First Day In Uganda

Today was awesome! I landed in Entebbe, Uganda at about 7:45 am, 11:45 pm your time. I got my luggage, got through customs and met Ivan and Edith, two Empower-A-Child volunteers who are from Uganda. They drove me from Entebbe to Uganda, which takes about an hour. Edith explained some local food and customs to me. When I got here, everyone was getting ready to go out to the site, so I literally dropped my bags on a bed, put on some much needed deodorant and loaded up into the vans. The first site we went to today was Katawalma children’s hospital, which is really not a hospital at all. It’s actually a rehab hospital for children who have had surgeries and need therapy. I got to see how they make the wheelchairs, walkers, special shoes, crutches, and leg braces. It was right up my alley, and really interesting to see how assistive devices differ from our country to this one. Unfortunately, today was a national holiday called Martyrs Day, so none of the therapists were there. I can’t wait to see some therapy. After a tour, we played games, sang songs, and colored with the kids. It was a lot of fun. I also got to talk with a Ugandan guy from our group named Felix. He is going to school to be a rehabilitationist, which from his description sounds a lot like occupational therapy. We talked about his case load and the kids he sees out in the field. He said I can probably go out with him some to do some therapy. I am super excited about that.

After that we went home and had lunch. Cheese and tomato sandwiches, it sounds weird, I know, but it was actually really good. After lunch we headed to Good Choices school. The holiday meant no school for the kids, so we played with them and helped them clean up their school. I ended up picking up trash out of the mud for about an hour and taking trash cans back and forth from the yard to the cemetery in the back where they burn trash. We also brushed dirt and mud off of all the sidewalks and floors with some of the worst brooms I’ve ever seen. Needless to say, I was really dirty when we finished.

After that, we went to a Muslim school to play a basketball game against the high school’s basketball team. The school doesn’t know that the organization is a Christian one, and the organization uses games and other similar activities to get inside the school and build connections to help spread the gospel. It was awesome. Unfortunately, I was so tired that I was literally falling asleep standing up, so some of the staff made me go take short nap in the van.

When we got back, I had my orientation and unpacked my stuff. Dinner was chapatti which is like a buttery tortilla. They like to put rice, meat, cheese, tomatoes, guacamole, peppers on it, similar to our fajitas, only less spicy.

The running water isn’t working tonight, which means that I took a shower out of a bucket. It was very Africa, but at that point, I was so dirty, I didn’t care. It’s currently 11 pm here and we are getting up early to go to the babies home. I am really excited about this site. But I am heading to bed because I am in desperate need of some sleep!

Loving Uganda,
Jenna

P.S. Today I found that I am going on safari from June 26th to June 28th. This means that I’ll be on an African safari on my birthday! It doesn’t get much cooler than that.

P.P.S. Laura, tell your brother thanks for the tip about the router. Everyone was so excited about it and its working great!