A trip to Washington

About two weeks ago, Sam Mich and I travelled to Washington, Reverend and Michelle had come in from Uganda and we wanted to see them before they headed back.

Meeting friends and family here is so exciting, you get to hear lots of stories, I feel like they have brought a piece of home with them when they come. We were able to talk about things that are familiar to natives and ... well, it's a bit hard to explain, it's just great.

One of the other things I was really excited that we were able to do was visit the head quarters of my former place of work. I guess it was not at the best of times especially since the President Paul Wolfowitz was being asked to resign.

Security was tight as usual, we had to go through all these machines, Steven had to explain we were his visitors. We had our pictures taken for identification and so on and so forth. I was truly a stranger, meanwhile back home I was the one who made sure every one who came to the Bank country office was checked, they would have to identify themselves and who they had come to see via speaker phone and this was before they came in the door. So it was definitely interesting that this time I was the one being checked.

The World Bank offices are huge, several floors and several blocks too, we were told that people do get lost in the buildings, especially the staff who are visiting from other country offices.

It was a Friday so there not that many people in the building at the time, which was good because then we were able to get a nice tour of some places.

I took some pictures, just in case I don't get to work with them again at least I will be able to say I went to the headquarters, and I have proof hehehe.

Mich and the Bead

Remember the story of Gipir and Labongo in p3 history?
I don't remember the details too well but I think I can create something close to the original story.

Gipir and Labongo were neighbours and they spent a lot of time together, I believe they were both hunters. One day while Gipir was away Labongo decided to borrow his favourite spear (without asking) and go hunting. While he was out there he saw a juicy elephant and decided to make a kill of it, the spear hit the target alright but unfortunately the elephant made a way with the spear in his side and Labongo was not able to find the animal.
Aha!, he had some explaining to do, when Gipir got back home his favourite spear was missing and Labongo had something to do with it. He of course explained himself but Gipir would have nothing of it. He insisted that Labongo go back into the forest and find his spear.
Tough!! but well he had to do it otherwise things would get really bad for him. Well he braved it and went looking for the elephant and found the spear.
Life went on after that but obviously their friendship was strained. Then as things always happen, this time Gipir's kid was playing with Labongo's child and it swallowed one of Labongo's beautiful beads.
Labongo gets to know about it and tables turned, he assured Gipir and insisted that he gets his bead back. Now I'm getting to the gist of my story.
I don't know what Gipir was thinking but because he was under so much pressure and Labongo would have nothing less, he got his kid, diced the stomach open and got out the bead. Gave it to Labongo and said, 'there, you want your bead?, you can have it!".
Now I'm just wondering why he couldn't wait, that bead could have come out another way you know?! but anyway that was the end of their friendship.
Legend has is that they packed their bags and went separate ways and that is how we get the tribes of the Acholi and Langi. Ok, ok, it's something like that, this is just my modified version.

And now to why I had to tell this story, I'm sure every parent dreads the moment their kid puts one of those small things; beads, stones, g.nuts e.t.c, into their ears, nose and the like.
We had our share of it recently when some time last week...

It was bed time and Sam was putting Mich to bed. Mich showed Sam a bead, and said "see I have got the thing that people put on and they look nice" and Sam replied something to the effect that it was for girls and they put it in their hair. After reading him a story, praying and saying goodnight, he walked out of the room. Before long we heard Mich calling "daddy", when Sam went in he said, "the thing that girls put on their heads is in my nose".
I was in the sitting room when Sam tells me, "I think we have a problem here, Mich stuck a bead up his nose". Obviously there is a bit of panic and people are holding their breath.
I check it out and it was at a weird angle, there was no way we were going to get it out easy. Meanwhile when Sam would tell Mich to sneeze, he would sniff instead and that wasn't helping. So I get on the Internet to see if there are any solutions, meanwhile Sam is calling the emergency line. The Internet basically said, these things happen, if you can't get it out, see a doctor, the doctor we spoke to said, he should be fine for the night the bead won't go further back, if he can breath let him go to bed and we'll remove it tomorrow when you come in.
We didn't want to complicate things by trying so we sent Mich to bed, for some reason I knew Mich wouldn't sleep because now he knew he had done something crazy and the bead was in his nose.
After a while I got an idea of trying to remove the bead, I got one of the plastic toothpicks, asked Mich to lie still and tried to remove it. Amazingly it came out after two moves, no struggles, no crying or discomfort and we were done. Now that was absolutely God, because all through this time I was praying for wisdom and I know he guided me. Phew!

