Friday May 17th, Pictures:

I hope these pictures come through, these were taken yesterday by Elizabeth (a few of over 150)  it is hard to choose which pictures to send.  The pictures we are sending include the new group of 20 children (3 are already in school and are therefore missing from the picture).  Bonnie Z, Precious is in the orahbe dress front and center.  Other pictures include the older kids with their first violin lesson, Haward teaching Kelsey to play the Undugu, and children signing to greet us.

Friday, May 17, 2013

Dear Friends and Family: What an amazing day we’ve had!  Today truly illustrated how it IS more blessed to give than receive.  We gave away so much, yet we’re leaving the village today feeling like WE are the ones who have been given the gift.  We began our day before the sun rose, with the mountains shrouded in mist as we left for Muko, so excited because we knew today we’d be meeting the children!  As we bounced our way out of Kabale (yes, the roads are quite bumpy), we stopped at Hornby and Kigezi schools to pick up several of the children in the Muko HOPE program.  Elizabeth was thrilled that one of them was Eudia Namara, one of the orphans that she and Dave sponsor, and she and Kelsey were so happy to be able to finally meet her!  Elizabeth’s hope is that more sponsors will be able to make this trip to Uganda one day and be able to meet the children they support.  The children really do regard their sponsors as their “American parents” and think of all of you often.  It is about a 40 minute climb through the hills to the village.  The terraced hillsides are very green, and even that early there are people hauling water up steep paths to their plots of land.  We arrived in the village to be greeted by the sounds of children singing and wonderful smells of lunch already being cooked over open fires outside.  We began with introducing the team from Michigan and meeting some of the Ugandan volunteers. The children in the Muko HOPE program sang “greetings to our American friends”, smiling, dancing and clapping, singing that they’d been waiting for us and were so glad we were here.  Francis Girukwayo sang a beautiful song just for our team, speaking of his love for us and how we were showing him God’s love.  It brought tears to more than one eye……  After that it was time for us to meet each orphan individually, taking pictures of each one, getting to know them better and presenting them with the gifts sent by their sponsors.  We didn’t know it was possible for children to beam so brightly. Our volunteers were very helpful, and we couldn’t have done this without them.  Karen and Kelsey then entertained the children and volunteers with several songs on the violin, including “Amazing Grace”.  How wonderful to hear our Ugandan friends join in singing the familiar words about God’s amazing grace.  With all those big suitcases now empty, it was time for lunch, and what a feast it was!  Beans and cabbage, rice, Irish potatoes, matoke, soup, g-nut with small green eggplants, beef with onions, and sodas, prepared by the ladies in the village.  Our hands were washed by Francis, and then being the guests, we were served first.  It was nice to relax for a few minutes and chat with Josiah and Alexander.  After lunch we met specifically with 17 of the 20 newest orphans in MukoHOPE.  Karen welcomed them and their guardians to the program, and we then distributed new mattresses, blankets, sheets, mosquito nets, shoes and storage trunks to each child, all made possible through the support of their sponsors.  What a blessing it is to so directly and positively impact the life of a child!  After this we headed to a bright, sun-washed field where we split up into 6 different groups by ages. Each group was led by a member of our team and a Ugandan volunteer in loud, enthusiastic games that included everything from duck-duck-goose to leap-frog, water games, cup games, and futbal (or what we would call soccer).  Kids all over the world share a love of soccer, and these kids are very passionate about the Ugandan national team, the Cranes.  After a couple of hours of outdoor fun, we headed back to the ACT center, where Kelsey and Karen led a group of students in a violin lesson.  It’s truly amazing how fast these young men are becoming comfortable with what is not an easy instrument to learn. Even when they’re not actively involved in a lesson, you’ll find them sitting outside the building practicing and picking out tunes.  They’ve even taught Kelsey and Karen a Ugandan tune on the violin.  While the violins were playing, Michelle and John met with the volunteers on the agriculture team that Tito (Ag staff) has put together. The abilities and knowledge that these people have to contribute is absolutely incredible. A couple of these men have degrees in sustainable agriculture and many are trained in permaculture, two concepts that the Michigan ACT team is interested in implementing. Giving Tito the Hope Seeds was inspirational to witness. The prospect of new life and growth made these men excited; when new seeds were discovered, they laughed and clapped their hands, thanking us profusely for the new hope we have given them. Perhaps more exciting is the transformation that has occurred behind the ACT office. What used to be jungle has been transformed into a beautiful garden. The men have worked tirelessly creating this wonderful, effective plot with barley, yams, Irish potatoes, beans, banana trees, and more. They have also created a cistern and trench system to prevent soil erosion and allow for water conservation. The steps that have been taken are truly miracles! Along with the wonderful changes that are occurring just behind the ACT office, when the neighbors saw how effective these new techniques were, they worked hard to imitate the principles used by Tito and the HANDS Team. This is a huge step forward and gives John and Michelle hope that the Michigan team’s plans for demonstration gardens will be effective in the future. All too soon it was time to head back to Kabale, with a stop at the market to purchase food to feed those orphans who lived too far way to make the journey home for the night and were spending the night at the ACT center. As last night, the market was an adventure. Alexander once again bargained hard to get us some good deals, and Dave, John, Karen, and Michelle discovered the impressive way that meat is cut in order to give to the buyer! We all look forward to the wonderful journey that awaits us for the rest of our stay in Uganda

