Uganda 2009
May 26 2009 – Where we were
I think I've managed to figure out where we were for most of the trip. Click the map to link to the Google map to see. Select "Satelite" in the top right to get a better view.
May 25 2009 – PICTURES!!!!
Photos are ready! I started with 2500 pictures, and struggled to get it down to a more reasonable number. Somehow I managed to find 422 to show here.
Day 18 – May 22 2009 – Heading home
Right now I’m sitting in a very delayed 747 at Heathrow airport. We arrived at the airport this morning in Entebbe without incident. Security there was insane. On entering the airport you go through the full security deal with all bags getting xray’d etc. After check-in you pass through customs to exit the country, then proceed to another security point at the gate. I’m not kidding that everyone got their passport, ticket, and boarding pass checked no fewer than 10 times. The flight from Entebbe to London was uneventful. We arrived here in Heathrow to find out plane was delayed by 1h. Ezra assumed this was due to luggage issues. After boarding the airplane the havoc continued. We actually just had our 3rd message saying that we’re being delayed.
Msg 1 – A passenger was abusive to staff at the gate, he was removed and his bags had to be removed.
Msg 2 – After passenger 1’s bags were removed we were informed that another passenger was removed from the plane and that her bags needed to be found.
Msg 3- The msg we just got was that there is now an elderly lady in distress on the plane that has to be removed. Paramedics are apparently involved and there’s some language barrier as she refuses to leave the airplane. So now we’re coming up to 3h that the plane has been sitting at the gate.
The plane is getting extremely hot as the auxiliary power unit only provides enough power to operate the AC at ½ capacity. I’m hoping we can make up some serious time on the flight back.
Well we finally made it off the ground… nearly 4h late. The old lady with the “problems” finally was taken off the plane with the help of the paramedics, the airport security, and the police! Hopefully there are no more problems, besides the in-flight entertainment not working yet. Can’t wait for dinner, I’m hungry. It appears that I’ll be seeing the longest sunset of my life. As we took off the sun was setting and if we fly at the normal speed we’ll only arrive 1 ½ hours after we took off due to time change.
By the time I get this online I’ll be back at home. Depending on jet-lag and free time I’ll see how quickly I can get my photos up. I’ve got 2500+ to go through so we’ll see how long that takes.
Day 17 – May 21 2009
Well it’s the last day in Africa. Tomorrow we’re coming home. Part of me is ready to come home, part of me really wants to stay. I long for my own mattress- the ones here are basically 6” of memory foam so after 5 min of laying down your body has sunk into the mattress and molded a shape… you’d think it would be comfortable but its not. Food- I’m starting to crave “real” North American food… the small stuff like ketchup not “top up”. Definitely not looking forward to the very hectic western lifestyle.
I forgot to mention that is 5am right now. After fighting off a mosquito flying around my head at 4am I just couldn’t fall back asleep. There’s a frog jumping through my luggage right now… that’s kinda neat.
Today we’re supposed to head off to Ginger or Ginja or something like that… google it to find out. It’s the source of the Nile so that should be pretty cool. Hopefully lots of picture taking. Talking to Thomas last night he said we’d have to come back to do a Safari in Kenya. He said they’re just unreal and cheap too if you don’t go through all the tours. A 3 day package (including accommodations) can be had for ~$500 whereas you can pay up to $3000 with a tour package for the exact same thing.
So Jinja was great. A couple of us went on a hour quad tour through the African backcountry beside the nile. We managed to get just a little muddy. The source of the Nile was also pretty cool.
Its now about 2:30am here and we’re waiting to go to the airport in 4h. Then its time to head on home :(Day 16 – May 20 2009
2nd last full day in Africa. Today was the first planned day of our debrief time. We spent the day at the imperial beach resort (or something like that) right across the highway from the “white house” of Uganda. The sunburns came in all shapes and sizes. I burned again but it was pretty minor and evenly spread. Nathan had a great burn on his back in the spot you can’t reach to apply sunscreen on your own. Sam found out that the spray on sunscreen he brought didn’t work very well and got burned pretty good. He has some solid tan lines now, the most amazing being the white stripe down his side where his arms covered. Many of the girls also burnt.
In the evening we went to Thomas Obunde’s house for dinner. Thomas is the director at Word of Life and a longtime friend of Ezra’s. We got to hear a few Ezra stories and just had a great time.
