Welcome Hom--we're home

Welcome backto us andjiggity jog.We;re all pretty exhausted and Ithink I'm falling asleep at the keyboar so I won't make this long.... We;re home! Got in about 11:30 easteeeern DJ and Jeff have already gone to bed and I;m abuttttow

will send more tomorrow sometime, love you all

...i can drink tehwaterout of the faucet now and i csn go lie down and sleep in my own bed.

We just got back from taking Rachel and then Gerald to their first day of school for this term. Rachel who’s still in what we’d call kindergarten, will be home this evening when we get back. Gerald goes to a boarding school in Iganga, about a 45-minute drive away so we told him goodbye. David gave him a watch as a gift, bought him new black leather school shoes last week in Kampala, and we’d already given him a soccer ball. He’s such a nice kid and a lot of help with the younger children. He’ll be missed.

This afternoon, David and Jeff have gone with Roy and Ricky to the Njeru Parents’ School where the ISAC kids are enrolled. It’s their first day back to school after holiday also and David was taking pens and soccer balls as gifts to the school and teachers.

Yesterday was a fun but busy, long day. We had already made plans to spend the whole day with Irene and the kids after getting back from church (around 3pm) in Musima. So we went swimming at the Palm Tree Guest House overlooking the Nile and then got to visit for a bit with Surj and Danyne and hold baby Jag. We didn’t get to the pool til 4 so the sun was no longer shining on the water and it was a little cool but the kids wanted to swim anyway so David took turns taking Zach and Tyler and Rachel into the big pool. There were even times he had all three of them at once I think. Then we all met Bobby and Candice at the Sunset On the Nile Hotel/Restaurant for supper.

Now, let me describe just a little bit of Super Sunday at Musima. I suppose there were people from maybe 4 different village churches and the Jinja town church. People start gathering under the pavilion near Moses Kirya’s house around 10 am-ish. So we got there at around 11 and most of the benches were full. Zach had already fallen asleep but woke up. There were only seats left that were actually in the sun but that was too hot so I ended up squeezing in next to Candice. Rachel went to sit with Bwana and Alex and we took turns holding Tyler and Zach since they were both tired. Bobby did a great job preaching! He picked some volunteers out of the audience to act out Luke’s story of the Good Samaritan. Thankfully, Gerald was chosen as the hurt man, since Gary Selby, the Pepperdine prof, was chosen to get down on all fours and be the donkey. It will be a great visual for such a profound but simple message of caring for our neighbors/all of

God’s creation. Then we had communion (fanta and chipati) and then lots of singing, introducing visitors, dancing, clapping and afterwards everyone had a meal of posho and beans. It’s absolutely exhausting.

I know I’m sorta going backwards but….. Saturday morning, we drove with Joan Talibow and Ronald Mugulusi to Mugulusi’s village, Magogo about an hour or so from Jinja. It was a blast. Saturday was Jeff’s favorite day in a village. We got to Mugulusi’s auntie’s house around noon, greeted everyone and I do mean everyone—12 to 15 of the auntie’s grandchildren who’ve been orphaned, mostly due to AIDS, another man who’s a cousin to Ronald, and a couple more of the auntie’s daughters who are still living nearby. After a bit, Joan and I went to sit with the ladies as they were preparing this huge pot of steamed matoke. I’d never actually watched anybody put the peeled bananas all together in this pot lined with banana leaves, then it’s covered and mashed together in the leaves before they steam it. The cousin was showing David and Jeff all about the new ‘cho’ (pit latrine) that was being built. The workers had dug a pit of about 10 feet (it will eventually be about 40 feet deep) and were laying local bricks and cementing to build the support/foundation around the actual pit. It’s hard to describe but I have pics if you should actually be interested in such things.

Ronald decided we should go ahead and visit another widow before we ate so we drove to a nearby trading center and to the lady’s house nearby. It had gotten windy and started to get cool like it might rain. When we went inside this lady’s house, her orphaned grandchildren had a couple of songs prepared to sing to us. It was just wonderful and it’s all very moving. Overwhelming at times. Oh and we were such big news that the whole trading center cleared out and came and peered through the windows into the house. By the time we left, it had started to rain but we got back to the auntie’s house before it started to storm. Oh my goodness, what a storm—the rain was beating and the wind was just whipping the trees and pounding the crops!! I’m just so thankful we were inside the house—at one point, I ducked and screamed because I thought that flimsy tin roof was going to cave in. It was actually a big branch of one of the trees behind the house that had hit the roof and bounced off. The top of a jackfruit tree at the front of the house broke off, too, and as Jeff was filming. David says it’s the worst storm he’s ever been in. We didn’t eat lunch (matoke, rice and goat) until after the storm about 3and thankfully the area is pretty flat so we could still drive on the clay/dirt/mud roads back to the main highway.

As soon as we got back to town, we took Irene home and then went to the Bugembe trade center where Grace Nyanga was waiting to guide us to his house for supper and to visit. I’ve mentioned this before, but Grace and Goretti have two of their own children and then take care of somewhere between 15 and 20 orphans, some of them are children of Grace’s two brothers but others are just kids they’ve taken in. Edith, their oldest child, is about 10 now and she still has a crush on our Zach. When I mentioned that I’d brought a picture to give her of Zach and Ryan with their girlfriends, she was so embarrassed that she just took it and hid her face. Today, I gave her another picture to keep for herself since I think her baby brother, Emmanuel, had bent that one. Goretti had been working at a craft market all day so some of the older children had made the final preparations for supper. The food is always wonderful at Goretti’s place. We had great cabbage, beans, rice, watermelon, sweet pineapple, chipati and small irish potatoes that were battered and fried whole. Really good food!

