July 7 Jinja

Monday July 7: Jinja
Lisa and David went to the airport to get Daniell and Angela around 9:00 p.m. on Sunday. They got back around 12:30. I was sound asleep and hardly woke up at all when Lisa came in.
The power stayed on almost all night, so we both slept very well. We went down for breakfast around 7:00. Everyone gradually joined us. Jeff was feeling much better, but stuck with his fruit only at breakfast diet. The Dallas Ladies liked their room and said they had settled in, but they had no water at all in their shower. We decided to give it the day to see if either we had been out of water after so many early morning showers or if the problem would magically cure itself.
Vincent, Joseph, and Grace arrived at 8:00. We had a bit to do before heading east to Jinja. Our first stop was the bank where the Dallas folks exchanged a little bit of money. It was then time to pick up blankets and basins. Vincent was storing them at his house, and there were three stacks of folded and bound blankets. Each stack was higher than my head. The blankets appeared to be 100% wool. They were plenty large and brightly colored. In the corner stood a tower of 300 basins. We took about 30 of each.
With these loaded in the back of the van, we started our journey. Vincent found short cuts that minimized traffic. By 10:00 we were calling on our first school, Nambula Memorial Day and Boarding School. In addition to visiting a sponsored child, we were visiting to discuss the possibility of using this school for some of our boarding students. The head master was young and very eager to work with us. He talked about his plans for the school and the good scores his students were reporting on the standardized tests. He seemed very excited to work with us. We left his office and climbed a relatively steep hill to the secondary school. The school currently housed only S1 – S4 (the ordinary levels). It would add the final two year (S5 and S6, the Advanced levels) next year. This head master was also young and eager. Both men seemed sincerely interested in helping our kids, and both said they would look at the possibility of taking a lower fee for a larger number of students. I checked the fees. They were a bit more than some places and less than others.
We left there and drove a short distance to see Agnes (Rick and Linda). Agnes has long been one of our favorites. She is short and compact on the outside, but large and in charge inside. I’ve seen her as a pre-teen keep secondary school boys in line! Instead of going into a classroom to get Agnes, the head master went outside the gate and came back a minute later with Agnes and her mother. Agnes was on her way to the doctor. She suffers from asthma and she was in the middle of a tough time. We talked with the two of them for a while, then gave them a lift to the place where they would catch a taxi bus into town.
After a very long drive, our next stop was Nanamagabi Secondary School. There were nine students at this school, so Lisa assigned children to adults. Our team would talk to the children then record what they heard in notebooks which we’d use in writing update letters to sponsors.
Last year, we heard that this school was coming under Muslim influence. Vincent had been unsuccessful in moving the students, however. This is a delightful group of kids. Victor (Sarah and Lewis) is a star student. He does great work in school, and he sings his own music. He took a minute and sang us one of his tunes. In addition to Victor, seven girls ranging from S2 to S6 attended this school. These girls were incredibly happy. They laughed and joked with us. They posed for photos. Some of them very much liked this school, but some were begging to leave. Vincent said he would try to fix this for those who wanted to leave at the start of the next school year (in January).
We visited another school, then drove to Bukeka Primary School to find Namirimu Prossy (Vicki). She had gone home for lunch, so we drove to her house. Prossy is a real success story. She became pregnant about a year ago following being raped. She asked if we would return to school once the baby was born. Vicki agreed to continue her sponsorship if Prossy went back to school. We found this very young mother at her house. She was happy and she said her grades were good. After a few minutes, her mother, who cares for this child while the other one goes to elementary school, brought out the infant for all of us to see. It was a gorgeous, fat baby and Prossy, though she seemed hesitant at first, finally showed her off a bit!
We made one other stop , then we drove to St. Paul’s School. St. Paul’s is a school of about 500 students. It is in a very remote area without running water or electricity. The children are always ecstatic when we arrive, and today was no exception. A group of young children on their way home from their beginning classes saw us coming and ran back to school screaming “Bzugunu” (white people) at the top of their lungs. By the time we stopped, we were surrounded with primary schoolers shouting at us. All were dressed in yellow tops and green pants. We could hardly get out of the van for them. The head mistress made her way to Lisa and gave her a huge hug. Lisa has sent this school a few things over the years. The head mistress was certainly appreciative. We were expecting to see three students here, but only one was actually there. The other two were sick, so we decided to try to catch them at home.
We drove to Immaculate’s (Steve and Vicky) house, a series of poorly maintained mud and brick structures down the hill from the main road. Immaculate’s brother, Michael, had been at St. Paul’s where we expected him to be. Immaculate was at home sick. She came up to the van to talk with us, but she was very shy and had almost nothing to say.
