Sunday, July 29, 2007
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Saturday afternoon, our last full day in Jinja
Left, two of the Neller boys.
Tyler found his mom's perfumed powder.
Some of the children at New Victory receiving their care packages before our departure.
Hi, we’re finishing up here trying to pack our bags full of crafts (baskets, jewelry, purses) and a few gifts. Tonight is our last night at Irene’s so we’re having a feasts of chicken tenders, rice, chipati, beans, avocado and then ice cream for dessert. Today has been full of meetings, goodbyes and shopping.
Thursday was a fun but tiring day. We spent the morning at home and then went to meet Zach’s friends, Surj and Danyne at Surj’s Palm Tree Guest House. We’d seen Danyne earlier at the orphanage she started, Amani Baby Cottage. Seth, Lexie, Rachel, Tyler and Zach got to swim in the swimming pool. Tyler was absolutely hilarious doing belly flops into the kiddie pool and then, without telling anybody, decided to belly flop over in the deep end. Seth got to him as quickly as he could pulling him up to breathe—what a save!
Ronald Kizito arrived from Fort Portal Thursday afternoon and then was with us at Irene’s for supper that night. Since Irene had taken the day off, we got home earlier than usual. We made spaghetti sauce and pasta for supper and since DJ loves fried green tomatoes, I made those as an appetizer using posho flour. Posho is made from maize so it’s corn meal but finer than what I’d normally use. Everyone loved them! Ronald came back into the kitchen to ask if he could watch me so he could make some when he got home. They were pretty tasty. We’d bought the green tomatoes on Wednesday from one of the men out in Musima who’s applied for a loan.
Yesterday, we had some more meetings and then that afternoon went back to Musima for the burial (funeral) of Moses Kirya’s dad who we had just visited on Tuesday. Kirya had called us Thursday night to tell us about his father. I can’t say I was looking forward to the burial but I did want to experience an African burial to see how it differed. Zach had told me it would probably last at least a couple of hours and there would be lots of talking and lots of wailing.
Well fortunately for me, the burial started at 2 but we’d been told it wasn’t until 4 so when we arrived around 4:20, things were well under way. There was a huge crowd there all gathered outside Kirya’s dad’s house. We stood around and visited with Kirya and then Zipporah since we couldn’t hear anything anyway. Then all of a sudden, the crowd turned and headed our direction. We tromped back up the road while most of the crowd, tromped across the field to where the grave had been dug. There was a little singing and then one of the ladies, left wailing with a few ladies helping her back to the house. The rest of the people, headed up toward Kirya’s house and the church building to eat. At that point, we said our goodbyes and left as quickly as we could.
Last night after we got back, the four of us took Kizito out to eat after David had a meeting to talk about loans with some of the people here (in the dark because the electricity was off for the night.)
I guess I’ll close now. It’s been a very good trip. We’ll spend the next day saying lots of goodbyes and will be sad but that’s a good thing. It means the relationships are real and they’re growing stronger even in between visits.
In closing, let me just briefly say that in the next couple of weeks/months, David and I will be working on the Micro Development Missions website (http://www.microdevelopmentmissions.com/). We’ll have sections to buy the crafts, see pictures and read the stories of the artisans. There’ll also be a section explaining the micro-loan program with specifics on each person’s loan proposal and another section about sponsoring some of the children we’ve met who need help with their school fees. I’ll send out an email as those updates are made.
Zipporah, above left, weaving baskets.Above, Alex, Ronald and Tape Bwana's son.
Left, DJ and Ronald Bwana outside the chicken house.
Below left, Daniel with church members Rachel and Esther under the mango tree where the Kainagoga church meets.
Above--and another church member just lives another kilometer...Below--Water-spewing Contest winners
Above, Director Samuel shares a 'brief' history of the Musima church preschoolMusima Preschool Chorus
Below, DJ doing magic tricks for children at Zach's Birthday party. (Orange tree on right was planted by our Zach Johnson in January.)
Rebecca (Richard and Ida's daughter), Rachel and Tyler all stickered up at the birthday party.Irene and Seth help Zach cut the birthday cake.
Seth giving Tyler an Ipod lesson.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Ok, I think the village visits are over and we ended with a bang! Actually had my first vehicle breakdown in Africa ever and it wasn’t bad at all. We lost some nut off the tire/wheel when we were going very slowly over one of the many speed quadruple bumps here on the roads. We weren’t too far from Irene’s place or Jinja town and we were near a trading center so about 10 guys came over immediately to look. Seth, self-assured male that he is, was the only guy around who didn’t feel the need to huddle around and help. He was also at the time in charge of Tyler, Irene’s 2-year old that we’d decided to take with us for the day. While DJ was calling the mechanic, Abraham, whom we’ve come to know quite well on this trip, someone went off to try to find another nut. So before Abraham could get there, the wheel was replaced and we were on our way again.
Today’s visit was to Butwaaswa, the home of one of my most very favorite of Africans, Ronald Bwana who works as a nightwatchman at the Bogles’ during the week and then goes home to his wife, Tape (pronounced ‘toppy’) and son Alex on the weekends. Sometimes Tape and Alex come stay with him during the week too. They’re expecting another child this September. We were supposed to just spend the morning with Ronald and be back in Jinja for meetings at 2 and 3. Instead we got back to town around 4ish, not quite as dirty or tired as the day before, having had a good visit with Ronald and his family and had a meeting with Ronald’s group of agemates who are requesting a loan to start a poultry business. I’ll attach a pic of DJ and Ronald outside the chicken house they’ve already built.
On Monday of this week, David and I met with Ronald Mugulusi and Irene about establishing a school scholarship program to honor both Moses Kimeze and Adam Langford. We’ve named it the Kimeze/Langford Memorial Scholarship Fund. Ronald who works at the Source Cafe has stepped in and helped us with loans, etc. since the loss of Moses and wants to help us implement this scholarship.
After that meeting, we spent the afternoon at Richard and Ida Bazanoona’s home just outside Jinja near Njeru. Ida is loads of fun. I’ve mentioned before I think that she works in the Source Monday thru Thursday and then goes to minister out in the villages on Friday and Saturday. Ida also plans to start a preschool in their home before too long and she makes some of the paper necklaces that we sell through MDM and will bring back with us. Last year, we loaned Richard and Ida the money to buy their own motorcycle. They make payments through their salary checks and I think will have it paid off in a few more months but they’ve already been able to save a few dollars each day just in transport back and forth to town. Lexie and I helped her cook our lunch and also picked beans in her garden to take back to Irene. David, Richard and Seth talked business (actually Seth fell asleep on the couch).
Tuesday was a long day visiting Musima village again with Moses Kirya but very important since our pilot group loan village program will be with the people from the Musima church and the nearby Kainagoga church plant. We had a lot to get done so Kirya was working very hard to keep us on a schedule. We got a late start because the car needed to be worked on first so at the first lady’s house, we met 3 ladies, 2 of whom make baskets. When we were offered tea, Kirya regretfully turned them down saying we were very pressed for time but we said we’d take eggs with us thinking they would be raw ones to carry back home like the last time. We were wrong. They brought out boiled eggs, roasted g-nuts, roasted corn which we tried to eat very quickly and then pray together before going to the next stop.
We visited the Musima church preschool again. Guess what? They had a program planned for us that included their school chorus! J We were served passion fruit juice that had been made with bore hole water which they say doesn’t need boiling but since we weren’t too sure about that, we didn’t drink it. The director told us that as part of the program, he would read us a brief history of the school that would only take 15 minutes. Both DJ and Kirya said ‘No! we are so sorry but we are very behind schedule” and Kirya said he could have 4 minutes.
After the preschool, we went to Kirya’s home to meet with the folks that are requesting loans to talk about how that will work. We also took some video footage of Zipporah weaving one of her baskets. One of the most memorable moments of the day for me was when Lexie was playing around in Zipporah’s dark sitting room and moved a clock on the wall only to find a very large gray spider and jump out of her skin while Seth and I watched and laughed.
Daniel, the preacher at the new church in Kainagoga met us at Kirya’s to take us to visit a few of his church members who were requesting loans. (We’re trying to take pictures of all those requesting loans so we can have those on the website later.) I think that instead, Daniel took us to the home of EVERY one of his church members and showed us where they meet—under a mango tree. I’d considered bringing Tyler with us for the day but had decided against it. Several times during the day, I was so very thankful he wasn’t with us.
-------------------------------------------------
So it’s actually Thursday morning now. (Kirya called this morning to tell us that his father whom we met on Tuesday had passed away.) Irene has taken the day off and we’re getting some paperwork done here at home before going to Jinja market to shop, lunch with Surj and Danyne and then part of the afternoon at the Nile Resort swimming pool with the kids. We kept Rachel home from school today. I think we’ll stop to see a lady who makes handwoven cloth. Also, Ronald Kizito from Fort Portal is coming in this afternoon for a couple of days to meet with DJ.
David has to go into hiding at the end of the trip because a lot of people, some that he doesn’t’ even know, want to see him just one more time. Irene runs defense for him when she can at the Source and we screen his phone calls. I think he’s having a meeting tomorrow with folks about the loan program that Ronald Mugulusi will be handling on site.
We also have to start trying to pack all the stuff we’ve bought into the suitcases we have. We’ll only be bringing back a few personal items—only what we’ll need on the trip. I usually leave most of my clothes to give away and had told Lexie that I shop at Goodwill before I leave so I can do that. This time, Lexie and I will leave our clothes with Irene to maybe use again next year—and for her to use until then if she wants.
Now I’m going random…..Irene has started calling me “M” and she calls DJ “Mussai” which probably means “Old One’ but is used to show respect like Teacher or Wise One—at least that’s my interpretation. DJ calls Irene the Lusoga word for Little Daughter. We’re going to miss the chai and chipati. We had Zach’s First Birthday party last Sunday. I didn’t write about that. It was a scream. The kids loved the balloons and bubbles that Lexie got out. Irene invited ALL the neighborhood kids. There are some very poor children who live nearby. It was fun to be able to love on them, give them cake and soda and cookies and watch them play together.
We leave Jinja around 2 on Sunday so we’ll be without a phone then and won’t be emailing after Saturday until we get home. We arrive at JFK on Tuesday morning around 7:30 Eastern then go through Customs. I’ll call Ryan and the moms as soon as I can from JFK—I don’t think our flight to Atlanta leaves until 3ish that afternoon.
Ok, one of the pics needs a little more explanation. Som of the Musima preschool children had a contest for the ‘visitas’ to watch—I’ll call it the spitting contest. Six children gulped water from their cups and ran back and forth with mouthfuls of water and then spewed as much water as they could into their assigned soda bottle. The one to fill her bottle first, won. The two young ladies on the left of the pic finished first and second. Is it possible it’s harder to spit into a Krest bottle than a Coke one? Maybe.
