Thursday, September 18, 2014

Happy Anniversary Les and Jean!  Happy Graduation Bethany!

Toni, Ginny, Karen, Diane and Sue were treated to a wonderful visit at Lovinah’s house today.  Lovinah is our quality manager for MEP.  After about a ten-minute drive from the Empowerment Center high into the mountains we arrived at the top of a trail that was about a 10 minute steep downhill walking trail to Lovinah’s house.  We were met with singing and hugs.  Then we were led into her home where we were served the local drink, obushara, along with water and soda.  We then took a tour of the kitchen, which is a separate building where dinner is cooked in pots over an open fire on the ground.  We met several family members and neighbors, and were then treated to a wonderful meal of curried rice, cooked cabbage, boiled Irish potatoes, chips and chicken.  During the meal we talked a lot and they tried to help us learn their language.  There were about 12 people welcoming us and only one or two spoke any English.  Diane got her baby-fix holding four month old Joshua.  There were many hugs and smiles between everyone present.  At the end of the meal everyone, including us, introduced ourselves to the gathered group.  When it was time to leave, they sang us a farewell song as they followed us back up the hill to our waiting van.  Our visit lasted four hours!

While the women (except for Michelle L) were being treated to the wonderful visit, the other five team members were extremely busy back at the Center.  Almost all of the painting is done with just three walls left to finish tomorrow.  Go team!

The HANDS team met with 21 women who have an informal mushroom growing co-op.  These women live over a four kilometer area, but get together because they share a drying house.  They grow oyster mushrooms, but have to purchase the spores through the Mushroom Training and Research Center (MTRC).  There is a large demand and low supply of mushrooms in Uganda, so the women are interested in working with ACT to increase their knowledge through training.  To increase their profits, the women are especially interested in learning how to harvest and prepare spores so there is no need to purchase them from MTRC.  ACT’s HANDS team is going to work with the women to see if a program can be developed that will be beneficial to all.

Ginny spent more time sorting and taking inventory of the MEP women’s baskets.  It’s a very important, but time-consuming job.  We are so thankful that Ginny likes detail work!

Pathways is our new program for the children in ACT’s Muko HOPE program. The goal for this program is to provide what is essentially a “school” counselor for helping educate the kids for adult life and choice of vocation. We plan to offer life skills, spiritual support, understanding about situations like domestic violence and abuse, health education, and so on. We want to help these children learn to make the best choices and not be taken advantage of throughout their life.

ACT is currently experiencing our first young people to complete Senior High School and move on to other programs. One is enrolled in Kabale University and two in vocational programs. Our hope is to begin another program that would offer scholarships to exceptional students whether orphans or just destitute. We are just beginning to set this up and have more work to do. Part of our work is to best understand the existing school system and family dynamics. This takes lots of fruitful dialogue time with Josiah and Generous.

On a general note, we saw some beautiful crested cranes today, Uganda’s National Bird.  We were lucky enough to get fairly close to some because our wonderful driver, Christopher, keeps his eyes out for them and pulls over so we can take photos.

Speaking of Christopher, we are fortunate to have two very kind and capable drivers.  Christopher has been a driver for just about every ACT team that has come to Uganda and Aine (I-NAY) is new to ACT.  Aine is actually from the area where the Empowerment Center is located, so he is seeing some old friends.  In addition to being great drivers, they are also capable mechanics – thank goodness!

We bought hamburger buns last night and the Jopfan, our hotel, has graciously agreed to make us hamburgers and fries tonight using the buns we provided – otherwise they would be served on bread slices.  We order our dinner in the morning so the hotel can be sure they have the needed ingredients.  Past teams have found dinner can be delayed quite a bit if it’s ordered when we return at night.  And lately we haven’t been getting back to the hotel until 7:30 or 8:00 p.m.

Tonight’s score of accomplishments, as compared to our agenda and totally arbitrary scoring according to Dave, was 120% … good, but not as good as yesterday.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Many goals for today!  One van left with six people around 9:00 in order to get to the village in time for meetings.  The second crew didn’t leave until later because they were waiting for the stores to open.  If you remember from yesterday’s blog, we were unable to find the paint we needed.  So after a trip to the Kabale shopping district on their main street, which is a dirt road, all supplies were found … there ain’t no Lowe’s here.   The second crew arrived in the village around noon. 