So we’re wrapping things up here. I’ve been shopping for some gifts today and hanging with Irene since we have to leave in the morning. Bwana just came by to tell me that he can’t take me bike riding today like he wanted, but we’ll go tomorrow morning. Spencer Bogle just brought us the last of our malaria medicine. I buy some to get started in the states but buy the rest here. DJ and I have to keep taking the weekly pills for four weeks after we get home. Jeff is taking the daily pill that’s supposed to have fewer side effects. I don’t know how long he has to take those. Irene and Joan are totaling up my purchases in the craft area. David and Jeff just got back from their trip to the school and DJ is meeting with Roy and Ricky again. Then we’ll go by to see a gentleman’s rental property that’s near Bugembe, not too far from Irene’s, and we need to go get one of our suitcases at the Garners’ house. We’ll fix spaghetti tonight and pack our bags then have a terrible crying time at the house in the morning when we leave Tyler and Zach and Rachel. I have gifts to leave them but they’ll still cry. Irene is riding with us to Entebbe so I can delay that goodbye for a little bit. We don’t usually have internet access in Entebbe so Tuesday morning here is probably the last time I’ll check my messages. So, write me if you need to know anything before I go, I’ll check in the morning before we leave. We get in to Atlanta on Thursday around 1:30 Eastern so we should be home to Montgomery by 4 or so. I just got an email from Emily that she’ll be flying in on Friday from Ohio and that Ryan will be coming to our house probably by early to mid-afternoon on Friday. Can’t wait to see them! Then as soon as I get home, we’re gonna start looking at getting Zach and Julia back to the States for a visit or longer.

Love to all, mj

Friday afternoon, May 23

I don't think I have much time but just in case, I'm starting a note of random stuff again just so I don't forget this stuff.

This afternoon has been a lot of fun. I spent the morning writing that earlier message and then helping Irene unwrap all her purchases from yesterday and chatting with Bobby and Ben while DJ was in another meeting. Then we went to the Bogles house to visit with our good friend Ronald Bwana and his son Alex and Zach's former dog, Libby, who shed all over me. Ronald told us about his chicken project. He was part of a group that made a group proposal to us last year. We didn't loan them the money. As a matter of fact, DJ basically told them that it wasn't a good idea for the group to make one loan for one thing like chickens--literally not putting all your eggs in one basket. Well, they did anyway. As a group, they bought some of the local chickens to raise. They each had a particular job to do and assignment. I don't remember them all but one of them was supposed to be in charge of the chicken's health. But the project failed because one chicken got sick and then they all did and their whole project was wiped out because as Ronald said, one of them was lazy and didn't do the job. He said they'd learned their lesson and so now he's raising chickens with Spencer Bogle.

Ok, gotta go, so the rest of the afternoon we spent on the banks of the Nile at the Ginger Restaurant drinking sweet tea with ice cubes in it! I've never had that in Uganda. We met some of the missionaries there to visit about what we're doing. Bobby and Candice, Ben Langford, Spencer and Emily Bogle. It was great fun, incredibly relaxing and we all hated to leave but we had plans already.

now, random....

ugandans end most words with an extra ee or ah: bye-ee, zach-ah, gerald-ee

Last week at Jinja church, when we were singing about the 20th verse of "I'll be somewhere working for my Lord," I leaned up to Bobby and Candice and told them that I needed the words to change and that I'm really rather it went like this.... "I'll be somewhehyah relaxing, I'll be somewheyhah relaxing, I'll be somewhehyah relaxing for my Lord, yes for my Lord...."

Friday morning, May 23

Congratulations to us! We made it to Kampala and back in one piece and had a good but busy day. David is a really good driver but the roads and the driving conditions are much different here. I’d say traveling once we’re in country is the most dangerous thing we do. (Of course, to avoid the real dangers, we do take malaria medicine and stay away from unboiled/unbottled water.)

Yesterday on the drive, I was reminded of what a beautiful place this is. There is luscious vegetation, almost “ Jurassic Park ” style so there’s an abundance of fruits and vegetables--sweet bananas, pineapples, tomatoes, avocadoes, squash, cucumbers, fresh beans. The drive to Kampala takes us through Mubira Rain Forest Preserve, past huge tea plantations where workers are hand-picking the leaves and also past large sugar cane fields. (These are real plantations as opposed to when we go to the village and someone shows us his banana plantation and we find three plants.) The tea is David’s favorite. It’s such a beautiful green across the valley and hills.

We also drive through a trade center that’s known for it’s fast food—chicken on a stick. I’ve never had it. If you pull your vehicle over, the guys selling the chicken run up to your car windows to get you to buy their chicken. Irene got sick once after eating one so she won’t eat it. It’s one of my Zach’s favorite things so I’d really like to try it sometime.

I need to take and upload a pic of my favorite tree here. I call it the Dr. Seuss tree because it has these long skinny elegantly twisting branches with a green ball of leaves at the tip of each branch. It reminds me of something you might find in “Cat in the Hat.”

Two quick updates: 1. We ran into Danyne Randolph and her mom outside the Source the other day so I got to hold baby Jagpal (I’m not sure how it’s spelled but it’s pronounced like Jag Paul). It’s an Indian name since Surj, his dad is an Indian and it’s one that Danyne’s family from Texas can pronounce. I don’t think we’ll have time to go to the Palm Tree Resort that Surj owns/runs but we’ll probably see them Wednesday at the airport since we’ll be on the same flight to Amsterdam with Danyne’s mom. The baby is absolutely gorgeous, beautiful. He has amazingly white skin and lots of black hair. I told Danyne that he was whiter and even more beautiful than I expected and she laughed and said the baby is whiter than his older sisters expected too. Danyne adopted two Ugandan baby girls either while Z was here in 03 or right after that. Then she and Surj were married a little over a year ago.

2. I forgot to tell you what Bobby told us on Wednesday about the beehive they hung the other day. The afternoon after we were at Agri’s place, he called Bobby and in his very slow, monotone with long pauses to build the drama, said, “Boehbbee, I am standing in front of our bee hive. (long pause) I am watching bees fly in and out of our hive.” So, looks like there’s a good chance this first hive will be a success and once that happens, they can hang some more of them. Bobby said the first have only had about a 50% chance of drawing any bees.

