Wednesday, April 30, 2014:  Greetings from Uganda! It was time for a change of pace, and we were able to sleep in a little later than past days.  Today our group would be attending several meetings in the Kabale area, so Rashid made the trip out to Muko and brought Generous, Josiah, Alexander, Moses, Tito and Mackline back to the Jopfan Hotel.  Justus and Stephen who work with our Ag program would be joining us also.  During the wait, we explored the Jopfan’s gardens, looking at the plants there that are so different than what we see back home.  And Karen learned a very important lesson…..don’t walk around outside with a piece of toast when there’s an eagle in the area.  While looking for Gordon and Judith (her chickens), Karen was dive bombed by an eagle, which stole her toast, and she lived to tell the tale! After all the excitement, it was time for our group to split up, so as to be more efficient and cover  more ground.  Karen, Diana, Lisa, Generous, Josiah and Alexander set off on foot for their first meeting, while the rest of the group boarded the van and set off for Kabale University, where we would be dropping off Mackline for her first day of classes.  She is enrolled as our first vocational student and will be studying Records Management.  So exciting to see her start the next chapter in her life!

The group with Elizabeth, Dave, David, Barbara, Justus, Stephen, Tito and Moses set off for a meeting with Dr. Wilson Bamwerinde, who works with the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations.  Along the way we saw the usual hustle and bustle of the streets of Kabale, red dust coating plants, buildings and people alike, and hillsides stripped to bedrock for timber and gravel.  Our meeting took place at a lovely pavilion overlooking Lake Bunyonyi.  We discussed the HANDS program and its successes and failures, particularly the recent Irish potato effort which had a less than stellar result.  We were looking for feedback on what may have gone wrong, what we can do differently and where we can improve in future efforts.  Dr. Bamwerinde was very personable and knowledgeable, and gave us an enormous amount of information and insight into agricultural practices and attitudes in Uganda.  We’ve set up another meeting with him next week, at which time he’ll be showing his ongoing efforts in agricultural education, the Center for Rural Development.  We also discussed the MEP (Muko Empowerment Program) handicraft program and Muko HOPE program.

Generous, Josiah, Karen, Lisa, and Diana met with two separate educational officials regarding curriculum, schools and their inspections. We learned about some topics to discuss with our orphans to help them with success in school and improvement in hygiene. We met Francis at Kabale University who enrolled as our first orphan to attend university. He will begin classes in August and intends to study Public Administration. The team celebrated this historical day! It might interest you to know that to sign a student up for university classes at Kabale, we had to go to one of two banks to pay the fees, obtain a receipt, and deliver the receipt back to the university.  After taking care of Mackline and Francis, we went to three vocational schools to gather information about what skills could be learned, what prerequisites were necessary, and costs to attend. The meetings were extremely helpful in preparing our Life Pathways planning which is developing as a plan for our orphans as they grow older.

At the end of the day our group was reunited and walked over to the White Horse Inn for dinner.  We enjoyed a nice meal and fellowship, talking about our day and making plans for tomorrow.  Thursday and Friday will be spent with the orphans, distributing gifts from sponsors, talking with the kids, playing games, and strengthening our relationships with them, bringing special hellos from their American moms and dads.  Things are going very well!  Please continue to keep us in your prayers…..