Top 10 Biggest Differences between Uganda and Denver

So after being here thought I would give a try at a requested top 10 list of differences between Uganda and Denver.

10. Smells and Sounds. Even in the city, the smells are something, from the smell of trash to the constant and differing smell of fires burning. Sounds from hearing Muslims singing at pre-dawn, to children, to roosters crowing, to different birds -- there are a lot more and different sounds you hear.

9. Shopping/Conveniences. There are many stores, so often to get things requires going to many stores. Fresh vegetables and fruit are everywhere, fantastically good and inexpensive.

8. Sunrise and sunset. Being so close to the equator the length of the day is always, 365 days a year, 12 hours. So the sun always rises and sets at approximately the same time each day.

7. Driving, taxis, bodas. After a month of driving fair to say that roads are bumpier, less rules and you use your horn a lot more. Taxi buses are everywhere and have fixed routes. Bodas or motorcycles will take you wherever you want to go but seem quite dangerous.

6. Water and electricity. Most don't have these in their homes. We are fortunate and have both running water and electricity. The city water fills up large tanks so when the city water is off, a couple days a week, we still have water. There is no hot water, but the fact that we have running water is good and we have learned far more important than electricity. Even though we have electricity we don't have a TV or appliances except a refrigerator.

5. Green and orange. Everything is so green green here and the dirt is the color of rust orange. It is just breathtaking and beautiful.

4. Mzungu. This means "white person" and you hear it everywhere we go. "Hi Mzungu", "Bye Mzungu".

3. Food. When you think about what we eat here and compare, you definitely realize how much of the worlds resources we consume as Americans. Protein is found mostly in beans and eggs. Some meat but they don't eat it very much as it is expensive.

2. Death, Injury, Disease. Everyone here is constantly effected by this, seems so much closer here. It is a part of life, as it seems there is always some new sickness, injury or death each week. Their faith helps them handle these uncertainties.

1. People. Their stories, their faith; they are so friendly, so open. The personal stories they tell are amazing in the struggle, hardship and differences but also in the faith and joy they have. What they deal with and the needs they have make our challenges seems so small. Your heart aches and you want to help but helping is more than money.

 

Family

Today Leigh and I treated ourselves to some time to just "be" and enjoy reflection time, with of course some chocolate cake added in at a nice coffee house.  Here are some thoughts that are on my heart today. 

We had a beautiful start to the day with morning devotions at the base camp.  During the summer season of volunteers, these devotions happen on a daily basis, as in addition to all the important work that CLD does on the ground, they also have a passion for working in people's hearts by introducing them to a new relationship with Christ.  But, fall is a quiet time in the house, so the devotions were left to individuals to pursue on their own as they wished.  But yesterday Miriam, the office manager, felt it was time to bring them back and sent out a message for us to gather at 9:00 this morning as, "the family that prays together stays together." What an awesome thought even before the devotion took place.

So, all who were able gathered this morning and lifted each other up in praise, worship, testimonies and prayer requests.  No matter what your faith or beliefs, I wish that everyone could have such an experience to feel so loved and acknowledge the grace and struggles that exist in life and know that there are people walking your journey in life with you.  It is such a gift.

I still consider myself an observer and internal processor, so it is an adjustment for me to let go and share everything so freely as so many here do.  My emotions also get in the way of me expressing my thoughts as I usually end up in tears, but mostly tears of happiness and awe.  The thought that was in my heart and mind this morning as people were sharing was how blessed I am that in only two short months to feel that I have added a whole new circle of amazing people to my family.  Family is thee most important thing in my life and I have always been one who is content with my immediate family and small circle of trusted friends.  But, I sincerely feel that these people are now also family even though we live worlds apart.  Maybe when you go through such a big transition in life, the bonds you form with those helping and guiding you through this transition are much more intense and developed in a much shorter time frame.  In other words, they are your lifeline for survival and that is part of the role family has always played for me.  

I also was realizing what great opportunities I have had in these last 10+ years of life to work in settings alongside a "family" and not just colleagues.  I had this as a teacher at Arapahoe and here in Uganda I am working beside my new "family" every day.  While it can cause challenges to work like this, I think the positives far outnumber the negatives.   And yes...... I was also worried if Troy and I would survive working alongside each other this year as we have often joked that we could never do this, but happy to report we're still both alive.  We are learning that while we think very differently, at those times when we get annoyed by each other, if we take some space and take a step back, we can usually find the grace inside to revisit the topic and see the value in pieces of each our individual perspectives.  

