Christmas in Uganda

Merry Christmas! I might be a little late on wishing that, but I truly hope everyone did have a good Christmas as mine was rather remarkable. For four days over Christmas I had the opportunity to travel to Uganda with the Madam and some of the Hope family to visit a girl and some families that the Madam has been working with. There is no limit to the scope of her vision and passion, and it was pretty incredible to get to see some of that vision and passion in action.

Background on Hope's work in Uganda is pretty simple.  A North American donor contacted the Madam and said he wanted to help children in Uganda(but not Kenya?) and would she go and find a child there that he could help. Over the course of several trips, she did find a girl who is disabled and through her this man sponsored the girl to go to a special needs school where she could grow and learn to smile. In conjunction with this, they sponsored children from ten families in a local village to go to school as well as planted orange trees as a fledgling micro-enterprise project. Once the trees are mature and producing, they will provide income generation for the family. Small, pretty simple, but good. Apparently the first time they went, it was hard for the families to see how a Kenyan could be helping them, but as Madam says, even when we do not have so much here, there is always something to give. While this was largely started with one donor, he is unable to continue, but the ministry there should still be able to continue and be an active part of the Hope family. He might have had the funds, but Madam has taken over the vision and as we all say here, 'God is faithful'.

As for me going, I feel pretty blessed. It almost didn't happen, for while I had been invited to come back in November, some transportation fall through at the last minute almost meant no room. As it was, there was only one spare seat between myself and the other volunteer, but as she had already been twice with the Madam, the seat fell to me. As it was, it  meant I spent the ten hour drive perched on the narrow middle front seat with no foot room between the driver and another man. Not the most comfortable, but so worth the discomfort. I was the last minute add-on, for the party was already pretty big with seventeen of us going involving small children(Madam's three musketeers and the baby of the board member), school children(three from Hope and the sister to the baby), a board member and his wife, the Pastor, Madam, myself, a photographer friend, the musketeers nanny, and two drivers as the transportation fall through meant taking two cars. It was quite the traveling caravan.

Our journey began around 10pm Wednesday and soon met with mishap as the car I was in ran out of gas on the way to Naivasha. The nearby town had none, so we tried anyways, but ended up waiting an hour and a half for the other car to go to Naivasha and bring some fuel back for us. So after midnight we were on our way again, and while we may have been driving at night, there was little hope for sleep as the roads to the boarder are quite poor and especially for me in my seat, I was a little worried of being launched through the window if I quit paying attention... We did have to swerve to avoid two crossing zebras at one point, but otherwise, made it to the border without further mishap. At the border, they were reluctant to let us pass(I think hoping we would give them a little something for Christmas, which we do not do...i.e. a bribe), but we made it through eventually. Then, in Uganda, the roads were much better and I was able to sleep some. We arrived in our destination of Iganga around three, bargained our way into a discount at the hotel, and all took a much needed rest. Thursday was a catch-up afternoon from travelling.

Friday was busy. Except for the transportation issues, the plan had been to arrive a day or two earlier, so we were packing everything in as best we could. At times this made things feel quite rushed, but I will hold that God is faithful and everything worked out all right in the end, and even better than might have been expected. Friday morning we went to the school to visit the girl, who I ended up spending a lot of time waiting with(we all spent a lot of time waiting; it goes with life here, and I am even used to it although I do like to make bets on how many minutes or hours a wait might be). Apparently when they first met the girl, our Ugandan sister, she did not smile, but now she has a beautiful smile and has even learned some English at the school so we were able to communicate some, and with lots of smiles. I am okay being the funny mzungu. Then, after a detour with our community contacts in search of a market that was not open, we headed to the village and got to see the growth of the trees of the ten families. We barely had time at any of the families, but it was alright as the other part of our mission was to invite them to a Christmas celebration the next day. The trees were looking good, and it was a whirlwind tour of what I imagine is a typical Ugandan village. The one community contact, a man whose family was also part of the orange project, enjoyed pointing out houses of his relative and local dignitaries. I liked him a lot. If you are working in a community, you need somebody in the community you can trust, and this was the man...

Saturday was Christmas, and our morning was busy with preparations for the celebration. I spent most of the morning waiting with our Ugandan sister, but that was good as in the busyness, she might have had to wait alone without me.  The plan was to gather with the families in the community and to have time of fellowship, a brief sharing of food(nothing too special but something simple and nice), a giving of gifts, and then to wrap up. As it was, we started later then we had planned, and by the time we were going, it was pouring in a true tropical downpour kind of way(Uganda, unlike Kinangop, was quite hot and quite tropical). I was worried we would get stuck, and not on the way too the celebration, but when leaving, our car did get stuck, but we were able to push it free of the mud. It was still raining when we arrived, and everyone crammed into the spare building of our community contact and celebration host. We were pretty tight, but everyone did fit, and we proceeded to have a brief time of fellowship, with singing and a message and a reiteration of the ties between this community and that of Hope. Truly, as the Church, we are all one, and that was the gist of the message, that God is love, and that we are to love one another, to love one's neighbors(in the case of Kenya and Uganda this could be taken quite literally). It was good, simple, and real.

The time of gift giving was good too. The families truly were grateful. The gifts were simple, some clothes and shoes for the students as well as pens, a toy or two, some basic food items, yet we know here at Hope and even moreso in the village, things can go a long ways. The woman, mothers and grandmothers, were truly grateful, and danced in celebration with our Madam. It truly was a time of fellowship, and was humbling to be part of. I think it passed very much in the true spirit of Christmas, and I don't wonder that each Christmas I shall be reminded of packing into that tiny room in the pouring rain and celebrating Christmas with my family from Kenya and our family in Uganda and being humbled to be a part of such a beautiful and global gathering and family.

Then, that afternoon we had business to attend to as our Ugandan sister had no place to be over the school holiday, and part of our trip was to figure out where she could stay until school started again. For myself and most of the rest this just meant following our leaders as they sought a place. Here again our community contact proved most valuable, mentioning a local Catholic children's home, which led to conversation with the Sisters that led to an agreement that the girl would be better served not at the school where she was(where while she had grown, there were things lacking that were to be desired) but at one of their sister schools where they even taught in the girls native tongue(like Kenya, Uganda has a lot of languages). This was better than we could have hoped, and again 'God is faithful', and so that very day we were able to leave her in their good care, knowing she would be well taken care of and provided for.

Sunday, meanwhile, we were on our way again, back to Kenya(although we did not leave until afternoon with one thing an another). All the Kenyans I was with wanted to stop in Uganda and do shopping before we left, apparently things are cheaper there. I was reminded of Canadians coming down to the States to shop... There are many differences perhaps with life here, but probably I am more struck how very in common so much of life is... The simple things, the funny things, the daily life things... I love just living in the shared humanity... imperfect, yet full of room for sharing together and grace...

We must have made quite a site in Uganda, all seventeen of us piling out of vehicles, and I am sure my whiteness did draw more attention to us than even our numbers. In some of our waiting in town, I had some pretty funny moments. In one, a boy stopped and seeing me(sitting in the car with the others waiting) asked for money or my watch. I said no, and seeing as he spoke good English asked if he was in school, and hearing that he was, told him to study hard so he could get a job and buy his own watch... Then, telling him to have a good Christmas, I hoped he would leave as I felt pretty awkward with all my Kenyan fellow travelers to have this boy staring at me. However, he kept staring, and after a while I decided I would have to do more to get rid of him. I asked if he thought I was an animal that he could just stare at me. To which he replied, yes. I said, no, I am a human being, go away... He went, but my fellow passengers found this hilarious, and I was happy enough to provide them with the entertainment.

Our trip home was quite an adventure too, through two major downpours and lightning storms. One could barely see, but our driver made a living through driving so kept on undeterred. Personally, I was praying we would not die a good part of the trip... Also, once it is dark, it is hard to see the speed bumps in the road, so we hit quite a few at full speed which always made for an unexpected start. On the way, we pass through Kisumu, and I got to see quite a bit of the town as we got lost looking for the major supermarket. It is on the shores of Lake Victoria, Africas largest fresh water lake, and I have been told, a source of the Nile. As one of my traveling companions told me, Kisumu is also the homeplace of my president. Obama's grandmother still lives there... We got back to Hope around 1am...

It truly was an amazing experience and Christmas. I feel so fortunate and blessed to have been a part of it. I may have felt out of place at times, and often did not understand the flood of Kiswahili that was spoken around me, but I felt a part of what was going on by the grace of my Hope family which has welcomed me from the beginning and continues to be patient with me. Now, once more, I am back at Hope, and I am looking forward to this last week of break before school resumes again.

Long and overdue, but this month has been busy...

So looking at my blog I realize it has been almost a month since I last wrote... which means I am left with a lot to write about and not knowing what all to include... so bear with me... First, a quick disclaimer, the large gap has mostly been due to a lack of internet, not blogging negligence; my internet went down and then I was travelling on vacation... so here goes...

School ended the last week of November, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the holidays, both here at Hope and the two weeks I had between a personal vacation with friends and the MCC East Africa retreat. Especially the first week of holidays here at Hope was fun. With no classes, there was a lot of opportunity to just be around with the kids, and I felt like I crossed over some line of belonging, if only in my own head. When they worked, I worked with them... and provided a certain amount of entertainment in doing so... When they watched tv, I watched tv... and it was good.

I was almost sorry to have to go when the time came for my vacation... Almost might be an overstretch. I was quite looking forward to my vacation to the Kenyan coast with some friends who work with MCC Uganda, including my SALT orientation roommate and a fellow Peace Studies friend from Whitworth. I did not mind that my ride out from Hope was two hours late though as it allowed me plenty of time to tell the kids goodbye, and more importantly, that I was coming back in two weeks. There is enough ambiguity in life here at Hope that I did not feel the need to add to it by mysteriously disappearing.

That was Friday, December 3, and I got to Nairobi before my friends, bought us bus tickets to Mombassa which was the first leg of our journey, and then met them when their bus arrived from Kampala. We stayed Friday night in Nairobi, and then Saturday spent the day in Nairobi, including getting lunch at a coffee shop where I suffered my first Kenyan misadventure(and hopefully last). The one moment I was not hyper vigilant about my purse, having put it between my feet instead of on my lap, it was stolen... live, learn, and life is too short for regrets... still, not the funnest incident as my purse had some money, my bank card, my camera and what I was most sad to lose, my journal I had started halfway through November... at least the likelihood of a pickpocket reading fifty pages of rather boring reflections and existential angst written in cursive is slim to none, but still... I rather enjoy reading those things and am sorry to have lost those weeks of my time here. Thankfully, I was able to cancel my bank card immediately, and sorted out how to still get money(thanks to one of my travelling companions and my dad...) and so the vacation was not thwarted. I personally decided I was not going to let it ruin my time... and it didn't... I have had my close calls back in the states even, so robbery is not just a Kenya or Nairobi thing, but wherever or whenever it happens, it is unfortunate.

And so Saturday night, we took our bus to Mombassa. Our tickets had been in my purse too, but the company we used had computer records of my buying the tickets, and our names, so we were able to retrieve them. Also, I was able to get my same cellphone number back as the phone company makes you register for SIM cards, so once I could prove my identity, they were willing to restore my number. I was overall very impressed by the infrastructure and service I met with after my misadventure, as well as the sympathy that I received whenever people learned what had happened.

