Our feet have landed on Washington soil. We made our connection at Heathrow with time to spare, despite the plane being a little late and having to sit on the runway for 5 mintuse waiting for a space to clear (which would not have been so bad except that I really had to go to the bathroom and you CANNOT get up from your seat while on the runway). Our connecting plane had been late as well, so that worked out well. Getting off the plane, I thought I had seen Amanda and Connie get off ahead of me, so I started walking rather fast and looking for them, but I couldn't see them ahead and I didn't see them behind. I concluded they were really far ahead, so I just kept walking (praying for a bathroom in short order). Stopped off at the bathroom, once I found it, and still did not see them upon exiting, so I just kept going toward the main part of the terminal. Found the reader board and ascertained the gate number, with still no sign of them, so I assumed they were headed to the gate. Once I got there...no Connie or Amanda! Where could they be? Turns out I had disembarked before they had! Oops!
Next dilemma, we had not been able to print out our boarding passes before hand for this leg of the trip and there was no one at the check in counter at Gate 8. Thankfully, the custoner service desk was not to far away, and the gal printed them out for us there. Unfortunately, because we were the last to check in we could not sit together. I got to sit in front of Amanda, and Connie was about 5 seats over from me. Connie said first class would be okay, but the lady at the counter only smiled and kept typing. =0) You take what you can get.
The trip was rather uneventful, some turbulence along the way (pothole in the sky) and a gorgeous sunset in London. Because of the fog the whole sky was shades of oranges and reds and pinks. Once we were above the clouds you could see it for miles and miles. We chased the sunrise most of the way home and almost caught it once. That would have been an unusual day...2 sunrises on the same day with a sunset in the middle.
Anyway, glad to be home. Now starts the clean up process...laundry, sorting souveniers, putting away suitcases, and returning to life as usual around here.
Love,
Eryn
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
So we are on our way to Entebbe. Our flight leaves tomorrow at 9:45am and right now Connie is trying to book our seats online (not having much success though). It has been a blast cruising around Kampala on the back of pikipiki's (motorcycles). You pray a lot though, because pikipiki's do not abide by any kind of street laws. They will go up the down and against traffic if it gets you to your destination faster. It's kind of fun to higher one. You just stand on the street and look like you need a ride and suddenly there are four or five guys with pikis swarming and beckoning you to take their motorcycle. You have to haggle with them for a good price and eventually someone wins out. We even had a taxi driver give us a great deal one day. He was standing around when we were haggling with the piki's and said he would take us for 10,000 shillings. I told him the pikis were cheaper so he lowered to 8,000 and I said they were still cheaper. He asjed how much and I told him they could take us all for 7,000. He agreed! Come to find out his petrol (gas) tank read EMPTY, but Amanda gave him such a hard time about it he said that if he ran out of gas we didn't have to pay! Unfortunately he didn't run out because it was mostly down hill and we think he coasted most of the way. Oh well, it was fun.
Time's up and our taxi is waiting to take us to Entebbe.
See you all soon.
Time's up and our taxi is waiting to take us to Entebbe.
See you all soon.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Kibogora and beyond
Finally have some stable internet access here in Kampala. Julie's internet is soooooo sloooooooooooooooooooow because everyone at the hospital shares the same band width, and since it goes through the phone system if many are on the phone it slows down to a turtles pace or doesn't let you on at all.
We had a beautiful drive back to Kigali from Kibogora. I hope my pictures do it justice. The view through the rain forest is just spectacular. You can see a thousand hills as you trek up one and down the other. We saw about 5 monkeys on our way out. One was quite indifferent to our intusion of his lunch. He just sat there looking at us, stuffing his face with grass. He moved up a little bit when Connie started making funny noises at him to make him turn his head hour way again. After the rain forest you drive through miles of tea fields, where the workers strap baskets on their backs to collect the good leaves they pick off. We stopped at a restaurant in Butare for lunxh and a potty break. The Ibis hotel is the only one around for miles with a "proper English toilet". This particular one had no seat cover and didn't flush..., but it was better than squatting (which is quite dificult when one had pants on). =0)
The next morning, about 4 am, we had another earthquake. Since we felt it fairly well in Kigali, I can't imagine what it was like in Kibogora. Pray that no one was seriously hurt.
