June 11, 2011

  • It is true!

    For those of you who do not know, I am a skeptic.  If someone tells me something that seems to defy physics or is questionable otherwise, I will not believe them.  An example that I have... if you flush a toilet in Michigan it rotates differently than a toilet flushed in Australia.  you can believe me or not, but it is true!

    Today, we went on a family outing to the Equator.  Uganda is one of only a few countries that has the Equator pass through it.  They also have a designated monument for this occurrence.  So we went there.  Our generous friend from the last post volunteered to take us.  (What a guy!)  With the traffic, due to road construction, it took us about 2 hours to get to the monument.  When we got there, I instantly noticed the line painted across the road and the two "sculptures" that were erected.  We did the obvious tourist reaction and took pictures.  (Lizzy is the woman in my arm.  Do not get her confused with Azeda because their skin colors are so similar.  The man on the right is Joseph, or as Isaac calls him Jophess.)

    What you notice after a little while are the three water stations.  One is located about 10 feet on the northern hemisphere.  The second is located about 10 feet on the southern hemisphere.  And a third is located directly on the line marking the Equator.  If you ask nicely, they do a demonstration showing the rotation of water as it funnels down a hole.  On the norther side, the water flowed counter-clockwise.  On the southern side, the water flowed clockwise.  On the equator, the water did not spin.  It just flowed straight down the hole.  Now I know I am pointing out the obvious by saying I am a nerd, but that was cool!  I am a believer (cue Neil Diamond song!)

    This was our first opportunity to act like stupid tourists.  But it was a real delight!  We bought a stone bowl that has the continent of Africa carved in it and has several animals hand painted within that.  On the way back, we bought a drum.  It still reeks of the cow that so graciously donated its skin to cover it!  But it is authentic and has a good sound to it.  And it is really pretty!

    On Wednesday, Gracie's birthday, we are going to go to Jinja.  It is the city in Uganda that is home to the source of the river Nile (sounds cooler than Nile River).  Jophess asked to take us there.  It will be a fun trip.  G-money is pretty excited that we are doing something so special on her b-day.  I made a promise to the girls that they could buy a souvenir at this destination.  So they are pretty pumped about that.  I will place bets that it is either a bracelet, necklace, or earrings.

    It sounds like the rest of the week will be filled with meetings.  We are meeting with a new school, whose name escapes me.  We meet with another agency that wants to partner with us to build schools and possibly orphanages (another source of American funding for building???).  And we need to meet with one of the already US funded schools to assess and address any issues they have with the concept drawings we have started.  In the meantime, we are evaluating the costs to have the teams come.  This is a little more complicated than we would have hoped.  Not to mention we are trying to gather building material costs (ones that are reasonable, not the ones that they give to the white folk).  So the large portion of the blog is about our personal endeavors, but we are trying to do some good, really!  Who wants to hear about shopping for timber, bricks, or windows?

    Anyway, I will write again soon.  Too-da-loo!