Uganda Day 1

Finally! We made it to Africa! The flight finally left on time. We flew all night from 11:30pm until 7:30am. My lost luggage is still lost and the lost & found luggage in Uganda is 2 people with a .99 cent spiral notebook. Needless to say they have no trace of my lost bag. Customs was very difficult. THERE WAS NONE. You could have walked through the airport with a nuclear weapon and they would not have stopped you. However the police are dressed like army guys with AK-47’s everywhere in the country. The also do not like their picture taken and will take you camera away from you and not return it.

We were picked up and driven about an hour from the airport and we literally dropped our bags off and hit the ground running. We got back in the bus and drove about an hour into the jungle. We helped a widow who has taken in 17 orphans with no house. We were helping her build her house as she has no house. We relocated heavy bricks from about 100 yards away to the building site. AHHHHH this was hard work. What the? The bricks were used to build the house and 2 men were helping with this project. They needed water for the mortar for the house so we needed to walk to get water. They use these yellow jugs everywhere and when filled they are heavy. We walked ½ mile in one direction to a spring that had murky dirty water and filled up about 10 of these jugs and then had to walk bag with these very very heavy jugs of water. This is their drinking water to. YUCK! This was unbelievable that this woman has 17 orphans almost all because both parents had aids and died. We worked for a few hours making some pretty good progress and then an entire school of young kids came down from the school and sang for us while we worked.

I knew before I went that we would be getting into the jungle and seeing these people who have rarely seen white people. They were so happy to see us. There were 3 boys who wanted me to go to their home which was a hut and meet their mom and their 9 rabbits. I walked over to the hut and they went inside and pulled 3 rabbits out by their ears.

The entire day was very overwhelming as these people just wanted us to be there. The house will be completed by the group within the next few weeks. The material was paid for by the group as well. The woman who’s home it will be cried every time we did something for her. When we were done I could not resist I said “Move that Ox”. We are very tired as most of us have not slept since Sunday really.

This country is very poor and I know I knew about it before I left but being here and seeing it first had, it’s all hard to really believe that it’s real.

The house we are staying is very nice with the exception of the shower. THERE IS NO HOT WATER! Oh well no hot water and the woman we helped has no house and she has no water!

Tomorrow we are helping build a church for the next few days. I told them I wanted to be the Sidney Portier in the “Raisin of Uganda” and lay the last brick on the steeple. They are down with that. They have made me in charge of security at the house (I’m serious). Tomorrow it’s a 2 hour drive into the jungle. I have only seen 3 goats, 9 rabbits, and 2 dogs so far.


They know who Flava Flav is here.