Mango Days in Gulu

The kids at St Judes are enjoying the mangos!

The trees are ripe with mangos in Gulu, Uganda. There are hundreds of trees heavy laden with fruit. It is the one time on year that the orphanage children can eat their fill of fresh fruit until their bellies are swollen. Of course, this comes with some tummy aches and diarrhea as well as some worms. As the first fruits matured and dropped on the ground, the children would wrestle over its ownership. Now the fruits lay alone and untouched as the children have reached their fill.

I brought some bubbles one day for the kids to chase and play with.

6 people on a bike?  Drive slow please!

As I ride my bike through the villages (and often through the cattle), the air is thick with the smell of rotting fruit. There is someone on every corner selling mangos for a very cheap price. It is a wonderful site. They are delicious. I have learned to peel them with my teeth and eat the mangos like the local people; sometimes with the peeling and all. I should probably consider taking a de-worm pill before I leave Uganda, yeah?!

Sometimes I have to ride through cattle to get home!

The weather in Gulu is cooler now. The days are still hot, but the evening gets cool and I need a jacket. It rains every afternoon now and usually into the night. The thunder and lightning shows are fabulous. I have pulled a chair outside just to watch nature’s fury at work. It’s hard to even dry my laundry on the line because of the rain. It often gets washed again. I've arrived home several times drenched, but I still prefer the rain and mud to the dry red dust during the dry season.

Dont take my picture!

Crops are planted everywhere. The grass is greener than green. It is a VERY dark, rich green and the brown and red dirt is fertile and bursting with crops. It is a beautiful site to see. Growing food is not a problem here.

One evening, I was at the Ethiopian Restaurant, which is a bit out of town, and this HUGE rain storm came trapping all of us in the restaurant for quite awhile. It was too dangerous to walk and it was impossible for a boda to get us (gigantic potholes cannot be seen when filled with water). Eventually, as I was in the company of Peace Corp Volunteers, a car came and took us all to our homes. Thank you Peace Corps! Joining the Peace Corps is something I might be interested in someday….

This is the offices of Frontline Engineering.  I live in the guest wing to the very left by those motorbikes.