In early January of 2019, Alex returned to Uganda . This time for a more permanent stay. He didn't return to the orphanage that he worked at before, but instead moved to a different orphanage, in a different part of the country. This orphanage is only a children's home. The children attend a local school, and also a local church.

When he first arrived, the orphanage was in bad shape. The children were physically and emotionally abused by the orphanage manager. He treated them like slaves, and was prone to beating them. Alex wrote a letter of complaint, and after a thorough (internal) investigation, the orphanage manager was fired.

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The orphanage had 3 primary caregivers, & 1 security guard.

• 1 of the 3 primary caregivers went back to University.

• 1 primary caregiver left the orphanage to "live her life" (her words).

• There was now only the cook, the security guard, and 1 primary caregiver... Alex.

• For around 6 months, this is how it stayed. Then the security guard was fired. Alex took on the added responsibility of security guard. 

In April of 2019, all of the orphans went home to their parents or guardians. Everyone except for one 8 year old boy. Alex was a single parent for 8 weeks. We became very close, very fast. This boy was the first of the children whom he taught how to play chess.

Alex returned to Canada, for 2 weeks, in December of 2019. On December 24, he returned to the orphanage to spend C h RiStM a S with the children.

In January of 2020, he was promoted to orphanage manager. The children returned to school for 1 month (in Uganda , the school year begins in February). On March 21, President Museveni locked down Uganda . All public transportation stopped. All schooling stopped. All socializing stopped. Our only option was to live life locally (he got to know his way around the community very well). The children at the orphanage had 1 week of holiday (with no school), as on March 28, Alex began homeschooling all of them... every child, at every grade level.  

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In April, he contracted Sars-Cov-2... the original strain of Covid-19 (Covid 1.0). The children never knew, but the cook/mama did. She cooked him special recipes and "ginger juice" (that's what she called it). He also took doctor prescribed medication. Within a week, it was gone. Luckily, none of the children knew or got sick.

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In May, we had a chicken pox outbreak. Luckily, Alex had chicken pox when he was a little boy... so he has an immunity. The mama, however, does not. So she could not care for the children (without becoming infected herself). Following the outbreak, he became the unofficial nurse for the orphanage. We had a few malaria outbreaks, a (community-wide) measles outbreak (in 2021), and a few other diseases that plagued the children.
 

2021 was roughly the same as 2020. Though the country wasn't as paranoid as it had been (in 2020), with regards to Covid-19, but precautions were still taken. There was still no school... so homeschooling continued. Alex had interwoven chess into the mathematics curriculum (in 2020). Chess was now, very much, a part of every day life. He was surprised that the children still enjoyed playing chess in their leisure time... as well as (learning about and dissecting the game in) school.

On January 10, 2022. President Musevini restarted Uganda's economy... thereby ending the 2-year lockdown.

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Alex left Uganda  in 2022.