Day 1 - Sandals on the ground in Uganda again

Long flight  & layover but no mishaps and our luggage all arrives in Entebbe with us – bonus!  We all actually sleep fairly well but I waken early and walk over to BKU to get some quick “hellos” and hugs from Richard, Justine (the girl whom Sue & I sponsor) and Rose, the BKU nurse.  I do get a couple of quick greetings from Obama & Don as they rise, but think I should get back to Banana Village before everyone awakens and was keen to get going.

Arnold with Jovan

We enjoy a nice breakfast of toast, eggs & pineapple, but a heavy steady rain starts before we finish.  We take the opportunity to chat with Pauline Greenlick and our new acquaintances Dr. Durga Malepeeta and her husband, Vasu, and brother-in-law, Sreeramalu, who are all retired or semi-retired physicians from the USA.  I also meet Leonard Lies, who directed & edited the documentary movie on BKU, “Under the Umbrella Tree”.  The doctors have already met with a couple of local MD’s to whom Rose refers complex cases, and they hope to further network with the local hospital.  Durga seems quite excited about the Electronic Medical Records (EMR) project, but I note on our tour of the expanded medical clinic that the only power appears to be solar power, so maintaining use of a laptop may be a challenge which I need to explore further.

Leonard is an an artistic and humanitarian soul whose son did missionary work in Malawi.  He is working with Pauline on a documentary exploring gender violence and specifically acid attacks on women in Uganda.  Today he & Pauline meet at length with  Hanifa, who has had two surgeries since I met her last visit, and Rita, another acid attack victim who counselled Hanifa early in her recovery.  These brave ladies have helped form a political group whose goal is to push legislators to impose harsh penalties on those who perpetrate, conspire to perpetrate, and even suppliers of strong acids used in these attacks.  I salute the bravery and fortitude of women like Hanifa & Rita.

Leonard with new friends

The rains abate after 1.5 hours, and Sue, Alicia, Jeffrey & I wander up to the BKU compound where Susan falls in love with Jovan at first sight and declares him to be a devil in disguise.  The new matron does not speak good English, but the little ones’ dorm seems to be neater and better organized than in the past.  A new swing set sits outside the back window, and the kids all appear happy and, apart from the recent wave of colds, quite well.

Sue meets Jovan

Rose with Don

Susan holds Sonyu Harriet

Sandra goes wild

Sandra, QT & Don

Rebecca

We have a very nice lunch hosted by Victoria at BKU – the four of us plus the  3 US docs.  We are happy to reacquaint ourselves with Angel (Victoria’s daughter who is 6 mos pregnant with twins) and her son Hakim, who is feeling under the weather with a respiratory virus.

Angel with Hakim

Victoria takes us to the big kids’ dorm area, where a very large new dormitory is under construction, the funds being provided by a charity Soccer group from the USA.  The $5500 USD in fundraised money we give her today will provide halp completing this dorm as well as finishing the extension to the Medical clinic which is also underway.

Angel bravely climbs the scaffold to the roof

Victoria surveys progress safely from ground level

boys' dorm on the left, cookhouse to the right

the new dorm is an impressively large building

Sue, Alicia, Jeffrey & I ride the BKU van to Entebbe with Victoria & Angel in the afternoon.  We visit the new “Victoria” shopping mall which is strikingly modern and upscale, but not fully leased yet.  Restaurants include KFC and “Quebec diner”.  Damned globalization – lol!  Pick up Uganda shillings cash, bottled water, snacks, a hair dryer that will actually work with 220V  and some Coca Cola & cleaning products.  It’s weird to see a grocery store bill of  220,000, but that works out to $100 USD.

strange sights for Uganda

very modern supermarket with cooking demonstration

We tuck away our purchases at Banana Village and unpack some suitcases.  We are allowed 2 checked bags each for overseas flights, so each of us carried one bag of donated supplies for BKU.  Spend some time sorting the goodies, then decide to bring some sour candy chews to the big kids dorm.  Hoping to see Justine, because Susan has not yet met her sponsored child.

afternoon rush hour

wheelbarrow races

Jane of the jungle

The walk over is highlighted by a couple of boys pushing their sister along the path on a wheelbarrow-type contraction without the bucket.  The girl props herself on the stick handles and the boys push her along at breakneck speed, puppy galloping behind.  A recipe for disaster, no question, but LOL they have fun!

