Getting to Nsumba

“I’m ready for Choga!” – the Queen is coming in November and the airport is under construction. The roads and some of Kampala are being renovated as well, so it will look nice for Choga. It is some kind of summit they’re having. Some people think it is a waste of tax money, but it is providing people with jobs too.

4:25

“Muzungo!” haha.. In the taxi to the village kids stop, stare, smile, and wave as we pass. A girl playing in the village is wearing a Snow White costume as a dress, with puffy sleeves. Smoke.. smoldering fires. Men balance cloth pieces on their heads. Shacks next to three story buildings. Everyone carries water in yellow plastic containers. On their heads.

10:03pm

Things I wish I brought: loofa or washcloth, all my soap and shampoo, nalgene bottle, some snacks.

Kampala is wet and muddy – tons of boda bodas. No one looks twice at me except for one young girl who openly stares. As we take the mutatu out further away from the city – kids yell out Muzungo! As we pass. We have about 20 people in the van. We slide on the wet clay roads and I think for a moment that we might slide into the ditch, but we manage to find dry road again. The trip is 4000 shillings.

We walk up the hill passing people in their front yards of their mud huts and pass wandering (cute) children to the “White House.” Which Jeff helped to build for a vocation school, but now houses Volset workers. It’s called the White House because white people made it, or stay in it – I can’t remember.

I meet Festus who calls me Mr. Adam. He welcomes me – so friendly and takes me right to my room. I love it. I have mosquito netting around my bed, a table with fancy tablecloth and an oil lantern, which I will use to write these entries.

Jeff and Kelley take me to the well. It’s about ¼ mile down the hill. The well is a small pipe that water constantly runs out of into a muddy pool of water. There are already kids here – really small some of them – collecting water and laughing. We fill our jugs, the yellow ones, and walk back, balancing the water on our heads like the Ugandans do. (And like I always balance things on my head back home.)

I talk to Festus and he says they would love to have me be a teacher at one of the schools.

I pictured hundreds of kids here, but I only meet two. Shakirah and Mayungo-Eric, who named himself Eric after a past volunteer that heard about the boy who was homeless and sleeping in the streets of Ntenjeru brought him here to live.

I also talk about the Volset website and Festus loves the idea of me designing a new one and taking photos of the kids with their stories.

We have a meeting tomorrow – all of us and I’ll have a better idea of what’s going on. It’s a bit different than I expected but not in a bad way at all. I think here you just make up your own program and work on it while you’re here. Mine will be to teach and work on the website and find someone to sponsor it so it won't cost the organization.

There are two dogs here. On is named Simba, which means lion in Swahili.

In Uganda there is a big tribe called Buganda and they still have a king. Each person is in a clan here that they inherit from their fathers (unless you are a prince to be a king – then you get your clan from your mother.)

Festus and everyone helps me to pick a clan after dinner. Jeff is Lion - Kelley is sheep. I choose Dog in honor of Buddy. Turns out it is a very rare clan. My name is Mulinde (each clan has specific names) and my clan is Embua.

Lydia cooks the meals. I am so stuffed. It is hard trying to eat everything. Rice, beans, matooke, (mashed plantains), posho (maze flour) and pineapples. I saw wild pineapples on the side of the path the well today.

Going down to get water was beautiful. I just started laughing at how wonderful this place is. Going that far to get water really makes me conscious of how much I use to wash my hands or silverware.

We help Lydia by peeling the matooke – the small green bananas that grow everywhere. Jeff and Kelley bring the peels to our neighbor who uses them to feed the pigs.

There is so much to say and I am rushing through it all so I don’t forget anything.

I bring out my laptop to show Festus my photos and website. Shakirah and Mayungo came over too and we all take photos from my Mac and do the crazy effects to the photos. They laugh and laugh. I show them some music videos that Angie and I made and that 6b made when I was living in New York. The kids aren’t too shy around me anymore. Muzungo likes my watch that lights up.

Anyway – it is beautiful here.

Goodnight.