All posts by Patty Huston-Holm

About Patty Huston-Holm

Author, professor, communications consultant in Ohio, USA; and Mukono, Uganda, Africa. View all posts by Patty Huston-Holm →

‘Choose to see the good in the bad thing’

June 14, 2020COVID-19, Students: #socialwork, #coronavirus, #COVID19, #cowhooves, #entrepreneurship, #Lockdown, #prayer, #UgandaChristianUniversity, Gulu, UCU, UCUPartners, UgandaPatty Huston-Holm

A crowd under Ojok's exercise instruction after the MTN marathon last year — A crowd under Ojok’s exercise instruction after the MTN marathon last year

By Maxy Magella Abenaitwe

For most Ugandans, the COVID-19 lockdown has been a financially painful time of watch and see. The presidential speeches have been a wave of hope whose flap never settles. Lives have come to a standstill.

For a few, however, it has been a time of growth and development.

Denish Ojok, a second-year Social Work student at Uganda Christian University (UCU), is among those few. Being alone since childhood presented him many challenges to sail through storms at their worst. The lockdown with the inability to attend UCU classes was yet another to overcome. For Denish, of Gulu, the answers came through food, fitness and market deliveries with a bit of radio inspiration on the side.

Income from his Rock of Ages fitness club helped pay his tuition. When the club was shut down through government orders, he moved workouts online. Clients subscribed at a daily fee of 80 cents (Shs.3000), accessing exercise through such platforms as Go to Meeting and Facebook.

Ojok preparing a traditional dish for delivery

Realizing this wasn’t enough, he thought about how his other skills could be used. Ojok, who is good at boiling a cow hooves, started making door-step deliveries of a much-prized dish known as Mulokoni. Most days, this brought Ojok a minimum of $9 profit.

Ojok’s third idea related to helping people obtain food when they weren’t allowed to travel. With the suspension of public and private means of transport but allowance of motorcycle deliveries, he took orders and made deliveries of sugar, rice and other market goods. Business was so good that he was able to employ a handful of youth to help him.

This voice of hope – one that resonates with biblical scripture – has been echoed by Ojok on Rupiny FM radio. His encouraging words on youth radio talk shows are about growth during a pandemic, thinking “beyond the nose” in a positive way to overcome circumstances, and continuing good sanitation habits after the COVID-19 virus is controlled. Such habits as handwashing will solve other problems such as diarrhea, he said.

“Exercise financial discipline, spend less and learn to cope with any condition that comes your way,” the 24-year-old student entrepreneur said. “Choose to see the good in the bad thing. Stay positive.”

Despite the great work progress, Ojok is dissatisfied with the fact that a large portion of his potential clients are unable to access his services due lack of communications through smart phones and the Internet. This is a circumstance he is working to resolve.

Much as the lockdown has kept him away from people who inspire his spiritual journey, Ojok has disciplined himself to read and understand scriptures. Before he does anything he prays, as inspired by his UCU lecturer, Peter Nareba, who begins every lecture with prayer.

Ojok plans to maintain his online business after the lockdown. He believes post lockdown will be an era of innovations since it was a shock that left the world with so much to learn, think about and take action.

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University staff blesses community amidst COVID-19 lockdown

June 10, 2020COVID-19, Faculty#BlessingCommunity, #FoodSecurity, #gardens, #Peace, #UCUStaff, #UgandaLockdown, Uganda, UgandaPartnersPatty Huston-Holm

Ayub inspects a backyard nursery bed with one of his learners

By Douglas Olum

When Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni directed COVID-19 restrictions on March 20, 2020, many citizens wondered how they would survive. The lockdown order involved closure of all schools and academic institutions, ban of public transportation and shutting of businesses except for manufacturing industries and food dealers.

In addition to hindering the ability for workers to get to places of employment, drivers of motorcycles and taxis were out of work. The pressure on husbands and fathers in particular gave rise to violence in homes. In one three-week period, the Uganda Police Force reported 328 cases of domestic violence. Uganda’s Minister of State for Gender, Labour and Social Development, Peace Regis Mutuuzo, reports that Uganda has recorded over 10,000 cases of domestic violence in the past year, 1,000 of which were recorded between January and April. She said the number is higher as compared to 2019 statistics where only 3,000 cases were recorded in that year.

James Ssenkubuge, a Front Desk Officer at the Uganda Christian University (UCU) Kampala Campus, saw first-hand the impact of such stress. When returning from work one evening, he witnessed battering of a wife by her husband after the woman complained about her spouse’s inability to get food for the family. Ssenkubuge ran to the neighbor’s house and separated the fight.

After listening to their plight, he went back to his house and returned with some food that saved the family from sleeping hungry that night. Despite his reduced salary and uncertainty of payment for the future and with his experience of working with less-than-peaceful students, he continued to counsel and help his neighbors in this time of need.

UCU’s Vice Chancellor, Rev. Canon Dr. John Senyonyi, has in recent weeks notified staff like Ssenkubuge that their salaries are reduced by 75 percent for the month of May with no payment for June and possibly other months. The university staff pay is curtained because UCU, supported largely through tuition, is unable to serve new or current students during the lockdown. The roughly 5% of essential UCU employees working on campus are completing tasks without pay.

Ayub tends to his tomatoes in the garden

While the lockdown threatens peace in families like those in Ssenkubuge’s neighbourhood, Mutaasa Mugereza Ayub, the UCU main campus/Mukono Students’ Affairs Administrator, is reaching out to share what he has with others to bring about food security and reduce on the chances of domestic violence. He is using the lockdown period to inspire and mentor children at his neighborhood in practical agricultural skills that can translate into food security in Uganda in the long run.

At the time the lockdown was pronounced in Uganda in late March, Ayub had just transplanted his tomatoes and green pepper seedlings in a garden measuring about 15 x 20 meters (49.2 x 65.6 feet). He started spending more time in his plot, watering, weeding, prunning and spraying the crops.

Passersby of all ages stopped to ask Ayub questions. Without hesitation, he gladly answered and even encouraged them to give the project a try.

Tomatoes seedlings planted in used tires at Ayub's compound — Tomatoes seedlings planted in used tires at Ayub’s compound

“To me agriculture is one thing that gives people financial freedom and time, let alone the food security aspect,” Mutaasa said. “But the problem is that, because of the way some people were raised they look at agriculture as a backward and dirty practice.”

Among the people who asked him questions were five neighborhood children who started regular visits to the garden. As he encouraged the children to do what he was doing, they started looking for tomato seeds and seedlings for planting. Ayub gave them some seeds free of charge.

In early June, the five children were raising their own backyard gardens of not only tomatoes, but other vegetables like onions and green peppers. In Ayub’s own home, children and other relatives are growing tomatoes, beans, among other crops in pots and used car tires.

Ayub says he enjoys imparting whatever skills he has to people and he feels fulfilled seeing the children he is mentoring practice the skills he taught them. He continues to visit the children’s gardens, to support them with chemical spray treatments and to advise them on what to do next.

As his tomatoes and green pepper hit the harvest period, Ayub’s garden has become the community food basket. People flock to the site to purchase products at fair prices – not the higher rates from markets.

Ayub is currently raising another garden of vegetables, hoping to get more fulfilled with his garden outputs and the learners’ skills while he and other people worry about possible job losses and struggle financially.

In mid-June, the possibility of the university re-opening and the staff getting back to work was hanging in balance because the Government of Uganda remained undecided on when schools and other learning institutions could resume. UCU staff like Ssenkubuge and Ayub can’t afford to wait. While exploring options to support their own households, they seek to apply Christian principles to help others.

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UCU rescues hungry students amidst lockdown

June 3, 2020COVID-19, Students#Covid-19, #StudentsGetFood, #UCURelief, #UgandaLockdownStarvation, Education, Hunger, UgandaPartnersPatty Huston-Holm

Some students receiving food relief carry packages from university gate to their hostels

By Douglas Olum

At mid-morning on Thursday, May 14, 2020, and under the sun’s sharp burning rays, small groups of students banned from Uganda Christian University (UCU) under government COVID19 guidelines approached the main gate in Mukono. Students trickled in and out of the university, undergoing hand sanitizer spraying and temperature check exercises before entering.

As with all Ugandan universities since the country’s lockdown and university shutdowns started in late March, the students faced health scrutiny by university security officers and a medical worker. The students were hungry – struggling for roughly eight weeks without access to the regular university meals of tea, bread, rice, beans and, on occasion, chicken. While not the same as regular consumption, the UCU Office of the Director of Student Affairs provided some food relief.

The university’s intervention, supported by the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda, responded to television and news reports that revealed that university students were starving in nearby hostels, caught by the lockdown with no public transportation to leave. The news reported by NTV Uganda and the Daily Monitor newspaper, coupled with direct phone calls to the Guild President, Timothy Kadaga, prompted an the necessary intervention.

An estimated 160 UCU students were stuck in various hostels and rentals around Mukono. At least 81 students got the first batch of the relief package which included; 10kg (22 pounds) bag of maize flour, a carton of 124ml (4.23 ounces) boxed milk, beans, powdered milk, cooking oil, (1kg or 35.3 ounces/2 lb.) of sugar and a bar of soap.

Students were interviewed anonymously to avoid shame that most felt about receiving assistance. They came, they said, after exhausting all other possible options to survive.

“I had just received my transport money to return home that evening when the president [Yoweri Kaguta Museveni] announced the ban on public transport,” one of them, a second-year Bachelor of Civil and Environmental Engineering student, said. “I had to use the money for upkeep but it even got finished within a week. I called home again and I was sent some more money, which also got finished. When I called again, I was told to wait because there was no money.”

For more than a week prior to the time of the food relief distribution, the 22-year old said he depended on his friends and well-wishing neighbors.

Just like him, another beneficiary who is on the UCU Sports Bursary, and residing at the St. Michael Historical Hostel, said he lived on porridge for three days and almost died. He recounted:

“My tummy was grumbling. My joints were weak. I kept turning in my bed, trying to find a position in which my tummy would stop hurting to no avail. I got up and tried to make porridge again, but there was no more sugar in the room. At that point, my body was shaking like I was standing on something vibrating. I fell back to bed and that was when I started thinking of alternative options like contacting the guild president.”

At that point, the student said he came to realize that food was not just mere quench for hunger, but life itself.

A female student pursuing a Bachelor of Business Administration echoed these thoughts. She said: “The package may appear small but it means so much to me. At least I can be sure that I will feed myself and live for some time while I explore other options and wait for the end of the lockdown.”

A second batch of students received portions on Tuesday, May 19, taking the total to 150 beneficiaries. They were humbled and grateful, they said.

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Virus Lockdown: Foot journey in search of toothpaste

May 29, 2020News#coronavirus, #COVID19, #LockdownTrek, #OlumDouglas, #SixHourWalk, #ToothPaste, #UgandaChristianUniversity, UCU, UCUPartners, UgandaPatty Huston-Holm

Central Uganda Namanve Train Station Market Day during COVID lockdown

By Douglas Olum

On a bright sunny Thursday afternoon in Mukono and on an aging, handcrafted papyrus couch under shade within our compound, I hear the cries and fight of playing children, including mine. They are just outside a wire fence, near a tomato garden and some buildings just a few meters from ours.

