Bobby's journal May 17

            Today was our relaxing day; I slept in until 10 which felt so good.  We didn’t really do anything.  I played 5 games of chess with Andrew and didn’t loose, but let him win.  After chess, we fertilized the cabbage and tomatoes with Dan.  After this I tried teaching Dan how to play chess.  He was quick at learning how to play (he probably had a good teacher or something) it was a long game and ended in a stalemate.  I think it was a pretty equal game since we both didn’t really have a strategy but just moved the pieces that we thought we should move.  After this I copied some pages of a book for Robinah.  She can’t afford to buy a textbook so she is being smart and making a photocopy of a friend’s book.  

Bobby's journal May 16

 

            Today was a some-what early morning.  We woke up at 7 because today is our last Saturday with the Children of Peace.  I wanted to go down to the school early and videotape the kids arriving by truck.  At first there were students who walked and arrived before the truck.  I felt like Mr. Plummer because when the kids walked in through the gates, I greeted them with a good morning and a handshake.  So, when the truck came, the kids jumped off the back and ran into the school.  Once everyone was off of the truck, it was time for their morning assembly.  The head of school spoke and then they sang their national anthem and their school anthem (it’s very catchy).  After they sang, Andrew and I sang our national anthem.  About halfway through it, something happened to me that made me laugh.  I managed to hold it together until we finished.  Next, Mrs. Wybar and I sang the Canadian national anthem.  About halfway through this Mrs. Wybar says “ok that’s enough” and we stop and then I laugh again.  I don’t know what it was. Maybe it was the fact that there was a goat tied to a tree, or there were all these kids looking at us giggling.  Who knows? We finished and they appreciated it.  After this I went to the music class.  In the music class I watched them practice and helped them with the recorder parts of their performance.  Geno was also sitting in the class.  He wrote a song and wrote me a part so we sang a little bit of that and it was fun.  All of a sudden, there were other white people in the music class.  They came from the Arlington clinic down the road and up the mountain.  They left the class a little later and went to look at some of the beaded necklaces the students make.  When the students were done practicing, Geno and I sang his hit song entitled: Kobola.  It actually is played on the radio in Bududa so that was really cool.  I busted out a few notes and the kids seemed to like it so I gave them what they wanted.  Within a second, the whole music class was singing and clapping their hands dancing.  Today was my favorite day by far.  I stopped for a moment and thought, the amount of malaria pills are winding down and so is my time here.  After this we had lunch.  Everyday we sit and eat lunch, there is a little kid across the street who puts his hands on his stomach and then out, basically saying he is hungry and wants food.  I called him over.  He sat down next to me and I gave him half of my lunch.  After lunch I went to play volleyball with some of the kids and the sports head, Max.  A little later, Mrs. Wybar comes to me asking for food for one of the kids, Ivan.  Ivan lives with his brothers and sisters and his step-mom and her biological kids.  She starves him and doesn’t treat him well.  I ran up to the house, grabbed 20 nature valley bars and gave them to him.  We’re going to give him 3 or 4 every Wednesday and Saturday to take home because if we gave him the whole bag his step-mom would take it.  Unlike us back home, the kids here have nowhere that is “theirs”.  They don’t have a dresser to hide stuff in, let alone their own bed to sleep in.  His stepmother would take the food because he wouldn’t have anywhere to hide it from her.  When school was over and all of the kids left Allan his brothers, and other local boys were moving stones from across the street over to the school’s shed.  These stones are going to be used to make gravel and cement.  Two of the little boys were pulling jerry-cans filled with rocks and couldn’t pull it up the hill from the road into the school’s property so I grabbed the rope and pulled it over to the big pile.  I walked back with them and started helping them move the big rocks and stones.  After one or two trips, an African woman said “he’s a white visitor?!?” maybe suggesting that they wouldn’t expect a visitor to be doing this kids of work.  I felt good helping them move the rocks.  I feel like I showed all of the locals who just stood and watched me doing work that I can work.  All of the little kids who live around the school saw me working and ran over.  They would “help” by pushing the back of the jerry-can and throwing rocks into it that had fallen out.  Once I unloaded the rocks, a little boy named Andrew jumped into the back and sat where the rocks were.  I pulled him down the little hill and ran through the grass.  When he got out he had the biggest smile and couldn’t’ stop giggling.  I continued to move the stones with them and give the little kids rides until all the rocks were gone.  Once we finished, I invited them up to the guest house for some water.  It eventually started getting dark and they left.  We had dinner and than went to bed. 