Our next stop was Christopher Mulondo’s (Amy and Benjamin) house. Everyone got out of the van while Grace went down the hill to the badly decaying main house. This is probably our worst stop. The people have absolutely nothing. There buildings are falling down. There is no electricity. Christopher stays sick. A young boy came out of the house along with his mother. The boy came up and shook our hands. He look vaguely familiar. I commented on the amount he had grown in only a year and he simply said, “Yes.” He talked a little about school, but he was much quieter than usual.
We were getting ready to get out the gifts when Grace returned. “The boy is not sick.”
“We know,” I said, “we just saw him. He said he felt much better.
“No, it is the grandfather who is sick,” Grace insisted. “Christopher was sent to get him some medicine. He isn’t here.”
“We talked to him,” I said.
“No, it was not him,” said Grace. And we knew she was right.
“We MUST get this boy out of here,” I said as we climbed in the van.
Grace pulled Lisa aside. “If we take the boy away, I do not know what the grandfather will do. Christopher is his only care giver. Without him, the man will die.”
On the way to lunch, we stopped at the home of Monique’s mother to see Joviah (Jim and Lisa). He has grown so much in a year! He was at home because kindergarten lets out at noon.
It was finally time for Ling Ling, always a highlight of our trip! Jinja is not a place one would expect a wonderful Chinese restaurant, but it has been consistently excellent every time we’ve visited it. We walked through the restaurant to a garden in the back. We took a table under a thatched roof hut which was open all around. The menu came and I ordered for everyone. One thing had changed (and not for the better). Ling Ling had always served the largest, best egg rolls anywhere. I ordered only 4 expecting that to be more than enough. But instead of the gigantic rolls we expected, they brought out very small ones. When cut, there was hardly a mouthful for each of us.
We had a feast! I ordered chicken, fish, pork, and vegetables. I also ordered Goat with Black Bean Sauce, one of Kim’s all-time favorites. But the waitress shook her head. “No,” she said. “We have no beef or goat. There is a sickness in the north and the sale of beef and goats has stopped here. “
But everyone found the meal to be superb even if we couldn’t have goat!
We climbed back into the van and drove to St. Peter’s High School. This is my favorite school. It is beautiful, sitting back from the road among trees and lawn. The buildings aren't new but they are very well kept. Wagoina Samuel (Amy) met us before the van stopped rolling. He was so very excited to see us! School is going well and he is feeling fine. He made sure he talked to each team member and he was so excited he couldn’t be still. Before we left, he also insisted on our taking his photo with each of us. Esther, Joan, Alice and Nicholas are also at this school. Nicholas appears to be a genius, but he is also very articulate. Joan is equally articulate and very pretty. Alice is Alice! She is hilarious. She laughs constantly. And she is incredibly outspoken. I could have stayed and talked with this group all night!
We tried one last school, but the boy there was sick and had returned to Kampala for treatment. So it was time to leave Jinja. We missed the source of the Nile and the waterfall, but we did see a total of 27 kids at 8 schools!
The ride back was a traffic nightmare. We crawled through each little village as night fell. At 14 kilometers from Kampala, traffic froze. We spent the entire distance in bumper-to-bumper traffic. We finally made it to Bomba Road and it was even worse! We had to stop for water, which meant we lost our place in the line, but we were only a few blocks away by then. We arrived a few minutes later. It was almost 9:00! For its first day visiting kids, our team logged a 12+ hour day! And no one complained even once!!
Since we had missed dinner at both Grace’s and Vincent’s house, I gave them 30,000 shillings to get something to eat. Then we went to our rooms. The Dallas ladies still had no shower, so David went to the desk about it. They said they would send someone right up. We sat down for dinner. No one was hungry, so we ordered everything from soup, to French fries, to French toast. David and I decided to try something that didn’t really sound too go on the menu. The only toasted cheese sandwich on the menu (in fact the only sandwich) was a toasted cheese with vegetables sandwich. I don’t think either of us was intrigued by the name or curious about the description (a sandwich of cheese toasted with vegetables), but we ordered it with fries anyway. We got sandwiches on wheat bread with a bit of toasted cheese inside and a vinegar-based cole slaw spread on it. Well, now we know!
I went back to the desk with David to see what we could find out about the shower. No one had checked on anything. David began to complain that it had been two hours already, plenty of time to get the room fixed. “Would the ladies like to evacuate?” asked the desk clerk, a different one than the one David had seen earlier. After some discussion, we realized he meant would they like a different room. We said that would be great so he walked up the hill with us. He checked the shower and saw that it still wasn’t working and he went next door. He unlocked it and the ladies moved their things over.
These are incredibly hard days, and I must admit my stamina is greatly reduced this year. After the first few stops, I had to move to the front seat because as I grew more tired, I was having steadily more trouble getting in and out from the back of the van. And I slept between schools. Still, we all made it!