Gulu bound

Today was a pretty routine day with Greg training and me organizing some things.

Lunch time in Uganda is not a quick thing, like it is in North America. There is no grabbing something quick and eating it at your desk while you work. Walking down the street and eating is considered to be extremely rude- even if it is a bag of chips, popcorn or nuts. Lunch break here is 1 ½ hours long. That seems like such a waste of time to us, driven North Americans, but that is the way it is.

Today during our lunch break, I had the opportunity to sit and talk with a few of the team members. Much of our discussion centered around them asking me questions about what things are like in Canada. Again, many of the things we take for granted are things that they could never dream of. Health care that they don’t have to pay for with every visit, social programs that assist when one is out of work, minimum wage legislation and the list goes on.

I did point out that everything is not so rosy as it would seem. Once we discussed the costs associated with living in Canada, they realized that in a minimum wage job in Canada, they would be even further behind than they are here. And then of course there is the cold- they very much fear the cold!

Tomorrow morning we are traveling up country to Gulu. I love the scenery on this drive. After you cross the Nile River and get into the north, you begin to see more and more traditional huts in little villages. It seems more like the “beautiful Africa” I always dreamed about before my first trip here.

We have some work to do in Gulu and we will visit our other sponsor child in Laminadera village. I am told that the Gulu highway has been greatly improved since our last visit, but I have the Gravol along anyway- just in case!