A large green border, about three feet high, was painted along the bottom of all the walls that were painted yesterday.  It matches the lime green of the ACT logo, so it really brightens things up!  Many shelves were reinforced and moved to their new locations and loaded with baskets.  It rained quite hard in the afternoon, so we were unable to do any painting outside.  There were meetings in the other two rooms, so we were unable to prepare those for painting.  It’s going to be a busy two days to get the painting done in time for Saturday’s celebration!

Today was amazing. Ginny, Sue, Toni and Alexander met with the MEP women from 10am until mid afternoon. It was fun to see the women again for Sue and was fun to watch Ginny get to meet them face-to-face after knowing their names and crafts for so long. We met outside the Empowerment Center under a very intense sun.  At about 12:30 we realized we needed to move to the shade – especially us “pale-faces.” The conversation was about their hopes and dreams for MEP and the quality of their products. We handed out their “uniform” that they had wanted which were black twill aprons with “Muko Empowerment Program” in beige at the top and a big pocket of bright African fabric. We handed them out to the women, they put them on and danced and sang for 10 minutes. As sisters we told them we would be wearing them as well in Michigan as we sell handcrafts.

We provided lunch for them – Katogo which is beans, matooke, Irish potatoes and Obushara, the local sorghum drink. We took portrait photos of each of them to use for their baskets so that when the people in the U.S. purchase them, they know the woman who made it as well as her story. We also fitted each of them with reading glasses that we brought from the U.S. They were thrilled. Some of them had not gotten them before and some had “spoilt” them. The beaders were so pleased to receive the huge amount of seed beads that were donated by Cricket, Sue’s sister, the findings we purchased for their jewelry and some new design ideas. We will work with them next Wednesday to learn how to make rosaries with their paper beads thanks to the supplies that Anne House sent.

The meeting concluded after several hours of the women of MEP bringing their wares forward so that Lovina and Alexander and Ginny could evaluate the quality and purchase the ones we will bring back to the U.S. for sale.  Sue couldn’t help but remember the first baskets she was buying back in 2008 and how they compared to the quality they produce today – it is truly amazing.  We can’t wait for you to visit us at Uniquely Uganda and our booths at the local Michigan art fairs and church sales so you can see some of the new designs and styles.  They are both beautiful and functional.

Toni interviewed some of the women to learn their stories.  The most memorable one was our MEP woman who had given birth to 17 children and 4 were still living. The other 13 had died before they reached 2. How can a mother bear so much grief…  The stories that Toni is collecting will be so beneficial is helping us understand the culture and needs of the villagers which will then allow us to know how to work shoulder-to-shoulder with them in a productive way.  She was assisted today by Boaz (an ACT orphan sponsored Kapina and Mike Williamsen) and Demus, two young men from the village who served as her translator for several hours.  Kudos to them!  Toni also worked with Demus to learn how to operate the camera. 

Sue and Karen visited the director of Muko High School to discuss how ACT and the high school can work together to promote the MUSIC program.  The meeting went well and we are encouraged that there will be continued progress.   Karen’s class later that afternoon was attended by 15 students and Karen continues to be happy with their playing.

The HANDS team spent time at ACT’s commercial garden where the cabbage is ready to be harvested.  They also took a look at and discussed the demonstration garden behind the Empowerment Center where onions, potatoes, passion fruit and more is growing.

We must say that we are very happy with today’s work.  As mentioned in an earlier blog, we score our performance each day, and today’s score is 151% … 1% OVER the record of 150% set last May.   A new record has been established!

Tuesday, September 16

This coming Saturday, September 20, is ACT Uganda’s Thanksgiving event.  Many dignitaries from around Uganda were invited by the ACT Muko Board and Generous, ACT Uganda’s director, and are expected to attend.  More on that event later.  But we mention it because it means there is much effort this week being spent on sprucing up the Empowerment Center.  Today, we were able to get all of the windows cleaned, inside and out, and two of the five rooms painted.  Whew!  We have two days to paint three more rooms.  Unfortunately, all of the paint colors we need were gone when we stopped at the store on the way back tonight.  And that was discovered after having to use flashlights in the store to read the labels, since there are no lights in the stores.  Flexibility is key here.

While the paint crew (Dave, Karen, Diane and Bill) was working, many other activities were accomplished by the rest of the team. 

