Our plans to visit a national park were officially changed. Even after more than $200 in repairs, the van wasn't reliable enough to begin a 4+ hour drive. And Agatha's grandmother died, so Vincent needed to be at home. So Vincent came to get us at 8:30. We still didn't know for sure whether anyone would come to hear my budgeting seminar, but we committed to be there at 5:00.
The number of kids we still needed to see was down to a small handful. We wanted to find Babirye Phiona (Bill) first. She was sick at the start of the term and by the time she was better, she'd missed a lot of school. The headmaster called Vincent and told him since this was her P7 year and she would have to take a test at the end, Phiona needed to wait and come back next year. But Vincent hadn't seen her since, so we wanted to make sure all was well. Vincent heard that her brother worked at a car wash in Ntinda, so we went there first. The car wash was at the back of a large lot. Several vans were sitting in the lot and two teams of men were washing vans in the back corner of the lot. A small restaurant with tables under a tarp stood along one side of the lot. While we were waiting on Vincent, a young woman came out of the restaurant and all but ran to the van. It was Nabwire Juliet (Martha). We met Nabwire when she was in S5. Her father had just died and her mother was already dead. Her grandmother had taken her in, but there was no money for school fees. Martha picked up the fees and Nabwire didn't miss a day of school. When she completed S6, she asked to go to the equivalent of a community college to get a certificate in counseling. She completed her certificate last year and although she hasn't yet found a job in her field, she is doing well as the assistant manager of this restaurant. She was very happy to see us, and very appreciative of the help she'd received.
Vincent returned before Nabwire left. They talked for a few minutes, then Vincent climbed in the van and we pulled away. The man we wanted was very busy cleaning a van for a funeral home so he asked Vincent to come back in about an hour. Surrey High School was close by. We stopped to make sure that Esther was doing as she had promised. Grace checked with the headmaster. Esther had been at school every day that week.
Phiona's brother was almost ready when we went back to the car wash. He started to the car, but Vincent made him go inside and change out of his work clothes before he got in the van. He came out a few minutes later, grumbling under his breath in Luganda. He directed Vincent a few blocks up the main road, then we turned and again onto a narrow dirt road which paralleled the main road. We stopped in front of a vegetable stand and Vincent and the boy jumped out of the van. In a few minutes, Vincent returned with a young woman. They both got into the van. We drove for about five minutes, then the woman and Grace got out. They were gone for about ten minutes, then returned without Phiona. We took the woman back to the vegetable stand, but we didn't see Phiona's brother again. Apparently, we had made the boy leave work, change clothes, then direct us to the house. And for all that, he got to walk back to work!
We dropped Grace at the church so that she could follow up on a couple of fee issues from the second term payment. Vincent drove us back to the general area where we'd looked for Phiona. Our target this time was Nampeera Moreen (Jessica). Vincent had talked to everyone that morning and Nampeera's sister told him the girl was at school, while the school said it hadn't seen her since Monday. Vincent parked on the side of a narrow dirt road and jumped out. He disappeared around a high wall. He returned alone after ten minutes. "She is hiding!" he said. We went back to the church and picked up Grace.
It is a long drive from Ntinda to Trinity College. Namale Rebecca (Bruce and Nancy) just started this school this year. This is a great girl's school, though it is expensive. It is the school Monique chose for Phoebe, her own daughter, who has done very well in her senior secondary years. But there was a problem: this school had very strict visiting rules. For us to see one of their students, we had to have a letter from the parents giving us permission to see the child. Without that letter, we couldn't get passed the large, unfriendly gate guard. We didn't have such a letter, so we drove all the way out to Trinity not knowing whether we would get to see the girl.
The college is surrounded by a high brick wall. Grace went in while we waited in the van outside the gate. She was gone a very long time, but when she came back, she said we could see Namale if I would come in and sign the visitor's book. Lisa and I followed Grace through a narrow gate in the metal gate. The guard wanted to stop us, but Grace had a pass saying we could all enter. I signed the visitor's book and the assistant head master actually told us we were welcome.
