nothing but the name of the neighborhood we're staying in. Prizes for the winner. My (Fred's) driver might have overtaken Bryan's in the last 300 yards to seal the victory! Not that I'm bragging.
Yard games - frisbee golf, bocce ball, and more soccer (big guys only).
Drive by the national stadium where the election celebration is in full force.
Fine Indian food for a send off dinner.
Not a bad day at all.
Tomorrow we board the plane for Uganda and the flavor of the trip makes a big change.
Rainforest Adventure
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| If you look closely, there are 3 guys up there, 200 ft over the canyon. The fact that the bridge was not completed yet didn't put a damper on our use of it. |
Friday, August 6, 2010
Day of contrasts
First light of morning over the African horizon contrasted with the dark night of Rwanda's genocidal past - thus is our first day in Africa. Elation and exhaustion. Joy filled embraces with Carter and Greg greeting at the Airport in Kigali, meeting Emanuel, Mac, Mark, Jean Pierre, etc... contrasted with the horror of pure evil documented in the genocide museum. Seeing the best and worst in humanity in the first day - Wow! We are all too tired to sleep and too exhausted to go all out. So we're heading over to Greg's to watch a bro movie off utorrent. Yep - that's a great first day in Africa.
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| First Light |
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| Glory |
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| Lunch with Carter - Kerry, that's ruffage |
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| Kigali |
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| Genocide Memorial |
Phone number for Wives
For the wives - in case you need to reach us dial (250) 0782536292. Or for the next few days, Carter's number is (250) 0785116198
We Made It - 35 hours of fun but we're feeling good
Here we are in Rwanda. We're off to lunch and other stuff. More later.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
DULLES
Receipt was especially appropriate.
We liked it. Maybe you will.
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