NicolesLetters.org

Hi Everyone!

First I’d like to give a big thanks to Deena, my dear friend that has built and maintained this website all on her own time and her own dime. I’m so grateful for her support and offering this means for all of you to feel connected to the happenings in Uganda. I’d like to mention also that if you are looking for a website or maintaining a current website please inquire with her as her contact info is on this page at the bottom. She has even mentioned a portion of the proceeds going to Children’s Heritage Foundation. I have received emails about the updates to the site. It looks great! Thanks Deena!

Newly Added Website Features

The electricity is so unpredictable especially now we just had a huge storm with hail and thunder & lightening. I’m going to drop my message it’s very long, it covers many days and has tons of pictures. I hope the electricity holds on until I’m done….

It’s been almost a week now since I was preparing to return to my “second home”, Uganda. It’s Saturday January something, it could be February for all I know as the days all blur together when I get here. I’m sitting on the bed in my Gulu hotel room under my mosquito net, listening to Kenney Chesney. The last few weeks at home were busy preparing to pick this and that and have a lively conversation with Caremark mail order prescriptions since my anti-malaria doxycycline was supposed to have a 90 day count to hold me over until my visit in March, only had a 34 day count.

Making it the airport seemed unreal. After months of preparation and waiting, the day had come to return to a land where I knew my work would go to good use. We left for the San Diego airport at 6am to prepare for my flight leaving at 8:45am. After checking my three huge pieces of luggage one weighing in at a mere 76 pounds full of gifts for the sponsored kids, these gifts spilled into my other pieces of luggage also. I was glad that no person of any authority had to pick up my carry on bag as it my have weighed 40 pounds where I saw the weight limit was 18 pounds. This weight partly due to the printer inside. Even the men I had to ask help me put it in the overhead bin made funny faces when they realized how heavy it was. My flights were seamless and uneventful (thankfully). From San Diego to Minneapolis, 45 minutes there, on to a 7+ hour flight to Amsterdam. No sweat, not even a full flight, watched three movies and had enough space to sleep if I wanted to. Arrived in Amsterdam at 6:30 am their time, now creeping up to midnight on my body clock. I slept for a couple of hours huddled over my bag in awkward positions just enough to take away the headache and dry eyes that set in after hours on a plane and when sleep is needed so deeply. There was a 50+ American guy sitting near me, when I woke up he asked me where I was headed. I told him Entebbe, he said he was going there to and asked me the best way to get around there. “Do you rent a car or take a cab from there?”; he was trying to figure out how to get around, as he would meet up with some people he knew in Uganda. I laughed at the idea of driving there as a foreigner. I tried to explain but he’ll “get it” when he sees the driving there. I took off to find a toothbrush. The ONE thing I forgot. Okay one of the two things I forgot… I also forgot to call my bank and tell them I’d be in Uganda and not to stop my ATM card it I tried to get some $$. That’s a big oops. How’d I forget THAT? Of all my lists of things to do. It’s okay I’ll call them from here. It finally came time to board my flight from Amsterdam to Entebbe. Flying to Africa from Amsterdam I / we (everyone on the flight) had to go through another security check-point to board the plane, yes this is after already being in the secure area of the airport. My flight from there was another breeze. I was asleep before the plan even took off. I was thankful for my smarts in wearing enough warm clothes and I snagged three airplane blankets to keep me warm. I slept for about 4 hours and woke up hungry, as I hadn’t eaten sine my flight to Amsterdam from Minneapolis. I asked the flight attendant he said, “you were sleeping” he brought me a meal right away; it was great teriyaki chicken and rice with green beans. Yum! I got into Entebbe with no problem, grabbed my bags and went out to find Pastor Stephen waiting.

