Pretty Much Amazing...

Mzungu: (mi-ZOON-goo) Luganda for white person. Literal translation: chicken walking around with it's head cut off. This is what the children scream as we pass by. We were picked up yesterday at 10:30am by Sam, who helps run an organization in a nearby village that my friend Kate works with. We went with him and two other young men to this village, Namagera, close to an hour away from Jinja, not really knowing what to expect other than there would be a widow's group there that makes necklaces, and we were going to take their pictures and document the bead making process. We were in for so much more than that!

I won't tell you the day detail for detail, because every second was amazing and I could go on and on. To summarize, we had never been treated with such warmth and kindness by anyone in all our lives. They were so grateful to have us there and made us feel so incredibly welcome. The entire day we were humbled by their hospitality and gratitude. When we arrived in Namagera, we were driven to the building that WOCAP (Widows and Orphan Community Action Plan) uses as a secondary school for children in the community. Waiting for us were a group of widows, excitedly shouting and yelling as we got out of the car. The whole drive people were waving and saying jambo (hello in Swahili) and shouting MZUNGU! Once we arrived we were treated like we were sent from God. They knelt down as they shook our hands and had us sit in the best chairs and were just so amazing to us.

We got a tour of the land that WOCAP has for growing crops such as sugarcane, coffee beans, maize, potatoes, and g-nuts. They also had goats, cows, pigs, and chickens. The women and children that are part of the WOCAP community use the food that they grow and animals to feed themselves and their families, and if there is any left over they sell it in local markets. They had a primary school that was washed out by the rain and has not yet been rebuilt. They do still have a secondary school, but only about a third of the students are girls, as they drop out young to get married. WOCAP is working on educating young girls, which in turn will help to establish a nation of educated women. Also, they have a bead making program for the widows. They make necklaces which are sold in the US, and are looking to expand their markets cause that's really the only thing limiting them, so if you have any interest in buying some beautiful necklaces, let me know!! :)

So just some highlights of our day there: as we were driving by one kid he saw us and let out this excited yelp and was like "A MZUNGU!!!!" which pretty much every kid that we saw yelled, but for this specific child, it was as if he had seen Santa Claus. I've never heard such excitement in a voice; we visited a few of the widow's humble homes and at one were served amazing tea, chapatti (this delicious tortilla-like bread), juice and bananas; the widows performed two songs for us, both very impromptu that they seemed to make up on the spot. The man translating for us told us that they were singing about how happy they were that we were there! And all we were doing was taking pictures. It was so humbling; they had us give a speech to the women, which we completely had not expected and kinda just stood awkwardly in front of them without anything interesting to say; and they gave us vegetables and tried to give us a live chicken (I was terrified!!!! There was no way I was riding in the car with a chicken inside!!!).

One of the best parts about the day was the children that we saw. They were SOOO excited to see mzungus, and we kept trying to talk to them in Luganda which they thought was hilarious. At first they'd run up to us, but stay about 10 feet away, so it took us a while to get them to warm up to us. Once we did they were happy to shake our hands and get high fives and bongas (knuckles/pound/whatever you wanna call it). One little girl ran away from me crying when I said hello to her, but the rest responded much better. It is crazy how seeing a white person can put these kids in such a frenzy. We had a lot of fun with them, though, and they were so adorable.

So after we'd visited Namagera and taken all our pictures and interviewed some of the women and had all these amazing experiences, they told us they were taking us somewhere for lunch. We drove about ten minutes down the road and pulled up at the place where my raft trip ended two years ago. I was so confused when we pulled up next to the Nile River Explorers sign. Didn't expect to see that again! But it turned out they brought this picnic dinner for us to this spot on the Nile next to these raging rapids and the most beautiful surroundings you can imagine. You know where Simba goes when he runs away into exile and lives with Timon and Pumba? That is what this place looks like. Just GORGEOUS. So they fed us this amazing food and we ate on a rock next to the water and it just felt like we were with family. They were so welcoming and amazing to us. I felt like I'd known them forever. We had such a good time with them and just treasured every moment of it.

This blog doesn't even touch the surface of how amazing of a day it was or how incredible the places were that we saw and the people we met. I can't even begin to describe how wonderful they all were and how happy they were to have us there. They have such an incredible community and help each other out and care so much for each other's well-beings. They rely upon each other and themselves for EVERYTHING. They have NO money. The necklaces and anything else they sell help to pay for their kids to go to school, and they have no money left over for really anything else. But they did not for one minute let us feel sorry for them. They were so strong, and so inspiring, and so hopeful. I REALLY hope that I'm able to do something more for them while I'm still here.

O ya, by the way, I decided to stay till October 17th! My plane ticket is officially changed! Nikki and Natalie will still leave on September 10th, but I'm going to stay an extra 5 weeks! During my extra stay I'm planning a safari with Charlie (the volunteer coordinator) in another part of Uganda that's really tropical and we're sure to see lots of elephants and hippos! And we're also thinking of going with some of the people we met yesterday (parents and Mina don't freak out!) up to Northern Uganda to stay with some of their friends and see some of the displaced people's camps and meet some kids and people that have lived through the war and devastation that Northern Ugandan people have suffered through. Don't worry, it'll be very safe for us, as visiting mzungus are treated like royalty in Uganda, and they know people we can stay with and have assured us we'll be safe. Plus we won't be going alone, but with other Ugandans, so we'll have protection. So I'm really looking forward to spending two more months here!!

I'm definitely not ready to leave the kids at Amani (who are still precious and adorable and amazing and bring us more joy and more love every day), and I'm definitely not ready to leave Uganda. It is so diverse and rich and powerful. It truly is the pearl of Africa. The people could not be more friendly and welcoming. The land could not be more beautiful. The food could not be more delicious. The children could not be sweeter... It's amazing.

One more quick story... Today after church we went out to lunch at this mzungu restaurant in town. As we walked into the restaurant two little street kids followed us in and sat with us at our table. Not really knowing what else to do, we bought them lunch and tried to get to know them a little. Little Joseph was 10 and his brother, Moses, was 5, although I'm pretty sure they were lying about that cause kids here look way younger than they are so they can get away with it. But the way Joseph was looking after his brother, sharing everything that we gave him with Moses and explaining to him what we were trying to ask him... it was really a special thing to get to see. So that is Uganda. You really should come and see for yourself. It's just incredible here. It really captures your heart.

So all you mzungus, I hope you're doin well back in America. We miss you and think of you all the time and hope you're all doing well back home! We love your comments and emails and updates, so please keep them coming! We really really really appreciate all your love and support! And if you wanna learn more about some of the stuff we've done/are doing while we're here, here are some links you can check out:

Amani Baby Cottage (the orphanage we're working at): http://www.amanibabycottage.org/

Katie's blog and ministry (that Nikki wrote about the other day):

http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/

http://amazima.org/

WOCAP (Widows and Orphan Community Action Plan): http://www.wocap-uganda.org/

With some of the children from WOCAP

Children that followed us around Namagera Village :)

You know, just eat dinner next to the Nile at sunset. Just like any other day...

Our Ugandan family