Hit The Ground Running

I awoke early the next morning excited and anxious to see what lay ahead. Enid had breakfast all ready for me when i came downstairs.  There was millet porridge, steamed matoke (plantains) in a sauce with peas, African tea, bread, and fresh pineapple and watermelon.  Needless to say, it was unlike any breakfast i had ever had before.  It was all very good, although my appetite was not what it could have been from eating so late the night before. I'm afraid Enid was disappointed that i didn't eat more, like somehow it was an indication of how little I liked her cooking, which was not the case...

I knew from the beginning that staying in the home of a Rotarian would not be much different from my own home.  The main differences were in design, materials: the houses are all made of brick and stone, here in the Northeast US, most of our homes are made of wood.  Most Ugandan homes have a courtyard of some sort, you only find houses like that in the Southern US.  There are no sources of heat in any of the rooms which is a MUST where I come from!  The plumbing is not as good, most toilets can't take toilet paper.  There are bars on all the windows and doors.  Where I live there are no bars and most people don't lock their doors when they go out during the day, they only lock them at night. Then there is the matter of servants. It is the same in Uganda as it is in the US, only the affluent can afford servants.

After finishing breakfast, Enid took me over to see her daycare.  It was right next to her home, and it was quite large.  I met her office assistant, Adrine, a couple of her teachers, and a few children here and there. The school day wouldn't start for a little longer.  The few children I saw were very curious about me.  One little girl, around five years of age, came into the small office where Enid took me, just to get a closer look.  It was so cute!  I said hello, and shook her hand.  She responded politely, but was rather shy.  She lingered a bit longer and even though I asked her some questions, she didn't respond much.  I'm pretty sure she just wanted to be near a munzungu (white person), which was fine by me.

Enid's housekeeper, Betty, came to get us because my ride had arrived.  Marty, John, and Curt where already in the van and also a young Rotaracter by the name of Allan who was one of our hosts for the day, along with our driver.  We took off to go get Mary and Ken.  

The side roads were horrible, and i mean HORRIBLE! I have never seen such erosion of local roads in my life.  The closest thing here would be roads leading to hiking trails, and that is only because they are rarely driven on and are not a priority when it comes to road maintenance. The dirt road I live on is private and not maintained by the town, but each of us (6 houses total) pays for our road to be maintained.  This includes snow plowing, new gravel as needed, and equipment rental for any big repairs. There is provision in Uganda for residents to repair their roads, but nothing is done because there are local leaders who interfere with the process and pocket the money designated for the roads, they enforce penalties if someone takes it upon themselves to make repairs. The cars there are in constant need of repair.

Our vehicle rocked, swayed, and jostled down each side road, sometimes even scraping the bottom until we had all our team members. We proceeded to a Catholic boarding school to pick up our next Rotarian host, Joseph, who is the principal of the school.  We were welcomed into his office to chat for a bit.  We all signed a guest log (everywhere we went had a guest log!). While we were sitting there Joseph pointed to two pictures hanging on the office wall of the King and Queen of Buganda, the region of south central Uganda.  I had no idea that Uganda had royalty, but after reading more about African history, it became clear that it is very common in most African nations.

We took a brief tour of the grounds, and got back in the van to go to the animal sanctuary. Sister Angelina joined us there, it was a fascinating place.  We started out in the museum portion which had skulls, other bones, and scat samples from the types of animals we would see.  Most of the items had been confiscated from poachers.  There were displays of some of the traps that were used in poaching.  It was sad to see and read about the exploitation of wildlife that had gone on there in decades past and still occurs to this day.

Once in the park, a guide met us.  The first place we stopped had some zebras, impalas, and a 3 week old baby elephant that had recently been orphaned by poachers.  You could tell he seemed lost and alone.  He came right up to the high fence and put up his little trunk to check us out.  We all petted him. He was so cute!  He finally wandered off but hadn't gone far before he began to trot away from us with ears perked, and his little tail flailing about.  He heard his caregivers at the gate across the field from us and was excited to join them.  It was a thrill to watch.  

