Ron and Sally Jo Blog

In September we had spent two nights at Sipi Falls, on the side of Mount Elgon in eastern Uganda. We enjoyed it so much that we returned with Michelle and Andrea. It is a beautiful spot. At one point Michelle told the guide that it looked like the beginning of the world. He smiled and said that many people say that. Local people say the God spent much time and took great care in his creation in this beautiful spot—then rested a bit and took it a little easier when creating the plains.

There are three falls associated with the name Sipi Falls. The first can be seen from the grounds of the lodge where we were staying. We hiked to the upper two falls—lovely. In the afternoon we also visited a nearby naturally-formed cave. It now contains many bats which we could hear but which would not remain still for photos!

During the month of December we had two opportunities to visit a popular game viewing area at Murchison Falls. At the beginning of the month we were there with Sally Jo’s brother and nephew, Gerald and Steve Miller, and at the end of the month we went again with our daughters Michelle and Andrea.

The falls themselves are located on a westward flowing section of the Victoria Nile. Much of the waters of the River Nile originate in Uganda. The Victoria Nile flows out of Lake Victoria, through Lake Kyoga, and empties into Lake Albert briefly before continuing into the Albert Nile that flows north into the White Nile that eventually passes through Khartoum and Cairo. Murchison Falls are quite spectacular, especially from the top, because at that point a large amount of water is forced through a very narrow gorge in the rock cliff.

On both visits our lodging was on the south side of the river, and we needed to take an early morning (7 am) ferry crossing for the best opportunity to see the animals on the north side. With Gerald and Steve we stayed at Sambiya River Lodge and heard cape buffalo feeding on the grass outside our rooms at night. With Michelle and Andrea we stayed at a “rest camp” and saw warthogs and hippos wandering through the grounds munching on the grass at night. They were literally right outside our windows!

After crossing the river on a small ferry, we took a game drive in our car for about 4 hours with a ranger/guide who helped us find and identify the animals and birds that we saw. Then we had lunch at Paraa Lodge on the north side of the river. After lunch we took a 3-hour boat trip to the base of the falls and observed many more animals and birds along the way.  The entire stay was very interesting, and our guests all reported that it was a highlight of their time in Uganda.

We made a 5-day trip to Murchison Falls and Sipi Falls with Michelle and Andrea. (More later.)  We had a great time seeing animals, the variety of Ugandan countryside, and several waterfalls.  We arrived back in Kampala the afternoon of New Year’s Eve.  Games, pumpkin soup for supper, and our usual oliebollen were our activities—along with watching fireworks exploding in various parts of the city and hearing music from our verandah.

More card games on New Year’s Day and then a visit to Ndere Center for buffet and dances.  Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas this year was different in some ways but with some familiar experiences.  Familiar—family, eating, candlelight service.  Different – warm weather, new foods, new friends.   We were happy that both Michelle and Andrea could join us here in Uganda.

Christmas Eve we attended service at All Saints Cathedral.  It was wonderful to join in the familiar carols, hear the familiar readings, and end with the singing of Silent Night by candlelight.  We came home and had supper at 10 p.m.

Christmas Day began with a brunch of pancakes and fresh fruit—pineapple, papaya, and bananas.  We did some reminiscing as we found all our previous homes using Google Earth.

In the afternoon M, our house helper, invited us to join her family in fun and food.  As we arrived the music system was being set up.  We divided into four teams to compete in various contests.  The first was a treasure hunt.  The second was water balloon volleyball.  What fun!  There were disagreements of course and SJ served as “final” official for one.  And there was a winner.

There was lots of food – all very good and all very different than our usual Christmas dinner.

We ended our day with a call to the rest of our family by Skype.  Isn’t Skype wonderful!

What’s an “ordinary” day like for us?  When we are in town, we never know for sure what the day will hold, but there are some common things that usually happen.

