2010-06-30
2010-06-29
Amsterdam and Egypt Welcome You
Kyle and I (Nate B.) have headed out on our first leg of the journey through to Uganda. We took a redeye flight into Amsterdam, our first destination. The flight was quite good, though the movie quite bad (Alice in Wonderland). These new planes are so cool. We had movies, TV and games on demand with a controller right in the seat. Anyways...we got into Schipol and took a quick train into Amsterdam Centraal. We couldn't have asked for better weather; sunny but with a nice breeze.
We strolled around the city center, stopping to check out the infamous Redlight District and getting to see where I stayed when I studied in Amsterdam. We got to see much of the city, including the beautiful canals that I missed so much. Most importantly we stoopped and got stroopwaffles, this delicious treat that you can only get in A'dam. It was what I lived off of for those five months. Kyle wanted to see the Van Goh museum, so we stopped in and saw some amazing paintings. I had forgotten how beautiful that museum was.
After tiring ourselves out walking around the city and seeing the sights and sounds, we found ourselves in Vondle Park, one of my favorite places in the city. We stopped at a cafe and enjoyed some lunch before exploring around the city some more. We stumbled across Anne Frank House and the Homomonument, a memorial for the gays killed in the Holocaust. By this time our jet lag was kicking in and we winded our way back through the canals of the old city up to the train station, back to the airport.
Another redeye was in store for us and we touched down Egypt after I got through the boring part of the Girl with Dragon Tattoo. Egypt is a crazy, hot mess and something so amazing that I can't even put it into words. The traffic is just short of killer and crossing road is like a game of Frogger, as Kyle pointed out as we were running for our lives. The hotel is amazing (City View Hotel) and the staff are so abnormally nice and helpful that it has been kinda creeping me out a little bit.
After a long morning nap to shake off the jetlag, we wandered around the hotel, taking in the busy cityscapes (a far cry from the order and layed back pace of the Netherlands). We found ourselves in front of the National Museum and decided to take a quick tour around inside. The place was enormous and filled to the brim with tomb artifacts, engravings and mummies. It was pretty awe-inspiring, really. To think that we touched some of the rocks and things that were around hundreds of years BC. The museum is right along the Nile and we stopped by to snap a few pictures of the end of the Nile, expecting to get complimentary pictures of the start of the Nile when we finally make it through to Uganda. We topped off the day with a delicious dinner at the hotel ($11 for a huge feast for both of us!) and are resting up for the night to shake the rest of the jetlag still bothering us.
Tomorrow we have a big day ahead of us. We are traveling on a personal tour to the Giza and the pyramids. It will be a whole day affair and I'm just chomping at the bit to get out there and see things. It's been an emotional rollercoaster coming through three continents in three days, seeing my old home in Amsterdam and finally plopping ourselves down into hotel on the Nile. I can't wait to post some pictures to go along with his post and write more about our crazy adventures! Until then, ciao.
We strolled around the city center, stopping to check out the infamous Redlight District and getting to see where I stayed when I studied in Amsterdam. We got to see much of the city, including the beautiful canals that I missed so much. Most importantly we stoopped and got stroopwaffles, this delicious treat that you can only get in A'dam. It was what I lived off of for those five months. Kyle wanted to see the Van Goh museum, so we stopped in and saw some amazing paintings. I had forgotten how beautiful that museum was.
After tiring ourselves out walking around the city and seeing the sights and sounds, we found ourselves in Vondle Park, one of my favorite places in the city. We stopped at a cafe and enjoyed some lunch before exploring around the city some more. We stumbled across Anne Frank House and the Homomonument, a memorial for the gays killed in the Holocaust. By this time our jet lag was kicking in and we winded our way back through the canals of the old city up to the train station, back to the airport.
Another redeye was in store for us and we touched down Egypt after I got through the boring part of the Girl with Dragon Tattoo. Egypt is a crazy, hot mess and something so amazing that I can't even put it into words. The traffic is just short of killer and crossing road is like a game of Frogger, as Kyle pointed out as we were running for our lives. The hotel is amazing (City View Hotel) and the staff are so abnormally nice and helpful that it has been kinda creeping me out a little bit.
After a long morning nap to shake off the jetlag, we wandered around the hotel, taking in the busy cityscapes (a far cry from the order and layed back pace of the Netherlands). We found ourselves in front of the National Museum and decided to take a quick tour around inside. The place was enormous and filled to the brim with tomb artifacts, engravings and mummies. It was pretty awe-inspiring, really. To think that we touched some of the rocks and things that were around hundreds of years BC. The museum is right along the Nile and we stopped by to snap a few pictures of the end of the Nile, expecting to get complimentary pictures of the start of the Nile when we finally make it through to Uganda. We topped off the day with a delicious dinner at the hotel ($11 for a huge feast for both of us!) and are resting up for the night to shake the rest of the jetlag still bothering us.
Tomorrow we have a big day ahead of us. We are traveling on a personal tour to the Giza and the pyramids. It will be a whole day affair and I'm just chomping at the bit to get out there and see things. It's been an emotional rollercoaster coming through three continents in three days, seeing my old home in Amsterdam and finally plopping ourselves down into hotel on the Nile. I can't wait to post some pictures to go along with his post and write more about our crazy adventures! Until then, ciao.