The ride from Kigali to the border of Uganda was eventful. Since Rwanda is such a hilly country the roads follow the curves of the mountains. The bus driver must have had a hot date because he was definitely "flying low" causing about half the passengers to feel sick to their stomachs and about half of them lost their breakfast on the bus. Poor Amanda felt so queasy we emptied one of our plastic bags (which are illegal in Rwanda) just in case she needed it. Thankfully she did not, but the guy behind me had to stick his head out the window a few times and the kids one row up and over graced the floor with their stomach contents. Once we reached the border we all had to get off and get our exit stamps from Rwanda, walk the half kilometer to the Ugandan side and pay for our entrance back into the country for the last 4 days we are here. They do not take that opportunity to clean the bus they only put more cardboard down on the floor so we don't have to step in it. Nice of them. It was soo cold that morning that none of the other passengers around us would let us have the window open for very long. Thankfully the smell wasn't too bad. After the border the road flattens out, so the nausea subsided for most everyone.
We got to Kampala without insident and are now having fun trekking around the city.
More ;ater.
Love,
Me
We had a beautiful drive back to Kigali from Kibogora. I hope my pictures do it justice. The view through the rain forest is just spectacular. You can see a thousand hills as you trek up one and down the other. We saw about 5 monkeys on our way out. One was quite indifferent to our intusion of his lunch. He just sat there looking at us, stuffing his face with grass. He moved up a little bit when Connie started making funny noises at him to make him turn his head hour way again. After the rain forest you drive through miles of tea fields, where the workers strap baskets on their backs to collect the good leaves they pick off. We stopped at a restaurant in Butare for lunxh and a potty break. The Ibis hotel is the only one around for miles with a "proper English toilet". This particular one had no seat cover and didn't flush..., but it was better than squatting (which is quite dificult when one had pants on). =0)
The next morning, about 4 am, we had another earthquake. Since we felt it fairly well in Kigali, I can't imagine what it was like in Kibogora. Pray that no one was seriously hurt.
The ride from Kigali to the border of Uganda was eventful. Since Rwanda is such a hilly country the roads follow the curves of the mountains. The bus driver must have had a hot date because he was definitely "flying low" causing about half the passengers to feel sick to their stomachs and about half of them lost their breakfast on the bus. Poor Amanda felt so queasy we emptied one of our plastic bags (which are illegal in Rwanda) just in case she needed it. Thankfully she did not, but the guy behind me had to stick his head out the window a few times and the kids one row up and over graced the floor with their stomach contents. Once we reached the border we all had to get off and get our exit stamps from Rwanda, walk the half kilometer to the Ugandan side and pay for our entrance back into the country for the last 4 days we are here. They do not take that opportunity to clean the bus they only put more cardboard down on the floor so we don't have to step in it. Nice of them. It was soo cold that morning that none of the other passengers around us would let us have the window open for very long. Thankfully the smell wasn't too bad. After the border the road flattens out, so the nausea subsided for most everyone.
We got to Kampala without insident and are now having fun trekking around the city.
More ;ater.
Love,
Me
Monday, February 11, 2008
week in review
So we made it to Kigali Tuesday and found our way to the guest house (with some help from a few bystanders who gave the taxi driver better directions). Rwanda is a bit different than Uganda. There are mountains everywhere. In fact, it is called the land of 1,000 hills. On the way from Kigali to Kibogora, I think we climbed all of them. It seemed like we were constantly going up or down some hill, not a whole lot of straight flat stretches in between.
Back in Kigali we stayed in a beautiful guest house owned by the Methodist church. I almost thought I was back in America, had it not been for the warm weather. We didn’t know that there was another group who had just come from Kibogora (by way of Bujumbura, Burundi) on the other side of the duplex. They had arrived Tuesday night after Connie and Amanda and I had fallen into bed. Julie called over there the next morning and asked to speak to me, so we met them and found out they were just on their way into town. We had been figuring out how to get into town, since we didn’t have a phone and we had all day to kill. We weren’t supposed to head out to Kibogora until Thursday, but because there was another group of people coming out from there to Kigali, it was decided that after we all went to town the three of us would grab all our stuff and make the 5 to 6 hour trek out that day. God is sooooo GOOOOD!!! He has been before us this whole time, working out the little details that we had no idea how we could accomplish them on our own.
For example, in Kampala (Uganda), Simon found a taxi driver who just “happened” to be coming our way, flagged him down and he took us to all the places we needed to get to in Kampala. Turns out he and Simon are from the same tribe and he is a Christian! We got his number, so when we get back to Kampala this week we can call him and not have to worry about how we are going to get the rest of our luggage or how to get to our hotel with all it.
