Week One

Hello All :)!

First and foremost i would like to wish my mom a very happy mothers day :)!! Love you mommy! I'm going to start from the Arriving in Africa at the Airport. They have no Security/bag checks so when we went to buy our Visa's we gave them to the guard in a pile and waited on the other side for each Passport to be stamped. No one Id us or anything. The locals hate this because it allows people to import all sorts of things into Uganda.

In most places in Africa its ok to wear whatever you want but since Soroti is such a small community they have a dress code. When we are playing sports or doing labour we can wear shorts but everywhere else skirts below the knee is required. Its funny though cause we can wear tank tops with our skirts. Its only the legs that are considered sexual here. I'm staying at the YWAM base which stands for Youth with a mission.

Everyone is very friendly everywhere we go and throughout the streets we can always hear people yelling "YOGA" at us which means Hi and "Muzungu" which means white person haha. Its very safe here since the public punishment for steeling is terrifying. If you steel from someone the community chases after you, pores gasoline on you and lights you on fire before the police show up.

Today is Sunday so we all went to church. Its exactly like you see in Movies where people are dancing and singing and yelling really loud about God saving your soul. I LOVED IT!! The church we attended has 3000 members. They invited us up to the front stage to introduce ourselves and to tell everyone where we are from. I was the last one to speak so i said "my name is Chantal, I'm from Alberta, Canada and God Bless you all". Everyone clapped really loud and did a high pitched African tribal Scream haha.

I've been helping in the Kitchen at the base and i learnt how to make what Ive named "Deep Fried Banana Bread" but what they call "Mandazi". Its a flour, sugar, banana, backing soda, water mixture that you fry in Oil. Soooo Good!!! We eat alot of rice, beans and bread. So im glad i brought suppliments.

We went yesterday to the orphanage it was really hard on everyone. They are not sure if the baby's are HIV positive because they need permission from the guardians to do testing. Some of the Baby's where found in the bush abandoned, others mothers died giving birth. They have a wall filled with pictures of all the children they have helped over the years, including the ones that are in the orphanage now. They put stars on the ones that have passed away. Standing and looking at this wall was really hard for me. Some of the children with stars looked like the starving children on the Tv Adds you see at home. One of the Older Children we met we where told was saved by the police at the last minute when he was being sacrificed by a witch doctor in a village outside of Soroti. He had his stomach cut open when they saved him and he suffers from organ problems now.

On the way up to Soroti from Jinja i sat in the front seat with Nathan the director of the orphanage in Jinja. He explained to me that many children die in Uganda because there parents cant not afford to pay for the doctor fees/ medication. In fact growing up this is how his little brother passed away. When he was in his 20's his mom fell very ill and he rushed her to the hospital. He didn't have money on him so he left her there and drove quickly to the bank. By the time he came back she had passed away because they wont touch someone without being paid first. So sad. We got stopped by the police a lot on our way to Soroti. Nathan was starting to get annoyed because the police here are corrupt. They make you pay them money other wise they give you a ticket that will cost you more then just paying them up front.

We dont have a working computer at the base so i have to come into town to Write. Im hoping I'll be able to Blog at least twice a week but forsure every Sunday ill have time. I have so much more to tell you. Miss everyone a tun!! Love you all. Oh and i have yet to figure out how to post pictures yet, sorry!!

Love,chantal