I wasn’t with them. It wasn’t because I didn’t care or because of concern regarding Ugandan social distance COVID-19 safety guidelines. I listened to the voices of children without engaging because I was nursing joints, leg muscle and toe pains that would not allow me stretch out and walk easily. I was recovering from a six-hour on-foot journey to and from Mukono to Lugogo in Kampala to buy a tube of Colgate Pro Gum Health toothpaste.

Olum Douglas writing his story on phone at his home in Mukono

I walked the approximately 23km (14 miles) each way because the country’s pandemic orders have shut down public transportation. No bodas. No taxis. No private cars, which I don’t have anyway. Our first order was issued March 24. It was extended twice – on April 22 and May 18.

Truth is, this was not the first I time walked that distance. Many times before the lockdown and with lack of funds – the 8,000 UGX for a boda ride and 3,000 UGX for a taxi – I have walked to Kampala for shopping and for study at the Uganda Christian University (UCU) Kampala Campus. I also remember one occasion when I walked a longer distance from Munyonyo in the Southern part of Kampala and back home after I had gone to interview an American source for a story.

This latest trip, the journey was more tiresome because my body had been in hibernation for close to two months during the lockdown, which had been ordered for a total of 63 days with the latest ending date of Monday, May 25. Private cars were to be permitted and some shops opened on Tuesday, May 26, with public transport allowed on June 4, when the announcement about when schools will re-open is expected.

Foot travel during the lockdown is more stressful because of a 7 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. curfew. Our President, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni directed a ban on all forms of travel between those hours, except for trucks transporting food to the market. The week before, I narrowly escaped arrest because I was walking home at 7:17 p.m.

While my primary purpose of this trek was toothpaste, I also needed to meet with a journalist friend whom I had not seen for eight weeks. My friend and I had agreed to meet at the Lugogo branch of Café Javas to share experiences and brainstorm on post-lockdown story ideas. Besides, I was curious about how Ugandans outside my locality were treating the lockdown.

I had donned a sky-blue surgical mask. I was given two of them by a medical worker during the UCU Health Awareness week in February. But since then, I had only used one. And with its elastic strap coined around my ears and walking alone, I believed my health was protected.

During my long trek, here is some of what I saw:

Walking along a dusty road before I joined the tarmacked Jinja Road highway, I was puzzled at how boda-boda riders carried passengers when the Government banned them.
When I left the dusty road and took to the railway, I came across a Market Day at the Namanve Train Station. Traders in all tribes of items: clothes, shoes, jewelry, fresh cassava, maize, sweet potatoes, fish and so many others were crowded and not “social distancing” both along the walk-paths by the railway lines and the market area itself.
Youthful men were gathered under tree shades, conversing in loud voices without face masks on; women and girls without facial coverings were walking in groups, picking and trying on the items from one dealer to another. Occasionally, they would pull out a few notes or coins from their handbags and pay for the items they liked before moving on.
While locally made facemasks were visibly on sale everywhere, both the traders and their customers paid little attention to owning or wearing them. Those who had them either held the masks in their hands or wore them at their chins. That was, however, contrary to the practice at the supermarket where the workers remind those who put off their masks to put them on and properly.
Unlike the dusty road, the highway had several police and military checkpoints. Privately owned cars without the Ministry of Health stickers permitting them to drive during the lockdown, except for trucks, were stopped and impounded at those checkpoints. The Uganda Police Force has said that all impounded vehicles shall only be retrieved after the lockdown. Since the beginning of the lockdown, an unstated number of vehicles and motorcycles have been impounded, including those transporting sick persons and mothers in labor pain to the hospital.

I wondered how much Ugandans would be affected if COVID-19 ravaged our country like it has done in other parts of the world.

After shopping and my meeting, I set out to return to Mukono. Aware that security agencies start implementing curfew at 19:00 hours (7 p.m.), the return journey felt longer because the sun was going down fast. Thanks to my speed and resilience, and with the overpriced toothpaste in hand, I got home 3 minutes before the curfew time. Amidst the painful toes, muscles and joints, I know that my family’s oral health was sorted for a month or so before I may need a trip to Lugogo again. Maybe then I won’t need to walk to purchase it.

(Douglas Olum is a regular contributor for UCU Partners, which is sponsoring him for his master’s degree in strategic communications at the university.)

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‘Faith connects us with brothers and sisters worldwide’

May 26, 2020COVID-19, Faculty#Covid-19, #JackKlenk, #missionaries, #teachersforeastafrica, #WashingtonDC, Education, Scholarships, UCU, UCUPartners, Uganda Christian University, VirginiaPatty Huston-Holm

Uganda Christian University team at the Africa Regional Conference of the World Congress of Families, November 2019, in Accra, Ghana. Jack and Linda Klenk with Michael Clement (Africa Policy Centre), Richard Sebaggala (School of Research and Post-Graduate Studies), Rev. Jasper Tumuhimbise (UCU-Church of Uganda Relations), Betty Enyipu (Social Sciences), and Peter Ubomba-Jaswa (School of Research and Post-Graduate Studies).

By Patty Huston-Holm

Waterfalls, forests, savannahs, gorillas, chimpanzees, lions and giraffes make Uganda amazing. Yet, as cliché as it sounds, for Jack and Linda Klenk, the best thing about the country known as the “pearl of Africa” is the people – the relationships they have there.

Jack and Linda Klenk, at home in Virginia, USA

Jack (Read More) first went to Uganda over fifty years ago for three years, studying and teaching as part of an Anglo-American teaching organization, Teachers for East Africa.

For Linda, her first of many trips to Uganda was in 1998, when she and Jack led a short-term mission team to Uganda. Some of the young children they met then have how grown up and are married with children. From the beginning, “I was all in,” Linda said. “The people were so friendly.”

Something that is very special for Jack and Linda is how Christianity connects people across cultural lines. When he lived in Uganda in the 1960s, Jack noticed a sense of bonding with Ugandans who were Christians. Over the years, he and Linda have experienced that again and again. When sharing a faith in Christ, “you’re family…regardless of the language you speak or the pigmentation of your skin,” Jack said.

Indeed, Linda added, “Ugandans have opened my eyes to see how faith connects us with brothers and sisters worldwide.”

Jack, a member of the Uganda Christian University (UCU) Partners Board, built new Uganda relationships with Linda after their marriage in 1997, while his long-established ones became hers as well. They were in a church that had a relationship with the Diocese of Kigezi in western Uganda, and later with UCU. The church sent short-term mission teams to Uganda and other countries, sponsored Compassion International children, supported missionaries at UCU, helped start a hospital in Kigezi, and sent containers with supplies for UCU and other ministries in Uganda.

For most of their marriage, the couple lived near Washington, D.C., where Jack worked for the US Department of Education. There, they gladly opened their home to Ugandans, including a number from UCU and the government, who were visiting the nation’s capital. The Klenks would show them Washington. So many Ugandans visited their home that it became known as “Uganda house.”

Under their roof emerged the “American Hamburger University” – so designated because Ugandans gathered in their kitchen to learn the trade of making traditional American hamburgers. Still today, Ugandan “graduates” of the fictitious AHU hold dear their certificates declaring their “hunger for learning” and “excellent taste and high achievement.” In 2019, when the Klenks were in Uganda, one graduate organized a dinner with certificate holders at a Kampala hotel.

“Our visitors from Uganda are so fun,” Linda said. “They ask me questions that make me think. Like, ‘why do Americans put stickers on fruit they buy at the grocery store’?’”

One of the first Ugandans Linda met was the Rev. Canon Jovahn Turyamureeba, when he was a student at Virginia Theological Seminary in 1997. He made arrangements for the team they led to the Diocese of Kigezi in 1998, where they became involved with Bishop George Katwesigye and other Ugandans who are friends to this day. Another was Julius Mucunguzi, now communications director for the Ugandan Prime Minister, who did a recent video call with them on Facebook Messenger. He continues to applaud the Klenks for their hospitality when he arrived for the first time in the United States with no luggage and few funds in 2000. In addition to a photo of the Klenks, Julius’ 2014 book, entitled “Once Upon A Time…” describes Jack and Linda as “a couple whose love for Uganda is unmatched.”

The stories are many. Seminarians. Bishops. Students. Faculty. The UCU Vice Chancellor and his wife. A wedding reception. Celebrations of Uganda Martyrs Day and Uganda Independence Day.

Sheltered in their home in the midst of COVID-19, the Klenks take precautions. On the occasions when they go out, as to visit their daughter and her family nearby, they wear masks and gloves, and social distance. But they see the difficulties they face as “just an inconvenience” compared with what others in Uganda and the US are facing. Linda said. “Others are really suffering, while we are comfortable, with food, running water, and electricity. . .”

Jack and Linda know that Ugandans are hurting because of the coronavirus, but also know that they don’t easily talk about their hardships. Thus, it is hard to know exactly how they are faring. Ugandans they have come to know are “so polite, they don’t complain, they see the glass half full, not half empty.”

Out loud, Jack wonders: “How can Ugandans survive this crisis? With 8-to-10 people living together in one room, how can they social distance? If they can’t travel or go to work, how can they afford to buy food? How can they pay school fees and university tuition?”

Many of the Klenks’ Ugandan friends are connected to Uganda Christian University. They have come to know and respect UCU for the way it combines academics with character building and spiritual formation, setting it apart from other universities.

Jack and Linda admire UCU for its determination to be a thoroughly Christian university and not to lose its Christian identity the way many colleges in the US that were once Christian have done. It provides “a complete education for a complete person” for its students, whether they are in traditional disciplines like science, law, journalism and business, or in the Bishop Tucker seminary that prepares clergy from all over Uganda and East Africa, and even from the U.S. They like how UCU is a leading institution for Christian orthodoxy in the “global south” and the whole world.

Jack has served on the UCU Partners board since 2010, and greatly enjoys his visits to UCU and the relationships he has there. In recent years, a special focus for him has been UCU’s Africa Policy Centre, the first Christian policy think tank in Uganda.

As Jack reflects on his Christian walk, he asserts: “God calls us to follow him and serve him in the community of the Church. Sometimes God directs us to specific things, but mostly we are to look for opportunities to live out our call to follow and serve him. I am grateful for how this has led to involvement in Uganda starting over fifty years ago. I am especially grateful for the blessings Linda and I have received through our engagement with UCU. We pray that UCU will survive the current coronavirus lockdown and always be a bright beacon of light for Uganda, Africa, and the world.”

Jack and Linda hope to travel to Uganda in October 2020 for the graduation and the annual Public Lecture, this year with the noted cultural critic, Mary Eberstadt. They hope the current shutdown will end and that those events will take place. Graduation in the past two years was extra special for them because students they helped along the way wore caps and gowns.

Jack sees Ugandan Christians as strong even during this coronavirus crisis because of their faith in Christ. They hurt, but they “do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope” (I Thess. 4:13). He and Linda are challenged by how Ugandan Christians endure incredible difficulties and still smile and have inner joy.

“No matter how bad it gets, Ugandan Christians have hope,” Jack said. “It is by the grace of God.”

For Jack and Linda, this they know: They have been blessed beyond measure by Uganda and Ugandans, and they have received much more than they have given.

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To support Uganda Christian University programs, students, activities and services, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button, or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org.

