Streetkids, scouts and more

Bus station, Kampala

After all these adventures at the border, I was ready to contact the people I wanted to meet in Kampala. First, I gave Father Caesar a call. I got to know him some years back in Regensburg. A good client of our travel agency booked flights for him and 10 former street children to come from Kampala to Germany for the catholic youth day with the Pope in Cologne.
When they arrived, they visited me in the office and so I got to know Father Caesar. When I was planning this trip, I got into email contact with him and well, we met at Kisube church outside of Kampala. This was a very interesting day, as this was the Kisube Parish Youth day. The ceremony in the church was very different from the services we know in Germany. There was clapping, dancing, people had quite some fun there.

Father Caesar

After church, the festival continued outside with traditional dancing, theatre and a nice lunch.
Father Caesar also invited me to spend a couple of days with a group of Italian scouts, which arrived the following day.
This was a very interesting time. We visited quite a few schools. Some of them had also scouts. It was very interesting for me to learn about the ideas of the scouts. In one school, the scouts showed us how they do camping here in Uganda with building their own tents out of leaves and woven mats.

Other schools liked to present themselves with choirs, some even with guitars or played sketches for us. The most fun we had with the primary school, and especially the boy scouts were treated like stars, as they took child after child on their shoulders. I had a great time with this group. Thanks a lot for all!

Rhona

Slum in Kampala

After a couple of days with them, I got into contact with Rhona, who is the cousin of a friend of a friend in Germany. She is Ugandan and lives here in Kampala and she is taking care of some street children. She rented a house which accommodates 15 boys at the age of 10 to 22. Apparently, it was not easy to make them leave the streets. The longer time they spent there, the more difficult it is. Most of them are into drugs like sniffing glue, many lost their parents due to civil unrest or HIV, and some just left their families due to unbearable circumstances. Rhona tries to attract them by offering free food twice a week after praying together. It is usually something like 60 to 100 children, who come for the food. The ones, who come regularly, are offered a place in the house, if there is space. At the moment, the house is full with 15 boys, but there are plans to build up more beds.

Slum in Kampala

I had a great time with these former street children, sitting together, asking questions, trying to give answers, praying and singing.
Well, I wanted to help but as my money is rather limited, I thought it might be best to do what I am good in. So, Rhona and I decided to do a lot of photos of the children, the home, the slum, the unbearable conditions there and hand them over to Robinah to make her fund raising in Germany hopefully easier… At least that is what we are about to try.
Also, Father Caesar is willing to get into contact with Rhona, which is very good idea, as he has 20 years of experience in working with street children. I rate him as a mine of information with plenty of contacts which can be only good for Rhonas organization and the children and youngsters there.

Soupkitchen

After one week in Kampala I had the desperate feeling that I needed some fresh air out of town. I was lucky to get the last seat in a minibus going for 3 days to Murchison Falls National Park in the northwest of Uganda. Here are the huge Murchison Falls and quite some animals. We have seen many giraffes, buffaloes, monkeys, warthogs, elephants, but no lion.
Also, we did a tour on the Nile with a boat, which was a very good way to see many hippos on the way. Some of them were even out of the water for eating grass during daytime. The boat is going near the waterfalls which are an impressive sight from down there. But it is even better from up. The way there is very slippery, but the scenery is just great! We had a wonderful time in the park.

New Jerusalem, Kampala

Now, I am back in Kampala. I spent some more time with Rhona. I will never forget that beautiful Indian dinner, we had at her cousin Annas house. Her husband John is a wonderful cook and Anna presented a lovely chocolate cake on top.
The last few days, I spent in Jjanya, which is a small village about 40 kilometers from Kampala. Just a few weeks before I left Germany, I came across an organization named Ukihi, which is from my hometown Regensburg. They are doing projects with a local school there, and that was the one in Jjanya. To make it as easy and affordable as possible for me to reach the place, headmaster Charles fetched me in Kampala. We went by minibus to the next bigger place and from there by motorbike the rest of the way.

Jjanya

The school and its children were just lovely and I had a great time there. The people from Ukihi did quite some work at the place like constructing new buildings, giving paint or a new roof to some of the older houses. There is a solar system providing energy for late time studies now and there is a water pump to avoid long walks with water canisters. The pump is broken at the moment and under repair in Kampala. Ukihi is providing all these help as the school takes former street children without asking for school fees. Instead they get all these facilities, which are helpful for all children. To attract more children to school, there is now even a program to give each child a porridge lunch. The numbers increased dramatically after this program was installed (from more than 600 to now more than 700 students).
I spent as much time as possible with the former street children and it was very interesting to hear about their dreams for the future. All of them are very happy and grateful. They know that they got a chance in life, probably the only one they ever had, and that they have to make the best out of it. So, all of them want to study as hard as possible to make their supporters believe in them and to make them continue their work.
As I was staying on the school compound, I had all these nice people around me 24 hours a day and I really loved each single minute of it.

Jjanya

As I have even more contacts from Regensburg here in Kampala, I will see another school not far from Jjanya, this one is in Nsumba. This school was supported by DJK Regensburg and is surely as well worth a look.

After that it is time to leave Kampala for another destination. Next stop is Kibale National Park. That is the best park for spotting chimpanzees. Then, I will make my way down towards Rwanda.