Wednesday, Thursday and Friday

The Road to Kaberamaido

Stopped in Soroti at the market to pick up more school supplies for the village children, water and the bank. Exchanged $2000, which was 35,000,000 Ugandan shillings. We are all walking around with bricks of cash in our possesion. The main road to Kaberemaido goes all the way to Sudan and is not yet paved.

We stopped in a town along the way to drop off Bishop Obaikol’s grandmother. A desperate and naked man was walking down the middle of the street. Douglas (remember our driver?) redirected him.

Rich pointed out how Kaberamaido is kind of like the old west - no electricity, one main street, a string of shops on either side….only thing missing was the tumbleweed. Some of the homes have solar power.

Village #1 – Akatakwi – We were greeted with ladies ululating and welcoming us with flags. This well is also awaiting completion and will be getting it’s pump later this week. The is Bishop and Mama Obaikol’s home village. We saw the site where the first well that was drilled failed. drill broke.
Real performance. Toured the village – huts, church, granary, chicken coop. Huts are unbaked brick covered with mud and grass roofs. Looks like the Indian villages at Plymouth plantation. Very clean and well kept. Many people have cell phones (elders) dichotomy of epochs. They invited Martha to come and stay with them.
Women did a song. Martha spoke again in Kumam. We were presented with special chicken dish and coca cola. Girls performed a song. They did a performance where they mimicked pumping, with an old woman coming out of a hut and limping towards the pump. Mike grabbed an empty container, and pretended to fill it up, walk with it on his head and dump it on Rich. Finally a captive audience for the two goofballs.
Local politician spoke of additional needs – health center, 3 more wells and a school. Chris reiterated that we were not rich, rather Martha is an ambassador from the Rotary and from the US.


Village #2 – Allipa - well a pumpin. Palm trees and flowers around the roadway. Walked to the stale water source (swamp) where they used to get their water (picture included below) . Kids all in blue. School nearby – About 250 kids showed up.
Rich and Mike had planed to teach the kids the Macarena, but fortunately for Africa we did not have the opportunity.

Old source of the water for the village - praise God for the new well!

(Can you find, Martha, Rich and Susan in this picture? Where's Waldo meets Uganda...)

Girls sang (asked for school supplies). Toto Mama Obaikol dressed them down for spending all their time at the trading center (source of alcohol). Told them not to do what their fathers do, but go to school and work hard.
They gave us a rooster whch is significant.
We met with the local council for the children's center, called the KAATCO Board in Jane's fronth yard. Meetigns are extremely formal and egendas are written and followed to the letter. From there we drove to the site of the new childrens center. It was emotional for Martha and all of us to see for the first time to see where it would be built. Sue Morris- a rock is forthcoming!
We then visited Calvin and Josephine (2 St. Andrews sponsored children) at their school – they are doing well and appreciated their gifts. Their boarding school has 1000 students and 18 teachers. Dorms are in classrooms.
Messages about sex are painted on buildings – "Virginity is healthy", "Abstain and be healthy"
That night we stayed at guest house Ararak in Kaberemaido- no electricity – Martha and Susan slept in an authentic hut with some solar light and 1 mosquito net and a few large uninvited guests of the arachnid family. Grass roof. Missy would not have been happy with the uninvited guests

Al Jazeera is the source of news - we got a good dose of the alternative view.

Thursday

Visited the girls’ school where Chris is chaplin and teaches. There are 90 girls, sleeping 3 to a twin mattress. The girls were very shy at first, but eventually they opened up . The girls asked questions – what is above the clouds and what is a hurricane and will we help them (sponsorship).

We treked to St Paul’s Church to donate choir robes and cash donated by the St. Andrews Music Committee to replace instruments that burned in a fire. Given chicken to eat on the spot. Church has been under renovation for 10 years - no windows, they put the doors on for our visit.

At long last we visited the final well site in Chris' home village – Alwa, well is named Owiris after a tree that was previously in its spot. Susan was carried from the car to the place of honor they set up for the team. We got up to dance to delay the program as the bumpy ride made Martha require a “freshening” stop. They constructed a makeshift lean –to for us to sit under. “old” women (over 45) sang, children sang, there was a band with harps and drums, flags waving. A real celebration. We were given a hen and a rooster and a bag of oranges. The gift of a rooster is a real honor.

Near the village, we visited the first Call to Care project – orange trees planted in a grove – they will bear fruit next year. Money from the oranges will go into the community’s hands to help educate children.

Took a walk to Chris’s home and family – given a large bunch of bananas and an avocado. Great to see his father and the hut where he grew up.

Stayed at the Plain Country Home guest house. Ate one of the two chickens given to us by Alwa village. They charged is $3 to prepare the food we brought. One hen we received from Alwa laid an egg in transit.

Met one of Chris’ uncles whose child Rogers has been helped out by parishioners at St. Andrews.

Friday
Mama Martha’s Mad Market Mayhem or how to spend 1.8 M shillings 10,000 at a time.

Left the guesthouse littered with dead cockroaches from Mike’s previous night’s killing spree. Susan is providing council for his remorse.

Bank exchange – got another 25 million shillings. Mike was on security detail. Rich and Susan distracted the locals with shadow puppets. Rich hugged a G-TV mascot in the parking lot (Sorry Lexi). Meanwhile Douglas and Chris didn’t know where we were and we got a scolding!

5 hour drive to the market. Market was wild. Martha and Chris were wheeling and dealing like Bob Barker. Rich and Mike were toting and hauling and blending in with spontaneous drum performances. Chris was renamed “Stanbic” after the local bank because he was in charge of the money. Mike tried hitchiking to downtown Kampala. We're not sure why no one picked him up.

Stopped shopping because it started raining.

Get ready to buy everyone – jewelry, instruments, animal carvings, baskets, placemats – so much stuff. Christmas is coming everyone – Ellen you’re going to be happy, in addition to the crafts to sell, Mike bought you a live pig for thanksgiving.
Someone walking around with some kind of insect in a bucket to sell to eat as a snack. Yum Yum.

Dinner at the retired archbishop Nkoyoyo. You name it we ate it (no grasshoppers). Young volunteers from Chain Foundation – 2 Germans and an American student vounteer who on the side sells American pancakes on the streets of Mkono joined us. We wore authentic African outfits purchased from the market. See a sampling at www.mzungos_go_shopping.com.