I haven’t said much about what we did in Kampala yesterday but we went to the Garden City Mall just briefly to get cash out of the ATM there and look at the expensive craft store, Banana Boat. Just to get ideas about what they have to sell that we might want to look for at the craft market. Then we drove to the craft market to do the real looking/shopping. There are maybe 40 outdoor stalls surrounding a small grassy that carry lots of jewelry, clothing, carvings and stuff like that. Irene was buying ceramics from one of the stalls there for the craft shop at the Source and since she was buying things wholesale, I was able to get a few things cheaper than I would have otherwise. So, I bought a ceramic water pitcher with a couple of cups and really struggled over whether to buy the tray in the shape of a fish that’s flat and easier to pack or the casserole dish that’s in the shape of a fish with a lid. I liked them both but was really in love with the casserole dish and she was willing to come off the price a little more on it than she would the tray so that’s the one I bought. I told Irene that I’ll get the tray the next time. She didn’t even buy the fish tray because the girl wouldn’t bring the price down enough for her. I haven’t looked at the ceramics website but here it is http://www.mukisa-uganda.com/. I’ll have to bring that stuff back in my carry-on probably so I may regret my purchase at least on the day we travel.

Ok, ok, yes, I did buy a nativity set. Just one. The barn is made out of banana-fiber and I think the figures are corn husks. You’ll have to come see me to see it. DJ shops for things to resell for the Victoria Nile crafts business that helps fund African missions stuff but I shop for me and for gifts. Are you surprised? Yeah, I don’t think so.

I’ll try to tell you one funny story before I close. I’m sure the humor will be lost in the translation but I’m gonna try. A few days ago, Jeff and David had been meeting with Roy and Ricky all morning. Roy and Ricky are Ugandan and we’re around mostly Ugandans. Even though there are a good many bazungu (white-folks) here, we still stand out in a crowd. Ok, so the other day, David, Jeff, Roy and Ricky are walking down the sidewalk to a restaurant for lunch. David’s just talking away, telling Roy all about something while Ricky and Jeff follow. David’s got the hand motions going and the whole bit. Jeff just stops on the sidewalk and bends double laughing because he looks up and sees DJ talking but that’s NOT Roy. That whole time he’s been walking alongside some other tall Ugandan man with a striped-shirt who hasn’t even been responding to David and NOT Roy ! Finally, DJ looks up and realizes he’s been lecturing to some stranger and he turns around to see Roy, Ricky and Jeff all laughing at him.

Maybe I should’ve had Jeff tell it and maybe I should just delete it but I’ll leave it just in case you enjoy it anyway. DJ has more meetings today and we’re gonna see another one of my very favorite people, Ronald Bwana, and his son Alex. Ronald works at the Bogles house here in town so we’ll just stop in to see him sometime today. Then this afternoon we’re meeting with Ben and Bobby at the Langfords house so I’ll get to see Kym. She just got back on Tuesday from her grandmother’s funeral in the States. I like Ben and Kym a lot and just love their son, Eli. He’s just a hoot! Their younger son, Noah, was just a newborn when we were here last year. I think we’re going to this new restaurant for a soda and to visit. It’s called Ginger on the Nile and I think it’s right down on the water. Then tonight we’re eating at Joan’s place. We’ve never been there and spend the day in the village tomorrow and Sunday. I may check in again tomorrow if we get home early enough.

Ok, one thing is that David hired a carpenter to make and install some screen doors for Irene. They sleep under mosquito nets but that only helps after you’re in bed and asleep and that’s not usually when mosquitoes like to fly in through the door so we’re hoping that will help cut down on the mosquito issue. We haven’t actually had many at all. I think the first night we were here, there were some in our bedrooms and then maybe two nights ago, I got a bite. Oh and Zach, Gerald is just loving the Manchester U shirt you sent him especially after their big win the other night. We didn’t watch the game because it came on too late—9:45 and we left early at 7 am for Kampala . It’s gotten cooler here the last week or so. Much nicer than when we arrived and it’s raining every two or three days a little bit so that’s making it very pleasant for the most part.

Love to everybody there, I’m sure I’ve forgotten something I wanted to tell you but I’ll try to tell it to you later.

AIDS Hwy in Njeru, Uganda just outside of Jinja

More pics

This is the 90ish lady who we saw out working with her hands in her garden in Kainagoga.

More Pics

This is Kawere rolling out chipati while Dimbodo, in the red shirt, cooks them. Kawere bakes the Source's banana bread, too. It's very tasty. I had it this morning for breakfast.





In Musima, listening to DJ talk about micro-loans. These two just couldn't stay awake.

Tuesday and Wednesday in Uganda

Candice and Marlea in the Jinja market shopping for skirts.







Tyler who's 3 1/2 and Zach Kimeze who's almost 2






Roy Mwesigwa, Faustine who runs the clinic they visited, DJ and Ricky Kahudu

Hi, it's Tuesday afternoon here. David and Jeff have been meeting with Roy and Ricky about the ISAC program since about 10 this morning so I'm having a pleasantly slow, relaxing day. It helps when we can schedule a day in town like this after long, tiring days out in villages or meeting people like yesterday.

This morning, Irene took some time away from the craft shop and she and I went shopping for school supplies for Gerald and Rachel who will start a new school term this coming Monday. Gerald is in a boarding school in Iganga. We'll go with Irene on Monday to take him there. The school supply list for these kids is a little different than the one we might have back home listing how many different notebooks or kinds of crayons and markers. Besides items like 2 pens and 2 notebooks, this list also had laundry soap, bath soap, toilet tissue on it.

Forgive me for repeating things, it's difficult for me to remember sometimes what I've already written and it's quite difficult to go back and open up my old messages. I just called Candice to see if we could come to her house to use her internet since it's a little faster but they're actually having it worked on today. Last year, I was able to write in the evenings sometimes at the house but this year I try to just spend time with Irene and the kids in the evenings. We make chai together, cook and eat supper together, or entertain the kids so she can. Then I usually hold Zach til he falls asleep and the last two nights, Rachel has fallen asleep in my lap. So there's really no time at Irene's to spend on the laptop--unless I were to get up early but I'm not going to do that. Besides, Zach is up by 6 as it is so I don't think that would work anyway.