Day 15 – May 19 2009
With Maren back and feeling better we took another day off of physical work. There’s still a lot of people feeling sick so today was used as a brainstorming day. Word of Life asked us to think up and layout a playground for their kindergarten class. I know its helpful but I feel a bit useless as there’s only a few days left and we’re not working on something we can see a result in. Yesterday we were supposed to go paint a children’s home. In Africa the culture is way different though so while I feel bad about not getting to do these projects, the people we’re doing this stuff for are completely ok with it. Family and people take a way higher priority than tasks.
This morning it rained again…oh did it rain. Maybe 45min long but did it ever come down. It was cool watching the rain come. You see the big cloud of “mist” moving towards you then you hear the sound of the rain on the tin roof then downpour!
Day 14 – May 18 2009
Today it was decided we needed a rest day as a team. I think I’m the only one who’s feeling 100%. Everyone else feels sick or extremely exhausted. Maren was taken to the hospital as she wasn't able to keep anything down so she got quite dehydrated. Today is a very slow day.
Day 13 – May 17 2009
Yet another very interesting day. We went to Berea Baptist Church and it was normal… no more throwing chairs at the devil like last week. After church we went to Gilbert’s family home for a Ugandan meal. It was very good. On the way back to the Word of Life campus we stopped at the market to pick up some gifts/souvenirs that people still wanted.
After that things started getting interesting with the team. We arrived back on campus and many people weren’t feeling very good. Surprisingly it wasn’t from the Ugandan meal as many of these people hadn’t been feeling 100% for a few days.
Day 12 – May 16 2009
Today was another neat day. In the morning we went to visit ‘Dwelling places’ which is a home for street kids. It was really interesting to learn that Dina, our host, was a volunteer with Dwelling places AND had grown up through their program. She told the story of how she grew up not knowing her parents and 18 years after her mother left she was reunited with her.
In the mid-morning we left their office and walked a couple blocks to their children’s home where we played with the kids for a few hours. We ate lunch back at office then headed out to a childrens program which both children from the home and from the community attended. We played more games, sang songs, and shared testimonies.
We’re now back at the Word of Life campus and dinner’s ready.
Day 11 – May 15 2009
Today was a thinking day. I had many many thoughts running through my head the whole day. I guess I spent too much time thinking and praying as I got the nickname ‘Bryan the Quiet’ and was given the privilege of sitting in the middle of the table for all future meals so I’d be forced to talk more.
In the morning we went back to university dorm where we talked to some more students. It was another great experience. We went back to the garden city mall for lunch then headed off to view the Baha’i temple. That was a very interesting experience as it is a religion which takes from pretty much every other religion. Walking around the temple it just felt so empty.
After the temple we went back to the mall to meet up with Gilbert (from Word of Life) and Cassie (a girl from Chicago working with a couple missions organizations. It was at the mall where I was tempted to buy yet another camera. They had the Nikon F75 and Nikon (something)10… both film cameras that would have been fun to mess around with again.
Day 10 –May 14 2009 – Fireflys, Stars and Lightning
During dinner today the power went out… and it went BLACK. Meaning Ezra and Gilbert turned into well, you know the cartoons where you see the eyes and teeth peering through the forest… ya that. We headed outside to check out the stars and in the process we saw a few fireflys flying around and an unbelievable night sky. We also saw some lightning in the distance which should reach us in an hour or sooner. I’ve got a pair of eyes peering at me…Its meeting time.
Meetings over… So we went off to the watoto children’s home this morning. They had 91 kids aged newborn to about 2. It was a real experience playing with these kids for a few hours in the morning before they headed off to bed for a nap. The Watoto home seemed extremely well funded. It was a very, very nice facility even by Canadian standards.
The afternoon involved quite a bit more slashing and a broken bus. Apparently us Canadians are too fat and the bus ended up breaking a leaf spring and shock.
Day 9 - May 13 2009 - 1 week in Africa
Today was a team day. It is Maren’s birthday today also. We went into town to check out the local African art/tourist market. Everybody loaded up on the African crafts, shirts and art. It was pretty cool.
