I meant to publish these sometime in the winter, better late than never right?

From Sis. Marjorie Hinckley:

I love the sights and sounds and smells of a bustling city in a foreign country. I love the peaceful green hills of the countryside. I love the color of autumn leaves against a deep blue sky, the sound of a bird, the scent of pines. I love the sight of temple spires reaching into the heavens. Every day brings something beautiful if we are just willing to look up and see it.

God’s World, by Edna St. Vincent Millay

O world, I cannot hold thee close enough!

Thy winds, thy wide grey skies!

Thy mists, that roll and rise!

Thy woods, this autumn day, that ache and sag

And all but cry with colour! That gaunt crag

To crust! To lift the lean of that black bluff!

World, World, I cannot get thee close enough!

Long have I known a glory in it all,

But never knew I this:

Here such a passion is

As stretcheth me apart,--Lord, I do fear

Thou’st made the world too beautiful this year.

My soul is all but out of me—let fall

Nor burning leaf; prithee, let no bird call

Word

So they told us that cultural shock would be worse coming back than going to Uganda. So far I believe it. It's hard getting back into the rythm of things, but it's all good, and I'll get the hang of it. One thing that's been fun and a little frustrating is I think I've had a little insomnia lately. I only slept 2 hours (naps here and there) in 50 hours. It's frustrating being exhausted and coming close to falling asleep but not quite making it. It's fun when I wake up from those short naps, cause I feel really anxious or stressed and immediately think in Dutch, "where am I again?"
Sunday was probably the hardest day of my life. Seeing people again was awesome, saying goodbye to people was hard, saying goodbye again to Holland is also hard. At Church I chatted with an older lady who we used to eat with. She told me that she doesn't want to live anymore. After Church I chatted with someone we baptized, he's had a major case of depression for the past year and can't get out of it. He says his desire for life just isn't there, he still has a testimony and comes to Church still, but he's having problems with everything, and depression isn't helping. The last person I saw was a girl I baptized. One of my most special memories on my mission was with her, we had so many great appointments. Well she told me she doesn't believe in the Church, Joseph Smith, or the Book of Mormon anymore. It hurts so bad.
So last week Thursday Harry picked me up from the airport and I rested at his place for a couple hours and then went out with the missionaries, visiting old investigators, they're going to try to start teaching them again. I got to visit with Br. Stewart. He still loves Iowa! How could somebody not?!!! He hasn't even been there, but ever since he was little he's always loved Iowa. Friday I had a great day with Br. Harry. We spent the day in Aachen, seeing where the old Holy Roman Empire capital used to be. We ran into the missionaries. It's so funny, we ran into the missionaries in Uganda several times, I ran into them in Madrid and Sebastian, ran into them in Den Haag, and then again in Aachen. Sunday was one of the hardest days of my life, Friday was one of the most special. I think it's natural for missionaries to feel like failures if they don't baptize. You feel like you didn't help the ward grow and almost like you may have not been worthy for Ensign-like missionary stories. I had those-type feelings on mission about Eindhoven, the only city I didn't baptize in. Driving back from Aachen we had a good conversation about things and then he talked about a member in the Church who he gives a ride to, who has a bad leg. I remembered that my last week in Eindhoven we found a person with a bad leg. So when we got to Eindhoven we went to visit him. Holy cow it was him!! It was so nice to see him, that he's doing great, goes to Church and all. We were driving to the station and then I remembered an investigator I wanted to see. So we went to see him and then we crossed an intersection and I asked how Freda and Collins were doing. He said that Collins got baptized and they both moved to England. Harry also told me that Job Vogels got baptized. So three people that I taught or found in Eindhoven got baptized. Of course I learned several new lessons about missionary work that day, but more important, I felt one of those tender mercies of the Lord and that He does love us and watches over His Church everywhere. Special.
Saturday I spent the day visiting old investigators and members in Heerenveen, way up north in Friesland. I biked 10 kilometers to visit some people and then it started raining...hard. "Lekker Hollands Weer" is what they always say (Nice Dutch weather, or kinda typical Dutch weather). It was fun experiencing that again...the whole day. I went with Swently to a young men's activity, bought lots of chocalate, visited more people, and then ate with Ludmila, Sulli, and Swently (a family we taught), had a short spiritual thought, family prayer, and then we slept downstairs and watched Spiderman 3! Sunday I was in Leeuwarden and luckily it didn't rain the whole day like it did Saturday.
I think Monday was the longest day of my life, up at 5:30 in the morning, so 9:30 PM Sunday night Utah time, and then arrived in Provo midnight Monday. About 25 hours of sunlight! It was fun being called Elder Beck again, I miss that. It was fun being in the airport and noticing again all the English being spoken around me, and seeing how Americans are fat. So in Holland you generally have to pay to use public restrooms. Yeah, that's not cool, but the restrooms there are so much cleaner generally than restrooms here.
So yeah, I'm sad to be back, but also excited and anxious to do things.
I forgot to mention a couple weeks ago a neat experience I had my last day at the Crane School. The kids really wanted to see my pictures from Gulu, Northern Uganda. They especially wanted to see pictures of the people up there. It's interesting how curious they are about other people in their own country. To me they are all the same, but they see people from other tribes differently. I showed them pictures and pointed out to the kids that they have a nose, mouth, ears, and eyes, and so do the Acholi people. I tried showing them that even though their tribes fought a war for 20 years, they are the same as them.
When I said goodbye to a kid there he said, "Kasey, when you are president of America and a country comes to beat Uganda, you come and help." LOL.
Hopefully my blog entries won't be boring for now on.
Pictures:
This is in the internal displaced person's camp in Northern Uganda. This place was the worst poverty I've ever seen, and it's a lot worse in other camps I hear.


This kid loved playing with my shoes and legs...and leg hair (ouch). I've never seen an African with leg hair, so naturally they think it's really odd, along with white skin. Kids try to rub the white off.


This is the women's grassroots development group. We gave them all Starburst, and they loved it! I'm trying to get their organization a computer, so if anybody knows where I can find one, let me know.

This is another women's group that protects vulnerable children. They need a camera and a computer. With a camera they can have someone arrested who beats their kids by taking pictures of the scene when they show up.


So the girls and I cut Kindra's really curly hair. So we thought a glued on French mustache would look good on me. I'm thinking about growing one out now...or not.


This is Hamis. This guy is one of the biggest studs I've ever known. He is Honorable Fred's assistant and did so much for arranging me to come to Parliament. We gave "Leadership and Self-Deception," "Anatomy of Peace," and the Book of Mormon to read. He wants to start a NGO with me that teaches principles of peace to schools, families, and communties from those books. Soon he'll probably want to get baptized too. He's also trying to come to BYU's Business School. I'm going to look into scholarships for foreigners, if anybody knows any info that would help, let me know.


The Nile! In the background is an island where lives a guy, who people say, can walk on water.



HA! We played red light, green light with these kids. It's so fun watching 300 some kids running toward you.


Teaching business class.


Cute kids at Crane School


My funky tan. Some of that is dirt too.


These kids were fetching water at the well down there, when I pulled out my camera they all ran toward me. I usually tried taking somewhat interesting pictures with kids. Here, they are all flexing their muscles.

Grabbing the bull by the horn. Not really, though. Cause I'm not grabbing the horns. And it's not a bull.


Coming back from Parliament in Kampala. I think I look like a missionary.


Ahhhh yeah!!

Heck yes!

Probably the most amazing thing I've ever done!

My favorite! That's me falling out in the front. I think this was where I felt like I was thrown into a washing machine, just getting tossed everywhere.

America the Beautiful



America, Sweet America, God shed his grace on thee, and Crown thy good with Brotherhood, From Sea to Shining Sea



I'm excited to come home. I love America.

I feel like I have so much to do when I get back to Provo. I have a few businesses I want to start and either want to start a NGO or get HELP to do a teacher training program. I want to start something that can sponsor kids to go to school in Uganda. I also need to get two computers for organizations in Gulu and one digital camera.