First of all there is the drive to the office—about 2-3 km (not quite 1 mile)—which can take 10-20 minutes, depending on the traffic.  As we leave our house we often encounter cows or goats or chickens –and always bicycles and motorbikes (called boda boda) as well as cars.  There is a view across the valley to the hill where the office is located.  We pass many little shops along the way.  There are three corners that are usually congested.

After we make our first turn we can see ahead—to the traffic and to the local market.  We pass a “washing bay” along the way as well as a “hardware” shop.  The market has busy vendors along the road getting ready for the day.  More congestion and we are at the office.

Monday mornings we spend time in devotions and on catching up with each other’s activities.  Our song this week was in Luo:

Ipoore me amara (x4)        You are worthy to be loved

Ipoore me awora (x4)        You are worthy to be praised

Ipoore Rwot Ipoore (x4)    You are worthy

Obanga tima Kica (x4)        Lord have mercy

We work at our computers much of the day—writing and responding to email, reading, responding to, and writing reports, entering data in the MCC database, working on financial items.  We may have visitors and discuss MCC’s program and partner locations.  We may work at organizing papers and boxes from the last 25 years.  We may hear a band marching down the street or spend some time watching the new building going up across the street.

Uganda has rolling blackouts.  Up until about 2 months ago, when power went off suddenly in the office, we would be caught with “unsaved” files on our computers.  We recently purchased new inverter batteries that kick on when power goes off.  It has been a big help.

Lunch is usually at a nearby spot.  At the end of the day, we again face the traffic.  We often go home a slightly different route, but the congestion is all the same!  And Daisy is very happy when we arrive home!

We recently spent a wonderful 8 days with Sally Jo’s brother and son here in Uganda.  We visited many sites, relaxed, played lots of Canasta, found our way through traffic and crowded streets, and generally had a good time.  Included in this blog are representative photos of the various places we went.  Most of the sites need a blog entry themselves.

We visited the two oldest cathedrals in Kampala – Church of Uganda (Anglican) and Catholic and also two Hindu Temples.  We saw some of the Buganda royal tombs and visited Namugongo Martyrs’ Shrine that honors Catholic and Anglican martyrs killed by the Baganda king in the late 1800’s.  In Kampala we also made our way through a very small part of one of the largest open-air markets in East Africa.  We visited two MCC projects in the city – Mengo Hospital Aids Clinic and Hope Prison Foundation.  And of course, we did some craft shopping.  Fried grasshoppers are a specialty and S thought he would try them.  We all tasted them. They are sort of like popcorn!

Probably the highlight of the week was a three day safari to Murchison Falls.  We saw all the major animals and many birds—and of course, the beautiful falls themselves.  The Nile River crashes over the Murchison Falls and creates fantastic scenes both from the top of the falls and from the River below.

Stay tuned for later blogs with more detail—Namugongo, religious institutions, historical spots, and of course, much more of Murchison Falls Park.

Each year the MCC Uganda team takes time to enjoy a week together in fun, worship, and outside input.  This year the team was invited to gather with the MCC teams from Burundi/Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in Gisenyi, Rwanda.  There were 19 adults and 6 children under the age of 6.  The location was at a hotel located on the shores of Lake Kivu, about 0.5 km from the DRC border, with a backdrop of active volcanoes.  Needless to say, it was a beautiful spot. We enjoyed the flowers, green grass, and a resident group of crested cranes, the national bird of Uganda.

Generally, the schedule involved breakfast, worship, Bible Study on a parable, coffee break, some sort of input session, lunch, rest/activities, supper, and worship.  One day a Rwandan pastor joined us for a discussion of facing injustice on a personal level.  He is Hutu, and although he was not involved directly in the mid 1990’s genocide against the Tutsis, he was aware of the killings as they happened. But when the RPF (Rwanda Patriotic Front) came in he was forced to flee to Congo where he spent several years in a refugee camp and lost many family members.

