Hansens in Uganda: January 2015

Susan and I, along with Elder and Sister Squire, followed the Hannans ( the Humanitarian couple) to Speaker Kadaga's district north of Jinja about 50 miles in Kamuli. This is a rather poor district and these water and latrine projects were sorely needed. It took us 3 hours to travel between 3 projects to commission each one and cut a ribbon to officially open them for use. There were many more completed but these three were chosen to represent the rest of the overall project. When we finished the driving, we went to a primary school for the Handover, where there were over 500 village people who had been waiting for us to come for over 3 hours. We felt so sorry for them, but no one seemed to care as that is the culture. Time is not a big deal here. It makes me crazy, but I have had to bite my lip and take things as they come. (Some of you may remember that my father was a stickler about time and I inherited that from him.) Anyway, this was a big party with dancing and singing from the community and speeches from the government leaders. The Chief Administrative Officer (Governor), Proscovia S. Musumba, attended and was the star of the show. I was very impressed with her and the support she has from the people. Speaker Kadaga was not available to come but was honored for her work with the Church. There are some very capable women in Uganda and both of these women are very strong for their people. This was a very long day for us and we had to drive back to Kampala in the dark. The traffic is impossible with the boda bodas (motorcycles) and taxis as well as hundreds of people walking along the road as it is the only way they get to their homes. Many times, the only thing you can see in the dark is their white teeth as many wear dark clothes. I cannot tell you the number of times a person, who can see me, walks out in front of the pick-up and then looks at me like I am stupid for almost running over them. Anyway, we loved being with the people of this district at this celebration for the gift of water and a better place to relieve themselves than the bush. This was our last official act as Public Affairs Missionaries. We will say goodbye to some of our friends next week before we leave. They have treated us with great respect. I hope the few pictures I am putting in the blog will give you an idea of this event:

This was the commissioning ceremony of a 6 stall latrine. The old latrine had 2 stalls, was filthy, falling down, sinking, and useless for the young women to take care of their needs. The new ladies' side had 2 pit latrines and a washroom with a faucet and water that is provided by a tank supplied by rain water coming off the roof. Can you imagine what a blessing this will be for them? On the boys' side there are 2 pit latrines and 1 stall for disabled students.

Chief Administrative Officer, Proscovia S. Musumba, commissioned this water source by giving a baby boy a good bath.

This catchment tank will collect rain water from the roof of the school and will be a source of clean water for the village and the school.

Elder and Sister Hannan joined the community in a celebration dance at the Handover.

Women of the village danced for the community. They have a fascinating hip motion in their dancing.

Sorry about the water bottle, but it probably belongs in the picture as the girls were singing an original song written in celebration of the handover of the water and latrines. All students here wear uniforms. The school picks the color and all students, girls and boys, wear it.

Notice the Ugandan dresses these dancers are wearing. It is very typical and is called a gomez. The lady in the blue dress could really shake her hips as they danced.

This older man, probably a village leader, came out of the crowd and walked across the field in front of the dignitaries and sponsors table to give us his own personal dance to honor our gift and thank us. It was heart warming to feel the genuine appreciation these people had for this gift of the Church.

We were honored to be a part of this celebration as these people are easy to love.

We will miss these genuine good people.

The Area Director of Public Affairs, Sean Donnelly, came to see us for one last visit prior to our departure next Wednesday. He is an avid bird watcher so we took him to Jinja for an African long boat ride to the source of the Nile. We had a wonderful time and had invited a friend and Church member, Godfrey Lufafa, who is also a "birder" to join us and add some more detail to our tour. The boat Captain , also named Godfrey was also very knowledgeable so we learned a lot about the area and the birds of Africa. One of the major points we learned is that the name JINJA means ROCK. The two main Kingdoms of the area are the Buganda Tribe from west of the Nile and the Busoga Tribe from east of the Nile. They would meet at Jinja (the Rock) to trade and deal with issues. We also learned that 30% of the water at the source of the Nile bubbles up from underground and the rest comes from Lake Victoria. At the source, you see a definite rippling effect of the bubbling water and we were told that before they built the Owens Dam, there was a cascade falls of water down to the lower part of the river below the dam. The area at the source of the Nile is the most populated area for different varieties of birds in all of Africa, over 900 different species. Africans have not discovered it yet but there is an ever-growing number of birders that will come in the future to see this wonderful area. It is a long way from Entebbe (where the airport is) and travel is congested so it remains a rather difficult place to visit. Here is some of what we saw: