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Judah’s Journal, Uganda, December 10

December 10, 2008 - Uganda

About Judah Yarberry

Judah Yarberry is a 9 year old in Hilo, Hawaii. Since he was 6 years old he has been traveling with his mother to East Africa where she does relief work with RMF. Judah raises money for these trips by selling plants and greeting cards at his mother’s clinic, and doing yard service and other chores for friends, neighbors and supporters. He often collects and takes school supplies, toys, and other needed items to children in Uganda and Kenya. His favorite part about his travels is meeting and playing with other children, and being around all the animals of Africa (he wants to be a wildlife conservationist when he grows up). When in the US, he shares these trips through slide presentations for local schools.

The last few days have been spent organizing and giving out the school supplies. Charles, Joan, and Susan went with me to give out the supplies and toys in Village 1 (the camp has different villages in it). We walked from house to house (really, they were mud huts and old UNHCR tents), through the corn and other crop fields. We saw an ibis standing on the road, and our guide said there were black mambas in between the cornstalks: that made us all scream!

All the kids were so happy to get the school supplies, and each kid was given a sticker. The kids who were too young to get school supplies got 2 stickers. When we came back to Maga Maga (where the acupuncture training was), I gave things to my soccer buddies. It was a free-for-all because they were so excited they were asking for seconds, and crowding me. Finally Beth had to pull me out and take me to the matatu.

My friends had made me this cool little gun made out of a cornstalk with rubber around it and metal ribbons hooked into a spring that could shoot little rocks. You pull back a little bucket until it catches, and then when you pull the trigger, it unlatches and releases the bucket. If something is sitting in the bucket, it will go flying!

We said goodbye to our colleagues and the friends we’d made at the hotel in Bweyale, and walked to where the buses from the north stop so we could catch a ride back down to Kampala. We got to the airport, and when we went through security, they took the gun away, even though we were going to put it in our checked baggage. Personally I think that was stupid because it was just a toy gun!

Now we are in the airport in Nairobi writing this all down, and mosquitoes are biting my mom’s legs. We are waiting for our flight to the coast tomorrow morning. I’m looking forward to swimming in the Indian Ocean again. Bye for now; we’re going to go get some hot chocolate.

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