Day Three: Friday 15.06.2012 – Part 2

Then we moved on to the Joshua Primary School, the school Bushikori runs. Most of the children in the school are sponsored. There are some students from the general community, as the school is very good, with dedicated teachers and ‘small’ class sizes of 30-50 children in each class. This is less than a quarter of the size of many government funded schools, which have over 200 children in each class.

We greeted each of the classes, and I got to meet my sponsor daughter Shamimu. She looked very surprised and shy. I hugged her, I was so excited. She is in P2. Esther has a sponsor son in the same class, Wycliffe (after the reformer) which was an added blessing.


Next we saw the new staff room and viewed the land where they are planning to build a dining hall for the children.

Our next stop was the recently built library, which is open to the entire community. I was able to talk a lot with Linus about a shared love for reading, about getting a catalogue system that works, and finding a way of supplying them with more books.

We had some morning tea at the library, then continued with the tour. Next stop was the medical clinic, where they provide a lot of care for the people of Mbale. Aside from general medical needs, they have a lab to test samples (especially for malaria), a pharmacy, three wards and a maternity wing. They do a lot of immunisations at the clinic. While there, we saw a family Esther has especially been praying for, who lost the father, one child, and their house in a fire. She has 3 children, 2 who escaped the fire and the other who was in utereo at the time. The oldest child was being treated at the hospital (not for burns, the fire was over 2 years ago). I’m not sure what for. Esther prayed with the child.

The next stop was to see the tree-project. Bushikori is working to provide stability for its people in terms of income, fire-wood, and off-setting global warming. They are growing seeds of fast-growing firewood trees and of fruit trees, which they then distribute as seedlings to people in the community. Last month they distributed over 20,000 seedlings!


The tour was over, so we headed back to the library for lunch and then to plan the rest of our stay. Aside from planning that we would be resting tomorrow and working out the time that I need to go back, we didn’t actually fill in much. Sunday is church, and next Saturday is the commissioning day.

We went home and rested, and then had dinner with Anne. We talked about some of the challenged that Bushikori faces, including students dropping out (sometimes having children) and living lives that and not materially much better off than their parents did. It is very challenging for everyone involved, especially the staff who have put so much effort into mentoring these children.

Aside from that, we had our first power outage this trip! It didn’t last long as there is the President staying in the area. We saw his entourage coming home, but we didn’t see him. There were armed police everywhere. There were a few political protests, but not much, and there didn’t appear to be any fear associated with them.

Day Three: Friday 15.06.2012 – Part 1

Today was a massive day! When we had gotten up we waited for John to take us to Bushikori. We drove through Mbale, then to the road that goes to BCC. The road is quite bad, with lots of potholes and dust.

Once we got there, there was a massive greeting, with the children singing a song. There was a sign up welcoming us (I was sister Elizabeth! I was asked what my second name was, so I said Elizabeth instead of my surname. Because they switch the order of names to have the surname first, and Elizabeth is a common name here, they thought that was my name.) Esther was given a bunch of flowers and there were many people waiting to take photos. One of the staff, Ignatius, took Esther’s camera to get lots of photos of us.

Then the tour started. Esther hasn’t been since 2003, and Bushikori has grown a lot since then!



The first stop was Anne’s office, where we met Michael. (Michael has visited Esther in Australia, and was here in 2003, so it was a re-meeting for them.) He was one of the 13 original sponson children, orphaned by HIV. Now he is the headmaster of a very large primary school (which takes some Bushikori children) and is making a difference in the lives of children like him.



We talked a bit about the growing needs of Africa, and how in a lot of areas international support is drying up as not enough of a difference is being made for the donors. I know from speaking to a few people at Bushikori that it worries them – firstly if they are doing enough and secondly if the support will continue even with the difficulties and failures. I pointed out that Australia has a lot of generational problems – of generation after generation being involved with drugs and alcohol or just never getting jobs, and how we spend lots of time and effort on trying to reach these children – and sometimes we’re successful and sometimes we aren’t. But we need to try, because some DO make it out, and sometimes it surprises you which ones it is.

