Christmas in Kibaale

Even though I have visited the Kibaale Centre on several different occasions, it wasn’t until this last week that we have gotten the chance to actually spend a few nights there and experience the place for what it really is. As Christmas is approaching (hard to believe with all the sunshine we’re getting over there in Africa), the centre has begun to give out the yearly gifts that are handed out during this season, so we all headed over there to help the KCF office and their workers with the gifts. Our duties were to hand make, organize and pass out the gifts to all of the students at the school who were designated them. The week was incredible; we not only got the chance to see the centre from a different point of view but we also got the opportunity to really experience this place and what I would consider to be the ‘real’ Africa.

 

 

Though we had expected total pandemonium, the first few days there weren’t as busy as what we had originally imagined them to be. There had been some changes in the schedule (as in true African spirit), and the first full day that we were at the centre we didn’t have much work to do. So instead we decided to hike up to the top of Kibaale hill, or as I like to call it, Kibaale mini mountain, because it’s definitely bigger than a hill, in humid 30 degree weather. The view was amazing, and the hike wasn’t terrible. It was amazing to get to see the centre from the sky and see how big the project really is. But my favourite part of the hike was the kids that we ran into on the way up the mountain. There is a community school at the base of the mountain, and when we started our hike they were all outside playing outside. When they saw all the muzungu coming they rushed over to where we were coming up the path. They didn’t speak much English, but it was just fun to be around all these kids who were so excited to see us there. The school was definitely within a poorer part of the community; Kibaale and the surrounding areas are extremely poor and therefore the schools there aren’t always the best. When the centre first opened many people questioned why North American people would even bother to invest their money and time in an area so devastated. It was once considered the ‘arm pit’ of Uganda, and it is believed that the first cases of AIDS began within this area. There are many very large families of multiple origins (grandparents taking care of grandchildren, uncles of nieces and nephews, and so on) or families that are run by children. This is because so much of the older generation has been eradicated by the AIDS epidemic. But because of the help that is now reaching the area, including the Kibaale Centre, the epidemic is beginning to slow down and this new generation of children are being given a new chance at life and many opportunities to succeed where they were not possible before.

Though we did not have as much gift giving to do as we thought, there was still quite a bit of work to be done. For the first couple of days we did a lot of administration work with KCF; this included helping to put together letters and Christmas crafts to be sent out to the sponsors. But how I have learned, Africa is very unpredictable and halfway through out time there the centre got an order for 300 gift baskets that had been donated to the school. This was amazing news because that way all of the children at the school (there are about 800 kids) were able to get something for Christmas. But this also meant that these baskets had to be put together; so with a lot of teamwork and sweat we managed to put together almost all of the gift baskets. Though most of our time was spent putting these baskets together, we also got to give a lot of these baskets away. It was awesome to be able to give these gifts out to families that often had nearly nothing.

While we were there, I also got the amazing opportunity to not only see my sponsor child again, but to also go to her home and meet her family. It’s hard to put into words the experience, but it took me a lot of self-control to hold my emotions back and prevent myself from crying. Nagawa (my little girl) lives over five kilometers from the school and walks this everyday by herself. She lives with her mother, siblings, cousins and aunts. Her father is not around and because of the lack of men living in the home much of the work had to be done by the women. When we arrived there they were hard at work in the garden. We met her mother and gave her the gift basket that we had put together for her. Just being there put so much into perspective. It was good for me to see what kind of place she really comes from. Her home was a small brick house, but many people lived inside of the house. They had the home and a bit of land, but they didn’t have much to live on. It’s so hard to explain what I saw that day because there are no words to describe it. I was overwhelmed by the poverty that she lives in everyday of her life. There were many children that lived there, and as of now Nagawa has been the only one who has been able to get into the school thus far (because the school is based on need, and there is an overwhelming need in this area so many people apply to get into the school but there is not a high acceptance rate because of they are not able to support all of the children that apply, and admission is given to those who are the neediest). What I saw and experienced that day I will never forget and it made me realize how much these people need help. We live in such a wealthy part of the world and there are so many people who need our help. If I can change one little girl’s world I want to be able to do that. After experiencing and seeing what I did, I only wish that I could do more. 