2010-06-22
Boston Book Tour
For those of you hoping to connect with Uganda, check out this author at Porter Square Books:
http://www.portersquarebooks.com/event/twesigye-jackson-kaguri-price-stones
http://www.portersquarebooks.com/event/twesigye-jackson-kaguri-price-stones
2010-06-21
Additional donations
We have received a few more donations-- bringing the cash total raised to $1,020!
Thank you to everyone who contributed. :)
- Ann
Thank you to everyone who contributed. :)
- Ann
2010-06-20
Fundraiser!
Hi everyone! Check out the new photos from the fundraiser at Liir. Special thanks to Ann for taking the pics!
The final tally is in and folks donated $870 to the Makula Fund! That isn't counting the money from paper beads or the rubber gloves, school supplies and bubbles!
So congrats to the folks that organized and made such a successful event. And thank you to all those folks that came out to visit and contributed their support. Anyone still wishing to contribute to the Makula Fund or other Ugandan organizations please just email us or leave a comment.
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| Simmons in Uganda |
The final tally is in and folks donated $870 to the Makula Fund! That isn't counting the money from paper beads or the rubber gloves, school supplies and bubbles!
So congrats to the folks that organized and made such a successful event. And thank you to all those folks that came out to visit and contributed their support. Anyone still wishing to contribute to the Makula Fund or other Ugandan organizations please just email us or leave a comment.
2010-06-19
Wine and Cheese
Last night was the final meeting of the class before we head off to Africa. For some of us, the next time we will reconnect will be in Kampala. Hugo Kamya, our professor, graciously hosted us at his home for Wine and Cheese. In addition to the students on this year's trip, he also invited the professionals going on the trip, students from past years and family of those of us going this year. It was a really fabulous party and great way to chat with friends and family.
There is a lot of buzz in the air. Certainly there is anxiety about getting our to-do lists done. But there is also a great sense of excitement and anticipation of what is to come. I had a great time talking with some previous students who were sharing some of their favorite moments from the trip. A few were discussing the trip to Gulu, which is a district in the north of Uganda. One woman was saying that the trip to Gulu was a really powerful experience because she was able to meet with former girl child soldiers and learn about what NGO's and the government are doing to help resettle these people into communities. Hugo was explaining that there is some intense pressure on the governmnet from the international community to "do something" about the Internally Displaced People's camps but that this pressure is just forcing the government to kick people out of the IDP camps when they have no other place to be. On our trip, we will be spending a few days in the northern district and some of us will be staying in the camp for the night for a more hands-on experience with the living conditions there.
Another woman was saying that she studied religion and spirituality while she was in Uganda with her class. This was exciting for me because that is part of my topic of interest. She said it was amazing to meet the Archbishop of the Catholic Church for Uganda, as well as local healers from traditional religions. The Archbishop is currently in the US (Waltham, or Little Kampala as they say...) but we will get to have audience with him once we arrive in Kampala. I'm very excited to hear his point of view on a number of issues and to do some advocacy for issues that I think are important.
We also recently had a fundraiser for the Makula Fund at Liir Bar. I'm hoping to have some pictures of both events to put up over the next week. And I'll also post about some of the things that people were able to collect for donations, including the amount of cash donated for the Makula Fund.
-Nate B.
There is a lot of buzz in the air. Certainly there is anxiety about getting our to-do lists done. But there is also a great sense of excitement and anticipation of what is to come. I had a great time talking with some previous students who were sharing some of their favorite moments from the trip. A few were discussing the trip to Gulu, which is a district in the north of Uganda. One woman was saying that the trip to Gulu was a really powerful experience because she was able to meet with former girl child soldiers and learn about what NGO's and the government are doing to help resettle these people into communities. Hugo was explaining that there is some intense pressure on the governmnet from the international community to "do something" about the Internally Displaced People's camps but that this pressure is just forcing the government to kick people out of the IDP camps when they have no other place to be. On our trip, we will be spending a few days in the northern district and some of us will be staying in the camp for the night for a more hands-on experience with the living conditions there.
Another woman was saying that she studied religion and spirituality while she was in Uganda with her class. This was exciting for me because that is part of my topic of interest. She said it was amazing to meet the Archbishop of the Catholic Church for Uganda, as well as local healers from traditional religions. The Archbishop is currently in the US (Waltham, or Little Kampala as they say...) but we will get to have audience with him once we arrive in Kampala. I'm very excited to hear his point of view on a number of issues and to do some advocacy for issues that I think are important.
We also recently had a fundraiser for the Makula Fund at Liir Bar. I'm hoping to have some pictures of both events to put up over the next week. And I'll also post about some of the things that people were able to collect for donations, including the amount of cash donated for the Makula Fund.
-Nate B.
2010-06-10
Welcome
Welcome to the blog for the Simmons School of Social Work academic trip to Uganda. This blog will be used by students of the group traveling to Uganda this summer and will feature stories, reflections and photos of our experience.
Please take note of some of the features of this blog. Below you will find a Google Calendar with a list of events that are scheduled during our trip (note that the times are for Kampala time and are subject to change). Along the side there are also links for some of the agencies that we will be visiting in country.
Feel free to leave us comments and let us know what you are thinking as you read about our trip.
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