Friends and Family, we have had a great week! We are still
loving it here in Mbale, and we are excited about all of the projects we are
involved in, and the opportunities we have here.
Here’s our update:
Richard:
Life in Uganda
has been amazing. The people are amazing, the weather is nice, the scenery is
beautiful, and the projects that we are working on are exciting! Devin and I
have been the project leads putting together a 2 day business seminar. We have
been working with a local NGO named “God’s Mercy” which takes youth in the
Muluku area and trains them in things such as furniture making, hair cutting,
door to door sales, etc. After much negotiation, we arranged for the business
seminar to take place this coming Friday and Saturday at a local venue that we
convinced to significantly reduce the cost of using the meeting room and
providing lunch. Each day we will have about 60 participants. The first day
will consist mainly of youth participants and the second will consist of
slightly older men interested in business development. We are really excited
for these business seminars because we are designing them to be the kick-off
event for future business trainings that we will have at the church every
Wednesday and Thursday from 6-730pm. We have WAY too much material to teach in
just a one day training, so our goals are to give the participants just a few
business basics and to get them excited enough to continue coming to our
Wednesday and Thursday meetings that will be held weekly thereafter. We just have
so much going on, and we’re so excited! We talked to a local radio station
which has agreed to put announcements on the radio advertising when our weekly
trainings will be. It will be a big deal! Also, we are going to go into their
recording studio and record business seminars in 30 minute segments for them to
play on the radio as a series. How cool is that?? We are not exactly sure how
we are going to structure that, but I’m thinking that Devin and I will set it
up as a discussion format with 2-3 Ugandans. So we would have a structured
discussion in which we teach business principles through our discussion. We are
really looking forward to the potential that is in that. As far as our weekly
business classes go, we are also excited because we have met some really
awesome Ugandans that we think could potentially continue to teach the business
classes after we come back to the states. One guy’s name is Julius and he is a
stud. He went through the God’s Mercy program where he learned door to door
sales. After going through the program, he started a business selling books to
schools, and it seems that he has done quite well for himself. The biggest
reason why this is so awesome is because all of the businesses here are exactly
the same. There is a huge lack of creativity in the business scene here in Uganda. You can
drive down the street and see business after business and each is exactly the
same. I talked to him for a long time last week as we were walking around
Mbale, and he had a lot of good insights. We will be having him as a guest
speaker at our seminars and our plan is for him and some other like-minded
Ugandans to come to all of our trainings and be able to take over teaching
after we leave. There is a HUGE need for business education here. We are very excited
at the impact we can have.
Another exciting thing is that I am finally getting my
ultimate frizbee club going. One of the things that has been holding me back
has been trying to find a place to implement it that really has a need. There
is a slum called Namatala that is right outside of Mbale where I have decided
to implement it. This slum has many needs. One of the big problems of the slum
is that alcoholism is quite high because there is nothing for people to do
there. I am working with an NGO called “Child of Hope” that works in Namatala.
I ran my proposal by them to organize an ultimate club for the youth that will
meet twice a week and play games. He liked the idea as it would give the
at-risk youth something to do. I am excited to be doing this also because I
feel like there are a lot of things that I could do with it. In addition to
just doing ultimate twice a week, I can combine it with education, or service,
or whatever I want. It’ll be good.
There are many other exciting things that we are doing but I
don’t have time to write them all! You will have to stay posted for more
updates! Anyway, life is amazing here. I am soooo glad that we are doing this!!
Marissa:
On Monday, I was finally able to
get my suitcase back!!!! After a week of wearing the same 2 shirts, and
borrowing people’s skirts, I finally have my OWN clothes to wear, and my own
shampoo, my own medicine, etc. I am so
grateful to have everything again!
Getting my suitcase was an all day affair – one of our country
directors, Whitney, was nice enough to spend the entire day with me, just
getting my suitcase. We left in the
morning, and drove four hours to Kampala
in a very crowded, hot, stinky taxi (I believe there were 20 people in a van
that was meant to carry 14). When we got
there, we were able to get to the airline office and get my suitcase without
any problems (which was kind of refreshing, since everything here takes longer
than expected), and then we got right back on a bus and drove another 4 hours
back to Mbale. It was long, but it
wasn’t too bad, because Whitney and I got to talk to each other. I really enjoyed bonding with her and getting
to know her better. On Tuesday, I had my
first official full day of work here in Mbale, and I really enjoyed it! I went along with a sanitation outreach group
to a school called “Child of Hope,” where they taught the kids there about hand
washing. It was fun to be with the kids
– they are so cute and friendly, and always happy to see us. I love them!
When we first walked in, the kids just flocked to us, and I had so many
kids holding both of my hands, and when they ran out of room on my hands, they
started stacking up my arm. It was so
cute.
Me and a few other girls got
together and put together some survey questions to ask about women’s
health. We plan to ask these questions
in the villages that we visit, to get an idea of the health needs of the women
there.
Richard and I and a few others
went and visited the city of Bugobero
to look at a school that a member of our church – Stephen – started a few
months ago. It is named the “Liahona
Education Centre.” They were in need of
some serious help – we don’t know if we will be able to help them yet, because
they have a lot of needs. They need to
have 200 students, but are only able to teach 60 right now because of the size
of the school. They have the walls built
for a few more classrooms, but no roofs for those classrooms. So, they need corrugated tin for the roof,
plaster for the walls, and wood for the desks - it is going to be very
expensive, this is why we don’t know if we can help them yet.
Another
project I am excited about is we are learning some Ugandan crafts, and we will
teach some women who have no income how to make and sell them. So far, we learned how to make some paper
beads – they are everywhere here in Uganda. I think they will be really easy for the
women to learn how to make.