Ok, I think the village visits are over and we ended with a bang! Actually had my first vehicle breakdown in Africa ever and it wasn’t bad at all. We lost some nut off the tire/wheel when we were going very slowly over one of the many speed quadruple bumps here on the roads. We weren’t too far from Irene’s place or Jinja town and we were near a trading center so about 10 guys came over immediately to look. Seth, self-assured male that he is, was the only guy around who didn’t feel the need to huddle around and help. He was also at the time in charge of Tyler, Irene’s 2-year old that we’d decided to take with us for the day. While DJ was calling the mechanic, Abraham, whom we’ve come to know quite well on this trip, someone went off to try to find another nut. So before Abraham could get there, the wheel was replaced and we were on our way again.
Today’s visit was to Butwaaswa, the home of one of my most very favorite of Africans, Ronald Bwana who works as a nightwatchman at the Bogles’ during the week and then goes home to his wife, Tape (pronounced ‘toppy’) and son Alex on the weekends. Sometimes Tape and Alex come stay with him during the week too. They’re expecting another child this September. We were supposed to just spend the morning with Ronald and be back in Jinja for meetings at 2 and 3. Instead we got back to town around 4ish, not quite as dirty or tired as the day before, having had a good visit with Ronald and his family and had a meeting with Ronald’s group of agemates who are requesting a loan to start a poultry business. I’ll attach a pic of DJ and Ronald outside the chicken house they’ve already built.
On Monday of this week, David and I met with Ronald Mugulusi and Irene about establishing a school scholarship program to honor both Moses Kimeze and Adam Langford. We’ve named it the Kimeze/Langford Memorial Scholarship Fund. Ronald who works at the Source Cafe has stepped in and helped us with loans, etc. since the loss of Moses and wants to help us implement this scholarship.
After that meeting, we spent the afternoon at Richard and Ida Bazanoona’s home just outside Jinja near Njeru. Ida is loads of fun. I’ve mentioned before I think that she works in the Source Monday thru Thursday and then goes to minister out in the villages on Friday and Saturday. Ida also plans to start a preschool in their home before too long and she makes some of the paper necklaces that we sell through MDM and will bring back with us. Last year, we loaned Richard and Ida the money to buy their own motorcycle. They make payments through their salary checks and I think will have it paid off in a few more months but they’ve already been able to save a few dollars each day just in transport back and forth to town. Lexie and I helped her cook our lunch and also picked beans in her garden to take back to Irene. David, Richard and Seth talked business (actually Seth fell asleep on the couch).
Tuesday was a long day visiting Musima village again with Moses Kirya but very important since our pilot group loan village program will be with the people from the Musima church and the nearby Kainagoga church plant. We had a lot to get done so Kirya was working very hard to keep us on a schedule. We got a late start because the car needed to be worked on first so at the first lady’s house, we met 3 ladies, 2 of whom make baskets. When we were offered tea, Kirya regretfully turned them down saying we were very pressed for time but we said we’d take eggs with us thinking they would be raw ones to carry back home like the last time. We were wrong. They brought out boiled eggs, roasted g-nuts, roasted corn which we tried to eat very quickly and then pray together before going to the next stop.
We visited the Musima church preschool again. Guess what? They had a program planned for us that included their school chorus! J We were served passion fruit juice that had been made with bore hole water which they say doesn’t need boiling but since we weren’t too sure about that, we didn’t drink it. The director told us that as part of the program, he would read us a brief history of the school that would only take 15 minutes. Both DJ and Kirya said ‘No! we are so sorry but we are very behind schedule” and Kirya said he could have 4 minutes.
After the preschool, we went to Kirya’s home to meet with the folks that are requesting loans to talk about how that will work. We also took some video footage of Zipporah weaving one of her baskets. One of the most memorable moments of the day for me was when Lexie was playing around in Zipporah’s dark sitting room and moved a clock on the wall only to find a very large gray spider and jump out of her skin while Seth and I watched and laughed.
Daniel, the preacher at the new church in Kainagoga met us at Kirya’s to take us to visit a few of his church members who were requesting loans. (We’re trying to take pictures of all those requesting loans so we can have those on the website later.) I think that instead, Daniel took us to the home of EVERY one of his church members and showed us where they meet—under a mango tree. I’d considered bringing Tyler with us for the day but had decided against it. Several times during the day, I was so very thankful he wasn’t with us.
-------------------------------------------------
So it’s actually Thursday morning now. (Kirya called this morning to tell us that his father whom we met on Tuesday had passed away.) Irene has taken the day off and we’re getting some paperwork done here at home before going to Jinja market to shop, lunch with Surj and Danyne and then part of the afternoon at the Nile Resort swimming pool with the kids. We kept Rachel home from school today. I think we’ll stop to see a lady who makes handwoven cloth. Also, Ronald Kizito from Fort Portal is coming in this afternoon for a couple of days to meet with DJ.
David has to go into hiding at the end of the trip because a lot of people, some that he doesn’t’ even know, want to see him just one more time. Irene runs defense for him when she can at the Source and we screen his phone calls. I think he’s having a meeting tomorrow with folks about the loan program that Ronald Mugulusi will be handling on site.
We also have to start trying to pack all the stuff we’ve bought into the suitcases we have. We’ll only be bringing back a few personal items—only what we’ll need on the trip. I usually leave most of my clothes to give away and had told Lexie that I shop at Goodwill before I leave so I can do that. This time, Lexie and I will leave our clothes with Irene to maybe use again next year—and for her to use until then if she wants.
Now I’m going random…..Irene has started calling me “M” and she calls DJ “Mussai” which probably means “Old One’ but is used to show respect like Teacher or Wise One—at least that’s my interpretation. DJ calls Irene the Lusoga word for Little Daughter. We’re going to miss the chai and chipati. We had Zach’s First Birthday party last Sunday. I didn’t write about that. It was a scream. The kids loved the balloons and bubbles that Lexie got out. Irene invited ALL the neighborhood kids. There are some very poor children who live nearby. It was fun to be able to love on them, give them cake and soda and cookies and watch them play together.
We leave Jinja around 2 on Sunday so we’ll be without a phone then and won’t be emailing after Saturday until we get home. We arrive at JFK on Tuesday morning around 7:30 Eastern then go through Customs. I’ll call Ryan and the moms as soon as I can from JFK—I don’t think our flight to Atlanta leaves until 3ish that afternoon.
Ok, one of the pics needs a little more explanation. Som of the Musima preschool children had a contest for the ‘visitas’ to watch—I’ll call it the spitting contest. Six children gulped water from their cups and ran back and forth with mouthfuls of water and then spewed as much water as they could into their assigned soda bottle. The one to fill her bottle first, won. The two young ladies on the left of the pic finished first and second. Is it possible it’s harder to spit into a Krest bottle than a Coke one? Maybe.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
More pics from Uganda
1. Erica Pierson with ladies in the village on Friday. Alice from Christian Aids Network is on Erica's left in black.2. Jinja's Nile Resort group photo--Irene and children get to meet Seth's dad, Ken Neller.
3. DJ shopping for baskets along the road on the way back to Jinja from Mbarara.
4. That's me with James Okumu as he shows us his crops.
5. Lexie playing with Zach.
6. One of the children DJ and Seth visited on Friday.
7. Our group photo from Mbale.
Saturday, June 23, Jinja
Saturday, June 23
Happy Birthday, Ryan! Sorry you’re having to work.
Speaking of ‘sorry,’ that’s a word we hear often around here. Anytime anything not so good happens, like you bump your head going into a hut or drop your piece of sugar cane, the Ugandan with you will say, “Oooh, sorry.” Another common phrase is “welcome back.” Whenever we get back home, Irene’s babysitter Annette or cousin Esther will say “welcome back” as they let us in the gate. As we see people here that we’ve known from previous visits, they say “welcome back”. After our trips to Mbale or western Uganda, everyone says “welcome back” and also “how is there?” As we leave, the phrase is “safe journey.” I’m sure I’ll think of others but those are the ones for right now.
That last few days have been fun, productive and full. Wednesday, Lexie and Seth went rafting on the Nile and returned to us unscathed even though they had a few gulps of river water. While they were off on their project, David and I went to the home of James Okumu who lives about a 2 ½ to 3 hour drive—1/2 of it on a bad public road to Iganga and then the last half was basically out into the bush, driving on dirt paths. Had we known what the drive would be like, we might have thought Irene’s car wouldn’t make the trip but it did. If it had rained and turned the paths to mud, we might still be there. Okumu has a very big farm raising goats and pigs as well as cassava, g-nuts and other staples like bananas. He has donated land for a church building that was built with the help of Dr. Ganus (the chancellor one) who has helped many of the native ministers and churches in this area of Uganda
Okumu has also started a Bible training program with 12 men who come in from surrounding villages and since October have been spending every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday at Okumu’s place studying the scriptures together. They’ve finished the History of Israel parts 1, 2 and 3 and are now studying one of the gospels. I enjoyed getting to meet Okumu. I’d heard about him from Zach and David when they went to visit and spend the night at his place seven years ago. The trip was so long that David said a visit every seven years is about right.
Irene took the day off work on Thursday so we could all spend a fun day together. Rachel stayed home from school. We had a relaxing morning at the house and then drove to the Nile Resort to let the kids (Rachel, Zach, Seth and Lexie) swim there for the afternoon. Mid-afternoon, Philip and Laura Shero and family joined us on their way from picking up Seth’s dad from the airport and going to Mbale. (By the way, Ken, Irene says you look entirely too young to have a son as old as Seth—and you don’t even dye your hair!)
On Friday, Lexie and I got to join Ida and Erica Pierson on a visit to another village for what I thought was probably going to be a ladies’ day. We rode with Ben Langford who was going on for a men’s Bible study. It ended up not being a ladies’ day but we joined Alice and Robert at a ladies meeting at the church there. Alice and Robert are volunteers for CAN (Christian Aids Network). They go to village churches and train the ladies there to counsel and encourage those suffering from AIDS or who are HIV positive. I think it’s a really good program. Alice said she would get in touch with Elizabeth in Fort Portal who takes care of those AIDS widows and children to encourage her and also teach about good nutrition for those who have tested positive for HIV.
While Lexie and I were enjoying our trip, David and Seth stayed in Jinja. They heard a very interesting proposal from Geoffrey Menya, a young man who is starting a fruit juice distribution business. In the afternoon, they went to meet and take pictures of some of the children from New Victory School who are needing support. David said the conditions were pretty bad and it was hard for him to keep his composure. They went to the homes with Earnest, the headmaster, and his wife Phoebe. David is quite impressed with both of them and feels very good about the work that they’re doing with Ricky and Jackie. You’ll hear more about that later and find info on the MDM website in the future about all of these projects.