Anyway, we finally arrived at Kibogora and let me tell you…this is one of God’s creative masterpieces. It is beautiful here! We are right on lake Kivu (which borders with Congo), and everywhere you look is lush and green and just gorgeous. There are always birds singing and butterflies seem to be everywhere (much to my delight). Thursday was kind of a “settling in” day. Julie gave us a tour of the hospital and let us know what we could do to help out some. Friday we were awaken in the middle of the night to the earth trembling. Apparently the quake they had last Sunday near Cyangugu isn’t quite finished shaking things up. The first aftershock was the biggest and then there were two more smaller ones, of which the last one was barely perceptible. After breakfast that morning we all headed down to the hospital to catalog some of the things in the storage closet so that they can be entered into a computer program to keep better track of what supplies they have and what needs to be ordered. That took us all day and we found things that had been manufactured or “expired” up to 13 years ago! Apparently they kept getting shoved to the back and never used. Some of it, like gloves and cotton and such, are things that don’t really expire. Anyway, now they know some of what they have. The store room is going to be moved when the new building is finished in about a month, so then I’m sure they will be going through it more thoroughly as time permits.
Yesterday, we went out to a place 3 miles away called Kumbya. It is an interdenominational camp ground. There are several churches that own cabins on the peninsula, but Kibogora hospital is the closest, so they are kind of “in charge” of overseeing it. Julie had to go inspect the houses to see if there are any major cracks since the earthquake, so we came along and just lounged around on the shoreline for a few hours, until she was paged to help with a budget report someone was having trouble with. Julie was going to drop us in the market to snoop around while she dealt with that (not thinking it would take very long), but we decided that we would just return with her and come back to the market later. Two hours later Julie showed up finally finished with the “quick” problem. That’s okay, Connie and I got a nap and Amanda got some reading time in in the interlude.
Today was church day. It was similar, yet different to the Ugandan services we have attended. This church does not do a lot of congregational singing. They have several choirs that prepare 2 or 3 songs each and they sit in a semicircle around the church and stand and sing when it’s their turn. There was no translator for us so we didn’t really know what the sermon was about, but we did our best. Mostly we just made faces, smiles, and waves at all the children sitting in front of us who were very curious about these muzungu sitting behind them. Even the people passing by on the street would stop and stare if we caught their eye through the window we were sitting by. Culturally, staring is not considered rude here, so people will just look at you for however long you are in their line of sight. It’s quite uncomfortable at first, but you get used to it after a while. The kids are the cutest, though. If you catch them staring and wave at them they usually get really shy, turn to their friends and start giggling. Some come right up to you and shake your hand. One house here on the main street has two adorable children who, when they see us, come out and give us all a hug. It’s very precious, causing many giggle from the bystanders and muzungu followers.
So there is a brief update of our journey to Kibogora. We are planning to head back to Kigali on Wednesday and Kampala on Thursday. We fly out from Entebbe on Monday at 9:45am (that’s 10:45pm for all of you in Washington). Happy day to you all.
Eryn
Back in Kigali we stayed in a beautiful guest house owned by the Methodist church. I almost thought I was back in America, had it not been for the warm weather. We didn’t know that there was another group who had just come from Kibogora (by way of Bujumbura, Burundi) on the other side of the duplex. They had arrived Tuesday night after Connie and Amanda and I had fallen into bed. Julie called over there the next morning and asked to speak to me, so we met them and found out they were just on their way into town. We had been figuring out how to get into town, since we didn’t have a phone and we had all day to kill. We weren’t supposed to head out to Kibogora until Thursday, but because there was another group of people coming out from there to Kigali, it was decided that after we all went to town the three of us would grab all our stuff and make the 5 to 6 hour trek out that day. God is sooooo GOOOOD!!! He has been before us this whole time, working out the little details that we had no idea how we could accomplish them on our own.
For example, in Kampala (Uganda), Simon found a taxi driver who just “happened” to be coming our way, flagged him down and he took us to all the places we needed to get to in Kampala. Turns out he and Simon are from the same tribe and he is a Christian! We got his number, so when we get back to Kampala this week we can call him and not have to worry about how we are going to get the rest of our luggage or how to get to our hotel with all it.
