So we're back in Jinja for the night after spending an AMAZING week working with the Mirembe (meaning peace) Kawomera Coffee Co-op in a small village just outside of Mbale. Mirembe in unique in the way that in combines the three major faiths, Islam, Judaism and Christianity, to promote a message of peace between faiths and throughout the world. We lived with the founder of the Co Op, JJ Keki, and his family. Which includes 25 children, 15 of whom he adopted. We spent the morning enjoying Mama's great breakfast before heading out to pick coffee berries, plant trees and learn of growing coffee, how the Co-Op benefits the community and fair trade. In the after noon JJ's sons, usually Joseph A and Joseph B would take us around the area and show us some of the sights, including a cave which the Jewish people in the area used as a synagogue during the reign of Idi Amin, who only allowed Islam and Christianity to exist while he ruled as well as a rain drenched soccer match and lots and lots of card games.. We spent our last day in the areas on a beautiful hike through sipi falls. It was tough but we all made it to the top and enjoyed pb&j at the base of amazing waterfalls with gorgeous views of the area. For our last night the family, most of who are musicians and/or dancers, to an AMAZING and moving farewell which included most of the family that stills lives in the house, singing, dancing and playing drums and guitar. It was a touching moment and a beautiful end to and an incredible week.
Tonight we're off to a concert in Jinja and then tomorrow we're headed to Fort Portal to work with the YES orphanage. We're all having a brilliant time.
- Zach.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Mzungu
Hey, this is Zach.
Alright so the last few days in Africa have been long, tiring and paintfilled but none the less a blast. We just finished up painting the classrooms with Soft Power in Bubugo and are now chilling at the NRE hostel just outside of Jinja. Working at Bubugo was challenging but incredibly rewarding and fun. In the mornings we split up into two crews. The first (Britt, Kaan, Lizzy, Kathryn, and myself) took our Kiswahili classes from Roy while the second crew (Zik, Dan, Ian, Kirsten and Devon) started the painting then we filp flopped around tea time. We usually finished up working around six while Peter, our ugandan chef, made us delicious Ugandan meals. As the sun started to go down we spent our time teaching the kids how to throw frisbees, American Footballs and some new tunes while getting schooled in games of soccer and falling in love with some of the local kids. It was a great and rewarding week and it was sad to leave the Village but it's exciting to move on to the next stage of our adventure. We spent yesterday finishing up last minute touch ups on the school and then drove back to the NRE hostel to relax and finally SHOWER, which improved group moral greatly. Then we went into Jinja for a few hours to look for cloths, snacks and get money from ATMs. Then, after night fall, we went our and had a pre-celebration from Britts birthday. We went out to this great restraunt just a short walk from the hostel. We had incredible food and conversations. Then after our bellies were full we went out dancing to work it off. It was a great night and a great way to celebrate finishing the school and Britt's big day. Next we're off to a coffee Co-Op in Mbale. We're all having an amazing time.
-Zach
Alright so the last few days in Africa have been long, tiring and paintfilled but none the less a blast. We just finished up painting the classrooms with Soft Power in Bubugo and are now chilling at the NRE hostel just outside of Jinja. Working at Bubugo was challenging but incredibly rewarding and fun. In the mornings we split up into two crews. The first (Britt, Kaan, Lizzy, Kathryn, and myself) took our Kiswahili classes from Roy while the second crew (Zik, Dan, Ian, Kirsten and Devon) started the painting then we filp flopped around tea time. We usually finished up working around six while Peter, our ugandan chef, made us delicious Ugandan meals. As the sun started to go down we spent our time teaching the kids how to throw frisbees, American Footballs and some new tunes while getting schooled in games of soccer and falling in love with some of the local kids. It was a great and rewarding week and it was sad to leave the Village but it's exciting to move on to the next stage of our adventure. We spent yesterday finishing up last minute touch ups on the school and then drove back to the NRE hostel to relax and finally SHOWER, which improved group moral greatly. Then we went into Jinja for a few hours to look for cloths, snacks and get money from ATMs. Then, after night fall, we went our and had a pre-celebration from Britts birthday. We went out to this great restraunt just a short walk from the hostel. We had incredible food and conversations. Then after our bellies were full we went out dancing to work it off. It was a great night and a great way to celebrate finishing the school and Britt's big day. Next we're off to a coffee Co-Op in Mbale. We're all having an amazing time.