Last night, we got to spend time with the local missionary families—Spencer and Emily Bogle, Kym and Ben Langford, and Mark and Lori Manry plus about 5 kids with 2 on the way. I thought a lot about Adam Langford yesterday. I rode up front with Ben on our trip to and from the village so we’d had some time to talk about Adam and then last night was my first time back to the Bogles’ house where we’d spent several evenings with Adam last summer.
Today we’re at the Source Café in Jinja writing reports, meeting with folks and eating banana bread—it’s the best! (The common sugar here is raw sugar and the bananas are very tasty so putting those two together is wonderful.) Lexie still hasn’t gotten her fill of avocados here so she’s going to the market with one of the guys from here to buy more avocados and pineapples. Seth and I will probably go to the grocery store for a few staples. I’ll make spaghetti again tonight and Irene will make chicken tenders and chipati for tomorrow. We’re having a 1st Birthday Party for Zach tomorrow afternoon. It’ll be time to pull out more of Lexie’s bubbles then hand out more pens and gum.
David has taken Irene for two driving lessons this week and will try to do that most days from now until we leave. He said the second lesson this morning was much better than the first. I’m posting some more pics out on the blog and I’ll write again before we leave Jinja a week from tomorrow on July 1.
(A marching band just went past the cafe with cars bedecked with ribbons following.
Apparently it was for someone's wedding. Very interesting.)
Love and blessings to you all, mj
Happy Birthday, Ryan! Sorry you’re having to work.
Speaking of ‘sorry,’ that’s a word we hear often around here. Anytime anything not so good happens, like you bump your head going into a hut or drop your piece of sugar cane, the Ugandan with you will say, “Oooh, sorry.” Another common phrase is “welcome back.” Whenever we get back home, Irene’s babysitter Annette or cousin Esther will say “welcome back” as they let us in the gate. As we see people here that we’ve known from previous visits, they say “welcome back”. After our trips to Mbale or western Uganda, everyone says “welcome back” and also “how is there?” As we leave, the phrase is “safe journey.” I’m sure I’ll think of others but those are the ones for right now.
That last few days have been fun, productive and full. Wednesday, Lexie and Seth went rafting on the Nile and returned to us unscathed even though they had a few gulps of river water. While they were off on their project, David and I went to the home of James Okumu who lives about a 2 ½ to 3 hour drive—1/2 of it on a bad public road to Iganga and then the last half was basically out into the bush, driving on dirt paths. Had we known what the drive would be like, we might have thought Irene’s car wouldn’t make the trip but it did. If it had rained and turned the paths to mud, we might still be there. Okumu has a very big farm raising goats and pigs as well as cassava, g-nuts and other staples like bananas. He has donated land for a church building that was built with the help of Dr. Ganus (the chancellor one) who has helped many of the native ministers and churches in this area of Uganda
Okumu has also started a Bible training program with 12 men who come in from surrounding villages and since October have been spending every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday at Okumu’s place studying the scriptures together. They’ve finished the History of Israel parts 1, 2 and 3 and are now studying one of the gospels. I enjoyed getting to meet Okumu. I’d heard about him from Zach and David when they went to visit and spend the night at his place seven years ago. The trip was so long that David said a visit every seven years is about right.
Irene took the day off work on Thursday so we could all spend a fun day together. Rachel stayed home from school. We had a relaxing morning at the house and then drove to the Nile Resort to let the kids (Rachel, Zach, Seth and Lexie) swim there for the afternoon. Mid-afternoon, Philip and Laura Shero and family joined us on their way from picking up Seth’s dad from the airport and going to Mbale. (By the way, Ken, Irene says you look entirely too young to have a son as old as Seth—and you don’t even dye your hair!)
On Friday, Lexie and I got to join Ida and Erica Pierson on a visit to another village for what I thought was probably going to be a ladies’ day. We rode with Ben Langford who was going on for a men’s Bible study. It ended up not being a ladies’ day but we joined Alice and Robert at a ladies meeting at the church there. Alice and Robert are volunteers for CAN (Christian Aids Network). They go to village churches and train the ladies there to counsel and encourage those suffering from AIDS or who are HIV positive. I think it’s a really good program. Alice said she would get in touch with Elizabeth in Fort Portal who takes care of those AIDS widows and children to encourage her and also teach about good nutrition for those who have tested positive for HIV.
While Lexie and I were enjoying our trip, David and Seth stayed in Jinja. They heard a very interesting proposal from Geoffrey Menya, a young man who is starting a fruit juice distribution business. In the afternoon, they went to meet and take pictures of some of the children from New Victory School who are needing support. David said the conditions were pretty bad and it was hard for him to keep his composure. They went to the homes with Earnest, the headmaster, and his wife Phoebe. David is quite impressed with both of them and feels very good about the work that they’re doing with Ricky and Jackie. You’ll hear more about that later and find info on the MDM website in the future about all of these projects.
Last night, we got to spend time with the local missionary families—Spencer and Emily Bogle, Kym and Ben Langford, and Mark and Lori Manry plus about 5 kids with 2 on the way. I thought a lot about Adam Langford yesterday. I rode up front with Ben on our trip to and from the village so we’d had some time to talk about Adam and then last night was my first time back to the Bogles’ house where we’d spent several evenings with Adam last summer.
Today we’re at the Source Café in Jinja writing reports, meeting with folks and eating banana bread—it’s the best! (The common sugar here is raw sugar and the bananas are very tasty so putting those two together is wonderful.) Lexie still hasn’t gotten her fill of avocados here so she’s going to the market with one of the guys from here to buy more avocados and pineapples. Seth and I will probably go to the grocery store for a few staples. I’ll make spaghetti again tonight and Irene will make chicken tenders and chipati for tomorrow. We’re having a 1st Birthday Party for Zach tomorrow afternoon. It’ll be time to pull out more of Lexie’s bubbles then hand out more pens and gum.
David has taken Irene for two driving lessons this week and will try to do that most days from now until we leave. He said the second lesson this morning was much better than the first. I’m posting some more pics out on the blog and I’ll write again before we leave Jinja a week from tomorrow on July 1.
(A marching band just went past the cafe with cars bedecked with ribbons following.
Apparently it was for someone's wedding. Very interesting.)
Love and blessings to you all, mj
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Pics of the trip
Primary School Chorus
1.Lexie and Marlea wearing new necklaces.
2,3 and 4. Musima Super Sunday
5. Faith's grainery in Ft. Portal with DJ andKizito (far right).
6. Amani Baby Cottage
7. Bugagali Falls, Jinja
8. Jinja Market
9. Ft. Portal church
10. Elizabeth with seed necklaces.
11. Primary school after the rain
12. Seth's muddy feet after the walk.
13. Stephen Waiswa family.
Uganda Update from DJ--western Uganda trip continued
Saturday, June 16, 2007
As we arrived back at the Source Café in Jinja on Thursday afternoon, I told M, S&L that one of my main goals for the trip had just been reached—to get everyone safely back from our road trip across Uganda. The roads are, in many places, full of potholes, and a driver has to be aware of animals and people on and very near the road much of the time, as well as the significant volume of bicycle and motorcycle traffic. Also, getting from inner Kampala to Jinja was a bit less direct than I had expected. Mark Long gave me some direction to the Jinja Road, but something was lost in the transmission and we wandered a bit, thankfully in the right general direction, and made it to Jinja in a little over two hours.
It was good to be back at Irene’s and not in a hotel and the feeling seemed to be shared by everyone. On Friday we slept in and went into town close to 10 am. The road is under “improvement” all the time, it seems, and so detours through some back roads from Iganga Rd to Kimuli Rd where Irene lives. It seems to be a real treat for the families living on those roads to have so much more traffic and to see so many more strange people like us in their neighborhoods, despite the heavy coat of red dust left on their houses, children and laundry drying on the bushes.
I’ve jumped over about five full days, our last day in Ft. Portal on Saturday, June 9 to our return to Jinja on Thursday, June 14. In that span of time we visited with several business owners, including Teddy who runs a bicycle parts business in a local market, and Faith, who buys whole grain and mills corn, rice, and barley into flour. They are friends of Ronald who he thinks are good loan prospects. In discussing Teddy’s business, we noted that her profit margins are lower than we’d expected. She might buy a bicycle for 90,000UGS and sell for only 100,000UGS, or 110,000 on a good day, and on average sells one every two weeks. We asked about why she chose that business (because her husband runs another bicycle shop elsewhere in town) and if there are more profits selling clothing or general merchandise (she doesn’t think so). She says there is more money in motorcycles and parts but the required investment is great. Faith is interested in a loan for a machine that will grind peanuts, or g-nuts as they’re known here (for “ground nuts” since they grow underground). G-nuts, always in the small “Spanish peanut” variety, are very common and usually eaten with milk tea as a snack or at “tea time” and also to make a sauce or gravy commonly used with matooke or potatoes. There is a significant market for ground peanuts. She also noted that a vehicle would enable her to buy directly from the farmers in the villages and so earn higher margins. With regard to transport costs, fuel is much more expensive than in the States, with gasoline selling for about 2,200UGS per liter, or roughly $5 per gallon.
We visited another woman who makes baskets to videotape the weaving process, and bought several of her baskets. Then Ronald took us to a crater lake about an hour’s drive up mostly dirt roads, through some beautiful countryside. There are a number of volcanic craters here, and the soil is much darker than in other areas we’ve visited. Ronald remarked that the soil here is very rich and that much more could be done with it than is being done. (Actually, he said people in this region are lazy and don’t take manage their property as well as they should.)
Sunday morning we attended church at the Ft. Portal Church of Christ. Jeff Cash spoke, and it was encouraging to see a large group of young men involved. Jeff explained that their discipling had focused on men and boys because the small group and one-on-one methods had proven more effective and that it was not socially appropriate to mix the genders in those settings. We had lunch at a restaurant with the Cash family and Ronald, then Sunday afternoon we returned to visit Elizabeth, taking her a gift of rice, sugar, salt, tea, etc. We purchased the seed necklaces she had made since our visit a few days earlier. She gave us each nicknames—I don’t remember the local language version, but the translations were, roughly: Marlea, Treasure; Lexie, Kitten; Seth: Junior (we had the most laughs about that one); me, Thunder (that one got laughs, too). About the time we thought we ready to say our farewells we realized she was making tea for us, so we stayed for another hour.
Ronald had another appointment for us, buy the man couldn’t be reached and we returned to the hotel to rest. A bit later Ronald called and said he was bringing the man to the hotel to see me. He was an uncle of Ronald who was working in an AIDS education/support organization in Kyenjojo, just east of Ft. Portal. There is a high incidence of AIDS there, which I thought unusual since it’s a rural area. He explained that there are tea plantations there and that many of the pickers are men who come for the work but leave their wives back home and have relations with local women. His program was funded by a program called Uphold, which was in turn funded by the USAID. The Uphold program was expiring this very month (June) and the gentleman was seeking funding to continue. I asked him to send me information in writing on the program and that, if it was appropriate to our purposes, I’d post the appeal on our website.