Though there was a lot of emotion involved during this trip, there were also a lot of fun memories as well. We got to see the countryside from motorcycles that we rode to the town’s waterfall and down to the lake that borders the community. We also got to taste the local cuisine when we went out to Hadget’s restaurant for a night out on the townie. Though we had a lot of fun, everywhere we went there were reminders of what this place was really about; we experienced poverty and the effects of the AIDS epidemic everywhere we went. It was constant reminder of what I have back at home and how blessed I am to have been born into the life that I have been.

This trip into Kibaale was only a few days long, but what I saw and experience I will remember forever. This place won my heart over and has made me wonder what else I can do to help those in need. Seeing the way that KCC has conquered poverty and devastation makes me wonder if there is something more that I can be doing to help. There are so many people out there that need help around the world, and I know that I can’t help every single one of them. But by reaching out to a few of them I can help to change their lives, and potentially the future. I came here to help those in need, but I think that these people have instead taught me some lessons I will never forget.

'Lest We Forget'

***Just thought that I'd start out by warning that there are pictures of human bones within this blog posting, as it was a part of the memorial site that we visited. So if you aren't good with these things (they aren't very graphicthough)...might want to skip this blog.

After hearing so many good things about Rwanda, we finally decided that a weekend trip down there would be something fun to do. Not only was the trip a much needed holiday, it was also a very emotional experience that I will never forget. Our holiday turned into a lesson of history, and experiencing history in a way that will be forever imprinted in my memory.

The country of Rwanda is a southern neighbour to Uganda, and to get to the capital city of Kigali it was about an eight hour drive from here in Masaka. Though it was a long drive, the scenery was breath taking. Rwanda is known as ‘Pays des Mille Collines’, which when translated literally means‘Country of a Thousand Hills’. The landscape mad up of hills and valleys, covered in lush landscape boasting many tea and sugar cane plantations that are scattered across the countryside. Even the city Kigali itself is a beautiful place. Every part of the city is manicured and clean. There are sidewalks, streetlights and landscaping in every part of the city; many of these things I haven’t seen in quite a long while.

One of the main reasons that I wanted to come to Kigali was to experience the genocide memorials that are located within the city. The Rwandan Genocide (though there was more than one) is the mass murder of an estimated 800,000 Tutsi people, conducted by the Hutu tribe. The history is a complicated one, and for information about the genocide and the memorial refer to: http://www.kigalimemorialcentre.org/old/index.html

The first stop we made was the memorial museum, which was located in downtown Kigali. This was only the introduction to what we were to experience on this day. The museum was full of photos and videos which depicted the horrific events that occurred during the genocide. The entirety of the place essentially existed to recognize the people that were so pointlessly murdered during this time in history. There were rooms where the walls were covered in pictures of those who died during this time, and plaques all within the memorial gardens of names those who were buried there and had been identified. Outside of the museum were mass graves, where some 250 thousand people are buried. Many of those in the graves were never identified and their memories are lost within history. Just by learning more about these events and the people who were affected, it made me wonder how people can do such terrible things to one another. The museum talked about how people turned on their friends and family; often if a man was married to someone of Tutsi descent, he was told that in order to remain true to his people he must kill both his wife and his children so that they cannot carry on the Tutsi name. Its jaw dropping that people would turn on those who they loved the most so quickly, especially a father on his family. People are people, no matter what tribe or place they are from, and it’s amazing how this can be so disregarded because of hatred.

