Safe and Sound

After over 30 hours of travel we made it to Kampala, Uganda! While it certainly wasn't the most calm traveling experience I have had (we  had to run to two out of our four flights) we made it here in one piece. However, while the travel was long we did met some pretty incredibly people on the way.

Sitting next to my father and brother on the plane was a young man from Malawi who had grown up as an orphan and fought his whole life to get an education. In secondary school he would walk 4 hours a day just to get to and from his school. When he got to the university he still had no money to pay for his school fees, and was only able to stay because a man spotted him in the registration line and offered to pay his fees. During his first year of university he would study by day and stay up all night keeping guard for a British professor. Earning the respect of the professor due to his hard work and dedication, the professor offered to pay for the rest of his university fees. Today he is in graduate school working in leadership programs, and mentors 20 or so orphaned youth like himself- paying for them to stay in school and continue their educations. This man's amazing story of resilience in the face of hardship was particularly warming, as the story of this young man mirrors that of Paul, the man who set up the Molly and Paul Foundation where we will be working. On the other side of the aisle sat another incredible individual- a woman who was flying to the South Sudan where she will be helping the country draft their new constitution. This woman helped draft the constitution of Kosovo, and the work that she will be doing was fascinating and will change the course of history.Getting off the plane we also met another interesting individual, whose job it is to track down human rights abusers and gather evidence against them so that the US government can implicate them for their crimes. These are just a few examples of the fascinating people that we have met just in the first few hours of our trip!

Having just arrived we haven't had much time to explore the city of Kampala. With a 10 hours time difference, and experiencing jet lag there wasn't much time (or energy) to go exploring.  Hopefully in the next few days we will get a better sense for the city and all that it has to offer. Thus far I can say that the Ugandan people are extremely warm and welcoming. The city always busting: packed with cars, motorcycles and pedestrians even after nightfall. We will be living in the apartment designated for my father's medical organization here in Uganda: "Health Volunteers Overseas." My father will begin his work tomorrow. My work at Molly and Paul won't begin for 3 days. Wish him the best of luck on his first day!