Meet the new friend

Meet the Boyfriend

Katie arrived in Uganda on Monday night the 16 of July and we brought her back to the hostel. Dylan, the new friend in her life, was still making his way from Kenya. He ran into a problem at the border when he was asked to pay for a visa into Uganda. When he refused, because Americans are not required to do this it took longer then the bus wanted to wait and they left without him. He then had to take a boda to catch up to the bus. This set him back. But, he arrived just after she got settled. We met him and I had a shirt made for him to match Toms so we could silently say we accept him, and he feels like family to us Kate. Dylan knew of this and was a great sport and went along with it. So, he walks in with a matching shirt on to surprise her. 

 ( After making some fatal mistakes when meeting Heather, that took some time to repair, I wanted to not repeat those mistakes. This was advice well taken from an Al Anon friend)After the happy meeting of us all it was 12AM the power was on so the hot water heater was on and showers were had by all. Then into the bunk beds that all rolled to the center and lights out till 5 when we got back in a car for a ride to Kampala to meet the bus that takes the mail out to the villages. We were heading S for supposedly 6 hours but the roads were being worked on so that added 2 extra hours... Kabale was our destination. The UN at this time is transporting refugees from Congo (about 45 minutes W of Kabale) to Kampala for re-settlement in refugee camps while the war in Congo tears up the country. The fighting is interior but people are fleeing into Uganda to get out of the way of the bullets.    (Sorry I don't have a picture)

In Kabale we were met by a man with polio at birth who was very disabled and used a hand pedal bike. He makes banana fiber elephants that were suppose to cost 2-3000UGX (10-15 cents) He was bargaining with me and he was set on 10,000shillings each. He wouldn't bargain, he was firm, crossed his arms, and wouldn't talk unless I paid. We have now drawn a crowd to see if the dumb white woman would pay and KT is busy taking pics. Dylan is getting 1^st impressions with Tom as they laugh their heads off, and I am paying the $4 each for the elephants because my grandchildren are worth it. It was fun, but that American piece of me that is taken advantage of, always rankles at this so I think of it as a donation. I really think I was donating to his drinking fund but hoping it was to feed his family. We had lunch and went up to the resort. It was like being back in the Boundary Waters. It sits on a hill that overlooks a man made lake that is a rain and water filled in crater. There are small islands and the transportation on it is in small dugout canoes. It is in the mountains and very cool.

 We had rented 2 tents, 1 for girls 1 for boys that had beds in them. They had power sometimes so we even had hot showers if we timed it right. If not, well you know, what's another day? With all the traveling we had all done, Us, 18 hours on a bus, KT, 23 hours on a plane and 9 on a bus, Dylan, 23 on a bus, we just sat and rested.

 We took a canoe ride to the islands of the lake. There is a  Punishment Island with one tree on.It is very small.  If a woman was found to be pregnant and not married they took her there and tied her to the tree to die. If a man from another tribe had no money to pay a bride price he could row out at night and rescue her and she would be his wife. Bride price is how much $ a father gets for his daughter when given in marriage. The cows, goats, chickens, honey, grain, etc goes to the family and if the husband wants to send the woman back after marriage the family has to agree to take her back and refund the bride price. Sometimes the family refuses to take the girl back and she is cast out with no one to care for her. And her children are the husbands. See how well women are treated? So this is punishment island.

 Did I tell you the wind comes up on the lake and there are some waves that start to get big for our little keeless log canoe.

 Dylan and Tom were paddling in the front and our guide in back so it was great for a bit. They, of course don't have lifejackets, because the guide can swim. Don't know how that helps the rest of us if the waves capsize the craft. The lake is over a mile deep so it is cold water. We didn't take on much water.

Thankfully! We enjoyed a 3 hour lunch, 2 of the hours were waiting for them to kill the chicken for one of the dishes, but our guide was most informative about Musevoni and his policy's. He was telling us all the women in the village love him because he made it illegal for a man to beat his wife. Now, if he does, he goes to jail! IMAGINE! the uproar from men, who don't really think this is such a good idea....We asked what if a woman smacks a man? Teto, the guide, looked at us unbelieving that a woman would ever consider that. He said it wouldn't happen unless she was drunk and then the man would be drunk too so that would be okay...Culture

We met some kids from the University of Bistol in England that were all in the same society (frat or sorority) that were spending their summer break finishing a health clinic on an island for the villagers

. Their pic is included. They were painting a ceiling where the plaster kept falling off. There is a man from Slovakia who has set up a NGO to help the village by getting Slovenia to send medical help and British to send construction help. It is called EDRISA. It seemed to me to be one of the better NGO's I have seen where help was actually given to the people intended for. Most resources here take a detour to many pockets that miss the intended people.

