Hey friends,
I've just received some new information about where I'll be staying in Gulu.
Hello everyone
Well- those of you in group 2, I am very excited to tell you about the new housing arrangement for you! We really hope this is a success, as it would be great to create a long term relationship with Katharina and the staff at her hotel/restaurant.
When in Gulu, you will lodge at Katharina's hotel and bar.
Katharina's is in the heart of Gulu town, near a landmark hotel called the Pearl Afrique. It is a very central location, with lovely management and staff.
You can take breakfast and dinner at Katharina's each day.
There are several upright showers and pit toilets available. Catherine Hanna will have the keys for those initially, and I am sure that a system will develop. Katharina's has power, a generator, and running water.
Mosquito nets, mattresses, pillows, and linens are provided. You should bring a towel.
If you can fit hangers into your luggage, this is a GREAT idea. If not, you can buy some in town. Each room will have some hooks for clothing .We are working on shelves.
Drinkable water will be available there. We are currently hiring someone who will be responsible for laundry each week. You will most likely be assigned one washday per week.
For those of you heading to Pabo and Atanga, you will be able to keep luggage here in Gulu while you are away as needed.
Katharina's restaurant (just across the way) will serve breakfast each day. You will coffee/tea have a choice of two including...
Banana
Pineapple
Chapatti (fried flatbread- delicious)
boiled eggs
bread
half cakes (like tea cakes)
samosas
mandazi
For dinner, she will provide many amazing local dishes including...
rice
beans
chapatti
goat
chicken
beef
boo (greens)
malakwang (greens with a sim sim sauce)
matooke (smashed plantain- love it)
sweet potato
Kasava
posho
millet
Friday, June 5, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
#1 June 9th- Tuesday
-Getting ready
It's hard to believe it, but it's time to go. Lisa and I are leaving for Irvine in the morning. I spent the day packing and getting the car ready for the summer. I met up with one of my best friends for breakfast and later I met up with Bryn and Elena. The next time I see them will be in Uganda! I've got plenty of packing to do and it's getting late. Hopefully, I'll have more interesting things to write soon.
It's hard to believe it, but it's time to go. Lisa and I are leaving for Irvine in the morning. I spent the day packing and getting the car ready for the summer. I met up with one of my best friends for breakfast and later I met up with Bryn and Elena. The next time I see them will be in Uganda! I've got plenty of packing to do and it's getting late. Hopefully, I'll have more interesting things to write soon.
#2 June 10th- Wednesday
-Getting ready
Not much to say, we drove down to Irvine in the morning. When we arrived hung out with family and got settled in. Everyone has been asking me if I'm excited about the trip. It's an interesting question. I've been wondering why I'm not brimming over with excitment. It's not that I don't relish the chance to serve and have an adventure, it's just that those emotions are cooled off my the reality that I'll be away from my girls for a LONG time.
Not much to say, we drove down to Irvine in the morning. When we arrived hung out with family and got settled in. Everyone has been asking me if I'm excited about the trip. It's an interesting question. I've been wondering why I'm not brimming over with excitment. It's not that I don't relish the chance to serve and have an adventure, it's just that those emotions are cooled off my the reality that I'll be away from my girls for a LONG time.
#3 June 11th- Thursday
-Getting ready
Lisa and I took a walk around the lake with the girls today. Irvine is such an unbelievably beautiful place. While we were walking around the lake, I keep thinking about how much I'd like to stay here all summer with my girls. The reality of being away is really starting to set in and I find myself asking, "is it going to be worth it." I think I found my answer. This summer I'm on a quest to read the Bible cover to cover. In the book of Genesis, God tells Abraham that he is blessed to be a blessing. My life is clearly blessed. When I think of the people I work with, the woman I love, and the kids we cherish, I know I'm blessed. I've been asking myself, "why would you want to interupt a perfectly good thing?" The answer comes when I think about the millions of children who have no parents and limited hope for the future. For me it comes down to a choice between hope and fear. The fear in me says, I might not come back, my girls will miss me, I won't make a difference. The hope in me says, this was what I was created to do, change is possible, there is the possibility for a future and a hope for everyone.