Somewhat in passing, Ronald explained that he works some with a local moneylender who specializes in “emergency loans.” In the U.S. we’d call the fellow a “loan shark” and Ronald might be his “strongarm,” but in the more objective terms of economics they’re both part of the “informal credit market.” Emergency loans require collateral that is taken in possession pending the loan repayment. The rates, according to Ronald, are 10% for a month; if the borrower only wants to buy a week’s time, the rate is 5% for that week,. Obviously, those rates would be regarded as usurious in the U.S., and some would cry for government regulations to stop it. If successful in making it unlawful, it would probably result in driving the business out of public view (underground) or resulting in some means of circumventing the regulations through clever structuring of the loan arrangements, as in the case of the many check-cashing businesses in the U.S. Maybe there’s an opportunity for someone to come in and undercut the loan sharks and still generate returns that are attractive even given the high risk of this clientele.
On Sunday night we had dinner with a group on a medical mission trip from Lubbock, TX, led by Dr. Mark Hall, former missionary in Jinja. Since Ronald would be working with this group starting early Monday morning, we saw him off at our hotel that night, but invited him to come to Jinja in the last two weeks of our stay to wrap up some things and talk about the future of our work together.
The next morning we left the hotel about 10 am. The drive would take us west then south, about 3 hours from Ft. Portal to Queen Elizabeth Nat’l Park, through beautiful hilly country with the Rwenzori Mountains (aka Mountains of the Moon) to our right most of the way. About 20 km outside Ft. Portal Marlea spotted the “showroom” or “outlet store” for Rubona Baskets, the group whose three members we had met a few days earlier. We stopped for photos, visited with Marcellicus the store manager and bought more baskets. We were apparently quite an attraction for the locals, as more women and children gathered to look in the store window as we visited.
South of Kasese is the main entrance to QENP. We had already seen a couple of Ugandan Kob, a large antelope that is fairly common in the park. The 24 km from the highway to the main gate is full of potholes and ruts, enough to make you wonder if you’re on the right road. We were in Mark Long’s 4WD truck, which is a pretty stiff ride but proved necessary to getting around the roads and trails, especially after a heavy rain. Our development work didn’t require a safari, but it’s a shame not to see some wildlife when you’ve come this far. Besides, we want the trip to be memorable for the students and hopefully give them the “Africa bug” so they’ll return.
We stayed two nights at Mweya Lodge with full board, and the food turned out to be better than we expected. We had lunch about 2:30 pm and settled into our rooms before going out to look for animals around 5:00 pm. We didn’t really see much that afternoon, a few warthogs, a waterbuck or two. I had checked into getting a guide for the early morning (6:30 – 930 am) drive the next day but they were booked up. The next morning we got up early to drive around on our own, but the man who appeared to be matching up people and guides told me to just follow the others, so we did. That morning we saw two lions (females) and three cubs from only about 30 yds, then a group of about 15 elephants at more like 50-100 yds. We followed the other vehicles for about an hour then decided we’d seen plenty and returned, afraid we might miss the breakfast buffet. That afternoon we took a launch cruise on the Kazinga Channel that connects Lakes George and Edward and there, at a distance of as little as twenty or thirty feet, we saw many hippos, cape buffaloes, a few elephants and crocodiles, and many birds. Our cruise also took us past a fishing village where the tourists and villagers seemed to enjoy viewing each other almost equally. When we retuned to the lodge there was a hippo grazing on the lawn of the lodge itself. An attendant was watching him to see that no one got too close, which he said was important because this hippo was aggressive.
The next morning we took a guided game drive with park guide named Vincent, and took a much longer drive than the day before, finishing around 9:40 am. It had rained heavily the night before, and we needed the 4WD to get us out of a ditch once. Again we saw lions, many waterbuck and Ugandan kob, a group of elephants, warthogs, hippos, crested cranes, and other birds. I had been up a lot the night before for bathroom visits and not sleeping well because of early wakeup time. Also, we were leaving that morning and I wasn’t looking forward to the drive to Mbarara.
To finsh this edition, I’ll just say that the trip to Mbarara, the night’s stay there at the Agip hotel, and the next day’s trip through Masaka and Kampala to Jinja went well. We’re back in Jinja with two weeks to finish a lot of work, and have enjoyed safety and great times so far.
As we arrived back at the Source Café in Jinja on Thursday afternoon, I told M, S&L that one of my main goals for the trip had just been reached—to get everyone safely back from our road trip across Uganda. The roads are, in many places, full of potholes, and a driver has to be aware of animals and people on and very near the road much of the time, as well as the significant volume of bicycle and motorcycle traffic. Also, getting from inner Kampala to Jinja was a bit less direct than I had expected. Mark Long gave me some direction to the Jinja Road, but something was lost in the transmission and we wandered a bit, thankfully in the right general direction, and made it to Jinja in a little over two hours.
It was good to be back at Irene’s and not in a hotel and the feeling seemed to be shared by everyone. On Friday we slept in and went into town close to 10 am. The road is under “improvement” all the time, it seems, and so detours through some back roads from Iganga Rd to Kimuli Rd where Irene lives. It seems to be a real treat for the families living on those roads to have so much more traffic and to see so many more strange people like us in their neighborhoods, despite the heavy coat of red dust left on their houses, children and laundry drying on the bushes.
I’ve jumped over about five full days, our last day in Ft. Portal on Saturday, June 9 to our return to Jinja on Thursday, June 14. In that span of time we visited with several business owners, including Teddy who runs a bicycle parts business in a local market, and Faith, who buys whole grain and mills corn, rice, and barley into flour. They are friends of Ronald who he thinks are good loan prospects. In discussing Teddy’s business, we noted that her profit margins are lower than we’d expected. She might buy a bicycle for 90,000UGS and sell for only 100,000UGS, or 110,000 on a good day, and on average sells one every two weeks. We asked about why she chose that business (because her husband runs another bicycle shop elsewhere in town) and if there are more profits selling clothing or general merchandise (she doesn’t think so). She says there is more money in motorcycles and parts but the required investment is great. Faith is interested in a loan for a machine that will grind peanuts, or g-nuts as they’re known here (for “ground nuts” since they grow underground). G-nuts, always in the small “Spanish peanut” variety, are very common and usually eaten with milk tea as a snack or at “tea time” and also to make a sauce or gravy commonly used with matooke or potatoes. There is a significant market for ground peanuts. She also noted that a vehicle would enable her to buy directly from the farmers in the villages and so earn higher margins. With regard to transport costs, fuel is much more expensive than in the States, with gasoline selling for about 2,200UGS per liter, or roughly $5 per gallon.
We visited another woman who makes baskets to videotape the weaving process, and bought several of her baskets. Then Ronald took us to a crater lake about an hour’s drive up mostly dirt roads, through some beautiful countryside. There are a number of volcanic craters here, and the soil is much darker than in other areas we’ve visited. Ronald remarked that the soil here is very rich and that much more could be done with it than is being done. (Actually, he said people in this region are lazy and don’t take manage their property as well as they should.)
Sunday morning we attended church at the Ft. Portal Church of Christ. Jeff Cash spoke, and it was encouraging to see a large group of young men involved. Jeff explained that their discipling had focused on men and boys because the small group and one-on-one methods had proven more effective and that it was not socially appropriate to mix the genders in those settings. We had lunch at a restaurant with the Cash family and Ronald, then Sunday afternoon we returned to visit Elizabeth, taking her a gift of rice, sugar, salt, tea, etc. We purchased the seed necklaces she had made since our visit a few days earlier. She gave us each nicknames—I don’t remember the local language version, but the translations were, roughly: Marlea, Treasure; Lexie, Kitten; Seth: Junior (we had the most laughs about that one); me, Thunder (that one got laughs, too). About the time we thought we ready to say our farewells we realized she was making tea for us, so we stayed for another hour.
Ronald had another appointment for us, buy the man couldn’t be reached and we returned to the hotel to rest. A bit later Ronald called and said he was bringing the man to the hotel to see me. He was an uncle of Ronald who was working in an AIDS education/support organization in Kyenjojo, just east of Ft. Portal. There is a high incidence of AIDS there, which I thought unusual since it’s a rural area. He explained that there are tea plantations there and that many of the pickers are men who come for the work but leave their wives back home and have relations with local women. His program was funded by a program called Uphold, which was in turn funded by the USAID. The Uphold program was expiring this very month (June) and the gentleman was seeking funding to continue. I asked him to send me information in writing on the program and that, if it was appropriate to our purposes, I’d post the appeal on our website.
Somewhat in passing, Ronald explained that he works some with a local moneylender who specializes in “emergency loans.” In the U.S. we’d call the fellow a “loan shark” and Ronald might be his “strongarm,” but in the more objective terms of economics they’re both part of the “informal credit market.” Emergency loans require collateral that is taken in possession pending the loan repayment. The rates, according to Ronald, are 10% for a month; if the borrower only wants to buy a week’s time, the rate is 5% for that week,. Obviously, those rates would be regarded as usurious in the U.S., and some would cry for government regulations to stop it. If successful in making it unlawful, it would probably result in driving the business out of public view (underground) or resulting in some means of circumventing the regulations through clever structuring of the loan arrangements, as in the case of the many check-cashing businesses in the U.S. Maybe there’s an opportunity for someone to come in and undercut the loan sharks and still generate returns that are attractive even given the high risk of this clientele.
On Sunday night we had dinner with a group on a medical mission trip from Lubbock, TX, led by Dr. Mark Hall, former missionary in Jinja. Since Ronald would be working with this group starting early Monday morning, we saw him off at our hotel that night, but invited him to come to Jinja in the last two weeks of our stay to wrap up some things and talk about the future of our work together.
The next morning we left the hotel about 10 am. The drive would take us west then south, about 3 hours from Ft. Portal to Queen Elizabeth Nat’l Park, through beautiful hilly country with the Rwenzori Mountains (aka Mountains of the Moon) to our right most of the way. About 20 km outside Ft. Portal Marlea spotted the “showroom” or “outlet store” for Rubona Baskets, the group whose three members we had met a few days earlier. We stopped for photos, visited with Marcellicus the store manager and bought more baskets. We were apparently quite an attraction for the locals, as more women and children gathered to look in the store window as we visited.
South of Kasese is the main entrance to QENP. We had already seen a couple of Ugandan Kob, a large antelope that is fairly common in the park. The 24 km from the highway to the main gate is full of potholes and ruts, enough to make you wonder if you’re on the right road. We were in Mark Long’s 4WD truck, which is a pretty stiff ride but proved necessary to getting around the roads and trails, especially after a heavy rain. Our development work didn’t require a safari, but it’s a shame not to see some wildlife when you’ve come this far. Besides, we want the trip to be memorable for the students and hopefully give them the “Africa bug” so they’ll return.
