Mayenze, Bududa, and Bunabuyoka

Hike to the Health Clinic

                Okay, the last two days were great.  On Tuesday morning we got up early to catch a taxi to Mayenze.  Let me tell you about these taxis. Wow.  The taxis are these big, junky vans that could probably comfortably hold about 12 people.  But in Uganda they pack them with more like 24 people. It reminded me a lot of the Chinese subways in that you think there’s no way one more person could get in, and yet they just keep piling in.  Everyone is sitting on everyone else’s laps, and breathing is not really an option. And then, of course, there’s just the classic Ugandan driving to top it off.  Ugandan drivers drive fast and really close to other cars/bodas/people, and really look out for no one but themselves.  Terrifying.  Also, the roads are so terrible.  If you live in America, you have absolutely no idea what a pothole is.  The roads here are nothing but giant potholes which always makes for a bumpy ride. The whole trip was quite the adventure, but still fun.  I will have to get used to traveling that way because we have to take taxis a lot when we are traveling to the villages outside of Mbale.

                Our first stop of the day was at the Mayenze Widows’ and Orphans’ Association.  This is a really cool group that was established by Agatha (the sweetest little lady) to give local widows and orphans their own community and a way to learn and market different skills.  They do all sorts of singing, dancing, drama, sewing, and handicrafts there; as well as running their own piggery.  Such a fun place.

                When we got there, we were met by a group of widows and orphans all shaking our hands and hugging us. They were so excited! After we learned a little about the group, the orphans welcomed us with singing and dancing. So cute! Africans are such good dancers! I was really touched by Agatha and all of the girls there and how genuinely excited they seemed to have us there.  They made us feel so welcome and loved; which made me want to do anything that I can to help them. They were just so sweet.

I tell them to smile at me, and this is what I get....

                After our tour at Mayenze, we grabbed another taxi and headed to Bududa.  There we met with David Zaale and his family and colleagues at his home.  The Zaales are the sweetest people and were so welcoming to us.  They served us a HUGE lunch before we started our meeting, and it was absolutely delicious.  We are working with David on his organization called, Pathways Development Initiative (PDI). PDI runs a nursery school, a primary school, and a village savings and loan association that we will be helping them with.  David is hoping to start an after school program for the kids where they can gain some additional education as well as have something positive for them to  be doing after school.  The program would include helping the kids with their English reading and writing (the current school system is very bad at teaching English) as well as other education programs, sports teams, and fun activities. This is a program that I am going to be working on a lot and I’m super excited about.  David is also in the process of building another, bigger school for the kids, but the project is kind of on hold until he gets enough money for it.  He has the skeleton of the school built, and some of the iron sheets for the roof, but he can’t go any further with it without some more funding. This is another thing that I am really interested in helping with.  Right now, the kids are in a really small school and I would LOVE to help him build this new school so that the kids have a bigger place to learn in, and potentially be able to allow more children to go to school. 

                David took us around to show us the current school and the site for the new school, and we were followed by tons of kids the whole time we were walking around. Loved it. When we got back to the Zaale’s, we played games with the kids in the yard until dinner time (which was also delicious). We stayed at the Zaale’s house that night which was really nice.  They have almost a mini motel in their backyard so there was plenty of room for all of us to sleep quite comfortably. The next morning we got up early, ate breakfast, and jumped in another fun taxi to go to our health clinic.

                The Zion’s Medical Community Clinic is the health clinic that the Mbale team built last summer.  We decided to hike up the mountain to the clinic in the morning, which was about a 1.5 hour hike up a pretty steep road.  We are pretty good at getting our workouts in! It was a really gorgeous hike though. Of course. It’s Uganda. When we got to the top, we were met by children grabbing our hands and singing welcome songs to us.  Later, they put on a whole show of singing and dancing for us which was a lot of fun.  We spent the entire day at the clinic eating, touring the health clinic, learning about the goals of the organization, and a LOT of playing with kids.  Oh I just love the kids! One little girl, named Winnie, grabbed my hand as soon as I got there and pretty much never let it go.  We just fell in love with each other.  She is THE cutest girl I have ever seen and I would hike up that mountain every day just to play with her.  I definitely got too attached and just want to bring her home with me now. Love love love her.

One of the kids took this one. They LOVE the cameras. Most of the pictures they take don't turn out this well. 

                It was a pretty incredible couple of days.  Ugandans are so good at making people feel welcome. It’s their culture to make sure all of their guests have a chair and something to eat or drink and are as comfortable as possible.  They also have this thing of saying “You are most welcome” when you go to a new place or meet someone.  I really love that.  The way they say it sounds so sincere and really makes me feel like I am welcome wherever I go.  It’s just the sweetest.

                One thing that really bothered me about our time in the villages was the fact that Moses (David’s colleague) was telling us about how tough life is for kids in the villages.  He said that the survival rate of these kids is about 50%.  That absolutely breaks my heart.  When I was playing with the kids, I couldn't help thinking that half of those sweet kids probably wouldn't survive to adulthood.  It was one of the most terrible realizations that I've ever had.  With their inability to provide clean water, good medical attention and adequate food and shelter for people, death (especially of children) is a fact of life for the poorest people in Uganda.  For me, it’s a reality that I don’t think I will ever be able to wrap my head around.  It kills me to think about the conditions that my sweet baby Winnie has to live in, and the fact that if she were to contract Malaria or some other disease, she might not be able to recover from it. No child should have to suffer the way that these kids do, and yet millions of them are living this way all around the world.  I have so much respect for these people; especially when I think about Winnie’s sweet smile.  She has the toughest life and yet the biggest smile I have ever seen on any child.  Amazing amazing people.  I can only hope that I can make some sort of difference for these people this summer.  They deserve so much more than they have.