Ugandablog

I passed this group of children every day and each time I passed they ran with happy shouts to greet me.

My hosts, Peter & Sharon Georges, the founders of St. Nicholas Uganda Children's Fund

this is Jaja. She brought Peter & Sharon the first children. In a sense, she is the reason two hundred plus children who otherwise wouldn't be able to get an education are in school. Thanks Jaja.

Me and two of the girls from the program outside of Jaja's house. When we visited there were close to a dozen children staying with Jaja in the two room house Peter and Sharon built for her.

A group of children in one of the neighborhoods with Peter on one of our daily walks.

HIV positive.

More people we met as we wandered around outer Kampala.

The look on his face reminded me of my younger son. So beautiful and serious.

This is the restaurant Peter and I ate in. I'm not sure if it was local or one of a franchise. While we were eating a huge storm broke and the room instantly filled up with about a dozen local men who howled at the wind and rain which was very cold to them. They offered me a spot in the middle of the room because I was getting soaked and they imagined I must be freezing to death. They are hospitable folk. I told them I wasn't bothered by the water and they were horrified when I described to them the snowy conditions in New York. It was quite an experience. And the food was good.

Unless we were going into downtown proper the boda-boda was our primary, and my favorite, form of transportation. This is me with my favorite boda.

A typical fruit and veggie stand. Perhaps the entire livelihood of some young mother.

This is St. Nicholas Orthodox Church. It is Metropolitan Jonah's church and also the one I attended while I was there. My residence for the entire trip was the guest house just down the hill from the Church.

Celebrating Theophany with the Bishop.

Metropolitan Jonah blessing the people with holy water.

In Uganda they don't have fancy labeled bottles for your holy water. You just bring whatever you've got.

One of the Church choirs competing in the Orthodox Church Dance, Drama, & Poetry contest to raise awareness about domestic violence which is a big problem in Uganda.

This choir is costumed in conventional ceremonial dress.

On the back of a boda on the way into downtown Kampala. I think you can see Peter on the back of a boda up in front of me.

On foot in downtown Kampala.

Hindu temple in downtown Kampala.

Shops of a particular kind tend to congregate in the same place. This is school supply street.

Peter & Frank (Peter's office manager) haggling with the store owner over school supplies and prices. He was a very nice man and ran a good shop.

this was about half of the school supplies we purchased that day. Which didn't include any of the necessaries for the boarding school children, things like mattresses, sugar, toothbrushes, etc.. When the porters had finished hauling out the enormous number of boxes we had purchased I helped them load it all into a little moving truck for the ride back to the storage room at the StNUCF office. The proprietor was very kind to make sure everything was there in the right quantities, a rare concern among Ugandans, who often nick a bit here and there.

the StNUCF office. Peter & Sharon conduct their interviews here and Frank and Agnes manage the fund from here when Peter & Sharon aren't there. Peter told me that one time he told about a half-dozen people whom he hadn't had a chance to interview to come back the following week. Apparently they took this as an open invitation because when he came back to the office the next week there were several hundred people lined up outside waiting to ask for assistance. Probably 99% of them would have deserved it..

Peter listening to a woman plead the case for taking a child in her care in a pre-interview screening.

Peter, Agnes and Frank in a planning meeting.

This is Fr. Antonios, one of the most amazing Orthodox priests in Uganda. He was educated in Greece and goes there to raise money for his projects. With the money he has been able to raise he has built Uganda's only functioning monastery (for women), with a beautiful chapel for the nuns under construction; an excellent primary and secondary school with rooms for boarding students that are nicer than any room most of them have probably ever lived in; a clinic that he hopes is ready to go later this year; and the most beautiful Orthodox Church in Uganda. He is truly an industrious and faithful man. Pray for him.

Me with one of the Sisters in their temporary chapel.

The future chapel for the Sisters.

The Church of Saint Antonios, Fr. Antonios' parish.

The interior of St. Antonios Orthodox Church.