So many things have happened the last two months. It has been one life-chaning adventure after another. Hopefully Provo won't be too boring. But there's a lof of fun things happening- rafting the Snake, camping adventures, family reunions, Zion's National Park, weddings, jet skiing, etc. So yeah, I take it back, Provo won't be boring. There's so much I want and have to do.

This trip has been everything I wanted it to be and more. I feel like it's springboarding me into what and how I want to become.

I'll write about the last couple days later when I'm back. There's so much to write about. I am so physically, spiritually, and emotionally exhausted right now. It's been a mini-mission almost the past couple days. I've visited so many investigators, new members, and members. It's just been a rollercoaster, some people doing really well, some people unfortunetely not doing too well. I feel really helpless for those that aren't doing that well. Sundays were always rough days on the mission because people wouldn't come and stuff....today was a lot like that. Yesterday was so special having family prayer and scripture study with a family I taught...and then watching Spiderman 3 in a slumber party.

Tot ziens Nederland, Mweraba Africa! Hello America!

Randomness

-Why does ice cream have to be so good, I would have saved like 20 euros in Spain if Gelat0 and Helado weren't so good.
-It seems that people who walk with their hands behind their backs just seem wise.
-I think I had malaria when I was really sick a little over a month ago. A girl in our group had the sam symptoms, went to the hospital, and was told she had malaria.
-I enjoyed a really nice walk on the beach last week in Den Haag. I wanted to see the sunset, but I was also super tired from coming from Uganda the night before, then going to Amsterdam briefly, and seeing people in Den Haag. I forgot that in the summer the sun sets around 11:00 PM. But I ended up staying up that late anyway, chatting with Albert and Cynthia. Albert's from Ghana, and was baptized in October, Cynthia is from China and was baptized when I was here. They're going to the Temple in October. Good people.
-Water is so powerful. We are so dependent on it. Gives new meaning to "Christ is the water."
-Goodbyes are the worst. It was hard saying goodbye to the Crane School kids (I got some notes from some of them), and my business class students (they're all supposed to email and give me money when they're all rich), and Parliament peeps. I told everyone I would come back, and I will. It might be next year, in 4 years, or even 40 years, but I'll come back. It was hard saying goodbye to my friends in the group. Even though many of them go to BYU', it's still hard cause things won't be the same. I got closer to them than I thought I would.
-What do people think Spain is like? I didn't really have a clue, for some reason I kinda thought it was a desert, but not at all. It is so gorgeous! The scenery that I saw reminded me of California, Montana, Israel, Ireland, Scotland, Arizona, and Utah.~
-I threw up on my last day in Uganda. It was good, cause you have to get sick from the food at least once in Africa.
-The North Sea looks pretty disgusting.
-Some bus and tram routes were changed in Den Haag, which confused me a little, cause that's pretty much the only way I know the city.
-I wish every returned missionary could return to their mission. It has just been amazing getting the same missionary feelings again, visiting the cities, and the people. I had the same 'scared to go home' feeling by the train tracks in Arnhem, which was my last feeling. I had the same 'they might not be home' feeling visiting some people in Den Haag, where we would always get dogged...and they weren't home. I ran into the sisters in the tram in Den Haag- they asked for referrals, so I gave them a list of people I used to teach. So I've done the same in Rotterdam, Arnhem, and Eindhoven. I heard that Kor, who we baptized, stopped going to Church. I dropped by and surprised him. He was so shocked and excited to see me. It was so much fun! Instantly I felt like a missionary again, by sharing a spiritual thought and committing him to come back to Church, it was a powerful and special experience.
-I've gotten 2 business propositions in the last week. A member in Uganda wants me to invest in his tour business. I ate at my favorite doner kebab in Den Haag with the owner and he's selling 2 restaurants and wanted to know if I wanted to buy them....Dad? I got the phone number of the owner of a Surinaams and Indonesian restaurant. Provo needs one of those.
-What a night and day difference coming from Africa to Europe. It's a really weird feelings and makes you feel a little guilty almost. In Getxo, Spain for example, the green 'go' light is a green cartoon guy. Come on, is that really necessary. I really shouldn't complain, it's just sad seeing how much money there is here and how people there lack money for basic necessities.
-I need to learn more about the Basque people and why they want to separate from Spain. It seems like everything is going perfect there--it's a really nice country there and I'm sure they would hurt from separation. I think there are only a few who want it.
-The 5-6 hour ride to Getxo was beautiful! I talked to Ivan a good chunk of the way. They also showed the second Planet of the Apes in Spanish. That movie is lame no matter what language! Ivan was really worried that I didn't have a place to stay. I think he was finally convinced that I was looking for an adventure. And it was! It's a really gorgeous town. I arrived at sunset! Wow! So I slept on the beach, listening to the waves, looking at the stars. Except for getting sand all over, the mosquitos, and being awoken at 6 by city workers, it was perfect. The next night wasn't so much fun. I wandered Madrid until 2 in the morning looking for a place to sleep. Madrid closes all the stations and parks, so I slept on a bench. Ha, it was funny, I really felt like a bum. Yeah, traffic was loud, and it was cold, so I really only got like 2 or 3 hours of sleep. The next night in the airport was better.
-Here in Holland I have had bad luck with public transportation. I've missed so many buses, trams, and trains, or they come really late. I have bad luck with backpacks too cause both of them are broke.
-I went to the Temple last week Saturday. I had it perfectly planned out, but then ended up missing a train which messed up everything else. But despite my plans being wrecked everything ended up alright and I made it to the Temple afterall and had a great time. Things work out like that.
-I arrived in Spain one day too late. Real Madrid finished their season the day before. The bull fighting season ended in May, and the Running of the Bull isn't until July. So I have to come back to Spain to do all those things.
-What is it about sunsets, sunrises, stars, and water that makes you think deep and about higher things?
-Bilbao and San Sebastian are both very beautiful cities where hardly anyone speaks English. Same with Madrid actually. I wish everyone could experience the thrill of just showing up somewhere where there's a communication barrier and going from place to place. It's exciting.
-On the trip from Mukono to Rwanda, there were lots of beggars at the rest stops. It's interesting that the white people didn't give money, but the Africans did.
-On the rafting trip it was fun pulling the girls into the raft when we were thrown overboard.
-I love it how Europeans clap when the plane lands. We should start doing it in the U.S.
-So I've been on this brown craze lately. I bought some brown shirts, brown ties, and almost a brown suit. I was with Mark van der Donk and he noticed this and asked if that meant I like brown girls now that I've been to Africa?
-I really like the song, Dare you to Move
"Dare you to move...
...Between who you are and who you should be, Between how it is and how it should be...
...Dare you to move, Dare you to lift yourself off the floor."
-I'm going to Asia on my next trip. China, Indonesia, India, Thailand...not really sure. But I'm going to go in December, or a year, or 2 years...but I'm going.
-Think about when someone's hurt you. Now multiply that by 2 or 3 or 100 and that is how much you've hurt Christ. That neat thing is that He will forgive you, if you forgive that person who hurt you. Amazing how that works. The Atonement is so beautiful and sweet like that...and is often learned through experiences, which makes it difficult, but so worth it.

24! (Tick tock, Tick tock)

I think I'm the first blogger to mention Skyler and Rebekah's engagement. Congrats kids! Rebekah will be a good addition to the fam, as will Bret.

Finally I’m 24! 23 was such a lame number. Yeah, Michael Jordan is 23, it was a great year and I just didn’t like being 23. Not all ages are created equal. So now I’m the age of one of the coolest TV shows ever, yes! It’s interesting, though, I was born at 5:03 PM in Provo on June 10^th. 5:03 PM June 10th in Provo is 2:03 AM June 11^th in Uganda. So actually my birthday here is June 11^th, I guess that was the case on my mission too but I didn’t think about.