Just in case you’re wondering, I’ve been reading Mark Bowden’s book Road Work, I’ve been on a Mark Bowden kick since I sent a couple of them in Z’s birthday package in March—at his request. I read Black Hawk Down a couple of years ago and in the last few months, I’ve read Killing Pablo (about the Colombian drug lord, Pablo Escabar--after listening to or maybe sleeping through Z’s audio version a couple of times), Guests of the Ayatollah (about the Iran hostage crisis in the late 70s), Doctor Dealer (about a dentist in Philly who became this cocaine kingpin) and now I’m reading Road Work which has about 20 of his magazine articles from the past on a wide variety of topics like Saddam Hussein, Al Sharpton, and F-15 pilots. Jeff’s reading them after me. Obviously, I really like his writing. David is reading The Bottom Billion, a bestseller that Z left for us to read. It’s about the poorest of the poor and the nations that are at the bottom economically.

A couple of days ago, I was getting homesick and then last night, I thought, why aren’t we staying longer? Why can’t we spend the whole summer here each year? I mentioned wanting to go to Murchison Falls next year if/when we come. It’s a beautiful national park in northern Uganda where we have been discouraged from going in the past. Things are so much better politically in the north now that travel is much safer. Jinja’s interns (mostly from Rochester and Abilene I think) are going up to Gulu in northern Uganda to some of the Internally Displaced People’s Camps (IDPs) in just a few weeks looking for areas for church plants. I’ll be anxious to hear how that goes and if they go to the Falls.

I feel like I’m rambling terribly so I’m gonna go. I got to talk to Zach’s girlfriend, Julia, online today and also to Ryan for a little bit. Julia says Z has gone to Shanghai to get his cellphone fixed. Ryan is going up to Ohio for the holiday weekend. So, I think everyone is doing really well. We’ll be home a week from this Thursday.

Wednesday afternoon…..

I didn’t get to send yesterday’s message out because the electricity went off—therefore no internet. This afternoon, I’m sitting at Candice’s house while DJ and Jeff are in budget meetings with Roy and Ricky and then I think were going to drive around into another slum area we haven’t seen before. We’ll be home in just a little over a week but things are winding down here in Jinja.

This morning Jeff, DJ and I took Candice and Bobby on a trip around the Nile to see the Source itself—where the falls used to be that start the Nile River. It’s a fun boat trip. There are lots of birds to see and we watched several families of monkeys play in the trees along the bank. It’s very relaxing. We watched some fishermen casting their nets. I really enjoy being on the water and I’m glad we went in the morning when it’s cooler. And it’s getting cooler here, by the way. The evenings are very pleasant.

Tomorrow we’re going to Kampala, Uganda’s capital, to spend the day with Irene shopping for crafts and just enjoying the day visiting the mall and eating out. She works six days a week and has four kids so she doesn’t get to go there very often at all. Friday, we’re visiting with some of the missionaries here to talk with them about our plans and what we’re up to. Friday evening, we’ve been invited to dinner at Joan’s house. She’s Ronald Mugulisi’s fiancé. Ronald is the accountant at the Source. We’re helping him with a loan to build their house and on Saturday we’re going to visit his village. Mugulisi handles the finances for our loan programs and is a great resource for us and a real blessing. I like him a lot.

Saturday evening we’ll be visiting and eating at Goretti and Grace Nyanga’s home. Grace is the director of the Busoga Bible School here and very close to Dr. Ganus. They have two of their own birth children: Edith and Emmanuel and also care for about 16 orphans—mostly the children of two of Grace’s brothers who died of AIDS. Goretti runs a craft shop in Jinja and used to work at the Source cooking. When Z lived here, I showed Goretti how to bake a chocolate cake from scratch that they still have on the menu I think.

Sunday we’ll be going to Musima for Super Sunday where a bunch of the village churches all meet together for singing, lots of singing, preaching, lots of preaching, and food, lots of beans and rice. Zipporah and the ladies will be cooking back in the hut. Bobby will be preaching. Moses will be leading the singing and last year, several choruses from different churches sang. It’s a blast and lasts way too long. The Pepperdine group of about 20 students plus Gary and Tammy Selby will be there. Dr. Ganus is leaving on Friday so he’ll be gone already.

We’re planning on spending the rest of Sunday afternoon and evening with Irene and the kids as a last night together. We may go swimming again and will go out to eat maybe at this really neat place with Bobby and Candice. Then Monday, we’ll take Gerald to his boarding school, come back to town and visit the Njeru Parent’s School to see those kids actually in school. It will be their first day back after the holidays. We’ll probably present the school with a soccer ball and lots of ink pens to students and teachers. Then we’ll pack up Monday night and leave for Entebbe on Tuesday morning. I’m not looking forward to the goodbyes. It’s always a tough time especially with Irene’s kids. On Tuesday afternoon if we get there in time but more likely on Wednesday, we’ll be again at Banana Village and James and Jemimah. We’ll visit some more of those ladies in that microloan program. We fly out of Entebbe at 10:20 pm so we have the whole day—just have to be there 3 hours ahead of time. Then we land in Atlanta on Thursday afternoon around 1:30 Eastern I think. Lexie is supposed to be there to pick us up. Ryan will be get a two-week leave starting on that Friday so he and Emily are heading down to Florida to meet DJ’s parents. I’m telling you all of this just in case I don’t get to write again. Love to all there.

Monday--long day

We'll be leaving soon for Irene's house so I don't have long but we had a very good, busy day today. If we weren't visiting in the homes of the poorest of the poor this afternoon, we were very close--certainly in the lower percentages. There really aren't words. We were visiting in the homes of many of the grandmothers and mothers of children in the ISAC scholarship program. So they're some of the kids some of you are sponsoring. Thank you from those children and their caregivers. They are hard-working women of courage who are doing the best they can to care for their children and grandchildren.

David is composing a real update/report and I'll try to send it out tomorrow since we'll be in town more of the day tomorrow. Irene's mom and two sisters came over last night and joined us for supper. Monica wanted to know how Lexie and Seth are doing. We saw her a lot more last year. Irene prepared a traditional meal of matoke, rice, posho, goat meat, cabbage, greens, and it seems like I'm missing something. Oh, avocado. We had her mom and sisters tell funny stories about Irene and we got out Irene's photo albums of her wedding and introduction so the kids were able to see pics of their dad. It was good. Irene wasn't up to doing that last year--the grief was just too raw.

