Tuesday – Thursday November 18th to 20th

We’re struck by the beauty of the country again.
Visited the Faith Primary school near Bushenyi. David, a teacher, built a school on his own land for the underprivledged.

David, the school founder, shows a gourd hollowed out that is used as a bowl or drinkng vessel. School makes crafts for sale.

This is a primary boarding school – much of the work on the building was done by volunteers, parents and guardians. The children greeted us with song (Marching in the Light of God). We were really impressed with the dedication of the parents, guardians and teachers to the school and the children. So much work is being done with little or no compensation. The teachers continue to teach despite lack of funds to pay them. The children here, as with all the places we visited, were so excited to see us and very eager to please.
The children are really surprised to hear us whistling through our fingers and try to reproduce the sound. Much laughter and interaction with the children. They continued to sing through lunch. We enjoyed the traditional dances.

They all have a complex story and usually feature animals as symbols for human activities, longings, etc. We gave them the donated backpacks and presented scarves for the female teachers and solar calculators for the male teachers.

Rain water is collected to supply the school – they are in a relatively dry area and are in need of a well (among many other things). Interestingly enough, they didn’t really ask for much. They were simply happy we came (first American visitors ever) and for the supplies and clothing sent previously by Team Uganda and Call to Care. As mentioned before, this school was somewhat different in that the parents are deeply involved; constructing facilities, donating money for projects etc.

Children Marching in the Light of God

Farmland and trees for harvesting firewood on the site. There is plenty of land for expansion and the site is beautiful, albeit 15 km down one of the worst roads we’ve been on in Uganda.

From the school, we headed to Lake Mburo – a National Park for a day of R&R. We are staying at the Mihingo Lodge just on the outskirts of the park. Built by a German and run by a young British couple. It is wonderful to be able to relax for a while after what seems like constant running since we arrived in Uganda. The Lodge is perched atop a hill, and is a real paradise. The rooms are essentially treehouses with canvas screened tents. Completely open so we can hear all the sounds of the jungle. Highly recommended by the group if you’re ever in south central Uganda and need a place to stay about 1 hours drive from the main road! The national park has a lot to offer – zebras, baboons, bush babies (small monkeys which we could see from our room porch), hippos, unique birds (various kingfishers, herons and eagles), warthogs, (sometimes charging) water buffalo, eland (the only ones in Uganda), kob, obiri, leopards (not seen by us) and we even saw a crocodile.

Susan particularly enjoyed the on-site gift shop, going as far as having the manager open it after hours for a little midnight madness. After shopping the shelves clean, Susan was thanked profusely by the proprietor and her picture now hangs over the door – “Our Best Customer.”

Rich and Mike headed out with our driver, Douglas, to go on an ATV adventure in the bush country. They took a wrong turn and ended up in a very wet area where the road became very poorly defined. After backtracking and choosing what was thought to be the road, they came upon an area of standing water and began to drive through it – but were bogged down and sunk in. Spinning wheels digging deeper and deeper into the mud. They were stuck! They began to walk a short while to see if they could find a main road. No luck. Amazingly, there was cell service – Uganda has better cell coverage than Madison. They called Martha back at the lodge and a truck was sent to rescue them. Unfortunately, due to the wrong turn, we told them the wrong location. The guys realized the mistake and Douglas climbed a tree to get a better signal, but by then, the cell minutes had run out (it’s pay as you go in Uganda). Rich was getting a little nervous since Mike told him that warthogs and water buffalo will charge and attack unprovoked and several were around. Mike was only half right – only the water buffalos will charge you for no reason (kind of like AT&T). So they decided to walk and estimated the lodge to be about five miles away. Before setting off, Douglas decided to try to get the van out one more time with Mike and Rich pushing in ankle deep mud. Utilizing rocking techniques developed in the snow of New England, they started to make progress. Back and forth, again and again. Rich and Mike totally covered in the mud being spun up by the tires – they finally got it out. Just then, the rescue truck arrived. Back on the road, they abandoned the ATV trip and went to the lodge for a shower and nap. It was quite the site at the lodge when Mike and Rich arrived – a great chuckle for all of the guests to see the mud puppies.

We stayed at the park on Wednesday and Thursday morning journeyed back to Kampala to change money and then land back at the University in Mukono. We said goodbye to Douglas our driver. He was a great traveling companion and guide and took excellent care of us on our trip. We hope to stay in touch with him, and gave him some small gifts for his two sons and daughter. He is a professional driver, and a great friend. One of the many gifts we received on our trip.

Thursday evening we had dinner with Sam Opol and his family. His wife Margaret is suffering from sciatica. His young sons greeted us by jumping on us and horsing around – very rare experience from us as most children are apprehensive around us. Martha gave his sons and his daughter some presents she brought and they really lit up. The house was out of power, so we dined by lantern light. It was a great evening of sharing and fellowship, and we’re happy that our last dinner in Uganda was spent this way. Friday we’re visiting CHAIN again, then packing and off to the airport for an 11 pm flight.