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January 10, 2007 - Kampala - Uganda

Day One, Travel Day (by Jim Hughes)
(Written the day after having traveled)

Seeing the other 8 team members at breakfast this morning only 8 hours after they arrived made me appreciate having gone to London 6 days earlier, each of them looked like ghosts, the lights were on but no one was home.

On my 10 hour flight from London the person next to me, the two in front of me, the two behind me and the two that I could hear on the other side of the isle were all going to Uganda to render humanitarian service. I flashed back on a comment Bill McDade made to me in Malawi "#1 industry in Malawi – International Aid". I am sure that 90% of the full 767 are aid workers. I felt conflicted, agitated, even angry, with all the extraordinary resources that goes into Sub Saharan Africa why aren’t the people of these countries getting better at providing for themselves? Corruption, incompetence, illiteracy, aids, food production, climate change; what is the problem? I chalked up my lost faith to fatigue due to travel.

On my arrival first thing in the morning half way around the World and in a sea of a few hundred black faces came several calls "Jim Jim", I was relieved that they were actually calling out to me. I spent the day and evening with one or more local Rotarians, the rest of the team scheduled to arrive about midnight. I was shown around Kampala, Lake Victoria, attended and presented at a meeting of the largest Rotary club in Uganda 86 members and finally out to dinner.

Throughout the day and evening I was treated to learn of so so much being done with so so little by Rotarians. My faith was reinforced, my attitude that helping others is the way to live. One day down and 14 more to go.