Uganda 2008

August 15th, 2008
Kampala, Uganda
10:25 am

This morning I woke up to the reflection of the sun, shinning off of the wall into my eyes. I rolled over and proceeded to go back to sleep as my body felt the effects of very little sleep in the last couple of days. As I began to regain consciousness, I remembered and thought, ‘wait! I am in Africa now…! No wonder it was the sun that woke me up!’

I arrived into Uganda late last night, 11:30 pm and made it to Hotel Nameribe where I stay when in Kampala by 12:30 am.

My trip to Africa began on August 10th, at 2:15 am when I flew from Anchorage, Alaska to Boston, MA arriving at 6:15 pm. The plane circled over Boston for 45 minutes before landing due to an intense thunder and lightening storm that closed all of Boston International airport for over five ours, restricting all flights from flying in or out of the airport. Fortunately, the flight I was on cam in on the tail end of the storm, and after finally landing, only had to wait for 45 additional minutes on the runway before getting to a gate to make my way off the plane. This is unlike the others I spoke with in the airport who had to wait 4+ hours on the runway stuck on the airplane waiting to get to a gate to unload. This was a result of the lightning that shut down all of the grounds crew operations that prevented the planes from being directed once landing on the runway.

From the Boston airport I gathered my luggage and proceeded to wait 1.5 hours for a bus to drive me to Portmouth, NH where I met up with Conrad Mandsager, founder/director of ChildVoice International. Conrad picked me up from the airport and drove me to his house where I was treated with great hospitality over the following 2.5 days before flying out to Africa.

While in Durham, NH with Conrad, I received the opportunity to learn more about CVI, the current work being done in northern Uganda as well as future plans for the program, developed a specified mission for my upcoming time in Uganda and received a great opportunity to meet other dedicated volunteers/board members of the organization as I attended the monthly board meeting for CVI. I also had the opportunity to be re-united with Charles, a formerly abducted child-soldier from Gulu, Uganda who is currently living with Conrad in NH. Charles is training with a road biking team, as he has and will continue participating in biking events to raise awareness of the issue of child soldiers as well as raise funds for Children of the World. This was a valued time of connection to ChildVoice International a well as a foundational preparatory time for as I prepared for the upcoming next couple of moths in Uganda. Thank you Conrad and Charles for your hospitality and friendship throughout those days.

As a result of my time with Conrad, we have agreed that I will focus on doing some networking with the Kampala Rotary club to see about facilitating the application process for a Matching Grant between the Anchorage East Rotary Club and the Kampala Rotary Club. I meet today with the president of the Kampala Rotary club to begin this process. I will also focus my energies on writing up a non-solicited grant to submit to USAID, assist in developing individualized education and case management files for each of the 30 women in the ChildVoice program. Another tremendous opportunity I have, is to meet later on in the month, here in Uganda with Dr. Robi Sonderegger, Ph.D. Dr. Sonderegger (www.familychallenge.com.au) has designed and implemented a trauma rehabilitation counseling model that is currently being used in Northern Uganda as well as other countries to assist former abductees in their healing process. Conrad suggested I send an email to Dr. Robi and see if perhaps we could meet up to learn more about this counseling model from him directly. I sent off and email and less then a day later received a response stating that he would be traveling throughout Africa and would be in Uganda the end of August, first part of September. I am very encouraged about this opportunity, perhaps this will be the fit for the women in the CVI program that we are looking for!

I left Boston airport at 7:30 pm on the 14th of August, flew to Amsterdam and Nairobi, Kenya before landing at the Entebbe airport in Uganda. My flight was full of conversations and little sleep. Between Boston and Amsterdam, I sat next to an elderly man named Balbir Narain Saxena from Sahibabad near Delhi, India. We had good a conversation that allowed that time to pass relatively quickly. Between Amsterdam and Nairobi, I sat next to a 30 year-old woman from Ireland who works for Doctors Without Borders. Very little sleep on that flight! Two high-energy like-minded women in similar life situations, her and I, – the chatter was nearly non-stop!

By the time I hit Nairobi, I was feeling the effects of a lack of sleep, however, after meeting an official from the Ethiopian United Nations who is the director of the Emergency Disaster Preparedness for all of Africa, once again, the conversation took place for two hours non-stop until boarding the flight to Entebbe. I learned a lot from this man and have new resources to add to my bag of possibilities in regards to avenues to pursue to further awareness/provide opportunities for ChildVoice and the women involved in the program.

I am in Kampala at the moment at Hotel Namirembe. This hotel is known as the ‘Hotel with the Million Dollar View’. Hotel Namirembe sits up high on a hill, overlooking the city of Kampala. I am surrounded with large colorful flowers and many loud birds. The weather is moderate, 75 degrees, low humidity and partly cloudy. It has been fun being back at the hotel as many of the staff members remember me from last year when I stayed here and have provided many very warm statements of, ‘welcome home!’ followed by very tight and repetitive hugs. It’s been honoring.

Thank you all who uphold me in prayer. Knowing that you pray for me provides me with strength, hope in the more lonely times, encourages me in times of uncertainty, and gives me peace overall.