Tuesday, June 19, 2012

So, here we are, in Kamwenge, Uganda! It took an 8 hour flight across the Atlantic, a 9 hour flight across the Mediterranean and Africa, and then a 7.5 hour bus ride deep into the heart of western Uganda to get us here :) We're settled into the Kamwenge Guest House, the name of the hostel / motel type place we're staying at. Kiburara is the name of the town we will be working in. It is 18 km south of Kamwenge. That drive will take approx 30 min on the condition of roads we're using. I'm very excited to begin working here. Uganda is a beautiful country! Rolling hills, lush vegetation everywhere, cattle roaming around. It look like anything could grow here! And there doesn't appear to be any truly flat land :P In fact, the Kamwenge Guest House in built in tiers because it is on a hill. Most towns here are built at the top of a watershed, so that the house can be built on semi-flat land (and for water drainage purposes I assume).

We still don't know for sure what we are going to be doing tomorrow yet. Pastor Moses is the name of the pastor connected with Covenant Mercies. He pastors Kiburara Gospel Center Church, and he is the director of Alpha and Omega Vocational Secondary School (the equivalent of a high-school in America). We have four professional teachers on the team, and I believe they will have the opportunity to teach a little bit in the classroom tomorrow. All the kids are taught in English from a young age, so their English is pretty good depending on how old they are. With the adults, it's a hit or miss. Some know decent English and some know barely any. Pastor Moses is fluent, of course. The one language everyone does speak around here is called Rukiga Ryankore. It is the Ryankore dialect of Rukiga, similar to saying American English vs. British English. We were given a small list of words we could learn to help us with basic phrases. For example, "webale" (pronounced "way-bah-ray" with a rolled "r") means "thank you" and the basic greeting is "agandi" which means "Hi" or "How are you." The response to "agandi" could be "nimurunji" which means "I'm fine. How about you?" or "Ndyao" (SP?) which simply means "I'm fine."

Anyways, I do not have internet here, so I will have to put up these blog posts once I get back to the states. I've been taking a lot of pictures because it is easier for me to take a picture and explain it / tell the story behind it rather than just ramble on :P After all, a picture is worth a thousand words :)




































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