Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Dear Friends and Family: Well, we are continuing to have computer problems! Dave's plan was to install the local internet network MTN onto Karen's computer and a computer that was donated in an effort to test Skype capabilities.  Unfortunately while at the MTN store, both computers were knocked off the counter top accidentally. Karen's screen was shattered and rendered useless for the rest of the trip.  The other computer appears to be working but may be too slow for Skype.  We have not picked up the ACT Uganda computer yet, but Dave continues to hope for the best for Skyping.  To send blogs for now we have to walk downtown to the local internet cafe. 

            On to our day- we left the Jopfan nearly on schedule at 8am and picked up one of Karen and Dave's orphans, Grace,  and Medard, arriving in the village about 9am. Stephen and Justus accompanied us to the village to continue their work with the agriculture team. When we arrived in the village, Stephen, Justus, John and Michelle remained working with the Ag team on developing a plan of action for the future.  In exchange, we picked up Josiah, Alexander, Haward, Demus and Francis and headed back out.

            Our first stop was Muko High School, where we have twelve orphans.  The team met with the headmaster Medard to discuss the new music program and outlining how Haward, Demus, Mackline and other senior children would become the leaders once the team leaves for the United States.  Karen also discussed leaving four violins that would be locked in the head master's office during the next school term for Haward, Demus, Mackline and others to continue their practicing. We also discussed the potential of Karen Skyping to provide lessons.  Our group then went to Mulore Prep School where we will have twenty-one children on May 27^th  when the new semester begins.  With the beautiful hills of Uganda as a background, we were greeted with singing and dancing by the students, putting smiles on all our faces!  Karen and Kelsey played some songs on the violin for the students and teachers. There has been steady progress at this school with new dorms being constructed out of lava rock.  This school achieved the highest test scores in the district which is why it has been chosen for many of our students.  We then went to Haward's home for lunch and met his parents and extended family. We were served a traditional Ugandan dinner of white sweet potatoes, mutoke, rice, beans, soup broth, g-nut sauce, a cabbage dish, greens (like spinach), beef, pineapple, and watermelon.  Prior to the meal Karen was offered a glass of a fermented sorghum drink, that the Ugandans consider sweet but which was quite bitter to us, rather like vinegar.  At 3 pm we left Haward's house for some shopping.  The team (minus Kelsey and Dave) returned to the village so Karen could conduct a violin lesson, and Elizabeth could begin packing baskets for the return trip. 

            John and Michelle spent the day meeting with the Ag team at the Muko office planning for the future of the HANDS Program. The team including John, Michelle, Justus, Tito, Stephen, Siriaco, Moses, and Herbert Muhereza. The team conducted an evaluation of the technologies observed within the site visits and an evaluation of each land parcel was discussed to brainstorm what might be their best use. In addition the Ag HANDS team structure and communication flow was agreed upon by the working committee as well as the characteristics of the future HANDS Program Director/Manager and the Local Trainers that would be in charge of each demonstration gardens. In the end, a list of Action Items for HANDS America and HANDS Uganda was completed. At the conclusion, the team stood around the flip chart listing these action items and clapped in unison while Karen snapped a group photo. A great ending after a rocky start where a local man suffering from mental illness attempted to join the meeting as an ad hoc member. When he was quiet, all was well but the disruption occurred when he decided to give his input. This resulted in moving the meeting from the veranda to inside the ACT Empowerment Center. After enduring some shouting, Herbert, the ACT Security was effective in removing the man from the premises and a peaceful meeting led to good progress.  Despite the difficulties, the team left the meeting with a great sense of accomplishment and excitement for the program ahead. We believe that program has the potential to lift families out of poverty, improve individual families gardens, promote the use of sustainable agriculture technologies and help protect the beautiful natural environment of Lake Bunyonyi.

            We had dinner at the White Horse Inn and tried to calm Dave down after the computer mishaps. We have a picture that we will show our US friends in the debriefs. 

            So despite the fact that things generally didn't go according to our plans, that certainly went according to God's plan, and for that we're grateful.

Pictures from our first day in Muko! In the top picture, Haward, a talented musician, teaches Kelsey about a classic Ugandan instrument; afterwards, Kelsey returns the favor with Karen by teaching some students the violin.

These pictures depict how the women cook a meal to serve about 140 people. The women cook over an open fire right outside the office. It was exciting to be able to feed people meat twice in two days, especially when meat is typically only eaten on special holidays like Christmas.

In order to get the village meals, Alexander, John, Dave, Karen, and Michelle went to the market in Kabale. The team was a little shocked by how the meat is cut in order to be sold.