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2020 Global 5K participants from USA, Canada, Nigeria, Uganda

May 19, 2020Faculty, Scholarship, Sports, Students, UCU Alumni#Canada, #Florida, #Global5K, #markbartels, #NewMexico, #Nigeria, #Pennsylvania, #UgandaChristianUniversity, Scholarship, UgandaPartnersPatty Huston-Holm

By Patty Huston-Holm

“If you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together.”

The African proverb was the essence for the first few years of the Global 5K, a five-kilometer (3.1 miles) walk/run/social engagement activity sponsored by the Uganda Christian University (UCU) Partners non-profit organization. Abby Bartels, who lived for 10 years on the University campus and raised three children there with her husband, Mark, is the founder.

The year was 2015 and a time when many organizations were jumping on a 5K fund-raising bandwagon. For UCU Partners, it was less about raising money and more about building a relationship base among alumni of the Uganda Studies Program (USP), a one-semester, UCU learning experience for students enrolled in Christian universities, mostly in the United States. Mark Bartels, executive director for UCU Partners, started USP on the UCU Mukono campus. UCU Partners values USP alumni because they are a unique set of donors who have lived and studied at UCU.

“The event was actually better than expected because it strengthened connections not just with American students but with Honor’s College students and staff,” Abby, now living in Pennsylvania, said. “In addition to a time for remembering and re-connecting about a cultural, Christ-centered experience, it became an opportunity to raise money for Ugandan students in need.”

According to Ashton Davey, UCU Partners fundraising coordinator and facilitator for the 2020 Global 5K, nearly 200 people participated this year. Despite the hiccup of having an event on April 4 in the midst of worldwide COVID-19 lockdowns, more than $3,000 was generated, mostly by participant purchases of the event’s green T-shirt. The funds will supplement tuition for 12 needy students at UCU.

“Many participants found the Global 5K to be good motivation to get out of the house and simultaneously support a great cause,” Ashton said. “The event’s flexibility allowed people to participate alone from wherever they live, which allowed them to adhere to social distancing guidelines.”

So what was it like engaging in an event during an unprecedented worldwide pandemic? From Canada, Nigeria and Uganda, and nearly half of the 50 USA states, here is a sample of thoughts compiled from virtual interviews.

Atimango Innocent (Minna, Nigeria) – former UCU Honors College student who previously benefited from the scholarship assistance and was once a USP staff member; now engaged with The Navigators, two-year discipleship training program

In the midst of focusing on Mathew 28: 19-20 and its message about “making disciples of all nations,” Innocent and a friend, Drew Uduimoh, did 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) for the Global 5K. She has done it every year except for maybe one when the event didn’t get off the ground. For 2020 and while Nigeria reported more than 800 virus cases, she jogged around the town where she lives with no lockdown restrictions.

“I feel personal about it since I was one of the students who benefited directly from the funding,” she said of the Global 5K. “But I also find it a time to do reflections on people and on the Lord.”

Mikaela Hummel (Pakenham, Ontario, Canada) – USP student in 2019, while studying at Houghton (NY) College, where she receives her undergraduate degree in May; preparing to begin studies for a Masters of Science degree in physiotherapy

Mikaela, at right, with her family in Canada

On the day of the Global 5K, it was 10 Celsius (50 Fahrenheit) in Pakenham, Ontario, where Mikaela participated in the event with her mom, dad, sister and dog. She wore long sleeves under her green shirt and her traditional African kitenge-design shorts. The area where they ran was a bit quieter than usual as COVID-19 restrictions had most stores closed and gatherings limited to five people or less.

“The experience in Uganda helped me to pause and think about what is really important in life,” she said. “The Global 5K is a time to reflect on that again. The pandemic puts the brakes on even stronger, reminding us to trust God.”

Erin Neilson (Gallup, New Mexico) – USP student in 2006 while majoring in music at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pa.; now raising two children and serving on a church music team with her husband, Phil, a middle school English teacher and also a 2006 USP student and USP program assistant 2008-2009

USP alumni, Erin and Phil, and family in New Mexico

On the date of the 5K Zoom discussion on April 20, New Mexico had more than 2,000 confirmed cases of cornonavirus. Sixteen days earlier, the Neilson family of four, living in a small town near part of the Navajo Nation, did 5 kilometers. A special highlight was that Christiana, age 5, made the entire distance on her own. Caleb, a toddler, was carried.

“We had been hoping to hike with friends, but due to social distancing requirements, we ended up with time just as a family,” Erin said. Fourteen years after our USP experience I am reminded of the value Ugandans place on presence and am trying to live that daily with my children.”

Laura Sollenberger (Gainesville, Florida) – USP student in 2018 while majoring in exercise science at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pa.; now finishing her Penn State University bachelor’s degree in nursing through on-line classes while living back home with her parents

For Laura, her career move from occupational therapy to nursing was stimulated by a 150-hour internship at the Church of Uganda hospital (Mukono), where she realized the intimate and critical role of health care workers at a patient’s side. COVID-19 has reinforced that decision with some frustration that she can’t be on the front line now; she graduates in December.

Laura’s UCU experience in 2018 was “life-changing with deeper connections to friends and God, clearer purpose, better understanding of systemic injustices, and the challenge of learning from new cultural perspectives,” she said.

Laura planned to re-connect with 10 of those friends by participating in the Global 5K and making rolex afterwards in Lancaster, Pa. Instead, she is sheltered with family in her home state of Florida. Her mom and dad did the 5K with her.

“We did a Zoom afterwards,” she said of her USP friends. She added, “I will definitely go back to Uganda someday.”

Molho Bernard (Kilowoza/Mukono District, Uganda) – 2018 UCU graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Education, working with the Honors College and USP up to February 2020 when Ugandan universities closed due to COVID restrictions while pursuing a Masters of Education in Planning and Administration.

On April 4, Bernard engaged in his second Global 5K by walking around his compound – different than the previous year when there were more people and it occurred on the campus. His “informal” companion during his warm-up with push ups and laps around the compound was a two-year-old named Mathew who lives in the same area and “loves coming to my room to watch me do some art work.” The 5K has special meaning to Bernard as he was once a recipient of the money raised through the event.

“In 2018, my family was going through a financial breakdown, and I was afraid of getting a dead semester,” he said. “Through the proceeds of 5K through UCU Partners, I was able to have my tuition and graduation fees cleared.”

Bernard continues to appreciate the Christian and academic standards at UCU. The environment has enabled him to “know Christ more, and I have grown up more in loving, trusting and obeying Him.”

Ashton, who splits her time between Uganda and Kansas, said it was “heartwarming” to see social media posts of people supporting Uganda Christian University in the 5K green T-shirts – from those “running in rural villages in Uganda and families hiking to wave across the state border at each other to USP alumni organizing a Zoom call to reflect on the lessons they learned in Uganda.”

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UCU Law student creates COVID-19 awareness application

May 12, 2020COVID-19, Faculty of Engineering, Design & Technology, Students, UCU School of Law#attorney, #AuthenticInformationSource, #coronavirus, #CovidGuide, #Lira, #StudentDevelopsApp, #UCULawStudent, Mukono, UgandaPatty Huston-Holm

Christopher Mogal Muchwa narrates his story at Sts. Phillip and Andrew's Cathedral in Mukono — Christopher Mogal Muchwa narrates his story at Sts. Phillip and Andrew’s Cathedral in Mukono

(NOTE: On May 4, Uganda President Museveni announced a 14-day extension of the lockdown measures. Adjustments from the previous order include that some businesses are allowed to operate and all persons must wear face coverings in public places. The ban on personal and public transport, as well as the curfew of 7 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. remain in effect at least through the middle of May. On May 7, there were 98 identified cases of the coronavirus in Uganda.)

By Douglas Olum

When Christopher Mogal Muchwa first heard about the COVID-19 outbreak in China from his Chinese friend, and the subsequent lockdown in Wuhan, the very city his friend lives in, he never thought the same would reach Uganda. And he certainly never thought he would delve into technology related to the virus.

“My Chinese friend told me that they were not allowed to move out,” Muchwa recalled. “And if they wanted to take evening walks, they would only walk through the corridors and stairs of their apartment buildings, then return to their rooms.”

That, Muchwa thought months ago,“was impossible” for the country of Uganda.

But on Wednesday, March 18, 2020, when Uganda’s president, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, directed the closure of schools and banned all forms of social gatherings including church and political rallies, Muchwa realized he was wrong.

A third-year student of Bachelor of Laws at Uganda Christian University (UCU), an orphan and only child to his late parents, Muchwa did not rush to his home in Lira, northern Uganda, like other students did when the university was officially closed on Friday, March 20. Instead, he went to live with a friend to his late mother, Mary Achoma, who resides in Mukono.

“I did not see the need to return to Lira because I would be all by myself, “ Muchwa said.

He started preparing for the UCU planned take-home examinations but the Government of Uganda stopped these. Muchwa found himself with time to think more about the world pandemic, particularly as it related to Uganda. In a traditional attorney/lawyer way of thinking, he wondered what was true and what was false; he wondered if others could use some help in sorting out the facts.

That’s when he got the idea for developing a free access mobile application to help share authentic information about COVID-19 among Ugandans.

“I knew that all the [Government] Ministries had websites, but most people do not visit those,” Muchwa said. “And many times they rely on social media information which may not be true. Someone can screen shoot a tweet by a Government official and edit the information, causing unnecessary panic among the public.”

Prior to the lockdown, Uganda already suffered from COVID-19 fake news. In late February, there emerged an allegation that two Chinese factory workers living in Seeta (Mukono) had tested positive with the Coronavirus, and that they had been put into isolation by the Ministry of Health. The Ministry denied that claim. Other rumors persisted.

Muchwa saw African IT specialists with his idea, but seeking funds to develop a more accessible, honest information tool. While they waited, Muchwa moved ahead with his “COVID Guide.”

Screenshot of the COVID Guide application

The application uses specific words, or “commands,” to derive and give replies to the user. Some of the command key words include: Ministry of Health (MoH), World Health Organization (WHO) and the names of all 134 districts of Uganda. It contains incorporated links to the Uganda’s Ministry of Health and World Health Organization websites which help one easily get up-to-date information about new cases, total number of infections in the country, quarantine centres, recoveries, risk groups, among other relevant information.

Other features of the COVID Guide are emergency helplines for the ministry and district COVID-19 taskforce. Typing in the name of a district, even without Internet connection, brings the contact of the Resident District Commission of that district and his/her deputy. One can also use the same app to order a product from the market, especially Kampala markets, direct the dealer to put in on a boda-boda (motorcycle taxi) and receive it from home.

Muchwa admits that in addition to his passion for law, he is an “IT geek.” He is self taught, learning a little from a cousin who is an IT specialist but also from YouTube videos.

Prior to building this app, Muchwa built the Law Library app sui-genris, through which law students access learning materials, including some books. He also built a hostel-booking app through which UCU students can check hostels around the university and book them even from a far. He built a website for the UCU Law Society and Bobics app, for a fast food business outside the university.