Next day was hikes and swim and 3 hour lunch this time to catch the crayfish. It gave us much time to talk and sit and read and take in the incredible beauty of the area. I felt like I got to go home for a bit just by being there. I just missed all of you while I imagined.

 We did a photo shoot by the Silver back Gorilla who live on the border with Rwanda and cost 500US to hike in to see. We skipped that part, preferring the statue. Notice the clothes? Yes, we wore the same clothes all week. Tom did laundry one day and Kate brought more outfits because she hasn't experienced hand washing yet, but we are learning to travel very light.

 The bus ride back to Kampala again was long. There are not snack shops to stop at and at the bus stops people bring you sticks of roasted meat (Don't know what kind or how long they have been roasted) ears of corn (now in season, but is cow corn and my teeth can't bite it) and water & pop said to be cold because they sprinkle water on it before you get there. So the food selection is not good. I wish they could figure out mango and pineapple spears and popcorn would sell better to the MUNDUS. Kampala brought us supper and Dylan went on to Juba in Sudan N of Uganda, we went S to Entebee for the night to say goodbye to Kate Sunday as she was to head for Rwanda. Sunday KT missed the flight because of a traffic jam at the airport and long line and not leaving enough time to get there. So, she got re-booked for Monday and we headed to Kampala as I had a root canal appointment the next morning. We had a wonderful week with these 2 and now have had a crazy week at school again. The education system is so haphazard and the students are the last ones thought about. I can't comment on this as I am a volunteer but some days I just don't get it. Maybe in the states everything is so connected with $ that if you don't show up you don't get paid or if you don't supply teachers or supplies you don't pay tuition, but it is different here. Anyway, Kate found her flight the next day but they wanted her to pay $200US for her overweight bags. Seems when you take an international flight you are allowed 100# of luggage but since she was re-booked this is no longer an international from America. So luggage limits are 23kilos. She cried and got it deferred. Good work Kate. Seems Dylan got to Sudan and ran out of $. Not a good idea as there really isn't anyway to get $ to Sudan. I think he said he found someone to make him a loan because they liked the political party hat he had on. I will be writing of my hospital experience since back next but for now I say TIA, and thank you JESUS for travel mercies. When you visit you will understand...Marc

Happy Birthday America

To celebrate Betty and I went to the Ethiopian restaurant and toasted our freedoms and joy of being United States Citizens living in Africa serving in the Peace Corps.  We count it as a privileged!
Updates on home
Mary, Tom's mom, is going to a rehab unit for gait training and speech therapy at the end of this week. Please pray she will have a complete recovery and may return to her home ASAP
Ed, Tom's brother in law is home resting while workup are done on his heart and physical abilities.  He has just started a new job, please pray he too will recover fully to continue to work and provide for his family. Their son is getting married in August, please Lord let him dance at the wedding without shortness of breath.
Mary Kay, Tom's sister is going to Pittsburgh to see Mary, pray she will have adequate help to care for her husband while she is gone.  He is currently receiving cancer treatment.
 Lord Jesus you are a big big God and I pray as You are ruling the world You will look upon us with mercy and grant us Your gift of healing of souls and bodies in those we love.  God Bless all of you and America! Marc

Letter from Africa and random pictures

I haven't written about what is going on here so here is the skinny since it is raining today and life closes down when that happens. It has rained the past 3 mornings and the rains here are heavy washing away roads and saturating the soil for an hour or 2. No sewers run over as most people have pit latrines and I am not sure where the flush water goes that we use for the house. Not going to find out as don't want the guilt... Anyway, 2 weeks ago Conor and a friend Sean Anderson were coming back from a Saturday night outing in Mlps and his friend went across the street ahead of Conor and was struck and run over by a SUV.  He broke 3 rib and lacerated his spleen with some other abrasions and contusions. Conor was watching and terrible shook up.  The boys were about 6 blocks from Hennipan County Medical Center and that is were Sean spent a week healing.  He is now home making his final recovery and looks like it will be a full one.  Thank you Lord! Conor is still processing but has decided not to ride motorcycle to the 4th of July gathering his buddies have yearly at Park Rapids.