We stayed two nights at Mweya Lodge with full board, and the food turned out to be better than we expected. We had lunch about 2:30 pm and settled into our rooms before going out to look for animals around 5:00 pm. We didn’t really see much that afternoon, a few warthogs, a waterbuck or two. I had checked into getting a guide for the early morning (6:30 – 930 am) drive the next day but they were booked up. The next morning we got up early to drive around on our own, but the man who appeared to be matching up people and guides told me to just follow the others, so we did. That morning we saw two lions (females) and three cubs from only about 30 yds, then a group of about 15 elephants at more like 50-100 yds. We followed the other vehicles for about an hour then decided we’d seen plenty and returned, afraid we might miss the breakfast buffet. That afternoon we took a launch cruise on the Kazinga Channel that connects Lakes George and Edward and there, at a distance of as little as twenty or thirty feet, we saw many hippos, cape buffaloes, a few elephants and crocodiles, and many birds. Our cruise also took us past a fishing village where the tourists and villagers seemed to enjoy viewing each other almost equally. When we retuned to the lodge there was a hippo grazing on the lawn of the lodge itself. An attendant was watching him to see that no one got too close, which he said was important because this hippo was aggressive.
The next morning we took a guided game drive with park guide named Vincent, and took a much longer drive than the day before, finishing around 9:40 am. It had rained heavily the night before, and we needed the 4WD to get us out of a ditch once. Again we saw lions, many waterbuck and Ugandan kob, a group of elephants, warthogs, hippos, crested cranes, and other birds. I had been up a lot the night before for bathroom visits and not sleeping well because of early wakeup time. Also, we were leaving that morning and I wasn’t looking forward to the drive to Mbarara.
To finsh this edition, I’ll just say that the trip to Mbarara, the night’s stay there at the Agip hotel, and the next day’s trip through Masaka and Kampala to Jinja went well. We’re back in Jinja with two weeks to finish a lot of work, and have enjoyed safety and great times so far.
Tuesday, June 19 from Marlea
Tuesday morning, June 18?
Hey everybody! We get back to the States two weeks from today on July 3 and while it will be hard to say goodbye, I’ll be ready to be home. This Saturday, June 23, is Ryan’s 24th birthday and he has to work all weekend so we’ll celebrate later.
The last few days have been pretty busy. Friday afternoon, Irene arranged for Gerald, her 12 year old adopted son (Moses’ late brother’s son), to be picked up from the nearby boarding school and spend the weekend with us. Friday night while sitting at Irene’s house after a big rain, I thought I felt an earthquake for several seconds. Seth said he felt it too. I asked Irene if they ever had earthquakes and she said there had been one about 3 months ago. I haven’t been in one of those since we lived in California several years ago. The next day I searched on Google and found out that there was an earthquake in Congo felt all the way to Kenya (through Uganda) measuring 5.9 at around 8:50 pm local time.
Sunday we went to Musima village for Super Sunday where several village churches get together for their Sunday assembly once a month. It’s a fun time but lasts longer than even a normal village Sunday assembly lasts. We got there around 10 and left around 3. There was lots of singing, preaching, fellowshipping, eating lunch and 3 church choruses sang for us. It was absolutely exhausting, especially since we had Rachel and Tyler with us (Irene and baby Zach stayed home). (One in our group calls times like this “Introvert Hell” and I’m inclined to agree. DJ is the only extrovert in the group.)
Later Sunday afternoon, we met one of our friends, Maanda Wilson, who is a village preacher and has started a soccer ministry for young men. First we went to Bugagali Falls on the Nile where you can go near the river and see the rapids. It’s a very pretty place. Then I got to ride with Maanda on his motorbike out to the soccer field at a school nearby. We met some of the men and took pictures of them playing soccer. Later, we met Spencer and Emily Bogle, one of the missionary couples here (they’re expecting a baby in the next week or two) and Erica Pierson who lived here when Zach did and is back for a visit. We had a fun time eating Chinese food at Ling Ling’s in town.
Last week we started scheduling all the appointments for our last two weeks. I asked David then that, if possible, we would schedule village visits only every other day so we have a chance to ‘recover’ afterwards from those longer days and then spend time meeting in town with people on the other days (that’s also when I get to hang out/hide with Irene and kids and be on the internet). So our first village visit this week (not counting Sunday in Musima) was yesterday to Nawangoma to see a primary school and visit the home of Stephen Waiswa, a good friend who is another of the Jinja cluster village preachers.
Stephen came to Irene’s yesterday morning around 9 to ride with us and show us the way. We stopped at a shop owned by a friend of Stephen at a nearby trading center to pick up some gifts/staples for Meribou, his wife. I bought a couple of chipati hot of the grill for S&L to enjoy just in case it would be a while before we ate again. It’s a good thing. Not long after we pulled off the paved road at the trading center, it began to rain. The dirt roads turn into wet clay in the rain so we slipped and slid around but finally made it to the primary school. It was absolutely pouring but we ran out of the car into one of the school’s classrooms, basically a shed with a tin roof. It was raining so hard we couldn’t hear each other talk so we just looked at each other, the teachers and the children for probably 30 minutes until the rain softened enough for us to listen. We toured the school and then sat in one of the sheds that houses the nursery school and primary one for a little program they’d prepared for the visitors. We heard the school’s national anthem, Uganda’s national anthem and the school chorus sang for us. I can’t describe these school choruses, I’ll just have to find a way to put a video out on our website or something.
About 1:30ish, we headed out for Stephen’s home down the road after the teachers filled our car trunk with gifts of eggplants, corn, tomatoes, sugar cane and pineapples. (We distributed a lot of that after our return to the Source café employees.) Normally, we could’ve driven to Stephen’s house but since it had rained so much, we had to walk. DJ and Lexie had on tennis shoes and hiking boots but Seth and I just had on flip-flops. We all had a very difficult time walking on the road thru the mud/clay. Seth and I ended up going barefoot since one of his most favorite ever shoes tore badly and was ruined and it was too hard to pull our shoes out of the sticky stuff with each step. Anyway, after we finally got to the house, Stephen’s wife and one of his daughters cut the mud off our shoes with a machete and then washed our feet for us and the shoes so we could go sit inside and share a meal. They loaned Seth another pair of flip flops. I really enjoyed the foot washing but Seth had a little tougher time with receiving.
The best part was after our meal when one of Stephen’s sons, Johnson, brought Seth his repaired sandal. Seth was ecstatic! How did they fix it? Johnson said he’d taken it down to the cobbler’s shop and had it repaired. It was like the parable of the lost coin/sheep/son. Much rejoicing! And it only cost about 200 shillings so that’s maybe like a quarter or less.
After the meal and taking group photos of Stephen’s family, he took us to the next house to meet his 94 year old father. Wow! That’s very unusual as you know but especially for a place like Uganda.
Today, DJ and S&L are in meetings and working on loan proposals as well as printing out pictures to give to people. Later this evening, we’re going to the home of Grace and Goretti Nyonga. Grace is the head of the Busoga Bible School here in Jinja. Goretti used to work at the Source. I showed her how to bake chocolate cake from scratch to sell here at the café when we were here four years ago.
David and I go to a village a couple of hours from here tomorrow to meet with a man named James Okumu. David and Zach went to his home in 2000 I think but I’ve never been there or met him. We’ve told Seth and Lexie that tomorrow could be a good day for the two of them to go rafting here on the Nile if they want to miss that village visit.
I forgot to mention that last Saturday we did get to see Danyne Randolph and visit the Amani Baby Cottage orphanage here in Jinja. We’ll go back and eat supper with her and Surj, the newlyweds, sometime next week. Surj and Danyne are good friends of Zach from his time here. We also took a short tour of the Jinja market on Saturday. That’s an experience. It’s like Beebe flee market and Ripley, Mississippi’s First Monday but it’s every day and bigger. It would be more fun if we didn’t stick out as the white ones and could just look around and be invisible for a little bit. Being white also doesn’t help when it comes to trying to bargain for good deals in the market. They always give us the ‘muzungu’ price. Hope things are going well in your world and with your families.
I’ll try to post some more pictures.
Hey everybody! We get back to the States two weeks from today on July 3 and while it will be hard to say goodbye, I’ll be ready to be home. This Saturday, June 23, is Ryan’s 24th birthday and he has to work all weekend so we’ll celebrate later.
The last few days have been pretty busy. Friday afternoon, Irene arranged for Gerald, her 12 year old adopted son (Moses’ late brother’s son), to be picked up from the nearby boarding school and spend the weekend with us. Friday night while sitting at Irene’s house after a big rain, I thought I felt an earthquake for several seconds. Seth said he felt it too. I asked Irene if they ever had earthquakes and she said there had been one about 3 months ago. I haven’t been in one of those since we lived in California several years ago. The next day I searched on Google and found out that there was an earthquake in Congo felt all the way to Kenya (through Uganda) measuring 5.9 at around 8:50 pm local time.
Sunday we went to Musima village for Super Sunday where several village churches get together for their Sunday assembly once a month. It’s a fun time but lasts longer than even a normal village Sunday assembly lasts. We got there around 10 and left around 3. There was lots of singing, preaching, fellowshipping, eating lunch and 3 church choruses sang for us. It was absolutely exhausting, especially since we had Rachel and Tyler with us (Irene and baby Zach stayed home). (One in our group calls times like this “Introvert Hell” and I’m inclined to agree. DJ is the only extrovert in the group.)
Later Sunday afternoon, we met one of our friends, Maanda Wilson, who is a village preacher and has started a soccer ministry for young men. First we went to Bugagali Falls on the Nile where you can go near the river and see the rapids. It’s a very pretty place. Then I got to ride with Maanda on his motorbike out to the soccer field at a school nearby. We met some of the men and took pictures of them playing soccer. Later, we met Spencer and Emily Bogle, one of the missionary couples here (they’re expecting a baby in the next week or two) and Erica Pierson who lived here when Zach did and is back for a visit. We had a fun time eating Chinese food at Ling Ling’s in town.
Last week we started scheduling all the appointments for our last two weeks. I asked David then that, if possible, we would schedule village visits only every other day so we have a chance to ‘recover’ afterwards from those longer days and then spend time meeting in town with people on the other days (that’s also when I get to hang out/hide with Irene and kids and be on the internet). So our first village visit this week (not counting Sunday in Musima) was yesterday to Nawangoma to see a primary school and visit the home of Stephen Waiswa, a good friend who is another of the Jinja cluster village preachers.
