Videos from Uganda

We thought you might enjoy seeing some videos of our fabulous day yesterday at Kisugo, the training center and home of Empower African Children. The center is where the students stay on school holidays and where they train for the Spirit of Uganda tour.

This amazing performance welcomed us to Kisugo :) More than one of us was moved to tears by the sheer beauty and generosity of the moment.

 

And here we are trying to copy the moves of the Spirit of Uganda - not so easy!

 

 

And here we are after Ms. Beesley's tap dancing lesson - again, not bad but it's hard to compete with those professional Spirit of Uganda dancers!

As you can see, we are making the most of our time in Africa and we are loving every minute!!

Welcome (Happy Birthday!) from Empower African Children

We knew that today was going to be special because two of us celebrated birthdays today - Madeleine turned 17 and Jules turned 24. This cause for celebration was the perfect backdrop to our first day with the students from Empower African Children. What we did not know is that the day would be filled with many surprises, dances and joyful moments with old and new friends - take a look!

The Mulago Malnutrition Ward

Today began with a visit to the Mulago Public Hospital where we visited the children's malnutrition ward. As you can imagine, this ward can be a very sad and heart-breaking place. However, the staff and counselors like our old friend, Sarah, work very hard to create a place of love and hope for the children and their mothers. Sarah was our guide, along with Empower Staff member, Edith (another old friend), and they helped explain to us the causes of malnutrition in children - which has less to do with access to food and more to do with poverty, lack of education and HIV / AIDS. It was a sobering visit in many ways but it was also very educational and inspiring. It was particularly interesting for our alum delegate, Jules, because she hopes to study malnutrition in the future as she has seen so much of it first-hand in Mozambique where she is a Peace Corps Volunteer. It was an impactful visit for each of us and  it helped us to understand some of the very serious challenges of Africa, one of our trip goals.

Our group at the outdoor classroom of the Malnutrition ward

Sarah orienting us about the causes of malnutrition  

Edith and Sr. Grechen

Sarah and the sisters

Touring the "elephant" ward - the elephants are the ones just about strong enough to go home

Bidding farewell to inspirational Sarah

Safari !!

Our Uganda delegation has returned safely to Kampala this evening after an amazing day at Murchison Falls National Park. I am delighted to report that our bus was not raided for food by baboons (others were not so lucky) and that we were not harmed by the crocodile that the students awakened just after we said "do not wake him up." It was a very long day of driving but the safaris were well worth the travel as you can see ...

On the road to safari...

It's been another extraordinary day in Uganda! Most of the day was spent driving from Kampala to Murchison Falls National Park where we are spending the night. Unbeknownst to our group, we were booked into a very lovely safari lodge that just opened in the park - It was farther away from the city but well worth the extra time spent on the rustic roads of Uganda. The lodge is stunningly beautiful and sits right on the Nile. Our happy student delegates were thrilled to spot baboons (not friendly), giraffes and wart hogs on the drive into the National park. Then, to everyone's delight, we discovered countless hippos frolicking just in front of our lodge in the Nile. And then, some hippos came out of the Nile onto the ground while our happy group was swimming in the pool and that caused all sorts of squeals of excitement. Tomorrow will be another fantastic day as we are officially going on safari through the park - we will be up at 5 am (with the giraffes) but it will be well worth it!

Driving through beautiful Uganda

Matooke (green bananas) is a staple of the Ugandan diet and can be found everywhere

We met these fun children along the way

Baboon alert!

Our first giraffe sighting!

Can we help you??

We were stunned by the gorgeous views of the Nile from our lodge
 

Lunch with a view

Hippo selfie after swimming!!

Arrival in Uganda!

What a magnificent first day our delegation has enjoyed in Uganda! Our flight from Dubai was very smooth and efficient (thank you Emirates Airlines!) and we arrived in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, mid-day. From that moment on, we had non-stop activities including meeting our old friends and guides from Empower African Children, eating lunch at the Speke Hotel (named for the 19th Century British explorer), checking out the Nakasero food market (some of us tried crispy grasshoppers, a local delicacy) and finally checking into our hotel and meeting fellow UA alums Agnes Kasule '01, Jules McGee '08 and Ally Rider '12 for dinner. Agnes is Ugandan and lives here in Kampala, Ally is spending her sophomore year semester abroad here in Uganda and Jules flew here to meet us from her home in Mozambique where she is serving in the Peace Corps. It's wonderful to combine our current UA students with these exceptional young alums - we have so much to discuss and share about Africa and about life in general! You'll surely be hearing more about them all in the coming days, for now, here are some photos from today:

All Aboard for Uganda!

Welcome to Uganda!

Jeremy Phillips, CEO of EAC, welcomes us and begins our orientation to Africa!

In front of the Speke Hotel with our old friends, George and Jimmy, from The Spirit of Uganda 

Our first meal in Uganda, pizza, garlic bread and samosas - delicious!!

Trying Ugandan pineapple and ginger soft drinks -  Yumm!

Emily with Sharon from EAC

So much to see here!

We spent much of our day waving to school children from our bus

It was so interesting to meet UA alums Agnes and Ally!

So now, we have 5 UA alums helping to lead our happy group - so fantastic to be together!!