Dr. Ganus is around some. I got to give him a message from Cliff who'd written me from China--that was fun. He did a radio program last night but we didn't know it so we didn't listen.

Ok, gotta go, love you guys, mj

Saturday, May 17, random thoughts

This is about the time during the trip when I start wondering if I will ever be able to get my feet clean again. There's very red clay dirt here and since I'm in sandals all the time, my feet get stained. I forgot to bring kool-aid. Irene's kids love it and it's easy to pack. Lexie, help me remember and I'll mail them some when I get home. Ida brought her some back from the states.

Well the personal big news is that I had a hot shower last night at Irene's because Jeff bought this shower head attachment that heats the water and we had an electrician come and install it. It was actually so hot that I had to turn the switch on Low heat instead of High. So now, I no longer rough it in any sense of the word when I come visit. Ok, well maybe latrines but not at Irene's.

Baby Zach had his first bathroom accident yesterday--and it was on me! We all went to the Nile Resort Hotel yesterday afternoon and paid for the kids, DJ and Jeff to swim. It was a blast! Gerald is with us this year. It's was only his second time to ever swim. Anyway, Zach (who will be 2 soon so I prob need to drop the 'baby' thing), Zach swam and swam and swam. I bought floaties for $1 at Big Lots and he wore them but didn't need them much. So, they were all exhausted when we left last night. He slept from the time we left, through supper of Indian food at Leoz and until we got home. He slept through peeing on me in the car.

I have to go to the big ISAC thing soon so I may post again later this afternoon but I have 2 stories to tell. Yesterday morning, we went with Bobby Garner to Agri's place. I thought we were just going to see some bee hive 'stuff' and then come right back. But it was a village trip and I'm usually the one who makes sure we always have bottled water to drink and I didn't have any. So, we stayed until about 12:30 or 1 and saw the chicken raising operation, watched them prepare and hang a bee hive and then when it was time to leave, they of course didn't want us to go without breaking break. They brought us roasted corn and I thought that was it, but it wasn't.... we are served huge meals and lots of starches and I eat as much as I can. Anyway, we had a really good time and the chicken stuff and the bee/honey thing are both really very interesting. Agri is a very smart man and a hard worker. By the way, he bicycles 14 kilometers into town every morning with 15 trays of eggs (30 eggs each) stacked on the back of his bicycle. Just imagine....

Last story for now: Jeff and David got to hear from a man who had escaped from Kenya during the violence. He told some of his stories. He'd come from Kenya to meet David because we'd sent funds (money from Victoria Nile craft sales) to our friend James Okumu to help him care for some people fleeing Kenya. This gentleman has gone back to Mombasa now. His home is still there--not burned down--but all his belongings had been stolen--probably by his neighbors but he didn't turn them in to the police because he wants healing and forgiveness to take place. THe stories reminded me so much of the stories we heard when we were in Rwanda two years ago. Such tragedies and it's so hard to understand how people can treat each other in such horrible ways.

Hope you have a blessed day, thanks again and always for your prayers and love and support, I'm reading emails and comments but have a hard time responding to each, thanks for the news from home and if anybody out there has questions about the work or anything, just post or email and I'll try to answer.

DJ and Jeff are in the cafe visiting with Dr. Ganus right now. It's good to see him and hear his voice. He's a great man of God with so many stories!

Villages, villages

Well it looks like I was able to upload 3 pics. One of me holding baby Johnson Kirya; one of Jeff holding one of the many children we visited yesterday and then one of David with Ricky Kahudu and Roy Mwesigwa standing in front of one of the homes we visited yesterday.

We've already taken tons of pics and video that we'll have to sort through at some point when we get home. This afternoon, I'm sitting at the Source Cafe drinking a Pepsi and waiting on a very slow internet. The 20 or so Pepperdine students have arrived for their study abroad program that's here, Rwanda and Tanzania for the next few weeks.

Today, we visited two separate villages and walked miles and miles. Now, I'm in a long billowy skirt and flip flops. The guys are in long pants, long-sleeved shirts and hiking boots. I don't want to trade with them. This is the second day we've taken Gerald, Irene Kimeze's adopted son, with us. Gerald is about 13--they don't really keep track of birthdays in the villages. He is the son of one of Moses' brothers. Irene and Moses adopted him a couple of years ago after both his parents had died (at least one of them, but probably both, from AIDS). Since we're here this trip during school holidays and I want Gerald to be with David and Jeffrey as much as possible, he's been going along as Jeff's helper. Jeff brought a lot of camera and video equipment that Gerald helps lug around the hillsides. Jeff's also showing him how to take pictures and, of course, they play a game of pick-up football (soccer) every time we are around 3 or 4 kids. Well, actually, Jeffrey performs juggling tricks with the soccer ball.

Many of our visits this morning were to ladies we'd met last year in Kainagoga which is just next to Musima. We met with two or three people who'd asked for micro-loans last year but we weren't able to start that program as we'd hoped. So it was really encouraging to see that some of these people had started enterprises on their own and now hope to expand when we're able to start the program. Juliet showed us her pigs--and I oohed and aaaahed over them. We all did. Then after visiting a few more folks and their pigs and their gardens, we sat under the mango tree where their church meets and talked about microloans and our plans and we prayed with them. This year, they're actually building a church building near the mango tree. I almost forgot but the first place we stopped was at the home of this 90ish woman. She was out in her garden beside her house, down on the ground, digging with her hands. Unbelievable. I can't imagine that life. Daniel says the church members come by and take care of her and help her with the land.

After having lunch at tall Daniel's house, we went to another one of the churches he's started to visit with the ladies who've recently begun meeting to making necklaces from these really pretty seeds. I'll have to show you sometime.