Stephen came to Irene’s yesterday morning around 9 to ride with us and show us the way. We stopped at a shop owned by a friend of Stephen at a nearby trading center to pick up some gifts/staples for Meribou, his wife. I bought a couple of chipati hot of the grill for S&L to enjoy just in case it would be a while before we ate again. It’s a good thing. Not long after we pulled off the paved road at the trading center, it began to rain. The dirt roads turn into wet clay in the rain so we slipped and slid around but finally made it to the primary school. It was absolutely pouring but we ran out of the car into one of the school’s classrooms, basically a shed with a tin roof. It was raining so hard we couldn’t hear each other talk so we just looked at each other, the teachers and the children for probably 30 minutes until the rain softened enough for us to listen. We toured the school and then sat in one of the sheds that houses the nursery school and primary one for a little program they’d prepared for the visitors. We heard the school’s national anthem, Uganda’s national anthem and the school chorus sang for us. I can’t describe these school choruses, I’ll just have to find a way to put a video out on our website or something.
About 1:30ish, we headed out for Stephen’s home down the road after the teachers filled our car trunk with gifts of eggplants, corn, tomatoes, sugar cane and pineapples. (We distributed a lot of that after our return to the Source café employees.) Normally, we could’ve driven to Stephen’s house but since it had rained so much, we had to walk. DJ and Lexie had on tennis shoes and hiking boots but Seth and I just had on flip-flops. We all had a very difficult time walking on the road thru the mud/clay. Seth and I ended up going barefoot since one of his most favorite ever shoes tore badly and was ruined and it was too hard to pull our shoes out of the sticky stuff with each step. Anyway, after we finally got to the house, Stephen’s wife and one of his daughters cut the mud off our shoes with a machete and then washed our feet for us and the shoes so we could go sit inside and share a meal. They loaned Seth another pair of flip flops. I really enjoyed the foot washing but Seth had a little tougher time with receiving.
The best part was after our meal when one of Stephen’s sons, Johnson, brought Seth his repaired sandal. Seth was ecstatic! How did they fix it? Johnson said he’d taken it down to the cobbler’s shop and had it repaired. It was like the parable of the lost coin/sheep/son. Much rejoicing! And it only cost about 200 shillings so that’s maybe like a quarter or less.
After the meal and taking group photos of Stephen’s family, he took us to the next house to meet his 94 year old father. Wow! That’s very unusual as you know but especially for a place like Uganda.
Today, DJ and S&L are in meetings and working on loan proposals as well as printing out pictures to give to people. Later this evening, we’re going to the home of Grace and Goretti Nyonga. Grace is the head of the Busoga Bible School here in Jinja. Goretti used to work at the Source. I showed her how to bake chocolate cake from scratch to sell here at the café when we were here four years ago.
David and I go to a village a couple of hours from here tomorrow to meet with a man named James Okumu. David and Zach went to his home in 2000 I think but I’ve never been there or met him. We’ve told Seth and Lexie that tomorrow could be a good day for the two of them to go rafting here on the Nile if they want to miss that village visit.
I forgot to mention that last Saturday we did get to see Danyne Randolph and visit the Amani Baby Cottage orphanage here in Jinja. We’ll go back and eat supper with her and Surj, the newlyweds, sometime next week. Surj and Danyne are good friends of Zach from his time here. We also took a short tour of the Jinja market on Saturday. That’s an experience. It’s like Beebe flee market and Ripley, Mississippi’s First Monday but it’s every day and bigger. It would be more fun if we didn’t stick out as the white ones and could just look around and be invisible for a little bit. Being white also doesn’t help when it comes to trying to bargain for good deals in the market. They always give us the ‘muzungu’ price. Hope things are going well in your world and with your families.
I’ll try to post some more pictures.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
June 9, 2007 from Ft. Portal, Uganda--Report from DJ
On Thursday, we went to the Source Café to await a call from Jamie Duncan, teacher at Mbale, who would go with us to Kampala. There we would connect with Mark Long, missionary in Kampala and recently engaged to Jamie. From there we travel to Ft. Portal, on the western border with the (Democratic Republic of the) Congo. It’s a four-hour drive, although the road is good from about 20 km outside Kampala all the way to Ft. Portal. Lots of beautiful scenery on the way, fewer villages and people than on any long stretch of road we’ve seen in Uganda.
We arrived about 6:00 pm on Thursday, stayed at the Rwenzori View Guest House. Ronald Kizito, church leader and our contact with the basket makers in Ft. Portal, had dinner with us at the guest house. Jeff Cash, missionary of about 11 years in Ft. Portal, and Mark Long recommended Ronald as a trustworthy contact last fall, and we placed an order for baskets through him in February. Due to the timing of the shipment and of our craft sales, we haven’t been able to sell many of those items yet. As in Jinja, one of the purposes of our visit is to meet the women, make photos and videos of them and their work, and to gather information that will help us promote their basketwork and tell about their lives. That shipment of baskets included the baskets made by three women, all of whom we met, interviewed and photographed yesterday.
The meeting took place in the home of Rosemary __________, who has taken in a number of AIDS orphans, some of whom are HIV positive. They live with her in her small home in the town. She wanted to talk with me about her work with these orphans, and after a short conversation I asked her to give me a written description of her work as a basis for further discussion. Ronald recommended her, and based on the recommendations of Ronald by Mark and Jeff, I’m inclined to trust just about anything he says.
The meeting was scheduled for 11:00 am, started a bit late, but went until about 2:30 pm, and the time went very quickly for me. As it turns out, the three women we interviewed are members of a group of 30 (actually, we later found this to be a sub-group of over 150 women who make baskets for this cooperative) women who go collectively by the name Rabona Baskets, named after their village located 15 km south of Ft. Portal. All 30 are widows, most due to AIDS. I believe most or all of them learned to make baskets from Nalongo Gorret. Gorret is 38 yrs old, has been a widow 6 yrs, and has 7 children ranging in age from 7 to 20. Her mother taught her to make baskets and she has been making them herself since 1983. She explained that the money she makes from basket sales helps her to buy food and medicine, and to pay school fees for her children. She personally finished the 5th year of primary school. As if the story wasn’t already punctuated by loss and deprivation, Ronald explained that Gorret and the other two women are HIV positive, a deadly and insulting gift from their late husbands. (Note added later: I was discussing Moses’ death with a relative and co-worker of Moses Kimeze, he referred to Moses as “The Late,” never using his name, as in, “The Late was my father’s younger brother.” )
We had a number of questions about her, about the basket styles and designs, about the dyes used, about the time required, and so on. For those curious about such things, which I am, it was very interesting. She brought samples of the materials used in the baskets, and even samples of the flowers and roots used to make the dyes used to produce the colors used. I want to know about how much time went into the various baskets. She showed us a covered basket about eight inches high, and she estimated that it took about 20 hours to make. The local price for that basket is about 8,000 Ugandan shillings, less than $5. That’s not much, of course, but the local wage for common labor is about 3,500 shillings, or right at $2 per day.
The women brought a large bag of baskets of all shapes and sizes for us, in case we wanted to buy some. With Ronald’s help, I bought all of them for 500,000 shillings, about $300, and gave them money one for transport to and from the meeting. The other two women we’ll describe on the website. As you may be able to imagine, the stories are pitiful and sad, but also inspiring and convicting. I told them that, by describing their work and telling their stories, we are trying to help them sell their work in the U.S. However, their courage, their commitment to care for their children, and the spirit in which they work together will be an inspiration to (especially) women in America.
We prayed with them and left for lunch. We had taken a lot of photos of them, and Seth had managed the videocamera so we could get their testimonies on tape, along with Ronald’s translation. We went to The Gardens Restaurant for lunch, and African buffet with great beans, matooke (plantain bananas that taste a lot like boiled potatoes), peanut sauce, rice, decent beef, and potatoes. I passed on the cow’s hoof and even the goat (I like goat a lot, but the pieces I probed with the serving spoon didn’t inspire confidence--from the pieces I find in the places we eat lead me to conclude that goats are 95% bone and sinew.
After lunch we went to the home of Elizabeth Baguma, 67 yr-old widow who makes some jewelry out of plant that produces gray seeds that make very nice beads when dried. She picks the seeds from bushes outside her house. She takes care of her own children and grandchildren, but has also taken in Rose , an HIV+ mother of three children, and is teaching her to make jewelry. We sold Elizabeth’s necklaces at the Vaughn Park church of Christ ladies day last spring. Because a close relative had died within the past few days, she did not have any necklaces for us to take with us. I told her that we would buy as many necklace/earring sets that she could make by the time we left. We arranged to go back to see her Sunday evening to pick them up, and we’ll take her a gift of rice, salt, sugar, tea, soap, and maybe some meat. We prayed with and for her, and she sent us away with gifts of garden-fresh sweet bananas, guava, and avocados.
Because of prior bookings in Rwenzori View Guest House, we moved to the Fort Hotel, just up the road. It’s a bit more expensive but much newer and nicer. We had dinner there for the four of us plus Mark, Jamie, and Ronald. It was a good dinner, but at about $9 a head (same as the night before at the Rwenzori View) not something we can afford to do very often. Jeff Cash came to visit with us and describe his family’s work in Ft. Portal.
I’ll let Marlea send this out and will write an update in the next day or two.
We arrived about 6:00 pm on Thursday, stayed at the Rwenzori View Guest House. Ronald Kizito, church leader and our contact with the basket makers in Ft. Portal, had dinner with us at the guest house. Jeff Cash, missionary of about 11 years in Ft. Portal, and Mark Long recommended Ronald as a trustworthy contact last fall, and we placed an order for baskets through him in February. Due to the timing of the shipment and of our craft sales, we haven’t been able to sell many of those items yet. As in Jinja, one of the purposes of our visit is to meet the women, make photos and videos of them and their work, and to gather information that will help us promote their basketwork and tell about their lives. That shipment of baskets included the baskets made by three women, all of whom we met, interviewed and photographed yesterday.
The meeting took place in the home of Rosemary __________, who has taken in a number of AIDS orphans, some of whom are HIV positive. They live with her in her small home in the town. She wanted to talk with me about her work with these orphans, and after a short conversation I asked her to give me a written description of her work as a basis for further discussion. Ronald recommended her, and based on the recommendations of Ronald by Mark and Jeff, I’m inclined to trust just about anything he says.