Day 8 – May 12 2009 -Work day
We woke up, we ate breakfast and we worked. Many of the guys slashed the tall grass and I got the opportunity to break the lawnmower. I pushed that lawnmower up hills both ways, in waste deep snow in my father’s pjs… except for it was 8” long grass and I was wearing my own clothes. After the hills I got through mowing 3/4 of the soccer field which also had 8” long tropical grass. After taking a break (one of the girls from the school came up to me and asked me if I had fainted) I went to restart the lawnmower and it wouldn’t start. Over the course of the previous 5h of mowing I had managed to loosen ALL motor mounts and the gas tank was ready to fall off!!! Should be fixed by tomorrow.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing and trying to stay awake as I was so tired. I didn’t sleep all that well. There was a florescent light right outside the window by my bed so every time I tossed or turned and my eyes cracked open I thought it was sunrise. This happened a few times in addition to the “flying caterpillar” (don’t know what it was but that’s a good description) that wanted to sleep with me on my pillow.
Day 7 - May 11 2009
Today was another great day. In the morning we headed off to the local university. From there we met up with a couple people from a local church and went door to door in a university hostel. I was completely surprised at how open people were to hearing about God. We spoke with a group of 4 guys out of which 3 accepted Christ and the 4th was greatly encouraged in his faith. After that we spoke with 1 student who was a Christian but was confused in his faith. We were also able to encourage him and answer his questions.
After that amazing experience we packed up everything and moved to the word of life campus. I like it a lot more here. It’s cheaper which means that we can spend more to help the people we come across. It also gives us a lot more room to roam around. The remainder of the day consisted of exploring around the campus.
Day 6 - May 10 2009
Yesterday ended with a little game called change the keys on Ezra’s laptop. Backspace now brought up the calculator, T wasn’t a ‘, the Spacebar was a letter and the arrow keys were all reversed. I would like to express my deepest apologies to Tamara who tried to chat with Ezra but his keyboard would not work. I am sure I’ll be gotten back.
This morning was great. We headed off to a local church in the country. The “sign of the Dove” church was really cool. The service lasted almost 4h long and was LOUD. It didn’t seem that long though. Ezra preached and gave a great message on idolatry. The pastor explained both his story and his wife’s story. His wife’s story is the most amazing story I have ever heard in my life.
She is a Rwandan orphan. Her story begins when she was young and the military came to their house and shot her father. As the rest of the family fled her brothers were able to make it over the fence but her mother and herself were not so lucky. The soldiers shot her mother and proceeded to torture her while she was still alive finally killing her by skewering her with a wooden stick. As she fled she found herself in a jungle alone and hungry and staring straight at a leopard. Instead of attacking the leopard protected her for 3 days. She then began the quest to look for food. In this process she fell in a pit which was inhabited by a black mamba… a very large deadly snake. The snake too stayed with her for a few days until she was able to climb out of the pit. In searching for food again she was finally found by UN soldiers. WOW
After church we proceeded to a children’s home run by the pastor’s wife and the church. It was a very emotional experience for all of us. We were able to help out by giving a small financial gift but our team was talking later on this afternoon about a more long term solution.
After arriving back at our house in the late afternoon we headed off to the beach of lake Victoria to enjoy a day of rest.
Day 5 - May 9, 2009
Today was a good day. With the teens camp over we headed back to the word of life campus where we worked like crazy. The guys all got "slashers" (giant machetes with a angled end) and we started cutting the grass African style. We were pleasantly interrupted by a Ugandan rain storm. Think 10 min of the biggest rain drops you’ve ever seen in your life. After that it was blue sky and hot.
We then headed into town for lunch at the food court in the garden city mall. The food court was awesome. It would be similar to going to 10 restaurants at the same time. You come in and sit down at your table, immediately the waiters from all the restaurants bring you a menu and will then bring your food to you.
After lunch we took a 1.5 hour drive to a children’s home way out in the country. That was really cool. I got sooooo many pictures. We will be heading back sometime next week to help out with whatever they need.
And that’s it for today… apart from having internet now so I get to say hello :)
Day 4 –May 8 2009 - long day
Today started out early. My mosquito netting pulled double duty as it not only kept the mosquitoes out, but kept a few in as well which had a field day on my right elbow. The mosquitoes woke me up at 4:45ish and I decided to use the time to just spend some quiet time on the balcony. Around 5:30 the local mosque started their prayers. I’m not too sure how far away it was but I knew it was far and it was loud.
The sunrise wasn’t as spectacular this morning so I headed in for a shower to get ready for the day. Breakfast was at 7 and shortly thereafter we headed off into Kampala rush hour to word of life. Rush hour here feels different. It doesn’t feel like everyone is trying to get to 1 place like Vancouver. It feels more like chaos as hundreds of cars pile into an intersection trying to sneak through. Some of the larger intersections have traffic police directing everyone thought but you still get bikes trying to sneak through on a “red light”, usually by driving in the oncoming lane’s shoulder for a block or 2.
