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.
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