Kampala and Mityana

The main reason for our trip to Uganda was to visit our son, Joshua, who’s serving with the Peace Corps as a teacher.

He’s been working at the St. Noa Mawaggali teachers college in Mityana, so visiting with him was our first priority.

Josh by the entrance to the teachers college.

Josh is very proud of his time in Uganda working with the staff of the teachers college to train future teachers and develop teaching methodologies with them.

The Catholic Chapel at the college.

While the college is funded by the government of Uganda it is run by the Catholic Church.  It accepts students of all religions.

A panoramic view of part of the campus. To the right is the science teaching lab where Josh teaches.

While in Mityana we stayed with Josh at the house he is assigned by the college.

Josh’s place in Mityana. His apartment makes up the left half of the building (Marcia in the doorway).

Since Uganda is equatorial, it has two seasons – rainy and dry.  The soil is very clay rich meaning that wells are not easily recharged. Also you can see in the picture above that the house is on top of a small hill. Trying to drill down to the water table would be expensive, so a cistern system is used to capture and store water.

The cistern system. During the rainy season rainwater flows off the roof, along the gutters and then into the cistern.

It’s a beautiful country, and Josh loves hiking around in the evening for exercise.  He took us up to the top of a local hill near his house to watch the sunset.

A beautiful Ugandan sunset from the hill about a mile from Josh’s house. Lake Wamala is to the left.

From Mityana we when to Kampala, staying for a night before going on safari and for a day after coming back.  We stayed both times at the Red Chili Hotel, a very nice, and inexpensive place to stay.

Dawn over Uganda at the Red Chili.

We spent our day in Kampala seeing the sites with Jo, a friend we made on safari who works with orphans.

Me, Marcia and Jo

A very impressive part of the day was our visit to the Gaddafi Mosque on the campus of the Muslim University.  construction was originally started during the rule of Idi Amin, but funding ceased after his expulsion from the country.  Muammar al-Gaddafi of Libya funded completion years later, hence the name.

The Gaddaffi Mosque

You can take a guided tour of the mosque.

The interior is spectacular – a work of art. Men and women are separate during services. The upper area in the picture is the women’s section.
The view from the women’s balcony.
The chair from which the Imam delivers sermons.

Following the tour, we climbed the minaret for the view of Kampala.

 

View from the minaret. St. Paul’s Cathedral in distance.
View from minaret overlooking mosque. Makerere University campus is on hill in distance.

After the tour we went to dinner and met some of the wonderful staff Josh works with.

At the restaurant. Me and Josh, Mary-Anne and Emily (Peace Corps staff), and Marcia and Jo.

A wonderful time was had by all.

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