Commuting in Kampala

Well I thought it was time I did my own entry as there is so much we can share! I am having so much fun! This is something Alison has wanted to do for so long and I am really glad that we are here as this is more than I expected.  We feel safe here or at least thought of how it could have been.  Like we have mentioned earlier, there is a presidential election that are going to be happening in Uganda in February, so there could be some civil unrest leading up to it. So it is pretty cool to have 24hr security on the premises.

Let me now share with you a little bit about some of the differences…like how we get back and forth from the baby home...

Watoto has forbidden us to take the “boda boda” which is just a motorcycle taxi. The reason being is the traffic here is very busy and very chaotic. So to take this form of transportation would be extremely dangerous!  What we are encouraged to take is either a private taxi-a flat rate of 20,000 shillings (10.00 USD); or take the “matatu” which is a mini-bus that will fit 14 people…but sometimes, more would be fit in.  I will post a video clip of an everyday commute for us soon.

There are a few drivers we will now call almost on a daily basis as they know who we are.  Also because they know whereabouts we live so there is no re-explaining again as to where our home is! :-D (there are no house numbers.  There are only area locations and street names. We live in the Buziga area and so the drivers know immediately where to go). Our taxi drivers are very friendly and will tell us about Kampala and just about anything we have questions about. Well, I would love to write more, but I have a driver on its way now to come take us to the baby home.  Be back again soon.

Life in Africa

We are now here in Africa and I have to say that being ecstatic quickly went to exhaustion as it was a long trip and we had to get use to 8 hour time difference to get use to!!! The last entry was written solo but so much has happened in the first four days of being here Lawrence and I thought we would write this next entry together to share the first leg of our journey.

Firstly, we would like to inform everybody that since our orientation here, we have learned that we cannot post pictures from the baby home online, although we are free to share them with everybody on our return but due to privacy reasons of the children and their families, we are asked not to put them on the internet.  We can put pictures from our everyday life here, but even with this, we have to be careful as it is illegal to take pictures of military, police officials and government sites.  People in the village can be suspicious of Mzungu (their word for white people….and yes here Lawrence is considered as a white person) so we do need to be careful taking pictures in the village as we don’t want to be offensive. We look forward to sharing lots of pictures of our trip, but we are here to serve the community that is our first priority, so we don’t want to do anything that is not putting the people’s needs first. Uganda is getting ready to have elections in February so there are some safety concerns that go along with this (AHHH) well all that being said we are both absolutely loving being here!  The locals are very friendly, and there are also many other wonderful volunteers here that we are getting to know and are sharing the guest house to Lawrence’s delight with a group of girls (yes all girls) from Norway and Australia so at the current time, Lawrence is quite out numbered.  There are other men volunteers but they are quite few and far in between at the current time. At the present time, most of the volunteers our single lady’s we are hoping that we will see more couples during our stay here as there are always volunteers coming and going.

The baby home is absolutely wonderful!! The babies are amazing! They are so cute and to play with we are both having a great time with them. Our first day with them was a wonderful experience, we would hear a baby cry and soon as you went near the baby and let the baby know you were there, you were greeted with a huge smile! How can you not fall in love with that?? It was a wonderful way to start the day with them. The second day they were not quite as happy but they already had captured our heart! We got to take them for a walk to the mall now let me give you a picture of a ‘walk’ to the mall because it was so different from what you would see at home. A big group of us each took a baby and carried them on to a big bus with no car seats; the babies sat on our lap for the commute (we will share with you at a later point what a commute looks like here because the roads themselves are a story of their own!) Then when we got out of the bus all of us Mzungu’s with our babies started walking through the mall……which was quite a site you should have seen some of the looks we got. We took them to a playground that sits on top of the mall. Then when play time was done, we had to walk back to the baby home carrying the babies in our arms. This may sound like an easy task but it was exhausting!  Alison was almost tempted to quit half way as it did feel like your arms would break off at any time.  We did make it back and were reassured by the other volunteers that on most walks you get to use a carry strap so the babies are attached to you so you’re not just carrying them.

This has just been one of our many adventures so far we would love to share more stories but we do need to get ready to return back to the baby home for our first full day there. We have had such an experience it feels like we have already been here for so long and it hasn’t even been a week. We are already dreading the day we have to leave, but at the same time looking forward to being reunited with the luxuries of life back home. We will be back hopefully soon to share more adventures but as I’m sure you can understand internet is not as easily accessible as back home.  Please share with us any thoughts you have or if you have any questions or things you would like us to write about we would love to share so just let us know. 

With love Lawrence and Alison

........and the journey begins

So tomorrow we leave Sault Ste. Marie to start our journey to Africa. We start the trip with a greyhound bus trip to Montreal where we will make camp for the next few days. Then Saturday we get on a plane landing in Africa on Sunday 10:10 pm (2 pm Eastern Standard Time). It all feels so surreal and the whole idea of it is incredibly exciting!

The ministry we are going through is called Watoto. I am so in love with this organization and the work that they are doing. To me, its a ministry that is there really raising people up to be the leaders that they are called to be. We ourselves will be working in the baby home doing whatever is needed. I am super excited about the tons of baby clothes that so many people have generously donated and looking forward to filling the clothes with some very precious babies!

As much as we will miss everybody back home, (including my cute little kitty Tazsie that I am so sad to be leaving), I am incredibly excited about the next few weeks that lie ahead. Please everybody if you see my bff Kyna give her a big hug for me as I miss her and her youngings terribly already. I'm sure the next posting you'll see will be from a very ecstatic girl in Africa!

Alison