Blogging, Ugandan style.

We were welcomed into the village by our orphans with beautiful songs.

(The girl in the orange dress is named “Precious”, and the name certainly fits

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Dear Friends and Family: This is Karen writing the blog tonight as it is late and everyone has turned in. Normally, we write this together and everyone who wants to, contributes either verbally or types in additions. So I will try to tell a few bits of the news from all I heard over dinner. We have had computer problems so there was no blog sent yesterday so today you are receiving two.  The computer we use at the office that can access the network was damaged somehow and would no longer take a charge.  The laptops we brought can not access the local network either, Dave will attempt to fix this on Wednesday.  John took the office computer to a local vendor who said he could fix it. 

            Dave, Karen, Kelsey, and Elizabeth left for the village about 8:15 a.m. this morning. After picking up Josiah, Martin (our builder) and Medard (one of the volunteers) we went up the mountain to the Ikamiro Clinic. We located the site for the new placenta pit paid for by Holt Presbyterian Church. Construction will begin immediately.  We were joined by Rev. Julius from the Ikamiro Church and Saddith who is a local teacher, a volunteer with ACT and also one of our new violinists! Saddith had the idea, after some brainstorming, to ask the local school if we could temporarily take over a school building that is not currently being used. One side of this building would be big enough for a room for about six women to stay in before and after giving birth and the other side would be big enough for lodging for two nurses. It has brick walls and a roof. Martin is giving us an estimate for how much it would cost to make it a nice livable space. We had tea at Rev. Julius’ home and then proceeded up the mountain to visit Turyasingura Jonan’s family- our new orphan. Jonan has a health problem easily surgically corrected. His family thought he had a contagious illness so we explained that he could have surgery to repair the problem. When Dave met with the Health Officer we learned the procedure for this surgery and we told the family all about the cause, how it is corrected, and what we expect to do about it. They gave us a lovely, huge pumpkin as a gift.

            We returned to the Muko Empowerment Centre where the MEP women had gathered. Lovina, our Quality Control Manager, was there and we were very happy to see her and all the colorful women. While Alexander met with them, the team prepared an American lunch. This was very fun! We bought two large loaves of bread, Nutella, peanut butter and jelly and honey, Pringles, and Cokes and we made them sandwiches! Everyone seemed to like it. We fed about fifteen people, I am guessing!

            After lunch Elizabeth, Kelsey, and I met with the MEP women and had a chat. We thanked them for their beautiful work. We inspected the baskets and chose the ones we wanted to buy. We recommended that they make more colorful baskets along with the natural ones they are currently doing.  We told them all the ways Americans use their baskets. Elizabeth found it difficult to describe the ways she uses the baskets so they would understand (for remotes?for make up? for car keys?). The reading glasses we took were a HUGE hit. At first, Alexander told them they would have to leave the glasses at the Centre to use there but one of the women asked if they could take them home because they do some basket making there as well. When we agreed that they could take them home all the women got up and began to dance and sing a traditional African song! I wish you could have heard the sound ringing through our building! Having glasses was a miracle for them- just think of our own reliance on eye care and correction. They asked for us to bring more on the next trip. Our meeting went very well and I felt that we bonded even more.

            John and Michelle had a marvelous day with Stephen and Justus, two Ugandans they have spent a lot of time with and enjoy more and more each day. Justus drove his car and picked them up at the hotel in the morning and they went to many sites including a mushroom farm that both John and Michelle thought was a fabulous idea for some of our people. They also brought back very exciting news of a vocational school run by a man who would be a fabulous role model for our kids where they could learn hotel management, carpentry, and other vocations if they should decide  not to go on to university. My impression is that we have a group of pretty smart kids. When I asked them earlier in our visit who wanted to go to university almost all the hands went up. I am not sure I fully informed you of all we talked about when we spent time with the kids so I will catch you up during our debriefing meetings in June.

            I taught two classes of violin- one with the advanced students and one with students who are a few lessons behind. Both classes are doing wonderfully. Every day more students come in, however, today was the first day I had to turn someone away just due to a lack of time and an unwillingness to slow the others down.  I am hoping to possibly find time for another beginning class tomorrow.

            I am happy to say there are many of our orphans that I have grown to know better and love a lot. When I come home I will be able to tell a few of you more about your children. From Muko High School we have Mackline and Isobel who have joined Boaz, Haward, Demas, and Francis. We have begun to make plans for how they will continue when we leave. We have not yet been able to Skype. The power is very weak in the village. Dave thinks he has the answer and plans to pursue it tomorrow. More on that if we can address it. We could not send the blog today because our office computer was broken down. We were able to take it in for repair and hope to send both yesterday and today’s blogs even if we have to go downtown to an internet café or store.

