Uganda - the Pearl of Africa

Ki Kati (Hello)!
I realize that we have not posted and told you anything about Uganda!  We've told many stories about our projects, the people, but why not the country?

Well, let's change that and give you some fun and interesting facts about Uganda - the Pearl of Africa (Winston Churchill called Uganda the "Pearl of Africa").

• The official Name is the Republic of Uganda.
• The capital of Uganda is Kampala.
• The area of the country is slightly smaller than Oregon.
• Uganda is the source of the Nile so it has some of the best white-water rafting in the world! (and yes, we have all rafted the Nile - it was the best!)
• The Entebbe International Airport is famous for the 1976 Israeli air raid to free Israeli hostages.
• The equator passes thru Uganda so the climate is nice and warm :)
• Uganda is home to the highest mountain range in Africa - the Rwenzoris (or the Mountains of the Moon).
• Uganda is a land-locked country and has borders with 5 countries - Sudan (North), Kenya (East), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (West), Rwanda (Southwest), and Tanzania (South).
• Uganda gained independence from the UK on October 9, 1962.  They have adopted much of the UK lifestyle (driving on the left side of the road with a right side steering wheel).
• Uganda's national symbol is the Grey Crowned Crane which is known for its gentle nature.
• The flag of Uganda features six stripes.  Top - Black.  2nd - Yellow.  3rd - Red. (then it is repeated).  The three colors all have a different meaning.  The black stripes represent the African people.  They yellow represents the sunshine prevalent in Africa.  The red stripes represents brotherhood.  The red means blood, and it is believed by some that all Africans are connected through blood, like a brotherhood.
• The people of Uganda are some of the nicest people you will ever meet in Africa.

There ya go!  That is Uganda in a nutshell :)
Welaba (Goodbye)!  Siiba Bulungi (Have a nice day)! :)

Meet Sam, Our Guard

Modi Samuel of Namirembe Village (in Kayunga District, Busaana Sub Country) travels 6 long hours on bike each day to Nakazedde Village (in Buikwe District) to guard for us.  He lives about 70km away from our house.  That is one long bike ride!
As I have gotten to know Sam, I have found out he is an awesome guy.  Super funny and full of joy and life.  He is great!  He guards us with his bow and arrow.  One morning, we had a pleasant surprise of finding rats in the cupboard.  We hurried to grab Sam, and he came in with his bow and arrow and shot that rat at point-blank.  That rat was history!
Today I decided to interview Sam to learn more about him.:)

Sam is a family man.  He has a wonderful family and a beautiful wife.  They have 7 kids - the eldest is 22.  Then the next is 19, 16, 14, 12, 10, and the youngest is 7.  Sam himself is 43 years old.
To earn money, Sam farms and guards.  His main income is farming; guarding is only a small scale.
When Sam is not working he likes to visit friends and relatives.
His favorite color is black and his favorite animal is a cow.
Sam's dream is to "educate my children for the good of their future." He said that that is his only dream and he has a personal message to you:

"I greet Americans and I thank them for the work they have given me as a guard and if, at all, they have any organization which deals in sponsorships, I request them to at least help me by sponsoring some of my children - either two or three. I would be very grateful if my request will pass through.

"Let Almighty God bless the American Country.

"And if any organizations come to Uganda and needs a guard, I will work for them because they are so kind."

Hakuna Matata

Hakuna Matata.
It means no worries.
What would life be like in Lugazi, Uganda if they had no worries?  If they didn't have to worry about having a job to make money to keep food on the table?  If they didn't have to worry about finding shelter to sleep under if homeless?  If they didn't have to worry about trying to survive for just one more day - living life one day at a time, never knowing if they will be alive for tomorrow?

HELP International's aim is to fight poverty and empower people.  We try to make Hakuna Matata somewhat of a reality for them.  We want these people to have no worries.   We want them to feel like they have control of their life and that they don't have to live life day by day, hoping to have enough money to feed their family, or hoping to live for tomorrow.
We want to change and improve their lives.

That is why we are here, right?
The summer is over halfway over.  We have one more month to make ripples.  Ripples that start small at first, but then grow.  Grow and grow until it makes a change in the lives of these amazing people.  We are here to start these ripples.  Ripples to create Hakuna Matata for the people.

Quote of the day!
"Wars of nations are fought to change maps.  But wars of poverty are fought to map change." - Muhammad Ali

Let's Get Down to Business!

Everything for the business classes is seriously awesome!  We are closing in on the end of the semester.  We have just had our first graduation in Nagojje and will have another one in Naggalama tomorrow.  The students absolutely loved the certificates and pictures, handshakes and the whole shebang.  They didn’t stop smiling or dancing the whole time.

It really has been awesome at the Lugazi classes as well.  The students are extremely committed and have recently been learning about the different kinds of records to be kept in a business.  It has been awesome to see their progression.  Their interest has really grown, over the last couple weeks, as well as their knowledge.  They are really bright and continue to surprise us with their ability to understand what is taught in class. 

We have also formed a board of advisory members to help guide the direction and growth of the business academy.  They are super committed members and extremely selfless.  We are on the verge of finding a new location for the classes!  Yahoo!!

Working Hard to Play Hard!

After seeing the amazing progress that we have been able to make these last couple of weeks, we decided that a realistic finishing date for the school would be August 1, 2012. When we talked to the construction workers, they also thought that date was a reasonable one. We have about two more weeks before the deadline, and we are on track to now finish the school within the next week! We have been going to Seya almost every day, and it has made such a huge difference. All the construction workers are very dedicated and work for about 8 hours each day. That is why we were able to build the structure so quickly!

Seya School - July 10th,2012

The HELP volunteers have mostly been helping to fill the ground in the structure so that it is level with the foundation. We do this while the construction workers build up the walls, and it has been a group effort to get everything done. Thankfully the kids that go to school in Seya are very willing to help us volunteers; they work like machines! Sometimes we feel like it would just be easier to get out of there way and let them do work. We are grateful that they allow us to give them a hand :) We love Seya School!

The school now has it's walls up and we are now working on the beams of the roof! This school will be built in no time:)

Seya School - July 15th, 2012

Since we had been working so hard, we decided to take a good break this weekend and head to Jinja to raft the Nile River.  A group of about 12 people went whitewater rafting down the Nile River and also bungee jumped over the Nile!  They all had a great time.

Bungee Jumping!

 Rafting!

But now, it's the start of a new week and we are working hard again. :)

Proud to be American

Happy 4th of July (yesterday) from Africa!!! :)

We are so grateful to be Americans.  Especially after living in Africa for a little while - it makes us even more grateful.  It was different, but a very neat experience.  If you have never experienced the 4th of July in a 3rd world country, where things are very under-developed, I suggest you go (with HELP! :) or some other organization) and experience it for yourself!  We are proud to be Americans!

Here are some projet updates from the past week.
I am Proud:
 Many men and women in Uganda lack knowledge on how to prevent getting HIV, how to have safe sex, and many other topics that relate to their health, gender roles, and gender psychology. We want to empower and teach young men and women these important facts, instill self –confidence, and help them to have faith in themselves.

We have been going to many different schools around Lugazi speaking to men and women about these important facts. We have now been able to have the opportunity to expand the “I am Proud” project. We are now revisiting the schools and making it more of a detailed program. I feel that our team has had the opportunity to influence many of the youth’s lives. Not only do we feel that we are inspiring these youth, but they are inspiring us as well.

Happy Child:

In the area around Lugazi there are many children that do not have parents, whether it is from abandonment or death.  Our goal for happy child is to obviously make every child smile but we also want to make them feel important and let them know we care about them.  Every Sunday we work with a man named Francis and teach children new, fun and educational games.  We are also helping to redo the Happy Child office so that it is more professional and hopefully they can get more funding.  We also work with a wonderful woman named Betty who supports five amazing orphaned children. Their names are Egesa, Kitra, Dinah, Earnest, and Baby Betty. We go to their house every Tuesday and Thursday and they are always so happy to see us.  Recently we have had a hard time getting Dinah to smile and be happy for us.  This week when we went on Thursday Dinah smiled so much for us. We figured out that she loves to play outside, be tickled, and thrown in the air.  Seeing the kids smile is always the best part of my week.

God Bless the U.S.A.!

TIA - This is Africa

Kerri, a volunteer from the first wave, made this video and just sent it to me.

We love Africa and will never forget it. :)
Thank you Kerri for the video.

Project Updates: Seya Construction & Musana Jewelry

We love our projects and we love telling you about them!   Here are the updates on Seya Construction and Musana Jewelry.  Both projects are coming along great! :)

Seya Construction:

For the last six weeks, HELP International has been working on getting the Seya School Project approved. We were finally able to achieve that goal, and we commenced the building of the Seya School!

 We started by digging the trenches needed for the foundation, and that took about two full days. Once the trenches were complete, we filled them in with crushed rocks ranging in size from a baseball to a football. The purpose of this was to create a somewhat flat surface to lay the bricks for the foundation. We then mixed concrete, sand, and little rocks about the size of golf balls and started pouring it on top of the flat surface of rocks we had laid previously; this took us about two full days as well. About five volunteers from HELP were able to come each day, and we got some much needed help from the community as well! The construction workers that we were working with were also very hard working, and we are so grateful to have them on this project with us.

We had to wait five days for the concrete to dry, so we started to go around the community, gathering the bricks that were being donated. The day before the concrete was supposed to be dry we had a total of about 3,000 bricks on site, ready to be laid down. The next day, we officially started the foundation of the Seya School. It has been about one week since the foundation was started, and everything is going as planned. The HELP volunteers are learning how to lay bricks and fill in with cement, but we are mostly there to move bricks into the right places so that the construction workers can build as fast as possible. We love working with the kids of the school and the community! They are all so willing to help, and they make the hard work actually enjoyable. :)

Musana Jewelry:

Football in no joke in America.  Football is even less of a joke in Uganda.  Of course, I'm speaking of what we call "soccer" in America - only the rest of the world calls it "football".  From nearly the moment the sun rises, Kampala is ringing with the sound of vuvuzelas being blown by people wandering the streets, riding boda-bodas, sitting in taxis, leaning out of their apartment windows, and selling Uganda Cranes paraphemalia.  You can't avoid it: today is game day.

Two weeks ago we decided that it was time for us to insert ourselves into the madnes and live this cultural experience.  We were prepared for large crowds, deafening noise, and long lines, but we did not anticipate the incredibly warm welcome we received.

That Saturday morning was devoted to shopping for materials for some Musana projects with the plan of heading to the football stadium in the early afternoon. We quickly discovered the wisdom in wearing our recently purchased Uganda Cranes jerseys; we felt like celebrities wherever we went. We were filmed by a local TV station (and ended up on the evening news!), we were asked to pose for photos with fellow fans, we received a standing ovation with high fives and bongas (fist bumps) as we walked through the wholesale district… we even danced through the taxi park with taxi drivers cheering “We go, we go - Uganda Cranes we go!”.

What was probably most surprising during the course of the morning was how grateful many Ugandans were for our support of their team.  Over and over we were thanked for supporting Uganda.  As if we would consider supporting anyone else!  The warmth and gratefulness we received was touching and made us love the country even more.  I'm pretty sure that the big takeaway from this experience is that if you are a mzungu heading to Uganda, just wear a Uganda Cranes jersey the whole time.  You will be loved everywhere you go.

The game itself was a blast with Uganda winning 4-0 over Congo Brazzaville, but the boda-boda ride to the stadium ranks pretty high on the biggest adrenaline rushes of my life.  Besides being mildly dangerous (don't tell my mom!) between all of the weaving in and out of city traffic and sometimes driving into oncoming traffic, the trip from the center of Kampala to the stadium was like being part of a motorcycle gang of insane, cheering fans.  The three mzungus led the way waving the Uganda flag and high-fiving neighboring boda-boda and taxi passengers.  I think we all felt a little like Uganda really was our team as we melded with the throng of supporters streaming towards Nelson Mandela Stadium, leaving clogged Kampala traffic in our wake.

Here is the link to Musana's Blog: http://musanajewelry.blogspot.com/

Small and Simple Things

Everyone on this team loves Lugazi and Uganda for different reasons.  It's a great place filled with little, yet great, moments that each of us experience.  We all will have different "worth-it" moments, but in the grand scheme of things, it makes this trip  most definitely worth it because of the small and simple things that happen each day as we work on our projects and/or as we adventure into the Pearl of Africa.
We are grateful for this experience and wouldn't trade it for anything!

 

• Daphine was communicating to me this week!  Although she can’t speak, she kept making noises and would point to things to help me understand.  I was able to help her the whole day because she trusted me and was comfortable enough with me to communicate to me. – Jessica 
• Moving all of the bricks at Seya with the little kids there. – Lexi 
• Me and Rebecca were determined to get to Happy Child even though it was raining. We took a boda who drop us off in a random place so we decided to just run to the office.  While I was running I thought it might not be worth it but as soon as I saw the children waiting for us it made me feel instantly thankful that I decided to go to the project. There were only four kids so we stayed inside and played card games and every single kid laughed today! It was amazing. –Elaine 
• Repelling down Sipi Falls! – Julia 
• On Friday, while helping move bricks to the site of the new school in Seya Village, a group of children began shadowing me and attempting to talk to me. Several of the children have begun taking a liking to me (Maybe because I try to talk with them in Luganda and I say silly phrases that make them laugh like “Ndi Mulalu” I’m crazy. On Friday, one of the little girls asked me in English if she could be my child. I was a little confused and asked what she meant. She said “I am your child because I love you so much.” – Lane

• After running around Kampala between forensic departments trying to figure out how to get fingerprinting done, running into several issues and difficult people, and taking bodabodas everywhere, Troy, McCall, and I went clubbing, slept in a tent, dressed up with Muslims and went to the Gaddafi mosque, and ended our sightseeing with getting a tour of the Kasubi tombs from one of the princes of the Buganda kingdom (though we didn’t find out his status until the end when he handed us his card and sold us some beautiful art).  My art is beautiful and I had an amazing experience.  I wrote down what the prince told us at the tombs and learned so much.  It made me appreciate the culture here so much more and made it seem all the more worth it. - Kristen 
• Going to church and having testimony meeting. – Ashlyn
• Learning how to DRIVE A BODA BODA! – Whitney
• Having a happy smiling child reach for me, and getting to hold him while he fell asleep in my arms. I loved being able to look at his beautiful face. I was reminded why I am here, and why this experience is so wonderful. It was just a small moment, but I will always remember his face. – Chelsea Brinkerhoff
• Going on a hike in the Mabira forest and seeing monkeys, ants, and crazy plants that wilted when you touched them. –Trevor

 

• Sitting on the back of a pickup truck on the way to Jinja and watching the scenery pass by and high-fiving passing taxis. We should always go to Jinja this way! – Meredith
• Meeting with the potential members of the Lugazi Business Class Advisory Board and seeing their excitement and dedication into improving the classes and helping out the people of Lugazi – Jace
• Playing with Eve’s son Jovan before dinner.  His laugh is so so precious and he has the cutest smile full of baby white teeth.  It was just a special moment that I got to share with a special little boy.  It was especially worth it when he said “Ncuagalano” I love you back. – Becca
• Brainstorming with the project committee on how we can better our program and change Lugazi! – Stewart
• Going to Grace and Geoffrey’s house and her telling us that we were a miracle because she has had sores on her lips for 2 years and the lip gloss we gave her has now made her be able to smile and be able to eat food and not be in pain. I love them they are AWESOME!! – Liz 

This is Africa!  And we love it! :)

Worth it Moments :)

Life here in Lugazi is definitely a new experience - it's definitely not how we are used to living and it's not a piece of cake.  But every day we each have a little moment where it makes this experience all worth the hardships we are facing.