Robert was driving and Grace and Margaret also came to the airport to greet me. We dropped off Margaret (aka Maggie) and Grace in Mukono as we continued on to Lugazi where Pastor Stephen lives and where I’m staying until the apartment is finished at the school. I was only able to sleep until about 4 or 5 am. I went to the school that day it must have been Wednesday. Of course I’m going around looking for work already and they tell me to rest. I ran into a few of the kids I know. School hasn’t started yet, the kids return on Sunday and Monday. I did see Sylvia (Saunders) and Prescovia (Midura) they were taking their tests to enter the school this year. They are so sweet. I also saw Joyce (Cudal) she was very excited. That night I went to sleep at 7:30 pm and slept until 2:30 am. I luckily had some trail mix in my bag left over from my last hike at Elfin Forest the previous weekend. I snacked on it but also rationed it in the event of another early morning rising. I took this time to clean up some old picture files on my computer. That kept me busy for hours. Thursday was a good day, keeping busy working on our lists of kids and organizing the office as the bookshelf arrived to keep things organized. My Sarah came Thursday with her father. He seems nice enough; I didn’t have a lot of time to speak with him as his time there was consumed with talking with Jessica and Sylvia. I was so happy to see her, I told her that we were going to work very hard this year to teach her to read and she’d be the best pupil (they call them pupils instead of students). We had power for the first time on Thursday and only for about an hour. This is going to be a very interesting change.

I’m sure you are all itching to know about some of the projects and I’m sorry not to have mentioned them sooner. So… the kitchen is almost done! I couldn’t believe it; the building is perfect and beautiful. It looks just amazing. It will be ready in time for the arrival of the kids this weekend. I took some pictures… take a peak at those. Everyone is so grateful for everyone that donated for the new kitchen. A BIG THANK YOU!!!!

Another project is my apartment. Well, it’s about half way done. The bricks are all up as they have to settle and they were laying the tubing for the septic system on Thursday. YAY! It could be another month or so before it’s done. See pictures also.

So Friday, yesterday was a big day. We drove to Gulu. The drive wasn’t bad. I was picked up at 6:30 am and we arrived in Gulu at 3 pm. After we got out of Kampala it was probably about 10:30 or so. It was raining a little and quite cool. Shortly outside of Kampala the terrain changed. It was then a semi-desert. Very dry and hot. I know that Mukono and Kampala are elevated to some 4,000 feet and it seems that we dropped from that elevation and climate changed significantly. Clearly visible that they don’t receive as much rain, people walking far distances carrying water. We were driving on the main road from Kampala to The North. I have always thought it was strange when on highways that there are speed bumps every so often, or every so very often. Then you have cars and buses driving super fast and people are just walking along the side of the road carrying a 5-gallon container of water on their head with a baby on their back. On our way up here, I learned about a village area not necessarily in the “North” where Musevi and the LRA started fighting. It was probably two to three hours south of Gulu. We crossed a bridge that crosses over the Nile River where cameras are not allowed. They don’t allow people to take pictures because Kony from the LRA tried to blow up the bridge many times and I suppose they don’t want to have pictures of its structure to prevent such attacks. I was told he tried to destroy the bridge to really seclude the north from the rest of Uganda.

Shortly after we crossed the bridge we saw some baboons crossing the road, there were probably about 6 or 7 that I saw. See pictures…. They approached the bus when we stopped so passersby must have fed them in the past.

As we arrived closer to Gulu, there were a variety of displacement camps. We could see them from the road. I asked why they did have a wall around them to protect the people inside. Apparently they must leave them open so if there is a rebel attack the people could run in any and every direction. Now there hasn’t been rebel activity since they have moved into Congo and the Ugandan government is out to get them and in talks of a peace treaty, but they have been for years… The people in the displacement camps are starting to move back into the villages. The NGOs are also no longer providing them with food in an effort to encourage them to go back to the villages. The problem is that now the people have been living in the camps for over two decades and often they don’t know where the home once was, especially if they were young when they arrived to the camp and their parents have been killed they have absolutely no idea where they should go. I can’t imagine.

We found Godwin and the rest of the team at the camp and rested a little. I saw two girls in the sponsorship program at the camp. I saw Brenda and Winnie. I was so happy to see them. Pastor Jack told me that when they returned to Gulu after their year at the school that people didn’t recognize them. They had grown so much and were wearing new clothes that they had received and with school bags. They couldn’t believe it. When we arrived to the camp in the bus that has the name of the school on it they said that when the villagers saw the bus they knew that their children were going to be able to eat. ? How sad.

