Dear All,
We arrived in Kampala from Jinja yesterday, Wednesday. We met at the local Rotary office. They are very well organized here. We each got a folder with a detailed itinerary and list of our hosts, maps, notebooks and pens. This was wonderful. We got a briefing on the plans ahead. The person that greeted us when we arrived was Joseph Kayizzi. He is a Rotaractor and a past GSE team member to 5340 two years ago. It was great to see him. He is our guide for the next few days. Yesterday we were off to a museum and then to the tomb of several past kings of Uganda. The museum gave us a very good overview of the history of Uganda. We were then taken to the International hotel where our luggage had been dropped off. There was one room for the 6 of us to rest and clean up and change for the Rotary meeting to follow. The Rotary meeting was not a dinner meeting (many clubs here do not serve meals). We were introduced and gave only a brief presentation, no powerpoint. There was then a dinner at the same hotel, and all of our hosts were there. At the Rotary meeting we also met some Rotarians visiting from Belgium. They gave me a flag and had special coins for all of us. We did not know they were going to be there, so though they requested flags, we didn’t have extra. We only exchanged banners with the club president.
I am staying with William and his wife Beth. They have 3 sons, 14, 7, and 19 months. Very cute kids. They have made me feel very welcome. They live out of the city about 40-45 minutes. There is so much traffic here and gobs of bikes and motorcycles. It slows traffic quite a bit.
Today we went to a psychiatric hospital and also saw the training school for the psychiatric nurses. Unlike our psych nurses who wear street clothes, the psych nurses here in Uganda wear nurses’ uniforms and caps. Very interesting. From there we went to a maximum security prison. This was an amazing experience. In the states, there is no way visitors would be allowed to walk through a maximum security facility. The prison has inmates that have had a lot of education. They are the ones who become the teachers in their schools within the prison. There are many classrooms teaching many subjects from grade one through senior level high school. The inmates are friendly and informative. They get along well with the headmaster, the warden and the guards. There are no gangs, no hierarchy within the prison and it is a very homogeneous group. I was asked to say a few words and when I addressed a room full of inmates I told them I thought they should be commended and congratulated for choosing to go to school. This is not a requirement. The teaching and organization of the classes is really something to see. This facility houses mostly those convicted of robbery and “defiling”. There is no violence between inmates. I can’t really describe it in words other than to say I was awed. Two Rotarians are on staff there.
From there we saw a vocational school for young men that are vulnerable and at risk because they had been in trouble with the law or on the streets. It is run by a Rotarian. She showed us the wood shop where beautiful work is done.
We went shopping for some crafts and Joseph helped us bargain.
I forgot to mention that before we left Jinja we attended a Rotaract meeting at which we gave our power point presentation. One man stood up and said that District 9200 has had many matching grants with 5340 due to the efforts of Steve Brown. This Rotarian was John Okaronon. Then my host showed me a scrap book. There she was in 1996 sitting next to Steve Brown at a meeting! Steve’s ears should have been burning. Philippe’s name has also come up multiple times.
More when I can.
Best,
Dale