The next stop was to visit Linus. He’s a head of a department, but I’m not sure which one. He had recently been severely burnt all across his face, neck and shoulders (November 2011). Esther, who had seen the photos, was surprised that he was the same person! There was initially concerns that he would lose sight and that his mouth would be damaged, and that he would be scarred for life. But with much prayer he is now almost completely healed! Praise God! It truly is a miracle in his life. The only place with any scarring left is his chest, and that is where they were not expecting much scarring, as his chest was covered with clothes at the time of the burn, which would have provided some protection.

We met the other heads, and learnt about the childcare department especially. Here it involves a lot of things – from making sure that all the children have mosquito nets and bedding to providing food at school to checking that things are okay at home. There are over 400 children currently being sponsored (most from Australia) so this is a lot of work.

To sponsor a child, please go to the Bushikori website, or see Sam and she’ll put you in touch with those in charge of child sponsorship. Fees are $320 a year for children in primary school, $320+ hostel fees for secondary school children. There are also scholarship funds for those who are at university.

Day Two: Thursday 14.06.2012

I woke at 7:45, which is a good time, especially given the time difference. I repacked my things, struggling with my bag immensely, because I have far too much stuff in it. I did my quiet time, then we had breakfast and met John, the driver at Bushikori. I ate banana and pineapple, which are two of my favourite fruits.

Anne had gone to run errands, so Esther and I sat and talked with John, who knows a lot about the different issues in Uganda and Bushikori. He had 12 children, 10 of whom are still alive. The oldest died recently at age 40, leaving 3 children, whom John is helping to raise. It is difficult for them to meet all the school fees and university fees, and even with a university education, unemployment is high.

Something that has recently come in in Uganda is the official discouragement of caning in schools. This is very new, and the transition isn’t very smooth in some areas, with some students acting up in school because the teachers can’t cane them.

Anne came back and we went to have lunch. I got to try posho, which was pretty bland, but was okay when you dipped it in the bean stew. I ate lots of matoke!

Then we started the long drive to Mbale. I took two videos, one of the streets of Kampala, and one of the countryside between Kampala and Jinja. Kampala is very busy, while the countrysides are quieter but much less prosperous. I fall asleep a lot on the bus.

Before we went to Anne’s house, we stopped off at the school where Esther’s son, Aaron (pronounced Eren) was boarding. We asked the head teach Jeffrey (pronounced Joffrey) if my two oldest children, Ingrid and Joash, a brother and sister, were there too. They were! I was so pleased, because it was one of the top secondary schools in the district. They both must have worked very hard to get in. I did not get to see Ingrid, as she had gone home sick, and I only got to see Joash for a few seconds before we had to go (I didn’t even get to talk to him because we needed to go) but we will be coming back and I can speak to them both.


Esther and Aaron


Jeffrey - the principal

We got to Anne’s house, and they showed us to our rooms, then we had dinner. There was rice and beans and avocado, all of which I love, and pineapple and mango for dessert. I met Anne’s two children who are at home, Mary and David. Both have finished uni and are volunteering at Bushikori while they look for jobs. Mary studied social work and David clinical medicine, which is the 1st half of a medical degree here. Mary has been sick, but they don’t know what is causing it, because all the tests are showing nothing is wrong. Esther gave David a stethoscope, and he was so excited, especially because it was such a good brand, which will work well even in the noisy clinic.

Day One: Wednesday 13.06.2012

The first flight went smoothly. I did some reading and watched some TV & movies. All the food was fine for my dietary requirements, except one meal had eggs (which I need to limit, and are gross anyway), and another had strawberries, which I picked out.

Arrival at Doha went well, our departure lounge was right where we were dropped off on the bus. Esther had some pretty bad motion sickness, but she managed to keep from being sick on the bus to our next flight.