We spend an absolutely amazing half hour at the big kids’ dorm area as the sun drops low in the sky over the inlet bay from Lake Victoria.  I think Susan is absolutely overwhelmed with joy as the kids swarm her and Alicia looking for a handshake, hug or just a few words.  Jackie, a young BKU worker became pregnant and her beautiful baby daughter Praise is handed to Alicia then Susan.  Truly a lovely child.  Jeffrey keeps busy playing “Simon says” then soccer.  He unwisely givees over his camera to some scoundrels and I will be interested to see the results of their artistic endeavours.

Sarah leads Jeffrey in "Simon says"

Olivia, Gloria & Doreen

My cap gets another workout by the BKU kids

Sue & Alicia clearly upset by the swarming

I meet Sarah, whose face is scarred from chicken pox but nevertheless has the most remarkable ability to connect with an adult that I think I have ever observed in a young child.  She locks me into eye contact with the most piercing gaze and commands that I mimic her in a game of “head and shoulders, knees & toes” in Lugandan, so that I may better learn their language.  The other kids joined in and soon it is a group teaching session with me as the lone student.  I score fair in enthusiasm and poor in aptitude, I’m afraid.  Then the entire group sing a few songs in English accompanied by dance moves, which Pauline later tells me were taught to them by one of the former US interns.

This is way too much fun

Jeffrey teaching camera technique to the Bright Kids

Hand over the candy and nothing bad needs to happen

Selfie with Olivia

Meanwhile, Susan’s situation of swarming becomes more acute once she pulls out the bag of candies and asks the kids to queue up.  All I can hear for about 10 minutes was “are you sure you didn’t already get some candy?”. 

Alicia reunites with Olivia while Janat looks on

Jeffrey with new friends

Susan with Praise

Janat having a blast

Sarah

Doreen

Neighbourhood kids

All in all, a beautiful, intense and emotional encounter with some impoverished third world orphans who overwhelm us with their joy, enthusiasm, and general love of life.  Susan was hooked last year when she met Victoria in Ontario.  I’m afraid now that I will never get her to leave.  Well, maybe not really afraid, because I could always decide to join her here.

Yearning to see the children's faces once again

Firstly - my apologies for the lack of updates - life sometimes gets far too busy!

Exciting news - we leave Canada June 19 enroute to Uganda again.  This time Alicia and I will be accompanied by my beautiful and industrious wife Susan, plus Jeffrey, who was Alicia's classmate in early public school years.  I can stay just two weeks in Africa, but Sue & Jeffrey will stay one more week and Alicia will remain 5 weeks in total.  On top of that, we will be joined by Nadine, Dan, and their 3 teen/young adult children:  Jaclyn, Laura & Matt.  They arrive a week after us and will return with Sue & Jeffrey.  The size of our contingent is evidence of the enthusiasm and devotion which Victoria has instilled for her cause in our Kawartha Lakes community.

So much has happened in the past 16 months - I hardly know where to start - I'll offer a high-altitude perspective - apologies if I missed any important items.

Alicia stayed two weeks after me in Feb/13 and bonded very strongly with Victoria and the kids.  Rainy season hit and the roof leaked on Arnold's bed, so Alicia took to bringing him in to sleep with her.  The night she left for the airport he ran after the car screaming and took a long time to console.  Alicia returned for a month last summer and this time they distracted Arnold while she departed for the airport.  Victoria has named our daughter the "Canadian Ambassador for BKU".  She was charged with guiding and orienting new visitors and volunteers at the home and made herself useful in very many ways.  We are amazed how this experience has served to mature Alicia and I'm sure has contributed to her amazing performance in first year at College (Dean's list - way to go, girl!!!).

Alicia's photos from her solo trip

Baby Don - he's a toddler now!

Esther

Alicia selfie with friends

We stayed in touch with Pauline Greenlick & Louis Picard who live in Pittsburgh and lead the BKU foundation in the USA.  To get to know them better, Sue and I spent a weekend at a B&B in Niagara-on-the-Lake with them and were joined by a delightful young couple, Marie & Martin Pinto.  Martin is the son of the man who co-founded BKU with Victoria, and Lou had taught with Manuel in Uganda during his university years with the peace corps.  Both Martin and Lou told us fascinating stories of what they had witnessed over the years in that beautiful but troubled country.  Marie was born in Haiti but grew up in Montreal.  She and Susan hit it off famously.  Martin is a trained family doctor who is now practicing in Ontario.

