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| The boys with a ball donated by a U-13 boys player and some Y jerseys |
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| These are the school teachers at Arthur's Red Star school |
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| What you cannot see is the two girls who glued themselves to my legs |
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| He helped to make this doll as an offering to the schools and children in Montgomery |
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| Muzoongoo! I know you do not spell it this way, but that is what children call white visitors who come to help them with projects. They shout it at you while you drive down the road, and they get soooo excited when you wave back. |
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| Chappy's on a house, with a mouse, on a box, in an ant hill?!? |
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| Moses'younger players receive jerseys to play |
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| A poster they made for Anawim |
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| A traditional Ugandan home |
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| At the coffee plantation |
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| Biggest avocados ever |
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| This boy received this jersey last year |
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| For the love of the game, they play anywhere, with anything |
If you want to see exactly where we are now, you can click here:
https://maps.google.co.ug/maps?hl=en&tab=wl or anywhere you can look up Mutuba Ave, Masaka Uganda. Then you can pan out across Lake Victoria and find Entebbe where we flew into, and Kampala where we stayed Friday and Saturday nights. It just might give some people perspective.
When I finally got up, I had to check my experiment. Can I actually wash something in this plastic tub in the bathroom, and will it dry over night? Well, the washing went well, but when I checked on it, it was covered in mosquitoes. Yuck. I grabbed my DEET spray and attacked this poor little tank top, and because it was still nasty wet and probably filled with larvae, I sealed it in a zip lock bag and threw them away.
The varying sizes of ziplock bags have saved me. How can such a simple piece of sealable plastic save my life? Because at night, I take my shoes off and put them in there to assure that no deadly spiders or roaches climb in while I sleep. Why else, because when you do not bring a collapsible cup, and there are no clean cups that you trust anywhere, you fill a baggy to rinse your toothbrush before and after you use it. Why else? Because when you are dashing in and out of the car all day long, baggies hold garbage, sweeties wrappers from orphanages, and left over sugar cane stalks.
Anyway, Nap and I were up earlier than most, but hung out in our rooms until about 8, when Jeff came to get me. We have a knock policy. There are no peep holes so if he knocks three times and says something funny, I answer. We immediately found the lounge that has the only wifi in it, so we took up residency while waiting for Father Michael to get here. While we were waiting, Francis (I mentioned him yesterday with soccer) showed up and together we watched the concert people clean up hundreds of chairs and even more glass bottle tops.
Now because of the food situation, and the lower quality hotel, the three of us have refused to eat or drink anything from here. So, when we drove past the last gas station before you come into the Masaka area, and we did not stop for water bottles, we left ourselves in a pretty big bind. Here it is, 8 AM and we have no food or drinks, since the night before, and that was not water. We were a little cranky and pretty thirsty. I did go exploring the clean up process, and better yet, to take a picture of the biggest Malibu stork that I have ever seen, I noticed that they were repacking the bar up, and that they appeared to have water bottles. Jeff and I ran down and he grabbed waters for all of us and Coke and Mountain Dew for himself and Nap.
Father showed up with Vincent when he was done saying Mass, and we began our day with water. I have never been so excited for a gas station store before. This time we each got two bottles of water, two cokes and two waters for Father, and some local "sweeties". Our goal is to every day try something local to get in the mood for the day. Today it was three little squares of hazel nut chocolate and dried plantains. The plantains are one of Father's favorites. We did have to fill the Land Cruiser up again, so for you to get a sense of how much Father drives for his ministry, and how expensive gas is, we have spent over $250 in 3 days.
Vincent is a young man and a friend of Father's. He is very knowledgable about our mission, and always willing to help. However, he will now be joining the seminary if he can find sponsors to help pay for it. This is huge for him, and a great loss for the daily operating procedures of Anawim Uganda on the ground.
Our first event of the day was a 10 AM meeting with Father's close friend, Father Henry who just so happens to be a cannon lawyer for the diocese. In fact, he does such a great job, and is so trusted here, that is the one of two lawyers who have filed the cases for 2 Ugandan people to be beatified. There is 1 sister and 1 priest from here that are very holy, and are already called saints within homes and churches around Uganda. We were meeting with him to go over Cannon law and diocesan policy on Father owning land and the benefits of forming a Ugandan based association so Father can operate Anawim Ugandan easier in the diocese and the country. He was very wise and helpful. He is lining up two other diocesan meetings for us and our ventures here - the diocese treasurer and the priest who oversees the church's real estate holdings and transactions throughout the diocese.
