Each with two months under our belts, Helen, a fellow advocate located in neighboring Uganda and I did an exchange over a two week period. First, Helen came to Kisumu to see how we have been doing things here, and to get a taste of how our lifestyles and work differ. She has been living with a family in rural Budondo, Uganda building a health clinic.
We waved goodbye to Camila and less than thirty minutes later welcomed Helen. It was a fast paced week packed with custom skirts, frisbee, extended power outages, crazy thunder storms, laid back juice ( ginger, pineapple, mango, and mineral water), Luo language basics, Starbuck's coffee, and of course, work for our projects dabbled and dropped in at any given moment. We did a lot of hopping and twittering all around Kisumu much like birds.
We waved goodbye to Camila and less than thirty minutes later welcomed Helen. It was a fast paced week packed with custom skirts, frisbee, extended power outages, crazy thunder storms, laid back juice ( ginger, pineapple, mango, and mineral water), Luo language basics, Starbuck's coffee, and of course, work for our projects dabbled and dropped in at any given moment. We did a lot of hopping and twittering all around Kisumu much like birds.
One of my favorite stops was our visit to Victory Children's school/orphanage. Daryl, a Canadian, is the director of this school, and talking with him was extraordinarily inspiring. It is an amazing feeling when you have no idea what to expect from a visit and it turns out to be more than you could have hoped for. We picked his brain, and he shared his experiences digging and maintaing a borehole (which may be needed for the rescue center), additional water management aspects, criteria for the children they accept, how to work with the children's department and other organizations to help with the children, how they reduce food costs, and how critical good management is to the success of an institution. It was also uplifting to hear him agree on our model of reconnecting the children to other family members rather than housing them indefinitely. To top it all off, he brewed us some Starbuck's coffee which he had brought from home.
On the flip side, we traveled to Uganda. A change of environment, surroundings, and people was stimulating and rewarding. It was then I realized how attached I have become to Kisumu. Although I was enjoying myself, within a few days I was itching to go back to familiar surroundings and work at the rescue center.
In Uganda, I met the equivalent of the Von Trapp Family Budondo version. For those who don't know, The Sound of Music is my favorite movie, and I am always hoping that each day will be the day that I find myself in the midst of a synchronized song and dance number. Sadly, this did not happen in Budondo, but I felt like it was the closest I had come to that reality. This family is composed of the mother, father and seven children, of which only a few live at home so I did not get to meet them all. Almost all of them play a few different instruments and are involved in theater, especially the father who traveled to Russia to study theater.
This family has been perservering since the 1980s to build this health clinic, because the community has dire needs especially related to mother/baby care. Again, I am amazed at the patience and perseverance that I see with my own eyes and hear in so many stories since coming to East Africa. It is really uncanny, formidable, and worthy of imitation. They are doing so many amazing things beyond the health clinic there, and Helen's Blog is a great place to learn more: http://www.ifepunko.blogspot.com
Although the projects differ in a lot of aspects, the underlying motivation is from a single person in the community who feels especially driven to help others. This ultimate goal, whether it is a rescue center or health clinic, is not phased by time, hardships, or money.
In Uganda, I met the equivalent of the Von Trapp Family Budondo version. For those who don't know, The Sound of Music is my favorite movie, and I am always hoping that each day will be the day that I find myself in the midst of a synchronized song and dance number. Sadly, this did not happen in Budondo, but I felt like it was the closest I had come to that reality. This family is composed of the mother, father and seven children, of which only a few live at home so I did not get to meet them all. Almost all of them play a few different instruments and are involved in theater, especially the father who traveled to Russia to study theater.
This family has been perservering since the 1980s to build this health clinic, because the community has dire needs especially related to mother/baby care. Again, I am amazed at the patience and perseverance that I see with my own eyes and hear in so many stories since coming to East Africa. It is really uncanny, formidable, and worthy of imitation. They are doing so many amazing things beyond the health clinic there, and Helen's Blog is a great place to learn more: http://www.ifepunko.blogspot.com
Although the projects differ in a lot of aspects, the underlying motivation is from a single person in the community who feels especially driven to help others. This ultimate goal, whether it is a rescue center or health clinic, is not phased by time, hardships, or money.
I felt like there was a lot of pressure to find the best thing to do in Uganda while I was there. The choices were varied and many, from rafting on the Nile River, to national parks with lions, to the hustle of the city of Kampala. Denis (one of the son's who works very closely with the project) said his favorite place in Uganda is Fort Portal where he went to university. So I said, lets go to your favorite place in Uganda. I had not yet figured out that I had just requested 7-8 hours of bus travel and a number of very cold AM showers, but I would do it all again.
The hills were alive and we dared to climb a few of them. We managed to get ourselves inside a "closed" palace, access to the source of the Nile River after the park had closed, and a variety of animal sitings including an elephant and many monkeys in Kibale National park. Seeing an elephant in nature was at the top of the experience, but introducing Nutella to the family as an excuse to enjoy it almost everyday was definitely a highlight.
The hills were alive and we dared to climb a few of them. We managed to get ourselves inside a "closed" palace, access to the source of the Nile River after the park had closed, and a variety of animal sitings including an elephant and many monkeys in Kibale National park. Seeing an elephant in nature was at the top of the experience, but introducing Nutella to the family as an excuse to enjoy it almost everyday was definitely a highlight.
Back at the Rescue Center we finished our undercoat of paint and painted the veranda bars, which has revolutionized the look of the place. Soon the glass will arrive for the Veranda, protecting us from any rain damage. We are also pending some paint donations from Crown Paints Company here in Kisumu.