It’s really hard to explain how difficult the life here is unless you can see it for yourself. It is difficult to believe that people do live like this. It is similar to what you see on television, kids wearing rags for clothes, if anything at all. Only the most fortunate ones have decent clothes. They often go without food for an entire day and might only have one meal in a day if anything. The lunch we had there on Saturday was a huge deal. People are now starting to get their lives together but they don’t have resources to build their lives after having everything taken from them and being forced to run for their lives with only the clothes on their backs so many times.

Brenda wanted to introduce me to her family. When I went to their hut they were outside sitting on a mat. There were two babies, one maybe 3-4 months another maybe 1 year or so (I’m a terrible guessing ages of children). The 1 year old started to cry when she saw me. She said that she thought I was going to eat her. Poor thing, I didn’t mean to scare her. She hadn’t seen a white person so close before. (Maybe she was older than 1 year if she could communicate that) I kept looking for Scovia but they said she was in the village. We left the camp and went to two to the hotel to clean up. I needed to change since I was holding Winnie’s baby sister or brother I don’t know. Well her diaper leaked a little while sitting on my lap so I was a little wet. When I picked her up off sitting on me everyone saw that I was wet, it was fine. So I held her on so her feet were on my lap in an effort to dry my skirt.

After we left the hotel to find a snack, Jackson (aka Pastor Jack) called Scovia’s dad so he came to meet us in town. And her mother brought her also. They came in the restaurant and I was so happy to see her. She looks just the same with some teeth coming in now. She sat with me and had some chicken and rice. After that we went to get some things to take to camp today. We spent the rest of the day walking around Gulu to accomplish these tasks. It’s a lot different walking around a town with locals. I never once had people making comments at me or anything. No staring, just from little girls and boys but nothing that felt awkward. I’ve never actually felt that in Uganda and I’m certain it’s because I am always with locals. Nobody messes with you when you are with three Uganda men (and Scovia).

So, here it is now about an hour before we are going to leave for breakfast. I best take a shower so I can go spend the day in the camp. Stay tuned!

Sunday morning 5:43 am

There’s a pesky mosquito flying around my room, maybe he wants to join his friend smashed against the wall! I don’t have as many bites as I get in Mukono as it’s much drier here. At any rate, hopefully the doxycycline does its job. Yesterday we spent the day at the camp. The kids from the sponsorship came with their families and there was a graduation ceremony for Godwin’s team that has been here for outreach for the last week. They have even been staying in the camp. They are much braver than me. There was a lot of time spent waiting in the morning for people to arrive. There isn’t really a time schedule here, as I’d imagine there isn’t typically a lot to be on time for. I think the schedule follows more daylight versus anything else. I took this opportunity to walk around and check out more of the camp, of course with a gang of kids and my chaperone, Jerrard. I was able to meet another family of a sponsored child, Maureen. So I take a picture of them with their family then they want to get a picture of me with their mother. They laugh and think it’s so funny to have a picture of a muzungu with their mom. It’s really funny. On my tour, I got the full experience and even stepped in poop. Luckily I was wearing full coverage shoes and not just flip-flops. I think it was from a baby or a small child. Since many don’t have pants or underwear, they just go when they have to go. It was pretty gross. I’m not sure if anyone I was walking with noticed I just tried to move my foot around in the dirt to get it off. After the ceremony for Godwin’s team which includes members from Mukono, South Africa, Mexico, Argentina and Ghana (Yes I brushed up on my Spanish a little) we had lunch. It consisted of some pasta, cabbage dish, rice, potatoes, some chicken and some beef.. oh and I forgot the name of it but it’s like a pita bread almost crossed with a tortilla and I can’t remember the name but it’s really good. I think this meal was a big deal for them especially since there was meat to eat. Someone said it’s the kind of meal these people have once in a lifetime. I took a couple extra grapefruit extract tabs for fun.