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‘COVID is bringing me a new way to minister’

May 7, 2020COVID-19, Faculty#Corona, #Covid-19, #Florida, #SAMS, #UgandaChristianUniversity, #virus, Jesus, Mukono, Poverty, UCU, UgandaPatty Huston-Holm

Paul Mukhana, left, is a member of Mary’s “family,” helping others in time of need

By Mary Chowenhill

On a typical, sunny Ugandan day and in front of what most call the Thelma building but is soon to become the Uganda Christian University (UCU) business incubator on the Mukono campus, seven students and I got the news. They were telling me about their incubators – also known as business startups – related to piggeries, organic fertilizer, crocheted baby clothing and more. As their economics and entrepreneurship lecturer, I offered advice.

Then, we got the news of the lockdown, and everything changed.

Mary Chowenhill, left, before Ugandan distancing and lockdown guidelines

I think that day was March 30. But like most people living in the COVID-19 pandemic around the world, the exact date then and even the day of the week now escape me. I knew the coronavirus was spreading, including in my state of Florida in the USA. Yet, I didn’t see it coming to Uganda or my small apartment where I have lived on the UCU campus for the past four years.

Within days, I watched thousands of university students, including mine, as well as half of the Americans living and working at UCU, pack up and leave. Having recently sold my house in Florida and suffering from asthma, I felt it healthier for me to stay out of airplanes and remain here.

UCU offices are less than half full as Ugandan employees were ordered home and into isolation.

To the best of my knowledge while writing this on April 30, 2020, the deadly virus still isn’t here on the mile-long campus and in our houses, in my garden or on my patio. In fact, as I write, only 89 cases have been identified out of 39,000 tests administered in this country. It’s hardly in Uganda at all.

But the threat and precautionary measures are. And in Uganda, there are penalties for disobedience of such government regulations on social distancing, curfews, and taking public transportation. In addition to consequences of no income for people unable to go to work, there are government fines and imprisonment for disobedience.

In preparation for the inability to leave the campus, I immediately purchased 1.5 million shillings ($395 American) of food – something that the average Ugandan is not able to do. I divided beans, rice, posha, and sugar into various portions. My friend and gardener, Paul Mukhana, delivered these to many in greater need than me – a family with new twin babies, an elderly woman walking with a cane, among others.

When this ran out – and it did – I sent Paul to the market to get more. He went to buy posha and other items for me and another customer. Under Ugandan COVID guidelines, Paul was permitted to use his boda-boda (motorcycle) to pick up food. But due to some misunderstanding and while he was inside the market, the local police confiscated his transportation. Like many others who had their vehicles taken, he was required to pay 700,000 schillings ($184) to get it back legally or 200,000 shillings ($52) under the table.

It took two weeks, including prayer and a lesson about what Jesus thinks regarding bribery, to get Paul’s boda back.

The Christian love and human kindness of Ugandans, woven with the acceptance of a country fraught with bribes, is ever present in the COVID environment.

What has changed most is that my frenetic schedule of teaching economics and entrepreneurship and children’s Sunday school has ceased. It has been replaced with solitude and church on my patio and from the computer with six children and eight adults. After our most recent “service,” we moved and sat six feet apart under a tree, discussing the meaning of loving each other as depicted in 1 John 4:7-12.

A neighbor named Ebenezer, age two and a half, wraps his arms around my knees. He doesn’t understand why he can’t cuddle on my lap.

While the campus is quiet, there are places we can’t walk because a few international students still living here violated the distancing rule.

Depression from change and isolation contributes to the lack of motivation to accomplish tasks I was never quite able to get around to but could now. Yet, COVID is bringing me to a new way to minister.

I have always had people who are not students as part of my Ugandan family. But recently with students sent home, I am seeing more and more staff coming to my door. Some want to harvest greens from my garden. Some want a prayer. Most need a listener. Many need money for children’s school fees when that education returns.

It is an opportune time to teach people to fish. Not a hand out but a hand up. It’s what I’m trained to do.

One worker cleans out bat feces – 7 sacks full – from between the ceiling and roof of three apartments, including mine. I hire a man to fix my patio. Grateful for the work, he writes “Hebrews 13” in one section and ”Praise God, Jesus Lives” on the cement in another.

God is allowing my brain to be relaxed while I see deeper how people are hurting. Yesterday, I read Job 19. I know my redeemer lives. Is this easy? No. But it’s necessary. He will see us through.

Mary Chowenhill, a teacher in South Sudan until the war caused her evacuation, is a sponsored educator and missionary with the Society of Anglican of Missionaries and Senders (SAMS) and sponsors a student through UCU Partners. She hails from Jacksonville, Florida.

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COVID-19: Panic buying, added work from home, trusting God

May 5, 2020COVID-19, UCU Alumni#Corona, #Covid-19, #Manchester, #Museveni, #SarahLagotOdwong, #UgandaChristianUniversity, #USAID, #virus, God, Kampala, Mukono, UCU, UgandaPatty Huston-Holm

Sarah Lagot Odwong, UCU graduate and USAID employee

By Sarah Lagot Odwong

March 21^st, 2020. 11:32 p.m. Uganda had its first identified case of COVID-19.

My mind buzzed with a thousand thoughts. Only weeks earlier, my siblings and I – with our own bills to pay – had emptied our savings to complete a large part of the construction work for my mother’s house. Because her life had been wrought with difficulty, it was always our dream to give her a place of rest.

There is no good time to be dirt poor, but having a bank account blinking red when a government shutdown is inevitable is the worst of times. Sleep eluded me.

I arose early on March 22. On my way to work, I noticed the unusual flurry of activity on the Kampala roads. The traffic was horrendous. Pedestrians trudged in silence on the pavements with swift gaits and downcast faces. The boda-bodas (motorcyclists) rode dangerously, swerving and wedging through the small crevices within the disorganized flow of traffic. It was a dystopian sight. I got into work in a pensive mood. I did not have much time to settle at my desk as a staff meeting was hurriedly called.

We sat hunched on white rickety plastic chairs in the parking yard. The chairs were spaced out from each other. Some staff wore masks. Others nervously tinkered with their phones.

Our boss announced, in part:

“As you all know, the first positive case of COVID-19 was confirmed last night. The grapevine alleges that the country will be in some sort of lock down. It will probably be announced later tonight when the President makes his address. I suggest that we share work plans with line managers and get all the resources we need to work from home…You will have your salaries in your bank accounts by this afternoon…”

At least some positive news. I got a notification from my bank at 1 p.m. that my account had been credited.

I picked up my bag, scampered to the car and drove to the nearest supermarket. I passed by the bank ATM at the premises, withdrew some cash and sauntered into the store. Inside, the panic buying had already ensued. There was a mad dash by shoppers. The queues stretched for miles. Shoppers’ trolleys were loaded with toilet paper, kitchen towels, soap, wipes and other hygiene products. Others heaped vegetables, milk, bread, cartons of beer, meat and liquor.

Only one big bag of rice remained. I grabbed it. I proceeded to pick up other dry rations, hygiene products and joined the snaking lines to pay prices that had increased tremendously in a matter of hours. Little bottles of sanitizer that were affordable a week earlier now cost almost ten times more. I bought just one.

Like anticipated, President Yoweri Museveni announced a lockdown of the country for an initial 14 days. After the two weeks lapsed, 21 additional days were added.

While fortunate to still have a job, my workload increased with hours extending from early morning to late at night. Not only do I have a full-time job, I also support the crisis communications for the epidemic response.

Before the outbreak, I was living out of suitcases, on the road for days and sometimes weeks at a time, working long hours. Now at home, my workload has ramped up even more. I jealously read texts in group chats from my girlfriends who suddenly find themselves with bursts of free time. They are learning new languages on Duolingo, learning to sew and evidently having an extended holiday off work.

Not me. I spend my days hunched at a desk in the living room with my pajamas on and my hair tied in a headscarf. I am writing, attending endless Zoom and Skype meetings, and tending to incessant phone calls.

What I have found hardest is the physical distance and inability to see family – both in Uganda and elsewhere. No travel on roads or in the air. We created a family chat group on WhatsApp, which helps my coping. Seeing videos of my nieces and nephews doing hilarious things, the new baby attempting to walk and other family milestones, I am reminded that there is hope after this plague blows over. And it will.

What precious time I have away from my computer, I am reminded to prioritize the things that really matter. Family, faith, friendships, love and personal development. We waste time chasing the wind, like the writer of Ecclesiastes opines. The “busy” job, the career growth, and monetary gain. All of it is meaningless.

What this pandemic has shown is that when it is stripped down, life makes meaning with just the simple things. Healthy thriving relationships with God, family, friends and the people who love and support you. They will always be a constant. All the other material contraptions we chase fade away. This epiphany has made me change gear.

In what I hope are the final days of this lockdown, I have a different attitude and mindset. Going forth, I aim to structure my work to fit within regular hours. I aim to find more time to check on the people I love.

I am determined to create extra time to pursue my passion projects. I wrote a book during my undergraduate studies that I need to publish this year. I have autobiography projects that I must complete. I have a consulting business to grow. I have a PhD proposal to write. There are friends and family to check on. I have series of sermons to watch.

I have seen the Lord’s handiwork amidst this chaos. He has been faithful. There is no day I have slept hungry. I have a roof over my head. My utility bills are paid. I still have a job. When I feel overwhelmed, I remember that the creator of the universe knew me before I was formed in my mother’s womb. He had the foresight that I would go through this calamity. And he promised to help me weather it.

(Sarah Lagot Odwong is a graduate of Mass Communication from Uganda Christian University and received her Master’s degree in Humanitarianism and Conflict Response from The University of Manchester, England. She currently works for USAID’s Better Outcomes for Children and Youth Activity as the Communications Director.)

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‘I can’t hug her the minute I get home’

April 30, 2020COVID-19, UCU Alumni#Constantine Odongo, #Corona, #Covid-19, #Museveni, #newvision, #UgandaChristianUniversity, #virus, Kampala, Mukono, Poverty, UCU, UgandaPatty Huston-Holm

Madonna waiting for her dad to come home from work

By Constantine Odongo
Emmanuella Madonna is three years old. Every weekday, after taking her after-school nap, the kindergarten pupil engages her friends in the neighbourhood in games, such as dodge ball and hide-and-seek.

That was before mid-March 2020 and COVID-19.

On March 18, she got an abrupt, indefinite school holiday after the Ugandan government announced a closure of schools and a ban on work, unless it was an essential service. The ban was to enforce the health guideline of social distancing and staying home to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has become a pandemic. Madonna now spends more time with her mother at home and keeps wondering why I, her father, cannot stay home with them.

As an employee of Uganda’s New Vision newspaper (i.e. news jobs are considered essential), it means I’m gone much of the day and conceivably more exposed to the potentially deadly virus.

Madonna doesn’t get that. She doesn’t understand why I can’t hug her the minute I get home between 6:45 and 7 p.m.

Uganda President Yoweri Museveni on March 30, 2020, announced a two-week stay-home order and capped it with a 11.5-hour curfew from 7 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. The order and the curfew were then extended by another three weeks.

Since, most times, the normal working hours at my office are not enough for me to accomplish my tasks, I often work up to the 11th hour. My workplace, being a media house, is open 24 hours. But, nowadays, the newsroom is almost empty, save for security personnel, especially past 6 p.m. People abandon office early, in order to get home and beat the curfew time of 7 p.m.

