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Switzerland and Paris

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Over 5.5 weeks in April and May, we had an incredibly busy stint of travel. The three of us headed to Switzerland for a quick night in the lakeside city of Lausanne and then reunited with Greg and Marcia in Basel.  This was a trip the three of us originally planned in 2020 to visit my cousin Mike, his wife Sylvia, and their two great kids who have had their home in Basel since 2017, so we were thrilled to make it there. My parents landed in Basel after a celebratory week-long cruise on the Rhine and the five of us stayed in a great hotel in Spalentor that was walking distance from Mike and Sylvia's and gave us easy access to hop on the tram as well. Mike and Sylvia were incredible hosts and we enjoyed touring Basel and enjoying the buzz of spring in the city, a day trip to Lucerne, and celebrating Easter at their home.    After 4 nights, the five of us (Greg, Marcia, Noah, Shannon, Zalina) said our goodbyes to the Basel McMorrows and took the high speed train to the City of Lights.
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McJJ's March Updates

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Time is passing at a fast clip now, with the past few months including a great deal of travel and the heart of Shannon’s research, so we are a little behind on posting about our March. For this blog, we wanted this blog to capture not just our travels, but our life in Uganda.     After 6 months of applying for approval from 2 research ethics boards and permission from the Ugandan government, Shannon was finally able to start her Photovoice research in early March. She met with the 21 Congolese refugee women who are residents of Kampala. The first meeting was on March 8, which is International Women’s Day and a public holiday here in Uganda.  Shannon ordered cakes from Kabira Country Club to celebrate with the women.  Noah stepped into the integral position of Project and Accounts coordinator to help with the numerous details that are challenging to organize and implement in a U.S. based context and even more so in Uganda.  The list is endless, but key activities were procuring phones t
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An Unforgettable February Break

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Time is really speeding up now, snowballing downhill it seems. Three months from today we will be back in Grand Rapids, reuniting with Migo, and preparing for 4th of July family celebrations. But first, let us share how life has been here for the past couple of months. Zalina had a school break of about a week in February, so we took a truly magical trip to Tanzania, including the island of Zanzibar. It was the first time that all 3 of us were experiencing a new country together. We left Uganda on a Saturday, splurged on the Kenya Airways lounge that included air conditioning, "free" food and drinks (including adult beverages), and Netflix for a 4-hour layover in Nairobi, and landed in Kilimanjaro airport in the early evening. We had booked an "airport hotel" and were so pleasantly surprised that it was a cozy lodge where we could catch glimpses of Mr. Kilimanjaro from the pool area. Our wonderful guide Godson picked us up on Sunday and we made our way over 200 kilo
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