A Broad Abroad

At our last rehearsal, each of us brought in the supplies we had gathered.  Curt, who works for L.L. Bean (a large retailer for sporting goods), had purchased 4 large duffle bags to fill with supplies.  Each of us was allowed 2 bags to check in, plus our carry-ons. It didn't take long before each of us had our second bag full of books, medical supplies, children's clothing, toys, toothbrushes & toothpaste.  It was quite a sight to behold and added to the excitement of departing in a little over a week.

In the meantime, my household was about as organized as it was going to be before my departure. Arrangements had been made for my mother, and my sister to help care for the kids the first week while Brett went to work.  The second week, Brett would use vacation time to stay home and care for the kids himself.  All the bases were covered, and my mother and sister had a loose schedule to follow for school and other activities.  I am not one for worrying, and I have to say my biggest concern was for Saoirse and Josie, that they would have a hard time adjusting the first few days.  In the end, it was Ruth and Libby who missed me the most.  Go figure!

The day of departure came, I said goodbye to all the kids, and Brett and Ruth took me to the airport.  I was so anxious, we arrived a litte over 2 hours before departure, and were able to relax while we waited.  We didn't eat breakfast before we left the house so we got something to eat at the airport.  

While we were waiting for our food, the rest of the team trickled in.  We saw Marty and her husband Frank, they went into a little restaurant near us, so I went in briefly to greet her.  Then John and Ken arrived. Ken ordered a sandwich, but John, having traveled to Africa countless times, had packed food for his journey.  I was impressed!  Maybe next time I will be as frugal.   MAYbe...

Once everyone had eaten and we gathered at our gate, we took pictures of our team for posterity's sake. Ruth and Brett left us shortly after, and before I knew it, we were boarding our plane.  It was a small one on the tarmac, we had to go outside to board.  I had never flown on such a small plane.  We took off and headed for Newark, New Jersey.

It was a short flight, but by that time it had been a few hours since breakfast, so Mary and I set out to find a Starbucks for a much needed coffee break. We took a lot of "us-ies" along the way.  We had a nice time chatting and getting to know each other.  Up to this point, none of us really knew each other outside of rehearsals.  Each leg of the journey provided us with plenty of opportunity to remedy that.  Marty and I got to sit together from NJ to Brussels.  That was fun. She is a very interesting person, and has traveled extensively.  

Arriving in Brussels, we were all starting to show some wear and tear.  Our flight from NJ was 8 1/2 hours long.  Some of us slept on the plane, I was not one.  I do not sleep well in cars or planes.  I can rest, and I may drift off a little, but I am acutely aware of my surroundings, and it is hardly restful.

We took off again on another 8 1/2 hour flight from Brussels to Bujumbura, we stayed on the plane to finish the last leg of our journey to Entebbe. By the time we arrived there we had been traveling for almost 30 hours.  I had never been so far from home in my life.

Prep Work

The excitement of going to Uganda was swallowed up in the business of the holidays.  During the interview I was told that while a Rotary grant would pay for my flight, an overnight somewhere, a meal or two, and transportation, I would be responsible for $800.  Brett and I began planning where the funds would come from. He had been given season tickets to a Bruins ice hockey game from his employer.  Normally, the tickets would be used by Brett to take a client out or as a gift to a client or however Brett deemed fit. He asked his boss if it would be okay to raffle off the tickets to raise money for my trip.  The response was yes, so Brett announced to his clients, friends, family, and Rotarians that he was raffling the tickets to raise support for me.  He wound up raising over half the money! In the meantime I announced my upcoming trip to friends and family and asked if they would consider ordering baked goods from me. I got 3 cake orders, a couple orders for whoopie pies, and baked dozens of Valentine's Day cookies.

 It was rather time consuming, but I raised $400.  I wound up using most of that money for buying supplies for the orphanage, gifts for my host family, and some other things I would need for my journey.  It was really amazing to see how quickly things came together.

Shortly before Christmas I received an email from Barbara, one of our coordinators, suggesting our team meet for the first time at her house for dinner.  A date was set for January 13.  The day came and we gathered at Barbara's and Lawerence's home.  I arrived not long after John and Ken, Carolyn (another one of our trip coordinators) was there as well, and Marty came shortly after.  We had small talk, and finally Curt and Mary arrived.  As we introduced ourselves and gave some background, I felt out of my league.  It's a feeling that happens sometimes when you are a homemaker, the sense that others have experienced more of the world than you have, especially when you are in the presence of highly educated people, have only a high school diploma, and have spent a decade or more surrounded by children.  In a sense you feel sheltered, and to be truthful, in some ways you are, but it is the sense (or perhaps fear) that others view you this way, and may make assumptions about your intelligence, or lack thereof, that can leave you unsettled.  

Dinner was finally ready and we moved to the dining room.  We started off with spring rolls. If you have never eaten spring rolls, they are a finger food.  You just pick them up and dip them in soy or some other type of sauce.  Some of us, myself included, started out by picking up our spring rolls by hand, and then it seemed the majority were using their forks.  Subtly, those of us that started with our fingers put the rolls down and proceeded with our forks.  I laughed about this to myself much later to think that here I am, a forty-three year old woman, and I succumbed to peer pressure!  

