Settling in to Uganda

I arrived at Entebbe International Airport after an all-nighter from Tel Aviv. Douglas, Owen, and Chris picked me up at Entebbe and we got acquainted on the 45 minute drive to Bugolobi which is a community of attached to Kampala the capital.

I am staying with Douglas Mugabe. He’s got a great 2 bedroom apartment. Douglas is Sophie’s son (Sophie lives in Lethbridge and volunteers for me at the Correctional Centre). Owen is a pastor and between the two of them and with the main office of Prison Fellowship Uganda, my daily itinerary has been planned.

This country is beautiful! It is pretty much everything a Canadian imagination assumes the middle of Eastern Africa might look like. It is extremely green and lush here. Uganda’s south sits on the equator and due to being on the edge of Lake Victoria, it is very humid here. The daily temperature is about 27 degrees Celsius, and it cools down nicely at night. But the sun is very direct and so you has to be careful ….especially if you’re white skinned!

It is obvious that this is a developing nation. There are examples of both abject poverty all around and as well there are examples of those finding success in Uganda’s relative stability and emerging economy.

After talking for a while, getting to know one another, and of course for me finding where the boundaries are to joke around with and tease people (I am after all a true Parkin) Douglas, Owen and I became comfortable with each other. So after I dug out all the clothing and items Sophie wanted me to bring here for her family and friends, I thought it was time to give the gifts I planned for these two guys.

I should have had the video camera rolling! If only you could have seen the faces on Douglas and Owen. I presented them each an authentic Team Canada Hockey Jersey. As they were rejoicing at this gift I turned them over so they could see their names on the back, “Mugabe” and “Mugume”. You can imagine their reaction at this! Africans are very expressive! I explained that now there are only 3 authentic honorary members of team Canada in all of Uganda, “Mugabe”, “Mugume”, and “Orombi” as in Church of Uganda Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi whose jersey I gave to him at the Conference in Jerusalem. Tomorrow I will give one more gift Jersey away and I can’t wait, but more on that story tomorrow.

The long days begin tomorrow and the visits to the rural villages, the orphanage / school projects, and of course the Prison system will get underway. I will visit Luzira Upper Prison (BOMA) and the death row or “condemned section”. It is also scheduled that I will be on a radio program on the 13th. Tomorrow I will meet a very key person here and the person we will rely on tremendously for future humanitarian work here and that is Principle Judge of Uganda’s High Court Justice James Ogoola. At some point I will go with him to his home village and see the relief projects of his and visit with Sophie’s mom and sister Barbara. July 4th is the date they have scheduled to take me to Jinja which is the community East of Kampala where the Nile River begins as it emerges out of Lake Victoria. I can’t wait for that.