            Our days are long- we usually plan to leave for our various locations between 7-8:30 a.m. returning to the hotel around 7 p.m. It takes about two hours for dinner to be prepared so we order as soon as possible when we return, eat between 9-10 p.m., do devotions, and collapse. Tonight we ventured out to the White Horse hotel for dinner and everyone enjoyed a different menu. The best part was walking back to the hotel in the dark. Michelle had a flashlight headlamp that made us all laugh- Michelle insisted we were just jealous. Dave and Kelsey went ahead and tried to hide, however, Dave forgot to turn off his flashlight which made their hiding spot pretty evident. I told the others he has been playing hide and seek with our three year old granddaughter a little too often. We were all laughing, a welcome break from some of the issues of the day.

            Two high school students have come to me asking for help paying school fees. They are not in the ACT program but both will have to stay home from school next term because their parents cannot find the money to send them. One young man’s mother is dying of cancer. It breaks my heart.

            We are beginning to think of our return but plan to make the most of the next few days. We are sending our love and hope everyone will be well until we see you again. From Kabale: The ACT  Team

Monday, May 20, 2013

Hello to all! We hope you are enjoying the blog and learning a lot about what we do in Uganda! Today our team split up and went three different ways. Dave worked on budget concerns in the morning and then met District Health Official, Patrick Tuisuime, regarding the Ikamiro Clinic and the building of the placenta pit. He told Dave that our efforts to become a level three clinic are too difficult to achieve and there is no reason we need to do it. A level three clinic requires a minimum of fifteen staff members, but babies can be delivered at level two clinics if a placenta pit exists. So, Dave also met with our builder, Martin, to discuss building the pit and installing some shelving at the Muko Empowerment Centre. He is also going to do some minor repairs at the clinic. The hole was dug for the Peace Pole by two villagers, a woman who dug the hole with her hands and Herbert, our security guard. The woman was Moses Nasasira’s mother. Moses is part of our MukoHOPE program and is sponsored by Elizabeth and Dave Neithamer. The Peace Pole will go in on Thursday just before our Board Meeting.

            John and Michelle, accompanied by our fantastic photographer Elizabeth, looked at a garden plot owned by a man named George, a recipient of Hope Seeds who has had great success with the seeds. Stephen showed also showed the team a beautiful piece of land he is donating to ACT adjacent to the Hope gardens where it is his dream to construct a greenhouse.  Elizabeth has taken over 1200 photos and at least a dozen videos so far, with the goal of helping to tell the story of our trip in a visual way. On the way to John Karungi’s coffee plantation Christopher almost met his match on a steep hill that was little more than a path. He even ordered the team out of the van in order to manually turn on the four wheel drive. After successfully making the climb, the team learned about interplanting coffee seedlings. From there they came back to the Muko Empowerment Centre to meet with village farmers who also received Hope seeds. They wanted to “clap their thanks”, and then gave feedback on the productivity of each seed and scored nearly 100% for beets and 0% for watermelon and okra. It was surprising that parsley, after being grown for the first time ever, was a smashing success. They love it as a crop and it sold well in the market. The villagers seemed open to further education and possible seminars with Kulika Uganda which is an NGO teaching permaculture. John and Michelle felt the meeting was very successful. They surveyed some additional plots of land for possible demonstration gardens. Michelle found a site for her permanent summer home overlooking Lake Bunyonyi. They saw a flock of crested cranes take off and fly over the lake into the sunset… which made Michelle’s day even though there was no marriage proposal today! After surveying a very steep plot of land, we came up with an idea for a new fitness class called “aerobic land surveying”.

            Karen and Kelsey spent the whole day training the violinists. Haward, Demas, and Francis are making an impressive start. If you compared them to “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” In Karen’s says they are about three months ahead of an American beginner. They practice in between rehearsals. When we asked them if they were tired, Francis responded with, “For sure”, the others remained silent. However, if asked if they’d like a break they answered, “Africans do not take breaks!” Karen helped them prepare two Ugandan tunes they are planning to perform later this week. We made a video of one of their performances and tried to send it to the USA but the transmission failed. Every day more students have come to the office to begin violin. We have started them in three different stages, some of them playing all at the same time. The younger ones are invited to watch, the older ones are given a beginning lesson. Kelsey has been very valuable as a second teacher. She drills the students when Karen brings them along to a place where they just need repetition. We are working on a plan for the best places to store the instruments so the players can get to them to practice. We are going to ask the Headmaster at Muko HS, Medard, if we can keep a couple in the office at their school for Haward and Demas. We have not yet successfully skyped because of power issues, so there is some doubt about the ability to skype lessons in the next months, however, we have not yet given up on this idea.