Barbara and Carolyn shared about their trip to Uganda in December to prepare the way for us.  They were amazed at the excellent hospitality that was exhibited by the Kijjansi Rotary club; they couldn't say enough wonderful things about James, the director of the Mbabaali Orphanage and the children there; and they were blown away by the kids at the Youth Passionate Organization.  They proceeded to share about the logistics and what to expect, the driving conditions, the city, the weather.  We talked about what type of weather we should be prepared for, etc...  And we talked some more about passports, visas, shots, a timeline, the list went on and on.  Looking back, I think I felt like I needed to be prepared for more rural conditions than I was actually exposed to.  I realized I would be staying in a more affluent home, but getting around would take a bit more planning.  In the end, I did okay, I can't say I over-packed, but I would certainly do things differently next time.

Curt and Mary were designated as our leaders.  Curt was in charge of logistics, and Mary the music.  We planned on getting together in the next week or so, and manged to do so about half a dozen times before our departure.  We had gone back and forth with emails about the types of songs we felt would be a fair representation of American music, as well as a good fit for our group.  When we finally met to sing together, there was definitely a learning curve, because we were still getting aquainted as well as becoming familiar with each other's musical abilities.  I was blown away by John's and Ken's guitar playing.  Mary had SUCH a beautiful, strong voice, and she really had a way of putting everything together and making us blend well as a team.  I loved our rehearsals.  

In the meantime, from the moment I knew I made the team, I began shopping here and there.  We had discussed at our dinner at Barbara's the types of supplies we could bring for the orphanage, as well as medical supplies for the hospital.  Every couple of weeks I would pick up a little bit of this, and a little bit of that. I also posted on Facebook that if people were interested, I had a small list of supplies they could donate to the orphanage.  I had several friends make donations, I even had one family I only ever met on Facebook mail me a check for $100 to buy supplies. I was completely floored! I spent half on supplies and donated the other half to the orphanage.  By the time we were ready to leave, I had quite a store, as well as gifts for my host family.

It Began With An Email

Singing together was a big part of family gatherings when I was a little girl. My mother is one of 12, she and all her siblings learned to play the guitar from their mother.  They all play and sing beautifully!  When we had family gatherings everyone would bring their guitar and the singing would begin. We sang Buddy Holly, George Jones, Peter, Paul and Mary, John Denver, Anne Murray, gospel, country, honky-tonk, folk, rock-n-roll, whatever anyone felt like singing we sang!  No performances, no…. We sang together, and in harmony.  Sitting there, tucked between my aunts and uncles as they swayed and played the guitar, all of us singing, was a little bit of heaven.  It filled my whole being with the sweet vibrations of music.  I could sing in harmony by the time I was nine.

My family still carries on the tradition of singing together. Not every gathering, mind you, but as we feel the desire. For years I used to try to get my friends to sing along when we would get together, but it seems to be a dying art.

I love group singing.  It’s like dancing together. There is a sense of rhythm, a sense of what your partner is doing, and together you blend your voices as one.  There is no feeling like it on earth.  Perhaps this is why music is universal, because it creates this sense of unity.

In October of 2013 my husband Brett forwarded an email from his Rotary club announcing a music exchange to Uganda for the spring of 2014. He said that he thought it would be right up my alley because they were looking for those who had a love of music, some musical ability, and a willingness to learn about Ugandan music and share some American music in return. I read, and reread the email and it brought tears to my eyes to think of going and meeting new people, being immersed in a new culture, and having the opportunity to raise our voices as one and letting any differences fade into the background.  I knew I wanted to go, and Brett was excited for me to apply and see what would happen.  Long ago, adventures began with a knock at the door, a letter, a telegraph or a phone call; my adventure began with an email.

I filled out my application and sent it in by the early November deadline. Shortly after that I got a call for an interview the week before Thanksgiving. The evening of the interview I arrived early at One City Center.  All the businesses were closed, and the cafeteria was empty except for the janitors cleaning up from the business day. Way in the back I saw, through a row if windows, the meeting room off to the right.  I could see tables set up in a square, and people sitting all around it.  I also saw a bearded gentleman sitting outside the meeting room at one of the cafeteria tables.  I went over to say hello and ask if he was there to be interviewed. He introduced himself as John and said he had already been interviewed but was waiting for his friend who was in there at the moment. I liked John right away and hoped that if I was chosen for the team, that he would be going too.  We chatted a bit longer when his friend Ken came out and it was my turn to go in.

I wasn't so much nervous as I was excited.  There were six people conducting the interview. They asked me what it was about the opportunity that interested me.  I responded that I was a people person and loved meeting new people, and I especially enjoyed learning about other cultures and seeing the differences and similarities between cultures. I told them that I am the mother of nine children, which none of them knew because there wasn't anything on the application about family life, only the level of education achieved, employment, and travel experience. Needless to say, they were a little surprised.  

Other questions they asked pertained to getting along with others, a willingness to try new things and experience. One gentleman told me that grasshoppers and ants are considered a delicacy in Uganda, so how would I feel about being presented with a steaming plate of grasshoppers.  I laughed and told him the just the other night I was driving home with a container of crickets for my son's gecko, contemplating how to cook them, because I read that insects are a sustainable source of protein.  He was surprised at my response, and we all laughed.  I'd like to think that this answer was what put me over the top.  

Less than a week later, the day before Thanksgiving, I got the call saying that I made the team.  I was beside myself!!!  An email came in the days that followed and I was especially pleased to see John's name on the list.  Even now, I still can believe that a little ole' homemaker like me, made the cut.  It had to be my willingness to eat grasshoppers...