May be someday I will tell you of the time my brother woke up and had a live cockroach in his ear. I will not disclose which brother though but I will tell you how a wise old man removed it.

Wharton International Cultural Show

Hey, just wanted to give you a sneak peak into some of the interesting school events that "Whartonites" enjoyed this semester. They are not all about books you know and as the saying goes work without play makes Jack a dull boy.


I attended the Wharton International Cultural Show, aka WICS, it had dances from all around the world, it was amazing. After the show I kind of felt like I had been to each of the different countries just for the brief moment.

I'm a little biased here but I honestly think the African dance was the best, it got the most cheers (or may be I was cheering too loud to hear anything else). The guys as usual danced with rythm and such ease like all the moves came naturally to them and the ladies were colourful and African, I mean what can I say?!.

Check these out.

Trip to Cleveland, Ohio

Last week I went to visit the friends in Cleveland Ohio. I was a little panicked because I was going with the main man Mich and if my last flight with him was anything to go by I knew we were in for some good drama. This was going to be his second flight in an aeroplane since our trip from Kampala, so I begged Sam to come with us to the airport and make sure we had checked in before he could head back home and do his reading.

I couldn't get a flight out of the Philly airport because of the crazy rates, the cheapest was leaving from Baltimore which is about 2 hours away. We were blessed to have our navigator friends offer to drive us there especially.

We got to the Baltimore airport in good time and Sam escorted me to the check in point. Things were really smooth because he had done all the paper work for me, I had an eticket and we were also able to book sits and everything off the Internet (sophistication I tell you). After checking in I said bye to Sam and Mich and I headed off to our departure gate. Interestingly this time round Mich was filled with calm curiosity more than anything else, he stayed close to mummy and wasn't any trouble at all.

When we got on to the plane he was directed by the steward towards the pilot sit and he walked confidently without looking behind, started small talk with the pilot while I looked on. It was not until the steward laughed and said it's this way that he turned around and noticed he was not in the right place, he was given one of the airline badges and after that we went to our sit. He rushed to sit down and put on his sit belt and later asked me if he could help me put mine on I almost said do I know you?. Thanks to the educative cartoons on TV that show his favourite characters travelling and what they need to do to have safe trips.

We got to Cleveland and Hannington was there to pick us up, then we took the train all the way to our stop and walked home. I thought Cleveland was a bit like Philly, run down buildings but having it's own sophistication. The people are definitely more friendly and the neighborhood we lived in was above average.
It was nice to see Julie again, baby Ainza is all grown now she sits, and Tendo is a ball of energy. For the first hour or so Mich and Tendo looked at each other and played in silence, that was funny, like they needed time to check each other out, that was all the silence we had for the next four days. The rest of the time was filled with 'Mich, stop that', 'stop pushing', 'Mich you have to share' 'guys you are making a lot of noise', 'it's time to sleep', 'don't run in the house', 'don't push the baby'.....

Julie had a wonderful plan for the week, we went places, met people, watched a movie and like they say a picture is worth a thousand words so ...






After four days we had to head back to Philly, hopefully Sam had got enough alone time to read. There were no hitches on the flight back, Mich slept right through but was miserable the next day because he left his buddy in Cleveland.

