WÖRLE WIRBELWIND: Boda Boda fahren in Uganda (Part 3)

Visiting the Village

The kids outside the house

On one of the last days, we got the chance to go with the school children from the village to visit their homes. Each group visited 2-3 families and brought gift bags to each family which consisted of: candles, matches, soap, sugar, and salt. It was such a humbling experience and so heart breaking to see the conditions of how these families live. The first family we visited had about 8 people living in a hut and the grandmother and aunt took care of all the children living there. There were two month old twins that we held and it broke my heart to think that they weren’t going to get the nutrition they needed living in those conditions. We had a translator with us the entire time because most of the village families don’t speak English except the child that attends school at Noah’s Ark. They were so grateful for our gift and in Africa it is custom to always give your best to the visitors, so they tried to give us mangos, but we didn’t take them because we just wanted to bless them. The owners of the Noah’s Ark told us that they would try to insist, but to not take anything because often the family will not eat just so they can provide for a guest or give a gift in return.

Me with one of the twins

The second family we visited was a boy that lived with his grandpa and great grandpa. Peter had come to their house and invited the boy to attend Noah’s Ark for school and he was viewed as so lucky to be getting an education. All of the houses that you see are very small and have no clean water supply, so often the children are in charge of waking up before school and walking to get water. As heart breaking as it was to visit the village, it was such a humbling experience and it gave us a better understanding of where the children come from and what their situation at home is.

Wendy and I with the second family.

Coaching

Harry and I with the boys that I coached every day

I got the privilege of coaching the older boys every day. They made up the school soccer team that plays against other schools in the area. I loved coaching them because they were so eager to learn because the coaches there don’t know a lot about drills and doing speed work with the children because usually they just play. The boys were between ages 14-18 and were so excited to do technical work. We would always play at the end and on Saturday when they had more free time we would literally play for 4 hours. I loved it. Girls don’t play sports often in Africa so they weren’t that great, but it was neat how even when the coach made the girls play, the boys would still pass to them. I was more frustrated with the fact that they were playing than everyone else because they just stood in a big group in the middle and the soccer game actually took place on the flanks. One boy that I really connected with was Samuel. I thought his name was “Somewhere” for the first few days because I couldn’t understand him. He was pretty quiet and super humble, but really good at soccer. He also was so eager to learn and work hard; he asked me every day if I was coming back the next day. I found out he is 16 years old and lives in the village. He plays for the third Ugandan team, which is two under the national team and I guess has a chance at playing for the national team someday. He lives with his mother and often people pay his mother to let him play with them. I just loved watching him interact with people. He would treat the girls with so much respect and always include them.

Henry (in white) and Samuel (in yellow)

Each morning I would wake up and go running in the village. Let me tell you it was quite the run each day because we were running up the steepest hills and the heat didn’t make it easier. On the third to last day, I went running and I saw Samuel walking with water towards me at about 7:00am. So I asked him if he wanted to come running with me and figured we could go for 15 minutes or so and then head back to get to school on time and I could go to breakfast. He wanted to come with, so we went to his house and got his stuff. I told him I was tired and don’t want to run too much longer and not too fast. He agreed and said he could show me where he used to go to school. Samuel claimed it wasn’t that far, but we were running FOREVER and everyone was staring at us and saying things to him because he was running with a “Mzungu” (which is what they call white people) and I guess everyone knows Samuel around town. To say the least I was tired and had planned on going for a light run, but about 30 minutes later we were STILL going. I kept saying “Samuel, how much longer? I don’t see Noah’s Ark!” His response was always we are almost there and let’s be honest I had no idea where I was because everything looks the same. The worst was that I needed to go to the bathroom. After 45 minutes, I finally saw the finish line and I literally thought I was going to wet myself. One funny story was that I always ran with my IPod on my arm and listened to music. So when Samuel came out of his house to go running with headphones as well. They went into his shirt so I didn’t see what he was listening to, but he told me his MP3 player got stolen. I was curious the whole time as to what was on the end of his headphone cord or if he just brought them because I had mine. I didn’t want to make it an awkward situation though. I am still curious to this day though. I didn’t realize how fit he was. He says he wakes up and runs for 45 minutes every morning, then goes and borrows his friend’s soccer ball (because he doesn’t have one) to do footwork at the field. On the last day I gave him a ball, and some gear to equip him a little better so that he didn’t have to always borrow from his friend. This kid definitely has a future in soccer. He told me his dream is to go play outside the country or even at college in the USA. I am still brainstorming ideas of how I can make this happen. He would be baller at college soccer. All in all, “Somewhere” has a special place in my heart.

Dawn and I at the waterfall

Out and About in Uganda

Two days before we left, the owners planned a day trip to bring us to the source of the Nile (Jinja), eat chicken on a stick and go to a famous waterfall. We loaded up in the van for the outing and our first stop was the waterfalls. It was cool, the tour guide told us all about the different tribes and how numerous rituals still exist today. For example, we saw a cave and supposedly a python still lives in there and people come and worship it. It was really interesting. The next stop was to eat chicken on a stick at this market. Not gonna lie, it wasn’t my favorite. I felt like a dog eating it. It was nuts though, when we pulled up in our van tons of people come running up and start shoving food in your windows to buy. It was crazy! I needed to go to the bathroom here, so I asked the owner and he gave me a key to it out back and a roll of toilet paper. I walked through the kitchen and took a trail to this little outhouse. I walked in and the first thing I see is tons of bugs and lizards. It was a pit latrine and I was like, “Ok Liz, you can’t hold it so just get in and go as FAST as possible. I was nervous a lizard would attack or a mosquito would bite my butt or something. It was quite the experience and I couldn’t see anything in there. EEK!

This is how they attack your van with food

Next we went to Jinja, the source of the Nile, where we took a boat ride on the Nile where it starts from Lake Victoria. We saw a baby alligator, beavers, and some other cool animals. We stopped off at an island for a bit and there was another boat full of Ugandan students there at the same time. Our tour guide came and asked me the infamous question, “Do you play basketball question because you are really tall?” and we were chatting about what I do in Germany, etc. Then randomly this one student comes and asks if he can have a picture with me and I look dumbfounded and caught off guard. I say uh, sure and so we take a picture, while all the other children are yelling “Mzungu! Mzungu!” Sure enough one by one all these students are asking to take a picture with a Mzungu. It was literally like paparazzi and I felt like a celebrity. We probably took about 15 different pictures and it was just a really awkward situation, but ended with a big group photo. I am used to getting stared at because of my height, but when a tall, white girl in sports clothes walks around Uganda, the Stare-o-Meter increases rapidly.