All Aboard The Uganda Rollercoaster

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

The only way to convey the ups and downs of today is to give you a timeline...then you'll get a sense of our frustrations and succeses.

08:00
Angie and I arrived at the U.S. embassy very early to try to get an appointment to start the visa process for the kids.  Normally, Monday-Wednesday-Friday mornings are for U.S. citizens and Tuesday-Thursday mornings are for Ugandans.  We reached our contact at the embassy, Freda, but she said we would have to come back on Wednesday morning since they were booked with other appointments.  For those who know me well, you know I would have strenuously argued for an appointment immediately but we were missing one key document that we would receive late Tuesday evening, so waiting until Wednesday was OK.  The visa normally takes about 48 hours to complete, so we'd still be able to make our Saturday departure.  As we prepared to leave, the receptionist mentioned that Wednesday might be a public holiday in Uganda and the embassy might be closed.  What?  First of all, this date wasn't on the official list of embassy holidays and second, why would there be uncertainty whether a day was a public holiday or not?

08:30
We walked back to the hotel to think about our options in case a public holiday is declared.  There aren't many options.

12:00
We brought some gifts for Pastor Dongo so we decided to walk down to the church to see if he was there.  We had 2 jars of creamy peanut butter (his favorite!), two packages of dental floss and a scanner we had used earlier to scan pictures that Simon loaned us.  When we arrived at the church we dropped off the items and heard that Dongo was down at God Cares school.  We had two options to get there: hoof it for 1.5 miles in 85F weather or get a ride in one of the taxi vans for $0.50.  Did I mention that it was 85F and anti-perspirant is a luxury for many?  Angie has a keen sense of smell and I felt she might have an issue riding in a hot, sweaty, four-wheeled armpit...so we walked. 

We discovered Obama also does pizza - Chicago style?

12:30
We arrived at God Cares school just before lunch and found Dongo.  Soon, Ivan appeared and we talked to him for a while.  Later, Jane and Amphian showed up and we got to spend some time talking to all of the kids who visited California last year.  They all wanted to know where Alex and Maureen were - some had heard rumors they were in America.  We couldn't say anything yet, so we just told the kids that Alex and Maureen were with their Uncle and were not in school.  Since it was now lunch time, we got to watch the lunch procedure for the kids.  The younger kids went first and got their bowls from a rack and then got in line for posho.  Posho is made from white corn flour mixed with water and heated until it sets up like extremely firm mashed potatoes.  Next the kids got in line for a scoop of beans.  Once they finished lunch, they went and washed their bowl and put it back in the rack for the next child to use since they have lunch at different times.

Amphian, Frank, Jane & Ivan with their bowl of posho 

 It's lunchtime!

14:00

After the kids gave us a tour of their dormitories and classrooms, we headed back to church with Dongo in his car.  I set up the scanner for Dongo and his assistant, Carol, and they were very excited to be able to scan documents and pictures.  We called Victoria, our lawyer, to get an update on how Alice was doing in Soroti getting us the final documents - the signed and sealed judge's ruling and order.  Bad news!  The power was out at the court so they could not print the documents for the judge to sign.  It was getting late in the day and Soroti is a 7 hour drive from Kampala, so if Alice couldn't get the document signed in the next few hours, we wouldn't have what we needed for our appointment the following day. 

15:00

We got ready to leave the church and walked back to the hotel.  We discussed again with Dongo whether there would be a public holiday on Wednesday for the local Kampala elections.  Dongo was pretty certain there wouldn't be a holiday because it was so late in the day and no one made an announcement.

16:45

Back at the hotel, I got an email from Freda at the embassy.  More bad news.  Wednesday had been declared a public holiday and therefore the embassy will be closed.  No appointment.  Fortunately, she made an exception for us and will meet us at 10am on Thursday to review our documents and then we can have our interview at noon.  Two big questions loom: if we meet on Thursday will there be enough time to issue the visas before we leave on Saturday AND will we get the documents from Soroti in time for our meeting on Thursday.  Oh, the suspense!

17:30

Answered prayer.  We get an email from Victoria that Alice received the signed documents from the judge and would be back very late Tuesday evening from Soroti.  I was very impressed with Alice when we were in court two weeks ago and she found a way to get the documents we needed.  Although the power was out, there was an edited hard copy available.  She was able to take those copies to Soroti and type them up herself, make copies and get back to the judge for signing.  It was midnight before she got home in Kampala.  We were thankful for Alice's persistence and excited with the news - one more hurdle to complete!