This has been an incredible week! I know I say that probably about every week but WOW! I went to Northern Uganda. The State Department says it’s one of the most dangerous places on earth…it’s not, at least I didn’t feel like it was. I’ve felt safer there than some parts of the US. When I first arrived I wasn’t planning on going to Northern Uganda because I’ve heard it’s really dangerous but I’ve been talking to lots of people and everyone has said it’s safe except the missionaries, but they’ve never been. I guess HELP’s board of directors were upset that we went spontaneously to Rwanda, cause supposedly that is a dangerous place too (it’s not). So they said we had to have an organization we would go with and still would have to have permission from the board of directors. At Parliament I made contacts with MP’s from Gulu. We talked with the Opposition Leader and the woman representative of the Gulu District, Honorable Betty. She arranged everything for us—hotel and organization contacts. I didn’t think they would let us go to kinda get back at us for going to Rwanda. We wanted to leave Wednesday but heard nothing from HELP. So around 7 Wednesday night they called and gave us permission, along with the “be safe, don’t do anything stupid” speech. Dave, April, April, and I were ecstatic that we were going. So we called Betty, confirmed, and were all set to go. We left early the next morning, met up with Hon. Betty in Kampala and went on the 6 hour bus ride with her husband. The ride was interesting, that’s probably the closest I’ve ever felt to getting in a car accident. This huge bus went so fast on this little road that had many pot holes; even when the bus drove on the shoulder it still went really fast and was tipping. I’ve never heard of police pulling over cars in other countries, but they pulled over our bus and told the driver to go slower. The bus’s horn was so loud, annoying, and long. It had different noises and could play a short annoying sound. I think it has that because there are so many villages around the road. The Nile separates the wealthier districts in the south and western regions from the underdeveloped districts in the northern and eastern regions. It was fun seeing the rapids on the Nile and monkeys all over. I loved seeing the countryside and the African savannah with tall grass and Africa-like trees. When we crossed the Nile, immediately you could see a difference in development. It was a night and day difference, I was so surprised. In the south people live mostly in real homes and even the grass huts are nicer, but in the north mostly everyone lives in a grass hut. Buildings for businesses are in worse shape as are the roads. During the war the LRA made it to the Nile and were stopped by the Ugandan forces. There was a standstill for a long time and as the LRA lost its northern support, they terrorized the people in the northern districts by killing, abducting, and placing landmines all over. They abducted kids from schools and their homes to fight as soldiers or be wives to soldiers, Joseph Kony, had over 50 wives and 200 kids. It was weird thinking that as we crossed the Nile. We also passed by several Internal Displaced Persons (IDP) Camps.

We arrived in Gulu and dropped our stuff at our hotel- Hotel Kakanyero. We went to the district office where we met members of the local councils and a couple of MP’s. They’re having issues with NGO’s. I’ll talk about that later. We went to SOS Children’s Villages and talked with the director. Two major problems they have in the north are what to do with all the orphans and the child-led households. SOS trains “mothers” who will take in 10 orphans and make a family. SOS supports them financially, pays the school dues, etc. The only thing that bothers me is how the guy said that they don’t need fathers because their role is to provide money and that is taken care of through SOS. At the hotel we ate a pretty good dinner and met an American lady who took us to her hotel and we watched a really interesting documentary called Uganda Rising. It was really educational and really sad. Friday we got up early and went to two women’s organizations. One is about protecting vulnerable children and the other is a grassroots development organization. SOS didn’t need much help from us, but the other two places need financial help and things like cameras and computers. I’m going to see if I can get USAID to donate that or other places at home. They were so excited to see us at both places and got very excited when we mentioned possible projects like teaching them business and English. We went exploring and visited some neighborhoods near Gulu and then ate at a traditional restaurant. That very well could have been the most disgusting food I’ve ever had. The Acholi people seem taller and stronger than other tribes, their language has a lot of nasal, but their English is easier to understand than other tribes. I was disappointed to see generally more people smoked. I noticed they were kind of similar to Rwandans, more reserved and somber than Ugandans in the south, probably cause they’ve experienced so much.

Saturday we went to Unyama, an IDP camp. Nathan and a couple other guys showed us around. We walked all over the camp, talking to people, playing with kids, etc. The whole experience there was so overwhelming and one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen. In the 90’s the government decided to relocate all Acholi into these camps to protect them. People were uprooted from their villages and forced to live in these congested communities. At the start they weren’t protected well which made it easier for the LRA to kill and abduct more people. The intentions were probably good but the IDP camps have deprived men of providing for their families, which has meant many just drink, causing all kinds of problems. Congested living has made AIDS and all kinds of disease more apparent. We saw so many drunk guys, at 10 in the morning, and kids with pot bellies and dirt and flies all over them. The situation is much safer now but they won’t go back to their villages until a peace treaty is signed. The major stumbling block to a treaty is the International Criminal Court charges against Joseph Kony and other top commanders. It has been several months since people have been attacked by remnants of the LRA. They showed us all over the camp, hardly anyone spoke good English. They thought we were doctors so they would come up to us and show us their injuries. The kids are kids of course, happy, full of life, though, there were some kids who were just terrified of us. Man, it was so sad knowing the story behind these camps and seeing that things are just as bad as their descriptions, but it hurts so much more seeing them. I pulled my hat down to cover my eyes a couple times, it was just too much.

Our American friend, Kathy, who we met Thursday, and who we had run into a couple more times invited us to a performance by the Acholi dancers. They are really good. It was really entertaining to see real African traditional dancing. Kathy is trying to get them to tour the US so they can raise school funds. She wanted to hear their stories, so we separated into 6 groups and they told us their stories. Three of the four guys in my group were abducted as kids and forced to kill. Several members of their families were killed. They showed me scars where they were beaten and told me how they escaped and their education ambitions. One guy mostly spoke for the others because he said that they would cry if they told their stories. I’ve done so much research on the war and heard so much, but seeing these people, talking to them personally makes everything come to life and hits me harder than expected. What amazes me the most, though, is how willing they are to forgive. Already, several members of the LRA have turned themselves in, and are accepted back into the community through a traditional reconciliation process. I asked them all if they would even forgive Kony, without hesitating they said that they were so ready to forgive. That is amazing, I’m not sure if I could even forgive Kony. It says a lot about them as individuals and as a people when they are willing to forgive the killers of their family members and their abductors and torturers. After eating we went to Noah’s Arc where night commuters used to go. Night commuters have stopped commuting every night but the places are still used by street kids. When we arrived it was really dark because the electricity was out so we couldn’t even see who we were talking with. I took a couple pictures with a flash they helped me see their faces. I talked to some kids who have lost their parents so they sleep at this place and do little chores to get food. School is out of the question because they don’t have money for the school fees and Uganda’s universal free education hasn’t really arrived in the North. It was good for us to talk with them, encourage them, and just be their friends. The whole day was really exhausting and overwhelming, but so educational, inspiring, humbling, and just what I needed. I’m really glad I went. I feel different. I feel like I have some actual goals to work for that I know will help. There’s so much I want to do when I get back. It was a good birthday present. I’ve had so many incredible experiences here in Southern Uganda, Rwanda, and now Gulu. I just don’t see how I could ever be the same again.