the mass graves outside the museum

the names of those who have been identified

the hotel where the events of the movie
Hotel Rwanda actually occured

The most powerful part of the day was visiting one of the actual genocide sites, a church outside of Kigali called Nyamata. The church was the site of a mass murder of thousands and thousands of women, children and elderly people. Those who were in the church came there for refuge from the massacres and while trusting the church and its pastor for protection, but they were turned in by the pastor himself, and to enemy moved in and slaughtered these people. When we first got to the church the outside look like an ordinary building, but it was very different once you entered. The inside of the church was still in almost the same state that it had been that day of the massacre. The pews within the church were covered in the belongings of those who had attempted to take refuge there. The original prayer table was up at the front of the church, and the Virgin Mary stood where she has always stood. There was every type of belonging you could imagine; the church was covered in clothing, hats, jewellery and bibles. The place was dark and reeked of death. Though the bodies had been removed, remnants of the terror still remained. There were still some machetes (which were a popular instrument of death) lying on the floor of the church, and the blood stained table cloth still remained. Walking around the church and through the pews was a hard thing to do. I couldn’t imagine being one of these people trapped in the building, knowing that their end was coming soon. When we had some time for the initial shock to sink in, the guard took us down to a crypt that had been created under the floors of the church. In the centre of the underground area, there was a class case where the bone remains and personal belongs of those murdered were displayed. There were stained Bibles and rosaries amongst these belongings. This is when the whole situation became so real and so emotionally charged. We were actually among the remains of those who had died in such terrible and gruesome ways. After taking this in for a moment the guard led us to the back of the church where the mass graves and crypts were located. There were two large crypts and we were given the chance to enter into both of them. Because of what I had already seen, I didn’t feel as if I was able to handle going into crypts. The first crypt (from what I could see at the entrance) contained coffins where many of the bodies were laid to rest. The second crypt contained many of the bones and remains of people who had died in the church. I was able to bring myself halfway into the underground storage area, but when I saw the shelves covered in skulls and bones I could not bring myself to go further down. The whole thing was very difficult to see and to experience after learning so much about the genocide.

the prayer table at the front of the church

the belongings of those killed at the church

I didnt take this picture myself (out of respect) but its
just an illustration of the crypt under the church

one of the crypts behind the church

As I look back at what I learned and experienced that day, I am still very emotionally affected and the things that I saw still haunt me and will for a very long time. I woke up that morning understanding that what I was going to see was hard, but I wasn’t expecting to see everything that I saw. I can say without a doubt that it was something that I needed to experience, though the images still haunt me. The way that these people were murdered was not only inhumane but deeply disturbing. These people were murdered and rapped; they were slaughtered by machetes, shovels, guns and anything else that could cause harm to a human being. The pictures were gruesome, and the videos of people slaughtering one another were even more disturbing, only added to the reality of the experience. What I saw I never want to see again, but it’s something that I can never get away from because the images are burned into my memory. I come from this situation with a better understanding of what happened, but my understanding has also caused me to question how something like this could ever happen. I don’t understand how people could do what they did to one another, and especially to those who they had cared so much about before. I also can’t understand how the world knew what was going on, but every attempt to bring relief to this country was stopped and the genocide only continued. The destroyed not only a people (85% of the Tutsi population was eradicated during the genocide) but destroyed their society. Nothing will ever be the same; those who survived are haunted every day by what they saw and those who they lost. When I was walking around the memorial garden outside of the museum I came across a plaque with a quote from an eleven-year old survivor:

"Sometimes, I get terribly sad because I can’t imagine what my life will be like. I’ll never see my parents again, and yet I’ll see the people who killed them, and those people’s children, for the rest of my life. I can’t bear the thought of it.”

After experiencing and seeing everything that I did that day, I could never imagine having lived through the genocide. But to so many people this is their reality; they have to live their everyday lives in the shadow of what happened. It’s only fitting that this trip happened on Remembrance Day weekend. After taking this trip, ‘lest we forget’ has taken on an entirely different meaning. We need to always remember our past hurts, but also recognize those of other countries who have also lost a part of the people. Words cannot describe the evil of human nature that I experienced slightly today. I will never forget these people or this country.  

Markers and Stickers

After having been to the baby home a couple times and seeing how these children don’t have much in the ways of toys and art supplies, I decided that it would be a lot of fun to get my family to send some art supplies and toys over for the home. So after they were delivered last week, we got the opportunity to take these art supplies over to the children.

When we got there all of the children dug right in. They were excited to be able to use markers to draw and colour all over everything and anything; this included the paper, themselves and the other children as well. There were kids walking around with marker all over their faces, arms and clothing (thank goodness for washable markers).I also brought in a couple packages of sparkly star stickers for them to have. The kids decided that what they wanted to do with their stickers was to decorate themselves and everyone else. By the end of our visit not only were they covered in markers, we also had a home full of sparkly babies whose heads, faces and arms were covered in stickers and felt pen. It was a lot of fun to see them interacting with each other like this and enjoying the art supplies that I had brought them.