So here are this week's worth it moments that make this trip all worth it. :)

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Giving chap stick to Sister Grace and her crying the next Sunday because she was so grateful for the random handout. I love Sister Grace so much. –Whitney

Making kids laugh is the best part of it all -Elaine

 

Seeing everyone smile. – Ashlyn
Nile River

Walking down the street and seeing people light up when you smile and wave at them.  
-Lexi

Being invited over to Monday’s house for dinner and having their family tell Nate and I how much they appreciated all we have done for them.  It was a really neat experience to see that your efforts have not gone to waste. – Liz
African Sunrise

While I was on a People with Disabilities project outing to get a prosthetic hand for Daphine.  Whenever I was standing up, she would sit down and pat a part of the seat, motioning me to sit down next to her.  She is so sweet :) – Jessica

Jessica and Daphine

While we were at Seya all the little kids kept saying see you tomorrow Christine! See you tomorrow!  Kiliester (keelee ester) is seven years old, same age as my little sister that I miss so much right now.  He brought me passion fruit and mango from the forest and yanked sugar cane from the fields and ate it with me.  I sat around a pit of fruit waste with 15 kids, ate great food, and chucked my rinds and sugar cane peel in the pit with them.  I even graced them with some dancing which elicited some laughing.  When we had finished and all the cement had been mixed by the construction men, we went and finished the cement foundation of the school that they will soon be able to use!  TIA.
-Kristen
African Sunset from our front yard

One highlight of doing the business classes is that we see real interest in our students to learn.  They approach us with personal questions and desire personal help and we’ve been able to help them in different areas in their business.  It’s just cool to see that they really want to learn and make changes and improve.  Some individuals have been taught specific to their business how to market or keep records and the improvement in their business is amazing.  It’s totally worth it! – Rebecca

 
Working with our partner, Moses, on the Persons with Disabilities project to construct a chair for a disabled child in our town has led to some amusing experiences. I was using a hammer and Moses could tell I was nervous so he told me to “knock with confidence”. I found it really funny and kind. –Julia

Julia and Moses

I am new to this whole African experience, I arrived here last Thursday. It has been interesting adjusting to a new... well world. So I like the thought of writing a “Worth it moment” to focus on the amazing little moments we have here. I just love the fact that when I leave my front of our house, all the little kids up the street know my name. And hearing about 15 little kids saying “byeeee Chels” in the morning is a really great way to start my morning.    Another moment that will forever be ingrained in my mind is we get Saturday and Sunday off every week, so a few girls and I went to this awesome resort on the other side of the Nile. We were just hanging out by the pool and I looked behind me and there were monkeys everywhere!! They eventually got close enough that I could give them peanuts out of my hand. One of monkeys invited himself to my cheesecake and just strolled away with it. What an awesome African experience! I mean come on, hanging out with wild, cute monkeys by the pool next to the Nile. Love it! –Chelsea
Nile river Sunset

Last week I accompanied one of the Musana Jewelry artisans to get her HIV treatment in a neighboring city. She has not been able to receive all of the treatment that she needs because of the expense, but with our focus on increasing social services for our women artisans since arriving, Musana was able to support her to make this trip (and consistent future care). When the HIV specialist briefly left the room, she turned to me and said “God sent you to Lugazi. You were sent to save my life.” I think this statement goes to anyone that has played a part in supporting the Musana Jewelry initiative. – Melissa
Nile Sunset

It was exciting to witness the women of Musana warmly welcome a reproductive health class this week and initiate another health program, this time for the larger community. We were worried that they would not be friendly towards a family planning session, so it was very rewarding to see it become a success, even enough of one that the women want to work with the same women’s health organization in the future. It’s good to know that you are on the right track! – Meredith

******

And here is a joke provided by Lane:

Question: What did the African latrine say to the other African latrine when they learned about gravity?
Answer: See, pee falls! (Sipi Falls) 

Sipi Falls

Oli Otya! :)

I’ve got a very serious question for you: How do you fit an elephant through a doorway?

Think about it.  I’ll give you the answer later. :)

 

This week has been a good week.  The newcomers are still adjusting, but are starting to get used to life here.  Mainly they’re still struggling with our latrines and their aiming techniques…but that’s TMI.

Let’s move on.

PROJECT UPDATES!