When we had adjourned, we left Vincent with Father Henry and rode out to the minor and major seminaries for a quick driving tour and our way out to Arthur's school. The seminary is in the midst of several beautification projects in honor of 2013's 100 year anniversary of the first indigenous priests. Two of these priests are from Father Michael's parish/deanery and he is in charge of a great deal of the celebration. It is a great deal of work, but he was honored to be chosen to do it. We will be allowed to go with Father when he says Mass later this week.
We drove through some very crazy pot holes on the way to Arthur's school, and some very remote areas. At one point, we were driving down a hill that had turned muddy because of the early AM rains, and we start to skid sideways, and then we get stuck at a 45 degree angle and then the car dies because the gas has shifted in the tank. The locals, who often come and sit on the side of the hill to watch the mayhem unfold before their eyes were mocking Father and telling him what to do to get out of this huge mess we were in, but after a few minutes, Father had us out and on our way. Crazy. I did take a video of the mess in front of us before we got stuck, but when we got stuck, I packed up my tablet and camera because I really thought we would flip, and I did not want to break my electronics. It was wild for a moment.
Then we saw a huge ant/termite hill, they live in a symbiotic harmony inside. Nap had been asking to see a hill, and even tried to break it with a stick, but it was not moving, so he climbed inside. I got picks of all of them inside, and even Father with the Chappy's banner.
When we finally got to the school we, of course, unloaded everything. And let me explain unloading the car. I have my backpack with my laptop, medical supplies, gifts for the schools and children like candies and pencils. I also keep my tablet out on the road because we are always doing business, brainstorming, discussing the order in which we will do things, etc. So when we stop, I turn it off and pack it. Then I pack up my camera because I use it throughout the drive to either take pictures of things that Father recommends, or I take pics of things that are too far for Nap and Jeff to zoom in on. Then we grab water bottles and garbage and more bags of candy or any other times that could be stolen. At the orphanage, the kids had a blast setting off Father's car alarm, but it was right outside the orphanage barrier, and we could hear it. We could not hear it from Arthur's school, so better safe than sorry. It does make things cumbersome though.
Now there are two schools in Masaka that Father attends to the most in unique ways. Father is very good friends with Arthur and Father is like a father to him because he was orphaned at a young age. I refer to it as Arthur's school, but I should call it Red Star. Then there is the school in Butebrere which is the philanthropic project of Montgomery Catholic and we will go there tomorrow. Arthur felt called to start the school on his own land, and he and his wife have worked very hard, having the buildings and rooms built one by one when they can find funding.
He is the perfect example of why Father does what he does. He took in Arthur at a young age, mentoring him, encouraging him, working along side him, and even though Arthur could do anything, he felt called to sacrifice of himself, and build a school for predominantly orphans. Although there are some who have families, and some who can pay, just as there are mostly Catholics and Christians but also a few Muslim children. He constantly seeks funding and child sponsorship so these children, Christian and Muslim a like have a place to learn their educational basics.
When we got there, Arthur gave us a tour of the school,, classroom by classroom and Jeff, and Nap, and I passed out a sweetie (which is anything from a tootsie roll, to a dum dum, to a gum ball) to each child and also a pencil. After touring every class, Arthur took us on a long trek down hill with his p6 kids. He inherited all of his dads land which he works and cultivates with coffee and fruits and vegetables for the teachers, kids, and to sell to help fund the school. It is 2 acres I think, and like everything else there, it is on the hillside. The children picked eggplant for us, and toured the grounds with us and smiled with Nap and Father under the jack fruit tree.
We headed back to his tiny beautiful house were his wife had set out a platter of chicken and cabbage for us with cold water bottles. Of course Jeff had a bite or two, but Father ate most of it, Nap stuck to cabbage (safe foods) and I ate nothing. I just get nervous about meats. No disrespect meant. Nap and Jeff and I had decided to, on our own, make a donation to Arthur because of the quality of his work and the purpose behind every action he takes. We put no stipulations, only that he use it on the school. Hopefully, after seeing and learning about our trip, and Anawim Uganda, someone will feel called to help the schools through Anawim Uganda and jump on Father's bandwagon. We presented the amount to him and you could see his heart jump. Arthur was very pleased to be receiving the money and it was a beautiful thing to see first hand what small amounts of American money can mean in countries as poor as these.
(Of note, most people bury their deceased family in the yards or on their lands because the only cemeteries around are those of the religious. We walked by part of his land and Arthur casually mentioned that his father was buried back there.)
Anyway, the teachers kept telling us that the children have been practicing some new songs and dances for us and so they presented the dances and poems and songs to us, which were all just beautiful. I loved every second of it. Then on the way back to the car, they carried some offerings they had made us, soccer balls, reed mats, dolls, etc. They were beautiful. But of course we could not fit it all, and would not want to rob them of something they could sell to tourists. We took enough to bring back to our schools to present, and let Father take some food for the Delta Center.