The baby home is definitely a safe and loving place for all these children to be, but it’s sad to hear the stories of how the children had been treated in their previous lives. When we were at the home this time, Kristen and I got to have some time with the little babies. There are two of them, and I was able to spend some time with Timothy who is about three weeks old. Timothy was taken away from his mother after she had attempted to choke him in the hospital, and was sent to the home to be cared for. The baby home has had him since he was only a couple days old, and that was when I first met him. It’s amazing to me how much better he seems to have gotten. He’s not only bigger than when I first saw him, but he’s also responding more than he previously had, which is important because of the possibility of brain damage. It was so hard holding this little baby and knowing that he wasn’t wanted. He’s a little miracle whose life was nearly taken but now he has the opportunity to live his life.

Though their stories are sad, it’s also good to know that there are places like this where these children can go and be loved and cared for despite what has happened to them. It’s going to be hard leaving here and knowing that I won’t be able to go back all the time and visit these children, but it’s awesome knowing that they being taken care of and shown love every day.

Blessings

When I began getting ready to leave for this trip, I was told over and over again how much of a blessing I was going to be while I was over here. I do not doubt that what I have done here hasn’t been a blessing of sorts, but to me it’s been the people here and all the ways that the projects have touched people that have been the biggest blessing.

Last Sunday we attended a church service at Masaka Full Gospel Church instead of our regular service at the Power Church. The girls from the TGC were doing an outreach program there, and they lead both the worship and the spoken service. It was really awesome to see how passionate they are about their ministry. The girls shared their testimonies and spoke from their hearts. Some of these girls have been students and have been sponsored since their schooling at the Kibaale Centre. It was awesome to see how they have grown up and become so passionate in what they are doing. The spoke and sang with so much conviction, and it radiated from them throughout the entirety of the service. The singing and words spoken reminded me of what impact blessings can have. Some of these girls would not have the opportunity to be here if it weren’t for the blessings of others. And likewise, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to be blessed by their mission if it weren’t for them being there through other’s blessings. These two projects have made such an impact on all of its students, and these girls were living testimonies of what blessings really can do.

When I came over here and finally got to see what the Kibaale project was all about, I decided that I wanted to sponsor a student that needed sponsorship. So I was set up to sponsor a little girl named Nagawa Jamiah. I was anxious to meet her the last time we were in Kibaale, but because of the unforeseen rainstorm we weren’t able to see her. But today I got the chance finally to meet her. It was really awesome to finally get to meet her and see her involved with her class. Nagawa is in the nursery division of the school, and is five years old. So when we set out to see her, we also got to meet the rest of her class. The kids were practicing their singing and dancing, and we got to enjoy it as an audience. Even though Nagawa didn’t speak much English and couldn’t understand me (they don’t typically learn English until they are older), she was still able to thank me for what I had done for her. When she was told who I was she ran up to me with a huge smile and grabbed my hand, squeezing it hard. It was really awesome to meet her and know that what I was doing was a blessing to her. Without sponsorship she would not be able to go to school to get an education. I also know that by sponsoring her it will teach me about blessing others, and how important it is to ensure that we do everything we can to bless those around us.

I have realized that it’s important to go into a situation like I am in, and not just be prepared to be a blessing, but also prepare to be blessed by those you are blessing. It’s an important part of life to learn how to give and receive blessings.   

Halloween...Ugandan Style!

Halloween is one of my favourite holidays back home, and I was sad that that I was going to miss all the excitement this year while here in Uganda. But to my excitement, we decided to have our own version of Halloween over here. It was definitely different than what it would have been at home, but I still loved every minute of it.

We started off the celebration by carving our pumpkins. The difference between the pumpkins In Masaka and those at home is that the ones here aren’t orange; instead they tend to be different shades of green and white. As we began to carve the pumpkins we discovered that the carving process might be more of a struggle than we originally had thought. Especially in the pumpkin that I had gotten, the pumpkins were full of very orange goop that dyed my nails and fingers orange, and even washing them several times my hands still remain orange. The outside of the pumpkins were also covered in this sticky sap that stuck to my hands, and I still can’t get that off either. The pumpkins also had super thick flesh, and this meant that instead of carving the pumpkins we had to stab them in order to get any type of puncture into them. Sitting there carving my pumpkin, I felt like I was in a ‘Slasher’ movie. We finally finished the pumpkins and ended up with a great variety of designs. There were scary pumpkins and happy pumpkins. Some of the pumpkins even had ears. It’s amazing how to the creativity of kids comes out when they are given projects like this to work on.

