Meeting Museveni

I must begin this long overdue post with some very bad news…

After only 3 days with us- our beloved little goatlet has gone to a better place.
No, she is not up in little goat heaven. Instead, she ran away… that little brat.





But we did have some very special times together. For instance, on her last morning with us, she woke us up at 6:45AM in the morning, apparently thinking she was a rooster. She baaa-ed until I begrudging got out of bed, walked outside, dragged her outside of our compound, and tied her to a tree.

On Wednesday morning while Ben and I were at Parliament, Erin and Holly were doing laundry and decided to let little Adongo roam free within our gate. They told all of the neighbors that she wasn’t tied up in her usual spot and to not let her out of the gate. One of the girls across from us forgot this warning and left, leaving the gate wide open. Apparently, the goat walked out those doors and never looked back. Erin and Holly combed the neighborhood for over an hour asking everyone if they had seen a little brown goat, but no one could help. We all were sad but recognize it’s for the best because we will be so busy for the rest of our time here.

On Friday of that week, Holly, Erin, and I ended our Parliament internship with a very special outing. We hopped on the media bus to Rakai District in southwestern Uganda on the border with Tanzania. There, Parliament was hosting a celebration honoring the 25 years of effort they have put into combating HIV/AIDS in Uganda. Rakai is a very symbolic area, as it is where the first case of HIV/AIDS was found in the early 80s.

Because of confusion on the part of the Parliament Public Relations, Erin and I had to ride on a separate bus than Holly and Ben, and we left Parliament about 30-45 minutes later. But with divine timing on the part of the first bus, Holly and Ben had the honor of meeting a very special man in Uganda.



President Museveni’s giant helicopter touched down in a field 20 minutes from the main event. Ben and Holly said that police had blocked the road from allowing any traffic to flow through. They were allowing pedestrians to walk to the field, though, and Ben and Holly described a mad rush of the village people to the site. Without giving it much thought, Ben decided to get out and see what was going on, so Holly did the same. They found themselves in a large horseshoe shaped crowd among all of the nearby villagers. Museveni was greeting people in the crowd when he spotted the sole mzungus. After eyeing them several times, his curiosity got the best of him, and he called out to Ben and Holly, “Where are you from?” He motioned them forward and they slowly approached him. Long story short, Museveni’s security guards had earlier confiscated Ben’s camera. In some quick thinking he said to Museveni, “Mr. President, I have one question. Your security guards took my camera, and I was wondering if I could have it back so I could get a picture with you.” So in the end, Ben and Holly not only met the President of Uganda, but they also had their picture taken with him and Ben had his camera returned.

Although Erin and I missed meeting him, we did get to hear his speech at the AIDS event. It was mostly in another language, so we didn’t understand what he was saying, but we did get to observe the crowd’s reaction. He enjoyed using other voices to narrate stories, and at times, I found him quite silly. Hopefully, sometime in the future, Erin and I will get to meet him, too.