Ginny, Sue and Toni met with Alexander, MEP Manager, Lovina, MEP’s Quality Control Manager and Generous.  Over a four hour time span, many things were accomplished for the MEP program.  Product Quality Guidelines were developed, along with skill level requirements in order for someone to be part of the MEP team.  It was also decided that Lovina will live at the Empowerment Center one week each month.  She will be available to train women who are interested in improving their basket weaving skills.  She will also spend that time determining which baskets fit the quality requirements in order to be included in the next shipment to the U,S,  And a bonus is, she will also be company for Michelle … maybe Michelle will become a  basket weaver!  Ginny spent additional time with Alexander sharing ideas on inventory control processes so they can work together efficiently on keeping our shelves in Michigan well stocked for Uniquely Uganda and the many art fairs in which we participate.  We were also very excited to learn that Alexander’s sister, Barbara, is a senior tailor.  Generous and Richard Turinawe had donated a sewing machine to ACT last June in honor of Tess Waechter’s, wedding, but we didn’t have anyone in MEP that could teach sewing.  Now Barbara is going to sew for MEP and also may serve as a trainer.  Yay!

The HANDS team (agriculture) kept busy as well.  Michelle, John, Roger, along with Moses, Benson, Herbert, Sharon and Tito walked many miles today taking soil samples and surveying potential plots for commercial gardens.  As Michelle put it, they walked on many hills - and it was uphill both ways.  The US team distributed seeds to the Ugandan team and the Ugandan team explained how the labor practices work in Uganda.  One difference from US practice is that each part of the farming activities is handled by different group of people:  tilling, planting, weeding, and so on.

Later in the afternoon, Ginny and Karen headed to Muko High School for their daily violin practice.  They were happy to see that 16 enthusiastic students showed up and worked hard.  All had fun!

Toni spent time with eight individuals today, interviewing them one-on-one to learn more about their culture and daily lives. 

Speaking of culture, one big difference is the traffic.  There is no public transportation, but you see many motorbikes, sometimes carrying up to four people.  We even saw a bicycle that was being used to transport a full-sized couch! It is also the main mode of transportation, besides walking, to carry your wares.  We’ve seen bags of potatoes, chairs, bamboo, babies, cans full of water … you name it, they carry it.  There are also no traffic lights or stop signs.  And on top of that, they drive on the left side of the road and the steering wheel is on the right side of the car. 

We’ve finished another great dinner and are planning tomorrow.  We are continuing our practice of rating ourselves on our plans for the day. We earned 100% yesterday and 120% today! We give ourselves bonus points for extra things we did during the day.  Thanks for following our adventures!

Monday, September 15 – Off to another good start.  On the road by 8:30 with two vans packed full of gifts for the orphans, pillowcase dresses, shorts, supplies for the MEP and HANDS programs and tools!  We filled the first four hours with the US and Ugandan teams fine-tuning the planned activities for the next two weeks.  A delicious lunch of Katogo (a cooked blend of Irish potatoes, bananas and beans), peanut sauce and sliced avocado was served.  We are getting spoiled by the fresh avocados, bananas, potatoes, cabbage, pineapple! 

We then unpacked and sorted all of the items we’d packed into the vans; prepared walls in the Empowerment Center for painting; handled some minor maintenance items; and had various meetings on different topics.

We also took time to walk around the area to take a look at Michelle’s new neighborhood.  We watched goats and cows being herded past the Empowerment Center and of course played with all of the children who come by to check out the strangers in their village.  The children love to have their photo taken and enjoy looking at it even more.   In addition to pictures, Diane took a video of one of the young boys pushing a tire down the road with a stick.  He got a kick out of watching that playback!

We also presented hockey jerseys, provided by Urban and Marilyn Rice, Karen’s cousins, to all of the staff here in Uganda.  They put them on and broke into a lively “thank you” song … it was great and brought many smiles and cheers.

Karen and Josiah headed off to Muko High School to meet with the headmaster to discuss Haward’s orchestra classes . We realized a misunderstanding about times for classes and worked together to avoid conflict between the adults and the students. The students were scolded by the headmaster for gathering too slowly and wasting time. Then we went to a classroom like the pictures you have seen to rehearse. Many students gathered to watch while about six students played. They mostly played African music by memory and no method books were to be seen. I gave them an assignment to produce the books tomorrow and perform from them as well so I can assess their music reading progress. They are performing on Saturday for our big fundraising event so we will work all week to perfect their tunes.

