On the Road Again..

Friday was our final day at Kampala and we had a free day to choose our own activities. We ended up going to a nice hotel for lunch a spa day. I got a massage for the first time ever and it was pretty great! We went to the craft market as well and then had dinner at a Chinese restaurant where we had a private room to sing karaoke. After we had all practically lost our voices, we went back to the house to get ready to take off for Kabale on Saturday morning. The drive was about 9 hours and we got to see wild Zebras along the way. We are now south of the Equator, so it is summer here. We arrived at Lake Bunyonyi, which is quite possibly the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. We’re staying at the Entusi resort that was built by GLI and the community. I’m staying in a lovely tent with a view of the lake and I’d say that this is the first time I’ve been “glamping”. We got here pretty late on Saturday so we had a nice dinner and relaxed the first night. The next morning we woke up and went on a long hike through one of the local villages with a local person as our guide. After this, we went to see a traditional healer (also known as a witch doctor) to hear about the natural healing that they perform. We then hiked through the rain to the basketball court where we played with the local children. We were able to see the community farm, where all of the food that is served at Entusi is sourced from. When we returned to the resort, we went on another short hike. Needless to say, my legs were burning the morning after! We were welcomed with songs and dance performed by the local Women’s Association and shared a community feast with them. This morning (Monday) we went into Kabale town and visited the University, where we interacted with almost 100 students and about 20 professors. We compared the differences in education and discussed which areas need to be remodeled. Afterwards, we saw the local recycling center, where locals are paid to bring in their plastic bottles and other plastic items. We had lunch in the town and then went back to the resort to relax, play volleyball, and swim. A classmate and I went on a long swim to the mainland and back while surrounded by gorgeous hills. We had a community dinner where the staff shared their stories about how they started to work at the resort and their favorite memories that have been made here. Tomorrow we will head into Rwanda and will be there for the rest of the trip.

A few common themes that I have noticed so far are:

• All of the locals are so genuinely kind and welcoming. This was kind of a culture shock for me, because I am used to a society where outsiders are not very welcomed. All of the children are so excited to meet us, play, and are constantly asking to have their pictures taken. The adults are so interested in hearing about our culture and telling us about theirs. Not only does every person that we pass welcome us, they also encourage us to please return.
• There are more than 50 languages spoken in Uganda. So far, I have learned how to say “How are you?” and a few other basic phrases in three languages. I’ve come to realize that regardless of if there are languages barriers or not, dancing is a universal language. We danced with locals in Lira and a few times here in Kabale and it’s been so much fun to speak to each other through movements of the body and laughter.
• The locals all kind of expect that when they see a group of white people, they are there to perform some type of aid work. However, the people who are working in the field have all expressed that just giving the community things does not actually help the community. Organizations can come in and build a school, but a school isn’t very helpful if there are no teachers for the school or no way to pay the teachers. It has been really neat to see how GLI has worked directly with the community members (who clearly know what the community needs more than outsiders), to build organizations that continue to make a difference for the local people.