Anyway, we finally arrived at Kibogora and let me tell you…this is one of God’s creative masterpieces. It is beautiful here! We are right on lake Kivu (which borders with Congo), and everywhere you look is lush and green and just gorgeous. There are always birds singing and butterflies seem to be everywhere (much to my delight). Thursday was kind of a “settling in” day. Julie gave us a tour of the hospital and let us know what we could do to help out some. Friday we were awaken in the middle of the night to the earth trembling. Apparently the quake they had last Sunday near Cyangugu isn’t quite finished shaking things up. The first aftershock was the biggest and then there were two more smaller ones, of which the last one was barely perceptible. After breakfast that morning we all headed down to the hospital to catalog some of the things in the storage closet so that they can be entered into a computer program to keep better track of what supplies they have and what needs to be ordered. That took us all day and we found things that had been manufactured or “expired” up to 13 years ago! Apparently they kept getting shoved to the back and never used. Some of it, like gloves and cotton and such, are things that don’t really expire. Anyway, now they know some of what they have. The store room is going to be moved when the new building is finished in about a month, so then I’m sure they will be going through it more thoroughly as time permits.
Yesterday, we went out to a place 3 miles away called Kumbya. It is an interdenominational camp ground. There are several churches that own cabins on the peninsula, but Kibogora hospital is the closest, so they are kind of “in charge” of overseeing it. Julie had to go inspect the houses to see if there are any major cracks since the earthquake, so we came along and just lounged around on the shoreline for a few hours, until she was paged to help with a budget report someone was having trouble with. Julie was going to drop us in the market to snoop around while she dealt with that (not thinking it would take very long), but we decided that we would just return with her and come back to the market later. Two hours later Julie showed up finally finished with the “quick” problem. That’s okay, Connie and I got a nap and Amanda got some reading time in in the interlude.
Today was church day. It was similar, yet different to the Ugandan services we have attended. This church does not do a lot of congregational singing. They have several choirs that prepare 2 or 3 songs each and they sit in a semicircle around the church and stand and sing when it’s their turn. There was no translator for us so we didn’t really know what the sermon was about, but we did our best. Mostly we just made faces, smiles, and waves at all the children sitting in front of us who were very curious about these muzungu sitting behind them. Even the people passing by on the street would stop and stare if we caught their eye through the window we were sitting by. Culturally, staring is not considered rude here, so people will just look at you for however long you are in their line of sight. It’s quite uncomfortable at first, but you get used to it after a while. The kids are the cutest, though. If you catch them staring and wave at them they usually get really shy, turn to their friends and start giggling. Some come right up to you and shake your hand. One house here on the main street has two adorable children who, when they see us, come out and give us all a hug. It’s very precious, causing many giggle from the bystanders and muzungu followers.
So there is a brief update of our journey to Kibogora. We are planning to head back to Kigali on Wednesday and Kampala on Thursday. We fly out from Entebbe on Monday at 9:45am (that’s 10:45pm for all of you in Washington). Happy day to you all.
Eryn
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Mount Wanale
Yesterday we hiked up Mt. Wanale. It takes three hours to walk/climb to the top and we spent about an hour playing in the waterfall, eating lunch, and astonishing and amusing the kids who found us before heading back down. We started our trek at 7:30 on the morning, so we would miss most of the miday sun and got back to home around 2:30ish. My legs are not appreciative of all the exertion I inflicted upon them. The astonishing thing to me was all the people who kept passing us as if it were nothing to climb up and down this huge, steep mountain. Of course they have had the advantage of doing it nearly everyday, because you have to go dow to Mbale if you want to sell your goods or buy clothing or shoes or anything. Some of them passed us with only flipflops and some with no shoes at all!!! One family passed going down as we were going up and inadvertantly showed us a huge culural difference. The young boy came down carrying a toddler, the mother was next with a baby on her back and a suitcase on her head, and the father came last with NOTHING AT ALL!!! Not all men hold to that custom, but it is very prevelant here, especially among those who have multiple wives. Amanda made sure the woman knew how incredible she was as they passed each other. I hope she understood.
