Posting from Entebbe

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Much apologies for taking all this time to update my blog. I’ve been mildly busy getting into the swing of life here in Entebbe. Life here is quite different to Mbale. Equally great, but quite different. I am currently sitting in the living room with six other people (including a 2 month old baby) watching NBA being played on the Xbox by Luke, the thirteen year old. Actually I’m not watching. Neither is anyone else really. But it’s still being played on the Xbox by Luke.

When I first arrived here I came in and there were bags everywhere. All of these bags were full of clothes for the children living here on Cherish grounds. So the first day we all sorted these clothes (which took a blinking long time) and then, throughout the weeks, and still next week, we gave the clothes out to the kids. This was so much fun. And so funny at times too. We would let the kids try on each of the clothes that they got and then they would go up to the mirror to see how they looked. Well some of the little kids would put on the clothes and then walk straight up to the mirror, standing literally one or two inches away from the mirror, and just look at themselves. Priceless.

Life here is very different for many reasons. First, it’s a different part of the country. Second, I’m living on site at the place where I work, so no commuting. And third, because I am staying with an Mzungu family here. (Which is, itself, really hilarious, and really cool). So basically, I am staying with a family from America. They are seven now. Five mzungus, a son who was adopted from Ethiopia, and a daughter who was just adopted last week!!!!!!!!!! She is two months old and a gorgeous baby. Only six of them live here though. One is back in America. But along with this family, there are also two other Americans who are here to teach two of their sons. This makes for a hilarious mix of people. We have a Brit (that’s me), a guy from Texas (the guy coming to teach), a girl from California (also coming to teach), and a guy from American but who lives in Africa. And that’s only four of us. It’s quite a mix of cultures we have here. I wish there were more Brits though. I’m kinda stranded out here by myself.

Well I’m afraid that’s it for now. School starts tomorrow (meaning my work starts tomorrow) and I’ll probably have some stories to share with you the next time I blog (I wanna say next week but I have a horrible track record with blogging so I’m not gonna say that). See you then.

                                                                                                             

Until next time.

Goodbye Mbale

Hello again Ladies and Gentlemen,

So my time here in Mbale is coming to a close and I must say that it feels strange to know that in less than a week I will be leaving here. This place has come to feel like home for me and it will definitely be weird to leave it. But such is life (a phrase used by my father), before coming here I knew that this was the plan and I knew it would happen. I must say though that it has come quite quicker than expected. I remember the first weeks thinking how far away now seemed. But its almost here. On the 15^th of this month I will leave Mbale and embark on the next leg of my journey; a journey that has taken me here and will now take me to Entebbe, then to Britain, and then back to Los Angeles, the port from which I departed.  I will be very sad to leave this place but I’m not going to lie and say that there isn’t also an excitement for what lays ahead. I feel that there should always be an excitement for the road ahead because we never know what it holds. Cherish Uganda (the organization that I am going to in Entebbe) will be another big adventure and will hold another set of experiences that I will be able to take with me and learn from. But enough about what is yet to come. I’m still here and will be here until Sunday the 15^th.

                Kenya. Kenya was cool. I think I mentioned to you in my last post that I was going to go to Kenya. Well I went… and came back (obviously). Kenya was really cool. It was very much a relaxing trip. We left in the morning, got on an overly crowded taxi van (the type where you literally cannot move during the trip), went to the border, crossed over with no fuss (after getting a visa of course), and then got back on the taxi van (though this time it wasn’t so bad because I was sitting in the front). The whole journey would have taken us about 4 hours, maybe less, in total in a private car. With the taxi van, it took us I think 8+ hours. When we arrived there was another Mzungu there who was also on a gap year doing a similar sort of thing that I’m doing and we hung out for most of the journey. He was working with the people who we were staying with so we all moved around together.  We then stayed in Kenya, in two different places, for two full days and left in the Friday morning (we arrived on Tuesday). Actually I left on the Friday. Nelson and Agnes had to leave early because one of Nelson’s Aunts had passed away (May she rest in peace) and they needed to go for burial. It was a tough time those couple of weeks. There were a couple of deaths and some people were sick. So they left early for that and I came back with one of the people from Kenya. When we were passing through we had some trouble at the border but it all ended up being sorted out and I arrived back at Nelson and Agnes’ house. Then the next day it was New Year’s Eve. The thing was, Nelson and Agnes were still at the village for burial and they arrived back at around 8 pm New Year’s Eve, knackered, as you can imagine. But, in true New Year’s spirit, we stayed up and went to Mbale stadium where we celebrated the New Year by praying and worshiping with many others who packed the stadium. Goodbye 2011, bring on 2012.

                So this doesn’t really fit anywhere into this blog but I decided to put it here (partly because I couldn’t think of anything to put here). So we were doing some gardening today and in the plot where we planted the cassava there is a mole rat eating all the cassava. Blinking mole rat. Well anyway, so we spend a chunk of time today hunting this mole rat (by we I mean John, the gardener, I was just kinda moral support. Though I tried once but to no avail.) Sadly we didn’t catch it. what was interesting to know though is that apparently some people eat them, and apparently they’re delicious… who knew? They say they taste like pork. Today we also chopped down some of the leaves on the banana trees. Which isn’t a funny story until you put in the fact that some of these banana trees had wasps around them so sometimes we would cut the leaf and then quickly run away, come back, cut the another leaf, and run away again. That makes it kinda a funny story.

                So I’m afraid that is it for this blog. Next time I see you I will be in Entebbe working with Cherish Uganda. I’m definitely going to miss this place. It’s been a good time and I am very grateful for the fact that I have been able to live here for these three months. But, as everything has an ending, so does this. Bring on the next adventure.

Until next time