Ron and Sally Jo Blog

We made a 3-hour road trip to Hoima to visit an MCC service worker and his partner organization, the Anglican diocese in that area. The program that they run is called “Living with Shalom.” Once a year it brings together young people from all over Uganda for a 3-week training in peace building, health issues, and environmental issues and helps to break down stereotypes and fears that different ethnic groups have of each other. During the remainder of the year there are follow-up visits to the participants in their home areas, and reciprocal visits are arranged between groups from different ethnic areas.

We travelled on a very nice newly paved road through fertile and lush countryside. However, some of the usual hazards were also encountered along the way!

We recently took a small plane to the northeast corner of Uganda to visit MCC partners and attend a special celebration for the education project among the Ik, a small marginalized ethnic group who live in close proximity to the Karamajong. The Ik subsist by hunting and gathering their food whereas the Karamajong are pastoralists with large herds of cattle. The MCC project helps to pay for school fees and other necessities for over 60 Ik children from Kamion who attend secondary school in Kaabong.

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We have been here in Kampala one week.  We have settled in to the house, learned to drive (on the left) to the office, worked with the MCC staff, and met a number of persons connected with various MCC projects.  We have visited two MCC partners – Hope Prison Foundation and Mengo Hospital.  “Partners” are organizations (usually local) with which MCC works here in Uganda. If a local organization is working on projects that  match MCC’s philosophy, we feel it is better to work through them rather than create another project.  Hope Prison Foundation provides educational and economic assistance to families of prisoners and Mengo Hospital has programs for the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS. More about this later.

We are excited, apprehensive, and a bit sad.  We are excited to return to East Africa, the area of the world where we first worked with MCC.  We are apprehensive in that we don’t know what is ahead for us.  And we are sad to leave family and friends even as we anticipate making many new friends. 

We have accepted an assignment with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) as interim MCC representatives for Uganda.  We will be in Uganda for 12 to 18 months.  As we write this blog we will introduce you to the people, projects, and scenery that becomes our new world.

In preparation for our leaving, we spent 2 weeks in Akron, PA, at the US MCC headquarters with a group of other persons preparing for various places in the world – Sudan, Tanzania, South Africa, Guatamala, Haiti, North Korea.

At the beginning of January we drove to Sarasota, FL to visit Ron’s uncle and aunt and to see a bit of Sarasota.  On the way there we spent a night in Durham, NC with Gann & Dale, former MCC representatives to Uganda, where we will be going in March. We also spent a morning on St. Simon’s Island, near Brunswick, GA.

Our stay in Sarasota was shortened to just one full day due to the early arrival of Lucy in Philadelphia (reported earlier). But during that day we packed a lot in — visited two beaches, the Ringling mansion and rose garden, and walked about 1 1/2 miles total across the Ringling causeway bridge and back. Our friend Faye from Goshen guided us from place to place. In the evening we accompanied Ron’s uncle Paul and aunt Lois to a potluck at the clubhouse for their housing area. The next day we headed north to see our new granddaughter in Philadelphia.

We shared our American Thanksgiving with a number of Indonesian friends.  Turkey with all its fixings was enjoyed by all.

We spent Christmas both in Goshen and with a quick trip to Philadelphia.  And we made our traditional Dutch oliebollen on New Year’s Eve.

Our last stop on this trip was Philadelphia.  We helped Jessica and Christy rake their leaves.  We also hiked around Valley Forge park.

On our way back to Goshen we visited friends we made in Indonesia, now living near State College.

We traveled Interstate 40 from Flagstaff, AZ to east of Knoxville, TN where we picked up Interstate 81.  The fall colors were so beautiful that we took a short detour and drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway for several hours.

We ended our week in Arizona with a short trip to Phoenix where we had lunch with Ron’s nephew and niece and families.

Another day we travelled to Walnut Canyon National Monument,  east of Flagstaff.  Here we followed a foot trail with steps down and up to see cliff dwellings.