It usually takes me up to 25 minutes to cover the 14km (8.5 miles) distance from my office located in the capital of Uganda, Kampala, to home in Kawempe, a city suburb. I spend close to half of that time at roadblocks, trying to explain to security why my media movement permit sticker is on the dashboard and not on the car screen. Some motorists had lost their outside car stickers to thieves, who would pluck them off cars and sell them in the black market in Kampala, sometimes as high as one million shillings (about $280).

As I arrive home after work and oftentimes after the routine security interrogation, I see Madonna run to arms she can’t yet embrace – until I am cleansed of possible contamination to her and others in my family. I watch a fight brewing between Madonna and her nanny, who is seven times her age, but understands her job to keep a daughter from her dad in the world of COVID fear. I always ensure I bathe as soon as I arrive home, before getting into contact with anything or anyone, so that I do not become a conduit for the coronavirus.

Every morning, if Madonnna wakes up before I set off for work, she tries her luck in convincing me not to go to work that day. When President Museveni banned public and private cars from the roads on March 30, I carried my computer home and set up myself to work there. However, an unstable Internet network, an unfavorable work station and distractions by children hindered my ability to work.

Madonna’s sibling, Morgan, will be making one year on May 5. Throughout the day, I arbitrated disputes between her and Morgan. April 1 was day two of my full operation from home. We were both at our workstations, Madonna’s about two metres (6 feet) away from mine. When I stepped away from the room to receive a phone call, Madonna removed a keyboard key.

Madonna’s grandmother, a lady she was named after, lives and teaches in a primary school in Tororo district, located 220 kilometers (136.5 miles), east of Kampala. One-and-a-half weeks before the lockdown, schools were closed. Initially, teachers saw joy in the holiday. But it was short lived as they experienced more than one negative aspect of the lockdown.

The weekend after schools had been closed, as one example, Madonna’s grandmother attended a funeral in Tororo, without knowing that she and some friends were going against the guidelines of the Ministry of Health – that only close family members bury the dead due to social distancing. There were water points for the mourners to wash their hands before getting to the funeral, but not many even understood why the water and soap had been provided.

Such stories justify why the Government enlisted the services of the security forces to enforce the observance of the lockdown guidelines. I remind myself of this each time I am stopped. Life as we know it has changed for Madonna and me. With God’s guidance and understanding, we will appreciate the fruits of the difference and get through it.

(Constantine Odongo is a deputy chief sub-editor for New Vision. He received an MA degree in Journalism and Media Studies from Uganda Christian University.)

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Coronavirus pandemic has reshaped me into a better person

April 28, 2020COVID-19, Faculty#Corona, #Covid-19, #JohnSemakula, #newvision, #virus, Mukono, Poverty, UCU, Uganda, Uganda Christian UniversityPatty Huston-Holm

Journalists Paddy Nsobya of Bukedde newspaper, Samuel Sanya of New Vision and John Semakula of The Standard newspaper of Uganda Christian University in an April 20 meeting to strategize for the post COVID-19 period in Mukono District, Uganda. (Courtesy photo from Samuel Sanya)

By John Semakula

When governments in Europe and the United States came up with altruistic measures to help their citizens during the Coronavirus lockdown, in Uganda, we were left to fend for ourselves.

Despite the fact that the majority of Ugandans live hand to mouth and expected help from government during the lockdown, a selected few received food items. Many communities, including mine, were forced to mobilise ourselves to help the most vulnerable like the elderly, the poor and children in child-headed families. This experience has reshaped my personality and worldview.

For a video showing food distribution in Uganda, click here

Before the lockdown, I did not care much about community. If I had food on my table, I was mindless about the needy in the community; someone always did that job anyway.

John Semakula of The Standard newspaper of Uganda Christian University

However, the lockdown has molded me into a better person. I have learned to share with others and be keen about what goes on in my community. When the government of Uganda declared a partial lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic on March 17, I plunged into thoughts about how my family would go through it. I stay with seven relatives in Mukono town, central Uganda.

Although I am a salaried employee at Uganda Christian University, the lockdown was abrupt and yet the situation required that I should help close family members whose incomes were affected by the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown. Some of them operated casual businesses that had to close.

However, as I was still lost in thought, wondering what to do, I received a call from my father in the village offering us food from his garden. This has turned out to be our lifeline. Whenever we run out of food, I send a motorist to collect from my dad.

This kindness from my father has helped not only my siblings and me but also some of my neighbors. My siblings and I had to share the little we get from dad and the meager monetary resources I had saved up before the lockdown. My father has taught me an invaluable lesson in adulthood and I had to reciprocate his kindness.

I have also seen hundreds of other Ugandans donate food, cash and other critical items to the coronavirus national taskforce that was set up by the government to receive financial and food aid from members of the public for distribution to the most vulnerable. This was uncommon before the outbreak of the pandemic. I have discovered that Ugandans are a good people and that if we had been helping one another before, we would have been a better society.

I have also had to help several of my neighbors who need small cash handouts to feed and support their families in other ways during the lockdown.

On Tuesday April 14, a father of six including a pair of twins came to me at 8 p.m. to ask for a loan of $6. He said, “…if you do not help me out today, my family will go without food for the next three days…” I was forced to surrender part of my week’s small budget to him.

Within less than a week, on April 19, another neighbor, who had a patient at a nearby hospital, also asked me for a favor of sh40, 000 ($12) to transfer him for specialised treatment to another facility. I gave it to him out of sympathy. Before the Coronavirus pandemic, he worked in Kame Valley Market in Mukono town and like other traders, the lockdown has rendered him helpless.

Although markets are allowed to operate, only those trading in food items are allowed to work, the rest of traders like my neighbor, have to close. That is how my life has changed during the lockdown. But I thank God who has been merciful to my family because we are still alive when thousands of others around the world have succumbed to the pandemic.

Meanwhile, since the University where I work shut down on March 17, I have been operating from home, preparing for the reopening and the next semester. I am also going through students’ research proposals and internship reports. In addition, I am taking this time to come up with and bounce off different COVID-19 related research ideas with colleagues; hopefully we will have a research paper at the end of the year.

I see light at the end of the tunnel.

But the Coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown have taught me a lot of lessons in life that will remain fresh on my memory until death. I have never seen people the world-over suffer and die at this rate. I also have learned that in Africa we survive by the mercy of God. I will continue to exalt Him as the most supreme.

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John Semakula is the supervisor of The Standard newspaper under the Faculty of Journalism, Media and Communication at Uganda Christian University (UCU). He is a UCU graduate of Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication and Masters of Arts in Journalism and Media Studies.

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‘Just as the Lord was with the exiles in Babylon, He is with us also’

April 23, 2020COVID-19, Faculty#CoronaOutbreak, #COVID, #Divinity, #JessicaHughes #BishopTucker, #Lockdown, #UgandaExperience, Mukono, Theology, UCU, UCUPartnersPatty Huston-Holm

Rev. Jessica Hughes, from the state of Virginia in the USA, decided to remain on the University campus. These are some of her “neighbors” outside her apartment in Mukono, Uganda.

By Rev. Jessica Hughes

Jeremiah 29:7: “Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

While I am neither an Israelite nor am I in exile, Jeremiah’s exhortation to pray for the place where you live is sound counsel that I think still applies today. As a missionary who has worked at Uganda Christian University (UCU) for almost eight years, I have long prayed for the peace and prosperity of Kampala and Mukono.

And then COVID-19 happened, and the US State Department issued a Global Level 4 Advisory – Do Not Travel (and come home if you are abroad unless you are prepared to remain abroad for an indefinite period). This immediately raises one challenge for any missionary or expatriate: Do you stay where you are, or do you go home?

I quickly decided that it was much easier for me to stay here, especially since I had no idea when I would be able to re-enter Uganda when the crisis had passed (without the mandatory 14-day quarantine expanded later to another three weeks). I have friends who have stayed, and I have friends who have returned home. Regardless of their choice, I am grateful that they were able to reach wherever they wanted to be safely.

One of the things for which I am grateful is that Uganda is a model for how to handle epidemics. The government reacted quickly, even though many of these decisions have caused a bit of havoc.

On March 18, Uganda announced that schools and churches would close on March 20 for 32 days. This meant that the students had to hurry and get home, and we had to hurry and try to finish the semester. I am so proud of my students; they finished their assignments as quickly as they could while packing and leaving early.

The airport and other borders were closed on March 22 for a minimum of 32 days to people, but cargo still transits, thankfully. Pharmacies, banks and all stores except for those that sell food were closed. All public transportation was shut down, and initially, private vehicles could carry three people, but then all driving was banned except for health transportation. People in Kampala were jogging in hordes on major roads, so then exercising outdoors in public was banned, though exercise in one’s yard is allowed. There is a curfew from 7 p.m.-6:30 a.m., and you will be arrested if you are caught even walking home from work.

In the midst of all this, I am grateful for so much:

The Ministry of Health. They are handling the pandemic as well as can be expected. Uganda has long been a standard for how to manage epidemics, and COVID-19 is no exception. They have worked well with various communication outlets to be sure that the message of staying home and preventing the spread of the virus is prominent; one cannot make a phone call without a few seconds of a message being played before the call is actually placed. There are many challenges, of course, but I am grateful for how they have taken the lead.
Uganda Christian University’s leadership. I often note that I live in an idyllic bubble on campus, with Internet, water, and security, and that is true. But I am most grateful that the University was very quick to make plans to allow lecturers to end the semester online and for exams to be converted to take-home exams. Though the latter was ultimately halted by the government, I am grateful that the University has been making use of online tools for education, was prepared to shift to take-home exams that would be submitted online (with allowances being made for students without easy internet access), but also that the students were so invested in their education that the overwhelming majority of them were very disappointed in the government’s decision disallowing take-home exams.
The church’s response. Much like in the US and the rest of the world, churches immediately went online. The Archbishop of the Province of the Church of Uganda has been publishing daily devotions, as well as leading two services on Sundays from home. The UCU Chaplaincy also immediately went online, as did many of my Theology students, so much so that scrolling through Facebook on a Sunday was very likely to cause the web page to hang with all the Facebook Lives that were playing.
For my mission society’s leadership. They have been proactive in checking on us, seeing what we need and where we need to be, and ensuring that we are well.

Most of all, I am grateful that my people, on both my continents, are safe. I’ve been able to talk with a number of my students, as well as friends and family, and all are well.

Yes, this pandemic is trying, difficult, and challenging. But just as the Lord was with the exiles in Babylon, He is with us also.

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Rev. Jessica Hughes is a lecturer in the UCU Bishop Tucker School of Theology and Divinity. She hails from the state of Virginia.

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COVID-19: Ugandan father makes good out of the season

April 21, 2020COVID-19, Faculty#Corona, #Covid-19, #Luo, #virus, Education, Mukono, UCU, Uganda, Uganda Christian UniversityPatty Huston-Holm

Frank Obonyo holds Keren, his daughter, who he features in the article. Other family members are the writer’s wife, Cathryn, and children, Adonai and Ezekiel.

By Frank Obonyo

Keren: Daddy, why does Coronavirus have many names?

Me: Which ones?

Keren: Corona, COVID-19, Coronavirus…

Keren, age 3, is my youngest of three children. We – my wife, Cathryn, and our children Adonai, age 9, Ezekiel, 6, and Keren – live in Kirowoza, Mukono, Uganda. As I write this on Easter in April 2020, the deadly virus has not reached our village. But word about it has, including to a three-year-old.