-Zach
Thursday, September 17, 2009
FUN FUN FUN in East Africa!
Hello!...Kirsten here:
I can't believe we have been in East Africa for less than a week; we have done so many exciting things and our jamii is bonding better than ever! On Sunday, we had our first day of adventure; a scavenger hut into Kampala. To our surprise, Britt and Zik sent us off into the busy city ALONE! But with some helpful advice and tips from our worldly-experienced leaders, we managed to get there and back in one piece. The scavenger hunt enabled us to learn some history and mingle with the locals, which helped us get over the culture shock. We also experienced our first taste of local food while in the city, which consisted mainly of rice and a meat/vegetable sauce; it was delicious! Following our long day in Kampala we went to N'Dere; a traditional African show of dance and music. It was breath-taking! The highlight ofthe show for me was when the entire audience (over 100 people) were invited on stage to dance and sing - Zach, Dan and Britt started a 'cha-cha' line that EVERYONE joined! It was fantastic :) On Monday morning, we left the Backpackers Inn at 6:30am and headed to Jinja for Class 5 white water rafting on the Nile river. We were split into 2 groups - the boys in one raft, girls in another - and there was a safety raft and rescue kayakers just in case we fell out of our rafts (which was bound to happen on Class 5 rapids!) After 2-3 hours of rafting, there was a beautiful, calm stretch of the river where we had lunch - fresh pineapple and tea biscuits - and jumped off the rafts for a swim in the Nile. For e, the experience was almost surreal; I couldn't healp but imagine all my friends at home - busy at school writing papers and stressing over tests, whilst we laid in the African sun eating pineapple and swam down the Nile. After lunch we continued the last part of our rafting experience then headed back to a hostel in Jinja for a relaxing night, ending with a video of our white water rafting journey! On Tuesday morning, we met up with volunteers from Soft Power Education and took a walking tour of some of the projects they are currently working on. One of whihc was a preschool. We were welcomed to the preschool by tons of running, smiling children who were so friendly and beautiful. We stayed at the preschool for aout half an hour - playing games and taking pictures with the children before visiting the Soft Power Education education centre then leaving for our 6 day project in Bubugo. We arrived in Bubugo at 11am. We are staying at a school while we paint 2 of the classrooms and the outside of the building. Yesterda was our first day of work and our first day of Kiswahili lessons! We started the day at 9am and split into 2 gours - one did painting first, one did Kiswahili classes first. After lunch we all continued with painting and managed to finish the first base coat of the building. Today the group is continuing the work while Britt and I do some chores in the city of Jinja. We are all so excited to see the finished project and to learn tons of Kiswahili for Tanzania.
Talk to you soon!
