Ruth's first trip to Africa...

My Impressions of Uganda.

I had never been to Africa before- the only one in my family that had resisted.
I, of course, had seen lots of photographs and heard stories about my family’s visits there. Of course these different perspectives and my own pre-conceived notions were different from the reality of Uganda.

I arrived late in the evening to Entebbe airport to be met by my sister Jane, Pastor Paddy and the little girl my sister has been taking care of- Jane. The drive back to Kabalagala in Kampala gave me time to reassess my expectations of the roads in Uganda- I had expected them to be similar to the roads in India with lots of rickshaws and animals mingled in with the traffic- but, in fact, there were only automated vehicles. This is going to be easy I thought, then we took a right turn down to Jane’s house and suddenly the fun began, we were on a dirt road which seemed to last and last!

Mostly the impressions I made of Uganda were made up of the people I met. I had heard about how well behaved children would, but I was overwhelmed when I arrived at the school and every child greeted me and shook my hand. The importance of introductions and greetings became clear to me when whoever I met shook hands with me and inquired how I was and often how were my parents. I soon found out that the inquiries into how I was not restricted to people I was introduced to but were also called out to me by passers by, hawkers, children and shop owners.

I felt that people in Uganda made time for each other. There was not the culture of needing to make appointments to catch up with friends. Sharing each others lives is by no means a superficial act. A great number of the people that I met had fostered or taken in children who would have otherwise been homeless. None of these people with these extended families had huge houses or superfluous money and neither did they boast about their good deeds, it was accepted and understood as a way of life.

The warmth and friendliness of the Ugandan people I met was incredible. After having stayed in Uganda for just under two weeks a number of people came to wave me off to the airport. Whilst the wildlife and scenery that I saw were spectacular the most impressive thing in Uganda that I saw were the people.

I wanted to share this photo of Paddy and his new friend, en route back from Congo, where he works with children of a country ravaged by war.