Coaching, Queen Elizabeth, and more

So it has been quite a while since I have been able to update everyone on my happenings. We have been without internet for about 11 days, and it has been extremely frustrating. Our work and my work especially relies pretty heavily on our internet connection and being able to communicate with Dr. Bangsberg back in Boston. In addition to the internet being down, our server crashed so we couldn't even access the majority of our files for a week. However, it appears that everything is up and running again. We will see how long that lasts...

A couple weekends ago, I ended up getting involved with coaching some soccer. Danny, one of the guys I went golfing with happened upon some kids playing soccer one day while he was out running. It turns out there is a boys team that is coached by a guy named Moses who described himself as a "Street Kid" growing up. He didn't have much and basically just hung out on the street, not going to school or working. He then met a gentleman named David who now runs a small orphanage in the neighboring town. Together, they have a handful of kids they take care of at a small house that serves as an orphanage. While the boys have a legitimate team and Moses as the coach, Danny has offered to coach practices for the local girls. Danny invited me to join him and his wife Lynn one Sunday afternoon.

When I met up with them at their apartment, they had been babysitting the youngest orphan, a 4 year old girl Putin. She was devouring a Cadbury bar and had been given a little stuffed animal. We spent ten minutes trying to get her shoes back on, as they were clearly about 2 sizes too small. We then took a small hike, about 40 minutes, through the valley to the orphanage where we were met by a group of boys and girls who were anxious to go play some soccer. Danny carried Putin on his shoulders the entire way, so that she wouldn't cut up her feet. We rounded up about 2o girls and 5-10 boys along our walk, inviting them all to come play soccer with us.

We then walked down to the field which was a large soccer pitch with varying lengths of grass. The middle of the field was mostly dirt with a bit of grass springing up here and there and some considerable dirt mounds sporadically placed across the field. Towards the corners and sidelines, the grass rose well past my knees. The goals were actually fairly legitimate in that they were made of metal, as opposed to most of the goals that are curved pieces of wood nailed together. We coached the girls for about half an hour running drills and getting some exercise before letting them scrimmage a bit. While Danny had the scrimmage under control, another volunteer in the area, Connor, and I played some pick up soccer with some of the locals on the other end of the field. It was nice to get out and play some soccer and run around.

Connor is here with his buddy Brian and Brian's girlfriend Annie. They all just graduated from University of San Diego and are here through their church helping to get a hospital going and getting involved with other projects in the area. Brian and Connor both play soccer and basketball, which has worked out pretty well so far. They met the coach of a high school basketball team in the area and when I joined all of them for dinner that night, we found out he also helps coach the university team and invited to go play with them the next day.

I had walked by the kids playing basketball everyday after work, but figured they were practicing. We played with them and between Connor, Brian, and myself, we impressed them enough to get invited back. We have been playing with them every Monday and Friday and having a good time. The court is in pretty terrible shape. No nets, broken gravel, and a busted rim. Nevertheless, it is a good time. There are some decent players and others that are not as much so, but overall I have been impressed.

That next weekend I got invited to tag along with some people to Queen Elizabeth National Park. We left early Saturday morning and drove through the beautiful green hills northwest of Mbarara. As we rounded one of the hills close to the park, the hills immediately evaporated and became an enormous savanna-like landscape. It is called the Western Rift Valley and I believe it runs through Uganda and down into Tanzania, but I could easily be wrong. Looking out across the Western Rift Valley, the Rwenzori Mountains (aka "Mountains to the Moon") emerge. They rise to a substantial 5110 m and are glacier capped. Pretty amazing to think there are glacier capped mountains virtually on the Equator.

When we arrived at our hostel, we headed over to the nice Mweya Lodge to meet two doctors who were accompanying us for lunch. We then took a boat launch to go see some buffaloes, hippos, birds (there are tons of birds here. it is amazing), and one of 11 fishing villages in the national park. The hippos and buffaloes really just ignored us as we got within feet of them as they floated in the channel. The channel connects the two main lakes in Queen Elizabeth, Lake George and Lake Edward. When we were passing the fishing village, all of the men were boarding their dug-out canoes to go out fishing for the evening. There must have been 30 canoes going out, it was pretty amazing to see this as they literally live right next to these hug pods of hippos and buffaloes. Nothing separates them at all.

We went on a short game drive after the boat trip and got to see some elephants and other antelope type animals. We also did a game drive early the next morning which was more exciting as we saw a female lion laying in the shade, a male lion saunter from one thicket to another, and male Ugandan Kobs bucking as they competed for territory.

The following week, was the week without internet and work was very frustrating. I was able to get a little bit done, but it was extremely unproductive. I spent more time out at Mburara International school and got a chance to teach again as we talked about directions and a compass. I also helped P4 with their term project about the eye. They were looking for a way to spice up their presentation so we decided to make paper mache eyeballs. While Mr. Thompson took the lead and has been working with them, we will be painting and decorating them next week before their presentation day and last day of the term, next Friday, December 5th. I also got a chance to see the building plans for the new school and got to sit down at a meeting with the contractor. They have some very ambitious plans and goals and it will likely take a lot of work, but it is a very important thing they are trying to do. Miss K is very determined to make it happen and is getting worried that it won't happen while she is still around to teach. Nneka and I are confident it will get done, but were very much taken aback by the costs. We have a lot of work ahead of us.

This past weekend, I decided to go to Lake Bunyonyi which is just outside of Kabale, in the very southern most tip of Uganda which borders the DRC, Rwanda, and Tanzania. The lake is the only lake in Uganda that you can safely swim in because it is free of harmful bacteria and diseases. It also doesn't have hippos or crocodiles which is important. When we got there, we were taken aback by its beauty and tranquility. We took a dug-out canoe out to Bushara Island for the day and night. The lake is surrounded by beautiful and green hills with little villages scattered among them. The lake is littered with little islands that also have small villages on them. There are no motorboats or giant mansions and there is plenty of undeveloped land. We stayed in a cabin called the Treehouse and it looked out over the water towards another island that was used from the 1930s until the late 1960s as a leper colony. All the individuals in the local town who suffered from Leprosy were exiled to the island.

Bushara Island was extremely relaxing. It did not offer too much in the way of entertainment, except it did have a small rope swing that Connor and I spent the majority of the afternoon on, attempting backflips that never really amounted to anything more than painful back flops. The food on the island was excellent and we met some nice older people who have been coming to the island once a year for the past 8 years as they have helped to fund and build a hospital up in Kasese, a ways away from Lake Bunyonyi. In any event, it was a restful and relaxing weekend.

Well, I think I have caught up on everything now...quite a long post. Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I will be having Thanksgiving at my Director's house. This is also my last full weekend in Mbarara as I have ironed out plans to go on a little tour of Uganda my last week and a half or so. Hope everyone is well and thank you to everyone who has sent me emails or comments or anything else.

Oh, and posting pictures doesn't look like it will happen at this point... I will make sure to do that when I get back to the States.