-Kirsten
I can't believe we have been in East Africa for less than a week; we have done so many exciting things and our jamii is bonding better than ever! On Sunday, we had our first day of adventure; a scavenger hut into Kampala. To our surprise, Britt and Zik sent us off into the busy city ALONE! But with some helpful advice and tips from our worldly-experienced leaders, we managed to get there and back in one piece. The scavenger hunt enabled us to learn some history and mingle with the locals, which helped us get over the culture shock. We also experienced our first taste of local food while in the city, which consisted mainly of rice and a meat/vegetable sauce; it was delicious! Following our long day in Kampala we went to N'Dere; a traditional African show of dance and music. It was breath-taking! The highlight ofthe show for me was when the entire audience (over 100 people) were invited on stage to dance and sing - Zach, Dan and Britt started a 'cha-cha' line that EVERYONE joined! It was fantastic :) On Monday morning, we left the Backpackers Inn at 6:30am and headed to Jinja for Class 5 white water rafting on the Nile river. We were split into 2 groups - the boys in one raft, girls in another - and there was a safety raft and rescue kayakers just in case we fell out of our rafts (which was bound to happen on Class 5 rapids!) After 2-3 hours of rafting, there was a beautiful, calm stretch of the river where we had lunch - fresh pineapple and tea biscuits - and jumped off the rafts for a swim in the Nile. For e, the experience was almost surreal; I couldn't healp but imagine all my friends at home - busy at school writing papers and stressing over tests, whilst we laid in the African sun eating pineapple and swam down the Nile. After lunch we continued the last part of our rafting experience then headed back to a hostel in Jinja for a relaxing night, ending with a video of our white water rafting journey! On Tuesday morning, we met up with volunteers from Soft Power Education and took a walking tour of some of the projects they are currently working on. One of whihc was a preschool. We were welcomed to the preschool by tons of running, smiling children who were so friendly and beautiful. We stayed at the preschool for aout half an hour - playing games and taking pictures with the children before visiting the Soft Power Education education centre then leaving for our 6 day project in Bubugo. We arrived in Bubugo at 11am. We are staying at a school while we paint 2 of the classrooms and the outside of the building. Yesterda was our first day of work and our first day of Kiswahili lessons! We started the day at 9am and split into 2 gours - one did painting first, one did Kiswahili classes first. After lunch we all continued with painting and managed to finish the first base coat of the building. Today the group is continuing the work while Britt and I do some chores in the city of Jinja. We are all so excited to see the finished project and to learn tons of Kiswahili for Tanzania.
Talk to you soon!
-Kirsten
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Soft Power Education
Hello everyone!
We just wanted to let you know that we arrived to work with Soft Power Education, the first school we're working with. Tonight we'll be settling in, getting ready to start our Swahili classes in the morning and paint one of the new buildings for the school. We had an incredible day rafting the White Nile yesterday. We'll let the students fill you in on the details in a few days.
Have an incredible day (we will be)!
We just wanted to let you know that we arrived to work with Soft Power Education, the first school we're working with. Tonight we'll be settling in, getting ready to start our Swahili classes in the morning and paint one of the new buildings for the school. We had an incredible day rafting the White Nile yesterday. We'll let the students fill you in on the details in a few days.
Have an incredible day (we will be)!
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Scavenger Hunt
Today we went into Kampala with a few partners to look for a few things that Britt and Zik thought would give us a good feel of the city. It was awesome and truly eye opening. I look forward to cool adventures such as this in the future.
-Kaan
-Kaan
9.13.09
Mambo!
All of us just returned from the most amazing dance experience! For 3 hours we watched and participated in traditional Ugandan dance and song! We ate a traditional Ugandan meal which watching men and women swirl in colors and dance to the beat of drums! It was such an incredible way to end our stay here in Kampala! We are so grateful for today and can't wait to continue the trip with our next adventure (White water rafting!!!)
peace and love
Devon
All of us just returned from the most amazing dance experience! For 3 hours we watched and participated in traditional Ugandan dance and song! We ate a traditional Ugandan meal which watching men and women swirl in colors and dance to the beat of drums! It was such an incredible way to end our stay here in Kampala! We are so grateful for today and can't wait to continue the trip with our next adventure (White water rafting!!!)
peace and love
Devon
IN THA CITAYYY
Right now my scavenger hunt team and I are sitting in an internet cafe, sweating, full of rice and maybe unfriendly chicken. Everyone here has been very helpful and smiling towards our strange questions and requests. "What is that fruit called?" - "One killogram."
We've been running and dodging flying motorcycles, while trying to keep our feet dry. We were surprised by the bustling locals in collared shirts and clean pants and skirts. We've gotta go, can't wait to get back out there!
MISS YOU ALL, Lizzie, Kathryn and Ian.
We've been running and dodging flying motorcycles, while trying to keep our feet dry. We were surprised by the bustling locals in collared shirts and clean pants and skirts. We've gotta go, can't wait to get back out there!
MISS YOU ALL, Lizzie, Kathryn and Ian.
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