On a lighter side, we went to Lisa's cousin's 8th grade graduation. It was good to see family. I bought a hand buzzer (from a magic shop). I thought it might be a fun prank in Uganda. I'm not sure what to bring, beyond the essentials. I bought a lazer pointer. I'm bringing Catch Phrase, an illustrated history book, a bunch of National Geographic Maps, an inflatable globe, AP World History flash cards, and sharpie pens. I was thinking that we could make flashcards out of wood chips or some other material. I'm bringing a nice watch for my Ugandan teaching counterpart, Yeko George. What a cool name!!! I can't wait to meet him. That's all for now.
Lisa and I took a walk around the lake with the girls today. Irvine is such an unbelievably beautiful place. While we were walking around the lake, I keep thinking about how much I'd like to stay here all summer with my girls. The reality of being away is really starting to set in and I find myself asking, "is it going to be worth it." I think I found my answer. This summer I'm on a quest to read the Bible cover to cover. In the book of Genesis, God tells Abraham that he is blessed to be a blessing. My life is clearly blessed. When I think of the people I work with, the woman I love, and the kids we cherish, I know I'm blessed. I've been asking myself, "why would you want to interupt a perfectly good thing?" The answer comes when I think about the millions of children who have no parents and limited hope for the future. For me it comes down to a choice between hope and fear. The fear in me says, I might not come back, my girls will miss me, I won't make a difference. The hope in me says, this was what I was created to do, change is possible, there is the possibility for a future and a hope for everyone.
On a lighter side, we went to Lisa's cousin's 8th grade graduation. It was good to see family. I bought a hand buzzer (from a magic shop). I thought it might be a fun prank in Uganda. I'm not sure what to bring, beyond the essentials. I bought a lazer pointer. I'm bringing Catch Phrase, an illustrated history book, a bunch of National Geographic Maps, an inflatable globe, AP World History flash cards, and sharpie pens. I was thinking that we could make flashcards out of wood chips or some other material. I'm bringing a nice watch for my Ugandan teaching counterpart, Yeko George. What a cool name!!! I can't wait to meet him. That's all for now.
#4 June 12th- Friday
-Getting ready
Yesterday was rough. I mean it was a great day. Lisa and I took the girls to the place where I proposed to her. We hung out all day and ended off with an fun game of Apples to Apples. After winning the game (legitamatly) it all started to hit Julia. She cried in my arms for almost an hour. It ripped my heart out. It made me second guess my choice to go. I didn't sleep at all last night. I stayed up and packed and prayed.
#5 June 13th- Saturday
-Leave LAX to NY to London to Uganda!!!!!!!!!
I'm ridiculously tired right now and I'm hoping to sleep through the flight to London. I met my team tonight. They all seem like really cool people. I think I've got all their names down, or close to it. I was able to chat with my girls and that was really comforting. Well, there is no need to go on about the travel part of the trip. My goal is to get some rest and trek out into London tomorrow.....oh yeah, and I've got to mention that I walked past a man who snores as loud as a bear growls. It made me jump and the people behind me thought it was pretty funny.
#7 June 15th- Monday
I have a map of Africa in my classroom. It was surreal to watch the image of our plane move past the Mediterranean Sea, over the Sahara and the Nile, to Lake Victoria. It was like a dream. The Entebbe airport is really small, but clean. Three of us lost luggage, so we were delayed trying to work that out.
We met Amy, the director at the airport. She has a lot of energy and has a vision for using drama in education. She has a 7 year old daughter named Hero who is coming next week. I wish I could have Julia come out with her. We loaded our bus and went off to the Backpacker’s Hostel in Kampala. I’m staying in a room with the guys and I made the mistake of sleeping on the top bunk. (It’s pretty warm up there). Backpacker’s is a rustic getaway with a bunch of 20 something travelers. At this point in the trip, I feel like a tourist. We are a bunch of American’s looking out from a bus like we are on safari in the city. We all feel awkward about this. I can hardly wait to get to know people here.
Later in the day, we went over to Garden City to exchange money. The exchange rate is $1 to 2,100 Ugandan shillings. Some of us cashed in $500 making us “Shillingionaires”. We bought minutes for Matt’s cell phone, which we will be able to share during the trip. I’m glad to say, It works! Lisa was able to call me and it was so good to hear her voice. I set her up on Skype before I left, so there is no cost for us to receive the call and very little cost for her to send it.
