Uganda is not Kenya

Today is July 29th.  I took lots of pictures today, but will try to limit what I post due to bandwidth, unfortunately.

Today we interacted with two ministries, and we plan to seem them both again tomorrow.  I went to the ATM with Mike this morning and on the way back we bumped into Alyssa Sande, a Pennsylvanian woman who runs an orphanage, clinic, and school here in Kyenjojo with her Ugandan husband, Victor.  At the hotel, we were able to give them some soccer balls, kids clothing and kids shoes that had been sent with us for them.  They were appreciated.  We will get to visit their facility tomorrow.

Then we drove just a mile or so to the Hearts and Hands Foundation property, where under construction is a building that will be a combination classroom, offices, and training shop to teach practical and marketable skills.  Part of what the folks who run this see is that Ugandans that go all the way through university graduate and can't find jobs, and they are missing skills that can make them money.  We had a fascinating explanation from Arthur about how the attitude of government dependence (e.g. for a job) was intentionally bred/developed in the colonial days to prevent rebellion and maintain control.  

Our meeting with Arthur, Samuel ("Big Sam"), Sam Junior, Abel, and Anita (Abel's wife) was long, but enjoyable.  It started out in their home with the presentation of gifts to them.  

For John and Laura, if you're reading, Anita is the one who had requested a laptop computer.  I had managed to get both working before today, and presented them both to her.  She was overwhelmed and was very thankful.  A few minutes later she then "re-gifted" the extra laptop to the chairman (Big Sam) who was glad to receive it!  So thanks to you two from Anita and Sam!

Jeff shared a message of encouragement with the men, and we were served a very nice homemade lunch.

We waited for a couple of scheduled events, one never materialized (maybe tomorrow) and one was later than expected.  While we waited, we were able to get some exercise climbing the hill behind the property which has large rocks on it.  It turns out that the spot we were on is why the town and district were named for--50-100 years ago elephants hung out in the area and on that hill.  The private property that the hill sits on has a beautiful view.  I was amazed at the price and what it would be in Colorado, but they were asking too much for H&H to afford.

Finally, we met with leaders from a self-organized group advised by Anita, the Kyenjojo Youth Development Organization.  Four young men with degrees presented their co-op type organization in which each buys into to get "shares".  The money is then pooled for micro-loans to start businesses and expand them based on their needs.  They said they were tired on waiting on the government to provide them jobs (what many graduates expect in vain), and shared a success story from one of them--a welding shop that is profitable.

I titled this post "Uganda is not Kenya" because of some observations we first-timers have made.  Granted, we only saw small slices of Kenya, and that will be true of Uganda, too.  But out of the box I was able to understand more of their accent.  I estimated my frustration from the prison ministry day by how much I was able to comprehend.  I don't know what it is, but for some reason both Sam and I have been able to get 80%.  Maybe 60-70% for Sam, and 90-100% for me.  Your whole psyche is so much better when you can understand what people are saying!

Another observation is how green things were.  I was thinking that might have been me, but I've heard it from other team members too.  Being from the Pacific Northwest but living in Colorado, I can get snobby about green.

Another observation is that the roads are much better.  This is one that clearly is based only on my limited exposure to these "slices".  I know that there are worse roads everywhere!

I think the highlights from my day were: off-loading all of our give-away stuff (Sam's highlight); Sam met Monday Lawrence, the 10-year old son of Anita and Abel (Sam's highlight); experiencing the gratitude over the computer gift from J&L; our discussion with the young guys and their organization; a nice chat with Jeff about the space program and sci-fi movies.

The power just blinked out for a few minutes, and if I want to charge this phone tonight I'd better get finished.

There is definitely an attitude of the home stretch, and I'm trying to be careful not to short change the trip even though it's getting short.  Tomorrow we plan to visit some H&H projects as well as see Alyssa's projects as well.

And as you can tell, I put up more pics than I probably should have, but I know they can compensate for my writing!