Well I'm on my second wonderful journey in Africa. This time to Uganda. I am interning for an Oklahoma non-profit organization, PROS FOR AFRICA. Check out the website at prosforafrica.com for a full scoop. Everything with this trip has fallen into place in the past 3 months with God's grace. I'm very blessed to have the opportunity to experience four months of life with a mentor like Sister Rosemary and will learn and gain more than I can imagine right now during my time at St. Monica's. Again, check out the website so you know all about Sister Rosemary and the school :)
My flight went as scheduled. I arrived at Entebbe, Uganda, at 10:30 pm Tuesday night and Paulo Kyama and his daughter, Sharon, were at the airport waiting for me. Paulo works for the government in finance and also assists Pros for Africa a great deal. Both Reggie and Jay said he is one of the kindest and most trustworthy people they know; I agree completely. They greeted me very warmly. It was a nice comfort after a long flight and being half a world away from everyone I know.
Paulo brought me to the main offices of Cornerstone, a youth leadership enrichment organization, located in Kampala about 20 minutes from Entebbe. It is a hostel type setting with a private room and a communal bathroom that I share with a few other residents. The other people staying here at the time being are all American. There is a couple who teach for Cornerstone, and two guests that don’t work with Cornerstone but are in Kampala often. Erin recorders traditional music from around Uganda and combines them with artists in the States to fuse the two cultures of music. His work is really neat and I will be following his progress at www.ensigo.com. James runs a fair trade jewelry business between Uganda and the United States. He buys jewelry that women in Uganda make and sells them in the States for profit; however, the profit is simply enough to allow him to get by and travel back and forth. His end goal is to build up a few women at a time to where they can afford to send their children to school, thus promoting generational progress.
On my second day in Uganda, Paulo arranged for an employ of Cornerstone, Phillip, to take me around to get my phone and internet situation sorted and pick up some groceries to last me a few days in Kampala while I wait on Sister Rosemary to come through and take me up north to Gulu. All of this was much less confusing and stressful this time than it was in South Africa... thank goodness!
There happened to be a group of OU law students in Kampala this week as well working on international review of Uganda’s economy for the UN, and Paulo arranged for me to have lunch with them on Wednesday :) It was rather ironic (in a good way) to spend my first meal in Uganda with fellow Sooners. After lunch I pretty much slept the rest of the day away...yay for jet lag. Then I was up for most of the night. Go figure. Thank you, Reese, for keeping me company for a bit :)
I had zero plans for Thursday and again slept most of that day as well when I wasn’t reading about the history of the Sudan conflict... hostels always have pretty interesting books handy. Sister Rosemary called me to let me know that she would be coming by Cornerstone to pick me up on Friday for a trip to see a house made of water bottles that she hopes to replicate at St. Monica’s. It will be wonderful to see her joyful face again and finally get moving!!
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