After the exchange, we traveled to the Lubiri School where we were hosted by Michael Okot, Jolli’s brother. The Luburi School is one of the best performing public schools in Uganda. Their motto is. “We learn by doing” The first thing I noticed was a couple students outside of the administration building checking out their grades. All student scores are public knowledge and they care very much about succeeding. Uganda has national standards that students must master if they are going to proceed to the university. The school has about 3,000 students and the average class size is between 60 and 80. We visited a few classrooms to get a feel for how a high performing Uganda school operates. For one thing, the classrooms have nothing but chalkboards and seats. There is a library where students have access a copy of their textbooks. All around the schools there are messages about AIDS painted on the wall like; AIDS is a fire, don’t add wood, Poverty invites AIDS, be industrious, Have compassions on those with AIDS, fight the stigma of AIDS.
We were also able to meet Jacob, from the original IC film. He was the boy who cried at the end. Jacob has grown so much. He is 20 years old next year and plans to go to the university. He is a gracious guy. We could hear some of his classmates giggling when Michael Okot pulled him out of class. He is handling his “celebrity status” very well.
Later, at Backpacker’s we hung out and saw some monkeys nearby. I got some very close up pictures. I was about 2 feet away. We have access to a shower, my first in 3 days! It was good to wash off the funk. At night we ate at Sam’s. It was really delicious Indian food. (As I write this, a monkey is jumping over my head in the tree!!!!) We ate with Emmy Okot, Jollie’s husband. He is a very warm and gracious person. When we got back to Backpacker’s I went straight to bed. One of the guys on the trips snored so loud that it made my bed rattle. I woke up to the Muslim call to prayer at 5 am. I’ll write more later!
We met Amy, the director at the airport. She has a lot of energy and has a vision for using drama in education. She has a 7 year old daughter named Hero who is coming next week. I wish I could have Julia come out with her. We loaded our bus and went off to the Backpacker’s Hostel in Kampala. I’m staying in a room with the guys and I made the mistake of sleeping on the top bunk. (It’s pretty warm up there). Backpacker’s is a rustic getaway with a bunch of 20 something travelers. At this point in the trip, I feel like a tourist. We are a bunch of American’s looking out from a bus like we are on safari in the city. We all feel awkward about this. I can hardly wait to get to know people here.
Later in the day, we went over to Garden City to exchange money. The exchange rate is $1 to 2,100 Ugandan shillings. Some of us cashed in $500 making us “Shillingionaires”. We bought minutes for Matt’s cell phone, which we will be able to share during the trip. I’m glad to say, It works! Lisa was able to call me and it was so good to hear her voice. I set her up on Skype before I left, so there is no cost for us to receive the call and very little cost for her to send it.
After the exchange, we traveled to the Lubiri School where we were hosted by Michael Okot, Jolli’s brother. The Luburi School is one of the best performing public schools in Uganda. Their motto is. “We learn by doing” The first thing I noticed was a couple students outside of the administration building checking out their grades. All student scores are public knowledge and they care very much about succeeding. Uganda has national standards that students must master if they are going to proceed to the university. The school has about 3,000 students and the average class size is between 60 and 80. We visited a few classrooms to get a feel for how a high performing Uganda school operates. For one thing, the classrooms have nothing but chalkboards and seats. There is a library where students have access a copy of their textbooks. All around the schools there are messages about AIDS painted on the wall like; AIDS is a fire, don’t add wood, Poverty invites AIDS, be industrious, Have compassions on those with AIDS, fight the stigma of AIDS.
We were also able to meet Jacob, from the original IC film. He was the boy who cried at the end. Jacob has grown so much. He is 20 years old next year and plans to go to the university. He is a gracious guy. We could hear some of his classmates giggling when Michael Okot pulled him out of class. He is handling his “celebrity status” very well.
Later, at Backpacker’s we hung out and saw some monkeys nearby. I got some very close up pictures. I was about 2 feet away. We have access to a shower, my first in 3 days! It was good to wash off the funk. At night we ate at Sam’s. It was really delicious Indian food. (As I write this, a monkey is jumping over my head in the tree!!!!) We ate with Emmy Okot, Jollie’s husband. He is a very warm and gracious person. When we got back to Backpacker’s I went straight to bed. One of the guys on the trips snored so loud that it made my bed rattle. I woke up to the Muslim call to prayer at 5 am. I’ll write more later!
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