The meeting was scheduled for 11:00 am, started a bit late, but went until about 2:30 pm, and the time went very quickly for me. As it turns out, the three women we interviewed are members of a group of 30 (actually, we later found this to be a sub-group of over 150 women who make baskets for this cooperative) women who go collectively by the name Rabona Baskets, named after their village located 15 km south of Ft. Portal. All 30 are widows, most due to AIDS. I believe most or all of them learned to make baskets from Nalongo Gorret. Gorret is 38 yrs old, has been a widow 6 yrs, and has 7 children ranging in age from 7 to 20. Her mother taught her to make baskets and she has been making them herself since 1983. She explained that the money she makes from basket sales helps her to buy food and medicine, and to pay school fees for her children. She personally finished the 5th year of primary school. As if the story wasn’t already punctuated by loss and deprivation, Ronald explained that Gorret and the other two women are HIV positive, a deadly and insulting gift from their late husbands. (Note added later: I was discussing Moses’ death with a relative and co-worker of Moses Kimeze, he referred to Moses as “The Late,” never using his name, as in, “The Late was my father’s younger brother.” )
We had a number of questions about her, about the basket styles and designs, about the dyes used, about the time required, and so on. For those curious about such things, which I am, it was very interesting. She brought samples of the materials used in the baskets, and even samples of the flowers and roots used to make the dyes used to produce the colors used. I want to know about how much time went into the various baskets. She showed us a covered basket about eight inches high, and she estimated that it took about 20 hours to make. The local price for that basket is about 8,000 Ugandan shillings, less than $5. That’s not much, of course, but the local wage for common labor is about 3,500 shillings, or right at $2 per day.
The women brought a large bag of baskets of all shapes and sizes for us, in case we wanted to buy some. With Ronald’s help, I bought all of them for 500,000 shillings, about $300, and gave them money one for transport to and from the meeting. The other two women we’ll describe on the website. As you may be able to imagine, the stories are pitiful and sad, but also inspiring and convicting. I told them that, by describing their work and telling their stories, we are trying to help them sell their work in the U.S. However, their courage, their commitment to care for their children, and the spirit in which they work together will be an inspiration to (especially) women in America.
We prayed with them and left for lunch. We had taken a lot of photos of them, and Seth had managed the videocamera so we could get their testimonies on tape, along with Ronald’s translation. We went to The Gardens Restaurant for lunch, and African buffet with great beans, matooke (plantain bananas that taste a lot like boiled potatoes), peanut sauce, rice, decent beef, and potatoes. I passed on the cow’s hoof and even the goat (I like goat a lot, but the pieces I probed with the serving spoon didn’t inspire confidence--from the pieces I find in the places we eat lead me to conclude that goats are 95% bone and sinew.
After lunch we went to the home of Elizabeth Baguma, 67 yr-old widow who makes some jewelry out of plant that produces gray seeds that make very nice beads when dried. She picks the seeds from bushes outside her house. She takes care of her own children and grandchildren, but has also taken in Rose , an HIV+ mother of three children, and is teaching her to make jewelry. We sold Elizabeth’s necklaces at the Vaughn Park church of Christ ladies day last spring. Because a close relative had died within the past few days, she did not have any necklaces for us to take with us. I told her that we would buy as many necklace/earring sets that she could make by the time we left. We arranged to go back to see her Sunday evening to pick them up, and we’ll take her a gift of rice, salt, sugar, tea, soap, and maybe some meat. We prayed with and for her, and she sent us away with gifts of garden-fresh sweet bananas, guava, and avocados.
Because of prior bookings in Rwenzori View Guest House, we moved to the Fort Hotel, just up the road. It’s a bit more expensive but much newer and nicer. We had dinner there for the four of us plus Mark, Jamie, and Ronald. It was a good dinner, but at about $9 a head (same as the night before at the Rwenzori View) not something we can afford to do very often. Jeff Cash came to visit with us and describe his family’s work in Ft. Portal.
I’ll let Marlea send this out and will write an update in the next day or two.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Friday, June 15 in Jinja
I wrote the note below on Tuesday but this is my first chance to send it out. It's Friday afternoon here. We got back to Jinja yesterday afternoon leaving Mbarara at 9 am and getting to the Source at 5:15 pm. It was a long trip but DJ is doing great driving and Seth and Lexie are real troopers--never complaining about the heat or cold, the food, or lack of hot showers or bumpy roads. We had a guide go with us in the park on Thursday morning before we left for Mbarara. We had a good time and saw more lions, antelopes, etc. We also crossed over into the southern hemisphere going to Mbarara and then back across to the northern hemisphere yesterday on our way back to Jinja. Have a great weekend. Business is really picking up here and we're trying to plan the next 2 weeks--lots of village visits to share and fellowship and meet with folks. Sunday we got to Musima for a Super Sunday. That'll be great fun!
love you, mj
Tuesday morning in Queen Elizabeth National Park
Hi, I’m sitting in the lobby of probably the nicest hotel I’ve ever stayed in. Yesterday morning around 10, we left Ft. Portal driving through the mountains on a sometimes very bad but sometimes very good road. It’s the same road Zach and some of the other missionaries took while on a bikeathon a few years ago—too many hills for me to even imagine taking it on a bike. We stopped at the Rubona Women’s Basket Association’s shop along the way and bought some more baskets. I think more than 150 women make baskets for this shop—and the 3 ladies we met the other day are a part of this larger group. Irene Kimeze is now the crafts buyer in Jinja for the Source Café crafts section and she is looking for a direct contact in western Uganda too so I’m hoping they’ll be able to expand their market to Jinja as well. You can imagine that we cause quite a commotion when 4 muzungus pull up and start buying a couple dozen baskets—and taking pictures.
We got here to the game park around 2, had a nice lunch, rested for a bit then around dusk we drove along some of the roads looking for animals since animals are more likely to stir early in the morning and then again near dark. After seeing a few antelopes here and there, Lexie said “Oh, my!” and there were about 3 adult elephants with a baby and one that I’ll call an adolescent. We just sat and watched them for a bit then a little later we watched a beautiful water buck and of course took several pictures. On the way back, we stopped at the boat launch to see if there were any hippos nearby. There weren’t but there was a crocodile swimming just off the bank—but there were guards with guns nearby to protect us. The lodge has great food so we had a wonderful supper and I got a call from Ryan.
This morning we got up around 6 am and followed some folks who had guides out into the park. We saw a hippo in a big mud pit, 3 lion cubs lounging on the road (didn’t see any parents) and then as we drove past a large watering hole/lake, we saw probably 4 different groups of elephants. After about an hour, we came on back thinking we might take our 2-hour boat trip at 9. I wasn’t feeling so great so we decided to wait until later this afternoon. They say that often you can see more animals at the water’s edge when the sun is out during the 3-5pm boat trip so that’s what we’ll do. After enjoying a delightful breakfast buffet and resting a bit, I’m up waiting for the next meal J and just enjoying sitting out at this beautifully breathtaking spot and relaxing a bit. This is mid-point in our trip. I think we leave 3 weeks from today so this is a good break for us to just enjoy the beauty here and make plans for the next couple of weeks work that’s ahead.
We’ve invited Ronald Kizito to come to Jinja while we’re there so we can talk more about the micro-loan plans and the craft sales part of this project too. The four of us have been very impressed with Ronald and would like to have him as heavily involved in this as possible.
The last day or so, as we talk about what we’re seeing, who we’re meeting, the stories we’re hearing and what we can do, I’ve been thinking about how good this trip to this part of Uganda has been for me. Several of the women we’ve met through Ronald were older women. One in particular, Elizabeth who is a retired social worker, is working making jewelry so she can help those around her. She’s already taken in two AIDS widows and their children. After meeting them on Friday, we went back to her house on Sunday afternoon to take tea and pick up some of the necklaces they’d made for us just since our meeting. I think you’ll like these necklaces. They’re made out of a seed that has a natural hole through it. The seeds vary in color from almost white to gray and then almost black. She’d also made a very pretty blue magazine paper-bead necklace and earrings just for me. She gave the four of us pet names. Lexie’s pet name means kitten—which stands for beautiful. Mine was something like A-ki-ki which Ronald had trouble interpreting but when he said ‘It means something like unexpected,’ I said, “Oh, you mean a treasure or a prize!” and apparently I got it close enough. I think DJ’s was the word for Thunder and Seth’s name was like Junior.
After we’d visited and then conducted the business of picking out, counting and then paying for the necklaces and earrings we wanted, she served us tea and steamed corn and roasted peanuts and sweet potatoes and sweet bananas all from her garden. Well she had to buy the tea bags and the sugar and maybe some milk so when fruits and vegetables are in season, they can get by on very little cash. Usually before we make a visit, we stop at a trade center and buy flour, sugar, salt, tea bags and on this trip, Ronald and DJ have been buying a hunk of meat from the butcher as part of our gift.
I called Irene as we were leaving Ft. Portal to let her know that we’re making it okay but miss her and the children and that we’ll be back on Thursday. She laughed when I told her that Seth has been whining about being ready to be back in Jinja.
Tomorrow morning a guide will go with us through the park to look for animals and then we’ll come back here to the lodge then load up and drive on to Mbarara. I think we’ll spend the night there somewhere, hopefully see Scovia, Dennis and Diana, then head on back to Jinja. We met Scovia and her children four years ago when she lived in Jinja and helped Ida at the Source and with church functions. She moved to Mbarara to work for Terri Taylor but now that Terri has come back to the States recently, we need to see how best we can help Scovia and the children. It’s possible she’ll be moving back to Jinja and into Irene’s in the next month or so. She’ll be looking for work and maybe learning to make jewelry for us to sell through MDM and at the Source. I’m really looking forward to seeing her and the children again. Kids can change a lot in four years.
Well it’s 1 pm here so I need to go get the rest of them so we can eat lunch before we go on the boat ride at 3. Love you much! mj
love you, mj
Tuesday morning in Queen Elizabeth National Park
Hi, I’m sitting in the lobby of probably the nicest hotel I’ve ever stayed in. Yesterday morning around 10, we left Ft. Portal driving through the mountains on a sometimes very bad but sometimes very good road. It’s the same road Zach and some of the other missionaries took while on a bikeathon a few years ago—too many hills for me to even imagine taking it on a bike. We stopped at the Rubona Women’s Basket Association’s shop along the way and bought some more baskets. I think more than 150 women make baskets for this shop—and the 3 ladies we met the other day are a part of this larger group. Irene Kimeze is now the crafts buyer in Jinja for the Source Café crafts section and she is looking for a direct contact in western Uganda too so I’m hoping they’ll be able to expand their market to Jinja as well. You can imagine that we cause quite a commotion when 4 muzungus pull up and start buying a couple dozen baskets—and taking pictures.
We got here to the game park around 2, had a nice lunch, rested for a bit then around dusk we drove along some of the roads looking for animals since animals are more likely to stir early in the morning and then again near dark. After seeing a few antelopes here and there, Lexie said “Oh, my!” and there were about 3 adult elephants with a baby and one that I’ll call an adolescent. We just sat and watched them for a bit then a little later we watched a beautiful water buck and of course took several pictures. On the way back, we stopped at the boat launch to see if there were any hippos nearby. There weren’t but there was a crocodile swimming just off the bank—but there were guards with guns nearby to protect us. The lodge has great food so we had a wonderful supper and I got a call from Ryan.