            We have enjoyed the staff so much. Josiah will celebrate his 40^th birthday in July and has invited us to attend a special ceremony at Ikamiro Church. Alexander is getting more and more excited about his wedding. We don’t expect to see much of him on Thursday and Friday as he prepares for the events. We are thinking of our dear Generous in China and hoping all is well with Generous and Richard.

             Upon returning to Kabale, Dave, John, Kelsey, and Michelle stopped at the supermarket downtown to buy the fixings for hamburgers. Heinz ketchup, French’s mustard, Nutella, Cadbury chocolate, Pringles, Arribiata pasta sauce were purchased…yes, they were in junk food heaven! They figured the steep walk up to the hotel would negate the calories consumed and it was a much needed mental boost. We are wishing all of you the best, and thank you for your prayers!

Sunday, May 20, 2013

Dear Friends and Family: Wow, it’s hard to believe that we’ve reached the halfway point in our adventure!  Time is flying, yet we still have plenty of wonderful interactions and relationship building ahead. Today was supposed to be our “easy” day, however, as is often the case with human plans, it didn’t turn out that way. On the plus side however, Kelsey is feeling better and is back with the team!

We all went to various churches which started at 9:30 am, and the last of us arrived back around 4:30 p.m. John returned to the office first about 2:00, Dave and Karen arrived back around 3 p.m., Kelsey and Elizabeth arrived around 3:30 p.m., and Michelle showed up around 4:30 p.m. The services were all wonderful and we were fed marvelous meals during our visits. Some of us participated in auctions for produce. Dave and Karen actually bought a chair in the auction at Ikamiro for the Muko office. Dave’s sermon went great at the Ikamiro Church in spite of the fact that he was a little taken aback by ascending a high pulpit about ten feet above the congregation. Kelsey and Elizabeth spoke briefly, greeting the church on behalf of the our congregations back in the United States.

A highlight for the Vieles was a visit on the way back down the mountain at Josiah’s and Phoebe’s. They have the most beautiful house we’ve seen in Uganda so far. They have a setting on the mountain with a fabulous view. You walk up a stony path to a beautiful living fence that makes you believe you are walking through a tunnel of greenery. Then you come to a gate and see a house with gardens all around and flowers planted across the front. They had the honor of praying together in the house before leaving.

After a delay at the office, Dave presented the villagers with a surprise. Having been cheated by the first engineer who worked on the remodeling of the office, a donation was given to repay them for the amount they had each lost. This seemed to be a great way of improving public relations and they were very happy.

We also learned, upon returning to the office, that we would be giving out the pillowcase dresses. One hundred fifty girls had assembled in front of the office which was good because we had exactly that amount of dresses. (Forty nine dresses had been mailed since we were unable to pack them all in our luggage) Josiah asked Karen to choose randomly which girls would be fitted- this job assigned since she would be the one going home! She would go out and choose ten girls. Then Dave or Michelle would walk them back to the Music room (Notice we named the back room). One person had to guard the door to prevent girls from sneaking in and pretending they had been chosen. John and Kelsey helped volunteers to fit the dresses while Francis lined the girls up for photos while Elizabeth took the shots. All in all, it went better than last year, especially because of having the office and being able to take the girls in more privately. As we worked on the dress distribution, the numbers of girls swelled. We estimated that 200 girls were not fitted. Note to our dress makers: We could use more longs- 85-90 cm and shorts 40-50 cm. 

After all of this, Dave, John, and Michelle went up to Father Fred’s church and school property due to a request and opportunity for Father Fred to offer thanks for all of the help and support received there. They were treated to a tour of all the facilities and Father Fred asked one member of the team to speak encouraging words to the classrooms of students who were doing remedial studies. 

Karen, Kelsey and Elizabeth did a violin class for the advanced students. There were two new students so a second class was offered- delaying the departure of the team somewhat. We loaded the van including the back with volunteers and orphans to return to places on the road closer to their homes. We took Francis Kaana all the way to St. Mary’s which was a great experience to see the marvelous facilities there as well as the large church. 

