FIRST DAYS IN UGANDA

As mentioned in the most recent post, our driver Jingo picked us up at the airport. He had a mini van which we proceeded to fill to the rafters with luggage. He was a great driver and took us right to Watoto Church (what was formerly called KPC Central) to meet Jonathan and have our orientation. The first person we saw when we walked in the door of the office was Paul Ocama who was one of our hosts the last time the team came! It was a great reunion… so good to see him again. We then met Jonathan for the first time. He is the Watoto Volunteer Coordinator with whom we have been communicating via email for the past number of months. It was great to finally put a face to the name. He provided us with some information that we would need in the coming days and then sent us on our way with Paul and Jingo. Paul was our host to take us shopping and then to Suubi. The shopping was for the initial groceries that we would need for our apartment. As you may remember from an earlier post, this is the first time that Watoto volunteers were going to live right on Suubi Mountain. Before now, you would live in Kampala and travel back and forth to Suubi each morning and evening. It is nearly an hour on busy roads so we are very, very grateful for this new change. We don’t have that difficult travel and we get to live right here in the village. Some folks have been working very hard to get the apartment ready for us.
Back to the last steps of arrival: We went to the new mall to do some grocery shopping [team: do you remember the Garden City mall where we shopped and got our money exchanged? This new mall (Nakumatt) is very close by… you might remember the construction sight that was just a bit down the road… lots of barriers up and signs on it… that is where the new mall is] After the mall we were on the road to Suubi. This was so exciting for us but I have to tell you that we both fell asleep on the way there! That “gentle rocking rhythm” and 48 hours of travel conspired to have us nodding and sawing a log for part of the trip. Jingo took a lot of less traveled roads… back access to Suubi that we didn’t know existed but as we got closer we recognized some familiar landmarks. You would have to know this was pretty emotional for us. SO good to see the place again. Paul and Jingo took us down to the Production Unit right away where we met face to face with Gerry. What a great fellow. We visited for a few minutes and had a look around the new part to the shop, then we all went up to our apartment to unload luggage and get settled in a bit. It was still before noon at this point. You should see the new mechanics part of the shop… huge and though still in progress, will be a great teaching and working facility.

The apartment is great! Lots of room – a kitchen/dining/living room, 2 bedrooms and a bath. We have a fridge, propane hotplate, running water, toilet, sinks and of course a bed, table and chairs. Oh, and wonder of wonders… Kris made sure we had HOT running water in the shower at the start of the second day! What a cool gizmo. The water and electricity come side by side to the shower head. (I know, sounds electrifying but it is very safe) At the shower head the element there heats the water as it flows past. If you want hot water, you use little pressure and if you want it cooler you turn the water on faster… doesn’t have time to heat up…. ingenious, eh? It is all really very comfortable. There are some itmes missing yet but Donna thought of so many things to make moving in go smoothly so we are managing just fine. They are taking us shopping this weekend for supplies. Besides, they have had us over for meals for the first few suppers so that has helped immensely until we are able to gather up some more groceries. This arrangement of the new living quarters and much of the ease with which we have settled in is thanks in large part to our new friends Gerry and Donna Kimpel and our newly re-acquaintance with Kris Hershberger. Yes, we did get to see Kris whenever we came back to the apartment. When our bags were safely stowed, we went over to the duplex that is shared by Gerry & Donna on one side and Kris on the other, met Donna for the first time and had a chance to be reacquainted with Kris. What a beautiful spot they have! Kris looks great and seemed to be as glad to see us as we were to see him. We’ve had some great chats since… we like that guy more all the time. Gerry, Donna and Kris are an integral part of the vocational program here at Suubi. They are tireless workers with a lot of irons in the fire and are great role models for the Ugandan people with whom they work.

A bit about meals… it has been interesting but going well. This was the first day we prepared all three meals ourselves at the apartment. Meat is very expensive here and so not used a lot…. Cheese is also hard to come by and doesn’t quite taste the same apparently so we won’t see much of it either in the stores or on the table. We do, however, see a lot of eggs. We might be close to vegetarians by the time we get home. Either that or meat will be the first thing we want to eat! LOL Kris was able to get us some great produce at a nearby roadstand… some baby red potatoes, tomatoes, eggs, carrots, and of course fresh, and I mean fresh pineapple, just dripping with juice when it is cut. We’ll get some additional groceries on the weekend and we’ll be off and running. Peanut butter is still a staple which we are quite happy about and Nutella (thanks Alicia for introducing that to my diet! Love it!) is available for purchase here as well!

I can’t believe I nearly forgot to tell you about the view! The 2008 team will remember the teacher’s buildings. They are lovely two storey structures painted off-white with 2 apartments on each floor. There are more of these buildings than there were a year ago May. We live in one of those on the top floor looking out over the valley with the front of the building being parallel to the road to Kampala what I now understand to be facing North (and Gulu). The view out our window in the morning (or even in a storm) is amazing. Just amazing. If you are able to see on my FB page where I commented on Kris Hershberger’s photo of his view in the mornings, maybe you can save the photo and/or print it off for the church/my parents/folks who don’t have FB. Our apartment is literally 3 minutes downhill from where Kris and the Kimbel’s live and the buildings both look in the same direction. We can see the Production Centre from our balcony down, and to the left. As we look out over the hills it looks a little like those in through New Glasgow, if you are familiar with that… except of course for the types of trees and the higher mountains in the distance… but the rolling hillsides dotted with homes and trees looks peaceful to us. We’ll work on getting these posts active first and then see about getting some photos up. Kris is going to help us get set up with a phone this weekend but we aren’t sure about regular internet access yet. For those who are wondering, we haven’t been able to check email yet but working on it. And a note to family… we’ll try to get a more personal note off to you very soon.

I guess that is more than enough for this post… next time more about what we are doing since we have been here and you’ll hear from Chad too.