We are in Uganda!
Because of you!
That was
one of the first things I had read when I was in Uganda. It is a big ad for
some bank but it kind of fits why we are coming to Uganda. We are here because
of the Ugandan people, especially because of the Ugandan kids. We want to help
the kids in Mpigi. But first things first:
We went to
Frankfurt Airport in the late evening of the 21st of August and
checked in with Emirates. Fortunately we hit a sweet spot there because are
luggage limit was 60 kg and we had … 59.4 kg. I’d say we did pretty well in
terms of packing. Flying from Frankfurt to Dubai went without any problems. We
ate, watched movies and slept a lot during this 6 hour flight.
When we
left the plane in Dubai we were stunned by the heat. 32 degrees Celsius at 7
a.m. – ridiculous! We went straight to our gate (and by straight I mean it is a
30 minute walk because that airport is freaking huge…) and we knew from the
very first moment, that we were at the right place. The other people at the
gate were almost exclusively Ugandan. There were like 4 other Muzungus (Luganda
for white people), 10 asian looking people and the rest was black and talked
loudly with that certain enthusiasm you learn to adore about Ugandans. The
second flight also went smoothly but when we arrived at Entebbe we had our
first shock. Just two of our four bags arrived with us, the rest went missing.
We had to fill out a form and were told to call the airport tomorrow to check
if the luggage had appeared. Well we had no other choice than to take things
the way they were and head to Mpigi.
The Kalanzi
family was very warm and welcoming and we met a lot of people on our first day.
Because besides Moses, Kirabo and Arthur there were also five nephews (?) of
Moses and Kirabo with them in the house. Moses showed us our rooms, we had
dinner, and then we went to bed- Exhausted but happy to be in Uganda.
On day 2 we
were shown around, met some kids and went to the school the first time,
everything was really interesting and we had an amazing talk with Moses about
Abato, and what his plans are for us. He wants us to support him in every
aspect of Abato especially the external communication and other administrative
tasks.
Our luggage
has also been found and we went to Entebbe one more time to pick it up on day 3.
Our real work with the Abato Foundation would start on day 4 of our trip.
Julian
Deutsche Version
On our
fourth day here in Uganda we began working for the children. We drove to the
Abato School early (it’s holidays at the moment – school term starts at the 8th
of September) and started painting the new doors. The school was completely
without doors for 6 months but now Moses had the opportunity to acquire doors
for the school and our first job was to make them more colorful. So Anne and I
both grabbed a brush, some yellow paint and gave these doors a new and more
inviting look. We also tidied up the classrooms and got rid of stones or beton
pieces that were still in there from the construction works. We used a Ugandan
broom to outdust the floor and I can honestly say I would’ve not thought that
there was so much dust in these rooms. But with hard work, a good cause in mind
and the help of our new little friend Edward, who is twelve years old and super
energetic, we got the rooms to sparkle. 
