Mulembe to everyone back home! Uryena? Indio! Kamahua? Casila! (standard Ugandan greeting)
Before I begin, just want to let you know that to see the pictures I have posted, I believe you have to actually go to http://www.justininuganda.blogspot.com/, rather than reading the blog through the Feedblitz email.
The first photo is a picture of some of the marching band members taking a break between sets. They have been performing for free at the Mbale Resort Hotel (the one nice hotel in Mbale Town, with a pool) to market the band. Half have proper band uniforms that were donated from the UK, and half have sweatshirts that were also donated. The second photo was taken at the circumcision ceremony for one of my neighbors. Grown Ugandans aren’t big on smiling for photos! This is just after he was circumcised. The dancing after this ceremony was like a mosh pit…I got tossed all over the place! - THE PHOTOS NOT UPLOADING...I WILL TRY AGAIN TOMORROW!
I have recently returned from a 10 day trip to Rwanda and then to Kampala where I was running errands and relaxing at Conso’s house, which was a palace compared to my living situation here in Mbale. It’s nice to have her house as a place to come and relax. Got hot showers, power 24/7, fine livin’! With the Speke Resort so close it is definitely the place to recharge. But I’m all good in my little house in Mbale for 8 more months, and then wherever I am living next, I will return to the comfort zone. I did buy a weight set and yoga mat and set up an exercise area in an empty room in the school so I can stay in decent shape, and I will buy a few pieces of art to decorate my little place…things that I will bring home with me.
The music thing is coming along well! I’ve reserved the domain name http://www.papajustin.com/ to post what I have been doing. Dave and Jeff Dorfman are all over the web design…thanks to both! The site should be ready in a few weeks. I’ll let you know when it is up and running. I really want to buy an electric guitar and play that as well, but I’m not sure this is the wisest idea because of the cost and the lack of power every other day. I am going to sit with this for a few weeks.
Been shooting lots of photos and video…definitely going to put together some sort of multimedia show when I get home…hopefully this won’t put too many people to sleep! And afterwards, maybe a little concert? Dave doesn’t know this yet, but I am going to teach him the guitar parts and he’s going to play with me. Casuto. better dust off that 6 string, break out the velvet pants, and get ready to turn it up to eleven! Speaking of Dave…for those of you who don’t know Senior Surf was just awarded a $10,000 matching grant from the Y & H Soda Foundation to provide computer classes for needy seniors whose first language is not English. Congrats Dave, and kudos for the good work you are doing in the world. Proud of you my brotha.
So the latest news…
I had a lot of time recharge and to process my experience so far with FDNC over the 10 days I was in Rwanda and Kampala. I came back and met with Sam for about five hours, and shared many of my ideas with him. We have agreed that I will be assuming many of his responsibilities now. In essence, I will be somewhat of an acting CEO. Sam of course is still the CEO and all final decisions will be made by him, but I will be handling most of the day to day operations of the organization. I called a meeting on Monday for all of the upper level management team to introduce some new programs and action items. I am excited to take on more of a leadership role now, and allow Sam to have a little bit of a breather! He started this organization 10 years ago and he’s been going nonstop ever since. This first week in this role went very well – I am focusing a lot of energies right now on the finances of the organization, trying to get things organized and trying to weed out any potential for corruption. Sam and I will already be terminating one employee on Monday for this very reason. In my next blog I will update everyone on how things are progressing.
On the homefront…Mai’s daughter Lona was doing well for a while – we were crushing up her medication and putting it in her food for a few weeks. She went back to work, and put Stella back in school. But she discovered what we were doing and stopped eating the food unless she watched it be prepared. So now she is sick again and we are back to square one. Oh, and today, Sprite the dog mauled one of Mai’s turkeys, so this morning Mai was running around with a stick trying to kill the dog, and I was running around chasing her telling her I would take the dog somewhere far away where it couldn’t find it’s way back! We must have been a sight to see running around like crazy fools! And there is a Japanese JICA (equivalent of Peace Corps) volunteer, Kubo, living in Mai’s house now. He just got here last week, so haven’t gotten to know him that well yet.