 

Bobby's journal May 15

Today I woke up on my own (not that I can’t).  Normally Mrs. Wybar knocks on my door and says “get up sleepy head,” but not today.  When I woke up I jumped out of bed because I thought I slept through the knocking.  I didn’t.  When I got up I had a bowl of cereal and then we went down to the computer class.  In the class I helped teach them how to take pictures, upload them to the computer, edit them, put them in Microsoft word and create a document.  These three girls took a picture of us, when we weren’t looking, and edited it on Microsoft word.  In it they wrote “Bob and Andrew are just like kids, look at Bob, he has his finger in his mouth.” It was very clever.  Later on, we were playing some music for them and they took another picture and edited it.  This time the picture read “Bob ands Andrew like to listen to music.  We have a question for you. What inspired you to this?” After this we had break time for some nice hot tea on a nice hot day.  The people here drink a lot of tea.  It could be the hottest day of the year and they would still be drinking boiling hot tea.  After break I ran up to the guest house and grabbed two pairs of my socks for Mark.  Mark is a kid who makes bead necklaces and bracelets and sells them to pay for his education.  He needed some socks for school so I gave him some of mine.  It started to rain and the inside of my boots got soaking wet.  I stayed in and helped George Katosi type up documents on loan issues and what will happen when Mrs. Wybar leaves in May.  After finishing this we went up to the house and hung out.  Dan came up to the house and we started talking.  We talked about the big dinner last night and the card games.  He then tells me how he can’t believe that he ate with us.  He would start talking and stop and just look up.  He said he can’t believe that God has blessed him and given him the opportunity to become friends with me and eat at the same table as us.  “You are a very good man, God will bless you,” he kept saying.  After this, we ate dinner and then started Casablanca.  I’m not a big fan of black and white movies so I headed into my room, listened to some music and went to bed. 

Bobby's joural May 14

Today when I woke up I was feeling a little cold so I threw on a sweatshirt, had breakfast, and went down to the computer class.  To my surprise, I ended up keeping the sweatshirt on for mostly all of the day.  In the computer class Mrs. Wybar gave us a list of things to do for the school.  After typing up various documents and estimates we went on a house visit.  We rode on piki-piki’s and met up with Jane.  Jane works at the school and took us to Rebecca’s house.  Rebecca lives with her father and 5 other brothers and sisters.  When we went to her house her father gave us a bag of avocados.  Her father can’t provide for his family, doesn’t have enough money for food, and he is giving us a bag of avocados.  It amazes me. The people here have nothing and give everything they can.  So, Rebecca lives with her 5 brothers and sisters and father in a small house.  Her house is made out of cow dung and mud, and has a metal roof.  After seeing her living situation, we walked up the street to their local market.  In the market we bought 10 000 shillings worth of food for Rebecca and her family.  As we were walking back, we started walking up a steep hill so, the sweatshirt finally came off.  We took piki-piki’s back to Bududa.  When we got home we didn’t really do much because there wasn’t much to be done.  I hung out with Dan at the house and learned some more phrases.  We ate dinner, watched a movie, and went to bed. 

Bobby's journal May 13

Today we woke up, had breakfast, and went down to Children of Peace.  On Saturday’s the children come by truck.  However, today, Wednesday, the children have to walk to school.  Unlike most students that attend CHA, the students at BVI come from all different areas.  The cook, Robinah, travels down and up a mountain everyday to work at BVI.  At Children of Peace, I worked with the music class.  This time is was the secondary school.  They practiced their speeches and presentations for their final performance before Andrew and I leave.  After Children of peace, I hung out down around the school and played with some kids.  A game they play is kind of like our hackey-sack.  They use weeds tied up into a ball and count how many times they can bounce it off of their leg.  I thought I would give it a go so I tried it out.  I couldn’t bounce it off of my leg more then twice without it flying in some direction completely away from my knee.  After this, we went up to the house and started making dinner.  Andrew wanted to make dinner tonight so for dinner we had chicken, salad, and pasta.  In order to have chicken, he needed to kill it that day.  Robert, a digger, went out and bought a fat chicken.  When he brought it back I got out my video camera and started filming.  Andrew cut of its head as Robert held it down.  Robert let the headless chicken go.  YES, the saying is true.  The chicken was jumping and running around with out a head. It was crazy.  This was our dinner running around headless.  We put the chicken in hot water, and plucked the feathers off.  For dinner, we had a big feast and invited Allan, Gerald, Dan, and Robert.  The salad was delicious, and the pasta was good also.  In order to eat the chicken, you had to have strong, razor sharp teeth because it was so tough.  When I bit the chicken and ripped it off of the bone, I thought I was going to get whiplash from my neck snapping.  Once I actually got it off the bone it tasted good but was still very tough.  After dinner we all played a couple card games.  First we played spoons.  This was so much fun.  When someone got 4 of the same cards then they grab a spoon and the person who doesn’t grab a spoon is kicked out.  There were 8 of us so we started with 7 spoons.  After this we played Bull.  They also loved this game.  At first they didn’t really get the concept and when it was their turn to put down a card they would put down a different card and say the wrong number.  After a few turns they started getting the hang of it and really enjoyed it.  After cards, we went to bed.  

