I am in
Uganda. I am IN Uganda. I am IN UGANDA. I AM IN UGANDA!!! I can’t believe I am finally here and settled
in to my new home.
Travels to Uganda:
Man that
thirteen hour flight from Seattle to Dubai was painful! I kept getting up to go to the washroom,
literally just to stretch my arms and legs.
Once I arrived in Dubai, I had a twelve hour layover camping out in the
airport. You wouldn’t have guessed it
was the middle of the night at that airport with all of its hustle and bustle. I still didn’t believe that I would be in
Uganda until my gate number was finally posted…. Then I started to panic. Where in the world was I going?! I got on the flight and took some melatonin
so that I could get a few hours rest before I arrived in Entebbe. Side note: I had been up for over 32 hours
already. I woke up somewhere in the
middle of that five hour flight feeling nauseous and with the chills. There is nothing like feeling homesick when
you actually feel like vomiting and are in transit. To top it all, I was in the middle seat of
the middle aisle, between two guys in nice suits. I think it was a mix of over exhaustion,
airplane food, and nerves that set it off.
I had to keep my eyes shut in order to contain my queasiness. I just kept praying that I could make it off
the airplane, through the airport, and along the 45min drive to Kampala without
getting sick. What a way to enter the
country! The plane landed and praise the
Lord, as soon as I left the plane, I felt a million times better. After I obtained my visa and picked up my
bag, I found a guy standing there with a Watoto sign who would drive me back to
Kampala. He introduced himself as Peter
and sure enough it was the Peter that I have been emailing for the past year for
my Watoto application, which instantly made me feel more comforted. He took me to the guest apartments that we
would be temporally living in before they moved us to our permanent home. After an hour’s sleep, some of the other
students, who were out at church that morning came back to the house and
introduced themselves.
First Few Days:
These first
few days are essentially for rest and for us international students to get
settled in before the program begins. Friday
is the first day of orientation for Watoto 360.
I live with seven other international students and there will be about
forty-five Ugandan students as well in the program. Yesterday, us internationals moved out of our
temporary apartments into our gorgeous home! I tried to attach a video of a tour of our house but it wouldn't load so I will post pictures later. In our neighborhood, there are other compound
homes, a slum, a daycare, and convenient store all connected by a red dirt
road. Our family is made of students
ages 18 to 25 which consist of three Canadian girls including me, four
Americans (three girls and a guy), one Australian guy, and a Ugandan woman
named Esther who will be our house mom. She
is so hospitable and caring and I say house mom but Esther would be maybe 30
tops. I share a room with a really sweet
girl named Hannah from Louisiana… who has met Miss Kay and Jayce from Duck
Dynasty! We have a sweet soft-spoken
cook named Kayven and a groundskeeper named Solomon. These past few days all of us have been
getting to know each other by playing games and sharing our stories. It is so incredible that God chose us
individuals to be here in Africa for very different reasons. I will learn so much from living alongside
these people.
Esther
shared with us a bit about what we will be doing in Watoto 360 and OH MY
GOODNESS, it sounds better than on paper!
A little taste of what we will be doing: one week building, one week
living in the Children’s Village with a family, one week in Gulu, visiting
hospitals, baby homes, people in the slums, and prisons and so much more!
First Impressions:
The
funniest thing we noticed was the literal brand names of regular products. The names make perfectly logical sense such
as drinking chocolate (hot chocolate), head sock (toque), and my personal favorite,
fat spread (butter).
I am slowly
adjusting to living here. Some things I
find harder to adjust to than others like armed guards in front of homes, and
stores or living in minority. Although
there are lots of stares as I walk around my neighborhood, there are also lots
of smiles and waves, and small children walking alongside you to chat with
you. Esther told us that we shouldn’t
feel uncomfortable by the stares because the people just love having our
presence here.
Anyway,
that is a little on my life so far. I
still don’t have my own internet access yet so I won’t have much communication
in the next few days. I will try to blog
at least once a week and post pictures onto facebook regularly. Congrats, you read the whole thing!
Peace and
love
I did read the whole thing! Sound so fascinating. I really miss living in international community and getting to learn so much about other people and cultures. And of course, the different names for things (and hilarious signs) are always enjoyable! Glad you're settling in. (Missed you at small group start-up last night!)
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