I have had several nice getaways since I last wrote. Three weekends ago I went to Sipi Falls, about an hour from Mbale. It is a set of three waterfalls in the mountains that are spectacular. We did a four hour hike through the countryside to see all of them. Two weeks ago was the trip to Rwanda. I went with a couple of American women I met recently who live in Kampala. It was about a 9 hour bus ride through beautiful hills and mountains to get to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. I wasn’t sure what to expect of Rwanda, but it is definitely in better shape than Uganda. Two things that immediately stood out were that the streets were much cleaner, and the motorcycle taxi drivers wore orange vests and helmets, and provided extra helmets for riders – all unlike Uganda. Our first morning we went to see the Hotel Rwanda. (Hotel Des Mille Collones – which means Hotel of a Thousand Hills) It was a relatively posh hotel, and it was difficult to imagine what happened there. We then took motorcycles over to see the Rwandan Genocide Memorial. I was impressed by how well done this was. It was about a 2 ½ hour tour that used pictures, video, and information boards in KiRwandan, French (Rwanda was first a German colony, and then Belgian after World War I) and English. It was broken into four main segments: the history leading up to the genocide, the genocide itself, the aftermath, and reconciliation. It was primarily the racial labeling of Rwandans into two distinct categories, Hutus and Tutsis, that the German colonists first imposed and then the Belgians strengthened that set the stage for the genocide. Again, it was hard to connect with the kind of face to face brutality that occurred here, even as I walked through the memorial. We then went to Rurengere to visit Volcano National Park where the mountain gorillas are. We all hope to see the gorillas next year in Uganda, so we decided instead to climb one of the volcanoes, Busikye. It was a tough climb – 3 hours straight up at 2700 meters in the mud. I was fighting a cold, didn’t eat a proper breakfast, and I’m not in the best shape of my life, so I was shot by the time we reached the top. But the crater lake at the top inside the volcano was worth it. Next we headed to the town of Kisinge on the shores of Lake Kivu, a beautiful area with hot springs and lovely hills. We also stepped into Congo, but they wanted $30 for a visa, and we only planned to stay for an hour or so, so I don’t have the stamp in my passport. But I’ve been to Congo…don’t tell me otherwise!
So what is going on in my head after almost 3 months? I definitely feel myself relaxing into a place I haven’t been for a long, long time. I’ve put so much pressure on myself for years to be responsible, work hard, be smart with money, serve different causes…blah blah blah…I haven’t cut myself much slack. But I am experiencing a growing sense of inner freedom that I have gotten little tastes of here and there over the years, but could not seem to hang on to for very long. Of course, I have had some trying times. All westerners that come here experience frustration about certain realities. But I have given myself the time and freedom to pick up my guitar and play and sing, or take my motorcycle out and just ride, or go to the pool in town, or relax with my host family, or read, and definitely get addicted to Lost and 24 and watch for hours on my laptop...whatever I need to do to unwind! At home I wouldn’t or couldn’t do many of those things to decompress. The key is how do I take this home with me? I’ll figure that out later!
As time is passing, the poverty here isn’t affecting me as much anymore. It has become part of the landscape - part of everyday life. But I am also very aware everyday that I and all of us hit the life jackpot in so many ways. It’s gravy every day for us. We can travel wherever we want whenever we want, we live in relative comfort compared to most people in the world…we’ve got it made. Yes, life is tough all over, but life’s problems are much easier to handle when there is food on the table and money in the bank. None of this is a new or profound revelation to me or any of us, but it gives one a different perspective when you are living in the middle of poverty as part of the community, and yet you know you have a free ticket out anytime. I definitely felt guilty when I left for Rwanda and said goodbye to the students. Many of them have never been out of Mbale, much less traveled to another country, and they would all love to get out and go. They can’t even afford to go home to their villages most of the time because they can’t afford transport. One student walked an entire day to get to his village recently. And that same boy hauled a bag of food back for me as a gift to thank me and all of you for the things that were donated to the boy’s hostel. It’s just a very different reality, almost surreal at times. It’s difficult because I could easily help individual students financially. I could have given a dollar to that boy, and he could have taken a minibus home. But there are problems with that, the primary one being that if I help individual students, then all expect something, and I can’t help everyone. So I have tried to put my energies into helping the organization so that it can better serve people in the community. Everyday I am grateful for the many ways that this experience is opening my eyes, and I am thankful that I created the space in my life to come here.
So I am off to meet some American visitors…I think next time I will try and talk about some of the cultural differences I’ve experienced here, such as the mother-in-law taboo. What?! More details soon!
Thank you for being here with me on this journey.