We have some really cool and interesting people in our group. We’ve started doing Yoga regularly. That stuff is hard but fun. A couple of the girls are going to massage therapy school when they get back, it’s been an extra relaxing bonus with them here. I didn’t really notice the stars here in Africa until the other day but you can see them so well here. They don’t really learn about stars here so it’s cool telling them about the constellations like the Big Dipper and Orion. Kids here don’t know what hugs are. People just don’t hug, it’s not part of their culture. So we go to teach at Sis. Haspher’s school on Mondays and Wednesdays. Last Wednesday we had waited around the corner for the others to show up. We tried to make sure they couldn’t see us, but when I peeked through a bush, they saw me! They started screaming and then as we walked to the school they all came running out. It’s such a funny routine we go through with them; they love seeing us! I’ve kind of adopted a family here. I’ve been going with the missionaries every week and we’ve been teaching this family, Br. Daniel and Sis. Grace. They are a very nice humble couple who are excited about the Gospel, excited about baptism, and just so eager to learn. I’ll miss their baptism, but I’ll stay in touch with them. I think one of the things I’ll miss most about being here is taking walks alone, waving to the kids, who are always screaming, “Mzungu!” (white person). We have a rule that you have to be with at least another person, but I’ve been able to side-step it by going with the missionaries and walking back. I have really enjoyed those times alone. I finished my fourth book, Amazing Grace, by Jonathan Kozol. It’s about the South Bronx and how dangerous and impoverished it is there. It’s really sad reading about these things in America. The richest and poorest congressional districts in the US are very close to each other.

So this will be my last blog entry from Uganda. I’m not sure if I’ll type up entries in Holland because it’s expensive to use the internet there. Last week I was depressed about going back to normal life and having to focus on myself again. That’s bothered me since my mission. The mission is this incredible selfless time where your focus is helping others, but then you come home and it’s about your major, studying for your education, doing everything for yourself. It’s sad going from a selfless way of life to a selfish one. That’s how I was feeling, but now I just feel anxious about getting back and helping the people here through different ways. My three goals for the 7 weeks were: to understand international development better, personal growth, and make a difference. I feel like I’ve accomplished all three and am anxious to run with those goals. I’m going to miss it here but I also know that I’ll be back. I’m really excited about a teacher training program and think that things could really fall into place. I need to learn a ton more about development, but also feel like I want to do something different than what I originally wanted to go into. I’m sad to go because there are so many projects rolling and so much to be done here, but I’m more than satisfied with the experience it’s been and what I’ve been able to accomplish.

So I’m off to Holland from the 13^th to the 25^th and am super excited about seeing everyone there, biking the cities and countryside, and eating Indonesian, African, Suriname, Turkish, and Dutch food. I love thinking about Europe and all the food choices they have there. Food is definitely one of the reasons I love Europe so much. I’ll spend three days in Spain and a day in Aachen, Germany.

Life…is beyond good, it’s super good and there’s so much to get out of it.

Kasey, the Tourist

WOW! Carrie's engaged, Dallas is going to Cleveland Spanish speaking! I love you guys! Being away definitely makes ya love family more...I've always loved them of course.

WOW! There really is no other way to describe this last week…especially Friday and Saturday. I rafted the Nile River! It was incredible, probably the most amazing thing I’ve done in my life. We planned a trip to Jinja to do a day of workshops and then Saturday we were going to play. Jinja is where the source of the Nile is located and where Gandhi’s ashes were spread. We heard there was bungee jumping so we were all planning on doing it. The plan was to bungee jump Friday night, Saturday we would shop for souvenirs, eat at an American restaurant and then go to the Nigeria-Uganda soccer game. Well the bungee master’s back was really hurting Friday night, he said he would be fine the next day, but he was still in pain (I’m guessing drinking all night didn’t help much). So we were all really down, until we found out about rafting, we decided to do that instead. It was an all day trip so it meant we couldn’t do those other things, but it was so worth it. I’ve never been rafting before, but what a way to start. The section we did had 5 class 5 rapids, 2 class 4’s, 2 class 3’s and several smaller class 1 and 2’s! We talked to some guides and kayakers who travel all over the world rafting and kayaking and they said this was the best place in the WORLD to raft. It’s the second most intense river in the world to legally go rafting on, the 1^st is the Zambeze River. But several people die on that river each year. Another part of the Nile also has some pretty intense rapids but there are 80,000 hippos in that section. Hippos kill more people than any other animal. So the part that we did is really the best combination of intensity and safety. We started out by practicing getting down, forward/backward strokes, getting out, getting back in, etc. Then we headed down the river. The Nile is gorgeous! There is so much wildlife. We saw a crocodile, bats, monkeys, tons of different types of birds—even several bald eagles. They are actually fish eagles, but are closely related to North American bald eagles and look just like them. We flipped three times but probably should have flipped several more times. The morning part of the trip we faced rapids after rapids. Class 5 is the highest class they can legally take clients on. They are so much fun! They have really funny names for each rapids. We went down Total Bunga, which means Totally Crazy. There was a 12-foot drop. We went down the drop and then got tossed around at the bottom and finally a big wave just threw us. I’m not sure what it was but at Total Bunga and then at Bad Place I just got thrown. When we flip they tell us we just have to take it and stay cool. That was hard. At Total Bunga I got thrown and then I felt like I was put in a washing machine—I couldn’t tell which way was up and wave after wave was hitting me down and making me do cartwheels in the water. So yeah, after like 5 or 6 really frustrating seconds I was up and just floated down to everybody else. At Bad Place (ha, I love the name) we were going down, then into the rapids, and then really just unexpectedly flipped. That one was really fun because none of us were prepared for it and we were all thrown far. The waves didn’t keep me down as long as Total Bunga. Bad Place was incredible, though. We’re talking like 300 yards (3 football fields) of rapids. At Overtime, there were crushing waves and tons of large rocks. We went through it pretty carefully and were stuck for like 10 seconds on a rock, but yeah, that was fun too. There were a couple slower parts of the river where we just swam. It was so relaxing and fun doing flips off the raft and just being carried by the current. We saw so many grass huts and locals washing their clothes. The Nile is so beautiful. The whole time I couldn’t believe it…I was on the Nile, I was rafting! I loved the wind and whitewater into the face. I think I first learned about the Nile in 1^st or 2^nd grade when we talked about Ancient Egypt. It’s so cool to actually go to the Nile and enjoy it. It’s so hard to describe Saturday, there really aren’t words to describe the excitement, exhilaration, beauty, and grandeur of the Nile. I just love seeing the diversity and beauty of God’s creations and really experiencing them.

Last Monday I went to Parliament and mostly spent the day chatting with Hamis and MP’s and learning about Uganda. We’re starting lots of business classes. We have four groups that we teach one to two times a week. It’s really fun being specific with them, discussing their business ideas, and applying the things we’re teaching them. I’ve been helping out at the Crane School still, and we’re going to Sis. Hasifa’s school now. Sis Hasifa is one of the most amazing members I know. She was a Muslim but was baptized a couple months ago and is now just so intense and excited about learning the Gospel, telling her friends and family about it, and helping people. We’re going over there and showing her how to hold Family Home Evening. We have so much fun at the Crane School. I really think that the way we help them the most is by just inspiring them and being their friends. We’re teaching them English and literature but it’s the one and one stuff that really makes a difference. I love asking them what they want to be and helping them set goals to reach. Some of my good buddies are Captain Frank, Captain Fahad (because they both want to be pilots), Dr. Samuel, Honorable Moses (he wants to be a member of Parliament and says that I must also add His Excellency when I say his name), and Pastor Timothy. These guys are fun. One of the girls graded the paragraphs that they were supposed to write, and Fahad wrote, “Kasey is my best friend and will be President someday. It makes me happy that Kasey will never forget me.” So I need to become the President now and never forget Fahad (that part will be easy).

At Parliament we learned a lot more about the health care system. Pres. Bush set up a Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria where people can get free medication for those diseases. The problem has been corruption, ugh. The Minister of Health and several other people embezzled millions of dollars out of the fund. Minister Muhwezi fled to the UK and had until May 30^th to come back to Uganda. He did, but most think that nothing will happen to him because he was a high up general in Pres. Museveni’s army when they overthrew the previous government. But it is causing good political discussion here as several MP’s are saying that nobody is above the law…so we’ll see what happens. Ugh, I’m not sure if abortion is as black/white as I thought it was. Hamis was saying that when girls are raped, they will often do ANYTHING to abort the baby. They will use hangers, long knives, or drink a mixture of bleach and gasoline to kill the baby because there is so much shame in teenage pregnancies in this society. They even have a clinic where girls can check in anonymously and stay there during their pregnancy to avoid the shame.

