Uganda - January 28, 2013

At breakfast learned that Don had become ill during the night.  We were all worried, but our leader and Don had good support from GUW and clinic staff.  The problem turned out to be severe dehydration possibly exacerbated by over medication resulting from the time change; all was resolved by a day's rest and lots of water.  We were all grateful the situation ended so well.

The rest of the group went to the Give Us Wings office where we were given an overview of the Ugandan program, problems and accomplishments, and met the Chair and two members of the Board.  Also at the office was Anika's dog, Foxy.  Since I'm missing my Katy, it was good to have a cute dog to fuss over a bit.

We had lunch at the office, a typical Ugandan meal prepared by the woman who cooks and cleans for the clinic.  Foxy wanted treats, but wasn't indulged.







The bus then left to take us to one of the GUW projects, the Ngiyo Ber Women's Estate.  GUW built homes which were sold and ultimately given to the Ngiyo Ber members who moved there from rental housing in the Bison slum of Tororo.  The women remain very grateful.  We were enthusiastically greeted by them and taken to a community space (very small) for welcoming speeches and two songs by community children.  This would have taken place outdoors but rain was imminent, and actually started as we were listening to the speeches.  Pounding rain on the tin roof made hearing the speakers a little difficult.

Once the rain had lessened, we went to the home which we were to help repair.  The interior of the brick home needed tuckpointing badly.  Professionals had been contracted to do the repair.  Our "help" was probably unnecessary, but it did show us some of the complexity of Ugandan home maintenance and provided much fun as many proved their home repair ineptitude.  The process was reasonably straightforward, but difficult to execute for beginners.

Cammie did pretty well; her backhand was better than her forehand.











The best and most enthusiastic plasterer, Sue, ended up with a quantity of mixture on her as well as the wall.

The homeowner was quite grateful for all efforts.  She is an elderly woman on her own who let maintenance get away from her, a situation made worse because the original construction had some problems.


















After a couple of hours of work, we were invited for more entertainment and dinner.  Since the weather had cleared, this was held outside.  The children played music and danced then presented a "drama" which somewhat resembled an Amelia Bedelia story where many problems and much hilarity resulted from too literal use of language.  It did lose a bit in translation.

 After another typical Ugandan dinner, we left on our bus at 6:30 p.m.  Although Uganda appears to be quite safe, the government "encourages" transportation companies to have their foreign visitors home before dark.  That's fine with me.  Not being out to all hours is a benefit!