Seya School Construction:

Seya School is an amazing project!  We were hesitant going into the project with limited information, but we have truly come to love Seya School through working with the community and our contacts that have been awesome and easy to work with.  Of course it was quite the process and took meeting after meeting to get things rolling, but that is what makes Seya School such a great project.  In addition, there has been a ton of community support.  They donated lots of bricks and started construction on the school even without any promise of help from us.  It was because of the community dedication and contribution that this project was able to get approved, and we are ecstatic to see how the school progresses now that it has been approved! :)

This past week we were able to buy the concrete for the foundation of the school and laid it down.  Foundation = COMPLETE! :)  Next step: building the walls with the bricks the community has provided.

Sarah, Kerri, and Holly working on building walls

 The community are great workers

Eye and Dental Camp:

Good news!  Along with Chelsea and Jace came a great gift.  A tub full of 800 GLASSES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D Kristen and I were SOOO stoked. :)  I haven’t been this excited in forever!

So, glasses are here.  Next step: meet with Dr. Kigula (the Mehta Hospital Admin.) and get the details for the 11 day health camp in August that we want to join and help.  Once we meet with him, then we can finish up the project proposal and get that passed!

Yay for glasses!

People with Disabilities:

I finished the project proposal and it was passed by the team last week!  Yay!!

This past week we started constructing Sam’s chair, and it is almost finished! :) Sam is an epileptic boy who is such a happy young man.  He is 13 and he loves to smile, sing and is a very smart boy.  He has been sitting on the ground for months, he can hold himself up, but he is pulled to the left because his spine is crooked.  We are hoping with our chair that we constructed it will help straighten his back and also to get him off the ground so he won’t be sitting in his own waste anymore.  The chair is a toilet chair, leg separating chair, and also a chair that will not let him fall out.  He has a wheel chair, but he doesn’t use it because the tire is flat and he is afraid of falling out of it.  So we made the chair’s sides high so he can’t fall out.

We also went to Mukono to meet Daphine.  She is a 10 year old girl who was severely burned when she was 3 months old by a witch lady who was trying to sacrifice to her to demons.  She and her family were at a hostile and her mother wasn’t around when the witch came and got hold of Daphine.  3 children were previously sacrificed prior to the attempt on sacrificing Daphine.  She has no left arm and has bad scars all on the left side of her body.  Because of the fire, it damaged her brain and so she can’t talk.  We are going to get her a prosthetic hand!  We went to Kampala on Thursday to get her arm measurements and next Thursday we are going to pick up the prosthetic hand for Daphine!!  She is very excited. :)

Sam is awesome :)

 Daphine is the sweetest and cutest girl ever!

Business Classes:

The business classes are awesome!  We teach twice a week in three different villages and our students are wonderful!  Some of them already own a business but need help expanding and improving it.  Others want help starting up a business and running it successfully.  So far we are just teaching the very basics such as – what a business is and what kinds of businesses there are.  Pretty soon we’re hoping to start teaching marketing, book keeping, customer service, and sales.  Hopefully our students will recognize their opportunities and be able to achieve their goals of being entrepreneurs.

The biggest challenge we’ve encountered so far is the language barrier.  Many of the people we teach don’t speak or understand English so it has been difficult trying to explain concepts to them.  And even with a translator it can still be hard because they don’t necessarily understand business either and so may not translate exactly as we would like.  Another challenge is having people show up on time for class.  Many times we will have people arrive twenty minutes before class ends.  To say the least, we’ve learned a lot about the culture here and so far it has been a great experience.

 Stewart and Becca teaching business classes in Namengo

Happy Child:

Happy Child has been a very rewarding project. Every Sunday we get to meet with a group of children at a school and play with them for a couple of hours. We teach them games, songs, and dances. We have been able to donate toys and the children love them. We also teach them lessons about the importance of families, and about having good health, as well as being treated with respect. We love teaching these children that they are special and have self worth. Most of the children don’t have money for lunch fees, so we have also been able to go play with them during lunch twice a week. Another really cool aspect of Happy Child is being introduced to families and children who are in even more need. Building these relationships has been life changing and seeing the happiness that has been brought to these amazing people has been an incredible experience.

Playing with the children!

 Happy Children :)

Answer to the question I asked you before the project updates:

Take the “D” out of door and take the “F” out of way!
Hope you got it :)

Waylaba! (Goodbye...for now!)