Ok, this is already getting long so I'll wrap up. I was going to philosophize a little but that can always wait. I'll need more caffeine for that. By the way, when go to villages, I usually try not to drink anything in the morning before I leave so I don't have to go looking for facilities. Yeah well, I had chai this morning. So it was a very long day away from town today. This afternoon, when we got back to town, Candice Garner met me at the Source and took me back to the market. I bought 3 skirts there the other day to wear while I'm here. Irene showed me that one of them had several holes in it so she insisted that I go back to the market and tell the guy that it was no good. So, that's what we did. We dug through skirts and found one that maybe Candice can wear and made a swap.

Tomorrow, Friday, David and Jeff are going with Bobby when he gets a beehive. He's gonna be a bee grower--there's a special word for that but I don't know it. And then Irene is taking the afternoon off and we're going to take the kids swimming for the afternoon. I may not be able to write again until Saturday afternoon. We're having a big deal here with the ISAC kids on Saturday. Ricky has arranged for all of them to come to town. I think he's bought some things for them and we're supposed to have a worship time with them then eat together.

Tuesday, May 13, in Jinja

• It's Tuesday afternoon here. We're spending the day in town. David is having meetings so I'm just hanging out with Irene while she works in the craft area of the cafe. The electricity has been off here in town for the last several hours but is back on now. That's the first time that's happened since we've been here so that's pretty amazing.
  
  Grace Nyanga, who is the director of the Bible school here, told me that Dr. Ganus will be arriving in Uganda tonight and then in Jinja tomorrow. I've never been in Uganda with Dr. Ganus but David and Zach were here once while he was here. They even stayed together at Bret and Johnna Raymond's house. I hear he passes out gum or candy to everybody here just like back in Searcy.
  
  Ryan called last night! He'd tried to call on Mother's Day but the toll-free card I sent out had run out of money so he called me on Irene's phone with Skype. It's harder to be online the same time as he is. He says things are fine at the house. I'm sure Lexie is taking care of everything.
  
  I did get to see Ida today. I mentioned yesterday that she and Richard are just back from the states. And as soon as she saw me, she said, "Oh, Maria, I bring you greetings from your only sister who says she misses you already!" So, thanks Margo. I'm so glad you and Mark were able to meet Richard and Ida.
  
  Tomorrow, we're scheduled to go visit in the homes of some of the ISAC orphans. We'll be meeting the grandmothers and aunts and others who've taken these children into their homes. It will be a long day and probably emotionally challenging so thanks for the prayers you've been raising for us. God is good and has been blessing us. We are so blessed with good friends here and I feel very good about the people we're working with here.
  
  On Thursday, we will be going to another village, Kainagoga, that we visited last year with Daniel. (I can't remember his african name). We'll visit some people from his church and also a women's group that is making jewelry.
  
  Blessings on all of you, Marlea

Monday in Jinja

It’s Monday morning, May 12. David, Jeff, and I spent last night in Jinja town at Bobby and Candice Garner’s house so I’m just relaxing this morning at their house while David and Jeff are meeting with Ricky and Roy about the ISAC orphan program. Irene’s house is about 20 minutes from town and we don’t like to drive here after dark so we decided to stay at the Garners’ after having supper with the Jinja team missionaries last night. There are two new babies on the team since we were here last summer. Emily and Spencer Bogle had baby Adam Nile just about 10 days after we left last year. Mark and Lori Manry had their fourth child, a daughter named Tessa, a few weeks after that.

I’m going to try and summarize what’s been going on since we got here. We spent our first two nights at James and Jemimah Semakadde’s Banana Village in Entebbe, just outside Uganda’s capital, Kampala. They run a guest house there. Last year, we visited some people working at a rock quarry there. That’s when we met a lady, who is not only caring for her seven grandchildren but also her elderly husband. This January with James and Jemimah’s help and the financial support of our family at Vaughn Park church, we started a microloan program with the ladies in the quarry and that village. So it was an amazing treat to get to see this lady again. She no longer spends very long days breaking big rocks down into pebbles. She’s supervising about 7 young men who work for her in the quarry. She’s been able to pay school fees, have water piped to her compound and been able to install windows and doors in her house.

This group of 10 women have already borrowed money once and made weekly payments completing their loan repayments. Most of them have now taken out a second loan for the next 16 weeks. Another loan group has been started from the mothers of a local school there. I really can’t tell you how exciting it was to actually see this woman and see the improvements in her life and therefore the life of several others just through a small loan. (David has all those details about how much and how many and how long and names that we’ll try to put together in a report after we get back home—plus pictures and video.)

We got to Jinja on Thursday afternoon I think. It was great to see Irene. She’s doing well and sends her love and greetings to all of you. After she got off work at the Source café, we drove to her house and hugged on the kids. Then she and I made spaghetti together for supper—she thinks hers doesn’t taste as good as Auntie Maria’s (that’s what the kids call me; she calls me “M”). Friday we visited the market in town. Candice Garner helped me buy some skirts since I didn’t pack very many clothes. Saturday, we spent in Musima village. I’ll send pics of Moses Kirya and Zipporah’s youngest, Johnson, as soon as I can. That was a day of holding lots of babies for me while Jeff and David took pics of several of the ladies who make banana-fiber baskets. It’s always an honor and so humbling to be able to see these ladies with their families in their homes. I really enjoy it. Zipporah cooked for us, of course. We had her special lemongrass tea with chipati for our morning snack. Then lunch at 3 was rice, matoke (the steamed bananas that taste mostly like mashed potatoes), greens, cabbage, and instead of meat, we had g-nut sauce. That’s ground peanuts with salt and water that make a sauce/gravy. It’s really quite good.

Yesterday we went to church in Jinja town. Richard and Ida Bazanoona are just back from the States. They brought me greetings from my sister, Margo, who’d seen them at the Pepperdine lectures (where Margo says Ida especially was a big hit—I can only imagine!) We all took Emily and baby Adam Bogle and Candice Garner out to lunch at Ling Ling’s (Chinese restaurant—Irene’s choice and one of my Zach’s favorites). Apparently it was Mother’s Day but we didn’t know it so Happy Mother’s Day to our moms. I got a note from Z telling me Happy Mother’s Day but haven’t heard from Ryan………..)

