Charlie is in Uganda! Read All About it!
January 2010
He is making contacts with the children we are going to sponsor!!!!
First
impressions:
I
had promised to send emails out to all the friends of ChildrenUP who had asked to be placed on the mailing
list.
First
Impression: Heat! I am here in the
dry season.
The
flight to Uganda is a long one. Seven to eight hours to
Amsterdam and then the same to Entebbe. But the wonderful hostel
at which I’ve stayed before, was there to pick
me up. The next morning the owner drove me to Kampala to the City Square
Hotel. I then went and found the office for getting a ticket for tomorrow
morning’s bus ride to Gulu in the north where I will be working with two
university professors: Ambrose Okot and Stephen Odama .. (as he says ..like your
president but with a “d”).
I
will be visiting schools and selecting the children whom we will support in their
4 years of “O” levels of high school. The hard fact will be that we
cannot support more children. But thanks to generous donors we can make a
difference in the lives of a few. I will need to research the exact costs
of high schools so that we can determine how many children we can assist.
Having said that I want to assure our donors that none of my personal expenses are being paid with donations.
All of the money you have given us is going to the children.
Those
who are on facebook with me have already seen this: A Ugandan woman who
heard that we could only help a few students quoted
this Ugandan proverb: “A termite builds a mound one
grain of sand at a time” A lovely patient sentiment.
Since
I had additional time today, I do have friends in Kampala at Gulu
University. I was able to have a delightful conversation with the dean of
the history department, the dean of gender studies and the assistant dean of
fine arts. They are a wonderful, insightful
group of professionals. And they were very interested with
what ChildrenUP was doing to help to provide as education to orphans and disadvantaged children who cannot afford
high school.
I
had the cheerful duty of going to the local Catholic church to offer the two
priest a chalice, alb, and cassock from an anonymous
donor. I spent over an hour with the two Italian priests who have
served in northern Uganda for 13 and 28 years respectively. They
are a wealth of information.
The
biggest surprise was walking through town and hearing “Charlie” called
out. It was Nancy Akumu who ChildrenUP supports at Makere
University. She has one more semester to go. Her parents had died
of AIDS. She was raised by her grandmother who is now
96 years old. She is back in Gulu to be with her
grandmother. We had a far ranging conversation about education and
her plans for the future which includes a master’s degree in public
health. Tomorrow I will be able to go and meet her
grandmother as well as her 2 year old daughter.
In
the evening I met with the two Ugandan men who originally had suggested that we
support Nancy. We had a pleasant chat talking about their work in
northern Uganda.
So
far, I am still getting oriented to my surroundings, on Thursday starts the
serious work of going to schools and meeting students and trying to arrange a
new life for a few students.
More
to come,
Charlie
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