Bunabumali chronicle

by Admin Thu 08 May 2008, 12:15 pm

http://bunabumalivt.tumblr.com/

A vistor in Bunabumali

Bunabumali Village is one of the most unique communities I have ever experienced. Houses are peppered on steep slopes connected by foot paths. There are no power lines and no cars. Mount Elgon high above catches clouds and rain comes and goes—- down pouring, then sunny minutes later. Banana trees and coffee bushes grow everywhere… as do children.

There are lots and lots of children. Norman’s family, which has 8 children of their own, adopted 10 kids— two homeless due to AIDS, and 8 that lost their parents in landslides. From 1997 to 2004… 1000 people have died from landslides.

I arrived at the school last week to a chorus of children singing and clapping to welcome me. Three days later, I was sitting next to the dead body of one of those kids, Doreen, age 10, the last of three siblings to die from AIDS, leaving her mother weeping with us beside Doreen on the bed.

I have been at this computer for nearly two and a half hours and it has yet to let me upload a photo, due to being slow, so we’ll work on it tomorrow. I have lots to share. It was one of the most amazing weeks of my life. The place was beautiful… the people.. the mountains… everything. The project was a complete success. Yesterday, we made 21 hammocks.

We have recorded many people in the village on video sharing their needs and requests to invite more visitors to come with their talents. Everyone in the village was grateful to have me there and I always felt safe. I was gifted three chickens and countless bananas, passion fruits, tomatoes, avocados, papayas, etc.

They said I am the first non-African to stay in the village over-night. Everywhere I went, all eyes were on me, which was a problem at a track and field event, because I was taking attention away from what was going on, so I hid-out in the government hall.

Writers Cory Richardson and Norman