On the river where all the dead bodies from Rwanda came to Uganda 

 Katie's company in DC has a 1 month position in Kigali, Rwanda she is going to fill. She starts the 2 of July and Rwanda is 22 hours by bus south of us.  She has a young man in her life(Dylan) she met just after we left. He is from California and goes to school in DC. He is doing some summer work in Kenya which is 12 hours E of us but off limits for us because of the random grenade attacks in Nairobi and capturing of foreigners and killing them in the resort destinations so we are all meeting in Uganda on the 16th and traveling for a week together .He attended a wedding with Kate in Phili for Tom"s side and was well received so he comes with good reviews. We are going to the South of the country up in the mountain region and the freshwater lakes that are so cold you won't get shisto from them.  The pics look like the boundary waters, or the closest thing to it for Africa, so I am excited.  Just 2 weeks to go....

Typical village still looks like mud hut with grass roof

 Tom had a sebaceous cyst that got infected and we spent last Thursday and Sat on the bus again to Kampala.  He had it removed and I had a crown fitted on our day in Kampala we ate bad food that cost too much and that was about it for the excitement of Kampala.  We have to figure out how to get around better so we aren't just looking for coffee shops... While we were gone Tom's mother had a stroke and Tom's brother in law (who's son is getting married the first of Aug) was hospitalized for blood clots in the lungs and else where. Since we just found this out because the power came on and we could email we are waiting for AM for them to find out more.
Me, I have had a month off as the students are on break.  Hooray! But this is the last week of the break BOO WHO.

School

 

 In the time off I finished a grant proposal (what a pain) for 3 30,000liter rainwater catchment tanks for the school since the ground water is contaminated with worms and the city water depends on the river level which is not there now, and comes and goes during the year. Students cannot bath or wash without water.  So, this is a hopeful project to use the roof space and capture the pure beautiful water here for daily use.

Daily fetching water 40# balanced on your head

 I have gone to a local honey processing plan to see how this is done and want to put up a hive at Tom's work site and learn about bee keeping.  The honey place is where Geo a volunteer is assigned which is St Josephs Catholic school and vocational training.  The Catholic cathedral is there too. The catholic radio station that our friend Sherry is manager of is next door and the Camboni's run that.  They are an Italian mission.  Tonino the head of it here brought grape vines from Italy back when he came and he has a huge vineyard that produces 2X a year and he makes wine from the grapes since refrigeration is a problem.  Tonino is in Italy on medical leave now but the picking and processing has started.  I went up to learn what they do and spent a couple days observing and helping with the extraction of the juice. I was shown how to prune and plant.  Richard the chief gardener gave me some vines and I planted them at NACOWLA in our kitchen garden space.
  I met the Camboni nuns that run the health center at the same site and they have a large garden with citrus trees.  The head sister is from Eritrea and was delightful.  She loves a debate and we had a long talk about faith and how we view it.  She also sent me home with 6 heads of lettuce from there garden.  I took her up some purple basil a couple days later and hope to show them how to make the tomato salad with balsamic and fresh basil when I have the energy to ride up the hill again.We have had friends over for meals and I have worked in the garden eating our first beans, lettuce, kale cucumbers last night.  Thank you to all who gave seeds that are coming great guns.  The peas should be ready at the end of this week too.  Yum, I share all the new foods with the ladies at Tom's work site and we sit and talk over how to grow things.  The only thing not growing great guns is the sweet corn it looks sickly and small compared to the cattle corn the ladies are growing.

Prisoners going to make bricks

 My bike got a work out and then I got the rapid transit for a few days. Another great weight loss plan.  I kept drinking the re-hydration salts that taste like Epsom salt water but seemed to work and now can eat again.  Riding a bus with rapid transit is not fun and I am always glad when I don't have to think about that. (Rapid transit is you eat & you transit the food out in a short amount of time) The rain is abating so I will get my shoes on and head out to the farmers I shared seed with to see their gardens.