Everyone got into the Halloween spirit, including Kristen and myself. After some influence from the kids, we decided that we would dress up as well. But with very limited supplies we had to get creative. So with a headband and some construction paper ears, we transformed into cats. The kids were just as creative and they all looked amazing. We had a pirate, a butterfly, a flower and some princesses to top it off. Everyone was really excited that we got the chance to dress up (including myself).

Because we live in a compound, there isn’t much opportunity for ‘trick or treating’ to happen. So we decided to make our own opportunity. Ahead of time, Carina and Sue had talked to the girls up at the TGC and made a deal with them that if they would hand out candy to the kids they would also get some for themselves. So we headed up to the college for some very successful ‘trick or treating’. It was a lot of fun to see how excited both the kids and the girls were to participate. The kids got lots of candy and were showered with attention. All in all, the night was a very successful rendition of Halloween, Ugandan style.

Happy Halloween everyone!

A New Found Appreciation

It’s amazing how an experience can make you appreciate things that one wouldn’t usually think about. Coming here I didn’t realize all of the things that I would be leaving behind. Sure, I am still living in a place where I get most of the same amenities that I would have back home in Canada that make life so much easier. Even so, there’s so many little things that one wouldn’t even think about when you have it at your disposal on a daily basis.

The biggest thing that I’m missing is many of the conveniences that are available at home. There’s no such thing as ‘fast food’ here, and to make matters worse microwaves are basically non-existent because the ones that they do have are useless. There have been so many nights where the day has left me exhausted, and then I realize that I can’t just order a pizza or even reheat leftovers with ease. Meals are always a stretch, especially to someone like me who has never spent much time in the kitchen. Though my skills have slowly been improving, they still lack and I have now grown to greatly appreciate the dinners that are made for me at home. Even simple meals like a box of Kraft Dinner are also a stretch as most places don’t even carry products like this. Since we have been here, we have found an American version of Kraft Dinner in the grocery store once. And usually products like that tend to be more expensive than other foods. So typically its more or less meals made from scratch, no matter how hectic the day has been.

Another every day convenience that I really miss is my washer, and even more so my dryer. We do have a washing machine here, but it can take up to 3 hours to wash one load and it hardly holds anything. And then once your laundry has slowly gone through the wash, you have to hang your clothes outside on the line, which is a process in itself. Because it’s the rainy season, the days are often so spuratic with its weather; it can be sunny and in a matter of half an hour a major rainstorm can come and go leaving the sun once again in its place. This means that if you have laundry out on the line it doesn’t take much for it all to get soaked and the process of drying it all has to start again. Even if the sun stays out and your clothes dry, you always have to wait a full 24 hours before you can wear them. The reason for this is that the mango flies that live in this type of climate seek moisture and lay their eggs in this moist place, and without a host they die off within the 24 hours. But if you don’t wait and decide to chance it, there’s a good chance that the eggs will bury themselves in your skin and then grow under your skin, then proceed to hatch. And when this happens you have to squish the live worms from under your skin before they decide to come out on their own, both processes which are very painful. So needless to say, doing laundry can be a bit of a process.

Our solution to attempting to dry our clothes during a rain storm.

The biggest thing that I miss about home is the access we have to EVERYTHING at almost all hours of the day. If you need any type of food, you can go to any local Safeway or Superstore. If you need anything else you could image, you go to a local mall and it’s almost inevitable that they will have what you are you looking for. Here, it’s a lot harder to get many things that are so easy to find back home. Lots of the essentials are hard to find in Masaka, and often aren’t even available here. So that means that when people go to Kampala (two and a half hours away) for shopping trips, there are a lot of things to stock up on to ensure that you aren’t stuck without what you need. And there’s no such thing as a simple shopping trip either. Certain stores only carry certain groceries, which means going to a couple stores just to get your list done. And the grocery stores don’t sell produce, which require one to make an extra trip into the market. And doing anything after dark is highly recommended against, so that means you have to fit it into the day time hours which can be hard considering the fact that its pitch black out here by seven each night. Simple shopping trips often turn into something much more complicated.

I’m convinced that there is no such thing as ‘convenience’ in this country. Everything here has to be well planned and meticulously carried out if it’s to go smoothly. And even if this is done, nothing is ever guaranteed. A big part of this is the difference in culture between Uganda and Canada; in Canada we are a culture that’s been built around convenience and everything is available to us at any time. But that is why I think that even the basics have been an adventure. Nothing is ever guaranteed, and everyday turns into the unexpected.