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