Marie & Susan giggling over old photos

Victoria compares Balsam Lake to Lake Victoria at her September visit

Martin & Pauline do "Canadian Gothic" with our new friends from the farmfest that I only imagined

Can I take him home, Martin?

Pauline & Lou at Fenelon Falls

Our little group of friends back home were very enthusiastic about BKU and the children, and, spearheaded by the energetic Maurice LeClair, pushed us into arranging a fundraising night in September.  We rented a hall, solicited donation auction items for sale, and furiously tried to flog tickets to our network of acquaintances.  Our good friends from Balsam Lake, Tim & Gina, donated airmiles to bring Victoria to Ontario for the gala, and our new friends Lou, Pauline, Marie & Martin made the trek to Lindsay.  There was a hugely generous outpouring of donations - almost 100 people attended and we raised the amazing sum of $10,000 which Victoria used to purchase a minivan for the children's home.  No longer will we wave goodbye to 5 children without helmets piled on a boda-boda heading off to school in the mornings.  The BKU van saves Victoria transportation costs and earns income when let out for hire.

I'm sure we can pack in even more riders!

While in Lindsay, Victoria completely won over Susan who spoke of nothing else for a month after that great lady's departure.  Victoria gave presentations at the 3 high schools in town, stimulating Jeffrey and Jaclyn to make the journey to Uganda with us this summer.

In November we organized a fashion show fundraiser involving Cathy Allan Ladieswear and the Cat & the Fiddle pub (I say "we", but it was the business ladies Lisa & Liz who did all the work) which was a great success.  Susan was heartened by the many people who said they had a wonderful time and wondering when we will do it again (October 2, 2014).  Maurice has initiated another auction/dance fundraiser for September 26th at the Lindsay Armouries.

Glamour rocks!

Denise with that foxy over the shoulder look

Some of the models were much too shy

Pam does patterns

Sue & Liz with John, our talented musician

Lisa's rarely seen the Cat & the Fiddle so packed

City of Kawartha Lakes residents now sponsor fourteen of the Uganda Bright Kids!  I am continually amazed by the generosity & loving nature of our friends and neighbours.

Victoria had an influx of new children over the winter, some with the most heartbreaking of stories.  Her number of charges has now grown from the 69 when I visited to over 90!  We sent money from fundraising to help her purchase beds, mattresses & blankets for the new kids.

Jaclyn and Jeffrey organized a benefit dance at the Lindsay Armouries and raised $1500 in May.  Later that month we held a yard sale at Dan's business place and raised a similar amount.

The young folks take up the BKU cause with enthusiasm

Donna, my sister, heads for the baked goods first

Almost everything sold - we had very little to cart away at the end of the day

So, altogether we have almost $5500 US which we will bring to Uganda.  That money will be used to purchase building materials and supplies for the home.  Again, none of the funds we raised from these efforts will be applied to travel or expenses for volunteers or Victoria herself.  I have posted summaries of donations, fundraising & transfers to BKU on the facebook group which I encourage you to join:  "Friends of Bright Kids Uganda".

Victoria has plans to put us to work constructing an addition to the small medical clinic building.  Susan has dreams of buying/constructing shelving and bins for the dormitories to provide badly needed organization and storage.  I have installed "Oscar", an open source medical records program developed and maintained by a team at McMaster University in Hamilton, on a laptop which I shall take and leave with Rose after training her on the program.  Spent tons of time the past month installing Linux and learning both the operating system and the medical records program.

Pauline and Lou will be in Uganda at the same time we are there, so it will be great to connect with them again.  Durga Malepati is a pediatrician from Pittsburgh area who will also be arriving at BKU later this week.  Since I have been out of family medicine for 8 years or more, my knowledge base is getting a little outdated and I will be thrilled to have her available to lend her skills and expertise to the clinic function.