So the downside to taking the overnight bus to Mombassa is you arrive in Mombassa at 5:30 in the morning... which is really early to be in a new place. Thankfully, we found a place to have breakfast(and even store our luggage) before exploring the old town and visiting a 14th century Portugese fort. Fort Jesus had been built by the Portugese, conquered by the Arabs and then taken over by the British. We had a great guide, and I enjoyed our tour. I had expected the fort to be very much like the castle forts I had visited in Ghana, and while serving some of the same purposes, there was a different feel. Old Town meanwhile was a great walk. The coast of Kenya has a very different feel than inland and a very different culture. It is predominantly Swahili(not to be completely confused with the language of Kiswahili, the Swahili are also one of the people groups in Kenya). The details are escaping me, but they are pretty heavily influenced by Arab culture as well as they were the main traders centuries ago. For instance, the next day we visited the Gedi ruins a few hours north up the coast which were the ruins of a deserted 13th century Swahili city. What is left of the city is beautiful and included artifacts from as far away as China. Little is known about it except that it appears to have been deserted, for whatever reason, voluntarily and not violently.

I thoroughly enjoyed our time in Mombassa even if it was short as we headed that afternoon north to Malindi(where the ruins were) and stayed at this very funky eco camp... It was lovely, a little random, but we were the only guests so very relaxing... Monday we went to the ruins... and Tuesday we headed to our main destination for the trip which was Lamu Archipeligo on the northern coast of Kenya. It is a Unesco Heritage site, and so a very well preserved Swahili town. Also, no cars are allowed on the islands so the primary means of transportation are donkeys and dhows, the local sailing boats.  On Lamu we rented this random house which was quite reasonable and again away from the major hub or tourists although Lamu is definitely a tourist destination. It was really very nice, included breakfast and house help who we rather enjoyed as individuals... I am sure they thought we were quite mad and I do not think we were there average guests passing through.

Some highlights from Lamu:
-how insanely beautiful the island was
-getting to explore the town which was old, with narrow streets, lots of donkeys and despite being a tourist destination is also very much a place where people live
-the fact that Lamu might be the one place in Kenya where it is safe to walk around after dark
- eating lots of good seafood, especially seafood curries and drinking lots of really good fresh juice
- going to the beach and getting to swim in the Indian Ocean which is warm
- renting a Dhow boat one day and sailing on the Indian Ocean and then going snorkeling over a coral reef(which is rather like being inside the aquarium at the zoo) and eating a delicious meal that was cooked on our boat... also, if you ever go snorkeling, remember to put sunscreen on the back of your legs or it hurts the sit down the next day...
- exploring all the little shops in town
- simply being on vacation with the good company of friends...

And so the days passed, bringing us to Sunday where we had decided to skip the sixteen or so hours on very bumpy and hot buses it had taken us to get to Lamu and fly back back to Nairobi for our retreat which started the next day. The retreat was lovely too, more good company and good food. All the MCC workers from Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Sudan were there, and it was cool to learn more about what MCC is doing in the region, and I still very much like their philosophy of partnership and how while certainly not perfect, how it works on the ground. One of my favorite things about the retreat was an outing one afternoon to Mt. Longonot in the Rift Valley. It is about a 45 minute hike up the mountain and then you can hike around the rim of a crater. It was pretty cool and had great views of the Rift Valley.

As this is much too long already(what happens when you try and cover a month in a blog...) I am going to try and wrap up. The retreat was good though, very refreshing and a good reminder of the greater community I am part of outside of Hope CC. Then Friday I was welcomed home here at Hope, and reminded of how blessed I am to be a part of this community here. I really am excited for the coming months, to see what they hold, and believe the relationships I have already begun are only going to get sweeter with time. And I promise to blog again before a month is up, and so to keep these shorter in the future.

And in light of the season, a very Happy Christmas! I would encourage everyone to truly have it be a season of giving, and to consider giving beyond yourself... to consider giving to your greater community and around the world... truly, from this side of the world, a little can truly go a long way, and programs like child sponsorship or providing a micro-finance enterpise through Heifer International or Kiva, really does make a difference... Give a gift that has the potential to change a life...