Sue and Ginny went to Drucilla Vocational School in order to secure a trainer for dyeing the basket materials. We were accompanied by Rev. Esau Habomugisha to the school since they sponsor this school. We all met with Phoebe, the head of the school. Currently, they have 81 girls in the school who go through a 2-year rotation of programs (agriculture, home economics, basket weaving, knitting, tailoring and catering). Most of the girls are orphans who scrape whatever they can together to attend this school. Phoebe’s philosophy is to build the girls up with self-confidence and practical skills so that they don’t automatically marry at a very young age and have little future. Once we secured the trainer, we spoke more with Phoebe and realized how similar her values are with ACT’s. We think this will be a great vocational school for us to send out girls after they leave school. I showed Phoebe the little bag for the “Days for Girls.” I told her we were going to making these for our girls. It is a bag of supplies for the girls during their monthly menstruation. Right now, the girls stay in bed or at home during their periods and miss school. This kit will allow them to have the supplies, hand sewn by women in the U.S. to go back to school. Phoebe was just thrilled with the bag and I promised her we would send her 100 bags for her girls.

When we all met back at the hotel we had the pleasure and privilege of meeting Francis and Mackline – two of ACT’s orphans who are now attending University in Kabale.  We were able to see them try ketchup for the first time.  Francis liked it; Mackline – not so much!  Mackline expects to be our first orphan to graduate in April 2015 in records management from the Kabale University vocational school.  

We also celebrated Toni’s birthday after dinner with cake picked up from a shop in Kabale.  The shop didn’t sell cakes, but sold chunks of cake – so we shared four chunks and sang Happy Birthday to Toni – with Francis starting the tune for us.   Happy Birthday Toni!

Sunday, September 14, 2014 – After a good breakfast, we piled into two vans and headed to Muko County to go to church.  Going to church one van had 12 persons in it and Dave had to walk to his church about a mile up a mountain.  There were so many different experiences that we want you to hear about each visit first hand. 

Bill and Diane Busch visited both a Catholic Church and an Anglican Church. There was singing, drumming and clapping at both churches.  In order to visit both, we started at the Anglican Church where we were treated to bread, eggs, bananas and tea in the Pastor’s home.  We then went to church, talked to the congregation to introduce ourselves and then had to leave to attend the Catholic Mass.  We arrived at Mass shortly before communion so were able to join in the passing of the peace, Communion, another opportunity to introduce ourselves to a congregation and meet some of the orphan guardians.  The Catholic Church is new, so new that it’s not built yet and we worshipped outside looking over the mountains with the goats and cows grazing nearby. Afterwards, we were treated to another wonderful meal, a tour of the Parish center, clinic, and school.  Father John then drove us back to the Empowerment Center. 

It’s Karen! We were greeted at the Muko Empowerment Center with a group of six violinists, playing a tear-jerker piece by memory. This gave me wonderful anticipation for all that will come on this trip. Sue and I visited two Churches of Uganda and during our speeches we shared the special gift of choir robes from the First Presbyterian Church of Holt. The choirs were elated, singing and dancing and jumping. Luckily we videotaped to show our great Americans their excitement! After church, we had the opportunity to “hang out” with some of our staff and orphans. We also noticed some of our kids watching a video on our Centre TV which allowed a great teaching opportunity. It was an African show about a father who did not want to send his daughter to school but instead hoped to marry her off for the dowry. As their “Mom” I gave the kids some other ideas to consider. Sue gave her two cents about a bikini dressed chick on another video! Whoa! The Moms are in town!

This is Dave and I have recovered from my hike up the hill.  My experience was kind of boring compared to everyone else; due to deaths of church members and members families there were only 13 adults at the service.  The most interesting point was one song that lasted over 20 minutes.  Otherwise there was a lot of singing and dancing as there was at the other churches.

 Hi this is John.  I attended Butare Anglican Church.  There 12 children were baptized and an adult women baptized who was converting from being a Catholic.  The priest preached a “hellfire and brimstone” sermon based on the Genesis story of Noah and the ark.  Some ACT orphans are sponsored from this parish and after service Josiah and I were swamped with people pointing out orphans and asking how to get a child sponsored.  After service we had at tea with the pastor and his wife.  

Hello from Ginny in Uganda!  Roger and I attended the Anglican Church in Bwindi today.  The service and auction (people donate food items and then auction them off for more donations) lasted approximately four hours!  I was surprised how similar the structure of the service was- scripture readings, announcements, Nicene Creed, sermon, etc. My favorite part was the music!  So spirited… and the drummer, amazing!  And then the dancing!  So much life!  After the service, we walked down the hill to the main center of town and talked with the villagers. The children surrounded us and kept us close company all the way down the hill! It was a lovely day. 

