Day One-ish

Suzy and Patrick


We arrived in Uganda on Sunday night,late. We traveled for about 30 hours and were greeted by our driver Kiganda at the Entebbe airport. The teams first experience with extreme poverty took only minutes to manifest. As we were at a stoplight a small girl holding her baby sister approached the van and stuck her hand in the window asking for food. I handed her my peanut butter crackers and Jason, who was eating a sandwich handed his over, half eaten. The kids eagerly ate on the side of the rode as we drove away into the night. They were so quiet that Shawn missed the whole experience sitting up in the front.

We arrived at the Red Chili Hostel around mid-night. I had booked 3 rooms well in advance. Upon arrival only two rooms were available. It's one of the only times the "team" saw my ugly side. We were so tired and had no where to sleep. Maybe a little like Mary and Joseph, there was no room at the inn! The manager finally figured out a solution. He said that we could sleep in the dorm. Yippee! I had slept if the dorm before! It had 24 beds and I figured that we were going to get the whole place to our self. Wrong! We walk into the dorm only to find that almost all 24 beds were occupied! We couldn't turn on the lights and had to navigate through our bags to find our belongings and work our way to the top bunks without getting tangled in the mosquito net. Throughout the night loud music played, followed by a 5AM call to prayer by a local mosque. Needless to say, it was the night from hell. Although, the prospect of the famous Red Chili Pancakes pulled my out of my rut early in the morning.

Our first real day in Uganda I didn't wait long to introduce the group to the reality of orphans. We visited Nsambya Babies Home (you'll see a post about them in 2008 earlier in this blog). Remember Patrick, my baby? Sadly, he was still there, no one had adopted or fostered him. He was still as wild and crazy as ever. Nsambya hasn't changed a bit. The children still bit, hit and fought each other to get a bit of your attention. As always, there were no diapers, the babies just peed wherever and then if lucky, had their clothing changed. We witness one baby standing in the grass with diarrhea pouring down his leg. Within minutes, the others were walking in it and playing in the same area. The sadness was impenetrable. The groups opinion was such that they never wanted to see that place again.

After Nsambya we ventured to a wonderful orphan school called St. Mary's Kevin. Were were treated with some wonderful music and a tour of a typical school and orphan home.

In the evening we had a reunion or sorts. Although everyone who came were friends of mine, it didn't take long for the group to see why I cared about each of the visitors. Alex Magero (June trip) the missionary I met last spring came and we were able to deliver his school fees to him so that he can attend High School. That night was also that night that Shawn met our son Joseph. When he saw us he literally knocked us over he hugged us so tightly. More to come about Joseph later, but let's just say that Shawn was as smitten with him as I was.

We were so tired that I put an end to the party quickly. We were all so jet-lagged and needed to get to sleep so we'd be ready to go to Gulu the next day.