When we made it to word of life we started right away helping the teachers with their rooms. At lunch we ate and talked with some of the campers from the teen camp going on. We then headed back to the classrooms to finish setting up with the teachers before we headed off to the “football pitch” for the most organized unofficial football game I’ve ever seen. (Tim- this is the real football game where your foot actually touches the ball most of the time). In this unofficial game it was campers & ezra vs counselors & Canadians. We had a ref, 2 linesmen and even subs for this unofficial game. The ref called everything as it was and even gave a camper a yellow then a red card for some very aggressive tackles!!! I was extremely surprised that we managed to do quite well. We managed to score the first (and only true goal) but an amazing save by our goalkeeper Brad, led to the ref declaring a goal for the other team. As Ezra says, “the ref’s confusion is final” so it was official a tie game. Speaking of Ezra, Pro soccer player. This guy is amazing.
After the workout in the hot African sun and drinking a lot of water after the game we hung out on the swings as a team. From there went to dinner then a chapel time. It was really cool as many campers gave a testimony of their time at camp and Adam also shared a bit of his experience with how camp changed his life. Ezra was asked to say a short 5min closing message/encouragement as many of the campers will be heading back to rough life situations.
From there all the tired Canadians said our goodbyes to the campers and headed back on the bus for the 45min trek back to our guest house. Only it wasn’t 45min… We got back on the highway and I blinked and all the sudden we were back in the driveway. After a quick group debrief/devotion we headed to bed.
The next morning (as I’m writing this) I’ve noticed a couple things. 1- Bonny forgot to remind me to put on sunscreen for the football game yesterday. Not a big deal as I didn’t burn bad. And 2- I had to use the first aid scissors to cut me another belt loop as this belt is getting too big.
Day 3 – May 7 2009 - Uganda is AMAZING
People KNOW how to drive in Uganda!!!
1- People know their vehicles. Everyone drives inches away from other vehicles/buildings/anything. North Americans would freak out
2- A 2 lane highway is a recommendation. If someone wants to pass others will let them… turning it into a 3-4 lane highway. People just move over and don’t freak out.
3- They know what the horn is for… its not a middle finger extension. (The same goes for flashing of headlights)
4- They know what marker lights are for AND use themThis whole time I have seen “crazy” driving by north American standards but NO accidents. When people drive they drive, they don’t concentrate on other things.
I woke up this morning at 6am to the sound of heavy rain…then thunder. I had to get up to see. For the next 1 ½ hours I watched the incredible thunder and lightning show, the transformers blowing up at the top of the hill and the Sunrise at 6:30. It’s incredible how calming a torrent of rain and clashes of thunder can be. By 7am the storm is well off in the distance and its sunny and amazing.
After breakfast we headed off into the city to exchange our US money for Ugandan currency. It was a very interesting experience as it was a very modernized mall complex yet only a couple blocks away was a very poor neighborhood. We then went to the Word of Life complex were we observed and interacted with a teen’s camp- Exactly as you’d see in Canada…though with African food (which was incredible) and much more African enthusiasm. We also helped out in the school portion of Word of Life as the school year starts up next Monday. They have classrooms for K-gr8 that needed to be prepped so many of us were stenciling out letters which would spell verses which would be glued to the wall. While we were doing this Ezra managed to disappear for a few hours with our passports… We thought that we might have just been changed into long term missionaries.
Tomorrow we’re heading back to continue to help out around Word of life. Saturday should bring more work at WOL then a trip to a children’s home here in Kampala. Sunday should be quite an experience as we will be attending a local church and even Ezra doesn’t know what to expect.
Day 2 –May 6 2009 -First day in Africa
It’s the 2nd day in my not so regularly updated blog. We arrived in Entebbe on time with no problems and no lost luggage. I managed to get a good sleep on the plane which has helped me out tremendously today. As most of the team is/was exhausted from all the traveling we took today as a day to get familiar with Uganda. The warm humid climate is definitely welcome by me…so far. We spent the day traveling to our guest house where we will be for at least the next few days. We unpacked, organized and went for a walk around the area. We experienced a brief storm as Ezra called out “who wants to smell that the rain is coming”, he then explains that it is still be a while before it starts as it’s a long way off. It started raining about 30sec later and only lasted ½ hour before all was bright and clear again.
