Monday, Jan. 7 Part 1

Monday, Jan. 7 Part 1

Hello from Montfort House in Mbarara, Uganda!

We’re finally here after 21 hours of air travel and something more than 4 hours in layovers. We met at USD at 3:45 am Monday, Jan. 3, rode by van to LAX, flew to Chicago, and, after a long delay, went on to Brussels. Then the fun started: Our flight to Uganda via Nairobi, Kenya, was cancelled. When the panic died down, Brussels Air rebooked us on a direct flight to Entebbe, Uganda, which was a relief to some of us who had been following the political unrest in Nairobi.

We were met by Father Bonaventure, head “honcho” of the Holy Innocents project in Uganda (and, more formally, the chancellor of the Catholic Archdiocese of Mbarara), Sister Margaret, the diocesan supervisor of nursing, Sister Germina, diocesan archivist and Bosco, Uganda’s most intrepid bus driver.

For those of us who have been here before, Monfort House is the same restful oasis we remembered from last year. But upon arrival, we were instantly whisked away to Lake Bunyonyi, in the extreme southwest of Uganda, for some rest at the Nature’s Prime Island Resort on an island in the middle of the lake. Some of us slept in cabins on stilts, others in tents on platforms on stilts. Lake Bunyonyi is a world-famous site for bird-watching. We took a motorboat ride to the south part of the lake, very near Rwanda, where we visited a Pygmy village. The villagers sang and danced for us, and we danced with them. Pictures of this will be posted after we return, because our upload speeds here are too slow to transfer photos.

The poverty of the area was astonishing. The people who live around the lake are subsistence farmers, largely able to feed themselves, but not able to do much more. We were mobbed by children, some of whom asked for money, but Fr. Bonaventure and Justice, our guide, advised us to give one gift to the group as a whole. There is something a little uncomfortable about watching very poor people perform for you, but it is the expected practice here.

Lake Bunyonyi itself is beautiful. It’s the deepest in Uganda, second deepest in Africa, and one of the deepest in the world.

We got back to Monfort House last night, after stopping off to buy some Uganda basics – bananas, beer, bottled water and soda. We also picked up some samosas at what Fr. Bonaventure assured us was the top samosa place in the area. The ladies who run the domestic operation here at Monfort served them for dinner along with baked goat, cabbage salad, Irish potatoes and fruit. A wonderful Uganda meal. Most of us got a good night’s sleep after that.

This morning we hiked the area around the future hospital site and found numerous places where the chemistry team will sample the water quality. Dr. Jim Bolender brought along handheld GPS equipment to precisely record his sampling sites; some of the local kids couldn’t believe it wasn’t a cell phone, which are in widespread use here in Uganda. The business team began evaluating the site for its suitability for a business venture to help support the operations of the Holy Innocents hospital itself. The nurses, most of whom were back in Uganda for the second time, got reacquainted with the site now that preliminary building plans have been done.