November 2006: Getting Ready

So much to do and so little time!

Uganda, the Pearl of Africa. It's an amazingly beautiful place. Greens beyond any I've seen. Every color is incredible, even the bugs are pretty! But we go for the people. The poverty is shocking, the human suffering extreme, but the people are so happy, so caring. Once you go, you MUST go back!

So I begin my sixth trip to Uganda.

Amid all the beauty, the impact of AIDS is horrible to see. So many orphans. So many more who have lost one parent. So many widows and widowers. And so many infected and dying that long, slow death without adequate medical help to ease the passage.

There are four of us this time, in two groups. Jon, Jim, and I will travel first. When they leave, Bill will join me and stay until I return home. My trip covers 22 days, their's eleven each.

Why are we going at this the busiest family time of the year? We provide school fees for children so that they can go to school. Without help, the poorest kids - the AIDS orphans, the kids who've lost a working parent, the kids who were born late in line in a huge, desperately poor family - can't go to school. So we help. We pay their school fees and buy their uniforms and help with medical expenses.

We have more than 250 children in our program now. And we are going to see them!!

We have our tickets. The visa applications are in. We have a place to stay.

Now it's a matter of getting packed and getting there! And with less than three weeks to go, these are not small tasks!!


So much to do and so little time!!