We arrived back at the hotel after dark, having worked Christopher overtime. After a late dinner, with nearly everyone ordering hamburgers and fries, Ugandan style, and much reminiscing about our girls’ longing for Dominoes, Taco Bell, McDonalds, etc. we did another devotion together with John, then headed upstairs for a much-needed good night’s sleep…..

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Dear Friends and Family: We had another great day with the children and volunteers, we feel like we are now making long lasting connections.  As we discussed yesterday we   are feeding all of the orphans, a few sponsors and volunteers while all of the children are here.  In our effort to build strong relationships with the villagers we are purchasing as much of the supplies as possible from local vendors, and individuals, and they show their appreciation.  As we have written in our previous Blogs, all of the children have been at the centre for two days.  It is a good feeling to see the older children bond together as most of the older group is now at Muko High School. Children like Boaz Junior who was by himself at Good Hope are now becoming part of a larger group of sponsored orphans.

Our group split up today, with Karen, Dave and Elizabeth going to the village and Christopher then returning to Kabale with Tito and two AG team volunteers to pick up John and Michelle as they are working in the Kabale area today.  Unfortunately Kelsey was not feeling well and stayed behind at the hotel, but she was feeling better by the end of the day and should be able to attend church with us on Sunday.

Upon our arrival, we were treated to welcome songs and dance from the children.  Francis, Boaz, and Haward “attempted” to teach Dave the African dance. While he did pretty well, he found out after about 5 minutes how strenuous their dancing is! Elizabeth enjoyed singing hymns with Saddath, many of them familiar, some new, but all full of meaning.  Some of the ladies from the village who are involved in the MEP program stopped by, bringing more of the beautiful baskets they made and which we will be bringing back with us.  Francis and Haward helped lead the children in a recorder class.  It’s wonderful seeing them take a leadership role, because when we return to the States, THEY will become the teachers. Afterwards, Karen and Josiah led the MukoHOPE children in a great discussion. The children seemed fascinated by the stories of our American life. We will save many of them for our presentations, however, there is one we can’t resist telling you about. Our sponsors often ask if the children have pets and we asked them if they name their goats or cows. They said if they have a cow it is “Cow”. If they have a goat it is “Goat”. Then they asked me if we name our goat! So we told them we don’t have goats or cows at all unless we live on a farm, we just go to a big store and buy our food, often never knowing where it came from or how it was prepared for our dinner!

We tried to open their eyes to opportunity and one of our orphans asked to be considered as a foreign exchange student. Several seemed interested in American university. We underlined to them the challenge of learning to read, write and speak English very well.

The violin students are doing excellent work. Haward and Demas (Haward’s friend) recorded a video of “Amazing Grace” which we will forward to Holt Presbyterian for their service on May 19^th. Let’s see if our technology is successful!

While activities at the Muko Center were ongoing, John and Michelle went to fish farm in Kabale. They met with an innovative man who is working hard to figure out the most effective way to capture fish. After joining up with the team for lunch, they went to a potato storage facility and learned about what seems to be an amazing cooperative. Afterwards, Tito was given the opportunity to fully show off the garden behind the ACT center. John and Michelle were extremely impressed with the hard work that has been put into the garden and the possibilities it provides.

The team is working late tonight preparing comments for the churches tomorrow, as we will undoubtedly be asked to speak at the churches. Kelsey and Elizabeth will be attending the Pentacostal Church, John will attend the Anglican Church, Michelle will be attending the Catholic Church, Dave and Karen will attend the Ikamuiro Church. We will all be accompanied by various Ugandan friends. Pray for Dave as he has been asked to give a 30-45 minute sermon! He made a “panic call” to Rev. Kirk Miller, the pastor at Holt Pres today who reminded Dave that with a translator he could possibly cut the time in half! Kirk also gave Dave some helpful pointers! More on this tomorrow…

The last word of the day is how grateful we are that our team is so compatible. In addition to all of us contributing to our daily blog, each contributes in their own distinct and important way.  Michelle is delightful, competent, and warm with everyone. She has already received several proposals! John has been a great spiritual leader with meaningful devotions and music to bring our focus back to God. Elizabeth documents everything with photography and video and in addition, has a great talent for talking with everyone and making friends. Kelsey has a huge heart and has been so valuable with the music training. It is not surprising that we have mostly young men studying violin! Dave keeps us amused and does everything for everyone. Karen is a very talented and gifted teacher who is greatly appreciated by our gifted students. However, for many, she is so much more than just a teacher, but gives the orphans a mother figure that too many of them lack. What a blessing to have so many laughs together!

We miss you all and send our love!