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: