Orphan Children Fund Blog

update

2009-03-20T19:37:00.000-07:00

Here we are in the new year. We had the opportunity to attend a farming conference here this past month. It was well attended by both expats and local farmers. I believe that this farming method will make a big difference in the lives of the people who implement it on their farms. We were introduced to this method after we arrived in Uganda and had the opportunity to put it to practice at one of the schools in the village. Some of the farmers have seen a 10 fold increase in their crop production since implementing it. This means that the people can go from sustenance farming to actually making a profit. That is huge for these people. That means they can not only feed their families, but also send them to school and provide clothing and medical for them.

We are so excited to see this take root here.

We have 3 girls here who are helping out in one of the village schools. They have been here since November and will stay until May. They are seeing first hand what it is like to live here as they have been living in the village this entire time. They are teaching English as well as other subjects to Baby Class through P5. We are blessed to have them here and know that they are truly making a difference in these childrens lives.

Funny advertisements and articles

2008-11-02T10:16:00.000-08:00

Below are a few funny excerpts from newspaper articles and advertisements.... Hope they make you chuckle!

PEANUT BUTTER LABEL
______________
Nutty Butter for an Ogre's appetite. A protein rich product you should embrace. 2 tbs will fill you up, not out. This makes a dandy substitute for meat. Peanut butter is satiating and satisfying.
contains: peanuts, salt and no addictives.

NEWS PAPER ARTICLE ON INFLATION
______________________________
The shilling weakened to it's lowest ever in history by dissipating a whooping 15.2%
in only 7 days.

PRE-SCHOOL NAME
________________
God Cares Bio-Tech Pre- School

SIGN ON FRONT OF BUILDING (my personal favorite)
________________________
Houses for let
Plots for sale
Circumcision
Boda Boda hire (motorcycle taxi's)
All done here

Money section of the newspaper
_______________________
Cues for success in garment industry
* It is good to make money but one shouldn't make it at the expensive customers

Brand name Honey
_______________
Not Tonight Honey!

Name on a taxi ( they name their taxi's here)
_____________
Go disable ( I think they were going for God is able, but it ran together funny)

fun activities

2008-10-24T04:41:00.000-07:00

The Nile River here has a Bungee jump. I haven't been brave enough to experience it, but my kids have and so have some of our visitors. Diving head first into the river to have your shirt yanked off over your head as you come up isn't quite my idea of fun.

You can always shoot the class 5+ rapids in a kayak or in a raft if bungee jumping isn't quite your cup of tea. The locals like to strap on jerry cans and shoot the rapids that way. What ever "floats your boat" I guess.

Ugandan Locals

2008-10-24T04:34:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of locals who decided to entertain us one morning for breakfast

school is almost out

2008-10-24T00:43:00.000-07:00

The School in the village is winding down for the year. In a few weeks they will break for the holidays and won't return until the 1st of the year. The older kids are getting ready to "sit" for their exams to see if they move to the next grade level. They have to pay to take their exams so a lot of kids stay in lower level grades even if they are able to pass the test because they can't afford to pay for the testing.

Kaci playing ball with some of the school kids

Testimony from the honeymooner's

2008-10-07T01:54:00.000-07:00

Below is a testimony of the couple who came to Uganda on their honeymoon to help us with the work in the village. We loved having them here and they were a great help to us. Hope you enjoy.............

From: David and Bethany Allen

We wanted to start our lives together serving others in the nation of Africa, where we feel as though the Lord is leading us in the future. Therefore, after we were married on June 14th of this year, we headed off to Uganda. We were excited to get a wide variety of experiences, knowing that we would enjoy our first week in Uganda honeymooning with an African safari. After that, we met with the McKenzies and stayed with them, which allowed us to see and experience some of Kampala. Then, it was time to head out to the village of Bakka where we would spend the next 10 days.

We stayed in the one hotel in the village for 7,000 shillings a day ($4.25 US). It really wasn’t worth more than that. We had bucket showers and pit latrines for toilets (holes in the ground). I think the worst part though was that there was a bar attached to the hotel, which is really where they make all their money. The Africans can definitely party all night long. For some reason, they feel as though they must always keep the music REALLY loud. So, obviously, our big challenge was trying to get quality sleep. After a couple of nights, we learned to adjust. Our worst night was Saturday night; the music was loud until around 2am, there was prostitution going on in the room right across from us, and men chatting right outside our window till around 4am. Needless to say, we were tired the next day. We understand that is how village life is, but it is not great to come home and sleep in that environment. Because we were sort of the guinea pigs that went out there (we were told we were the first whites to come and stay longer than a day or two), these types of results can always be expected. However, I think we have all come to the realization now that for the next volunteers, there will be other accommodations out there to stay in. But hey, someone had to try it out to see what it would be like, and we were happy to be the ones to do it!

On the flip side, upon arriving, we received the usual and amazing welcoming from the children. Their smiles and “Hello muzungu” made us feel right at home along with the hospitality from the head-master of the school and Pastor, Joseph. This is something that never ceases to amaze us. We love the African children…it is pretty much impossible not to. Your heart falls in love immediately.

While we were there, we were able to do a variety of things. The major event that took place was 2 days of HIV testing; out of over 300 HIV tests given… only 18 came back positive. Praise Jesus!!! None of them the school children. On the same day, while the testing was taking place, we were able to get pictures and bio’s of all the children so that they can be put on the website. We also vaccinated and gave vitamins to the children and their families. It was a CRAZY day with lots and lots of people. They were terrified of the word “vaccination,” and refused to be vaccinated, but eventually agreed. This we believe will be a huge step for beginning to improve their health.

The other days in the village, we taught at the school before lunch and hung mosquito nets in the afternoon until evening. We were blessed to be able to teach English and Science to the children in grades P3 through P6. The children in these classes range from ages 8 to 16. Neither of us have any experience in teaching, but found delight as we saw the lights going off in the children’s heads. We taught: the respiratory system, health, insects that spread diseases and prevention of diseases, sentence structure, and conversational English. The education as you can imagine is not very good. Pretty much, what school consists of is the teacher writing something on the board and them copying it. There is really no “teaching” involved. Needless to say, the children can copy great…but they know nothing about what they are copying. This school has some students who are very gifted and intelligent. Unfortunately, they are not challenged by their current structure. However, we were extremely impressed at how fast some of the children caught on once they had a “teacher” to teach them.

After the morning teaching and lunch, we would go to hang nets in the student’s homes. We went on foot to all the homes; the distance to the homes can be up to 4 miles and they can sometimes be hard to locate, so the job of getting to the houses can prove to be difficult. We definitely experienced that on Saturday, as we spend the whole day walking to the homes and hanging the nets. If we tell you we were out for a good 8 hours, you would think that we hung a lot of nets. But the reality is that it is hard work…and we only hung 14 that day!! However, we were still proud! Total, we were only able to hang 39 nets but feel some peace in the fact that every net hung will protect at least 2 people, because a person who has their own bed is rare. Unfortunately, there is still much work to be done in hanging the nets (the people have absolutely no clue how to hang them), but we pray that the Lord will provide workers in order to finish the job. This task and opportunity that we were given to hang the nets was very pleasurable to us. We loved working together and actually getting to know more of the village adults. Nothing beats the smile and gratefulness they had on their faces once they saw the net up.

We have loved being here and living in the village (although it definitely was not long enough). We have memories of the children’s laughter and experiences that we will treasure forever. We believe that there is HOPE for the school, for the village, and for the people of the town. What we think is really needed there is some people to commit to living out there (or close) to work with them. It is such a BIG task, and the McKenzies cannot do it alone (as they are doing sooo much now!). Short term and long term would both be effective and useful…but most of all long term. They need someone who really has a heart for village life and wanting to commit to these people. There is so much physical and spiritual work that needs to be done there, but we think you would find it more than amazing! We find ourselves very thankful for this opportunity that we were given and hope to be able to come back and do more.

beggars

2008-09-29T20:53:00.000-07:00

In Kampala there are a lot of street beggars. You see ones that are crazy, ones with no clothes (literally) young boys who live on the streets and beg, able bodied young and old who beg to make a living, small children who's parents or guardians put them on the street to beg for them, disabled people of all ages and disabilities and so on. You see them so much here that you get hardened to it all.
There is a group of people who come to Kampala to beg from the north east. Their tactics are to bring young girls 5-10 and have them put babies under 6 months on their backs and beg. These girls are all dirty, clothes tattered,if they have any and the babies look very sad and lethargic on their backs. These never cease to tug at my heart when I see them. I have tried different tactics to help them with out giving them money as I don't think they ever get any of it as an adult takes whatever money they get.
Yesterday, we were in town and we passed a woman who was begging. She had the usual tattered clothes, but not too bad. She looked relatively clean and seemed as though she hadn't missed any meals. In her arms was the smallest baby I think I have ever seen. This child had to be about 9 months old and probably weighed 3 pounds. Words cannot describe the sight. I found the picture above that I think would best describe what I saw.

We are alive!

2008-09-23T20:29:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long silence. It has been a crazy 2 months. We "shifted" as they call it here or moved houses. We found a great house with a fantastic "garden" or yard pretty close to our last place. This one is closer into town and a 5 minute walk from our friends. We have a 3 year lease, so we won't have to worry about moving again soon.
We have many updates that I will fill you in on later. For now a quick over view.
The school is back in session from their break. Our son Jesse is enrolled this semester so that is a relief for us to be able to get back into school.
David will be going to our farm soon to make introductions and have our farm manager see the property. That has been a long time coming and we are so excited to get started up there.
We are planning on coming home to the states for the holidays as I posted in an earlier blog. We are still collecting funds to buy the tickets as well as looking for a vehicle to use while we are back. If anyone has an extra car that seats 6 that they could lend us that would be great. Please let us know.
More later..........

Funny Story

2008-08-08T03:41:00.000-07:00

Something that us Ex-Pats do when we get together to keep our sanity is tell stories about what has happened to us over the week. It helps us to know that we aren't the only ones in Uganda going through tough experiences. Sometimes they are bad stories, sometimes sad and almost always someone has a funny one. Well, this past week I thought that this story won the prize for being the funniest and thought I would pass it along...........

An NGO that has an office here sent some of their team members to the village to do AIDS awareness, safe sex and family planning teachings. They had finished their talk on the importance of safe sex not only to avoid sexually transmitted diseases, but also to reduce the number of pregnancies or to space their children better. Uganda by the way has the highest birth rate in the world at an average of 7.4 children per woman.
Anyway, at the end of their talk they wanted to show the people how to use condoms properly. So, they took out carrots and placed the condoms on the carrots so they could see how to do it and also practice it.
They distributed the condoms and left the village to return in a few months to see how things were going.
Upon their return a couple of months later the people were so excited to show the team that they had been practicing family planning and safe sex. As they were led to the peoples homes they noticed carrots in the yards with condoms placed on them. The people were beaming with joy to show the team that they were properly using the condoms just as they had been taught!

Can you imagine??? There are no words.

Computer Crash

2008-08-05T03:49:00.000-07:00

This last week we had our hard drive crash on us. After 6 days of working on it and many hours we finally were able to get a new hard drive and get the computer up and running again.
We lost some files and some programs, but all in all it is in tact. If anyone has emailed us at david@orphanchildrenfund.com or jamie@ or Info@ the same address or any of the @orphanchildrenrescue's then we haven't gotten your emails. We still are having issues with outlook, so please use the orphanchildrenfund@gmail address.
We have been crazy busy getting the new house ready to move in as well as packing the old one up. It is coming along and we are still shooting for a August 15th move in date. We might have a day or two down when we move with the computers, so don't be alarmed if you don't hear from us at that time for a day or so.
School is starting up in the States in the next few weeks. Here we are just finishing up a term. The upper grades (1-6) at our school are taking their exams. We paid for 59 orphans to be able to take their exams at our school in Bakka. They have sitting fee's here in Uganda and if they can't afford the fees then they don't pass that grade and have to repeat it. We still have 157 students that do not have sponsors for school fees. As you are getting your kids ready for school this fall think about sponsoring a student here. $30.00 a month covers food, school fees, uniforms, books, test fees, and medical insurance.
Just a reminder.... we will be coming back to the States for the holidays in Nov. and Dec. Most of our time will be in Texas, Oklahoma, Minnesota and New York. We are looking forward to seeing friends and family and celebrating the season. It will also be a nice time to relax a bit.

July

2008-07-23T05:40:00.000-07:00

We are heading towards the end of July and I wanted to give you an update on what has happened this month.
It has been a full month with a lot of things going on, many things accomplished and lives changed.

As many of you know from reading the blog we had two medical clinics this past month. We tested the students their siblings and family members for HIV as well as vaccinating them. They all received de-worming and vitamins.

All of the students received mosquito nets and instructions on how to use and care for them and 39 of them were hung in the homes.

We finished the social work with pictures on all of the students. Now the job of putting them together and getting them on the web so that you can see them and hear their stories.

We purchased a water filtration system for the school so that the children can drink clean water during the school day.

We had 2 volunteers from the states come and help out in the school as well as others who came and helped out for the medical clinics.

We were finally able to purchase a car!

Our quest for another house to rent is over. We found one and will move in August.

We celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary. We escaped to Jinga to spend the night overlooking the Nile in a private Banda. It was a much needed break for us.

Our son competed in 2 motocross races placing 8th in one and 4th in the other.

August we are looking forward to several families being able to come and pick up their kids, moving into our new house and more renovations to the school. We are still waiting to start in Nakasongola which we hope will be in August as well.

We are planning on coming back to the states for a vacation during the holidays. At that time we will have been away from home for 18months. We are looking forward to seeing friends and family again. (not to mention eating Mexican food) We will be in Texas and Minnesota for sure in November and December. Please let us know if you would like us to come and speak for any group.

pictures of 2nd vaccine clinic

2008-07-12T15:17:00.000-07:00

Jesse got in on the "jabbing" action this past week where he helped us out with the vaccinating. Our honeymooners helped out with paperwork and David ended up "jabbing" in the end as well. We vaccinated and gave bottles of vitamins to 87 more people. So in the end the vaccine clinic, HIV testing and net distribution over the past 2 weeks were a huge success. Our students and their families and some of the village people were all tested for HIV, vaccinated, de-wormed, vitamins given and nets distributed and 39 hung so far. A huge thank you to Mild May again, Wentz Clinic, especially Faith, Buy a Net from Canada, David and Bethany Allen, Help International, Sarah White and the McKenzie family for all of their hard work during the past 2 weeks for the clinic/net distribution. Thank you to the Penner family for donating funds to help make this all happen.

2nd vaccination clinic /unsuspecting babies

2008-07-12T15:08:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the babies before we vaccinated them. I thought they were so cute and wanted you to see their precious little faces.
This one in the hat didn't cry at all when we"stuck" her. What a trooper.

Porridge line at school during clinic

2008-07-12T15:04:00.000-07:00

Kids waiting for porridge and watching the show of the scared people getting tested for HIV.

pictures of round 2 of the HIV Testing

2008-07-12T14:42:00.000-07:00

This was a boy who was so scared of getting tested that he ended up shirtless, but at least he didn't bite anyone. They had 4 people holding him down to draw the blood and he kept screaming that, "It was hurting him" even though they hadn't touched him yet. His anticks made for quite a show for the kids waiting in line for their porridge. It was another long day for everyone. We tested another 87 people and had 9 more positive for HIV. Only one child tested positive out of the 300 people that we tested.

Team from Canada here to distribute nets

2008-07-04T06:50:00.000-07:00

The team from Canada came on Thursday to deliver and educate the students and their families how to use and care for the nets that they were donating. In all they brought 160 for our students, their family members and teachers. We had Jimmy (he works for us) and David (a volunteer from our church in the USA) go and hang nets in 4 homes. This next week David will be going to the students homes and showing them how to hang them and making sure they all get up. It will be a big job for him. We are thankful for his help to get this done. This should, if properly used, cut the rate of malaria down in the village significantly. Most months we have a minimum of 10% of our students out with malaria and most of the parents of the orphans that we have in our school have died from it.
A huge thank you to Wentz Medical Clinic, Dr. Martin, African Renewal Ministries and the Canadian team for helping to make this happen for our students and their families.

Net education

2008-07-04T06:43:00.000-07:00

"Net team" from Canada educating the kids and their families how to properly care for and use the nets

Nets being hung

2008-07-04T06:36:00.000-07:00

Jimmy and David hanging nets in 4 of the students homes

Net distribution- thankful recipients

2008-07-04T06:28:00.000-07:00

These are some of the recipients of the nets that were donated on Thursday.

Interesting myths and fears

2008-07-04T06:14:00.000-07:00

Our day in the village on Wednesday was a huge success, but almost didn't happen. It was due to myths and fears that the villagers had concerning having blood drawn and immunizations administered. These are the things that we deal with here on a daily basis which makes our work harder and things taking longer as well.
I thought you would find this interesting..............
When we arrived at the village Wed. morning to start the HIV testing and immunizations we had a surprise waiting for us. 50 of the parents from the school and refused to allow their children and themselves be tested. From there the others had decided to reject the testing as well based on the myth that "white people or Muzungus" come into the villages and "suck" peoples blood and then take it and sell it for alot of money. We had to spend quite a bit of time counseling them and explaining to them how the process worked, how much blood was actually being taken and that we weren't going to "sell" their blood. We got them settled down and ok with having the HIV test but then they all refused having the children and themselves immunized.
The fear there was that they were all going to die or be crippled. We didn't know this but apparently in 1991 one of the government heads went on a campaign to immunize all of the villagers. They said that many people died afterwards and that the children all became crippled. I have no idea if there is any truth to the story, but it was firmly ingrained in their minds that this would happen to them. So we again had to speak to them and let them know how it actually worked and the benefits to them. After much talking and reassuring they finally consented and they all agreed. Afterwards when we ran out of vaccines the ones who didn't get done begged us to please come again so that they could be taken care of. We will see them again on Wednesday.

Bakka HIV Testing

2008-07-03T00:53:00.000-07:00

We had a very successful day yesterday in the village. We had MildMay clinic come and do the HIV testing and Wentz Medical Clinic donate the vaccines, de-wormer's and vitamins for all of the students and their families. Help International volunteered 11 of their people and we had an additional 23 volunteers come and help make this possible. We were able to test 212 for HIV. Only 9 were positive which really surprised us and we are so thankful for the numbers being that low. We were able to vaccinate, de-worm and supply vitamins for 128 people. We ran out of supplies so we will be out again next week on the 9th to finish up with everyone who did not get tested or vaccinated.
Every student had some kind of fungal infection, was malnourished to some degree and all had worms. We will see what we can do about the fungal infections, but the de-worming is now being taken care of and the malnutrition will only be helped with education on how to eat properly and raising the level of incomes for these families.
A big thank you to all fo the volunteers. We started at 6:30am and arrived back home at 8:00pm. Everyone worked so hard and it was hot yesterday. We couldn't have done it without their help. We had one person bit while holding down a child to draw blood and another stuck with a needle after drawing blood. Everyone is ok. The volunteer was stuck with the needle after he had dawn blood and the child flinched. The child's blood was tested 3 times and was neg for HIV, but we took him to the clinic so that they could test for other things to make sure he was ok.
I was helping in the vaccination room. I have become an expert now on "jabbing" people. I feel so bad when I do it and have to tell them I am sorry afterwards. I was afraid that the kids wouldn't like me anymore after I did it, but they all came around and I think have forgiven me. We will continue to supply the school with vitamins and de-wormer as the Wentz Medical Clinic has agreed to keep supplying them for us. We will begin having regular vaccination clinics as well.
The clinic has also supplied us with 360 mosquito nets which we got today and are taking out to the village. They have a team from Canada that will deliver them and also educate the kids and families how to hang, care for, clean and use properly. We have a couple from our church that is staying in the village right now that will begin hanging the nets for all of our students. He will have some of the villagers come with them so that they can learn how to intall them properly.
Will have another update on how the net distribution went and then again next week after our 2nd clinic is finished.
We are also busy getting all of the students stories so that we can better raise support for these precious little guys. Look for that in the next 3 weeks. Enjoy the pictures below of the HIV testing, vaccinations and kids being played with during the process.

Bakka Medical Clinic Success

2008-07-03T00:45:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July!

2008-07-01T08:27:00.000-07:00

Happy Independence Day! We already celebrated here as the US Embassy threw a celebration on the 29th. Burgers, hot dogs and fireworks. Not quite like being at home, but it was better than nothing.
This past month has flown by. We are getting ready for the village medical clinic tomorrow. We will begin testing all of the students and their families for HIV and also immunizing all of them as well. We will do half tomorrow and then the other half on the 9th. We have 34 volunteers coming to help us out.
We saw our first family take home their precious new daughter this past month. What a privilege to be able to help facilitate that. We have several more families coming to pick up there waiting children this summer.
All of the birthing kits have been passed out. So far every woman that has delivered with the kit has had a healthy baby and no problems with the mom. What a blessing for these babies and mothers.
Our school grew when we reopened from 150 to 210. We had to send them home as we don't have room for them. They heard that Muzungu's (white people)had taken over the school and wanted their kids to be able to attend. Our students are now eating breakfast and lunch and the teachers are much happier as they are eating as well and getting morning tea.
We have had some volunteers and visitors from the states this past month. They have been so gracious as to donate some items for the school and one couple is here for two weeks to live in the village and help with the school, do some social work for us and hang "mozzie"nets. They are doing all of this while on their honeymoon!
On a personal note....
We have started our house hunting as we have to move out of our home in August. We have found one house that seems like it will meet our needs, so now we negotiate and look some more. We are also starting to look at some vehicles as we feel like we will be able to purchase one in the next month or so. So that is a positive.
Our son Jesse competed in his first East African Motocross race this past weekend. He did very well and we are really proud of him. I posted a picture of him.
Our daughter Kaci's internship in Switzerland fell through so she will be staying here for now.
We hope that you are all doing well and enjoying your summer vacations. We will miss hanging out at the lake and playing at Schlitterbahn. Those of you in Texas know what I mean.
I will update again after we get back from the village.

Passion

2008-06-02T05:10:00.000-07:00

We had the privilege this week of having The Passion Tour come to Kampala. Their site is www.268generation.com if you are not familiar with the event. What an incredible opportunity for Uganda to be able to host this team. They had 25,000 students register and participate in the 2 day event. I believe that the students of Makerere University will never be the same.A friend from Austin who now lives in Israel, who has been part of the Passion Team for 10 years came and we were able to spend some time with her. We had a wonderful visit with her although way too short. I know that she thinks that she came to be part of this event, but God had other plans for her as well.
Last Monday night I collapsed in our kitchen and started seizing. I was rushed to our local clinic where they did tests to see what had caused this to happen. The tests were inconclusive so I was sent home to rest. The next day I went back for more tests that all came back normal. So, the conclusion was that the seizure was brought on with a slightly elevated white blood count, dehydration, low blood sugar and stress. I continued to feel "funny" for the rest of the week, resting a lot. Fear tried to grip my heart as well as my families and we all had a hard time shaking it. On her way over from Israel, David had called her to tell her what had happened with me and she said that God told her two things to do and pray over me when she was here. 1. that my head and brain would be healed and restored to normal and 2. to bind fear and that it would be gone. I am happy to report that fear is gone and today is the 1st day that I have felt normal since the attack! God is good. It brings me to my knees in tears to think that God loves me so much that He would send someone all of the way from Israel to minister to me. Those of you who knew what was going on with my health and that have been praying for me, thank you!

School Repairs

2008-05-20T01:47:00.000-07:00

The repairs have been started on the school. Here is a picture of the front set of classroom buildings with new window and door frames, plaster and security bars so that we can store things in the rooms after we get the doors put on. These were the mandatory repairs to reopen the school. The blackboards were replastered and painted black. The kids can now see what is written on them. The kids started back on Monday with teachers salaries paid up to date, new repairs on the buildings, porridge for breakfast and beans and casava for lunch. The teachers are getting tea in the morning with their porridge which makes them much happier. Can you imagine a teacher in the USA going to school to teach without eating breakfast or having their starbucks?

Boda riding

2008-05-19T13:14:00.000-07:00

Those of you that have been keeping up with my blog will remember me writing about the modes of transport here in Uganda. Well, the car that we have been blessed with that was on loan for the past 4 months is now in the shop getting repainted and fixed up for our friends that will be returning next week. We are so excited to have them back It has been too long!
Anyway, we are now back to public transportation which means smoking taxis, crazy Boda(motorcycle) drivers and walking. The walking is good except for when the Boda drivers see how close they can get to you or the taxi's run you off the road. I don't think I ever told you about the Boda's trying to see how close they can get to you. Anyway, they think it is funny to come up behind you and drive as close as they can possibly get (sometimes even hitting you) to you. I haven't quite figured out why they do it but I must confess that sometimes I think about stiff arming them or kicking the bike over as it goes by. WWJD? I struggle with that one:)
I am getting pretty good at riding on the back of the motorcycles with no foot pegs hanging my legs out. There is an art to doing it. If you hang them to far out to the side (mostly to avoiding dragging them or getting your leg burned by the exhaust pipe which I did on Friday and now have a large burn to prove it) you may get them hit by oncoming traffic or smashed between the cars that the Motorcycle is squeezing through. So, this week as I am riding trying to hold on, keeping my legs from dragging or getting burned or hit I was thinking how nice it is to experience the country on the back of a bike. It was really nice until I got cramps in my thighs and we were almost squished between a lory (large truck) and a Toyota Prado (landcruiser) We accelerated at the last minute to squeeze through them.
Never a dull moment!

Bakka Village Crusade

2008-05-13T14:47:00.000-07:00

Here is an update on our crusade that we held in the village over the weekend. Sorry no pictures as I took the battery out of the camera to charge it before we left, picked up the camera and forgot the battery. We did get some interesting video though:)

Part of our team arrived in the morning to set up the area for the meeting and the the rest of the team came later on in the afternoon. We started with 3 hours of music then we had the evangelist speak for about 30 minutes, we prayed for the sick watched the 2nd half of the 10 commandments movie with the evangelist narrating the dialogs in Lugandan and then prayed for salvations and other needs.

There were 11 first time dedications which were followed up by the local pastor, 8 instant healings, two demon possessed people manifesting and 1 witch doctor chanting and dancing around. It was quite a night. 4 of the instant healings were of children with malaria which the fever left instantly and no sign of any symptoms after prayer. The others were headaches, stomach aches and one with severe chest pains unable to breath.

The witch doctor was interesting to say the least. He came out during praise and worship with a suit on and animal skins strapped to his body. Had a pipe in his mouth, some kind of animal tail on a stick in one hand and then another stick in the other. He danced around waving the sticks and blowing smoke everywhere. He did this for 2 hours and then decided to give up and go home. Some of the natives were worried and scared and watched to see what we would do. We prayed and laughed under our breath as it was really quite ridiculous to watch. We serve the one true God!

World Orphan Day

2008-05-07T02:23:00.000-07:00

Today is World Orphan Day. It is a great time to reflect upon the orphan crisis all around the world. Uganda has 3.1 million orphans and the number is rising. Malaria is the #1 killer of the parents of these orphans and all children under the age of 5 killing more than 300 a day in Uganda alone.
We had one of the children in Bakka village die this past week. We had just seen him a few weeks ago and he was well. He spent several days in the hospital before he finally died. It is a very hard thing for us to see these children die, but for the people here it is their daily reality.

pictures

2008-04-27T13:42:00.000-07:00

Kaci and David explaining the birthing kits, Kaci passing out snacks to the village kids and a rainy day at the school.

2008-04-27T13:33:00.000-07:00

Well, we have internet at our house again, but it very slow. Still it is a huge blessing not to have to drive 30 minutes or more into town to sit at an internet cafe for 3 hours and only be able to send 2 emails out.
We had the opportunity to meet and great family that is in Uganda for a visit. Their daughter is here on a longer stay and they helped us distribute birthing kits in the village this week. They were great and we really appreciated their presence.
We were able to put together 50 kits with the help of a supporter in the states and distribute them in the village. Thank you Brandi for helping make this happen. I have posted pictures of some of the houses and women that we saw.
I will give you an update on the school project in the next blog. We have received funds for the testing of the children for HIV/AIDS as well as funds for the repairs so we will be able to start on both of those things.

school sponsorship

2008-04-10T00:03:00.000-07:00

Click on the pictures to see them enlarged. All of these kids need school sponsorship. Please see the blog below for more information.

Here is the information on the school that we are helping and had previously told you about in one of the blogs. The name of school is Christian Friends School. We are considering renaming it.
We were at the school most of the day on Friday. 6 of us went with one being a new acquaintance here from England. She had been here for awhile and had not seen the real Africa, spending most of her time in and around Kampala. We were there doing the social work of cataloging the children and taking pictures. We were only able to complete through P-2. That was 94 of the 150 children and here are some of the findings.

47 boys and 47 girls
11-AGE 3, 17-AGE 4, 11 AGE-5, 12 AGE-6, 14- AGE 7, 18-AGE 8, 3- AGE 9, 6-AGE 10, 1- AGE 11, 1- AGE 12. We still have about 56 more of the older kids.
45 Double orphans (both parents dead), 18 single orphans (one parent dead), 31 with both parents.
25 children always pay the school fees. ($4.50/term) 2 children pay sometimes, 67 are never able to pay school fees. Monday was the start of the exit testing for the year. It is required to pay about $ .60 per child to get the test. 59 of our children could not pay. We made up the difference, but insisted that they help with the garden and bring in mulch for it and they did. We heard of another school that requires the children to bring in homemade bricks if they cannot pay. There is really no free education in Uganda. These kids are as poor as it gets. We found out that for many of our students, the porridge they get at lunch is many times the only meal they get that day. It has very little nutrition in it, but it does fill them up with carbs. Some of the children walk over 3 miles one way to come to the school.

Staffing
We started putting together a basic budget for the monthly reoccurring costs.
* We want to have 5 qualified teachers at $120.00 per month. Plus 5 teachers aids at $40.00 per month.
* A qualified head master at $240.00 per month.
* A school secretary at $40.00 per month
* 2 cooks/cleaners at $40.00 per month
* A grounds/gardener at $40.00 per month
* Pastor Joseph as our Chaplin and counselor at $60.00 per month
THESE STAFFING REQUIREMENTS TOTAL TO ABOUT $1285.00 PER MONTH
Nutrition
We want to increase the nutrition of the children’s 1 meal so we want to serve them beans and rice 3 times a week and beans and porsho (cornmeal) 2 times a week. This will cost us about $.15 per meal. 150 kids and 15 staff cost about $450.00 per month. We will also build a water purifier for the kids so that they can have a drink of water during the day. I swear they don’t drink any water at all. Dehydration is a major issue in all of Africa. Clean water is hard to come by.
Health Care
We want to insure the children and staff. Our friend Gerry Noble is an owner of a health insurance company called MicroCare that is totally changing the way health care is done. He will be able to create coverage for the school children and staff for about $50.00 per year per child and staffer. That totals to about $690.00 per month.
These 3 things total to about $2425.00 per month. These totals do not include teaching aids, paper, pencils, books, uniforms, and backpacks, wood to cook the lunch with ECT…
Our hope is we will be able to sponsor all of the children at a dollar a day.
If we do, we will able to rock the world for these students and the community.
We have uploaded pictures of a lot of the students. We will finish them all soon. Please consider to commit and sponsor a child.

Start-up costs
At this stage the school doesn’t have one single book. Not for the students and for some of the classes not even the teachers. No library either. The students don’t have proper clothes, shoes, school supplies ECT. We put in our last blog about the school the costs of repairs, desks and so on, but that didn’t have in it the costs for supplies, uniforms, shoes or books. These are costs that we are tallying and will have them posted in the future as well.

SPONSORSHIP

You can choose a child and begin donating $30 dollars a month towards the schooling and care of the child. The money will go towards the things that the school provides. Maintaining uniforms (tee-shirt and shorts for boys and skirts for girls, flip flops), 1 nutritious meal a day and maybe a morning snack, Health care, and a decent education with qualified teachers and teaching tools.

A HOPE AT A BETTER LIFE BECAUSE YOU GOT INVOLVED.

How to sponsor a child.

On the list below there are names children and pictures to connect them with.
Choose a child and respond to us at OCF Uganda through this blog or email us at www.orphanchildrenfund@gmail.com. Tell us the child’s name and age and we will hook you together with those child/children. We will send you reports and as soon as they can speak and write English with the help of staff the child will send you a letter thanking you. We will send pictures and report on a regular basis.

How to make the monthly donation.
You can send a check to 5753 Republic of Texas, Austin TX 78735 designate it for “school sponsorship” with the child’s name , age and number or we can help you set up a monthly debit from your credit card. Please let us know.

College student's research paper

2008-04-09T02:19:00.000-07:00

I, (David) was emailed by a young man in college who is doing a research paper on “Disease in Africa.” He wanted to know a little about us and what we think is going on in Africa concerning disease. This is what I told him.

Every disease known to man is here and pretty common. There are many infections and parasites because of the poor living conditions and lack of medical care. 80 percent of the population lives many miles from a clinic and further from a hospital. That may not sound far for someone with a car, paved roads and a few dollars in your pocket, but for the average African with no transport of any kind, dirt paths at best and no money it is a different story. No free health care. Death is common place here. Most people have been to hundreds of funerals to bury their relatives and friends. In many families most of the adults under 50 are dead because they are the ones that are sexually active. It is only the old that seem to be safe from AIDS. HIV is everywhere and the statistics that are posted and bragged about are not true. Everyone we talk to here that are in the know, doctors, lab techs, reporters ECT. believe it is at least 20-30%. Everyone here knows many people that are infected and hide it because of the stigma attached to the disease. It has been reported that Ugandans are the most sexually promiscuous group of people in Africa.

Malaria is the main killer, killing hundreds everyday. The only answer is to kill the mosquitoes and the only thing that works and is cost effective is DDT. Every first world country with a mild climate had malaria at one time or another and it was eradicated by using DDT. Malaria costs the world $20,000,000,000 every year. With wide spread use of DDT it would cost $10,000,000,000 over 2 years to completely wipe out malaria. DDT is proven to be safe if used correctly. Don't believe the horror stories, they are lies made up by the pharmaceutical companies to sell drugs to treat it. There are billions of dollars made from malaria every year. Some believe that they use malaria as population control. Go figure. It is always about the buck.

I think that if the 1st world countries really wanted to eradicate disease in Africa or other 3rd world counties, they would have done it already. 1st world countries pour millions of dollars into Africa every year to have the money stolen by some government official, used incorrectly or just plain wasted by the organizations that are supposed to be doing something besides buying expensive Land Rovers and drinking coffee all day long. The other side is that business wants to make money from disease. If they brought the disease level to where it is in first world countries, they would have to deal with a population explosion this world has never seen. They would have to deal with 10 billion mad Africans with no water, food or electricity. Basically no infrastructure of any kind to support the growth.

We came here with the intention to help cure these problems in the romantic way by giving and helping everyone we could. After being here for awhile you realize we must help these people help themselves. We have created a hand out culture here. I call it the “Welfare Society.” They want the white man to save them and he can’t. I came out of the business world in Middle America not the NGO or charity world. I see things a little differently than a lot of people do. The only way to cure the issues in Africa is to raise the economical level of the people of Africa. Doing honest business and creating millions of jobs is the answer. Get the average person off the dirt floor and on to concrete and into a bed, clean water, good nutrition and proper sanitation. Raise their level of living and you will cure a lot of the disease. Training sound business principles. Stamping out corruption. Giving a hand up, not a hand out. I don’t know if this is what you wanted to hear or not and it may not get you an "A", but from where I come from it is what I see.
David

Some things to think about: Things here are definitely different than in the western world. Our ideas of how things are in Africa, sitting in our homes with A/C, heat, running water, pantry stocked with food, electricity, a roof that doesn’t leak, proper flooring and windows watching CNN, Fox , CNBC, CBS, NBC, or ABC isn’t really real life. It’s not reality. Not that we are experts by any means, but studying about it in a book or hearing about it on the news doesn’t give you a clear picture of what is really going on here or what is needed to change the situation.

Power outages

2008-03-31T21:55:00.000-07:00

Wanted to give you all an update on our power situation. As many of you know we have been without power a lot this past month +. Today the power company will start scheduled rolling backouts (like we haven't been having them anyway, just not on a schedule) Anyway, we will have power every 3rd day so if it takes a couple of days to respond to your emails you know why. The internet is still down at our house, so we can't make phone calls either. If you call and leave a message we can hear it and then email you back or try and call on our cell phones. Othewise if you need to get in touch with us immediately you will need to call our cell phones. 011256 774095969 or 011256 774679339.

Yes, we are alive

2008-03-26T22:18:00.001-07:00

Yes we are alive and well. It has been awhile since we have been able to blog. We have had downed power and internet lines for the past 3+ weeks, but we are well.
David has done the blog for this week. We have some exciting things going on and some pictures as well after the letter. Thanks for being patient with us.
Jamie

Exciting news!!

Orphan/Children Fund has just acquired a village primary school in Bakka outside the town of Wakiso. The school is for children 3yrs to 6th grade. They presently have 150 students (38 double orphans and 37 single orphans and 75 really poor kids). All the children live with extended family members and with their parents. This is the local school for all the poor families. The tuition is only $4.75 per term (3 terms/yr.) and half of the students cannot afford that. The school is on approximately 2 acres with 3 buildings that were built 20 years ago. It has a beautiful setting and spectacular views but the classroom buildings are just awful and I mean bad. Most of us would not use them for a doghouse. There are no doors, windows, books, desks, equipment, toys, water or electricity. The kids go all day without drinking anything because of a lack of water. The floors are uneven dirt with major leaks in the roof and the rain just blows in and makes mud in the classrooms. Most of the caulk boards are crumbling plaster painted black. (You can see on the pictures below) The teacher has to pick and choose where she can write. There are 4 teachers and 1 cook/ bottle washer. They serve porridge cooked on 3 rocks in a 20 liter metal bucket. Only the older children are served lunch meal and the smaller kids have to go home for the day hungry. The teachers barely speak English and have no real teaching skills. They are paid $40 a month, so no wonder they are not qualified. 40 kids per class doesn’t help.
What were we going to do when we were offered the school? Of course you pray and ask for God’s will and then do what you can. OCF can do so much more for these kids with your help. The kids were well behaved and just happy to be alive. The school has had no outside or Governmental help and the headmaster, Pastor Joseph was ready to give up and close the doors before we came to meet him. When God closes a door He opens a window, and that is where we are now. We are looking through that window seeing God’s plans. We need your help, time and resources to change this school into something special.
What we want to do is bring in building teams to do the repairs to the buildings and teachers/ volunteers to teach the children and to train the teachers how to teach. A new term starts mid May, so summer break in US will be a perfect time for teachers and volunteers to come here. Anyone interested please contact us ASAP. There are local accommodations that are sufficient. We have put together some of the costs and scope of the repairs. We want to start a sponsorship of $35 per month per child for the children for school administration, school fees, packs, books, nutritious meals, health care and uniforms. We will require that the families contribute something toward the school fees. This may just be food, sewing, gardening or something they have. We don’t want to start another welfare culture. We must teach them to think and do for themselves. Give them pride, not take it away.
We have agreed to reimburse the pastor for the cost he paid for the acreage and buildings. That cost is 6,00,000 UG Shillings or $3600.00. We don’t have the funds to do that now, but he understands we will start raising the funds, so how about a little help with that? Our goal is to have the buildings repaired, all students insured with medical coverage, uniforms, books, desks etc. by the end of summer/1st of Sept.
We have started clearing a plot on the property to start a garden. We will be using this as a community project to show them how to use the farming technique, “Framing God’s way”. This is the technology that we will be using on our land in Nakasongola for our larger farm. www.farming-gods-way.org. It will also serve as food to feed the children with and ongoing science lessons.
Plant a seed and watch it grow. Change a life and give a future.
On another note we have qualified 34 orphans from the school that are ready to adopt. We also have a 2 month old baby girl that we have from the village that we took into our home as she was malnourished and we weren’t sure if she was going to survive. Her father was killed in a car crash before she was born and her mom died after giving birth. She weighed in at 4 pounds. She is available to adopt as well. Very sweet baby Mary.

Estimation for repairs

Roofing

Replace 50% and paint 50% 3880 SF total
1940 SF tin sheets $1164.00
1940 SF roof paint $550.00

Floors

2400 SF concrete $2000.00

Doors

17- 2’-8”X6’-8” solid wood doors
and locking hardware $1360.00

Windows

36- 3’X3’ bars only, wood frame
$1280.00

Bricks and Mortor $700.00

Plaster for Walls $1700.00

Paint $700.00

Tools $200.00

Misc. $800.00

Transport of materials $500.00

TOTAL for MATERIALS $10,954.00

Bring in Electricity $500.00

Wood Playground Equipment $2000.00

Kitchen Equipment $1500.00

150 Desks $3000.00

kids from school

2008-03-26T22:13:00.000-07:00

kids from the school. They are holding their names and ages.
math lesson for the day

Bakka village pictures

2008-03-26T22:09:00.000-07:00

kids peeking out of classroom window
kids lining up for their lunch, porridge meal. Pastor Joseph and Jamie with them.

Bakka Village school and kids

2008-03-26T21:47:00.001-07:00

Inside one of the best classrooms
Kids getting ready for lunch

Bakka Village School

2008-03-26T21:41:00.000-07:00

part of the school building with 3 of the youngest students

Update of OCF Project

2008-02-29T04:51:00.000-08:00

I had promised an update on our project in Nakasongola. So here it is............

We have put together a team of Ugandans and other ex-pats to start the process of creating a master plan for what the orphans and vulnerable children here in Uganda need.

Since we have lived here we have had the opportunity to do a lot of research on the orphan dilemma (I sent out a paper we wrote about that via email a few months ago. If you would like a copy please let me know and I can send it off to you)
What we have found is that there is a huge whole or gap in the children that are 14-18 years old. So many are on their own, living on the streets and on the verge of being sent out of the orphanages they are living in to try and take care of themselves with absolutely no tools to succeed. Most have not completed school and never will. Others maybe have but will not be able to attend higher learning to be able to get a job that pays enough to live. The main University is called the Harvard of East Africa, and they have approximately 7,000 masters and 20,000 bachelors that graduate every year and can't find jobs. Our friend has a man who drives his car for him and he has his masters in finance.
So, with that in mind we have decided to start our orphan project with teenage boys. It will be a 3 year curriculum in reading, writing, math, character development, business and vocational training. Our goal at the end of the 3 year program is to have every boy able to start and run his own business or we will be able guarantee him a job in his vocation that he has been trained in.

So, that is an overview of where we are starting and what it will look like in a broader sense.
With that in mind, we are meeting with the core team 2x's a week to develop the farm plan, school and curriculum for the project. It has been very exciting to see how things are unfolding. We hope to have our first group of boys start with us next year.
While that is happening we are plugging away with the day to day running of the NGO, life and all that entails here in Africa. We are still waiting on out NGO renewal paperwork and work visas (both for the past 7 months) It is a constant battle to get the paperwork completed. David is in town every week at the offices trying to get the things done. TIA! We have to just smile and take a deep breath.
On a different note, we have finally felt like we are "home" now here in Uganda. It takes awhile to get settled in. We still have our struggles an disappointments at times, but all in all everyone is happy and doing well. Below I have put a list of things together that we would very much like you all to keep in your prayers for us. You all are such a blessing and we appreciate you prayers, financial support, letters and emails and the occasional phone call and care packages. My mom gets the award on that last one. Every time a box comes it feels like Christmas!

Finances:

Monthly living and operating expenses
A vehicle ( our borrowed one ends in April)
Plane Tickets to come home this summer
Work visa fees
Medical bills
Clearing fees for our container
New laptop
Jesse's school tuition
Remainder of land paid off

Things wrapped up:

Work Visas completed
NGO renewal completed
Land title's completed

Wisdom:

The master plan for the orphanage
Dealing with people on a day to day basis
Title work on land completed

Thank you all so much for keeping these things in your prayers.

our vision statement

2008-02-17T08:17:00.000-08:00

Wanted to share with all of you our vision statement. You can read it below.

“Motivated by our example of Jesus Christ, we wish to instil the values of integrity, honor and self worth in the vulnerable and orphaned throughout Uganda.
To enable them to gain leadership and life skills and realize their full potential by creating a sustainable modular training program that delivers vocational, academic and practical training of value to both them and Uganda, therefore breaking the culture of dependency.”

Birthing update

2008-02-17T07:44:00.000-08:00

After my last posting about the birthing conditions here in Uganda I had several people ask me what could be done to help these women. I am in the process of putting together some birthing kits (plastic, razor blades, gloves and string) to deliver in the remote villages for the women to use. If anyone wants to contribute financially to that project it would be great. I have purchased the materials for the kits and will let you know how many I am able to put together with the materials that I have. I will have updates for you once that is done.

Many of you have expressed the desire for me to do more blogging. I am only able to do it as we have power, internet connection and enough bandwith to post. I will do my best to stay on top of it though. I really enjoy your comments so keep them coming.

An update on our main project on our property in Nakasongola. We have a team put together with people here and have been in planning sessions. We have a great core of people who have linked arms with us to accomplish our goal for orphans in Uganda. I will be posting pictures of the team members so you can put faces with the names. We are excited to start the first planting on the property in the next few weeks with the end goal of our first harvest in 3 months so that we have seed to plant the next stage and the experience under our belt to go forward with the farming. In the meantime the team is meeting 2x's a week to strategise, define goals, write cirriculum etc... It's really exciting to see things progressing so well.

Giving birth in Uganda

2008-02-05T21:51:00.000-08:00

I have a friend who just had to deliver a baby unexpectedly here in Uganda. Her story is shocking to us in the west, but really very normal here. I thought all of you would like to see what it is like for women, not priveledged to live in the 1st world, to give birth.

The woman (who is a native and works for my friend) went into labor and had alreay planned on having the baby at the main government hospital in Kampala. They gathered her "bag"( a piece of plastic, razor blade, rubber gloves and blanket for baby) and raced off to the hospital with my friend in her car.
Upon entering the maternity ward they were greeted with 40 women laying on the floor in all different stages on labor. On the ward was 1 male nurse not trained in midwifery. If the women make any noise in labor they are told to be quiet. Some have moms or friends with them, others are alone.
My friend was helping her lady waiting for a doctor or midwife to come and the lady laying on the floor beside her started screaming and she could see the head coming out. So right there the baby was born, premature barely breathing. Most babies in Uganda are born premature and no hospital private or public has the equiptment to save them. They either struggle to survive or they die. This baby was taken away from the mom and returned a few minutes later dead. No comforting, just brought back and handed to her and told it was dead. She then had to get herself up cleaned off and leave to make room on the floor for the next woman. Whatever spilled off of the plastic,(blood, afterbirth, water) left on the floor and the next woman and piece of plastic laid down.
In the meantime my friends lady had started crowning and still no doctor or midwife. The head came out with the cord wrapped around the neck. She had no idea what to do and yelled at the nurse to help. He stayed where he was and told her what to do from a distance. She eventually delivered a healthy baby girl. She was told to take her gloves off and take the razor blade and cut the cuffs off and use the peices of rubber to tie off the cord. She cut the gloves and placed them on the cord and then proceeded to cut the cord with the razor blade. That done and the placenta delivered the mom had to get up, pick up her things and move to the hall where she spent the night, again on the floor till morning when she had to leave.
This is the best public hopsital in Kampala. No beds, very little staff, no food, no blankets, pillows or supplies for the mom or baby. Forget medication too.
The ladies in the village have it a bit different. They lay banana leaves on the ground and deliver the baby outside on them. They don't have gloves and most of the time no razor blade, so they either use sharp stones or bite throught the cord to get it off. No doctor there to sew them up if they tear either. Then after all that they are expected to get up and go back to work.
Sound like fun? No wonder the death rate among infants and new mothers are so high. There are organizations here who donate clean scissors, a piece of plastic and gloves to rural areas and the death rate among infants and new moms are cut in half with just those three things.

Water sources

2008-02-05T21:43:00.000-08:00

Water supply near Bugalobi. This is very close to Kampala and looks a lot like the water supply that most people close to the city get their water from.

Pond near Mubende where the village people get their water from. The project on the island that we did at Christmas, their water looked a lot like this from the lake.

Ugly Bugs

2008-01-29T03:51:00.001-08:00

One of the many bugs here in Uganda. I have never seen a place with so many insects!

Shopping

2008-01-29T03:05:00.000-08:00

A lot of you have asked me to try and describe what it is like to live here on a daily basis. So, I did the series on transportation and now I will try and give you a picture of what it is like to shop here for our daily needs.

Forget nice grocery stores, Walmarts, Targets, shopping malls etc.... Instead of nice fresh refrigerated, cold clean produce we have open air markets. Instead of freshly cut meat, cold and clean we have pieces of animals hanging in the open cut with rusty dirty knives and covered with flies. They have no idea how to cut meat into certain pieces either. Forget asking for a rib eye or a t-bone because they are just going to hack a piece off and give you whatever piece they cut. Could be grissel and bone with little or no meat and it will all be the same price. Instead of clean organized department stores filled with brand new clothes, we have piles of clothes on the ground that are used and people walk on.

There are a couple of chain stores from South Africa here in Uganda to shop at. One is Game which is like a Walmart sort-of and Shoprite which is a grocery store. The only issue with both stores is that they are small and everything is imported from S.A. so things are very expensive. It would be like having to go to Bloomingdales to buy everything.

I have a open air market about 1 mile from our house that I buy produce and fish from. We walk with our back packs two times a week to buy our fruits and Veggies and if I time it right fresh fish. I have to get there at the right time to catch the fish people bring the whole fish straight in from the lake and fillet it right in front of me otherwise it sits in the sun with flies for hours. The produce sits on the ground and dogs and babies sometime come by and urinate on it. You have to make sure you clean them very good when you get home. We have a fresh milk store right by as well, but you have to make sure you boil it before you drink it. It only lasts for a day even when you boil it. Makes you wonder what it the heck they do to our milk in the states to get it to last so long.
I don't have to negotiate with them at the market anymore as I know the prices of everything and found a lady who knows me now and I give her my list and she gets all of my produce for me at the right price. When they see your white skin the price always triples. I NEVER buy any other meat from that market or any other market in Kampala except for the Belgium meat market.
This place actually has a proper meat cutting facility, clean and refrigerated. Chicken is really expensive here so we normally eat beef. The issue there is that the only cut that is worth eating or that you can chew is the fillet. So, I buy fillet and make pot roast, i grind it and have burgers, cube it for stew, slice it for pepper steak and so on...... It is 8500 shillings per kilo which equals about 2.50 per pound. Chicken is 20,000 per kilo, turkey at Thanksgiving was 30,000 per kilo and a nice cooked ham at Christmas was 30,000 per kilo. I buy the fish fillet at the market for 7,000 per kilo which is right around 2.00 per pound. So you can see why fish and beef fillet win out.
There is a Woolworths here that sells clothes, but they sell ladies underwear for 60,000 shillings per pair, so we never shop there. They have a big flea market called Owino and you go there for clothes and shoes or anything else that you could think of. If you have something stolen from you you can usually find it at Owino and buy it back. They have piles and piles of used clothes. You walk buy and the people yell out how much the pile is per item and then if you are dumb enough to stop for 1 second and look you immediately get a piece of clothing thrown at your face. You have to be in the right frame of mind to go because it is wall to wall people, dirty, smelly and you will be groped (male or female) and proposed to too many times to count. The upside is that sometimes you can get really good deals on things and if you are looking for anything in particular that is the place to find it. Kaci, my middle daughter who is 17 went with me last week. We were both harassed verbally, and physically and she was picked to be 3 men's wife. They tell her all the time that she is very beautiful and just their size. I wondered about that phrase many times and finally asked a Ugandan male friend what that meant. He said because she is tall 5'10 ( blonde and very pretty) that they like her because they are short and they want to improve their gene pool. Owino is always an adventure. I have lots of stories about that place.

Ugandan Entertainment

2008-01-28T04:58:00.000-08:00

With CHOGM and the New Year came some new man made attractions here in Uganda. Below I have listed the new favorites (or not) and the Oldies... Enjoy!

1. New Bowling Alley. The old one had 3 lanes and looked more like an arcade game than an actual one, but the new one now has 6 lanes and is pretty good. Two thumbs up! The kids all really enjoy it.

2. Ice Skating Rink. I think someone saw the movie, "Cool Runnings" and thought, "Hey, if Jamaica can have a bob sled team than Uganda can have a hockey team." The only problem is that there isn't power to keep the ice cold, the rink is only 20x10, no skates and they don't have a Zamboni. Not to mention that if the temperature drops below 80 degrees most Ugandans are hunting a goose down ski jacket to put on because it is sooo cold. Other than that..... Great Idea:)

3. Drive in Movie Theater. This one is almost as stupid as the Ice Rink. They cantilevered
the screen over a main road on the top of a parking garage. This in itself has scared to death most everyone in Kampala that has either driven or walked underneath it as it looks as if it will fall at any moment. They made the screen to low to be able to see from where you are supposed to park and watch. Since it is on top of the parking garage, no power (do you see a pattern arising out of that one?) and let us not forget that 97% of the population don't have cars:)

4.Traffic lights. The motorists when they first put them in sat and watched for hours as the lights changed from green to yellow to red. This has now gotten old for most people and they now move as the lights change (not necessarily at the right intervals). Occasionally you get a "new comer" that still sits is awe and wonder. We give the lights two thumbs up.

5. Spur Restaurant. This is a fast food chain in South Africa with a Native American Indian Theme. They have A/C when the power is on, an indoor play area for kids with a jumping cage, movie room and computer games. They serve fairly good hamburgers, milkshakes and fries. This place is busy all of the time now and is a huge hit here. Well done! as the English would say or Good on you! as the Australians would say.

That is it for the new attractions. Now on to the oldie's not so sure if they are goodies.

1. Paint Ball. Haven't done this yet, but they say you have to wear full body gear and it gets very hot while playing. Can't rate it until we go.

2. DiDi's World. A RETIRED carnival from Italy. You wondered where all of the old carnival rides go when they retire them? UGANDA. DiDi's World has only had 2 deaths (that we have heard of) since they opened 5 years ago. The park includes the following rides:

3 Water Slides of which 2 work. The stairs to the tower where you then go down the water slide from is made out of metal. In several places on the tower the metal has rusted out and has huge gaping holes. Their solution to this..... cover them with boards. There isn't any person at the top monitoring how many people go down at once or to space them as they go. It is a big free for all. My kids have found that 5 is the limit at one time otherwise they crash into the wall at the bottom when they slide into the pool. This ride causes most of the bruising they come home with.

Octopus Ride. This is the one that you sit in and has the arms like tentacles that spin around. Anyway, one of the arms will come around with people in it and take your head off if you don't duck. You must go with someone who has been before so that you know exactly when to duck. SCARY!

Bumper Cars. The ride lasts for about 15 minutes and for the first 10 the cars are at a very slow speed. The last 5 for some odd reason are super charged. Only a few cars have straps to hold you in, but they actually go around your NECK. So, if you don't want to be choked to death, you pick the ones with no strap. The only issue with this is that if you get hit or hit someone hard enough you can be or you can launch someone straight out of the car. If you manage to stay in the car, you will have whiplash when finished. The only alternative is to pick the 4 cars that don't work at all and sit in them and pretend you are moving around. (people actually do this and have fun)

PlayScape. This is like the ones they have at McDonald's and Chuckie Cheese. You have to be at least 11 to go in and play, but there is only one draw back. As you are crawling through the tunnels or going down the slides you have to watch out for the puddles of urine:( not sure why this is since you have to be 11, but such is the case.

Pirate Ship. You all know this one. Here the guy who operates it will only stop it when someone pukes or screams bloody murder to stop. He then may or may not stop it depending on how he feels that day. The bars that are supposed to go across your lap and keep you from falling out as it rocks sometimes pop up. You have to be really brave to sit at the very back and make sure you hold on tight.

This whole park is on about 3 acres and that includes parking! No OSHA here. So that concludes the man made entertainment for Uganda. Makes you want to book your tickets right now to come and experience it, doesn't it!

International Boda Drivers

2008-01-28T04:42:00.000-08:00

In this photo we have 5 different countries represented! USA, Germany/Uganda, England and Australia. This is the boys favorite mode of transportation here. Jesse, our son is the blonde in the blue sweatshirt. For 8,000UG shillings ( $4.75 USD) you can rent a 50cc Boda Boda for 2 hours.

6 Month Anniversary

2008-01-28T02:01:00.000-08:00

We have officially been here now for 6 months!
My kids all think that the time has flown by. I think that it has as well although there were spots that seemed to drag on forever.
We are still waiting on our NGO renewal papers and our work visa's (both of which were supposed to be finished in August) TIA!
We are still waiting on the MP to go with us to our property in Nakasongola so that we can start planting and building there. Hopefully he will be able to before Feb., although with the Kenya crisis and the fuel being high, a lot of the government officials have not been back to work since the fuel allowance they get, doesn't cover fuel prices now, so they just stay home. Such a different mentality than we have in the US. We wouldn't think about not showing up for work for a month because it might cost us a few cents in fuel.
Things continue to be in an uproar in Kenya. Killings have continued as well as the destruction of houses, businesses and personal property. It has now spread to other areas that were in the past few weeks untouched. I see now that the some US newspapers and TV stations are now broadcasting what is going on. Keep that country in your prayers. Our friends that were there over Christmas that were able to get out by plane, still have their cars there. They have tried to get them, but the violence and road blocks have prevented it. Please keep them in your prayers as well that they will be able to retrieve their cars soon.
We have some very exciting things on the horizon with our project and will update you as soon as they are concrete....... on a lighter note,
I'll end with a story from a friend here whose work takes him to the Somalia quite often.

He was sent to the Somalia for a week for work. When they were packing up to come back to Uganda, the place where he was working sent him and his team back with bottled water. The two weeks that he was there he had been drinking this same bottled water.
He got back to the airport and pulled out a bottle to drink it and saw something floating in the bottle. He looked closer and it was a solid brown piece of something that resembled chocolate. He was suspicious and took the water in to get in analyzed. What they found as he had suspected was a "floater",23% fecal matter was in the bottle. When I asked him if he had beeen drinking the water all week, he said yes and that he had seen white stuff floating in some of the bottles as well. I think it was toilet paper!

I'll leave you with that picture and your thoughts.

Happy New Year

2008-01-09T05:34:00.000-08:00

Happy 2008 to everyone. Hopefully you all had a wonderful Christmas Holiday and a great start to a brand new year.

Many of you may or may not know what has been going on in Kenya and Uganda over the past 2 weeks.
Kenya had their elections which many people say were rigged and riots broke out all over the country in protest.
Buildings were burned, people stoned, hacked with machetes, gang raped, and shot with bow and arrows. A church full of women and children were locked in and set on fire. Over a quarter million people have been displaced and the dead taken to the hospitals numbered over 450. They still do not have an accurate count of the death toll. Things had cooled down, but riots resumed yesterday and more people were killed and property destroyed.
In Uganda things are peaceful, but we receive our fuel from Kenya, so gasoline has been scarce and in some stations went as high as 20.00 a gallon. The price of fuel has gone down now and it seems as if we have had some trucks get through the border and able to replenish some of the stations, but we are still in a shortage.
We have a guy in Kenya who has been doing a great job blogging about what he is seeing in Kenya. If you want good updates go to his blog at www.dlipparelli.blogspot.com.
Wanted to update everyone that we are OK and safe. Thank you to all of you who have been praying for us and our safety here during this time. Keep those in Kenya lifted up as things are still very volatile.

Island Project Summary

2007-12-28T12:24:00.000-08:00

Here is the list of things that we were able to accomplish on the Island with your help. Thank you to all of you whose donations made this project possible.

Bags of beans, salt, porsho and blankets were delivered. Soap and Moringa seed were also delivered.
The water purification system was built, delivered and installed with great success. 2 hours after installation they were drinking purified water.

A doctor came and saw all of the sick people that day. He administered first aid as well as administered drugs to those in need. We ran out of medicine so we will be going back next week to deliver more. We also put together a large first aid kit for the island to use in cases of basic first aid needs. The Dr. has agreed to come 1x a month to do a clinic for the people.

A man came and set up a movie for the people to see. It was the first movie any of them had ever seen. Afterwards he did an evangelistic message in which many people received Christ as savior. We have a local bible college that has agreed to send students out to the island once a week to teach and pray with the people.

We raised two pigs to take to the island to help start their pig project. We also took the seed for the people to be able to plant the feed for the pigs.

We will be continuing to help these people with their livestock program, bible studies, health clinics, human waste management and roofing. Enjoy the photos below! We hope you all had a very merry Christmas and pray for many blessings for you in the upcoming New Year.

Leaving Ggaba port for the Island

2007-12-28T12:19:00.000-08:00

People on the Island waiting for us to come.

Island fishermen

Leaving Ggaba port

Moringa plantation and pig project

2007-12-28T12:14:00.001-08:00

We took a 40 kilo bag of Moringa seed to plant on the island for pig feed as well as for the children. It is also used in the settlement tank of the water purifier we installed. We are raising 2 pigs at our house to take to the island in 3 weeks to use to enhance their pig production. The field below is where they will plant the seed and these are the pigs they currently have on the island.

Supplies off loaded

2007-12-28T12:07:00.001-08:00

We took bags of beans, porsho and salt for everyone. We also distributed soap and blankets for all of the children.

Island Houses

2007-12-28T11:54:00.001-08:00

The island doesn't have very much clay in the soil, so the houses have to be re-mudded after every rainy season. When the storms come in the trash on the roofs blow off and they are left to wait for more to wash up on their shore to replace it.

Setting up water tank and purifier

2007-12-28T11:46:00.001-08:00

Unloading the tank. The kids used plastic jugs and pans to fill it up. The people couldn't believe that the green, worm infested water could come out like bottled mineral water afterwards.

Lunch time on the island

2007-12-28T11:37:00.001-08:00

Ready for naps after lunch.

These two pictures are of a grandmother on the island raising her 17 grandchildren by herself. Her husband and all of her children died of AIDS. The kids are ages 5 to 11.

Supply distribution

2007-12-28T11:28:00.001-08:00

Storing food in banana leaves

Waiting for supplies

rationing beans

rationing porsho

People on the Island

2007-12-28T11:19:00.001-08:00

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. I think that is so true. Take a look at the faces in all of these pictures and see what they are telling you.

Pictures with the doctor

2007-12-28T11:08:00.000-08:00

Patricia(left) volunteered to help Dr. Dixon with patients records for the day.

Boy with dwarf syndrome. We were able to get him referred to a specialist that will do rehabilitation with him for free.

Medical Clinic

2007-12-28T11:01:00.001-08:00

Sick baby

Mom and baby waiting to see Dr.

Kids waiting to be seen by the doctor.

movie Pictures

2007-12-28T10:57:00.000-08:00

Almost dark enough to start the movie. This was the first movie that anyone on the island had ever seen.

Project Update-movie

2007-12-28T10:46:00.000-08:00

setting up the movie screen

Setting up the sound for the movie

Christmas Challenge

2007-12-11T05:04:00.000-08:00

We are now between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I have had people from the states ask me if I was ready for Christmas, and what was it like here this time of the year. This has been my response........
We received word that our container is in Kampala and might actually be delivered to our house this week. This year for Christmas our gift to everyone in the family is our container being here for Christmas. When we asked our kids a month ago what they wanted for Christmas it was a unanimous, "Our container!" So, no fighting the lines at the mall or running around trying to find someone that one thing they have to have and all of the stores are sold out.( not that those things are even an option here)
There is absolutely no signs that Christmas is just a few weeks away. No decorations around town, no radios with Christmas music playing, no Santa's ringing bells outside stores, no snow or even a hint of cool weather. While I enjoy the beautiful weather here, palm trees swaying in the breeze and every day being sunny and 80 degrees, it makes it hard to get into the spirit of the season.
I have been thinking about the past year and how things have for us here in Uganda since we came and the anticipation of finally having our "things" arrive. We are truly blessed to have a roof over our head that doesn't leak, running water and power at least 50% of the time and food on our table for 3 meals a day. This is so much more than 99% of the people here have. So for Christmas I though that I would put out a challenge for all of you living in 1st world countries struggling with all of the holiday pressures and less than grateful children.
Instead of telling them that they should be thankful for what they have and not be so demanding about what they want for Christmas try this.........
For one day have them live like the rest of the undeveloped world. This will make an impression on them like nothing that you could ever tell them.
For one day the family has no power... no lights, no t.v., no computer, no x-box or playstation, no dishwasher, washing machine, blow dryers, straightening irons etc.. ( you get the picture)
No running water... they have to go outside to the hose or spigot and carry buckets full inside to flush the toilets, wash dishes, wash clothes and take baths with.
No preparing food with boxed or prepackaged/frozen meals.
Transportation is your own two legs, public transport or calling a taxi.
No telephone, cell phone or any other modern convenience (microwave) I would say no using the stove, but going outside and cooking on a fire might be a bit challenging.
Do this for one day and let them know this is how everyone lives in 3rd world countries and see if they don't appreciate what they have more afterwards as well as really getting an idea of how missionaries they might know and the "truly poor" in the world live.
I would love to hear your feed back, so those of you who are willing to take the challenge please let me know how it goes.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Closer to our goal

2007-12-06T09:42:00.000-08:00

To date we have received $3,800.00 towards the Christmas Island Project. We have another $1,100.00 to go to reach our goal of $4,900.00 so things are progressing. We have set the date for the project and will be going out there on December 21st. Please if you are wanting to get involved with this project please donate online or have your checks mailed to 5753 Republic of Texas Austin, Texas 78735 by the 19th of December so that the funds can be available here in time. A big thank you to everyone who has donated so far.

Island Pictures

2007-11-29T08:36:00.000-08:00

Island Budget

2007-11-29T08:17:00.000-08:00

I wanted to update you all on the Island Project and the budget for the project. To date we have someone who will match funds up to $1500.00 and we have been pledged $1250.00. The project budget is $4700.00 and that will supply the water purification system, blankets for all for the children, a first aid kit and medical clinic for the day, starter livestock to help them get into another income source and food for all for the families. We are hoping to supply mosquito nets for the families to help reduce malaria. The pit latrine issue and roofing will be saved for another time. We will do the project in the middle of December and give everyone an update with pictures once completed.

Island Project

2007-11-26T08:56:00.000-08:00

Here is the latest update on the Christmas Island Project.......

David had the Local Chairman and the local leader of the island take an official census of the people of Namalusu Island and gave us a list of every ones names, adults and children so we knew exactly how many people we were dealing with. They supplied us with a list and there are officially 86 adults and 56 children. A bit off from what they had originally told us.
They also wrote a letter telling us what the specific needs are. Clean water was on the top of the list as they are losing many people to dysentery, malaria and poor sanitary conditions. The island is rocky so they can't dig pit latrines deep enough to keep the human waste confined. Below is the list he gave us so you will know what these people are going through.

1. Clean water

2.Health Care
I mentioned before that they don't have any doctors or health care people on the island. No clinics and that means no medical care at all. ( not even basic first aid kits or supplies) They don't have any boats that have motors so when someone gets sick they have to row them to the mainland. Sometimes that isn't quick enough. If someone falls sick at night they have to wait it out till morning when they can see to row them in and sometimes they don't make it through the night.

3. Fishing nets
They have to piece together whatever they can find to fish with and they don't have proper nets. Standard fishing net costs $12.00, $18.00 and $30.00 each. This would be a temporary fix as the fish in Lake Victoria are being depleted. They will have to find a new source of income in the next few years. We have talked to them about putting together a pig cooperative to give them a different source of income.

4.Shelter
You saw from my pictures that I posted that the roofs of their houses are made from trash that they have found and put on the top to keep the water out. The issue with that is when the storms come across the lake it blows the trash off and then they are exposed to the elements. They told us most of the children don't have blankets or anything to keep them off of the ground while they sleep. So, when it rains they are left to lay in the mud.

We have had people already donate to this project and have had someone who will graciously match funds up to $1500.00. Please when you donate on the website designate it for the "Christmas Island Project" and if you are sending checks please designate those as well. Again if you are sending checks address them to Orphan Children Fund 5753 Republic of Texas Austin, Texas 78735
We will do as much for these people as we have the funds come in. The first priority will be the water purification project and the gifts for the children and then we will tackle the rest of the issues as funds are donated.

Christmas Island Project Photos

2007-11-23T08:01:00.001-08:00

These are the people who live on the island and their houses. Notice the trash for roofs.

More pictures of the people. Notice the green water.

A view of the island from the boat as we are arriving.

A floating island in the middle of the lake on our way to see the people.

In honor of CHOGM/Thanksgiving

2007-11-20T05:13:00.000-08:00

This week is a historic time for Uganda. Uganda will host the "Common Wealth Heads Of Government Meeting" or otherwise none as CHOGM. The country has been bustling with activity for the past year getting ready for this historic event. 54 Heads of State will be arriving or already have arrived here in Kampala for the meeting and the events surrounding the occasion. The Queen herself along with her husband the Duke of Edinburgh, her son Prince Charles of Whales and his wife Camilla will be attending.
Roads have been paved, building painted, flowers planted, hotels built and signs all over the country saying,"Are you ready for CHOGM"? The Queen arrives on Wednesday and the festivities officially start on Friday and the road we live on which is one of the main corridors for the delegates to drive on is still being painted, rails put up, lights and landscaping installed and dirt swept off of the road. Someone is not ready for CHOGM. Security is out of site with trucks of military personnel, police and other special security forces being dropped off by the 100's. They are supposed to make people feel safer with their AK 47's pointed at us, but it does the opposite for me.
So for the momentous occasion our kids and some of their friends went to the Awino Market(I will have a whole section in my blog later on that)to find special attire to see the Queen in and to go to some of the events in. They asked some of the native people what they thought about CHOGM and here is some of the responses.......

"This Mr. Chogm is causing many problems"
" I have seen this Mr. Chogm with my own eyes and he is a very skinny man"
"Mr. Chogm is bringing a lot of trouble to Uganda"
"Are you Chogm?"
"I don't like this CHOGM"
"The Queen is coming to see Mr. Chogm"
"Are you the Queen?"

So, obviously all of the press about CHOGM and the government trying to make sure everyone was READY for it failed to get the point across WHAT CHOGM is.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American readers. We hope you all have a wonderful day and that you are truly thankful for all of your many blessings.

Local Artist Batiks for Christmas

2007-11-17T00:47:00.000-08:00

These are some batiks that a local artist made. They are on cloth and can be made into wall hangings or framed for pictures. He makes them out of cloth that are tie dyed and then he does the picture with different colored inks. If anyone is interested in these for presents or for themselves I can send them to you. They are approximately 14x21 and sell for $50.00 each. I will have to let you know on the shipping costs.

Boda Boda's

2007-11-16T06:18:00.000-08:00

A local artists batiks

We are now on the 4th type of transport here in Uganda. Boda Boda's aka motorcycles. They come in 50 cc- 125 cc's. In the last few months they have been replacing the 50cc's with larger bikes and now we are seeing more of the 100cc's. If you know anything about motorcycles/scooters than you know 50cc's don't go very fast.

These bikes again like the other modes of hired transport are owned by someone and the driver drives it for the owner. They drive around with little to no gas in them so at anytime you might run out of fuel and instead of getting out and pushing the bike like you have to do with the taxi's, you get off and walk.

Now these drivers, like the Matatu drivers, most likely do not have licenses and have had no formal training on how to drive a motorcycle. In a country where might makes right, the Boda is the lowest on the pecking order on the roads. Cars and especially Matatu's completely ignore the Boda's and sometimes I think they play games to see how many they can run off of the road in a day. No Joke!

