A Visit to Jinja

Subject: Hello from Africa

Date: Sun, 26May 2007 04:10:53 -0700 (PDT)

We are having an adventure here in Uganda, what can I say? There are so many experiences that I can't possibly tell you all of them, but I will tell you about yesterday. We got in our truck and drove out to a little town called Jinja to deliver some blankets and mosquito netting to a small village back in the bush. The ride out there was an experience by itself. We passed huge sugar cane plantations, tea plantations, banana plantations and it was so very very beautiful. Uganda is simply beautiful, except for the terrible poverty. You pass all kinds of people carrying huge stacks of bananas, firewood, sacks of grain, pineapples, you name it all piled on their heads. Everything is a picture, you just want to stop the car and take hundreds of pictures.

We drove over a bridge spanning the Nile River and on the other side is a plaque saying that this is the source of the Nile, which people had searched for hundreds of years and here it is in Uganda, (a good book to read about the exploration of East Africa and the searching for the source of the Nile is "The White Nile) but wait, the best is yet to come, We drove out to this little village and the people knew we were coming and they surrounded our truck when we pulled into their village. They were singing and chanting with drums beating and arms waving and they danced all around our truck, singing a welcome song. It was like a centerfold in National Geographic. We couldn't even get out of the truck until they were finished. They then shook your hands and hugged us saying "you are most welcome". There were darling little very black kids and goats, chickens, donkeys, and animals I didn't even recognize all around us. The women were dressed in their best attire to honor us. I felt like a celebrity. They had prepared a platform with wooden benches on it and led us from the truck to the platform. The benches were covered with cloths all hand stitched in beautiful patterns and they had prepared them for us to sit on. They then preceded with the welcome program and the head of the village spoke. They had an interpreter there for us (out in the villages they speak limited English) but speak something called Lugandan (sp?) He thanked us over and over and welcomed us and then the entertainment began with dancing and singing and two men beating on the ancient drums.

It was so what you think of when you think of African music - kind of an ancient primitive type of music and dance. It was very thrilling to watch. The women were making sounds with their mouths sort of a trilling sound. We spoke and President and Sister Call spoke and then they fed us a large dry roll of some sort on their best plates. I guess it is Ok to eat the food if it has been cooked. I wasn't sure what it was.

I could not eat this big roll sitting up on a platform with all the little children watching us. I knew they were hungry, so we broke of pieces of the roll and tried to entice the children to come and share with us. They seldom see white people (musungus) so they were a little afraid to come up and take it from us, but when one finally did, they slowly came forward and we all shared our rolls. They are so darling and I held one of the babies. We then passed out the blankets and mosquito nets and there was more dancing and singing and drum beating. We have some wonderful pictures and as soon as our computer gets hooked up to the internet we will send a picture for you to all see.

There is so much to tell, that is just one of our days, you cannot believe what we have experienced in the short time we have been here. Our house is quite nice and I suppose by African standards it is really nice. It is in a fancy neighborhood, but about a quarter to a half of the time we do not have power and/or water. We fill bottles with filtered water which we have it to save for when we are without. Sometimes this is a pain, for two days now we have been without water, but we have wonderful neighbors (Elder and Sister Moore from Bountiful, Utah) and we all share and help one another. We have a huge avocado tree in our yard and the avocado's are enormous, so we have delicious avocados to snack on, fresh pineapple and all kinds of delicious fruit. We have two fairly large extra bedrooms, so we would welcome all to come and visit. The Moores and Calls have all had family from time to time come and visit, so get your shots and come and see us. It is fine for the senior members to have family come.

The people from the village yesterday gave us gifts of avocados, bananas, sweet potatoes, peanuts, sugar cane, squash. potatoes and just filled our truck with plenty of good food they had grown. We drove home and gave most of it to the guards to take home to eat.

Anyway, I could go on and on and on, but will save it for another day. Hope all is well with you and keep us up to date on your big move. I sure do love you (by the way Ron asked one of the drummers yesterday if he could play the drums and he beat on the drums, while the ladies sang and danced. Doesn't that sound like him? I got a picture. He loved it and so did they.

Also will you send this letter to the Matt's Blog so all can share? Thanks Honey, Love Mom and Ron