Success?

Saying no becomes exhausting sometimes. There are certain intersections we routinely find ourselves at where begging children and disabled adults make their living off red lights and traffic jams. The unquenchable need that is so evident all over this land can really wear you down. There are glimpses of hope though. Stories of poor people that pull up their own boot straps, create opportunities and find success are hard to come by but when we hear them, its invigorating!
eMi has 10 Ugandans on staff at our Kampala office. As hard as it is to swallow sometimes there is a clear economic divide between us ex-pats and the Nationals. We are a community though and share bonds that overcome the amount of money one makes in month. eMi set up a program called "special request" that allows our National staff to make a request for donations when they find themselves in a tight(er) spot financially. Things like weddings, funerals, family sickness, new babies, etc. often come unexpected and culturally, folks look to their friends and family to give in times of need. It's been really cool to experience the generosity of the eMi team, including the Nationals when hardships arise.

We have a guard named Yokanna that presented a special request about a year ago to raise funds for building his house in his home village (when I say house, think 200sq ft for 4 people). As hard as it is to say no, our group of staff that decides what requests are approved or denied had to say no. It simply did not seem as needy as several other requests that had recently been presented. I remember speaking to Yokanna after his request was denied and he was upset but determined to find a way. Yokanna had the night shift at our house the other night and I wandered outside to visit with him as I routinely do after dark. Yokanna fed me a story that I'm excited to share with you.

After being denied for special request, Yokanna scraped up enough funds to buy himself a pig. He managed to find a boar to get his sow pregnant and his pig had 10 piglets. Yokanna lives next to some Uganda army barracks where he was able to scrounge left over slops to feed his pigs. He allowed the piglets to grow to a size that people could afford to buy. He sold his pigs and invested all the money into building his house then started over again. A few months later his sow produced 10 more piglets. At the time of his story he had sold 4 and was able to finish his house. He plans to invest the the profit from the remaining 6 piglets into a small business for his wife to run in their home village.

Yokanna's kids are reaching the age of needing to go to school. Schools in village areas are much cheaper that Kampala schools. So like millions of other Africans, Yokanna's business success has allowed him build the house he's always been expected to build after becoming a man. He is providing for his family, doing it on his own. We say, well done, great work, way to go! We are proud! The down side is another cultural norm that gives us a knot in our bellies. His success has lead to placing 500 kilometers between him and his wife and kids. The tight family unit that shared a small home in Kampala will be split in 2 where visits may come every 3-4 months.

Mmmmmm, freshly roasted goat head....

Visit with the Fed's

We had an excellent visit from our great friends the Feddersens to finish off the holidays. It was so nice to have some visitors from home to share a snap shot of our lives in Uganda with. We brought the new year in on an island in the middle of the Nile River, toured the back roads, City and our neighborhood and enjoyed many laughs. We also got to do something pretty cool for a Ugandan friend of ours while they were here. Since Melissa is such a great communicator I'm going to just link over to her blog from here so you can read her version of the story. http://melissafeddersen.com/2012/01/02/peanut-butter-on-toast/

Christmas Letter 2011

HI-YA

Cooper's first Tae kwan do demo.

Joy in Creation

 We took a break from Kampala a couple weekends ago and ventured out to eastern Uganda to the most beautiful African place we have seen so far. Sipi Falls is in the foothills of Mount Elgon, one of Africa's highest peaks (14,177ft) in a village setting with 3 massive waterfalls to hike to. We were in awe most of our time there and felt as gitty as school girls after labour day. We also finally discovered a place in Uganda that takes coffee seriously. We hiked through coffee plantations then headed back to camp where we sat around a fire, enjoyed the view, peeled coffee beans, ground, roasted and brewed fresh coffee. Amazing!


The happy hikers

For some reason the guides like to walk with Kara.......

Leah was a bit of a hand full on the first hike. It was pouring rain, muddy and slippery. Not ideal conditions for a delicate little girl.

You'll just have to turn your head

Jordan in his glory

We walked through some amazing gardens. This was about an acre of cabbages. All in neat rows and nicely weeded. So nice to see people taking a lot of pride in their farming!

The view from our cabin

Our little family on the last hike

No picture really does justice to the scenery. I could have stayed for a week and just stared at the view.

Gifts

Sorry for the late blog entry but I wanted to share this with all of you. Sometime back our family and the Kansanga Resource Centre were able to be part of handing out Samaritan's Purse shoe boxes.
Our family have given a few of these boxes each year back in Kelowna and we have tried to explain to our kids how these simple gifts are our way of giving to those who have so little, who don't receive any gifts at christmas. This is a really hard concept for kids in general to grasp and especially for kids who live in a culture where excess and materialism is our middle name.  It was really exciting for our family to see first hand the joy these gifts bring. Also, it was a great opportunity for the KRC to bless the kids who use our centre on a daily basis. Giving truly is better than receiving!!

Some of the happy recipients

                                              Susan and Brenden handing out the gifts

It was a rainy day so we had to cram 113 kids in our 2 rooms at the centre. 

These are the 9 and under group

This is the older group.

Just Add Water

In case you haven't heard, there is a drought going on in the Horn of Africa right now that is affecting roughly 10 million people. The Horn of Africa is that part of the continent that sticks out like a horn on the east side of the continent including the countries of Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. eMi has been called to action on many relief and development roles in the last few months and just recently I was called to scope out a potential development project in northern Kenya.

 Flying into Lodwar

I flew into a dusty little airstrip in the town of Lodwar Kenya where goats and barefoot children wandered around the runway. The remnants of a plane engine lay wasting away next to the "terminal". The temperature was over 40 C day and night.

Crossroads Missions from Canada has teamed up with a local Kenyan mission Glory Outreach Ministries that hopes to implement an irrigation project that would water roughly 1,300 acres of land for the Tukana people. There is a river that runs though this dessert but  moving the water inland to where its needed is no easy or inexpensive task.

My first view of the site looked pretty bleak

Benson runs Glory Outreach Ministries in Lodwar with his wife Jennica. He was nicknamed desert boy from his long walks across the desert evangelizing rural tribes across East Africa. He's gone on walks several hundred kilometers long. Sold out for J!

I got to see where irrigation is really working on a small scale. The catholic missionary that has lived in this region for over a decade has built a 3-acre garden of Eden in the dessert. He grows enough food to feed an orphanage down the road.

He was watering his crops with pumps run from wind and solar power.

I was told that the people here have been living on 1 meal a day provided through the world food program. When asked why they are not growing their own food, their answer is, "we just need water!" You might say, "why don't they just carry it from the river". I wondered that myself, until I was there and was kind of able to imagine that not working for everyone. The folks that are closest to the river have the advantage. But imagine working your but off everyday while receiving only one meal. We, the privileged don't understand what it means to be hungry.

Some past irrigation projects have been attempted but failed. This was the makings of a canal system that failed because the river changed course, leaving the canal high and dry.

 This guy had simply dug a hole about 100m from the river, let the water build up in it and was using a treadle pump to irrigate a small garden. A treadle pump is like a stair master. You step, it pumps. Pretty low tech and cool! Chester is the other white guy and is an agricultural specialist with Crossroads Missions.

It was my privilege to fill a few jerry cans at the local well.

It rained one day in September but nobody could tell me when it had rained before that. Some said it has been years! It seems the area used to get to consistent rainy seasons up until about 15 years ago. The people farmed and lived off the land. Now they may see 1 rainfall a year at most. Still some smiles though.

I returned home to my green little refuge in Kampala, counted my blessings and tried to enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner. My heart aching for these Turkana people, knowing that so many are suffering through this drought. So what can I do? How can God use me to help these people? It can all seem so overwhelming and hopeless.  "We, especially me are certainly not the answer to all their problems. But with soft hearts and able bodies we can answer the call God puts before us, take steps, have faith.

With all large projects, you have to start somewhere and eventually they just lead into a series of small details. I'm helping to mobilize a team of surveyors to map out the potential irrigation project in February. Then in May I plan to lead a team of irrigation and agricultural specialists back to Lodwar to design a plan to efficiently irrigate this land. From there, it will be up to the local people to construct the irrigation system, plant the farms and water the gardens transforming it from dessert to Eden. Seems pretty big, but so is my God.