When you get on a Boda, the price is not really set and so you have to negotiate with the driver as to how much you are willing to pay for the ride. Then they tell you how much they want and you go back and forth until you reach an agreed price and then off you go. You want to pick the newest looking bike with the highest amount of cc's. Then, when you get on you tell the driver that you will pay him extra if he gets you to where you are going alive and unhurt. This may or may not happen. Once you get to your destination they always tell you that it was farther than they thought and you,"add" to them. That means that they want more money. They only do this to the Muzungus as they think we don't know how much things cost and we all have a million dollars in the bank. Wouldn't that be nice?

The drivers think they are exempt from all traffic laws, driving on the wrong side of the road, on the sidewalks and medians. They run red lights ( where there are some) turn from the wrong lanes, swerve in and out of traffic do u-turns when ever and where ever.... They use the bike to transport people, livestock ( I have seen goats, pigs and chickens tied on the back) building materials and feed for animals. It really is amazing what they can fit on the bikes, balance and then transport. It is not fun however getting behind them on the road when they are carrying a large load on a 50cc bike. They put along at about 5 mph. Forget that if they are on any kind of an incline they are barley moving. They then have to get someone to run behind and push it up the hill.

They are great if the traffic is bad which now days is every day and when you are downtown and need to get somewhere where it is to far to walk, but to congested to drive a car or Matatu. When you NEVER want to get on one is at night. The drivers are notorious for being drunk or high when it gets dark. My middle daughter Kaci always has the rule that she finds the smallest man with the biggest bike so that if he wants to get funny with her she is bigger than he is and can intimidate them. My son Jesse carries a big knife in his pocket and my other daughter Makinzi carries a tazer.

David rides them into town quite a bit as they are cheaper than taking the car if he is alone. He never has any issues with them. Last year he was riding on one and passed a truck that had run over a Boda and had killed the passenger by running over his head. Smashed it completely flat. Not a pretty sight.

On a lighter note....... Some funny stories.

I was on one a few months ago and was riding downtown. It was a busy day and I told the guy when I got on to drive very careful with me. He was swerving in and out of traffic and then got in a traffic jam. He proceeded to try and squeeze through some of the cars at a stop and I told him it was too small of a space. He proceeded to yell back at me,"you fit, you fit". As I was yelling back at him, "no I won't" he smacked me into a Matatu. A few minutes later and a bruised knee, I was at my destination with the driver feeling very proud that he had gotten me to our destination. I guess a few bruises is considered "careful".

My sister was riding one and they had not put enough gas into it so when they got to a large hill the bike was having problems making it up. He proceeded to tell her to, "get off" she was "too fat" and made her walk up the hill. Once at the top she got back on and arrived at her destination. He had the nerve to ask her for full fair even though she had walked part of the way!

Upside: They get you where you are going fast and they are relatively inexpensive and they can give you a real rush!

You can also rent them from the drivers and ride them around yourself. My son Jesse does this every weekend with his friends while waiting for his motorcycle to arrive on our container.

Items sent to missionaries

2007-11-09T03:37:00.000-08:00

I have to take a side line from my transportation blogging to tell you a story about a friend of mine here in Uganda from Switzerland.
I was at ladies bible study this morning and she was telling me about a care package that her church sent her. I was shocked, saddened and appalled. They sent her a box filled with USED tea bags that they had dried out after using and then boxed and sent to her. UNBELIEVABLE!!!

So this had inspired me to write the top five things never to send a missionary or friend living in a 3rd world country.

5. Electronics with no batteries
4. Used clothing with holes/stains
3. Worn out shoes with no laces
2. Sprint cell phone (totally useless without a sim card)
.................................................................................................................
1. USED TEA BAGS

Special Hires

2007-11-01T14:05:00.000-07:00

The 3rd type of transport here are the "special hires" or "specials." They are the equivalent to the USA taxi. They are usually small cars, sometimes mini vans. You can pick one up on the side of the road or you can get a name of someone who has one and call them to come pick you up and take you where you want to go. They are people who have their own car and use them to make money or the owner hires someone to drive the car for them.
These drivers for the most part are ok. You would have them take you somewhere specific when you didn't want to ride the Matatus or at night to be safe.
The upside to these are they can take you places that the Matatus can't, you are in the car by yourself, you can usually stay clean and you are on your own schedule when you get one. The downside: They AREN'T cheap.
Sorry, no funny stories to tell you about these guys!

Matatu (sp?)

2007-10-26T01:30:00.000-07:00

The second form of transportation here are the Matatu's (sp?) They are the equivalent to mini vans in the USA that are stripped on the inside and then refitted with bench seats. 4 in the back and 1 in the front. The seats are configured to seat 2 and then a flip seat beside to fit one more for a total of 3 people across. As you can already guess they don't ever sit 3 across. 4-5 normally. You Can probably guess what they smell like. If you can imagine the 4 rows of seats in the back than you can imagine the leg room, NONE. For the Ugandans who are smaller people it is usually doable, but for us taller Muzungus it is unbearable. I am 5'7 with longer than average legs and I have to pull my legs up to fit. My son Jesse, is 6'2+ with a 36 inch inseam and it is painful to watch him try to get in. One upside is that they at least have the decency to put the livestock on the roof and strap the fish to the front over the grill. It is funny to see the fish on the front. It looks like the Christmas Wreaths on the front of cars in the USA. I think it keeps the smell out of the inside and also serves as a sort of "smoking" before they get it home to fry. If it does get "smoked" in the journey it is from the diesel exhaust and dirt. Sound appetizing?

The Matatus are owned by the driver or another person who employs a driver to drive it for him. Then, we have the conductor who sits in the back and directs the driver where to stop and who to pick up as well as collecting the money. This form of taxi is what all ex-pats hate as well as the Ugandans who own their own cars.

The driver probably has not been to driving school and the roads here are a "free for all." Might does make right here. Whoever has the biggest car with the loudest horn, drives the fastest and wildest is the one who everyone gives way for. That would usually be the Matatu's. Every driver has his cheese falling off his cracker if you know what I mean.

There are no proper Matatu (bus) stops that I can find here, just people standing by the road waiting for a Matatu to stop and pick them up. There are no shoulders on the roads here so when they stop they hold up traffic. Forget them signaling that they are going to stop they just swerve at the last minute and pull to the side of the road, which is still in the lane. Forget trying to go around them when they do this because you will be staring down the front end of another car coming from the opposite direction driving in your lane. A bit scary. No, a lot scary!

We have just recently in town gotten some curbs and traffic lane lines. That doesn't mean anything to most drivers here especially the Matatu drivers. I don't know what the government was thinking besides trying to impress the queen for CHOGM when they did this because no one even knows what the lines mean. The lanes in traffic are like the seats on the bus. What was meant for 3 cars fits 5-6. Making a left turn from 3 lanes to the right is a normal occurrence, especially by the Matatus.

If you haven't gotten the picture by now, the Matatu drivers are the absolute worst because they are 1. Crazy 2. Crazy and 3. Crazy. They tried to get large double decker buses to replace the Matatus with, but the drivers and owners threatened to strike and not vote for the ruling party and they got their way. I for one would be thrilled if they went on strike, PERMANENTLY.

The other bad thing about these vehicles are that they are never up kept. They smoke so bad that if you get behind one that is smoking you will be in a black fog for miles. Forget getting around them as they will swerve to keep you behind them. They come to a hill and they will slow down to 20 miles an hour at best. On a daily basis I see all of the riders outside of a Matatu that they were riding in pushing it because it ran out of gas or died. Mostly they run out of gas. They will come into a station and put 1 gallon of gas in and then drive till it runs out and stop again. Sometimes they don't make it to the station and then you get the scene of the people pushing it. The other scene on a daily basis is a Matatu in a wreck or sideways in a drainage ditch.

The Matatus start out of town in the morning and drive into the "Taxi Parks" in the city. One is the old park and one is the new park. You can ride all the way into one of these or get dropped along the road just about anywhere in between. Half of the outlying areas are serviced by the new park and the other half by the old park. I prefer to go to the old park as the new park is scary, crowded, smelly and chaotic. I can't adequately describe what it is like there. I will have to go one day and take a photo so you can see for yourselves. When we were doing the water project here in March we had to ride the Matatus to the new park to get into town. I was thankful when we finished.

The upside to Matatu's................?????????????
They are cheap.

Until September of this year we rode on Matatus every day to get around. We are very grateful to a friend here that has loaned us his car until we can buy one of our own.

Kaci's Trip to Lake Nboru

2007-10-25T06:45:00.000-07:00

Cape Buffalo and Zebra At Lake Nboru

Rosanna, Kaci, and Camilla Poolside at the Mihingo Lodge

Our middle daughter Kaci, had the opportunity to go to the southern part of Uganda close to the Rwandan border with friends from the UK this past week. They stayed at a lodge and did a

game drive in the park. You can see in the pictures above, Zebra, which are not in abundance here in Uganda. We were told last year that there were less than 500 in the entire county. They have brought experts in from all over the world to study the herds and find out why their numbers are decreasing.

Upside to Transportation

2007-10-25T02:09:00.001-07:00

So in my last blog I tried to paint a good picture for you about riding the buses. The thing that I forgot to tell you was the upside to these buses. They are CHEAP! So, this is why a Muzungu (white person in Uganda) may lose their senses for a brief moment and purchase a ticket to ride on one one these buses, which once they board they ask themselves, "what was I thinking?" I have one very funny story from a friend who rode one of these buses to Rwanda. He actually was able to get in a seat, which afterwards he regretted and would have gladly exchanged it to the person standing up in the aisle.
He was packed into the seat like a sardine and the woman sitting next to him decided to raise her arms over her head and fall asleep. Not only did he have to endure the hours of snoring and stench, but the hairy arm pit and exposed breast!

Photo's

2007-10-25T01:59:00.000-07:00

Local Boat makers and Dairy Cows.These boats are being made for the Ugandan police for CHOGM in November.

Park and dock behind our house.

Jesse's new project

2007-10-23T05:11:00.000-07:00

One of Jesse's school projects was to research Guinea Fowl, buy the necessary materials, build a coop and buy the birds. So, after two weeks of building and researching he finished the coop and found the birds and bought them. They are a mating pair, 4 months old. For those of you who know Jesse, he had a Quail and Chicken project in Texas and really enjoyed raising the birds. They are eating all of the bugs in our yard and fighting the dogs for rice. They make really pretty noises and are much cleaner than chickens.

2007-10-23T05:07:00.000-07:00

Purple Chicks? This is done for two reasons. One: So the hawks leave them alone Two: So each person knows which chicks belong to them since they are left to roam and eat from whatever trash pile they can find.

Bats

2007-10-23T05:01:00.000-07:00

Colony of bats by our house

New Format

2007-10-23T04:22:00.000-07:00

Boats being built by our house

So, my children have told me that my blogs are boring and I have had some encouragement from several friends to really write about what life is like here and to post more pictures. I haven't done this in the past because I thought that it might scare any of you that might be thinking of coming for a visit and you might decide to stay home. Anyway, I have decided to tell you like it is and let the chips fall where they may.

This is the first in a series of the different aspects of life here in Uganda. I will start with transportation since this is the #1 complaint and source of stress for all ex-pats(ex-patriots or foreigners living here) in Uganda.

There are several modes of transport here in country.

1. Buses

2. matotos (sp?)

3. special hires

4. boda boda's

5. taxi bikes

6. your own two legs

7. your own car (which everyone aspires to)

I'll start with the buses. These are like the big Grey Hound buses for those who live in the USA. They are old, falling apart (like most everything here in country) smoke horribly and smell BAD!

They carry people long distances. For example...Kampala to Rwanda, Kampala to Sudan, Kampala to Kenya... you get the idea. Most trips are at least 4-12 hours without stopping time. You buy a ticket for these buses and that doesn't necessarily mean that you will get a seat on the bus let alone get you on the bus. No refunds. If you are lucky enough to get on the bus and get a seat you will be crammed into a space that should only be for 3 and you will share it with 6 and maybe even some livestock. The people next to you will not have bathed for days, months maybe years:) I am not exaggerating about this either. Sometimes they smell so bad you literally can't breathe. ( I find myself holding my breath a lot here) Your clothes will smell when the trip is over and they will be dirty as the other peoples clothes will rub against you......for hours. Then the other option is that they have crammed in as many people as they can fit in the seats and you will get to take the trip standing up in the aisle with all of the other people that didn't get seats. You will stand for the ENTIRE trip.

