A trip to Uganda in bid to aid school

Below are excerpts from a diary by Michael and Jill Zimmer, Inquirer readers from Downingtown who traveled with Abitimo Odongkara back to Gulu, northern Uganda. Abitimo is the Ugandan schoolteacher who accompanied war-scarred teenager Jennifer Anyayo here for surgery as part of The Inquirer's All Join Hands program. The Zimmers are on the board of a new Philadelphia-based nonprofit, Friends of UNIFAT, to raise money for Abitimo's school:

May 18, 2007

Heathrow Airport, London

Ten hours in Heathrow has allowed time to review things with Abitimo. Turns out she has plans for us. Places to go, people to see. I told her we will look at UNIFAT and see what the school's physical priorities are. We will make a plan for what and when. There are now 15 groups committed to funding orphan tuitions. We hope to make ties to schools in the Philadelphia region as a way to raise money.

May 19, 2007

Kampala and Gulu

We are operating in a slight fog resulting from a six-hour flight, a 12-hour layover in Heathrow, and another eight-hour flight. Thanks to the time change, our bodies tell us we should be heading to bed (for the second time). Instead, we are piled in a 14-person van with 12 suitcases (almost all school supplies) heading north on the Gulu Road. We are traveling with a queen, though. We were met at the airport by a throng of Abitimo's "children." Some are blood relations. Others are kids to whom Abitimo has been a surrogate parent.

The drive is a challenge. The road is full of potholes and traffic. For eight hours we are never alone on the road. Motorcycles are common near Kampala. Further on they are replaced with more and more bicycles. There are many buses, and we occasionally pass slower trucks filled with cattle on their way to Sudan. Always, there is foot traffic - the displaced people who live in the many piecemeal structures along the road.