Today, I’ve been hanging out with Candice. They’ve only been in their house for two weeks so we bought curtain material for a couple of the houses, ate at Ozzie’s—the restaurant across the street from the Source and talked a lot. David and Jeff had meetings and also visited a clinic that’s helping take care of the families we work with through the ISAC program.

DJ and Jeff and Irene are on their way to pick me up so I’m going to close for the day. I did hear from Z today and he said he didn’t feel the earthquake that hit western China today but some of the buildings in Ningbo did sway some. We also heard there were terrible tornadoes in Okla, Missouri and Ark.

The time is going quickly here. Our calendar is filling up with meetings. We’re doing really well. Jeff wants to stay—and is already planning on coming back in the fall. Oh, two of our friends here, Surj and Danyne, had a baby boy just a few days ago. I haven’t talked to them yet but hope to see them soon.

Ok, gotta go, love you all, marlea

Friday afternoon in Jinja

Just a quick note... We're at Bobby and Candice Garner's house this afternoon and Bobby's internet actually works so I'm just writing quickly to say we're doing well. Things are busy. We go to Musima village for the day tomorrow. That's where Moses and Zipporah Kirya are. Zipporah heads up the ladies' group that makes banana-fiber baskets. They have a new son, Johnson, born just 2 weeks ago. He's named for DJ, of course.

We had a good visit in Entebbe and I'll just have to write about that later. Hope all is well there.

I'll try to send a longer message on Monday. love to all, mj

UGANDA Trip 2008

Hello friends and family,

It's time to start blogging again!

David and I leave tomorrow, May 5, for a three-week trip to Uganda. Jeff Ireland will be going with us. I've posted some pics from last year's trip at the link below just because it's hard to download pics while we're there.

http://picasaweb.google.com/marleamjohnson

David just sent a report out to the folks who sponsor kids through the ISAC program (Initiative to Save African Children) that David has been working on since we got back last summer. I'm copying that report below. It's lengthy but I think it gives a good explanation for what's been going on and what we hope to accomplish in the future. I'll try to write every couple of days if I can and send pictures when I can. We're especially looking forward to seeing and staying with Irene Kimeze and the children. Also, our good buddies, Candice and Bobby Garner, have moved to Jinja and we'll be seeing them.

Oh, if you've got questions about any of this, comment here and I'll write you back or email me.

God bless all of you and thanks always for your prayers and support. God is good and faithful! Marlea

Report to ISAC sponsors and supporters of Ugandan development missions – Spring 2008

David and Marlea Johnson

As you may know, Marlea and I return to Uganda on May 5 to document some of our projects there, and to gather information that will help us chart the future of these and other development ministries. Our involvement took a leap forward this past year as we began to solicit sponsors like you for the Initiative to Save African Children (ISAC). ISAC was established in 2007 to minister to AIDS orphans in an impoverished area of southeastern Uganda.

Your annual sponsorship ($25 per month) covers the child’s school fees and supplies, a new school uniform each year, one hot meal per day on school days, and medical care as required. Sponsorship funds also provide for program administration in Uganda. It is important to note that 100% of the funds you contribute go to Uganda to support the ministry. Marlea and I handle the money and paperwork on this end as unpaid volunteers. The program is administered in Uganda by Ricky and Jackie Kahudu, long-time members of the Jinja church of Christ. Their work is overseen by Roy Mwesigwa, a trusted Christian leader in the region.

Ricky and Jackie are the primary administrators of the program. Through close work with the schools and with local churches, they identify needy children, document their family situation and physical condition, and assess their needs. They develop a personal relationship with each child and provide emotional and spiritual counsel to the children and their caretakers. Besides having a tremendous heart for these children, Ricky’s former position as a secondary school administrator suits him well for this ministry.

Here’s how we got started. During our visit to Uganda in June, 2007, Ricky approached me about his work among children in Mbiko community in Njeru, a town on the west bank of the Nile RiverMombasa, Kenya to Kampala and beyond. Positioned as such, it is a place where long haul truckers spend the night, and where prostitution—and HIV/AIDS—is rampant. near Jinja. Njeru lies on the main highway that runs from

I was impressed that Ricky was not sitting on his hands, waiting for someone with money to start his program. He had already spent a considerable amount of personal time and funds in planning ISAC and registering it with the local government. Ricky’s persistence and sincerity convinced me to look into the situation, to visit the community, the primary school where many of the children go, and even to visit the homes of eight or nine of the children. It was for me the most emotionally wrenching single day of our six-week stay in Uganda.

I had no intentions of getting involved in an orphan care or school fee sponsorship program. I want to be clear about my perspective and intentions with regard to these sponsorships. Stated briefly, it is this: My long-term goal is to have absolutely zero children in the program. That is, I intend to work toward the day when a program of sponsorships for basic necessities like education and medical care is irrelevant, because we will have implemented programs to enable the families who have taken in these children to earn the money needed to care for them.

Two years ago, I sat with Joseph (not his real name), a father of eight children whose family has taken in three orphans, children of relatives who died in middle age. It is a common refrain in sub-Saharan Africa—families with too many children burdened with even more who are orphaned due to AIDS-related deaths. I listened as he itemized each child’s school expenses, and then told him, “Joseph (not his real name), I am concerned about your children’s school fees, but I’m not in a position to provide scholarships. I want to help you make more money so you can pay your children’s school fees.” [1]

It’s a statement I’ve recited on a number of occasions, and one with which our Ugandan partners agree. No parents would choose to have their children’s wellbeing dependent on charity, which may be generous today and nonexistent tomorrow. Like you and me, they want the security and dignity of providing for their own needs, and to have their children grow up in homes with secure sources of income and hopeful about the future. If I want these things for myself, the Golden Rule compels me to want them for others.

For these reasons, we believe:

in development, not relief, as a remedy to underdevelopment;

in providing tools and training, not handouts;

on building competency and self-confidence, not dependency and inferiority; and

on regarding even “the least of these” as capable agents of their own futures, not victims whose problems can only be solved by outsiders.