Children ask questions. Lots of awesome questions. If deeply thought about, their intricate inquiries make a lot of sense. They wonder why things are the way they are.

Our three-year-old is excessively talkative and inquisitive. I recall one such time when she asked: “Does Jesus have a house in my stomach?” We previously told her that Jesus lives in us. Instead of figuratively about the spirit of Christ, our youngest took this literally.

It was during an evening walk with Keren that the COVID questions came. When I later went to bed and recollected what happened in the day, Keren’s question made actual sense. To think about it, COVID-19 is like a maze.

Multiple names are part of the maze as we weave through additional questions related to isolation, lifestyle changes, overall confusion and then how what is taking place now relates to other experiences that we have had.

Africans are connected to nature. It feeds us and shelters us but we also link it to natural occurrences. Locusts –those swarming, tropical grasshoppers – eat up vegetation including crops, leaving people in terrible famine. A child born during a locust invasion is called “Obonyo,”which is part of my name and my identity. The naming of this child, or me, is symbolic. It reminds the community about the dreadful disaster.

The Northern Uganda Luo speaking group refers to the insect invasion as “bonyo.” The Luo are one of East Africa’s largest ethnic groups.

In this season, Coronavirus seems to have touched the climate as well. Our weather is either dry or wet, and April is a rainy month. However, the sun is now baking green leaves bone-dry, sprinkling our heads with grayish dust and we have no option but to survive this life indoors, behind closed shutters. It is the government’s “distancing” and “sheltering” orders (expanded for another three weeks from the two-week curfew that ended April 14).

What is more exceptional is that the desert locusts swarmed Uganda just a few months ago. The two tragedies seemed to have agreed to attack us one after another. These somewhat haphazard observations may give a fair idea of what our country is like.

Life, I must admit, is ugly for us as it must seem to others around the world in this COVID-19 pandemic environment. We are accustomed to routine. Wake up, get to work, come back home, sleep.

This has changed. It is now bedroom to living room, kitchen to compound; that is the cycle. We miss out on social life, working together and even as a community, mourning the death of someone. In Uganda, life is about meeting friends, extended family, workmates. Men, for example, reserve Saturday and Sunday to watch English premier league games, children have school assignments, and mothers go shopping. We go out to church together.

We now hear and live two words: Stay home.

I admire Keren and her two brothers for how they adapt. They remind me of Jesus’ teachings about humility. He said that we should humble ourselves like little children if we are to enter the Kingdom of God. If we are to live happily, we ought to live like children. And not worry.

My children do not worry about the bills, the next meal. If they have parents around them, food and accommodation, they have it all. They go forward, no matter what. There is very little fear. Children do not worry about the virus or a lockdown. They are focused on being themselves; they have an insatiable curiosity. It is not about missing the old life. It is about onward and upward. Children adapt quickly, and perhaps that is why they live happier lives. My children wake up, play, eat, and are happy to see us around.

The truth is, for adults accustomed to routines outside of parenting, spending more time with children can get complicated and chaotic. Lots of laundry, playing the role of a judge, answering why COVID-19 has many names…

I am using this season break from work and post-graduate studies to help my children improve in their reading skills and understand who they are in God. I read with them the adventures of Mr. Hare. This folklore revolves around the cunning Mr. Hare, who, though in small stature, employs his wisdom and tricks to outmaneuver bigger opponents and always takes the prize home. The stories are packed with humor and life lessons. We also study the Bible; April is the month of the book of Ephesians.

I am making good out of the season, as there will be others.

Frank Obonyo is a Communications Officer at Uganda Christian University(UCU), an MA graduate in literature from UCU and an MA Digital Journalism fellow at the Aga Khan University, Nairobi, Kenya.

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My experience with the COVID-19 outbreak in Uganda

April 16, 2020COVID-19, Students#CoronaOutbreak, #COVID, #Lockdown, #UgandaExperience, Gulu, Kampala, Mukono, Norway, UCU, UCUPartnersPatty Huston-Holm

Olum Douglas playing a horse puzzle game at home

By Douglas Olum

I wish COVID-19 had consulted me before breaking out in Uganda. At the time it came, I was at a near zero financial balance. As the virus label moved from an epidemic to, by late January 2020, a pandemic, I knew this meant worldwide and my country was likely not to be untouched. With a wife and two children to provide for, I worried about how I would save my family from starvation should our Government order a lockdown to keep us from working and traveling to the store.

When? I didn’t know.

I had spent the whole of February attending lectures for my MA program at Uganda Christian University. Within that time, I had not contributed any stories for the Uganda Partners organization, which is my main source of finances. My car selling business also had gone down since December 2019, when I made a commission on the last sale. I had spent weeks since the beginning of March, trekking between Kampala and Mukono, trying to revive the business. I had a few cars at hand for sale, with a few promises from prospective customers but none was materializing.

On Saturday, March 21, Uganda announced in her first case of the coronavirus infection. The victim was a 36-year-old businessman who had returned from a three-day trip to Dubai in the United Arabs Emirates.

I anticipated very tough times ahead if the numbers of identified cases increased. I thought that if I could just sell one car for a dealer, I would use the money to transport my wife and children from our apartment in Mukono to my village of Gulu in the far north. Personally, I couldn’t go because I had periodical course assignments to do and submit until late June. I knew that going to the village – far away from electricity and Internet access – would hinder my studies. Besides, I still felt we might avoid being swept deeper into the pandemic.

My confidence was rooted as far back as the year 2000 when Ebola first hit northern Uganda. Christ the King Demonstration Primary School, where I studied back then, was among the first institutions to be affected. One of our teachers contracted the virus disease and succumbed to it within the first four days. The Government moved to close schools only after his death. But none of us was ever infected.

My home 20 years ago was located near Lacor Hospital, a private hospital in Gulu that handled most of the Ebola cases. Many of our neighbors worked there to take care of the victims. Our market and public transports remained functional. We interacted without being distanced and without negative consequences. Thinking of that earlier survival time that was not as life changing as the COVID-19 restrictions, I was not discouraged.

Even when I had heard of death cases in China, Italy and Spain, I had the impression that the COVID-19 infection was not as dangerous as the Ebola that took a life in less than 72 hours.

Olum Douglas in his mask, walking in Mukono Town during the lockdown

When a Norwegian newspaper/magazine journalism friend asked me to accompany her in collecting data for a story she wanted to do about the COVID-19 situation in Uganda, I didn’t hesitate even though we planned to work in the business hubs in Kampala. We were supposed to carry out the survey on a Monday. But a cough and cold hit her, necessitating postponement. While I was a bit anxious, she assured me that her condition was not the coronavirus because she had largely been at home, with very minimal trips to buy groceries and no contact with any person who had just entered or returned to the country. We re-scheduled our work for the next day, Tuesday, March 24^th.

As I travelled to Kampala that hot, sunny day, I learned of eight new cases of confirmed infections. March 24 was my last trip to the city – at least for a while. That night, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni announced a ban on all public transport means, with private means limited to carrying not more than two passengers. The ban eventually was extended for everything except for trucks transporting food.

At this point, the virus threat became a reality. Most people were wearing facemasks. Hand-washing containers were at all entries and exits of markets, large buildings, taxi parks and supermarkets. Shop owners and operators were sanitizing the hands of their customers. Unlike the usually welcoming market environment, the traders themselves were barring those who resisted hand washing.

Money to feed my family was uppermost in my mind. With a slight headache and enough shillings for a few days of family meals, I headed back to Mukono. But fear grew with the headache pain as I understood this to be one symptom of the COVID-19 infection. The anxiety lessened when my temperature taken at the UCU gate registered a normal 97 degrees Fahrenheit.

Douglas and his children, Daphine and Victor, feeding their chicken during the lockdown

While financially crippling, the government curfew since March 24 has meant more family time – singing, playing, teaching and learning with my children. And while I didn’t have access to computers on the locked-down campus, I was able to complete some long-overdue writing assignments on a phone donated to me by an American last year. Many times, I did the work just outside the UCU gate where the university wifi was weak but reaching.

At 53 infections and zero deaths as I write this on Easter Sunday, I remain optimistic that Uganda may escape the huge numbers experienced by much of the rest of the world.

How deep, when and where else will COVID-19 strike? I don’t know. But surrounded by my wife and children, I’m watching.

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UCU e-learning status amidst COVID-19 environment

April 14, 2020COVID-19#Covid-19, #On-lineLearning, #UCUCountersCorona, #UgandaSchoolsClose, #UniversityGoesDigital, Education, Uganda Christian UniversityPatty Huston-Holm

UCU’s e-learning center on the Mukono campus includes touch-screen capabilities as one example of state-of-the-art technology.

By Douglas Olum

“A 21^st century university isn’t just brick and mortar. It’s evolutionary, novel, re-engineering processes, emergent, have value laden solutions beyond geographical borders in complex times like these. A commendation is befitting,” Godfrey Sempungu, the Associate Dean of the Uganda Christian University (UCU), Faculty of Business and Administration, posted in an April 2, 2020, Tweet.

His post came only days after parliamentarian, Gilbert Olanya, proclaimed before the Parliament of Uganda, during a sitting in which UCU’s digital migration was discussed, that the university based in Mukono is one of the best.

“We thank the UCU for being one of the best universities in East Africa,” Mr. Olanya said, alluding, in part, to use of technology.

On Friday March 20, UCU, like all other educational institutions in Uganda, sent home its more than 5,000 main campus students as well as regional campus students following a presidential directive instructing all schools and academic institutions in the country to go on a 30-day shutdown because of the globally threatening COVID-19 pandemic.

At the time, Uganda had not yet recorded a single case of the viral disease. But all her neighbors, including Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan had already recorded cases of the disease.

The shutdown came just three weeks before students could kick-start their end of the Easter Semester examinations. Amidst the unanticipated interruption, UCU quickly shifted to its digital learning platform to continue assessing as well as to examine students in a bid to counter the eventuality of physical exodus from campuses. This on-line alternative was curtailed on April 4 when Janet Museveni, minister of education, suspended this option.

The UCU Vice Chancellor, Rev. Dr. John Senyonyi, who previously applauded university staff for adaptability in the midst of the pandemic, issued, in part, this statement on Palm Sunday, April 5, 2020:

“In compliance with the Minister’s directive, I must regretfully inform you that we shall not issue you with the examinations as we had intended. We realize that many of you have been preparing for these examinations. Besides, over 90% of you had registered your phone numbers or other contact information to receive the examinations from the University; and the number was still rising. This means that you will have to sit for these examinations upon resumption of normal University programs.”

Uganda registered her first case of the Coronavirus disease on March 22 with a 30-year-old businessman who returned from a trip in Dubai (United Arabs Emirates). The number has since grown to 53 (April 8, 2020), with the majority of the cases being of returnees from other countries, including China, India and Europe.

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni consequently banned all forms of public gatherings including church services, monthly market days, political rallies, clubs and large wedding events. He also has banned all public transportation and limited private vehicle use to curb the possible spread of COVID-19.