Ok, things are rolling with Honorable Fred. That’s how you address members of Parliament (MP’s) here. I didn’t meet him until last Wednesday. He came to our house and we talked about our program on Friday. He told us how excited the schools were about us coming and how several other schools wanted us to come. So we started talking about ways to reach out to the schools in his constituency (130 of them). He is going to arrange a teacher training workshop on a Saturday where the teachers of schools will come and we will give different workshops. He also said we could give trainings at the teacher training schools. We’re all so excited! We feel like this is the best way we can reach out to as many students as possible. So Friday we took off for Jinja at 7:00 in the morning. Honorable Fred and Hamis picked us up and drove us out to the first school. We went to a really rural village where nearly every person in the village is involved with sugar cane growing. It was such a beautiful drive. There are high hills and lush, lush valleys. They treated us like royalty at the schools. They had an assembly and wrote out this speech personally thanking us for coming and kind of asking for funds. So we had several different workshops that we rotated the students through. We had games, motivation, hygiene, and girls’ maturation. We also had a workshop for the teachers. The district minister of education came and sat in on the workshop. I was involved with games but heard that it went really well with the teachers. Thank you to those who sent me stuff. The teachers asked questions and they girls really felt like they helped the teachers improve their methods. It was fun driving with him. He waved to everybody, shouted greetings, etc. When there is a death in the family people set out their blankets on poles and spend days there. When he saw this he would get out and talk to the family. We went to a more urban school later on, night and day difference. They spoke better English and were more rowdy than the other school. But we had really good experiences at both schools. Dave and I did games and had a blast! We played hokey pokey, boom chicka boom, the tooty tott, red light/green light, and octopus. Ha, when we all broke after the assembly at the second school, I had all the kids run after me. One of the girls said it was just the funniest thing seeing 300 kids running after me. It was a fun day…and exhausting!

So Tuesday the pigs next door were squealing SO loud. I really thought they were dieing or something. I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard anything like that in my life. People here mix up their r’s and l’s a lot. It’s funny. In Church they always say, “let us play” when it’s time to pray. Mmmm, our cook, Edith, makes us really good Ugandan food. We eat lots of squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, cassava, bananas, etc. They really like their starch here. I have hot sauce that I put on my food to give it a little seasoning.

Things are really rolling here with setting up teacher training and business classes. I think I’m going back up to Parliament some time this week and arranging the teacher trainings. Hopefully I’ll be going up to the North on Thursday.

Life…is good.

“The blonde kid from Iowa”

Personally, I don’t think my hair is blonde, but it is lighter than usual I guess. It’s helpful wearing an Iowa hat in telling people where I’m from.

Be sure to read the last paragraph.

Last night I was able to do something that I’ve wanted to do my whole life…learn a breakdance move. It didn’t take that long to learn it either, so I’m going to try to learn more from April and Teija.

This week was really the first normal week where projects were started and we were constantly busy with things to do. All the schools got back from about a month holiday last Monday. I’ve been helping teach English and Literature. When I’m up in front they call me Master Kasey or just Master. The guys are Masters and the girls are Madams. Ha. It’s a little difficult, but also really interesting and fun going back to elementary. Tuesday we did PE with the kids, so I think I found something that is harder than teaching American football to Europeans…teaching African kids how to play Steal the Flag. They didn’t understand the whole prison thing. They loved running in packs to take the flag, it was funny. The ages of the kids was probably 3-7, about 100 of them. We played Frisbee before they arrived, all the boys and girls came out with no shirt, undies or shorts or skirts, most were just in undies…yeah, definitely something that wouldn’t happen in America. We did stretches, jumping jacks, leap frog, and then Steal the Flag. Tuesday we also started business training. We have about 20 adults we teach at the town center. Tuesday we taught some basics, what businesses are supposed to provide their customers, the 5 external forces, and we played Prisoner’s Dilemma, to get them a little more cutthroat about business. It’s fun teaching it and using examples and suggestions on how to improve businesses here like providing more variety in what they put on chipatis, advertising the single samosa restaurant in Mukono better, etc. Thursday we played the BES game, which is a business simulation that is learner-based and gets the students to learn basic business principles hands-on. Wednesday I went to Parliament all day. Hamis told me that April and I were on TV last week for one of the economic meetings we went to. We went to the Economy meeting and only 3 MP’s showed up, haha, I love Africa. We chatted with them for awhile about American Politics and who was going to win the next election. I did my best to tell them about Mitt Romney and how he’s the best candidate. I asked Hamis if he knew any NGO’s in Northern Uganda that I could work with for a couple of days. So he took me to see the Opposition leader, who is from Northern Uganda. This is the Opposition Leader, kind of like the Senate Minority Leader! He has a big office, really nice couches and carpet, a tv and computer. He was really nice and stopped what he was doing and chatted with us for 20 minutes. This guy is one of the most powerful people in the country and is an important Acholi (one of the Northern tribes) leader. He speaks with Joseph Kony and is one of the mediators between the LRA and the Ugandan government. He didn’t really know anyone personally, so he called in another MP. We chatted with her for several minutes. She is really excited for us to come up there and said she would plan out everything, arrange thing with contacts, etc. I have to get permission this time from the Board of Directors in Provo. So hopefully it’ll happen. The Parliament session was interesting. I forgot to mention this last week, but the ruling party sits on one side and the opposition parties sit on the other. They start with a prayer and then people bring up different items. The first item they brought up is how cups of coffee in the Parliament Restaurant have been poisoned. The person that everybody thought was going to be the president’s successor was poisoned and died. Friday we taught the teachers at the Crane School our first business course. Saturday we helped build an adobe stove at a school in a far away village.

When we went to Parliament, my stomach was really not feeling good. I thought it was the bananas I ate that morning or the meal from the night before. At the meetings my throat started hurting and then got a headache. Then all of a sudden right after Parliament my nose was VERY runny. We went home and I went right to bed. From 6 in the evening to 9 in the morning I stayed in bed and slept maybe 4 hours. It seemed like every minute I was blowing my nose, followed by a sneeze and then maybe some coughing. In the morning I had a super huge headache, and I thought it was from all the fluids that I had blown out my nose. Seriously how much water is up there?! I think I drained my brain. So yeah, I stayed home all day, until 3 for business class, went back to bed at 6 and then Friday I stayed home until 3 for another business class. Saturday I was mostly fine, just weak. But yeah, I am very grateful for health. I had a lot of time to myself, a lot of reading out of the Ensign. I read an article from Valerie Hudson a couple months ago. She’s a nationally recognized political scientist, and is just very knowledgeable about National Security and Chinese Politics. She told her students that the politics stuff isn’t really how things are, the way things really are, are spoken about in Conference and in the Ensign. Anyway, so much reading out of the Ensign made me think of that. Frank, one of my buddies from the Crane School kept on asking the teachers where I was, saying that he missed me, loved me, and I was one of his best friends. When I came back Friday afternoon he held my hand and we talked for like 20 minutes. Ya know, it’s not that weird for me anymore to hold guys’ hands now, they’ve held mine so many times, mostly just when we’re standing and chatting, I don’t let them hold my hand when we’re walking, though.