When Phoebe was at this school, we were very impressed by her English and Namale was the same. She has always been a bright girl, but her English was as good as if it were her first language. She was so excited to see us because she wanted us to see her new school. She is at the very top of her class, and she couldn't tell us about everything fast enough! In the middle of her raving about how great thngs were, she said, "And I haven't had malaria one time this whole year."
"So no one here gets malaria?" I asked. "They must do a good job controlling mosquitoes."
She looked at me as though I had three heads. "No, the sick bay has been full of girls with malaria some days. But me, I haven't gotten it once."
"You must be taking good care of yourself."
She sighed. "No, I have the mosquito net you bought me last summer. I sleep under it every night and I have had no malaria for an entire year. Girls in my dorm have been very sick, but not me. I have your net." We talked to Namale for a few more minutes, but she needed to get back to class. She shook hands with all of us, turned, and ran back to her class. But she turned back and watched us leave. Grace gave the surly guard the pass from the headmaster. Each of us told him goodbye, and he had to answer each one because he didn't know how well we knew the headmaster!
We stopped by the Kolping House to let me get my notes in case I had to talk that night. I also picked up a Uganda tour book because I wanted to read about a chimpanzee rescue operation. I saw signs about trips to this chip sanctuary at the zoo on Saturday, but the material was short on details. I read all about it as Vincent drove us to Garden City for lunch. The chimp refuge was on an island in Lake Victoria. A visit involved a long boat ride, followed by a chance to see the chimps being fed.
It was only a short ride from there to Garden City. Lisa got kabobs at the Lebanese Restaurant and I got a feast for about $6 at the Indian place. After lunch, I gave Lisa the book to read about the chimps. She read it and said she wanted to go. I passed the book to Vincent and Grace. "We've really been working hard the last three weeks," I said. "Would both of you like to come with us to see the chimps?" Both said they would like to go, which really surprised me because Grace is terrified of water! I called and found that there were four seats left for the next morning. I made a reservation for all four of us.
After lunch, we stopped at the Internet Café to update the blog and at a bookstore to buy a Ugandan Cookbook. It was a few minutes before 3:00 and we had no place to go. So Vincent took us to the Uganda National Museum. I had been before, but Lisa hadn't, and Lisa loves museums.
This is an odd place. Some of the exhibits are first rate, but some have items missing. In others, the exhibits are pushed over inside the glass. There's no particular order to things – you move from history to how malaria is transmitted to ancient musical instruments without any particular break in the flow. And there was a special exhibit about chimps, which turned out to be a series of posters and a video about the sanctuary.
We spent most of two hours in the museum, then Vincent took us to church. Joseph and Michael were there, but it was only 5:05. With a start time of 5:00, there was no need to panic yet. By 5:30, there were about 15 people there. By 6:00 there were 46! I knew the members of Kiwatule who were there, but there were other people who had come from other churches, too. One older woman who must be a leader in one of the other churches sat right in front of me. She questioned me sharply at first, but by the end, she saw where I was going and she was very supportive.
I spoke for an hour then answered questions for almost an hour. The group was so anxious to hear about budgeting. It was a situation where they all knew they should be doing something different with their money, but they didn't know what it was! They seemed to take down my every word. And to think I almost missed this opportunity in order to see a few animals!
After I finished, Joseph, Michael, and Grace said they needed to hurry home. Vincent said he would like to eat. I used the guidebook to find another Indian place because I know that Vincent loves Indian food most of all. This place was spectacular! The parking lot was completely full, so we had to park on the street and walk up a steep hill to the white stucco building. The restaurant smelled of rose water and it was filled with waiters in brown uniforms, including brown bell hop hats. We were led through the restaurant to a table in the back. The food was northern Indian even though the guidebook said it was southern Indian. Whatever the region, the food was spectacular!
Vincent took us home after dinner. We went to bed early because Vincent would come for us at 7:00 the next morning. The boat for the chimps left at Entebbe at 9:00, so with an hour's drive to Entebbe, we had very little room for error!
0 comments:
Post a Comment