After lunch we gave out Acholi Bibles that were donated. The people were so grateful and so proud to have received a bible of their very own to read and learn from. Pastor Jack had to make it clear that they needed to keep these bibles for themselves and they are not to ever be sold. I suppose here you have to make that clear as people are so desperate for money. There were some other local pastors there also and since so many people have gone back to work in the villages the pastors were given a few bibles to share with members of their churches.

I also saw Milly and met her mother, her mother started touching my arm and was rubbing my freckles she had probably never seen anything like that before.

It’s really sad to see how the people must live here. It’s hard to imagine how people can even stay clean here. The live in the dirt with no shoes often times and some with no clothes (I’ve seen only children with no clothes) it’s awful. They have been robbed of their homes and forced to live in these camps for decades. The NGOs have stopped giving food to the people in the camps, I think I mentioned that before and this in an effort to encourage them to go back to the villages. The problem is that they don’t know where their homes are at times.

Monday Feb 2nd

It’s the morning now we had a long day yesterday on the drive back down here from Gulu. I can hear the chickens going wild in the coop that means that someone is collecting eggs and disrupting them so they’re mad. We had a storm last night. It was raining a lot of the night and with thunder and lightening. I’m sure many of the roads will be really bad today because of it. Scovia and her dad met us at the garage (auto repair) we had to have something small fixed on the bus before we left Gulu. On our way to the camp to pick up the rest of the kids, Scovia was waving out the window and saying Bye Bye Gulu. She’s happy to return to school. She didn’t even want to get out of the bus when we got to the camp. Maureen heard we arrived and came running and out of breath to where we were. She was so happy and was ready to go also. We gave Okello Patrick his new bicycle. He’s the only sponsored child still living in Gulu, when he was living in the camp his school was near but now since he is living back in the village with his aunt (he parents are both gone) and she cares for 5 children alone Patrick has to walk 2 hours to and from school each day. So by the time he goes to and from school he loses daylight hours for studying so this bicycle should help. He was so happy, I was too. It takes a lot to get me choked up but I could hardly speak knowing how much this would change his life. We loaded up the bus with everyone and their luggage and the families were their waving off their children to work towards a better future for themselves. The kids couldn’t get in the bus fast enough with their excitement to leave. The bus ride was a true adventure. Each of the few times we stopped during our 7-8 hour journey we were swarmed by vendors trying to sell drinks and goat meat on a skewer through the windows. There was some poultry purchased somewhere, yes alive and it hung out next to my feet for the bus ride. Whenever it would walk around I’d freak a little thinking it was going to peck or bite at my feet. The kids thought it was hilarious that I’d jump up in an effort to get away from it. Then Milly reached down and started petting it and playing with it. She’s brave. I suppose it’s so common to have these things happen, finally it ended up underneath my seat, at least I forgot about it for a while. We also stopped to purchase coal and pineapples along the way. They said it’s less expensive to buy things in the country (go figure). At one of our stops I made peanut butter sandwiches for the kids. I tried to use a cracker to scoop out the peanut butter, which worked when the jar was full then I had to use my fingers. The sandwiches were a big hit. Kampala was so jammed with traffic. Since all the schools start today the parents were taking their kids back to the boarding schools. I’d never seen so many cars on the road here. We arrived to the school finally and there were many people being brought for the new year also. I saw Betty right away. She is doing great but had chicken pox over the holidays so I showed her my scar on my eyelid and she liked that since she now has some spots on her face from the pox. I’m sure they will fade in a short time. I also met her father. He seems like a nice man and sends greetings to Cammie and her family. I helped to make the beds of some of the kids in the dormitories and I was looking for my other girls like Norah and Angella. I was also looking for Mulenz and Henry but they hadn’t arrived yet, I’m sure today will be a big day. Time for me to get ready for my day. I’m going to try and send out this posting on the website today if there is power. No promises especially since the storm last night. I’ve been waiting 10 minute to load pictures. It’s taking too long, I don’t know if I can even do it on this computer! sorry