I received my official Ugandan name- Muonge Kasey Nkula. Nkula is the clan name, meaning the Rhino, and Muonge is just a family name. When you buy a drink here, in restaurants and supermarkets, they always give you a straw. We love having kids sing us songs. One of my favorite songs they sing goes, “Jesus is a winner mannn…”, “Satan is a loser mannn…” They dance to it and everything. Ha, I love it. I don’t think they have wheat bread here. All the wheat bread we’ve tried was just white bread dyed brown. It’s confusing walking past people on the street because we’re used to passing on the right and they’re used to passing on the left. There are pigs, cows, goats, dogs, cats, cranes, other big birds, and chickens everywhere. The pigs next door are always squealing in the morning, so that along with roosters and chickens provide good alarm clocks. The cows have huge horns. When we went to Rwanda they played an African movie. Africans in Holland always watched those movies. They all have the same actors, who are pretty bad at acting, they are done with home video cameras and the plot usually has something to do with witchcraft. I’ve seen bits and pieces, and they are funny. They also played some African music videos. The chorus line goes, “heeeeeya never met a mzungu.” Which means they never met a white person. I guess they’re not actually saying that, but I like to think that they are. I always hear mice running around in the walls and they whine a lot, I can’t remember if I already wrote about it, but I thought there was a bat in the room. I couldn’t see it, but it was either a bat or a big moth. According to people here I talk in my sleep, I talked about soccer very clearly once. I’m pretty sure somebody in our house sleep walks. The last couple nights when I couldn’t sleep I hear somebody walking around, and I heard the door open once. I went to see what was up, but didn’t see anyone, but then I heard more footsteps like 10 minutes later. I would have gotten up but it’s too much work to get out of bed and out of the mosquito nets.

It’s interesting being the only guy with 6 girls. They have funny chats with each other and it’s just interesting hearing what girls are thinking about a lot of things, as Zack Morris once said, the more I’m around girls, the less I understand girls. Girls really do pluck their eyebrows, this morning Tamara said ow after each hair she plucked. I found myself saying something that Alan would say earlier today. Kindra offered me porridge. I said I would rather stick the knife I was holding in my eye than eat that stuff, ha. They’re a lot of fun. The other house is a lot of fun too, their guy goes home next week and they don’t feel safe without a guy in their house so I might be going there next week. Saturday we helped make an adobe stove. It rained really hard for like a half an hour. I really like getting soaked by the rain here. It was funny cause we were fetching water to make mud when it started raining. We laid the bricks and then threw mud on them…and on each other. I’m doing pretty good about putting on sunscreen. We’ve only had a few really hot and really sunny days. Most of the time the weather if just perfect. Right now the clouds are tempting with a thunder-storm, it’s sweet. I always forget to put sunscreen on my ears, they’ve burned a couple times and that hurts. I have some pretty funky tan lines going. I love it how people always ask questions when making statements and then answering. Here’s close to something I heard the other day in Parliament, “RVR will not begin providing services until we’ve done what? Signed the contract.” Ha, that just might be my favorite part of Ugandan culture, everybody talks like what? Like that. Part of Uganda culture is that no one talks at meal time. Church always goes over, it’s pretty funny. Today it only went over 10 minutes, the worst was my first Sunday it went over 25 minutes. I love the pineapple here! The missionaries weren’t joking when they told us that it’s the best in the world. The fruit is really good here. Does anybody know when you can tell if the papaya is ripe? We have a papaya tree in our front yard but no of us know when to pick it. So when I wash my clothes I can never tell if the water is just dirty or my clothes are really dirty when I dump the water. There have been three baptisms the last three weeks. I love baptisms! They make me think about my own baptism, even though it was awhile ago, I remember just feeling good and clean. It’s been one of my favorite all-time days, just really special.

It was interesting the other day watching kids at recess. Some were playing volleyball, some soccer, some were burning things, some were dancing, some were talking, and other kids were just sitting and thinking. A lot of the kids here are orphans. I just think a lot about them, what they’ve gone through, what their goals are, and what life has in store for them. When we were doing the stove, we played a lot with the kids and just had fun with them. One kid had a 49ers sweatshirt, another had a Spiderman t-shirt. I asked him if he knew who Spiderman was. He didn’t know and was kind of confused. The kids we met at the stoves were all orphans, all 200 of them. They live in a village far away. Some of them will probably never go anywhere except Mukono and their village. They know a couple things about this other, modern world, but for the most part they really have no idea. Ya know, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing either. They are happy, they have fun, life is simple and manageable. It seems like that the more advanced countries become, the less happy the citizens are. That explains the recent surveys that show that people in Africa are generally happier than people in the US, UK, and Japan. Even though they live simple lives, life is still hard, they don’t necessarily have families, they do a lot of hard work in farming to grow food for the school, and teachers beat them. I think I would cry myself to sleep every night, but they are happy. As we walked away and said goodbye I was glad to meet them, have fun with them, and learn from them. In one of the books I’ve recently read, it said that what every person wants is to be important. So hopefully we’re making them feel important somehow.

Hamis and others told us in Kampala that Mukono is known throughout the country for child sacrifices that go on here. They said that newspapers often have stories about these tragedies. The police aren’t really empowered enough to do much to stop the situation. I’ve noticed lot of kids have sticks that go through their ears kind of as earrings. We asked around and found out that parents do that to their kids to give them blemishes so they won’t be offered as sacrifices.

I figured out what the x-factor is for a lot of African men, they like white women. I’m not quite sure what’s going on but I’ve heard from so many people about men who like just white women. I think it has something to do with Hollywood and how people all over the world watch American movies. Maybe African men, because of the entertainment industry, are cultured to be attracted to just white women. There are several older single guys here. A couple of the girls here have been asked out, I wonder if they are just holding out for white women. Man, think about how negative an effect this could have on African society if African men think that African women are second best.

I’m really excited that our projects are rolling. Things are really working out. I work with kids and help out at schools in the morning and then teach business classes in the afternoons and evenings. We’re teaching 4 groups of people twice a week and working on adding more groups. I really believe that better business practices and a better business environment can help the developing world. They need to become more competitive with the outside world by exporting more and provide better goods and services to citizens here. I’m more of a macro person, that the best way to help the developing world is through large scale projects and top-down stuff, that’s why I’m so interested in politics, but also improving businesses. But I still recognize the importance of micro-level projects as well.

This Friday we are going to Jinja. Hamis and his MP, Honorable Fred Nkayi, have wanted us to visit two schools. He says that what the students need to most are to be inspired. But what they mostly want is for us to help the teachers improve their teaching methods. They want us to give a teacher training workshop about cooperation, dealing with children with abnormal behavior, why they shouldn’t beat their students, how to handle teenage girls, teamwork, how school isn’t just about grades but also able personal growth, why it’s important to know the children individually, simple methods of handling children, why creativity is important to develop and how games and other activities can be used as teaching tools. So yeah, that’s a lot, I know. Some of the people in our group are familiar with this stuff because they are elem. ed majors and such, but if there’s anybody that reads this that could email me or even call me and let me know some good stuff we could use and teach the teachers, I would really appreciate it. I really don’t know what should be said, so if you could help me out, that’d be great. K, so you can email me or call me. To call you have to dial 011 to dial outside the US, then 256, then 773153765. Email or call before Thursday 5ish my time, so 8 in the morning Utah time, and 9 Midwest time. So yeah, it'd be nice if you could help us out, you would really be helping out the people here. Thanks.

Wabalee nnyo ssebo oda nyabo! (Thank you very much man or woman)

We had a poetry night last week Sunday. I wrote a poem, it isn’t great cause I wrote it during the exchanging of poems, and it’s mostly inside jokes, but if you’re interested, here it is:

Africa, Africa here I am

Being a mzungu I don’t really blend

Amazing sunsets and stars so bright

Except for sleeping in mosquito nets I love the night

Gosh I love samosas and chipati

As I digest them, they tickle me

People are amazing and very happy

I’m trying to not let this poem get too sappy

If you haven’t taken a boda-boda do so quickly

Isn’t it disgusting how the meat is so drippy

Mukono gives me very much glee

Ha, I love saying poo-poo-agie

Pooped on me too, Tamara just said

Everyday I become more what? Red.

This place is awesome and very supa!

Are we in America? nope…you gone duh!

Rwanda

Boy, I'm writing marathon blog entries. There's just so much happening.