We took Priscilla, Phoebe, and Lydia (3 of the girls that live here) with us and we all had a good time playing in the waterfall at the top of the mountain (the portion that pools before it plummets about 1000 feet down the side of the mountain). Amanda has been to it during the rainy season and says it is much more impressive than it was yesterday, since the water level is massively higher. When we reached the pool there was a man doing laundry in the river. Apparently he was washing soccer jerseys. I hope the team is at the top of the hill and not the bottom! We enjoyed a leisurely lunch in the company of some of the local kids that found us. They did not like the smell of the warm cheese we had to go with our crackers. One of the older boys picked it up and sniffed it and then promptly threw it away from himself, said something to his buddy and left. A little later one of the younger boys' curiosity got the better of him and he sniffed it and threw it off the cliff! After lunch, Amanda filtered some of the river water so we could refill our water bottles,much to th amazement of the pack that followed us, and we set off back down the mountain. Since it is the dry season here, some of the drit was very loose making the way down just as difficult (if not more so) than the way up. I think Priscilla and Phoebe giggled most of the slip-sliding way down. It was quite funny, and Connie ended up on her bum more than once. I think we all lost our footing at one time or another, which can be quite un-nerving if it's in a place where the trail is about 8 inches wide and the fall is a couple hundred feet down. Thankfully we all made it down safely.
When we finally reached the road that led back home we all decided to take a bota bota home rather than walk the rest of the way. Connie and I were sunburned by this time (doxcyclene will do that to you) and everyone was quite exhausted. A bota bota is a steel framed bicycle with a padded seat on the back for traveler's to sit n while the man peddles you to your destination. Connie wiped out the first one who offered his seat because he wasn't quite strong enough. I had to walk up the hill with my driver because he wasn't quiet strong enough either. That was quite and experience. After we got home everyone told me I should have "rode like a man" since i had pants on, rather than side saddle. Oh well, maybenext time.
Tomorrow we take Priscilla and Stella to school in Tororo, and then Tuesday we will head to Kampala to catch our bus to Rwanda early Wednesday morning. I think there is something else we are doing Monday, but I can't remember.
Today, Priscilla's family is preparing an "off to school"/goodbye feast for everyone. The turkey met his demise yesterday evening, and I think a chicken was "sacrificed" today. I dont know for sure, but it sounded like it. They eat very late around here, around 8pm, so I guess I will find out then.
Hope you all have a happy week.
See you soon.
We took Priscilla, Phoebe, and Lydia (3 of the girls that live here) with us and we all had a good time playing in the waterfall at the top of the mountain (the portion that pools before it plummets about 1000 feet down the side of the mountain). Amanda has been to it during the rainy season and says it is much more impressive than it was yesterday, since the water level is massively higher. When we reached the pool there was a man doing laundry in the river. Apparently he was washing soccer jerseys. I hope the team is at the top of the hill and not the bottom! We enjoyed a leisurely lunch in the company of some of the local kids that found us. They did not like the smell of the warm cheese we had to go with our crackers. One of the older boys picked it up and sniffed it and then promptly threw it away from himself, said something to his buddy and left. A little later one of the younger boys' curiosity got the better of him and he sniffed it and threw it off the cliff! After lunch, Amanda filtered some of the river water so we could refill our water bottles,much to th amazement of the pack that followed us, and we set off back down the mountain. Since it is the dry season here, some of the drit was very loose making the way down just as difficult (if not more so) than the way up. I think Priscilla and Phoebe giggled most of the slip-sliding way down. It was quite funny, and Connie ended up on her bum more than once. I think we all lost our footing at one time or another, which can be quite un-nerving if it's in a place where the trail is about 8 inches wide and the fall is a couple hundred feet down. Thankfully we all made it down safely.
When we finally reached the road that led back home we all decided to take a bota bota home rather than walk the rest of the way. Connie and I were sunburned by this time (doxcyclene will do that to you) and everyone was quite exhausted. A bota bota is a steel framed bicycle with a padded seat on the back for traveler's to sit n while the man peddles you to your destination. Connie wiped out the first one who offered his seat because he wasn't quite strong enough. I had to walk up the hill with my driver because he wasn't quiet strong enough either. That was quite and experience. After we got home everyone told me I should have "rode like a man" since i had pants on, rather than side saddle. Oh well, maybenext time.
Tomorrow we take Priscilla and Stella to school in Tororo, and then Tuesday we will head to Kampala to catch our bus to Rwanda early Wednesday morning. I think there is something else we are doing Monday, but I can't remember.
Today, Priscilla's family is preparing an "off to school"/goodbye feast for everyone. The turkey met his demise yesterday evening, and I think a chicken was "sacrificed" today. I dont know for sure, but it sounded like it. They eat very late around here, around 8pm, so I guess I will find out then.
Hope you all have a happy week.
See you soon.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
