We made the 8 hour trip to Soroti today, the main town Val is based in. Of course it took more than 8 hours! The roads and traffic varied from pretty good to pretty terrible. There is a lot of road work going on to repair pot holes and wash out from the seasonal rains. I don't think we've ever seen as many speed bumps as they have here! After making several stops and 1 flat tire we arrive at 9pm. The most fun part for us was a stop at the head of the Nile where it exits Lake Victoria. We hired a boat for a short tour of the river and lake. Lake Victoria is HUGE and is jointly owned by Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. We saw just a small portion of it and along the way got to see many beautiful birds and a Nile monitor lizard. We were near the town of Jinja, so we stopped there for lunch. Jinja is a tourist town, quit different from any other places we have seen - lots of tourist shops and many international travelers. Liz had her first non-instant coffee there real French press! Julia and Heidi had fruit smoothies. Check out our Picasa album for the guy on the bicycle selling ice cream. We loved his sign ho ho ho, ha ha ha, ice cream for sale!
On the way Liz plied our driver, John, for information on Uganda. He hires out as a driver and safari guide, is a good friend to Val, and is a believer. He belongs to a church of 20,000 in Kampala that sponsors about 1500 orphans, mostly from AIDS loss. His girlfriend leads choir tours with some of the children and tours for 6 months at a time in various locations around the world. They have recorded with artists such as Chris Tomlin and Michael W. Smith as well as giving their own concerts as fundraisers and child sponsorship campaigns for the orphanage. The children are set up with widows in home settings so they grow up in a family structure. Men from the church volunteer on the weekends to work with the children as father figures.
In the 1980s Uganda had one of the highest AIDS rates in Africa, around 30%. A massive Aids awareness campaign was launched based on ABC (abstinence, be faithful, if you fail at those use a condom). The AIDS rate is now down to about 6%. Currently they are pushing circumcision as studies have shown that circumcised men have a 60% less chance of contracting AIDS.
The president of Uganda has been in office for over 20 years. 12 years ago the constitution was amended so the president could only serve two, 5 year terms. 5 years ago the constitution was illegally changed to remove that restriction. Most people here that we have talked to like the president and believe he is basically a good man who tries to implement policies helpful to the people but is surrounded by self serving people who are not so benevolent.
We drove close by the Elgon mountains where Arabic coffee is grown. Uganda used to be a major exporter of African coffee. They also export a lot of tea and export sugar locally. They have never seen refined sugar here; it is all the raw, brownish sugar and is very good.
We talked to Val last night. Please keep her in your prayers. She had gone out into the area where her dog, Punzel, was lost over a month ago. The last reported sighting of her was 10 days ago but they don't know how accurate it was although Val found her footprints at that time. The army refused to go with her as they thought it was too dangerous so she went alone and was spending the night out there by herself. Pray for safety for her and success in her search for her beloved Punzel who was a gift from her late, best friend, Lori Walker.
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