This morning we got up around 6 am and followed some folks who had guides out into the park. We saw a hippo in a big mud pit, 3 lion cubs lounging on the road (didn’t see any parents) and then as we drove past a large watering hole/lake, we saw probably 4 different groups of elephants. After about an hour, we came on back thinking we might take our 2-hour boat trip at 9. I wasn’t feeling so great so we decided to wait until later this afternoon. They say that often you can see more animals at the water’s edge when the sun is out during the 3-5pm boat trip so that’s what we’ll do. After enjoying a delightful breakfast buffet and resting a bit, I’m up waiting for the next meal J and just enjoying sitting out at this beautifully breathtaking spot and relaxing a bit. This is mid-point in our trip. I think we leave 3 weeks from today so this is a good break for us to just enjoy the beauty here and make plans for the next couple of weeks work that’s ahead.
We’ve invited Ronald Kizito to come to Jinja while we’re there so we can talk more about the micro-loan plans and the craft sales part of this project too. The four of us have been very impressed with Ronald and would like to have him as heavily involved in this as possible.
The last day or so, as we talk about what we’re seeing, who we’re meeting, the stories we’re hearing and what we can do, I’ve been thinking about how good this trip to this part of Uganda has been for me. Several of the women we’ve met through Ronald were older women. One in particular, Elizabeth who is a retired social worker, is working making jewelry so she can help those around her. She’s already taken in two AIDS widows and their children. After meeting them on Friday, we went back to her house on Sunday afternoon to take tea and pick up some of the necklaces they’d made for us just since our meeting. I think you’ll like these necklaces. They’re made out of a seed that has a natural hole through it. The seeds vary in color from almost white to gray and then almost black. She’d also made a very pretty blue magazine paper-bead necklace and earrings just for me. She gave the four of us pet names. Lexie’s pet name means kitten—which stands for beautiful. Mine was something like A-ki-ki which Ronald had trouble interpreting but when he said ‘It means something like unexpected,’ I said, “Oh, you mean a treasure or a prize!” and apparently I got it close enough. I think DJ’s was the word for Thunder and Seth’s name was like Junior.
After we’d visited and then conducted the business of picking out, counting and then paying for the necklaces and earrings we wanted, she served us tea and steamed corn and roasted peanuts and sweet potatoes and sweet bananas all from her garden. Well she had to buy the tea bags and the sugar and maybe some milk so when fruits and vegetables are in season, they can get by on very little cash. Usually before we make a visit, we stop at a trade center and buy flour, sugar, salt, tea bags and on this trip, Ronald and DJ have been buying a hunk of meat from the butcher as part of our gift.
I called Irene as we were leaving Ft. Portal to let her know that we’re making it okay but miss her and the children and that we’ll be back on Thursday. She laughed when I told her that Seth has been whining about being ready to be back in Jinja.
Tomorrow morning a guide will go with us through the park to look for animals and then we’ll come back here to the lodge then load up and drive on to Mbarara. I think we’ll spend the night there somewhere, hopefully see Scovia, Dennis and Diana, then head on back to Jinja. We met Scovia and her children four years ago when she lived in Jinja and helped Ida at the Source and with church functions. She moved to Mbarara to work for Terri Taylor but now that Terri has come back to the States recently, we need to see how best we can help Scovia and the children. It’s possible she’ll be moving back to Jinja and into Irene’s in the next month or so. She’ll be looking for work and maybe learning to make jewelry for us to sell through MDM and at the Source. I’m really looking forward to seeing her and the children again. Kids can change a lot in four years.
Well it’s 1 pm here so I need to go get the rest of them so we can eat lunch before we go on the boat ride at 3. Love you much! mj
Hey, it's Saturday afternoon. We arrived in Ft. Portal sometime Thursday evening after stopping in Kampala at the Resource Center to join up with Mark Long. We got to see Ellen Little, meet a visiting dental team from Lubbock Christian, and 3 young women from Pepperdine's soccer team who are in Uganda conducting soccer clinics at local primary schools.The weather is much cooler here and rainy. My toes are getting cold since the only closed-toed shoes I brought are my tennis shoes and I'm too vain to wear those with my dresses. (And some of you think I'm teasing!) It's mountainous here with lush vegetation. The dirt here is very fertile and black, not like the red clay dirt in the Jinja and Mbale areas.Yesterday and today have been very full days. First, we met Ronald Kizito, our MicroDevelopment contact here. David had been looking for a contact in this area since we like the millet baskets that this area is known for. Ronald had come highly recommended by both Mark Long and Jeff Cash, a missionary here in Ft. Portal. He is a very responsible, generous hearted young man that we've come to enjoy and respect the last couple of days. It's good to finally see him face to face and meet the ladies he's been buying the baskets from.There is a group of 30 widows whose husbands all died of complications from AIDS and they are ALL HIV-positive. Three of the ladies met with us. The leader is Gorrette--she's taught the other ladies to make baskets so they can help support their children and buy food, pay for school fees. I really don't have words right now to explain the last 2 days. I'll just say it's been an inspriring, yet overwhelming and an emotional day or two for me. We bought all the baskets the ladies brought to us. AND we'll be bringing them home. Many of you know this selling part of this work isn't easy for me. I don't like going to the craft sales and having to be outgoing and nice to strangers and try to sell things. But right now, I'm frustrated with myself for letting that get in the way of helping these ladies. We've met some truly inspiring women who are in very tough situations who still smile, still take care of their families, and are trying to take care of those who are in worse conditions than they are. I've seen Jesus in so many of these women. Today we met Faith, a woman who runs a mill store grinding corn, cassava, g-nuts (peanuts), and she was just so fun and happy. She's widowed and is trying so hard to take care of not only her own children but her husband left other wives, children, and some who are orphaned that she's committed to helping.We go to church here in Ft. Portal tomorrow and will hopefully get to visit with Jeff and Sherrill Cash and their 4 children. The Lubbock medical team comes in here tomorrow so we'll cross paths with them (and Ellen and Darla from Kampala) maybe tomorrow evening.Monday morning, we drive 4 hours to Queen Elizabeth Park for a couple of days with the animals. Zach just wrote and reminded me to be careful so to Z and the others out there, we'll be careful. Irene called yesterday. She said it was baby Zach Kimeze's first birthday. Remember last year when he was born? We're so very blessed to be here. Right now, I'm not looking forward to leaving although I'm missing Ryan especially.
Monday, June 4, 2007
Intro: Getting caught up by David Johnson
It’s 9:00 am and we spent last night in Mbale, staying in Phillip and Laura Shero’s guesthouse. They now have it stocked with everything needed to be pretty self-sufficient--three small bedrooms, kitchen with refrigerator and small gas camp-style cooking burners, bathroom with heated water. The water is more drip than flow, but it’s nice to have a warm shower and, of course, to see the Sheros again.
(Note: We brought with us a used Canon photo printer and plenty of ink and photo paper so we can provide photo prints for people in the villages, many of whom do not have photos of themselves, and have never seen themselves except in a mirror. It is a nice gift to them and something to open doors and to remember us by. It also sometimes gives us photo opportunities that we wouldn’t otherwise have, since people are much more willing to allow their pictures to be made if you can provide a print. That night, I made the prints and everything worked just fine, despite the apparent fluctuation in the power flow to the laptop, which is probably not a good thing.)
On Wednesday, May 30 we went to Musima village, about a 30 minute drive north of Jinja. I’m driving Kimeze’s car and having more fun with that I expected. Moses Kirya, preacher for the Musima
On last year’s visit, Kirya was building a new house about 50 feet from the old one. The new one is not yet completed but it’s pretty nice by local standards, larger than most, and with a metal roof. It is a good thing he had started the new one, and here’s why: This past spring Kirya’s brother had showed signs of mental instability, claiming that someone or something was trying to kill him. The brother committed suicide by hanging in the old house. When the police came and the neighbors gathered, they said that the old house had to be torn down and the contents burned. They threw the brother’s body in a makeshift grave and somehow converted the house into a pile of rubble that is still there. Kirya says they lost some belongings that were burned.
When Marlea and I started this work last fall, we were careful not to use a story of pity to sell baskets and jewelry. Some of the artisans are by now very close personal friends, and our personal commitment to them is continually growing. We have been blessed with many partners in this, including many of you who have bought these items, and especially our families and friends and family at the Vaughn Park church in Montgomery and the Downtown church in Searcy, and of course the support in various forms that I receive at Faulkner. We will use the promotional materials to grow the market for their items, to share their stories, to increase the perceived value of their products, and therefore, hopefully, to see profits grow so we can have more to share with them. Moses Kimeze stated clearly last summer that the people in the
Our policy in compensating the artisans is simple in concept: When we work directly with the artisans, as with the Musima women’s group, we pay them local price plus 20%, and explain that the premium over local price is to obtain their best quality. We incur costs of shipping, promotion, and administration. Then, when we sell the items in the
We are careful not to pay inflated prices for the baskets (and it’s very easy for Americans to want to “fix”
We are not trying to shield these women from market forces, but are trying to help them meet the demands of the market. Based on my study and experience, that’s the best way to provide for sustained improvement in their ability to produce income. I must close by saying that our policies have been developed from thought, prayer, study, and experience. I would be happy to explain further or to respond to comments or questions you may have.
Thanks to those of you who have supported our work here. We are blessed to the names and faces of the brothers and sisters in Christ and the others who are blessed by your assistance, even though you have yet to meet them personally.
MDM Internship Uganda Summer 2007
I thought it might be helpful if on this first post, you saw the plan for the trip we're on right now in Uganda. Then you may better understand the reports that will follow. Here's
David's description of this summer's internship in Uganda
As the story goes, a businessman once challenged Mother Theresa’s relief work among the poor of Calcutta, saying, “Sister, surely you know the proverb: ‘If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.’” She replied, “Yes, and I will give him a fish while you teach him to fish.” If you have ever wondered how God might use your business knowledge, skills, and interest to make a positive and lasting difference in the lives of some of the poorest people on Earth, Business As Missions wants to challenge you with an opportunity.
On May 22, 2007 Dr. David Johnson of
Their “base of operations” is Jinja, where Lake Victoria overflows to form the source of the
While in Jinja the team will visit rural women who are making banana fiber baskets and paper jewelry which we are selling in the
From Jinja they travel northeast to Mbale, the future home of
By mid-June they will return to Jinja for focused research on microenterprise opportunities proposed by Ugandans in the Jinja district. In summary, our purposes are several:
(1) To work with existing contacts to strengthen our relationship with them and to obtain information that will be useful in growing the market for their crafts and assessing how our partnership with them has benefited them and their communities.
(2) To help people who want to start microenterprises, and to help them develop legitimate proposals that will be posted to our website to solicit funding via a microloan program now being developed.
(3) To use these proposals as the basis for case studies and examples that can be used to develop culturally appropriate educational materials for training in how to start and successfully operate a microenterprise according to Biblical principles.
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