Much love,
Papa Justin Uncle Justin
PJUJ
Before I begin, just want to let you know that to see the pictures I have posted, I believe you have to actually go to http://www.justininuganda.blogspot.com/, rather than reading the blog through the Feedblitz email.
The first photo is a picture of some of the marching band members taking a break between sets. They have been performing for free at the Mbale Resort Hotel (the one nice hotel in Mbale Town, with a pool) to market the band. Half have proper band uniforms that were donated from the UK, and half have sweatshirts that were also donated. The second photo was taken at the circumcision ceremony for one of my neighbors. Grown Ugandans aren’t big on smiling for photos! This is just after he was circumcised. The dancing after this ceremony was like a mosh pit…I got tossed all over the place! - THE PHOTOS NOT UPLOADING...I WILL TRY AGAIN TOMORROW!
I have recently returned from a 10 day trip to Rwanda and then to Kampala where I was running errands and relaxing at Conso’s house, which was a palace compared to my living situation here in Mbale. It’s nice to have her house as a place to come and relax. Got hot showers, power 24/7, fine livin’! With the Speke Resort so close it is definitely the place to recharge. But I’m all good in my little house in Mbale for 8 more months, and then wherever I am living next, I will return to the comfort zone. I did buy a weight set and yoga mat and set up an exercise area in an empty room in the school so I can stay in decent shape, and I will buy a few pieces of art to decorate my little place…things that I will bring home with me.
The music thing is coming along well! I’ve reserved the domain name http://www.papajustin.com/ to post what I have been doing. Dave and Jeff Dorfman are all over the web design…thanks to both! The site should be ready in a few weeks. I’ll let you know when it is up and running. I really want to buy an electric guitar and play that as well, but I’m not sure this is the wisest idea because of the cost and the lack of power every other day. I am going to sit with this for a few weeks.
Been shooting lots of photos and video…definitely going to put together some sort of multimedia show when I get home…hopefully this won’t put too many people to sleep! And afterwards, maybe a little concert? Dave doesn’t know this yet, but I am going to teach him the guitar parts and he’s going to play with me. Casuto. better dust off that 6 string, break out the velvet pants, and get ready to turn it up to eleven! Speaking of Dave…for those of you who don’t know Senior Surf was just awarded a $10,000 matching grant from the Y & H Soda Foundation to provide computer classes for needy seniors whose first language is not English. Congrats Dave, and kudos for the good work you are doing in the world. Proud of you my brotha.
So the latest news…
I had a lot of time recharge and to process my experience so far with FDNC over the 10 days I was in Rwanda and Kampala. I came back and met with Sam for about five hours, and shared many of my ideas with him. We have agreed that I will be assuming many of his responsibilities now. In essence, I will be somewhat of an acting CEO. Sam of course is still the CEO and all final decisions will be made by him, but I will be handling most of the day to day operations of the organization. I called a meeting on Monday for all of the upper level management team to introduce some new programs and action items. I am excited to take on more of a leadership role now, and allow Sam to have a little bit of a breather! He started this organization 10 years ago and he’s been going nonstop ever since. This first week in this role went very well – I am focusing a lot of energies right now on the finances of the organization, trying to get things organized and trying to weed out any potential for corruption. Sam and I will already be terminating one employee on Monday for this very reason. In my next blog I will update everyone on how things are progressing.
On the homefront…Mai’s daughter Lona was doing well for a while – we were crushing up her medication and putting it in her food for a few weeks. She went back to work, and put Stella back in school. But she discovered what we were doing and stopped eating the food unless she watched it be prepared. So now she is sick again and we are back to square one. Oh, and today, Sprite the dog mauled one of Mai’s turkeys, so this morning Mai was running around with a stick trying to kill the dog, and I was running around chasing her telling her I would take the dog somewhere far away where it couldn’t find it’s way back! We must have been a sight to see running around like crazy fools! And there is a Japanese JICA (equivalent of Peace Corps) volunteer, Kubo, living in Mai’s house now. He just got here last week, so haven’t gotten to know him that well yet.