This time to Uganda there were a lot more white people on the flight, probably because it is safari season. I’m not planning on going on a safari, it would bore me immensely. I would see a lion and think “yep, that’s a lion,” and that’s it. Besides, I don’t have much time in Uganda, and I really want to use this precious time to make a real difference in people’s lives and eternities, not in seeing large animals.

Oh – and they just announced my allergies, and they included pollen (not fish, my next most serious to gluten & dairy), and asked passengers to refrain from eating pollen, gluten and dairy. That’s right, no eating pollen on this flight!

We arrived at Entebbe, got our visas and luggage, and then met Anne, who is the director of Bushikori. She had a bunch of flowers for each of us. We waited for a bit at the airport and met Samson, Anne’s oldest son. When then drove to a hotel in Kampala near where Anne’s son-in-law, Jerome, works.



Esther and I had a rest and a sleep, then ate dinner. There was something I could eat on the menu, so that was good! Then we went back to our rooms to have a bit more of a sleep.

On The Plane (Tues 12.06.12)

Well, I’m feeling a lot more confident this time round than last time. I have packed a ton of stuff, but almost all of it is presents for Bushikori. I ended up not being able to fit in everything; I had to leave two sports shirts, chalk, and some books. My luggage is just under the weight limit, except for my hand luggage, which is nearly double what it should be. But they let me on, so all should be good!

One of the reasons I’m much less nervous is that this time I’m travelling with someone – Esther, who is a committee member at the Bushikori support group. It made walking through customs much easier, and that’s always the bit that freaks me out the most. I’m always worried that I’m going to be arrested, though this has never happened and there is no reason for it to. But I still worry about that bit of the journey, far more than the flying itself.

I’m not sitting with Esther – she’s quite a few seats / rows away. I have a window seat.

It was hilarious – they announced that someone on the flight (that would be me) is hyper-allergic to gluten and dairy, so if passengers could please not eat these… when the food being served to everyone (except me) has both gluten and dairy. It’s pretty funny really. The guy next to me is going to move seats later so he can have more space and so they don’t have to worry about crumbs getting on me and me having an allergic reaction.

Which brings me to the question everyone asks – how do I manage with the food in Africa, especially with severe dietary requirements? (Diary makes me have difficulty with breathing, including completely stopping breathing, and gluten results in me vomiting, having an inability to absorb nutrients, lethargy, ‘brain fog’ and panic attacks for up to 3 weeks after exposure, including exposure via skin contact, including skin lotions, play-dough, etc.) The answer is – easy! The food in Uganda is mostly GF/CF (gluten free/casein (dairy protein) free), especially when people don’t try and feed me mzungu foods. The three staples are posho, rice and beans, and matoke and stew – all are GF/CF. Along with this, less pollen, additive, and other allergens in the air, food, and drinks mean that accidental exposure is less risky than in Australia. My travel doctor said that Uganda would probably be great for my health long term, and all my school friends likewise think that moving to Uganda is a great idea, even though they don’t understand any of the gospel motivations behind my actions.

Now for my 2nd missions trip...

You've now had the chance to read my diary from my first missions trip to Uganda. Tomorrow I will start posting the posts from my second trip (in 2012).

It's been wonderful review how God has blessed me through these trips, and how He has used me to bless others!

Saturday26.11.11 and Sunday 27.11.11 Day I Go Home and Flight Back

I got up, finished packing, had my quiet time, and spent some time with Amaya and Abby, and gave them each a bike toy, and took a few photos. I settled down to read my book while I waited for my driver… who didn’t show. So we all went in the van – Britt, Andrew, Abby, Amaya, Lisa, Speciosa, and Vicky as well as me. I had had visions of me having to go by boda, with my suitcase tied to the end, going as fast as its wheels would go. I was very, very worried… we were running very close to the wire. I ended up being about 10 minutes late, but far from the last person. I forgot how Africa doesn’t run to the same schedule as the rest of the world. All the same, next time I’m going to leave more time for the trip.