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Dear Friends and Family: I am sitting on the front porch of the Jopfan Hotel in Kabale looking over some beautiful mountains having a peaceful moment thinking of our fabulous day. The Bible tells us that it is more blessed to give than to receive, and today was a perfect example of how true that is! We were welcomed so warmly, it felt like we were coming home. The whole team is flying high after meeting our staff at Muko and experiencing the first day of carrying out some of our goals. I cannot emphasize enough to you all how life changing this is and I hope that some of you will also consider coming to meet our “other family” here in Uganda. We began our day at the village happily meeting Josiah, our Operations Manager and, for the sponsors, the man who works most directly with our orphans. We also met Tito, our Agricultural staff member and Justus, who came with us from Kabale to work with John, Michelle, and Tito on Agricultural goals. We met Alexander, our MEP coordinator and teased him about his upcoming wedding on May 25. We also met Herbert and gave him our condolences since his wife passed away since the last time we were here. Everyone was in good spirits and happy to be together again. We unpacked the suitcases with the gifts for the orphans and lined them all up in six groups for the next day. We unpacked all the musical supplies and games and toys for the days with the kids. Let me describe our newly renovated office: The first main room is the office with a long table, two long benches, some chairs, and the computer. This is where the staff works together. The middle room at present contains all the new mattresses and storage trunks for our new kids who will begin school on May 27^th plus mattresses stacked nearly to the ceiling so the children who come from far away for the two days of activities will be able to sleep over. It looked like a scene from “Once Upon a Mattress”! Adjacent to this room is a “secure room” which is padlocked and safe for keeping our valuables inside. The back room, which is next to the porch, has a display area for the baskets and crafts. We brought some colorful posters about music which were hung on the wall in here transforming it into a craft/music/arts room- wonderfully appropriate!  Dave came in and said “Karen, you have to take the poster off the outside wall on the front of the office. It is going to blow away”. So, I went out….. and there was Josiah who insisted that he wanted it right there! And it looks great! We were so surprised to find power lines erected straight through the village- sending this message especially to our Board Member, Ced Currin….They are expecting electricity in the village sometime in August! Ced’s specialty is solar power and he has made several trips to Uganda. We had a wonderful reunion with Francis, our orphan who survived the Rwandan genocide. He hugged me and hugged me and was delighted to meet “Big Dad”- Dave. I introduced him to another “Mom” – “Mom Elizabeth” who was so warmly embraced she immediately felt as if she’d gained another son. After a great morning of planning together John, Michelle, Justus, and Tito drove off with Christopher to consider and measure various plots of land for purchasing for demonstration gardens. Word got out that we were looking for land to purchase and the team was approached by others who wanted them to buy their land. Finally, they had to say that they would only be looking at the land on their list. John was very happy with Michelle’s work and complimented her on her ability to make friends with the people, clamber up steep hills, and accomplish so much in one afternoon. Karen spent the afternoon with four excited violin students: Haward, Francis, Boaz Twikirize, and Saddis. They made fabulous progress in one afternoon- all documented by Elizabeth and assisted by Kelsey. Elizabeth, Kelsey, and I were all treated to a local lunch- matoke ( a steamed, mashed green banana that doesn’t taste sweet or at all like our banana), rice, a delicious bean sauce, two kinds of rolls and g nuts ( a ground nut purple in color and quite delicious on rice) Josiah and Alexander brought this into the office and we all had lunch together. We bought a 32” flat screen TV and DVD player and Josiah asked me if we were taking it back to USA! Dave spent some time in the afternoon trying to figure out how to hang it and get the DVD working. Alexander constructed a Phillips head screwdriver somehow from scratch when we discovered we needed one! The team had to leave the village a little earlier than we had hoped because Justus needed to return to Kabale for a meeting. Josiah and Alexander rode back with us in order to purchase the food for the orphans’ meals the next two days. Christopher dropped us all off at the hotel and then took John, Dave, Josiah, and Alexander to the grocery store. This was an experience in itself! Alexander negotiated the price of all the food. John reported that the meat purchase was a special adventure including a visit to a butcher who took a large machete to the meat via Alexander’s instruction to leave only the best sections. The girls stayed behind at the hotel to write the blog, in journals, order dinner and relax. We had all agreed to leave the hotel by 7 a.m. the next two days for our time with the children. Josiah asked all the orphans to arrive in the village by 8 a.m.! Whew! News flash: Dave was informed that he will be preaching at the Ikamiro Church on Sunday! I have a feeling there will be a call to Kirk at Holt Pres in the next few days! When we were talking about this in the van on the way back to Kabale, Justus said to Michelle “Then you must preach at the Catholic Church!” In our training we had prepared the team for the possibility of speaking at the churches and I am guessing our members realized we weren’t kidding. What an honor and opportunity to share the love of God with our friends here. Here are our phone numbers in case of emergency: John’s 011 256 077 507 25  24   Dave’s 011 256 077 507 2710  Elizabeth’s 011 256 078 580 5148 We miss you all and send our love- Karen