We had a great group discussion tonight and I’m now sitting on the balcony overlooking some hills around kampala as my mind shuts down for bed. So as you’re all eating lunch at home I’m heading to bed.
Day 1 -May 4/5 2009 - London adventure
Monday started out great. Had to shuffle some luggage to get all the weights of the bags within the allowable limits but it wasn’t a big deal. We all packed into a 747 and took off without incident. The flight went from 7pm-3am(12 London time). I, for 1, could not fall asleep for more than 30-45min. I think the rest of the team managed a few hours. As I write this after just taking off out of London heading for Entebbe I am TIRED. I already fell asleep just after boarding and only woke up while we were taking off. Not only was I tired due to the lack of sleep but London was a completely packed adventure intermixed with a little chaos.
We started out going through British customs which was easy. I soon realized that England apparently doesn’t believe in garbage cans or recycling bins. There were none to be found. We realized we were time limited (it was 1pm and we had to be back at the airport by 7 at the latest for our 9pm flight). We bought some rail tickets to get us into London a little faster than the “tubes”. We exited at Paddington station where we began to walk around London and soon realized that at a walking pace we weren’t going to see anything and we would just tire ourselves out. We all got tickets for a London bus tour which took us around on a open top double Decker bus and included a river tour which ended at Big Ben. London is absolutely incredible. The architecture is unreal and the whole city seems to be a mix of really old or really new.
After the tour we headed to a small London pub for a quick meal before we had to get back. Our quick meal ended up having us walk to Buckingham palace where we took lots of photos and … Interruption- I’m looking at the Eiffel tower from 35000 feet right now. Ok, so Buckingham palace, got lots of photos of the guards and ended up having to talk to the heavily armed police to find out where we could find a small pub. By the time we had found 1 we had been very close to walking in circles…but we found it. The food and service was unbelievable… though the price probably was too. We then unfortunately realized we were running low on time… which meant running. We ran from the pub to pickidelly circus where we hopped on a tube headed to Paddington station from there we managed to RUN and catch an express train to Heathrow. Problem was, when we caught the train…IN LONDON… it was 8:05 and the gate closes at 8:55. The express train was only 15min instead of the normal 30 which helped. And it was all God’s timing that both the tube train and the express train were there waiting when we arrived. The next 1/2hour was the most hectic I’ve ever seen in my life. We had to clear security, find our gate (not printed on the ticket) and get there in time. Somehow… even with a security check on a bag or 2, an extra few subway shuttles, 2-3 elevators and 2-3 escalators we all managed to arrive at our gate 5 min before it was closed.And now all we have to do is arrive in Africa (hopefully with our bags) and spend the next couple weeks and have a more relaxed timeframe to deal with…hopefully.
April 30, 2009
With only 3 1/2 days left in Canada things are getting pretty exciting and a little hectic. This week is when this trip has really begun to start sinking in. Before this week everything was in the future and suddenly this week its NOW.
I'm feeling a mix of being completely unprepared and not knowing what to expect. At the same time I know its all going to work out better than I can imagine.
Whether I'm ready or not the bus leaves Abbotsford for Seattle at Noon on Monday May 4 and I'll be on it.
Again I want to thank everyone who's supporting the team and myself in this. If you want to send a note to myself or anybody else from the team feel free to send an email to me: bryan@bryanschmuland.com.
Finally, I'd love to see everyone this weekend at Northview for our Commissioning service. I don't know exactly how its going to work out but what I do know is that we're selling ice cream as a last minute fundraiser to help out with supplies while we are over there.
Northview is located at:
32040 Downes Road
Abbotsford BC
Phone: (604) 853-2931Services at (I'll be at all of them):
Saturday: 6pm, Sunday: 9am and 11amApril 9, 2009
Everything is coming together for the trip!!!
I have managed to gather all the finacial support I needed, so thanks so much to everyone who's helped out. Any additional funds collected will go to help out the people we will be working with in Uganda.
Flights are also finalized. Here's the details:
Flight From To Depart Arrive British Airways 48 Seattle London May 4, 1850 May 5, 1150 British Airways 63 London Entebbe May 5, 2115 May 6, 0745 British Airways 62 Entebbe London May 22, 0905 May 22, 1600 British Airways 85 London Vancouver May 22, 1710 May 22, 1835
Mar 24, 2009
Only 6 more weeks left!!!!!