On that note, think I will end there.  But, once again, just as I had been feeling a bit of sadness this past week missing family and friends as it's my favorite time of year as the holiday season draws nearer, God lifted me up today.  By day's end I felt as if it was one of my best days here and that this experience is one that is beyond my capability to explain how truly amazing, real, challenging, rewarding and a hundred other adjectives I can't even think of, is.  

~Heather

Videos!

Here are two videos of our time in Uganda.

• Driving to where we live, tour of our home and drive to the WCIA school
• Some clips from Chapel at the WCIA school

Jubilee! 50th Anniversary of Uganda's Independence

Today is a big day here in Uganda - it's the Jubilee and they are celebrating 50 years of independence as a nation!  People have been so excited and prayerful about this day and it has finally arrived.  Yesterday the kids had a fun surprise at school and the headmaster decided to take all the kids on the new Costa bus on a drive to downtown Kampala to see all the preparations.  They really enjoyed it, even though it was a packed ride with about 80 kids with only 30 seats.  Today is a public holiday and they have no school, so we decided to be brave and venture down to the Kololo airstrip where all the festivities were to take place.  Looking back I'm not quite sure what we were thinking......We left about 8:30 am and Troy was driving, but we took two locals with us, Bosco, one of our night guards and Miss Ruth, a teacher at WCIA who is always a calm and joyful presence.  After surviving a lot of traffic, around 10 am we finally found a place to park.  The guard in the area was very friendly, but insisted that we needed to "make him happy," which meant that upon our return we would need to pay him an unspecified amount (we would call that a bribe).  So, we were on our way and walked up to the airstrip. 

We were one of masses of people and first walked by an incredibly long line that curved around a block and later realized that was the VIP line.  So, we kept wandering and following the masses of people.  All of a sudden everyone just started walking up a hill where there were guards stationed.  Who knows where the actual other gate entrance was, we just kept following along.  The hill was very steep and people were just pushing against each other and I was worried the kids would get crushed.  We had to hold onto each other to not fall backwards down the hill, and were all packed in as tight as sardines.  All of a sudden we looked up and saw a guard start hitting people with his stick at the top and everyone began to panic and run back down the hill.  I was terrified as we were truly in a mob just being pushed backwards down this hill.  Avery was crying and I was trying to just hold on to her.  Luckily our friend Leigh had a hold of Henry.  After what felt like a tortuous few minutes, but was probably more like seconds, everyone calmed down and just started going back up the hill again.  

Needless to say I was almost ready to throw in the towel at that point!  But, we made it to the top of the hill and the guards just waved us through I'm guessing because we had children and were Mzungus.  So, after collecting our nerves, we regrouped and then Troy realized his money and drivers license were gone from his pocket from the chaos.  He had meant to move it to a safer place, but got caught in the chaos.  But, it was only about $35 and you don't really need a drivers license here, so when we got home, we agreed how blessed we were to just be in one piece.  And also that the car keys were not taken that were in the same pocket!  We continued to walk past the main stage area amongst huge crowds of people.  It was really sunny and hot and the pavillion with seats was packed full and probably had been for hours.  There were several white tents set up, but they were also all full.  The mob of people then all started climbing a grass hill to find a seat and some shade and we quickly decided we didn't want to be involved in that again, so just kept walking to a less crowded area.  At this point we got split up from Bosco.  So, the rest of us found a spot under an emptier white tent, but then were just standing there because there were no screens that were visible to see anything of the celebration that was taking place.  We decided fairly quickly that we had experienced enough Jubilee adventure and decided we'd just leave the chaos.  But, we couldn't leave without talking to Bosco and phones weren't working that well.  So, we spent the next 45 minutes or so trying to communicate with him on how to find us and wondering why we had decided to go on this adventure.  But, we at least had a good excuse to tell vendors when they stopped by to ask us to buy things - we had no money (which I still did have 10,000 shillings = $6, but that's it) because it was stolen!  