The UCU Vice Chancellor further clarified in an April 9, 2020, memo:

“As I said earlier, our plan for the Take Home exam was conceived in good faith and we had the best of intentions for our students. It has never crossed our minds and we never did anything intentionally to disobey Government at such a critical time. Despite the current situation in the country, we believed that through available technological facilities at UCU, students would be able to complete their semester with minimal interruption. We considered that we should fully support Government efforts to decongest, and in that spirit, we judged that the use of technology was safe for our students since they would be doing the exams in the comfort of their homes.”

The Rev. Dr. John Senyonyi further stated in that memo, in part, that “Uganda Christian University is a law-abiding institution which cannot act contrary to the directives of our line ministry or of the Government. I request you to remain calm and commit everything to the Risen LORD.”

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BEFORE COVID-19: African American teen experiences Uganda

April 9, 2020COVID-19#AfricanAmerican, #Charleston, #Corona, #Covid-19, #Fullbright, #HeriageInternationalSchool, #LadaviaJust, #Pandemic, #southcarolina, #teenager, #UgandaChristianUniversity, Kampala, UgandaPatty Huston-Holm

Teenager Jada Nicole Just engages in Uganda schooling remotely from her South Carolina, USA, home

(This is the second of two stories UCU Partners is featuring about American teens living in Uganda.)

By Douglas Olum and Patty Huston-Holm

At 1 a.m. on a Tuesday, 14-year-old Jada Nicole Just climbs out of her Charleston, S.C., bed to begin school – on-line and facilitated from Uganda, Africa, where it’s seven hours later. From her laptop, she takes her first class focused on the Bible and beamed out from Heritage International School, Kampala, where the time is 8 a.m. Except for COVID-19, Jada would be there with new friends from around the world.

“We literally had days to pack up and get back to the States,” her mom, Ladavia, said of the coronavirus exit she did with Jada and two younger daughters in March 2020.

South Carolina 14-year-old Jada in Uganda

The night before the flight out from Entebbe was bittersweet as Jada had a goodbye sleepover with Heritage school friends from Finland, Kenya and Uganda. She was excited to return home to her life in South Carolina and to her friends, her dad and her dog there, but had grown to love much about Uganda. Experiences with African food, wildlife and even getting around chaotic streets are opportunities that few American teenagers receive or are even bold enough to try.

In the summer of 2019, Jada, then age 13, left South Carolina for her first trip to Africa. Her mom received a Fulbright opportunity to teach and lead pharmacy-related projects through Uganda Christian University’s School of Medicine. With anxious uncertainty, the girls went along. They made Uganda home and were comfortably settled in their school when they learned they needed to leave. With almost six months left, Ladavia’s Fulbright was suspended by a U.S. Embassy directive, forcing their exit from Uganda.

Jada is still processing her time in Uganda. She recalls her first long trip – nearly 7,500 miles over two days – to East Africa. She had never before been overseas.

There was a stop in Brussels, which was her first time in Europe. Next, there was a landing in the dark at the Entebbe airport, followed by a car trip with a flat tire and two hours to fix it in darkness before arriving at a small Ntinda apartment in northeastern Kampala with no water pressure for showers. While exhausted, sleep did not come easily as there was a first encounter with nighttime Uganda mosquitoes. The sometimes-malaria-carrying insects were surprisingly smaller but nevertheless more frightening than the ones in South Carolina.

Daylight revealed disorganized traffic jams with motorcycles over dusty roads, cars and taxis with seemingly no driver guidelines, women carrying bananas in baskets on their heads, cows and goats without enclosures, skinny wandering dogs and dirty pelicans eating from piles of trash. While observing these stark contrasts to the landscape and more-orderly life in Charleston, Jada and her family discovered there also were American-like places such as Café Javas with cheeseburgers and salads and Acacia Mall with its ice cream, book stores and a movie theatre.

Trips to the zoo allowed an up-close look at ostriches and zebras. Game parks enabled the family to see lions, primates, giraffes and hippos in their natural habitat. There was a chase by Uganda’s national bird, the Crested Crane, and a frightening but unforgettable, nighttime trip across the Nile while hippos moved dangerously close by their tiny boat. Monkeys of different species roamed the trees seemingly everywhere.

“Sometimes, we picked jack fruit from a tree in our compound,” Jada recalled. “We didn’t need to ask permission. It was just there, very sweet and good.” Other regular foods were beans, rice, samosas and an egg-like treat called rolex.

Despite the time difference, the teenager kept in touch with Charleston friends via social media when there was a connection and electricity. Uganda power outages sometimes necessitated earlier bedtimes and subsequent earlier wake times to finish homework before school each day.

The weather in Kampala was surprisingly similar to that in South Carolina except that despite Uganda’s location on the equator, the air was cooler. The friendliness of the Uganda culture was another pleasant surprise.

“People here don’t take offense when you stare at them; they smile back a lot,” she said. “And for the first time as an African American, I was living in a culture where everybody looked like me. They just didn’t speak like me.”

Uganda has many tribal languages with the most common around the capital city being Luganda.

After getting over the nervousness that comes with starting high school in another country, Jada feels very prepared as she approaches her sophomore year in the United States. She’s become particularly fond of French, a language that is taught at Heritage beginning in kindergarten. But her favorite subject there was Physics. She has also grown in appreciation of her home in the United States.

“Although we can’t travel much now because of virus restrictions, I value that we have roads with no pot holes, and I’m not so picky about what I eat here,” she said.

Will she go back to Uganda?

“Not soon,” Jada said. “But, yes, I want to go back some day.”

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‘I got a jigger, but I’d go back again’

April 7, 2020COVID-19#AcornAcademy, #Arizona, #DavidHodge, #fulbright, #jiggers, #Kidepo, #teeninUganda, #UgandaChristianUniversity, #virusPatty Huston-Holm

Rachel Hodge wears traditional African clothes for Karamojong wedding

(NOTE: This story was written prior to the March 2020, virus-forced return home by the Hodge family and other Americans in Uganda. In early April, the Hodges were in quarantine in Iowa before returning to Arizona.)

By Alex Tarema

“What are you making for dinner Momma?” Rachel asks her mother, Crystal Hodge, from the living room. The scent that escapes the kitchen reports rice to her nostrils.

Rachel loves Ugandan rice, mostly its aroma. She loves the famed Ugandan rolex (egg roll) too but hates matooke – the highly popular delicacy in the central Uganda area. She likes her groundnuts prepared roasted and salted but does not enjoy their pasted stew.

The 15-year-old lives on the Uganda Christian University main campus in Mukono where her Fulbright father, David Hodge, has been doing academic work since August of 2019. She hit the ground running, starting her school at the prestigious Acorns International School, Kampala, Uganda.

Rachel reads at her family home on the UCU campus in Mukono, Uganda

The school is small by her standards but amazing, she says. Unlike Phoenix, Arizona, where she hails, here she can mingle with almost everyone and get to know them better. Her class only has 16 students, and she is the only Caucasian. When she returns to the United States, she will miss her teachers and friends in Uganda.

She hums her school’s anthem all evening.

“I really love music. I love to sing,” she says. “Five other students and I were taken to the studio today to record the school anthem. I sang it so many times that my throat is sore, and I cannot get it out of my head.”

Besides singing in the choir, Rachel auditioned and was accepted to perform in her school’s talent show – an experience she speaks of with a beaming smile. She’s wearing a pair of denim jeans and a checkered top. She occasionally walks around outside their residence called All Nations House while reading, but her favourite spot is a couch in the living room on which she reads herself away.

In order to avoid traffic jams, her driver takes many dusty, bumpy back roads on her hour-long drive to and from school every weekday. This is the most cumbersome part of her day.

“Back home, school is just 10 minutes away, the traffic is never as bad, and the roads are smooth,” she says.

Although temperatures can get up to 47 degrees Celsius (116 Fahrenheit) in Phoenix, she manages to stay cool in the car with air conditioning. Here, the driver drives with the windows lowered, allowing dust, heat, and exhaust fumes into the vehicle – part of her Ugandan experience that, she says, “I don’t like very much.”

The dust notwithstanding, Rachel agrees with a certain Ugandan minister who was recently quoted as saying that the bumpy roads add spice to the Ugandan experience. Rather than agonise, she uses her two hours on the road to finish up her homework that is sometimes twice as much as what she was assigned in the United States.

Rachel loves numbers, basically anything complex. Math is her favorite subject, but she has found physics to be quite insightful as well, particularly the class projects and the research.

Away from school, Rachel is a lover of life and nature. She loves rainy nights, and the sound of raindrops on the tin roof. It’s a refreshing change compared to living in the desert of Arizona where they only receive an average of nine inches of rain per year. She has travelled to northeastern Uganda, attended a traditional wedding in Karamoja tribe sub-region and visited the Kidepo Valley National Park.

“Weddings here are so much different from what you see in the U.S.,” she said. “They dressed me up with beads around my waist and my head and gave me a traditional skirt to wear.”

The beautiful scenery of Kidepo Valley and the sight of giraffes, water buffalo, and zebras was so spectacular that she forgot about the long hours she spent getting to the wedding and the safari.

In Karamoja, Rachel got a jigger in her foot as a souvenir. Thankfully, a neighbor is a nurse and removed it. On a school field trip, Rachel hiked to the Sipi Falls in Eastern Uganda. From her diverse school classmates, Rachel has learned a lot about other religions, their values and perceptions while sharing her Christian faith. To expand her knowledge of Ugandan culture, Rachel and her family also have visited the Buganda King’s palace, the parliament building, and the Uganda National Mosque.

Her most scary experience is when she walked to a restaurant in Mukono town around 5 p.m., but her order arrived after dark. Like any other foreign teenager among Ugandans who do not speak much English, Rachel started to “freak out” as she wasn’t sure she’d remember her way home. But she did.

Admittedly, Rachel misses her American life, her friends and mostly her freedom. Almost all her hobbies were within a ten-minute radius and she didn’t have to worry about being so conspicuous because she blended in with everyone else. In Uganda, her long blonde hair and fair skin attracts attention and makes her feel uncomfortable. After just one walk into Mukono town, she has avoided walking there again.

“There are so many inconveniences like needing to boil water for drinking, no microwave, dishwasher, and regular shower, and the long drive to school that I’ve had to adjust to, but I keep telling myself that it is only for a short period,” she says.

For Rachel, living in Uganda has taught her to be socially perceptive and in the future, she is considering a return trip to help some impoverished villages get access to clean water and support children to attain education through fundraising and charity.

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COVID-19: What $40 a night in quarantine teaches you

April 2, 2020COVID-19, UCU Alumni#AgaKhanUniversity, #AlexTaremwa, #Corona, #Covid-19, #isolation, #Kenya, #Pandemic, #UgandaChristianUniversity, UgandaPatty Huston-Holm

Alex Taremwa doing an on-line class via Zoom.

(During this unprecedented time of the COVID-19 pandemic, UCU Partners will be publishing stories about how UCU-connected Ugandans and Americans are coping. This is the first of several accounts.)

By Alex Taremwa

In my shared apartment, Guma Jeremiah storms in from work. I call him the “diplomat extraordinaire” because he works for the Ugandan Foreign Service based in Nairobi. Panting is not Guma’s usual demeanour, and I can sense the haste and unease in this voice – evidently, he is scared.

“Have you watched the news yet?” he asks.