Year 1 down

I'm really excited and privileged to say we are about to say goodbye to year 1 at Wharton. Classes are over at the school, that means no more lectures for the 1st years and 2nd years are wrapping up and waiting for graduation.
It feels great to say 1st year is over, I kind of feel like the student here and in many ways I have been a student. There has been a lot I got to learn in this year, it's not to say I will not be learning any more but I can say that I'm a little bit on top of things. I can talk with authority when sharing my views with the new admits soon to be 1st year students.
With all of the intensity that was wrapped up in the first year I can say it was great. Culture shock, finding my way around, making new friends, realising abilities I never knew I had, seeing Mich grow, exposing him to greater learning, ... there is a lot.
Getting to experience God in a whole new and intimate way, giving of my time unreservedly in ministry, seeing another dimension to my relationship with Sam, appreciating my country, friends and family more, like I said there is a lot.
Realising I don't have to be employed to make life meaningful, that the small things of life like seeing Mich make friends, being there to answer the many questions he asks (some of which leave Sam and I speechless at times), listening day by day as he begins to adopt the accent of the kids around, they make all the difference. Daily routines of giving him a bath, making breakfast, finding fun things for him to do, sitting and watching his favourite cartoons with him, seeing his personality get molded and praying to God for wisdom on how to raise him right ... there is a lot.
Now the challenge a head, moving to a new city (Dallas) for Sam's internship, having to make new friends, finding a church to attend for the three months we will be out there. Looking out for the playgrounds, shopping centers, hoping I can get some local foods (Matooke, Cassava, Gonja ...) to keep me going. Experiencing summer in a whole new way, I'm told it gets really hot in Dallas and if the heat of Philly when I had just come is anything to go by, it's really for praying. Mmhhmm it's a lot.
Thank God He has always shown me that I can find all the answers I need in Him even when I don't see how.

Wharton Welcome Weekend

Finally I can say I'm through with the Welcome weekend, it's been busy, it's been fun, it's been great! For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, sometime last year I was nominated to represent the kids club at the schools "new admits week". Here are some of the students I was working with clubs.wharton.upenn.edu/welcome/students.html
When we got our ID cards the other day I was impressed with my title, Mary Ongwen, Committee Chair, '08. The last three weeks involved attending meetings once every week, there were times I wasn't up to it but knew I had to be there especially considering that we received emails the day before reminding us how mandatory these meetings were.
I made some good friends through out this period, especially colleagues in the Partners Club. See, the Kids Club and Partners Club are separate the basic difference being we have children and they don't. It was a nice time to exchange ideas and work together






We had a Q and A panel session where we could share our experiences moving to Philly and life as parents and partners to students. Then we had time for the admits to ask questions.
We also had a club expo, where we talked more about our clubs, what we did, membership e.t.c
It's been intense but now that it's over I'm kind of missing the action. Hopefully I will find something else to keep me occupied and challenged.

Easter

OK, so either Ugandans love holidays too much or America is just less spiritual. Easter as I remember it back home is like the longest holiday of the year. We have Holy Thursday (some people skip work), then Good Friday is a public holiday, Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, another holiday, I don't get why but it is a holiday.
May be it's the States as a whole or just Philly but the only day that is recognised is Easter Sunday. Lets not talk about the Easter Bunny and the eggs because I still have no clue how these things are related to Easter.

Sam once had an Easter egg, the contents of the egg were, a nail, a sponge, a stone and a tiny scroll with the words "Christ the King". When the buzz of Easter eggs started here I thought yeee! some more reminders of Jesus death and resurrection, only this time it seemed geared towards the kids. Sam, Mich and I were invited for lunch in Delaware, with some Ugandans the host being a Wharton alumni. We had never met but we received a very warm welcome, met lots of other Ugandans and had a great time together. Mich found some Easter eggs and from that point he became very scarce, later I found out that the Easter eggs were filled with sweets and candy.

It was nice hanging out with the Ugandan community, lots of local music playing and wonderful food ; Fish, gonja (plantain), sweet potatoes, chicken, chapati, meat, rice, dodo (greens) mmmm! very yummy. Reminded me of the sumptuous meals we had at moms place only not at tasty, the one thing I really missed was butunda (passion fruit juice), no one makes it better.

Back to the Easter theme, it's by far the most exciting Christian celebration of the year for me. I get so excited I want to dance, in my mind I borrow some of Michael Jackson's moves.
Make a sharp turn to the side, give a kick with one leg and sing,
" Alleluia (wooo) Jesus is alive, death has lost it's victory and the grave has been denied, Jesus lives forever, He's alive!"
Do a spin, then stand on my toes "He's the alpha and Omega, the first and last is He, the curse of sin is broken and we have perfect liberty, the lamb of God is risen, He's alive, He's alive!!
Now we have a new beginning, and a Kingdom that has no end, alleluia, alleluia", then I wouldn't miss to include the backslide and the finger snapping.
There is so much freedom that comes from Christ dying on the cross, wooo!!