At the airport I was worried about my bag weight. When I put the bag on the scale it said 32 kg! I was horrified – it was only 12.1 kg when I left Australia. But it turned out that another person’s bag was still on the scale. My bag was only 17.5 kg.

I got Mum the gin she wanted in customs, and changed my money into UD$.

The flight went well. I even had GF/CF food, which was fantastic. I didn’t get a bag, and was slightly sad about that. I’m planning to dye and decorate the bags I get.

Doha airport was OK. I didn’t see it on the way to Uganda. I had some food, read for a bit, and found a place with free internet. I entered a competition for Vision Forum gift certificates, then placed and order. I’ve read a lot of my books, and so I need some more.

The terribly sad thing was customs. They wouldn’t let me take Mum’s duty-free gin. They were going to confiscate it, but I talked them into letting me give it away. It took about 5 strangers until someone took it. I suppose it does look a bit dodgy. I will need to buy her a gin in Melbourne.

To avoid jet lag, I’m planning to sleep as little as possible on the flights, so I am tired when I arrive. It will be 10:30PM Australian time, but only 2:30PM Ugandan time. And I’m working the next day!

The funny thing was, I got on the plane and though, who are all these WHITE people, and what are they doing on my plane? That was the extent of my reverse culture shock. What can I say? I’m uncultured like that. No real jet lag – I worked every day the first week back. I was tired but that’s more from going to bed ridiculously late because I can’t stand not having all my luggage still packed.

Customs took my baskets, but I should get them back in 10 weeks. Fortunately they were the only things that they took. This means I had issues with 3 out of 4 customs.

I was healthier in Uganda than I usually am in Australia, which means… I can go back! Yay!

All in all, my trip went smoothly, and I have been exceedingly blessed by God as a result of it. To Him alone be the glory!

Now to plan my next trip!

Friday 25.11.11 19th full day in Uganda

I gave the children the bikes – they were very excited about them! Then the two classes performed for each other, and the waiting class all fought for the privilege of sitting next to me or playing with my watch or counting my fingers.


I at the teacher’s lunch again – I was hoping to try posho, which is apparently pretty bad – but it was rice and beans. Chantelle is making matoke for me for dinner as it is my last night.

After lunch I was to help Lisa with setting up for the LOT fashion shoe and end of year part. But by the time I got there (2PM) everything was set up, so I got to assist the models. Britt had a towel for them to wipe themselves when they got sweaty, but I thought that was gross, so I got out my face wipes. They thought they were awesome, and ended up wiping not only the sweat off their faces but their hands (grubby), arms (not too bad) and legs (more than just grubby). The ten (I think) models used over 35 face wipes, and only stopped because my second pack and all my individual ones had run out. I had more in my suitcase, but 3-4 wipes is enough for even the grubbiest teenager.

The fashion show went really well. I was filming it, so I couldn’t pay as much attention to the clothes as I otherwise would have. But they were pretty cool. Second charity fashion show I’ve been to (the first was Vigerella, for Short Statured People) and I’ll probably buy some of the clothes, which are currently being sold in Australia.

The one bad thing about the fashion show was my filming! I did such a good job, and was so proud of myself, and then found out that Lisa wanted it all in horizontal, and I’d filmed vertically! I was so apologetic – I felt terrible.

After dinner, I was planning on going to the prayer meeting, but ended up talking with Britt and Lisa.

Lisa’s “daughter” Speciosa has finished school for the year and is staying with Lisa for all of the holidays that Lisa is in Uganda, and the rest of the time with her Jaja (grandma). Chantelle’s niece, Victoria, is also staying with them as her father and Chantelle are going to the DRC. Vicky is about the same age as Amaya, so the 3 girls are having a play-date tomorrow at Garden City while Lisa and Britt have coffee.