This is our vision for all the families who’ve taken in orphans like the ones you’re sponsoring—to identify ways to assist them in moving to self-sufficiency. With some this may be possible fairly quickly; with others it will take some time; and for others it is simply not feasible. It’s not practical to tell an aged grandmother, for example—the sole caretaker of seven grandchildren—that we won’t help her immediately but will help her make more money so she can care for them. She may be able to feed them, but she can’t keep them in school; and without education, the cycle of ignorance and poverty will persist. In her case, we will seek to help her make more money, but we also want to help put the children in school. Even more, through special programs and life skills training, we will search for ways to help these children break free of poverty’s hold on them, while also taking care not to allow them to become trapped in dependency.

When we began considering how we might work with ISAC last fall, we knew we needed local accountability to ensure the program’s legitimacy. I believe there are four requirements for legitimate programs of assistance such as this.

We must show that there are:

1. genuine needs;
2. a program designed to address those needs both efficiently and effectively,
3. accountability to ensure that resources contributed to the program are properly used to accomplish the program’s purposes; and
4. measurable results, to confirm that the program is indeed effective at meeting the needs for which it was designed.

In February, we hired Roy Mesigwa to provide accountability for the money sent to fund the program, and to serve as our “eyes and ears” there. Roy is highly respected within the churches of Christ in southeast Uganda. He serves as a primary language instructor for missionaries in Jinja, and has extensive work experience with charitable non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Uganda. Roy is also supervising some other development work we have started in the area. For your information, Roy’s salary is funded from the profits of Victoria Nile Trading Co., the craft sale business we started in 2006 to help Ugandan women artisans access the U.S. market.

As of May 2008, we (all the sponsors) currently provide for 56 children. There are another 60 children who are waiting for sponsors, but I have not yet tried to recruit more sponsors. I told Ricky that it is wise to “walk before we run,” that is, to make sure the systems are in place to run the program properly before expanding.

Beyond the orphan care program, we are engaged in microlending and microenterprise development projects. The craft sales business is an example of microenterprise development—we purchase baskets and jewelry from Ugandan women, enabling them to buy better food, clothing and medicine for their children, and to pay school fees. We help the women to identify products that will sell here in the U.S. and help them improve the quality of their goods. In so doing we encourage them to be creative, to emphasize quality, and to be responsive to customers.

The lessons we teach are not just good business--they also reflect biblical principles of concern for others, responsibility for oneself and one’s family, the blessing of work, perseverance, and more. We also share some profits with the women, and some profits are returned to the communities in other ways. For example, in early 2008 we sent $500 of profits to assist Ugandan Christian families who had taken into their homes refugees who had fled the violence of Kenya’s recent political unrest. All profits of the craft sales support Christian missions in Africa.

Let me explain our microloan ministry by first introducing you to a courageous woman. Her name is Mrs. Muzenge. She’s probably in her fifties, and six days a week, nine to ten hours per day, you will find her as we did, sitting on her rockpile in a quarry outside Entebbe. With a hand sledge, she breaks stones the size of car tires into smaller and smaller pieces, finally into gravel for use in construction projects. A month of that labor yields her about $35, with which she supports an invalid husband and seven grandchildren--the intervening generation is dead.

It is a hard life, but it’s the life she knows, and it is a scenario repeated thousands of times over in Uganda, hundreds of thousands of times over in sub-Saharan Africa. This past January, through $3,000 allocated from the Missions Sunday collection at the Vaughn Park church, a microloan program was started among these women who work in this quarry. Mrs.Muzenge is one of the first group of 10 women. Another 10 to 12 women are waiting to enter.

Microloans are very small—most in the neighborhood of $50 to $100—but large enough to help someone start a very small enterprise. Ideally, the borrower is already economically active, in which case the loan can help her expand the business to a size that will allow her to repay the loan—plus interest—and contribute something to the betterment of the family. Microloans have proven effective in a wide range of circumstances, geographically and culturally, to help people extract themselves from poverty. Why loans? Why not grants? Why charge interest? I can’t explain the details of the loans in this letter (which is already much longer than I’d planned!), but you can read about them on our website: (www.microdevelopmentmissions.com). As always, I’ll be happy to address any questions you have about this work.

Among other activities, one purpose of our trip to is to document this loan program in writing and in video, so we can describe it, evaluate it, adjust it as needed, and replicate it in other areas. The program is overseen locally by James and Jemimah Semakadde, Christian businesspeople who own a guest house and retreat center near Entebbe. James holds a Master of Education degree from Harding University, and also serves on the Board of Directors for FINCA, the second-largest microcredit organization in the world. Our program is modeled after other successful microloan programs, but with the additional element that Christian principles of personal and commercial behavior are the foundation of the training and ongoing development of the women participating in the program.

We will be in Uganda for about three weeks. Our primary focus on this visit is to document the works going on at this time. We will be accompanied by Jeff Ireland, a long-time family friend, and one of my colleagues at Faulkner University, where Jeff coaches the women’s soccer team. Jeff will be bringing some quality video equipment, which we hope to use to produce documentary materials that will tell the stories of the children, the women, and these ministries. We’ll also be gathering information to help us evaluate the programs and chart the future of these and other development ministries in Uganda.

I don’t pretend to understand how God works in the world, nor am I certain what it is about this ministry that appealed to you. Whatever your reasons, Marlea and I are grateful for your financial, emotional, and spiritual support.

Maybe, if not for your support, God would find another way or another person to make this difference in your child’s life. Maybe help would come in some other form. Or maybe your sponsored child would not be attending school . . . not getting regular meals or essential medical care . . . not receiving visits from caring Christian counselors like Ricky, Jackie and Roy . . . not hearing that the God of all Creation knows him personally and loves her unconditionally.

Many thanks to our family at the Vaughn Park church for their encouragement, financial support, and prayers for us and for this ministry. We look forward to seeing you and reporting to you when we return.

If you are not sponsoring a child but would like to do so, or if you want more information, please email us at service@microdevelopmentmissions.com. The Vaughn Park Church of Christ is receiving contributions for this work, and contributions made to the church are tax deductible. Please be sure to earmark contribution checks for “ISAC” or “Ugandan mission.”