We moved along and saw some water-buffalo, camels, and some birds.  The birds in Uganda were amazing!  I have never seen such a concentration of very large birds, there were a great many varieties everywhere we went.  I was especially taken with the Marabou stork.  They are as common as sea gulls here, and are scavengers as well.  In Disney's "Jungle Book" movie, the storks that find Mowlgi wandering alone are all Marabou storks.  It was hilarious to see them, they were as comical looking in real life!

We arrived at the next area of the sanctuary and another guide, Ivan, took over.  We started out by looking at an herb garden and Ivan went on to say that herbs had been the traditional medicine of choice for many generations, and that there seemed to be a renewed interest in them.  We told him that it is similar in the US, many people have begun seeking a more organic approach to medicine.

We went down a trail which took us to where the leopard was housed.  Ivan explained that although the leopard was not indigenous to that area, it had been brought in through a conservation exchange program.  As we made our way through the sanctuary we three ladies and Curt were ahead, John was strolling along conversing with Joseph, and Ken moved at a slower pace, his knees were hurting him terribly and had been giving him trouble on our journey to Uganda.

We finished our tour and went to a restaurant for lunch.  When we arrived at the entrance i saw, for the first time, armed guards at the gate to the parking lot.  This was common everywhere we went, larger restaurants and businesses would hire security agencies, complete with rifles, to provide protection.  I wasn't alarmed or uncomfortable with this, I simply made note of it. This experience redefined "normal" for me for the rest of my trip.

There were Indian dishes on the menu so I was quite pleased.  Alan sat next to me and we had a great conversation.  He is a really bright young man, the same age as my son Nathaniel, twenty. Our group sat outside under a covered porch. We weren't far from Lake Victoria and could see the shoreline in the distance.  Dotting the landscape between us and the lake were a few goats that were tethered, some chickens running around, as well as a tethered cow, some more of the new "normal" I would experience, farm animals roaming everywhere, and very few of them were tethered.

We finished our meal and I was the lucky one to have shillings. I had made a purchase for Enid's son in the US, and she paid me back when the morning after I arrived, so I paid for everyone's meal.  At some point we would go to a Foreign Exchange for everyone to exchange their US currency for Ugandan shillings. No biggie, or so we thought.  

When we got to the parking lot Ken was already sitting in the van.  We looked at Ken and one of us asked him, "What are you doing?", to which he replied, "Waiting for YOU." Then one of us said, "But that's not our van!"  Ken turned to look at the driver, the poor driver just didn't know what to say to this over-grown munzungu!  A little jet-lag goes a long way...

We piled in the correct van and went to a Rotaract (Rotary group for highschool/university students) meeting at the Kisubi Brothers University. We had to skip going to the botanical gardens due to time restraints. We arrived and took a brief tour of the building exterior looking for a plaque bearing the name of Brother Francis of Alfred, Maine (20 minutes from my home!) We visited outside for a bit and Joseph came to me and Ken inquiring if any of us needed to exchange our currency.  I gave him a couple hundred, and Ken gave him some money, and Joseph returned with shillings for each of us. Little did we know that we were the only ones approached.  The meeting was called to order and we took our seats.

The one thing I don't care for about Rotary is the meetings.  I find them very dry and all the pomp and circumstance is tedious.  The need to acknowledge people with the title "Rotarian"-so-and-so is unnecessary. And all the "Past President"-this and "Past District Governor"-that is overdone.  Why the need to puff oneself up with titles? And why the need to publicly acknowledge every time a person makes a donation or does a good work? They have a Major Donor award, and a Service Above Self award, among others.  Wasn't there a great teacher who once said, if you do good works keep it to yourself?  If you boast in front of others you will receive your reward in full here on earth.  Instead, be contented to receive your reward in eternity...or something to that effect.  

What I DO like about Rotary is the way it seeks to reach out to local communities as well as international ones without the price tag of religion. They go and seek to support projects that are sustainable, leaving management in the hands of local people. They also are about promoting peace through friendship and better understanding of other cultures.  

During the meeting our team members were introduced and we sang "Dona Nobis Pachem (Bring Us Peace)".  It was appreciated, and after another 40 min or so the meeting ended.  We all went home with our hosts who met us at the meeting.  On our way home, Enid took me to a pub across the street from her home to eat dinner.  It was after 7pm when we arrived at the Octopus...