Wednesday, May 15th, 2013

Dear Friends and Family:  We have not had internet here since we arrived so we have been unable to post - Sorry.  In fact this is actually being posted on Thursday May 16th at 2pm Uganda time but not in a simple manner.  To transmit via the internet, Dave has to go outside of the Empowerment Centre to a certain spot in the front corner of the property where he is lined up with the towers in order to transmit, but since it is sunny today he has to go back in forth from the inside of the building to the outside to type (so he can see it) and then transmit.    Let's catch up!  We (Dave ad Karen) arrived safely on Tuesday evening, met at the airport by Generous, and her entire family except Richard (who is away on business) Christopher, our driver and John Waechter.  We were so happy to be together!  While we were traveling, other members of the team exchanged money, prepared the cell phones, shopped for a DVD player and TV, met with Minister Banyansaki who grew up in the Muko area, visited the market at the National Theatre and had a feast at Generous' home.  Their day was busy and productive.  A 32" TV was purchased for the MUKO Empowerment Centre and the salesman assured us that any DVD would operate in it - we will see!.  On Wednesday, we left for Generous' home by 8:30 a.m. Generous prepared a short update meeting and fitted all the women on the for Ugandan clothing appropriate for Alexander's wedding.  We planned to leave between 10-11 am to hit the road for Kabale and arrive there before dark since the roads are quite difficult.  We left at 10:45 a.m.  We enjoyed a lovely lunch at the Equator on a porch with a pleasant breeze and devotions by John.  During the long drive, we noticed that many sections of the road had been improved since last year, however, there were times that the road disappeared or there were potholes big enough for a pig roast.  Our expert driver, Christopher, negotiated every challenge and we arrived in Kabale after nine hours of driving.  In spite of leaving as early as possible from Kampala we still had to drive in the dark for over an hour which added to the scare factor.  When we arrived in Kabale we were lost when Christoper took us to the Cephas Inn (a place were a previous team stayed).  Everyone was confused and Dave made us laugh when he said "Turn right here.....Trust Me! or go straight?"  We are not letting him forget this!  We finally had to ask directions!  We ordered dinner right away, unpacked, and finally ate around 10 p.m.  Most of the dinner conversation consisted of shared stories of critters invading our homes. (When I get home I am going to ask Sue Waechter about a dive bombing raccoon.)  The team is glad we are here - the travel is accomplished.  We thanked God for His guidance and care and prayed to be His hands and feet in the coming days.  We are truly looking forward to seeing Josiah, Alexander, and Tito, the large contingent of volunteers who will assist us and some of our older children tomorrow (now today).  We send our love to you and pray for internet at the hotel tomorrow.

Thursday:  Briefly, since I (dave) have to go outside and stand at the corner of the property to send yesterdays update I want to add a short note that we arrived in the village around 10:30 a.m. and were greeted by a large contingency of Ugandans.  It is now 2:30 our time, we have had a great day so far, have laughed a lot while planning for tomorrow.  We were joined by Julius who is a local trained ag person,.  In fact they are leaving right now to visit land plots.  We will prepare an update this evening and probably walk down to the IT store to send it out.  By for now. 