Ok, so Wednesday I decided that I wanted to take one of my vacation days and go to Rwanda. So I came home and told everyone I was going, 3 other girls wanted to go as well. I think the country directors were a little upset with my spontaneous plans, but they ok’d it. So after Parliament we emailed, went to the market, and then to the bus park. Our bus didn’t leave until 3 AM, so we waited on some stairs. I couldn’t sleep, so I just read. I slept til 8:00 on the bus. I had a weird dream about privatization…because of all the government talk I heard that week. We didn’t get to Rwanda until 11:00, but wow, it was an amazing drive. Rwanda is gorilla country and called the “land of a thousand hills.” Uganda is called the “pearl of Africa.” I took several pictures, but the pictures really don’t do justice to the beauty of that country. South Uganda and especially Rwanda is amazingly beautiful. There are lush green mountains, lots of different types of trees and vegetation. There were really low clouds that day. I guess it was mist, but it was so thick and very white. There are all types of green on the mountains in the trees with terraces up the mountains. The valleys are where everything is grown, so the people live up the mountains. Gosh, it’s just such a beautiful country. It’s sad that such a beautiful country has such a bad history.

So we arrived in the capital-Kigali. It was fun switching from driving on the left side of the road (in Uganda) to the right (in Rwanda). We didn’t have plans, so we decided to just go see the things we wanted to see. 2 of the girls spoke French fluently, so I didn’t have to use my little French that much. We went to the Hotel des Milles Collines which was the hotel in the movie “Hotel Rwanda.” I’m going to watch that again when I get back. But during the genocide in 1994, this hotel saved many Tutsis from being killed. We went to the American Embassy to get some adoption information (one of the girls is looking to adopt a Rwandan kid). Then we went to a restaurant called La Sierra that advertised Chinese and Indian Cuisine. There was a supermarket in the back that had some amazingly good pizzas! We talked with the owner, who is of Indian descent, and is Canadian. We had a great chat with him and then he asked if we wanted to stay at his house that night. So we ran to the Genocide Memorial Centre. They had so much info on the history behind the conflicts between the Hutus and Tutsis, the problems the European powers caused, details behind the genocide, and how the country is recovering. They had a room of thousands of pictures and names of people that were killed, a room of just clothes from the people, and a room of skulls, femurs, and other bones. It was weird to see that the clothes had Spiderman, Nike, and other modern things that reminded me how recent the genocide was. Outside they had graves of 250,000 people (I think). The thing is, is that they were mass gravesites cemented over. There was a room with all the genocides that have happened in the past 100 plus years. There are several that are really recent: Darfur, Yugoslavia, Cambodia, and Rwanda. On our way back to the restaurant we talked with Willy. Willy is 26 now. He left Rwanda after the genocide. He is a Tutsi and all of his brothers and sisters (6 I think) and father were killed. He and his mom moved to Uganda until things were safe for them to return.

So Elnoor, our Canadian friend took us to his house. Wow! It was a really nice place. He brought back lots of food, including Indian food, lots of fruit, and European cheese! He went back to his restaurant so us 4 just chilled for several hours. We watched tv (BBC news), skimmed through some books, took showers (hot showers), and slept. I got to sleep in a huge double bed, it was great. Elnoor is such a nice guy, we were a little nervous at first, but everything was perfect. So while we were there, he gave us a tour of his house, there is a lot of important history that happened there. Ok, so in 1994, the Hutu government had been planning this genocide of the Tutsi. President Haryama (sp?) was killed, (we’re not sure who killed him, but some say Hutus planned it to blame the Tutsis). They then stormed the prime minister’s (a Tutsi) house (Elnoor’s house), killed 10 UN guards and killed the prime minister and her husband. The kids were able to escape in the back by climbing the walling into the UN compound. After that they proceeded killing Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The government used much propaganda, especially the radio, to encourage Hutus all over the country to kill their neighbors, friends, and family. Within a week all foreigners were escorted out of the country by soldiers who were flown in to escort them out. I read that if all the soldiers who were brought in would have stayed in the country they could have prevented the genocide. The UN would not allow its peacekeepers to fight and countries refused to do anything about this because there was confusion about what genocide actually is and they considered it to just be internal conflicts and not of their concern. So from April to July 1994 one million people were killed. One Rwandan refugee escaped to the US and tried convincing Congress and the Clinton Administration to do something, one Congressman replied, “The US does not have friends, just interests, Rwanda is not among our interests.” So yeah, we stayed in the same house as the prime minister when she was killed that was a significant event in the conflict.

The next morning we went to Saint Famille Church (the bad church) and Saint Paul’s Pastoral Centre (the good church). It was hard for me to visit the bad church because for me, the absolute worst part of the whole thing was that Tutsis thought they would be safe in the Churches, but many pastors were in agreement with the government, sold out their congregations, and let them be killed. This church was one of the more famous ones because it is right in the center of Kigali, but it happened with many churches all over the country. In the good church the pastor saved his congregation. So after visiting those churches we caught our bus back to Kampala. That was the bumpiest ride ever. Our seats were in the very back which made every bump huge. I was able to read the whole time, so that was nice.

I’ll never forget being in Rwanda, seeing the faces of people who experienced so much. Many had wounds, many had family members and friends who were killed, and many were killers themselves. It was just so terrible, lifelong neighbors, lifelong friends, and even family members killed one another. It is a miracle that the country is still together and is doing as well as it is (the economy is doing better than Uganda’s), Kigali is such a nice big city, scattered over several hills, well ordered, flowers everywhere, very clean…all in such a big contrast to Kampala. I just wish I clearly say all that I was thinking and feeling while I was in Rwanda. I just can’t imagine everything happening like it did, but all the happened was not a movie, it was real life. This was government-sponsored and the rest of the world just let it happened. Shouldn’t that be government’s number one purpose- to protect its people? Genocide should not be allowed to happen. Things like this really make me want to just go out and change the world. I won’t ever forget Rwanda.

Parliament

Each week just gets better and better. This last week sure started off with a bang. So I was planning on going up to Kampala (the capital) to attend Parliament meetings. We had to leave at 8:30 in the morning. Kindra, who I was going to go with wasn’t around for some reason, so at last minute I asked April to come with, and she did. We walked into Mukono, I stopped to pick up a couple samosas (one of my favorite foods here- it’s kind of a triangle pita with lots of beef and onions in the middle, and then deep fried..mmmm), but I left my wallet at home. So I borrowed money from April for the day. They let me take the cell phone, but we soon found out that there weren’t anymore minutes. So we went halfway and bought some minutes, then April was out of money, oh yeah, and it was raining the whole time. So we tried finding a bank, people told us it was a little down the street. We went and the ATM was closed and there was a huge line, so we asked where another ATM was. They said it was down the street, so we went and the ATM was broke! Ugh! Well, we called my contact, Hamis, and explained things to him, that we would be late for the committee meeting and all. He said that the meeting had been postponed til another day but we could still come. April then found she had enough money for us to go the rest of the way if we negotiated a little. So we finally made it to Parliament! Hamis met up with us and gave us a tour of the building, explained the flag and the national coat of arms. We went and chatted with a MP (Member of Parliament)- Honorable Okupah Elijiah. It’s proper to address all MP’s as Honorable blank and blank. He took us to the Local Government Accounts committee, where they were talking about an official in Jinja who embezzled money. The best part of the day though was just all the chatting we did with Hamis. So when I emailed a ton of MP’s from the Parliament website, Honorable Fred Nkayi was the only one who responded. So I started emailing his assistant, Mugendawala Hamis. After the meeting we chatted for about three hours with Hamis. He is so smart, we had so many questions about the economy, the war in the north, tribes, education, the role of the US in Uganda, etc. I left that day feeling really inspired about helping Uganda.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were very similar to Monday. I usually went each day with someone different, and each person just absolutely loved the whole experience. Every single time their most favorite part was talking with Hamis and learning about Uganda. Tuesday and Thursday I was able to go to the Economic Development meetings. The major topics of discussion were the privatizing the railroads and developing telecommunications throughout the country. Tuesday the Minister of Finance was there along with the Director Privatization facing the committee of MP’s. Uganda has about $300 million worth of rail assets. They are working out a deal by renting out their railroads to Rift Valley Railway (RVR), a Kenyan group that would mostly make it more accessible to Ugandan businesses to ship their goods from Uganda through Kenya to their ports so they can export goods to world markets. It’s a really good thing that can really help the country. One of Uganda’s disadvantages is that it is landlocked. The argument from the MP’s was on the percentage RVR would pay to the Ugandan government each year. It’s frustrating because this can really help and here they are arguing about numbers. The second meeting they had the Minister of Technology talk to the committee. China is willing to give a 20 year loan, for $20 at 2% interest. The loan would help Uganda develop more internet and cell phone coverage throughout the country. The MP’s had several concerns course, the first is that usually they receive loans at 0.075% interest, so why don’t they negotiate a cheaper loan, and the second is that would that interfere with their privatizing goals. They have some good concerns, cell phones are really expensive here, so it would help, but as one MP mentioned, the tariffs keep prices high, so they really should lower the tariffs to benefit the population. I agree, tariff and non-tariff barriers should be reduced, which lowers prices. It was fun to attend these meetings and read about them in the newspaper. On Wednesday I attended the Social Services committee meeting because the girls I was with really wanted to go. It was interesting, each district is allotted scholarships to give out to a number of student scholarships to attend university, but some students have been dishonest by saying they were from different districts.

So each day we attended committee meetings. On Tuesday, it was hilarious, me and Kindra were sitting there watching all the food and pop being brought to the MP’s and we were just starving. Kindra wrote in her journal and showed me where it said, “I would give anything to have a samosa right now.” Not even 5 minutes later the waiter asked us if we would like anything to drink…score! So we ate samosas and drank pop, it was great. The next two days they also gave us samosas and pop. The Parliament meetings were also really fun for me. The NRM Party sits on one side and the opposition parties sit on the other. They have a lot of British tradition in their meetings because the British colonized them. They talked about a few interesting things, many opposition members were upset with the Minister of Defense because 5 Uganda peace-keeping soldiers were killed in Somalia and they found out through CNN. They complained that the Minister is not keeping the MP’s informed about the happenings in Somalia. It is so funny though, cause every meeting started close to an hour after they were supposed to start. It really is a culture thing then. On my mission Africans were always late to appointments.

So after committee meeting we would go to Hamis’s office, chat, then Parliament, then back to Hamis, chat some more and then go back to Mukono and get chipatis on the way back. I love chipatis! They are kinda like pita bread with eggs, cabbage, and tomatoes on top. I get a couple of them each time, because they are really cheap (500 shillings, or 35 cents, approx.) and really filling. It’s funny, we always lend money out to each other and remind each other and stuff…most of the time it is like 1700 shillings, which is $1, or something. But that is a lot of money…but really it’s not.

Ok, so here are some of the things I learned from Hamis: Colonialism really is the worst thing that happened to Africa. In 1848 Otto Von Bismarck called the European heads of state together and carved up Africa. Most of the time, borders were set according to latitude and longitude lines, not accounting for the people that they were affecting. Basically they made Africa one big mess. In Uganda there are 56 tribes. Most tribes are related to each other, in the south and west, most are related to the Buganda tribe. This tribe also goes into Rwanda and Congo. These areas in Uganda are the wealthiest and most industrialized. In the East, the people are related to the Kenyans, in the North most tribes are related to the Acholi, which is very similar to people in Sudan. For these reasons, Sudanese have supported the Acholi by supplying them with arms and refuge, and Uganda helped out the Tutsis in Rwanda. The Kanjoma (sp?) in the East believe that all cattle in the world belong to them. They don’t eat the cattle, but they drink the blood. The government has been fighting with them because they raid other tribes and steal their cattle. In Northern Uganda, war has existed for 20 years for a couple of reasons. Uganda got its independence in 1962. Dictators in the north ruled the country very ruthlessly and made their tribes more prosperous than the rest of the country. They two main dictators were Obote and then Amin. Amin overthrew Obote and then the current president, Museveni overthrew Amin and held elections. It’s interesting, Museveni went to school in Tanzania and was buddies with a couple of other guys. All of them overthrew their governments and are currently in power in South Sudan, Uganda, and Tanzania, I think. Anyway, Museveni could have been a dictator, but he held free elections and disciplined his soldiers, and just did some really good things. Hamis says the two things that he has really done well with are education and infrastructure. Uganda has been the first African country to offer free universal primary education and are starting to offer free universal secondary education. He has also built roads connecting the major cities in the country. But he has helped his tribe and the Buganda-related tribes the most. That’s why the south and west are the most prosperous. Many of the ministers are from the west, along with the bureaucracy, police, and soldiers. He has built some state universities and moved industries to the west. Amin and Obote did the same things. For these reasons, the northern tribes do not support Museveni and have fought for independence against Uganda the past 20 some years. The leader of the resistence was Lukwena, a woman who said that if the soldiers put a certain ointment on them the bullets would not hurt them. Obviously they quickly learned that that wasn’t the case. Her cause was moved along through Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). After awhile the people in the north got tired of the war, Kony punished them by abducting their kids to fight in his army. He also placed mines all over the north. So there are refugees living in the UK that have been supporting Kony financially and giving him arms and been calling some of the shots. South Sudan was supporting Kony, but that government was overthrown and the new guy has not supported Kony and has kicked the LRA out of Sudan. Also interesting, in about 2010 South Sudan will vote whether they want to be an independent country, most likely they will become one. So Kony is stuck in the DRC (Congo). The Congolese government really doesn’t have power in East Congo, but Kony is being pressed by Uganda, Sudan, and the International Criminal Court (ICC), who is out to arrest him and his commanders. They have had cease fires, but no peace treaty yet. Hamis says that one reason they haven’t had any treaties because the people in the UK tell him what to do and sign. But the war is pretty much over, Kony will have a hard time getting out of this. The people in Northern Uganda are living in terrible conditions in Internal Displacement Camps. The wait to get clean water is two days. The US is helping by giving technology that helps detect mines and dismantle them. Hamis let us go through so many official government documents. I went through the Northern Uganda roadmap plan, that was sweet! Ha, I also went through these booklets, one from the UK about how to be a good committee member and one from the US about how to recover from a war. Wow, that was a lot of info…sorry. All this Parliament stuff has just been heaven for me. I have loved mingling with MP’s, listening in on important meetings, going through documents, etc. A couple MP’s from the East want to take me to their districts; unfortunately, I’m only here for 6 weeks, so won’t have enough time. I’ve kind of seen the President. We were driving on the road and a caravan of several military vehicles and limos drove by. The driver told us it was the president. A lot of people here just don’t know of the laws. Men in the villages beat their wives and don’t know it’s against the law. That’s one of the problems they face. I’m very ethnocentric when it comes to politics. I compare other country’s systems to the US and measure how well they’re doing to how close they are to the US, bad huh? There are big cranes everywhere! One of the times going up to Kampala this guy on the radio was speaking Lugandan and just laughing like crazy. Nobody else in the bus was laughing, but I was cracking up!

So Hamis is assistant to Honorable Fred Nkayi. This guy sounds impressive. I haven’t met him yet, he’s mostly been in his constituency, but he does not know anything about politics, he’s in it because he wants to help his people. He wants our group to come to Jinja, where he’s from, for a day and visit schools and see the source of the Nile. Hamis has been asking me how to get donors from the US, I’m really not sure. But we’re going Jinja next week. Hamis says what the students need most is to be inspired. I’m excited.

OK, this blog is very long, I have a lot to write still, I have to tell about my trip to Rwanda, hopefully I’ll get to it sometime this week. If you haven’t noticed this blog has kind of become my journal.