Afternoon activities included various art projects and one afternoon of yoga.  We spent one morning at another hotel swimming in the lake and generally relaxing.  Lake Kivu is interesting in that there is methane gas at the bottom of this deep lake which today is being harvested for energy.

The MCC Uganda team traveled by road from Kampala to Gisenyi.  It was a 12-hour journey one way.  Southwestern Uganda and northwest Rwanda were beautiful with green hills and mountains in the background.  Rwanda is more densely populated than Uganda.  This was very evident with the terraced hillsides and homes everywhere. On our return journey we had a clear view of two volcanic mountains in the early morning light. Part of our mountainous road was still under construction, but most of the route was beautiful finished blacktop.

Recently we travelled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for EARM (East Africa Representatives Meeting).  These semi-annual meetings bring together MCC reps from Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, as well as our Associate Directors for East Africa.  Two administrators from Akron, PA  also joined us.  The meetings were good and productive.  It’s always good to hear what is happening in the other countries and know that we are not alone in our joys and frustrations.  (And Sally Jo got to hold the “newest” member of the EARM family – 6 weeks old.)

With meetings for two-and-half days we did not see much of Addis or the surroundings.  However, the view from our hotel room on the 5^th floor did give us a small view of the city and our immediate neighborhood—including cattle and sheep passing by in the morning.  And did you know that Addis is at an altitude of 7,600 feet?  Our hearts got a good exercise every time we climbed the stairs.

Our final afternoon was free so we joined a group that took a short trip up the mountain behind the hotel.  On the way we stopped to see an MCC project in jewelry making.  This is an income-generating project for women living with AIDS.  It was a Saturday so the women were not there but we saw the beautiful jewelry which is sold through Ten Thousand Villages and also through some high-end U.S. stores.  The beads are made from melted-down bullet casings.  We then visited one of these women who made tea for us and spoke about her struggles.  We had a short hike up the hill and looked out over the city.

In the evening we went to an Ethiopian Restaurant with that wonderful spicy food served with injera, a thin light bread, for which Ethiopia is known. The food was accompanied by drinks that included Ethiopian honey wine and delicious Ethiopian coffee. It was all tops!  For our entertainment and enjoyment there was traditional dancing and singing.

We spent a wonderful afternoon  in the Entebbe Botanical Gardens recently with the MCC SALTer who was spending the weekend with us.  The beautiful landscaped gardens were established about 1900 and include many native and imported trees and plants.  It is located on the shores of Lake Victoria.  We had a very knowledgeable tour guide who explained the various trees and fruits, identified numerous birds, and showed us a variety of plants used for medicinal purposes.  There are two types of resident monkeys—the black and white colobus and the black faced vervet monkey.

We did not have a pencil and paper so, of course, we don’t remember the information—even though we found it fascinating!  So this blog will just have many photos with little explanation.  Also the photos do not do justice to the beauty.  (And we don’t have photos of the beautiful birds we saw — kingfishers and hornbills for example — black-and-white-casqued hornbill and  pied kingfisher.)

We had heard from a number of people about the small (less than 4-acre) organic farm near Masaka.  We finally had a chance to visit; it is truly an amazing place.  The land is flourishing with vegetables and other produce as well as farm animals.

The farm was begun by a couple in the early 1990’s when the wife attended an intensive organic farming course in U.K.  They developed their farm to demonstrate how to improve subsistence agriculture using sustainable organic methods. They introduced courses for small-scale farmers and the project has grown over the years in response to the need for sustainable livelihoods for farmers and for those living in urban areas.  Participants learn about organic farming, improving impoverished soils, distribution of good breeding livestock, and tree seedlings and plant nurseries.

Several surprises–remember that house built with water bottles we saw earlier?  Another use for used water bottles is irrigation.  Mint tea can be made into an herbicide.  (Many other plants are grown for herbicides and for medicinal purposes.  The bio-gas system was more mature here than what we saw before; so we could see the results more readily.