We left in a hurry because we were about 4 hours late for our meeting with the coffee grower. There are some coffee farms in Uganda that receive American money for community based businesses. While Jeff was researching NGO's he found some lists, and Father explored our options and arranged for this meeting. Anyway, it was very very interesting. Beautiful really to see the stages and science behind coffee plantations. This one is especially cool because their coffee sells at Starbucks in certain locations, and they can produce certified Fair Trade coffee. The tour was probably an hour long trek up and down hillsides through banana trees and coffee plants. They even showed us where they dry the beans, and where it gets bagged and shipped out. When we were done, he had Father drive us to his father's house who started and owns the business.
This was a beautiful humble man with a very sincere heart. He was so pleased that Americans cared to see his life's work, and he took a great deal of pride in Americans loving him and us caring about his tiny business when we live so far away. He said that he had a special gift made out of the same material that his early tribes people made their clothing from, and then he presented it to me of all people. We took pictures with him on his porch and then he gave us a huge bag of avocado. They were the biggest ones we had ever seen and they were beautiful, not ripe yet, but beautiful. The son who gave us the tour also cut a piece of sugar can, and it was huge. Father said that is is a gift, and out of respect we had to eat the whole thing. With sugar can, you break off a piece, chew it and suck out the sugar and spit out the rest of it. "Glucose in the purest form," Father said. Boy did we need it...having eaten very little since the previous night and it was now 5:00 PM. We had scheduled a 6 PM meeting but it was doubtful we would make it.
Especially because Father then announced that we would be going to a soccer field (where bulls often graze) where I was going to be distributing 2 of the balls and a bag of the jerseys. How great! It was definitely a surprise. Father introduced me to the young man who lives in the area who takes care of some younger teams. He expressed his utmost gratitude for what soccer players from Montgomery and Auburn and Trussville and surrounding areas have been able to collect on their behalf. For those of you who do not know the process, let me explain.
The Bishop’s Cup is an ecumenical soccer league that provides children in the Diocese of Masaka a rare opportunity to play the sport that they love in organized and well managed games. This gives them an opportunity to learn sportsmanship and team building in a Christian environment, and gives communities positive centers of interest and pride. Thirty seven teams competed last year. A further goal is to continue to expand the league to reach every parish in Masaka Diocese. This project is highly dependent on financial donations and gifts of soccer equipment. So people like Charlene Kam who lives in Auburn and like what I do here in Montgomery, is to contact DOC's and coaches and parents and ask them to donate their children's jerseys when the season is over. I sort them, and give them to Charlene who separates them by color and size, and when she has at least 24 of each color, she packages them and get them over to Uganda. The same goes for any other donation we receive.
So we show up at the field, and bring the balls and jerseys out, and Father gives a speech that is translated to me by Moses, and then Jeff speaks, but he does not know much about soccer, so I whisper to him to tell him that you see a Messi, a Rooney, a Kaka, and a Ronaldo sitting amongst them and see what happens. The kids hands started shooting up everywhere. "I will be a Rooney, I will be a Messi, I will be a Ronaldo!"
It was great. I got a group shot of all of the players in gray jerseys and then individual pics of some of the kids in their jerseys.
From there, we went back to our hotel where the Father in charge of property for the diocese was waiting for us. Jeff ran down to order drinks for us (waters and cokes of course) and I pulled chairs around and got situated. Father Henry joined us within a few moments and we talked our way through a plan of action for creating an association and a plan for finding property and securing some stability for Anawim on the Ugandan home front.
After our meeting, Nap took everyone back to the hotel/bar/restaurant from yesterday and we had dinner with Father Henry. (yay, food, finally, it was only 8:40 when we finally ate, now everyone understands how Father stays so skinny...cokes, waters, and never eating). He is such a wonderful man and priest and we enjoyed his presence a great deal. He will be a great deal of fun in the future.
My job tonight after dinner was to pull files from my homegroup and put together the association application, go through the steps with Jeff to make sure a second set of eyes approved the wording, type it up and email it to Father Henry. I accomplished that by midnight and have now spent 2 hours uploading pics to the blog, typing our journal and uploading videos to youtube. Here is a link to one of them: http://youtu.be/YQuCM-MVu_o
Well, that concludes Day 3. Tomorrow we sleep in until 8 AM, and then off to Butebrere and maybe to look at some properties, and who knows what else. I need to go shopping and pick up some wifi materials for the school and for the delta center and then we should be off to work.
Thanks for your prayers, they mean the world! Literally!
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