Some of the kids 'outside of the walls'...

Amidst all of the excitement and joy about being with the kids at Musana, we were humbled by some of the grim reality all around us in Uganda.  There were kids on the outside of the fence at the Musana compound who called out to us each day 'Mzungu Mzungu', longing to be part of the fun...oblivious to the circumstances that brought the Musana children to this place.   It was still hard to see those big bright smiles and those beautiful dark eyes and not want to love on all of the kids - regardless of which side of the fence they were on.  Inside the fence, the stories of the kids are just heartbreaking...parents lost to AIDS, children orphaned by landslides, surrendered or abandoned by their parents who could not feed another mouth...and yet they find a way to smile and care and laugh. 

On our last day in Uganda, we came across a man laying along the side of a very busy road, people passing on foot and by car all around him.  Some even slowed t ostare at him. He appeared to be dead.  Darren went to check on the man and the security guard at the bank nearby told him to let him be.  The man had apparently been beaten by a mob for committing some unknown crime and left for dead in the middle of the street.  The guard had pulled him to the side of the road.  Darren went to the clinic not far away and offered a small fortune by Ugandan standards ($600) for someone to treat the man..and they refused.  Was it fear? Was it inhumanity? I just don't understand....

 The Nile at sunset

 The kids kidnapping Uncle Tyler

 The Sol Cafe is an internet cafe that Musana operates

 Workers on the Musana farm

 Workers at one of the largest sugar cane factories in Uganda

Judy as a biker chick...or I guess they call them Boda chicks in Uganda

 Kids on the other side of the fence outside of the Musana compound

 The phenomenal leaders of Musana, Haril and Andrea

 A local house

 Our little helper

 Local kids who greeted us at the guest house each day

 Future plumbers or roofers

 Judy and Dave at the guest house...just wanted to prove that I wore more than one outfit :)

 They like bananas in Uganda

Steve, Darren, Tyler and Judy laying brick for the drainage way

This is part of the welcome ceremony at Musana

Me and one of the kids in the Buongo village

Tierney (or Auntie Tooney as the kids called her) playing with the Musana kids

Locals filling their water jugs each morning

Me and my shadow:)

Kids mugging for the camera

Two kids in the Buongo village who walked with me ...I'm beginning to think I wore the same clothes every day

Darren hanging out with some local ladies...who are probably thinking 'um, who is this guy?'

One of the kids on the Musana farm

The Musana kids singing a farewell song for us on our last day - not a dry eye in the house

OSHA close your eyes :)...this is the new latrine being dug by this one worker.  He did this in just one day

Local kids happy to see the Mzungus

Cool shot of the boat that we were in to float the Nile River, taken from the vantage point of a salt cave

More local kids...fascinated by digital camera

Chillin' on the Nile at sunset...how cool is that!

Workers at the Musana farm

Five things that our Ugandan hosts observed about American visitors:
1. Americans talk loudly (yes, compared to very soft-spoken Ugandans, I would agree ;))
2. We look at the ground when we walk (I've noticed this even after coming back in myself and in passing other people.  Even if a Ugandan did not make eye contact with us in passing, they stared straight ahead and walked very erect)
3. We don't mind getting dirty (One day after working in the rain, I was particularly muddy.  In walking back to the guest house, people were staring because as I learned later an Ugandan would not work in the rain, at least not like digging or other construction work.  A few kids pointed and laughed at my very dirty pants).
4. We eat while we walk (this is a big no-no in Uganda and is considered disrespectful.  It only took us doing that one time to learn that lesson after buying food from a street vendor)

5. We don't pay attention to traffic (well..we do...we're just confused about people who drive down the middle of the street or the 'wrong' side of the street :)