Monday, July 14: Kampala (Again)

Monday, July 14: Kampala (Again)

I decided to make the whole trip today. We are scheduled to go to Kassanda tomorrow. It is about two hours there and back, so I needed to test my stamina a bit.

Vincent picked us up at 8:30. I made it to the van without getting sick! It was the coolest morning since our arrival, probably in the upper 60’s. It was also overcast during this season when it doesn’t rain. The folks here say that the rainy seasons are all messed up. They don’t have an explanation, but they can describe the changes well, and this wasn’t supposed to be a rainy time!

Our first order of business was to exchange money. I was all but out, so it was important to do it early. Vincent has been taking us to a group of exchangers at a hotel downtown. The places aren’t run by banks, but they operate openly so I’ve reasoned that they must be operating legally. Today, we pulled in and found the rates down a small bit. Lisa and I started to get out. One guy started yelling that I was committed to his place. Another said I had promised him. A third said to come to him. So I did the logical thing: we got back in the van and left them to argue among themselves.

We were going to Garden City for the Internet Café anyway. So we ducked into the bank there. We lost $1 compared to the rate at the other places. One problem, however. This place only gives out 10,000 shilling notes. So buying over a million shillings left me with over a hundred bills to keep up with!

The Internet Café was fairly well packed with mostly European travelers. Within a few minutes, each of us had a computer. Mine ran Office 07 and had an accessible USB port. I thought I would have the blog posted in no time, but I bought 40 minutes (about 75 cents) of connection time. First, there was a setting on the computer that wouldn’t allow me to post to the blog. I worked out the issue and corrected it. And as soon as I did, the power went out! So after 30 minutes, I had one post and my computer was dead. Slowly, computers started coming back until it was only two of us waiting. Then they came on, but neither of us were connected to the server following the crash. When that was done, I had about 3 minutes left, so I bought 40 more. The system stayed up until I had finished, but the result was we lost 1.5 hours playing with the Internet.

On the way out, we stopped at Uchumi once again. We bought water and a few other essentials. I was actually feeling a bit hungry so I bought some chocolate and an energy drink. This thing is bottled in Uganda. It’s a tropical fruit flavored concoction that contains no caffeine and, although I’m not sure it impacts energy at all, it goes down well when you aren’t feeling right.

At 11:00, we went to our first school for the day. Grace went in, and we watched a group of young secondary school boys playing soccer. They were using a ball which, back when it had all its air, had probably been intended for volleyball. And they played on a paved basketball court with tiny make-shift goals at each end. The goals were so small that the goalies easily blocked them by simply standing there. Shot after shot went wide or was blocked. We were wondering if there would ever be a score when the sky opened! The boys were instantly gone, along with their ball, but the strange little goals stood witness to the scoreless match held that Monday before the rain.

It absolutely poured rain, and after more than an hour, there was no sign of either Grace or of the rain letting up. Finally, Vincent called Grace’s phone. It rang from her purse in the back seat. So we drove up a steep hill to the administration building for this huge high school, but there was no sign of Grace. Vincent drove behind the administration offices and along every road he could find, but we didn’t see her. I’m not completely sure we would have seen her if we ran over her. It was raining that hard!

We drove back to our original parking place and Vincent opened the door to get out. Lisa stopped him. Her mother had bought us both rain ponchos that fold down small and fit perfectly in a back pack. Vincent readily agreed to wear one. He put on the bright orange poncho and hood and jumped out into the deluge. He went up the hill on the side opposite where we drove and disappeared in the administration building.

After about five minutes, we saw the parka returning. But instead of the poncho residing firmly on Vincent’s back, he had taken it off and he, Grace, and Mugagga Solomon (Cindy) were wearing it, or they had it spread over their heads. They looked like a monster in progress at an animation studio.

But the strangeness of their attire didn’t slow them at all. They dashed to the van and into the sliding door. Everyone had shifted around so that each easily found a seat. We learned that Mugagga is doing very well in school and he was most appreciative of the help we’ve given him.

By the time we had finished talking with him, the rain had slowed to a sprinkle. Mugagga shook hands with everyone and left us. We had lost 1.5 hours at our first school!

We drove a short distance to another secondary school and saw two of our students without much of a wait. Our next target was Lubiri Secondary School where Kazibwe Samuel (Carolyn) is enrolled. Grace went in while we waited in the van. She came back without Samuel because he was at lunch. We thought he would pass the van as he finished eating so we waited a total of 45 minutes then decided to save Samuel for later.

You know you’re having a bad day when a gate guard won’t let you in a school, even after our reason for being there is carefully explained. This man simply said, “NO!” He wouldn’t let us in. He wouldn’t go ask anyone. He simply stood on the locked side and glared at us. He let a group of students out, but quickly locked it again. Finally, Vincent said enough to make him wonder and he left us at the gate while he walked up a hill and across campus to the head master’s office. After a while, he came back and unlocked the gate without comment.

This is a great school with two great kids. We’ve had both Kizito Isaac (Charles and Deborah) and Mubiru Allen (Martha) in the program since it started. Kizito joined when he entered secondary school. He is now in S6 preparing to take his final exams. His results will determine where and whether he can go on to the university about a year from now. He hopes to be an architect. Allen was just a baby when he started with us. He entered secondary school this year, and is doing well. He’s still very shy.

At Mugwanya Summit College, we saw, once again, how important letters are to these sponsored kids, even the ones who aren’t kids any more. Mbazirra Emanuel, who is in his first year of high school, was very quiet when we arrived. He answered our questions in as few a words as possible. He thanked us for his gifts. But when Grace pulled out a letter from his sponsor, Herb, Mbazirra lit up. He asked all kinds of questions and he was so excited to have Herb’s picture that he wanted us to make his picture holding Herb’s picture!

We went back and found Kazibwe without much trouble and it was time to call it a day. We visited five schools and saw six students. The rain, which haunted us most of the day, really slowed us. But so did having only one child per school!

It was after 4 and we’d had nothing since breakfast. Vincent took us to Shanghai, perhaps my favorite restaurant in Kampala. The décor looks very much like Hong Kong and I’ve never had a bad dish there. We were starved, so I ordered a lot – duck, chicken, lamb, squid, and beef. It was a great end to a not-so-great day.

There were several problems. The rain certainly didn’t help. It wasn’t very good having to shoot photos from the front to the middle van seat. But we were missing Jeff! This was his first day not to be with us, and that is always hard. We had settled into a very good team, and his presence was really missed.

But in retrospect, it might have been good that Jeff wasn’t along. I’m afraid the horrendous waits would have strained his newly found Ugandan patience!