I send my hand for the remote and switch to NTV Kenya. The authorities are confirming what we feared the most – Kenya’s first Corona Virus Disease (COVID)-19 case – a 27-year-old female who had travelled in on March 5 from Chicago in the United States with a connect flight that went through London in the United Kingdom. Both the USA and the UK were flagged high risk by my country, Uganda.

What followed was silence, then a unanimous decision that shopping essential supplies was paramount. The supermarket in our affluent neighbourhood of Kileleshwa, Kasuku Centre, is often less congested but this particular afternoon, it was as if people went out at the same time to shop. The place was filled to the brim – forcing some prices to shoot up.

At the counter was a Chinese man whose tray was mostly occupied by bathroom tissue paper – enough to cover him for two months or more. I can’t tell if it was the four-metre (up to 13 feet) social distancing recommendation by the World Health Organisation (WHO) or his nationality that is associated with the genesis of the novel Coronavirus, but other panic shoppers gave him more than the deserved distance accompanied with a rare stare. I shopped for beef, bread, soap and groceries. Philip, my other housemate, sent for some alcohol.

“If I have to die, I don’t want to meet God sober,” he joked. He is terrified by face-to-face interactions.

Kenya’s announcement on March 13, 2020, was a wakeup call for Uganda. The virus that supposedly didn’t affected “blacks” or “Africans” as previously assumed had touched base in the region. When I first posted the update on my social media, the first responses I received were asking if the victim was White or Black. Around the East African region, Rwanda, the DR Congo and South Sudan announced cases. Uganda, in the middle, was now sandwiched with cases in all directions.

The next move for President Yoweri Museveni was simple, at least according to the opinion of most Ugandans I interacted with: Close the borders and stop all flights. They didn’t care that out of those borders were other Ugandans like myself – students, expats, parents – who wanted to return to their families. It looked imminent that the President, being the populist that he is, would heed to this pressure. He didn’t.

Instead, the president announced mandatory quarantine for all returning citizens – especially those from “Category One” countries that had more than 1,000 cases confirmed. This was my window to come home. Folks on the “Ugandans in Nairobi” WhatsApp group that I created agreed that if we waited, we would be locked out.

And so, I packed ready for quarantine – normally a 14-day absence from the physical scene but present on social media. Living in Uganda though, where we pay tax for being on social media, it is possible to be absent on both scenes.

The journey home
At Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), I met a one Alex Kawalya. He had spent the night at the airport because he had run out of money to hop onto the next flight. He had just sold his phone to one of the airport staff to get a seat aboard Kenya Airways to Uganda where he wished for a miracle if he was to afford the $100 price per night in Entebbe Central Inn Hotel where government was quarantining returning citizens for 14 days.

Stories of returning Ugandans being herded like sheep by the army to the hotel were sickening. Women and children slept in lobbies and the government would have nothing of the “I am a student on scholarship in Kenya and I can’t afford $100 a night” talk. Like Kawalya, I boarded KQ 412 at 11 a,m., not knowing what fate awaited me at Entebbe International Airport – but I boarded anyway.

It was the only one of the few flights heading to Kampala and from the look of things, one of the last ones as Jambo Jet, Fly Sax, and even Uganda Airlines were no longer plying the EBB-NAI route – a real catch 22 situation. You’re not wanted at home, but you cannot stay where you are.

Uganda confirmed her first case on Saturday, March 21, after I had been in the country for a few hours. The victim, looking feverish, was a Ugandan coming from Dubai and had flown in at 2 a.m. aboard Ethiopian Airlines. Having just flown in and in the process had interacted with another Dubai returnee, the pressure mounted. Even when I wasn’t put in institutional quarantine, I felt sickish. I volunteered Kawalya’s name to the Ministry of Health for testing and he did well.

Life in Quarantine
On March 26 and from my self-quarantine hole at Kisubi Forest Cottages in Entebbe, where I am writing this, Uganda has 14 COVID-19 cases. President Museveni closed the airport and borders soon after and has since closed public transport, churches, markets (except for food stuffs). And as of today (March 26), all the 104 tested samples of suspected cases had turned up negative. From this hole, I keep my family updated about my health at all times. Occasionally, I go out, watch the stars and feed the mosquitoes – they are really hungry.

I have to cough up $40 a night to keep my family and country safe but with the stories of people bribing their way out of quarantine, others not staying home as required and thousands who have to be forced to wash their hands with soap – I am not sure if my sacrifice will make any difference.

One of the new cases is a father who travelled from Kisumi, Kenya, by bus and ended up infecting his 8-month-old baby. My conscience tells me that feeding mosquitoes is much safer that infecting innocent people. When I finally get out of this place on April 3, these mosquitoes will surely miss me.

Alex Taremwa is a graduate of Uganda Christian University, a journalist and Masters Fellow at the Graduate School of Media and Communications, Aga Khan University.

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With the help of Canadian mentor, ball hockey breaks ground in Uganda

March 30, 2020Faculty, Sports#ballhockey, #Canada, #hockey, #JeanChamberlain, #MarchMadness, #ThomFroese, #UgandaChristianUniversity, UgandaPartnersPatty Huston-Holm

Ball Hockey team during training at the Uganda Christian University sports field

By Maxy Abenaitwe

Africans take pride in their cultural roots. For Ugandan Amon Matthew, the curiosity for other cultures has always been equally as strong.

Captain Amon Matthew with the Uganda flag

That inquisitiveness found an eight-year-old Matthew playing ball hockey, a sport more common to Canada. He played it on the Uganda Christian University (UCU) Mukono campus with the children of a Canadian couple, journalist Thom Froese and medical doctor, Jean Chamberlain Froese, founder of the UCU Save the Mothers program.

Now age 22 and captain of the UCU Ball Hockey Team that in March 2020 had no name, Matthew recalled his addiction to “the most beautiful and interesting thing” he had learned. Referring to the ball hockey sport, he added, “Out of love for the game, I put my all.”

Uganda Ball Hockey will forever be grateful to Froese for building the first playground at the UCU staff quarters. Now, Matthew has taken over the ball hockey team reins from the Canadian founder.

“At that point, I realized I had been left with a huge task ahead of me, considering the fact that I was young and still in secondary school,” Matthew said. Part of taking his leadership role seriously involved missing his high school sports activities. When students questioned his absence, he replied with two words – ball hockey – and then had to explain what that was.

Captain Amon Matthew with ball hockey supporters

Ice hockey is synonymous with Canada. When the ball hockey sport evolved by replacing an ice puck with a tennis ball in the 19^th century, ball hockey became elevated in popularity in this North American country. Rules between hockey on ice and other surfaces vary but all involve using sticks to move an object toward a goal.

Matthew’s excitement about the sport became contagious for other Ugandan youth. There were teams and games – first informally among young men and then formally with Matthew’s persuasion to places like the Baroda International Vocational Institute in Mukono and UCU.

By 2018 and armed with videos and enthusiasm, Matthew approached the Ugandan Ministry of Education and Sports. He also visited the National Council for Sports, and met with a representative of the Uganda Hockey Association and the Mukono Municipality Mayor, George Fred Kagimu, who had watched the game in Sweden. With some coaching, ball hockey moved from an association to a federation.

Barriers were largely financial – lack of equipment, including the ability to buy hockey sticks at 50,000 UGX ($15) each; and no uniforms. Matthew sought and received foreign support from the London Ball Hockey Association in Canada, International Street Ball Hockey Federation and World Ball Hockey Federation.

Ambitious Matthew sees Uganda taking part in the 2021 World Championship Events. Additionally, Matthew is organizing a national tournament of the UCU juniors and men’s teams.

“With or without Ugandan government, we can still go on,” he said. “We are moving on and growing. No matter what, we shall get there.”

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UCU Shepherds gain notoriety in rugby world

March 23, 2020Sports, Students, UCU Alumni#EastAfrica, #MarchMadness, #rugby, #Sevens, #UgandaChristianUniversity, #UgandaRugbyCranes, sports, UgandaPartnersPatty Huston-Holm

(NOTE: Across the United States, March Madness refers to National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball competitions – a month when university rivalries are at their peak. While March Madness was cancelled due to the Coronavirus in 2020, these Uganda Christian University sports stories are offered in honor of what was to be. The stories are a collaborative of The Standard and UCU Partners.)

By Maxy Abenaitwe

In the early years of the past decade, the Uganda Christian University (UCU) 7s Shepherds were the untouchables of East African rugby.

As a result, the Uganda Rugby Cranes and other national clubs like the Black Pirates continuously fished from the Shepherds’ pond. It is no wonder that half of the Uganda Rugby Cranes are former Shepherds.

Rugby, which originated in England in the first half of the 19^th century, is a sport involving two teams of 15 players each. They carry, pass and kick a ball into an end zone with winning determined by the greatest number of points. Often, the sport is known as “rugby sevens” for seven players per team engaged in seven-minute halves. The most basic law of the game is that no player is allowed to throw the ball forward to a teammate. In rugby, the ball is moved with sideways or backwards tosses or a player kicking and running with the ball.

Uganda had a deep history of men’s rugby participation ahead of the country’s first official rugby match in 1958. In 1955, the Uganda Rugby Football Union was formed. Much as there were no clubs at the time, games were frequently played between representatives from Kenya and Tanzania (or Tanganyika as it was called at the time) teams, but matches were mostly against the Royal Navy as well as some British and South African Universities. In 2000, UCU took on the rugby mantle and over time developed a great team of influential players.

Shepherds (in red jerseys) representing Uganda at international level

Over the years, UCU players have been recognized for their talent. Philip Wakorach has been the most desired player, whose talent is sought across borders, namely in Kenya and France. Equally, Ivan Magomu has been the best fly half (receiver of a short pass). Pius Ogena was recently awarded Male Rugby Player of Year 2019 under the Uganda Sports Press Association Awards, and Desire Ayera was recently ranked 37th player of Uganda’s 2019 top athletes.

Considering their current maiden performance, the current Shepherds are leaving lasting marks. The team won gold at the 2019 University Side Step 7s events. The Shepherds went ahead to win during the 18th AUUS 2019 games at Kisubi University. And immediately after their remarkable performance, two players were called at the National Rugby Cranes team.

Ivan Kabagambe, a former Shepherds’ player, says the great performance is largely inspired by the success of the Shepherds alumni.

“The alumni have also kept in touch to ensure talent keeps growing,” he said. “This has been done majorly through friendly matches between the Shepherds and their alumni.”

Despite a few challenges, Kabagambe thinks there is no excuse for not making it at UCU. This signifies that with more support from the university, the team could do wonders since the passion and talent is there. If only the Shepherds could participate in more tournaments, have more funding and have enough designated rugby training space, more medals would be brought home.

Why the great performance
Approximately 90% of the Shepherds attribute their success in the larger rugby world to UCU’s favorable environment that best suits sports development. They cite the hilly landscape, availability of drinking water all over the compound, access to good food, and use of gym facilities as well as university administrative support and medical attention.

The good medical attention, specifically the physiotherapy, helps the players to quickly get back on their feet and continue with their struggle.

Additionally, UCU sportsmen and women have a reputation of being the best people to work with. This is because of their remarkably good discipline. The factor of character also has contributed to the quick growth of the Shepherds.

The future of rugby
Close to 50% of the rugby clubs, the national team inclusive, have aging players. This means university students are being targeted and have professional opportunities.

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