My ride has been arranged, my bags are packed. I’m sad to be going home, but glad to have the opportunity to eat cookies again. I’ve missed things like cookies and cakes so much, and pasta. That’s the one thing I haven’t enjoyed about Uganda: lack of GF/CF food.

Britt gave Vicky a pack of undies, and I gave her one of the mosquito nets that Mum gave me (she got 6 at the Anaconda closing down sale, and I already had one – though I only took 3 with me). Some of her clothes we threw out because they were falling apart. Lisa is going to buy more clothes for her at Garden City.

Today was one of the 2 days (the other being yesterday) where I actually wore in Uganda the hiking boots Mum got me – and big Elijah tole Teacher Justine that I wore men’s shoes. I thought that was pretty funny, but I did clarify that my shoes are in fact girls shoes. Here the shoe of choice is thongs, but I mostly wear ballet flats.

Thursday 24.11.11 18th full day in Uganda

I slept in today, because it was raining and so dark, so the rooster didn’t crow. So the morning was a bit of a rush. But I got to devotions only 5 minutes late – at the same time as Grace.

Nursery school was pretty much exactly as normal. I re-cleaned Elijah’s arm. He was really, really excited about being able to have the hand sanitizer again – so much so that he got it down from my shelf and poured about 5 times the about he needed the second I had finished putting on the bandage.

I ate the teacher’s lunch again – matoke! I’m going to have to hunt out matoke bananas in Australia. I asked for just the sauce and not the meat in the stew, which the cooks thought was crazy. I then mixed in some of the leftover vegies from last night. Yum! People also asked me grasshoppers, but I said no. They implied that I was chicken, so I told them I’ve eaten big, fat, LIVE caterpillars (witchedy grubs) before. They all shuddered, and they now have complete faith in my bravery concerning all things food.

After that I went on the internet for about an hour and caught up on emails and blogs. I am very thankful that I thought to pre-schedule posts for all 3 blogs before going to Uganda.

Primary school was again games, only this time, netball. I had brought a notebook that I am writing in, which made watching sports easier, but I went home at 3 again.

I went out on a boda to Garden City Mall, to buy an extra book, some drawing paper for Amaya, and some of the bike toys made by orphans for the Nursery school. I got 8 for 40,000 shillings, then hopped on a boda for home.

On the way it started spitting. My boda began by sheltering under an underpass, but realised that it wasn’t going to give any shelter, so he kept going. Let me tell you, rain on a boda STINGS. I was soaked like a drowned rat by the time I got home. The bikes were wet, but soon dried out, and my book and Amaya’s drawing paper remained dry, being wrapped in a plastic bag.

Lisa and Chantelle stayed for dinner. (Chantelle is our housekeeper.) Chantelle is leaving tomorrow to go to the DRC to vote.

Wednesday 23.11.11 17th full day in Uganda

In nursery school I checked on Elijah’s arm. It was a LOT better – the swelling had gone down, and most of the pus had gone, and I was able to wipe away the rest of the pus. I re-sprayed it with Dettol, and applied a clean bandage. I also put a bucket-load of hand sanitizer on his hands in case he picks at it. Hopefully, if I clean it tomorrow and check on it on Friday it will be all better – I don’t want it going back to what it was. If I am still suspicious I’ll get Britt to check on him.

At lunch I at the food prepared for the staff – today it was rice and beans, and it was plain but nice. Afterwards I had some chips as well.

I went up to the primary school, but because they have just finished their exams they were all just playing. I watched until 3, and then went home. There is only so much volleyball I can handle.

Before dinner I did some reading, and then went for a walk, hoping to find an internet café (there are a lot in the city, but not so many around here) as Britt and Andrew need their laptop a lot at the moment. The only one I found was closed, and looked like it had been for a while. But I was able to buy a map of all the districts of Uganda, and for only 5000 shillings.

After dinner, Britt and I watched Honey 2, which was absolutely terrible. It was in the Rise of the Planet of the Apes cover, which is really the only excuse for such lowness.