Bobby's journal May 12

Today we woke up, ate breakfast at the hotel, and went to catch the Elgon flyer.  This is a bus that takes people from Kampala to Mbale.  On the way to the bus, everyone we passed stared at us because we are three white people walking along the back streets of Kampala.  We asked a man for directions, and he told us to follow him.  He took us right to the Elgon Flyer.  When we got there, we got onto the bus, sat down, and waited to leave.  As we were sitting on the bus people would walk on holding buckets filled with drinks like water and soda.  Another person would be holding a container filled with gum or some type of snack.  On the bus they played African music videos and a Dolly Parton music video which was interesting because it was a big change from the African music.  On the bus ride, we picked up a drug rep.  Mrs. Wybar calls them a “snake oil vender” because they get on the bus and shout trying to sell their drugs and everything.  At first he gave out free painkillers (which were probably expired), then sold tooth whitening cream, tooth brushes and toothpaste, and some type of aloe gel.  I didn’t want to fall asleep on the bus because I wanted to look out the window and not miss anything.  Nothing exciting was happening and the view was the same as it was when we drove into Kampala so, I decided to take a nap.  As I was sleeping we drove by an accident where a bus was flipped upside down and a matattoo was in a million pieces.  Apparently the Matattoo was driving on the wrong side of the road and collided with the bus.  The Elgon Flyer took us to Mbale.  When we got to Mbale we stopped for lunch.  After lunch Andrew and I went to the bank to withdraw some money for BVI and Mrs. Wybar.  The ATM machine was in a little room, and there were guards with guns outside.  We went in and couldn’t figure out how to work it.  When we finally figured out how to withdraw the cash there were no receipts, so we waited for it to print.  When we left the guards went in because we were in there for so long.  After the bank, we went to the Post Office and picked up the school’s mail.  Before we left, we went to a corner supermarket and bought 2 liter bottles of Coke and Fanta.  We took a private hire back to Bududa.  When we got to BVI and got out of the car, all of the kids ran to greet us, and help us carry our bags up to the house.  I was so excited to see them again and they were so excited to see us also.  For the rest of the day we didn’t do much.  We got back late afternoon so we just ate dinner and went to bed.  

Bobby's Journal May 11,2009

Today we woke up took showers and went to breakfast.  Mrs. Wybar had already ordered breakfast for us, so when we went outside, we grabbed our food from the bar and brought it to the table where she was sitting.  After breakfast we grabbed our things and left.  When we walked out of the building piki-piki’s (motorcycle taxi’s) were lined up against the fence trying to get the next customer.  After arguing about the correct price and the muzungu price, we each hoped on a piki-piki and went to the bank, and then to the gathering spot for all of the matattoo’s.  If we didn’t already exceed the weight limit, my duffel bag didn’t help.  Sitting on the back of the piki-piki, I had my duffel bag slung over my shoulder.  Every time somebody passed us or we passed somebody, I was worried my bag would either hit them, or throw off our balance.  I remember we went over a bump and I literally came off of the back of the piki-piki for what felt like 10 seconds but in reality was less than a second.  When we got off the piki-piki’s, we began looking for a matattoo to take us to Kampala.  All of the matattoo’s were parked in a parking lot in sections: Kampala, Mbale, and other places they were traveling.  The sections weren’t clearly marked, so we walked around until we found one that was going to Kampala.  We were the first people to get to the matattoo, so I got a seat in the front.  I wasn’t sure if this was a good or a bad thing so I made a list in my head.  GOOD: amazing leg room, big seat, roll down window, and visibility.  BAD: what happens if there is an accident? I’m first.  I picked the leg room over the risk and had a nice comfortable breezy ride to Kampala.  We were close to Kampala, and the man sitting between me and the driver got off.  Now I was in heaven.  This was the best matattoo ride by far.  When we got to Kampala, we got off of the matattoo and walked to our hotel.  I didn’t realize how much I missed being in a city with actual streets, skyscrapers, electricity, and loads of people.  On the way to the hotel we passed a store with guitars in the window, so I knew I would be able to finally get my guitar strings.  When we checked into the hotel we went to our rooms, dropped our bags off, and went out to lunch.  We went to a place called Café Pap.  We ate American food and then went to the national theater to see if anything was playing at night.  Nothing was playing.  We then walked around the corner to the craft market.  Here all of the shops were right next to each other, and they sold the exact same things.  I got some gifts for my family, and we bought finger piano’s for BVI’s music class.  I went into one shop, not looking to buy anything but to listen to their music.  They were playing Akon (some American music).  After the craft market I bought guitar string, and then went back to the hotel to drop of our things.  We met up with Moses, the man who drove us from Entebbe to Bududa the first day, and went to Patrick Matsanga’s house.  Mr. Matsanga is the owner of the land that BVI is located on.  BVI and Mr. Matsanga are working on an agreement which is what we delivered to him.  From his house, you can see all 7 hills that Kampala is built on.  When we left, we went to a supermarket, and then out to dinner with one of Mrs. Wybar’s friends.  When we got back to the hotel, we took showers and went to bed.  The mosquito nets were all tangled up, so we tucked them into the foot of our beds, and then sprayed every inch of our room with bug spray.