  Life is good we are healthy and praying for our family back home.    MORE TO Come when I know.  Thank you all of you for your packages and emails to keep me up to date on your lives.  I have one confirmed "I AM COMING" for next mid June.  This is the perfect time for me to show you this little part of Africa so please decided you want to see it with us.  I am planning a 2 week tour of the beauty and wonders I have seen here. My break and the break in the weather is in June so plan for the mid part.  Traveling together saves money on the car and fuel so think about it and watch the prices of tickets.  Love you ALL.  IN HIM,  Marc

Happy Birthday Dominic

A year ago we were with you to celebrate your 9th. We are sad to miss your 10th.When POPOP and I took our wedding vows we asked God to allow us to see our children's children and HE has. We  are blessed because of you.  Isn't HE a GOOD GOD?   We love you D!

Cockroaches

When living in Hawaii we had these friendly creatures who loved to crawl in our bathroom along the sewer pipes and scare me in the middle of the night by scurring across your feet or the floor. Sometimes I would find them in the boxes of mac and cheese, just the small ones. These I would sort out before cooking the macaroni. When my mom and dad were with us visiting we had eaten supper and mom took out the dishpan to do dishes which was kept under the sink (where there is a sewer pipe and a real dark space.). A very large type was in the dishpan and when mom got it in the light and saw it the pan and bug went flying in separate directions, so did mom. Jake, who was Micah's age went and got his flipflop and told his grandmother to not be afraid, “they won't hurt you you just wak them gramma” and he waked and waked and waked the thing until it quite moving (his slippers weren't as big as they are now). From then on we didn't eat at home anymore and Hawaii has lots of great places we never would have found if we would have eaten at home. (A Blessing!) I don't think of them as that anymore. Because we have no fridge anything we buy at the store has to be sealed and then we put it in a zip lock too before putting it in the cupboard. I scrub the cupboards and we have scrubbed the design off the plastic stuff we put on the floor the kitchen is so clean. Flour and bread or things that aren't in sealed containers and too big for a ziplck go in a large plastic container. See photo:

(Large container on bottom shelf is what perishable grains go in)

so this is our system of keeping bugs away as much as possible. I started to notice that my potatoes and onions were having hole in them. I kept them in a basket on a stool and thought I was careless when I bought them and didn't notice the areas of open holes. I also thought my friends the geckos were getting into the stuff but the women I work with said gecko's wouldn't do that. I asked at the market and no one knew. Then, I was up at 3 in the AM one morning and looked in the kitchen and saw the suckers having a feast in the potato basket. I didn't take a picture but I planned revenge. This picture of my fiber crackers is what happens to the plastic zip lock the roach shredded as he ate through and the plastic sealed wrapper inside the zip lock he ate through and then the crackers he ate.

Needed fiber worse then me

 This set me on the hunt for where else they were eating and what they eating through. As I mistakenly believed that all the things I had in bags were safe from them, wrong. They loved the powdered coconut milk encased in a foil bag, the granola bars I was hoarding for a later time, and the big thing was, we buy aseptic milk in the juice boxes by the case. They have the foil top for the straw and the roaches had eaten through 6 of the foil tops and into the cardboard and I had milk dripping out onto the shelves. We made some poisons Borax mixed with sugar and set it out and around and picked up bugs in the morning that lasted for a week and ½ then no more bugs no more holes no more spoilage or waste. Wrong! This week I found the wild rice bag chewed through so out everything comes again and we start over. More good things for them to eat from the MacAulay's. The solace I find is we don't have rats, which eat clothes and some of our friends do have. We don't have to get a cat as that is the only way to get rid of them. We also have bubonic plague in this area carried by rat fleas JOY another thing to be grateful for not having in America. Do you ever ponder how really great it is to live in AMERICA? I do, perspective changes when the country changes. But, I would still like a wash machine no matter where I live With the cupboards bare they have less to eat but they sure seem to like the blue zip lock bags, I hope they choke on them.

  Lesson learned from this experience is don't hoard...If you do God will send you a reminder of what can happen to your best laid plans of waiting to enjoy it later. Like the rich man who built a bigger barn to store his stuff and he died before he could distribute it.   This way if i it is all gone you can clearly see the blessing when he sends more in a care package... TIA love Marc