I have had several nice getaways since I last wrote. Three weekends ago I went to Sipi Falls, about an hour from Mbale. It is a set of three waterfalls in the mountains that are spectacular. We did a four hour hike through the countryside to see all of them. Two weeks ago was the trip to Rwanda. I went with a couple of American women I met recently who live in Kampala. It was about a 9 hour bus ride through beautiful hills and mountains to get to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. I wasn’t sure what to expect of Rwanda, but it is definitely in better shape than Uganda. Two things that immediately stood out were that the streets were much cleaner, and the motorcycle taxi drivers wore orange vests and helmets, and provided extra helmets for riders – all unlike Uganda. Our first morning we went to see the Hotel Rwanda. (Hotel Des Mille Collones – which means Hotel of a Thousand Hills) It was a relatively posh hotel, and it was difficult to imagine what happened there. We then took motorcycles over to see the Rwandan Genocide Memorial. I was impressed by how well done this was. It was about a 2 ½ hour tour that used pictures, video, and information boards in KiRwandan, French (Rwanda was first a German colony, and then Belgian after World War I) and English. It was broken into four main segments: the history leading up to the genocide, the genocide itself, the aftermath, and reconciliation. It was primarily the racial labeling of Rwandans into two distinct categories, Hutus and Tutsis, that the German colonists first imposed and then the Belgians strengthened that set the stage for the genocide. Again, it was hard to connect with the kind of face to face brutality that occurred here, even as I walked through the memorial. We then went to Rurengere to visit Volcano National Park where the mountain gorillas are. We all hope to see the gorillas next year in Uganda, so we decided instead to climb one of the volcanoes, Busikye. It was a tough climb – 3 hours straight up at 2700 meters in the mud. I was fighting a cold, didn’t eat a proper breakfast, and I’m not in the best shape of my life, so I was shot by the time we reached the top. But the crater lake at the top inside the volcano was worth it. Next we headed to the town of Kisinge on the shores of Lake Kivu, a beautiful area with hot springs and lovely hills. We also stepped into Congo, but they wanted $30 for a visa, and we only planned to stay for an hour or so, so I don’t have the stamp in my passport. But I’ve been to Congo…don’t tell me otherwise!
So what is going on in my head after almost 3 months? I definitely feel myself relaxing into a place I haven’t been for a long, long time. I’ve put so much pressure on myself for years to be responsible, work hard, be smart with money, serve different causes…blah blah blah…I haven’t cut myself much slack. But I am experiencing a growing sense of inner freedom that I have gotten little tastes of here and there over the years, but could not seem to hang on to for very long. Of course, I have had some trying times. All westerners that come here experience frustration about certain realities. But I have given myself the time and freedom to pick up my guitar and play and sing, or take my motorcycle out and just ride, or go to the pool in town, or relax with my host family, or read, and definitely get addicted to Lost and 24 and watch for hours on my laptop...whatever I need to do to unwind! At home I wouldn’t or couldn’t do many of those things to decompress. The key is how do I take this home with me? I’ll figure that out later!
As time is passing, the poverty here isn’t affecting me as much anymore. It has become part of the landscape - part of everyday life. But I am also very aware everyday that I and all of us hit the life jackpot in so many ways. It’s gravy every day for us. We can travel wherever we want whenever we want, we live in relative comfort compared to most people in the world…we’ve got it made. Yes, life is tough all over, but life’s problems are much easier to handle when there is food on the table and money in the bank. None of this is a new or profound revelation to me or any of us, but it gives one a different perspective when you are living in the middle of poverty as part of the community, and yet you know you have a free ticket out anytime. I definitely felt guilty when I left for Rwanda and said goodbye to the students. Many of them have never been out of Mbale, much less traveled to another country, and they would all love to get out and go. They can’t even afford to go home to their villages most of the time because they can’t afford transport. One student walked an entire day to get to his village recently. And that same boy hauled a bag of food back for me as a gift to thank me and all of you for the things that were donated to the boy’s hostel. It’s just a very different reality, almost surreal at times. It’s difficult because I could easily help individual students financially. I could have given a dollar to that boy, and he could have taken a minibus home. But there are problems with that, the primary one being that if I help individual students, then all expect something, and I can’t help everyone. So I have tried to put my energies into helping the organization so that it can better serve people in the community. Everyday I am grateful for the many ways that this experience is opening my eyes, and I am thankful that I created the space in my life to come here.
So I am off to meet some American visitors…I think next time I will try and talk about some of the cultural differences I’ve experienced here, such as the mother-in-law taboo. What?! More details soon!
Thank you for being here with me on this journey.
Much love,
Papa Justin Uncle Justin
PJUJ
posted by Justin Silbaugh at 8:21 AM
3 comments