As we were trying to figure out how to find Bosco, Leigh found a guy selling little cups of yummy ice cream, so she treated the kids - a much needed lift!  As they were enjoying their ice cream we started to see the President's convoy arriving.  We ended up being in the perfect spot and stood right along the road where he was passing and saw him and his wife waving from their car, only about 6 feet away.  The day was looking up. Soon after we found  Bosco and all agreed it was time to head home.  Two hours of this adventure was enough!  We walked back to our car and Leigh showed her "I don't take any crap!" side and negotiated with the friendly guard who wanted a parking bribe.  We all let out a huge sigh of relief as we climbed in the Super Custom to begin our journey home.  The drive was luckily very calm with little traffic and we made it home without issue.  It was only noon, but it felt like we had already had a full day.  

The rest of our day we plan to just relax and rest from our adventure that was Jubilee!.....And say a prayer of thanks that we all arrived home safely and can at least say we have a story to share and laugh about it now.  

Below are brief writings from the kids about this special day in Uganda and what they've been learning.  Be sure to scroll to the very end where there is a special feature - a video of Avery singing the Uganda National Anthem.  Enjoy!  

50th Anniversary of Uganda

By: Henry Greenwood

         If you don't know, it is the 50th Anniversary of Uganda. They call it Jubilee. Today at school we went to downtown Kampala.  When we went downtown, we saw so many decorations of the Uganda flag. The  colors of the Uganda flag are black, yellow and red.  It also has a crested crane bird in the middle of the flag because that is their national bird.  It was chosen to symbolize that Uganda is moving forward.  There is picture of the flag above.  We also saw the clock tower.  Lastly we saw the air strip at Kololo. The air strip used to be a airport, but now it's a place where they have large celebrations.  Also, that's where two important people were buried and it's the place where the national anthem was first sung.

History Of Uganda

by Avery Greenwood

Uganda is a country which the British controlled until 1962. The British first came and started speaking English, which is now the official language of Uganda. On Monday, October 9, 1962 the British flag lowered and the Uganda flag was raised. Now no longer could the British control Uganda. It was Uganda's first day of independence! The air strip was where they raised the flag and for the first time sang the National Anthem. Milton Obote became the first executive prime minister. Sir Edward Mutesa II was the first president of Uganda.  In 1971, Idi Amin overthrew Obote and he was a very bad man.  In 1979, Yusuf Kironde Lule overthrew Amin and became the next president.  The current president is Yoweri Museveni and he has been in power for 26 years.   That's just the beginning!  

We have learned the Ugandan national anthem and I sing it for you in this video below:

Driving in Uganda

The picture above was not Troy's first drive - that went great!  This was day three of driving on a visit to the farm after a rain in the morning.  Clay roads and rain don't mix well until the sun comes out.  I think on this same morning the students at the farm helped around four others out of the same ditch.

September 30th was my first time to drive in Kampala and here are my few differences about driving:

1. Opposite side. It's all on the other side including the steering wheel, where you sit in the car and the stick shift is done with your left hand. Fortunately the clutch, gas and break are where I am used to them. My biggest struggle is the windshield wipers are where I'm used to the turn signal being.
2. Signs. Well there really aren't any. No street, no stop, no yield, no speed limits, etc... I think there are maybe 3 stop lights in all of Kampala.
3. Rules. Well there don't seem to be many of those either. For example, you appear to be able to pass in the city on either side (left or right).
4. Vehicles. If you were to take a cross-section of 10 vehicles in Kampala, you would see: 5 bodas (motorcycles that look dangerous but are cheap taxis), 3 taxi buses (these hold 14 or more people, you pay and they have a route), 1 work truck, and 1 personal car. 99% of cars are Toyota.
5. Right of way. It in sense is a game of chicken, where the biggest or bravest wins. So in sense it is this order: truck, taxi, car, boda, bikes, pedestrians.
6. Gas. It's expensive and you only get what you need for the day. Don't need to turn your car off, just get $5 to $10 of diesel and you are on your way.
7. Roads. Majority of major ones are paved, but there are either large potholes, speed bumps or both to slow you down. The side roads are a different story and most we would call 4 wheel drive only roads.
8. Horns. These are multi-use and are used a lot.
9. Congestion. There are lots and lots of vehicles, that observe little rules on bumpy roads with no signs on the opposite side of the road.

It has been fine, actually with all that, all though it is a bit nerve racking. And I was able to take my wife out on a date for our anniversary. Priceless.