Pauline has completed production of a documentary movie about Victoria and BKU which is truly heartwarming.  We hope to offer viewings in Lindsay over the summer and fall.  I told her that it's a great tribute to Victoria & Manuel, the children, and humanity in general.

I'll do my best to keep up regular blog postings over the next couple of weeks.  Perhaps Susan, Jeffrey or someone else will continue after I return.  Thanks for your attention and encouragement.

Update 2

Lots to report, but first a fun pic:

Alicia & I are very much missing the company of our new family

I have been very busy editing (a labour of love) and sending images to Leonard Lies of Dream Catchers Films in Pittsburgh.  He is putting the finishing touches on his documentary film about BKU, and he may be able to use some of my pics.  Very exciting.  I have replaced many of the unedited photos on the blog with updated (some funky) edited ones so, if you haven't reviewed the old posts in awhile, you might want to go back and breeze through the images.

Guys & Dolls

Sue & I booked a bed & breakfast in Niagara-on-the-Lake in April and spent a weekend in the delightful company of Pauline Greenlick and Louis Picard who traveled up from Pittsburgh.  We were also joined by Martin & Marie Pinto who live in nearby St. Catherines.   We became fast and true friends, bonded by our mutual love for Uganda and its' people.

Louis worked with the Peace Corps in the 1960's and taught at a school in East Africa, where he met Manuel Pinto, another teacher who lived in Uganda.  They continued their friendship and regular contact through Lou's frequent return visits to Africa as he went on to become a professor of International affairs & African studies.  Manuel met Victoria through work and together they founded what became the Bright Kids home in Uganda.  Tragically, Manuel died in an accident several years ago.

Pauline works tirelessly for the Bright Kids Foundation in the USA, for whom she serves as treasurer.  She enjoys accompanying Lou on his trips to Africa.

Martin Pinto is the son of Manuel.  He trained in medicine, worked as a family physician in Florida where he met Marie, the love of his life, married and accompanied her to Canada where he is finalizing arrangements for his Ontario medical license.  Marie's family is from Haiti, but she grew up in Montreal and works caring for nursing home patients.

Martin (behind) then Pauline, Marie, Lou and me.  Sue in front.

The six of us talked for hours, enjoyed some entertainment and meals, teased our delightful B&B hosts, and brainstormed plans to advance the cause of BKU.  It was truly enlightening and harrowing to hear what Martin and his family endured, and what Lou witnessed during the dark days of the Idi Amin regime in Uganda, and the more recent butchery in neighbouring Rwanda.

Lindsay Fundraising

Sue & I collaborated with Leslie & Maurice to sketch out some fundraising plans, the centrepiece being a gala dinner with entertainment, live & silent auctions, and speakers.  We booked the Moose Lodge Hall in Lindsay for the evening of Friday, September 13, and printed tickets for sale for $30 each, which will include a full buffet meal and door prizes.  Friends and new acquaintances came to our home one evening to hear about the plans and take tickets to sell to friends and contacts.  We are also soliciting donation items for the auctions.

Gathering in our back garden

 I am absolutely overwhelmed by the generous and enthusiastic response of our local community.  We estimate we can seat  170 souls comfortably for the gala, and tickets are already becoming scarce!  Auction item donations are coming in, and we are excited to announce that the volunteer musical entertainment will include our good friend and very talented entertainer John Turner, young country singer Crystal Lewis-Yaworski, and (hot off the press) the wildly popular Lindsay band, Montana Sky has just confirmed!

We had very supportive articles published in our community newspapers, The Lindsay Post and Kawartha Lakes This Week.

Several friends have indicated they wish to sponsor a Bright Kid.  My mother just wrote a cheque to sponsor Hassan Wasswa.  Various folks have expressed serious intentions  to accompany Sue and I when we visit BKU next winter!

We are not a registered charity under Canada Revenue Agency rules (tons of paperwork, legals & accounting to make that happen), so we cannot issue tax receipts for deductions.  Rest assured that all monies collected will go directly to BKU, net of the cost of renting the hall and the catering.  No money is going to administration or to subsidize anyone's travel.

Alicia's flight to Uganda is booked for late July, and she is thrilled at the prospect of spending a month with her new family and some of the Florida interns who will be there.

Many thanks to everyone who has expressed love and support.  I'll leave you with a little more eye candy: