You are most welcome, in Uganda: first week of Uganda living...

So I was getting ready to write a lengthy email about my first week here in Uganda and realized that many might not really want me to flood their inbox with random stories of people from the African continent, so I decided to post stuff as often as possible for anyone who has the time or curiosity to read.

I first want to say that it takes a VERY long time to get here, around 25 hours of airplane travel time, including layovers, and then another 3 hours just to arrive in Kasana where I am staying. With that said, I would do it all over again to come back. The past week has been a whole new experience for me, one that makes me feel that I'm still so young to how the other side of the world works. Things like electricity, running water, and other basic technologies are still such novelties here that many decide that it's easier to live without them rather than wait for the generator to work or the pipes to function. Candles and hand water pumps which pump water straight from the ground are frequent sitings around here.

The people are friendly, always stopping what they are doing to help, or to make you feel welcome. That is actually the reasoning behind my title of the blog; whenever you approach someone's home, office, classroom, garden, kitchen, or any breathing space they have around them, they greet you by telling you that you are most welcome. As in, they are thanking you for coming to visit them, or stand next to them, or to walk by them. With my upbringing as a Californian, I am used to walking by people without a glance or an occasional hello or wave, and it has actually taken me a little getting used to stopping what I am doing at all times to welcome someone and accept their welcomes in return. But, like I said, I am learning, and am excited to continue welcoming others and learning about the culture that is Uganda.

I am staying in staff housing that is on the New Hope premises, where they have children housing, a primary school, a secondary school, a vocational school, a church, and a farm. The amount of property they have is amazing and you can tell that the surrounding community and villages appreciate all that New Hope offers. If you are curious at all about what they do here you can check out their website: NewHopeUganda.org

The kids each live with and are raised by a Ugandan family parent and a staff member. They are grouped in families of twenty to twenty-five kids or so and have small straw roof circular huts with cement walls for their living quarters. Each family has a parent house, two girls huts, two boys huts, a meeting area, and a latrine (toilets). All cooking is done outside under a tin roofed tent that includes four posts, a small amount of counter space, and a stand for charcoal over which pots are set to cook the meals. Each night the children have a devotional as a family lead by a New Hope staff member, do their homework, and eat dinner. From the little I've gathered by talking with the children, they seem happy to have what they do here at New Hope but are constantly asking me about my family and parents, which leads me to think that they miss their own terribly. They are healthy and cared for here, but, sadly, I don't think any of this can measure up to the life they would have had with their own parents and families.

I think I'll leave you with that for now, more to come...