Toni and Michelle traveled to another Catholic church that sits on a beautiful mountain peak (though they can’t remember the name, it translates to “the highest peak”). Before the mass they were able to meet with Millicent, who is a woman catechist. This is a big  deal for the area, as out of the 26 Catholic churches she is the only catechist who is a woman! However, upon getting to mass, they discovered that she is more than a catechist, but she also read the gospel and gave the homily! Toni also had a very moving experience as she was able to bid on sorghum seeds. However, it did not stop there as the congregation did the best they could to match her donation. Afterwards, despite the lack of warning, Millicent surprised them with a wonderful meal. It was a great day full of warmth and love.

To end our Sunday, the team met for a delicious dinner at our hotel with pineapple filters or in English pineapple fritters, which by the way are delicious.  More adventures are waiting for us tomorrow as we meet with all of the Ugandan staff to plan the details of our two weeks together.

Friday, September 12:  Well – we arrived after a long, uneventful (in a good way) journey.   Eight of us left Memorial Presbyterian Church in Midland at 1:00 pm on Wednesday and Jan Babcock drove the Vieles where we met at the Detroit airport.  We all arrived at our hotel in Kampala, Uganda at 1:00 a.m. on Friday (6:00 pm Thursday USA time).   After a quick night’s sleep we were up having breakfast at 8:00 a.m. – a meat turnover, eggs, toast, juice and coffee.   Our hosts at the hotel are wonderful and the food is very delicious.  After breakfast five of us headed to the local market to shop for locally made wares and five of us headed for shopping at the “western” market to complete our purchases for Michelle’s eight-month stay in the village, some banking and lunch.  We all met back at the hotel for a little rest, then off to Steven Bandutsya’s home for dinner.  Steven is a local Rotarian who is familiar with ACT and has been very supportive with the development of ACT in Uganda.  We will be working with him in the future on a program for exchange students.   Another highlight was Toni Stanfield, one of our team members, meeting Rauben.  Toni has sponsored him as an orphan through Christian Children’s Fund for the last two years and he has just completed his first two years at a vocational school in Kampala.  It was a great day full of interesting sights, sounds and meeting many friendly and welcoming individuals.

Saturday, September 13, 2014  Saturday’s travel from Kampala to Kabale turned out to be a bit more interesting than our travels from Michigan to Kampala.  We woke, had a good breakfast and packed up the two vans.  All of this went very well and we were on the road on time!   However, 1.5 hours into the trip, one of the vans had some issues with one of the wheels.  Thanks to some helpful villagers and the expertise of our two van drivers, it was fixed and we were on the road in about an hour.  During that hour we made friends with some of the children of the village and tried to handle the heat and sun.   A highlight of the trip was the stop at the equator … that’s something you can’t do everyday!   Back on the road again, and believe it or not, about two hours later the same van blew the alternator belt.  Once again, because of the expertise of our two van drivers, the belt from the air conditioner was removed and replaced the alternator belt.  Once again, we made friends with more village children while the van work was being done alongside the road and we once again survived the sun and heat.  Those in the van then rode in a very hot van, with only the breeze keeping them cool.   But, the story ends on a happy note … we made it to our hotel in Kabale before dark to a wonderful dinner and nice rooms.   We’re tired now and getting ready for bed.  Tomorrow is another day and we will be splitting up and heading off to five different churches in Muko subcounty.  Those who’ve been here before and looking forward to seeing old friends, and those who are here for the first time are looking forward to meeting new friends!

Tuesday September 9, 2014:  Today has been a very busy day rushing and and checking off  items on our long list of tasks to accomplish before we leave for Uganda tomorrow evening.  Our team is comprised of ten persons, of which 5 have been to Uganda previously.  The fall team consists of John and Sue Waechter, Dave and Karen Viele, Bill and Diane Bush, Michelle Bush, Roger Vern Moll, Ginny Donald, and Antoinette (Toni) Petrella-Stanfield

Of the group 7 are from Midland, Toni is from Traverse City and the Viele's are from Holt.  You will recall that the Dave and Karen were members of the Spring 2014 trip.  This is the first time that two trips have been made to Uganda.  The Midland group with Toni will leave for the Detroit apirport around 1:30 pm for our flight at 6:16 pm.  The Viele's will meet the group at the airport with their 6 suitcases.  In total, we are taking 22 suitcases.

The flight is long, as stated we leave Detroit tomorrow at 6:16 pm and arrive in Entebbe, Uganda Thursday evening at 10:40 pm, allowing for the 7 hour time change our travel time is approximately, 21 hours. We will begin updating the blog daily beginning Friday.  We look forward to updating you on our activities and how everyone is doing in the village.