Dear Friends and Family: In Generous' words "God has the perfect plan for your travel and arrival in Uganda". She sent this reassurance to us when we MISSED OUR FLIGHT and were delayed for two days. Dave and I were confidently proceeding to the airport but when we arrived we discovered we were not leaving at 7:40 p.m. as we expected, but at 6:00 p.m.  Even though we had arrived by 5 p.m. we were not allowed to go. Due to a back up at the JFK airport there were no seats available until Monday. We were so discouraged and disheartened. We headed for home suddenly understanding the feeling of frustration when a trip is ruined due to trouble with a flight. We realized that we couldn't even inform our friends in Uganda since it was in the middle of the night for them when we learned our fate. So Sunday morning we got up early and started trying to call Generous, our director, Christopher, our driver, and Tom, our hotel manager,  finding out that none of the phones in our house could call international long distance. We then drove over to Dave's mother's to place the calls, also fielding questions from Dave's various brothers and sisters who expected us to be far, far away. They, of course, had stopped by to wish Dave's Mom "Happy Mothers Day". Anyway, to make a long story shorter, after some further planning and a few tears we figured out a new plan. Meanwhile, the rest of the team scurried around to leave together for the airport. Kelsey had driven all the way from Memphis the night before, arriving home in Midland at 3:15 a.m. Dave Neithamer, her Dad, drove the Memorial  Presbyterian Church van with team members, Elizabeth, Kelsey, John and Michelle to the airport. Dave and Karen drove to Brighton to hand over the cell phones and other necessities integral to their first day in Kampala. Already, the plan has changed from the two of us making the preparations to the four of them handling those details. The good news is that Kelsey, Elizabeth, Michelle, and John had a flawless check in at the Detroit airport and are in the air even as I write this! I want to let all our friends who made pillowcase dresses know what happened with them! We all stuffed them into our luggage as poundage permitted but still had over 100 dresses left. On the way to the airport today, the team discovered there was an extra piece of luggage- another misunderstanding- so they filled it with the dresses Sue had brought to give to me to mail and checked it in for an extra $200.00. Tomorrow Dave and Karen will mail the remaining forty nine dresses and compare the postage to the airline charge! Best of all, the dresses will all be on their way. Our next post might not occur until Tuesday or even Wednesday since we HOPE to be in the air, landing Michigan time on Tuesday around 3:15 p.m. Know that the first four members of the team will arrive in Entebbe about 3:15 p.m. on Monday. They will spend Tuesday visiting the market in Kampala at the National Theatre, having an agricultural meeting, setting up cell phones, exchanging money, and purchasing a TV and DVD player for the village. Don't be alarmed if we don't post every day as power outages are so common in Uganda. We will try our best to keep you informed! Love you all- thanks for your prayers! Karen

Dear Friends and Family: After an anxious week of packing, shopping, calling Sue Waechter, weighing the suitcases and then repeating all of the above multiple times we are almost ready! Dave and Karen will leave on Saturday evening, May 11th to arrive ahead of the rest of the team in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. John, Michelle, Kelsey and Elizabeth will leave on Sunday evening, May 12th. By the time they arrive, we should have the cell phones set up and other details arranged. We have decided to mail the wedding gift to our former board chair, Charles  Tuhaise, and also many of the pillowcase dresses since we just didn't have room for them all. We will also have to leave behind some of our heaviest books for the lending library we want to set up at the Muko Empowerment Centre.  However, at the last minute, we plan to stuff in anything possible if there is any amount of space or poundage available! We have some beautiful MUSIC posters which fit into the violin cases. Kelsey remembered that we would need tuners to help the beginners learn to tune the instruments and that called for another trip to Marshall Music. John discovered a contact in Kampala and arranged an agricultural meeting for May 27th that called for a change in itinerary and we are still waiting for a confirmation on our rooms for the final night in Kampala. Stay tuned for that! Thank you to our churches and orphan sponsors for their help in getting us ready. Thank you to everyone for your prayers and your kind words of support. I am personally looking forward to the long ride for some meditation, music, reading, and preparing to see our staff, children, their families, volunteers, and friends in Uganda.We are sending our love to you all- We'll post a message from Uganda when we arrive!

 The packing has begun! Our six member team will carry twelve fifty pound suitcases, one roller bag carryon each and one violin. Janis Van Hala, Jeri Smith, Sue Waechter and Karen Viele spent all day on Saturday, April 27th packing the generous gifts sent by our orphan sponsors. We sorted all the packages by the ages of the children who will be meeting in groups in the village. Each group of gifts for fifteen children were packed together in one suitcase- so six suitcases of gifts. In some cases we had to lighten the load. We had to take out the gifts of soap because they were just too heavy. We are planning to buy the children some soap in Kabale to make up for this. Thanks to all of our wonderful sponsors for the beautiful packages for the children. See the pictures! More later!