I have found myself on many occasions watching these buses driving along the very badly paved or unpaved roads at speeds that would scare most race car drivers. The buses are so top heavy that when they go around any curve it looks like the bus will come off it wheels on one side and be riding down the road on the other ones. It literally sways as it goes down the road. If you can find a SAFE vantage point to watch from, it is really quite comical. The bus will be barreling down the road and all of the natives that would normally walk in the road (at a snails pace) and make you drive around them will all of a sudden get new life and great speed and start running off of the road as far as they can get for safety. It looks like the parting of the Red Sea! You really have to get a good mental picture and it is very funny. To keep your sanity here you have to find humor in everything or you will go mad.

Next time I will talk about the other modes of transport......... Have fun viewing the new pictures posted and let me know what you think about the new format.

2007-10-07T06:11:00.000-07:00

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has called an emergency meeting to try to address Africa's failure to make progress on the Millennium Development Goals.
The eight internationally-declared goals, on reducing poverty and improving life chances, were set in 2000 for achievement by 2015.
But the UN says that halfway to the deadline, sub-Saharan Africa is unlikely to meet a single goal.
THE EIGHT GOALS
1 Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2 Achieve universal primary education
3 Promote gender equality and empower women
4 Reduce child mortality
5 Improve maternal health
6 Combat HIV/Aids, malaria, and other diseases
7 Ensure environmental sustainability
8 Develop a global partnership for development
On current form, the UN says, sub-Saharan Africa as a region will not meet any of the poverty-busting goals set to be achieved by the year 2015 - nor the benchmarks on education, health, and women's empowerment.

Maggie meets some of the locals

2007-10-06T05:10:00.000-07:00

Maggie and Jesse meeting some of the "locals"

Ggaba Village

2007-10-06T04:54:00.000-07:00

I've added some more pictures for you all to see and hopefully get a better understanding of what it is like here in Uganda. You can click on them to enlarge them for better viewing.

The pictures above on the left are of local children in our village going to fetch water. They carry their cans of all different sizes depending on how much they can carry. The cans are 1-4 liters each and depending on the size of the family and how much the children can carry determines how many trips they will have to take. I took this during the time of day that they would normally be in school, but these kids obviously don't attend school for lack of finances. School here is supposed to be free for primary aged children, but they have to provide their own pencils, paper, lunch and uniforms. It might as well cost these kids a million dollars, because they can't afford to buy all of those required things.

If you look at the picture above of the baby you will notice beads around his belly. This is because he has been to the witch doctor for something. The parents take their children to the witch doctors for healing, protection, blessings, etc... and they get beads of all different colors that are supposed to do whatever it is that the parent brought them to the doctor for. The people have a lot of superstitions in their culture that they truly believe and live their lives by.

Rainy season

2007-09-13T12:47:00.000-07:00

Well, They say that we are now starting the rainy season.... as far as I can see we have been in the rainy season since the last one! Today was the first time that we have been in Uganda where I was feeling chilly if you can believe that. We were all hunting our sweatshirts and long pants. We sat on the back porch and watched the rain and could actually see our breath.
Things are moving along with our paperwork. We should have everything completed by next week.
The power issues still plague us. We went and bought a 2 burner gas cooker so that we can eat when the power is out. The next thing we will get is an inverter for the house so we can get online and use the phone when the power is an issue as well as keeping all of our meat,milk, butter and cheese from rotting in the refrigerator.
Despite the challenges we all are very happy and are settling into the lifestyle here. We feel very blessed and at peace.

pictures

2007-09-08T03:22:00.001-07:00

Gloria, baby Sunday, Fiona, Patience and neighbor girl

Birds that frequent our yard

Moved in

2007-09-08T01:58:00.000-07:00

We finally moved into our house and have pretty much gotten settled in, but have had some issues with power..... that is the reason for the long silence. We are trying to sort it out with the help of other ex-pats that have been here for years and know the ropes. The system is an inverter that uses batteries as the backup. It is like a large UPS system. We need about $4,500.00 to set it up. Our phone is now working when we have power, so if we don't answer please leave a voice message so that when we can access the phone line we can call you back. 1-512-795-4385
We have been so blessed with people here lending us a car as well as furniture and basic kitchen utensils until our container arrives. Our MOU with the Minister of Labor is finished so now we should be able to complete our work visas and renew our NGO. So things are moving along.
David and Jesse went to Nakasongola this week and visited a fish farm to see how they were doing it as we want to incorporate the fish farming into our project as well. They had a good trip and learned a lot.
Makinzi has volunteered to help with the music dept. at our church and has been doing some singing which she enjoys as well as volunteering at the babies home.
Kaci has volunteered to help with the youth at our church and they are currently meeting at our house on Friday nights as we have big open spaces since we have limited furniture. They had their first meeting this week and had a really good turn out.
The day that we left to move into this house the girls and I went to visit the family that I told told you previously about that only eats rice at Christmas. Anyway, we took them a bag of clothes, lentils, cookies, fresh avocados and rice. They were very happy for the things, but were so sad that we were moving so far away and they wouldn't be able to see us. The picture that is posted is of the girls. Patience is the smiley one and is 3. Gloria is the oldest, 10 and then Fiona 7, and baby Sunday 2 months. The other girl with no shirt is a neighbor. We will go and visit them this week to see how they are doing.
We are quickly becoming the Muzungu's (white people) who come into the village to play with the kids and buy Somosas. When the power is off ( which has been every day this week) we walk into the village and buy Somosas and fried Casava. They say we are very good customers!
Clear Channel Uganda which is a billboard company has graciously agreed to donate used billboard tarps to us. So, we are putting together a plan to use them to build temporary housing for the workers and visiting staff members on our property in Nakasongola. We will also use them to line our underground water cistern for a water supply at the project. This has been a huge blessing as we can start right away getting things in place. So, we will need to purchase rice bags, timber poles and papyrus and minor hardware. Each structure will be able to house 12 people and will cost a few hundred dollars each. Anyone who would like to help out with this please go to the website and donate through there.
Also we have had people ask about sending us care packages here and where to send it and what we need, so I will give you that info......
Orphan Children Fund P.O. Box 37828 Kampala, Uganda also include our phone number on the front 0774095969.
Chocolates of any kind, coffee, Rooibos Chai tea, Outback inverter (call us about that one) Neem Leaf capsules ( for malaria prevention) soft solar panels, heart worm, and flea preventative for dogs( (1) 70lb, (1) 6lb and (1) puppy 3 months old around 15 pounds, 1 A A rechargeable battery, AAA alkaline batteries, deflated basketballs and soccer balls, volley ball and badminton sets.

More pictures

2007-08-21T07:10:00.000-07:00

These are the houses on the island
This is the view from our back porch of Lake Victoria and the island David and Jesse visited

pictures

2007-08-21T07:05:00.001-07:00

These our some of our new neighbors and the boats that you take to get to the islands.

Phone Number

2007-08-19T22:34:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have been trying to call us on our 1-512-858-4103 number, you have found it isn't working. We hope to get that corrected when we move, but for now it is down. So, we set up a Skype number that you can reach us on. 1-512-553-0945. The best times to reach us are 12pm-3pm CST or for you who like to stay up late 11pm-12am CST. You can leave us a voice mail anytime and we can call you back, or you can set up your own Skype account @Skype.com. All you need is a pair of headsets and it is free. Our skype address is ocfund. Please don't hesitate to call us on the skype number as it is only .02 cents a minute for us and free for you. Our email address is david or jamie@orphanchildrenfund.com. We love hearing from all of you.

2007-08-16T10:21:00.001-07:00

meeting the neighbors

2007-08-16T09:13:00.000-07:00

This last week and a half has been filled with lots of car rides, meetings and checking to make sure that our house is being worked on so we can move in soon.

We are settling into our new church here, Kampala International Church. Quite a cross section of the Nations represented as well as denominations. It is very international not only in nationalities but also beliefs, but we all worship the same God and it works out great.

The family went to Jesse's open house for newcomers at his new school and got to meet the staff, tour the facilities and meet other new families and students. As I had told you before they have 54+ different countries represented so it is a very exciting place to be a part of. School started on Wed., but Jesse will have to start late as the funds for his tuition have not yet come in. We are believing that will happen soon so he can get settled in there.

Makinzi, Kaci and I went into town to play with the orphaned babies while David and Jesse explored a nearby island last week. The babies home we went to has 44 orphaned or abandoned children from new born to 4 years old with the majority of the kids being around 5 months to 3 years old. We had so much fun that we have been back twice. They assigned us to the newborn to 6 month olds and Makinzi was in heaven. ( for those who don't know her she loves to hold the little ones)We were there for their afternoon feedings ( Kaci enjoyed the ones who spit up on her), diaper changes and play time. The first time we were there they had just gotten two new babies in, one that was prematurely born at about 3 pounds and another one that his mother had burned him. He is about 2 months old. His head, hands, face and side were all burned and wrapped in gauze. Both very cute, but so sad to see such little ones struggling. We came back two days later and they were both doing really well.

The guys decided to explore an island in Lake Victoria that we can see from our back yard. They walked to the fishing village that is close to our house and hopped a ride on a wooden handmade boat with a 5 HP motor. It took them about 20 minutes to get there. From what they could tell, not too many white people had been to the island before. The people were mostly fisherman living a very meager lifestyle. You can see from the pictures that I posted. They ate some local food, flat bread with vinegar fish. YUM! The people were very friendly and showed them a good time.

We poked around the village that we will be living in to check out all of the people and places of interest. We were greeted by kids that live next to us. I have posted a picture of them as well. Very nice village, not spoiled by the outside like some of the villages. All of the kids wanted me to take their "snaps" and loved looking at them on the digital screen of my camera after I had taken the pictures.

Today we ended the day by going and exploring the area where our temporary house is. It's amazing how you can walk such a short distance and you are in the middle of extreme poverty. We walked over a swamp and then onto a railroad track that all of the locals use as their roadway. We took our Lab Maggie with us. All of the people are afraid of her, but the kids were very interested in seeing her...from a distance. So we came across a church that 20 kids were playing a make shift soccer game and we stopped to watch them. They wanted to see our dog, but were too afraid to come over. So, we threw a corn cob for her to retrieve and they were so excited. In about 3 minutes we had 50 kids all around watching her retrieve the corn cob and catch it in the air in her mouth. We stayed and played for about 15 minutes until rain clouds came and we decided we better head back before we were caught in a downpour. On the way back we ran into some little girls that wanted to talk to us. 3 of them spoke very good English so we stopped. There were 2 family sets each one with 5 girls. The one set had three of the daughters represented, Patience 3, Fina 5 and Gloria 7. All so cute and very happy. At the end of the conversation (Patience entertaining us the entire time) I told them that we needed to go home and make dinner. I asked them what they were having for dinner and they responded with Porsho (corn meal mash) and beans. I asked them if they ate rice and their eyes lit up as they told me that they only eat rice at Christmas. They went on to tell me with a gleam in their eyes how only on Christmas day do they get to eat rice and they eat meat too. You could see it in their eyes how much they looked forward to that day because it was so special to them to be able to eat rice and meat. Can you imagine? We are so blessed and most of us don't even know it!

Arrived in Uganda

2007-08-02T09:59:00.000-07:00

We arrived safely in Uganda last week with all of our animals and luggage. With 22 bags and 2 dogs, we got a lot of very strange looks in the airports. Thank you so much to the Perio family and the Kimbrough family for helping us get all of our things to Houston and the airport. World In Need also helped us so much in getting our container loaded and shipped off to us. We hope to receive it in the next 2 months.
We arrived to our temporary home here in Kampala and started immediately working on getting the proper paperwork completed with the government here as well and looking for a house/office and a school for Jesse.
We found a beautiful home that has space for an office that over looks Lake Victoria and plenty of room for all of you who want to come and visit us. The home is new, so we are waiting to move in as they are still painting and finishing up small details. We hope to move in in the next 3 weeks.