Day 5 - Microenterprise

Day 5 – Microenterprise

Clean water isn’t the only thing Water Missions provides to the communities they work with. There has got to be more. We’ve only been to five villages, and two of them have had water systems implemented in the past that have failed, leaving those communities with a sense of failure and abandonment.

If you were to go to the doctor because you were sick and they gave you medicine, you’d continue to go back to that doctor to seek healing for your sickness. But, if the doctor taught you how to avoid getting sick, you’d be more apt to protect yourself from sickness in the future. In the same way, Water Missions isn’t trying to prescribe a pill and leave it at that. They’re addressing the root of the problem, and they train the people of the community to avoid or overcome problems in the future.

We had the opportunity to sit in on a microenterprise conference yesterday in Bugoto, a village on the shore of Lake Victoria. The committee members from surrounding villages got rides from boda-boda’s and taxi’s to Bugoto for a day-long training conference. By this time, they’ve all been trained on how to upkeep the equipment installed in their communities. Yesterday’s meeting was specifically created to teach the village leaders how to operate a microenterprise. The way it works is, the clean water is sold for up to 95% less than the people have been spending, in years past. Villagers used to pay 1,000 shillings to fill their jerry can, often with unsanitary and unsafe water. Now, villagers can fill their jerry cans with safe water, for 50-100 shillings! This is providing the village with enough income to cover operational expense as well as put money in savings. If they don’t understand how to save, they will not have money for maintenance and repairs in the future. So, Water Missions teaches the importance of saving and preparing for the future. In these courses, they put the leaders in hypothetical situations and they worked together, with leaders from the surrounding communities, to resolve the situations. Then, they would present their answers and explained why they chose that method of resolution. For some people there, this was the first time they had ever participated in this sort of training. (This is very effective, particularly in Africa, because Africans are very communal people. They care a lot about their relationships, and look for ways to build new ones.) Upon completion, they were awarded with a community-specific “Safe Water Team” ball cap, a certificate of completion and literature containing the Gospel and information about sanitation.

The people left that day with a feeling of accomplishment and a better understanding of the importance of saving and preparing for the future. If they apply what is learned, they will guarantee sustainability for the water purification system, as well as the health of their community.

I am extremely grateful for Water Missions and the way they strive for excellence. Their community development teams work hard to train and equip the leaders and people of the villages. The technicians and engineers work full days of planning and problem solving. Together, the Water Missions Uganda team is working hard to change lives, for good. I am now even more proud to support and work with such an amazing ministry.

Reminds me of an ancient Chinese proverb, “Give a man a water purification system, he’ll have water ‘til it breaks. Give a man a microenterprise business, he'll have the ability to sustain and improve.”

Grace and Peace,

Kyle

Day 4 - Musubi

Day 4 - Musubi

12/7/2011

As I woke up yesterday morning, I didn't know what my day was going to be like. Our program for the day said we were going to Musubi, the community that received a water purification system from the Change for Change fundraiser. Mixed emotions jumbled my mind as I thought about what everything was going to be like. It's been such a humbling experience already, being in Uganda, but the people Darryl and I were about to meet were given a new chance at life because of the water system we helped provide.

On our way to Musubi, we rode on some of the WORST "roads" I've ever been on. It was a two hour drive of my head bouncing and bobbling. As we pulled onto the dusty path that they call "Musubi Highway", I was just overwhelmed when looking at the people. They didn't look any different, their mud huts weren't any better or worse than the rest, but I felt like I knew them, somehow. There are actually three villages in the Musubi area. The furthest out was a good two or three mile drive, to the landing site. I knew when we got to the landing site, there were hundreds of people awaiting our arrival. Children surrounded the van, as usual. When we got out, we were immediately invited to move to the beach to watch swimming and boat races. This was just the beginning of the festivities that would fill our day.

As we set up our cameras to snap pictures and shoot video, children just mobbed us with wide eyes. I wish they understood me when I talked to them. They simply just wanted to be around us. Any simple motion would put a smile on their face and start a quiet children's chatter. They were so astounded about how I watched boat races.

After the races, we were invited to sit on a porch in a centralized location. The staffers from Water Missions fired up their portable sound system and introduced us to the people. After her presumably warm introduction, leaders from the community came onto the porch to share a few words on the microphone. Meanwhile, all the children sat on the ground in front of the porch, while the older people bordered the children and watched from porches nearby. The leaders were very excited to share their appreciation and give testimonies to how the water system has improved their lives. Their reports shared information about how their search for safe water has been simplified to just going to one of the community taps. They also told stories about how they've noticed much improvement in health and a decline in sickness in disease. Keep in mind, they've only had the system for just a few months.

Next, villagers came forward to show their appreciation by performing in many different ways. First, four girls came forward to sing and dance for us. Then two men came forward to demonstrate their boxing and acrobatic skills. Next, the villagers had races from the top of the hill. One of the boxers also tightrope between a porch and a tree. He was barefoot and the rope was far from tight. It was quite intense, even though the rope was only about 15 feet long.

Next, the chairperson for the Safe Water Project had lunch prepared for us. Lunch consisted of rice, matoki (a sort of banana that cooks into a mashed potato consistency and taste), fresh chicken and fish, both cooked in "soup". Musubi people are fisherman by trade and they raise their own animals, including chickens, goats, cows, ducks and more! Everything was killed that day and prepared fresh. It was humbling to be served by the leader of the community, not to mention I had to be adventurous enough to try the foods prepared (I'm really thankful there were no grubs or anything like that.)

After that we were able to give gifts to the community including shirts, socks, soccer balls, balloons and pens. Doesn't seem like much to us, but the people were very excited to receive these gifts. Then, unbeknownst to us, they had gifts for us. They presented us with two handmade baskets and a goat. Yes, I said a GOAT!

So much of the day will be remembered for as long as I live, but one thing in particular that wrecked me was when a young man came up to me and Michael, a WM employee. The man rambled off a bunch of stuff I didn't understand, but his smile just wouldn't go away. Michael also smiled, leaned over and told me that he just wanted to thank me for everything I had done. He proceeded to tell me about how it changed his life and that he was so honored to meet me. I was glad that I had sunglasses on, because there was no stopping the tears. Who am I to him?

I was very grateful that we had a chance to talk to the people (with the help of a translator.) I was very excited to share the Gospel with them. I didn't have much time, but I was just leveled by the fact that I was just like them. Because, God showed compassion to me, by sending Jesus to die in my place. Before I had Jesus, I too, was drinking contaminated water. But, Jesus gave me living water, so I would no longer thirst. I tried to point them back to the Gospel and give credit to God. Please pray that they will forever remember that God used some Mzungu's to show them his love.

Day 3 - Into the Villages

12/6/11

Day 3 – Into the Villages

Yesterday, I got to worship with the Water Missions team, before their weekly meeting. It was awesome to stand with believers in the faith and sing I surrender all and Amazing Grace. The team of people working here are awesome. There’s four Mzungus and 14 Ugandans! After lunch, we traveled into some villages along Lake Victoria. If you’ve never looked at the size of the lake, you’d be surprised how big it is. There are hundreds of villages around the lake. We only had to drive about 30 or 40 minutes out of Jinja, to get to Ntinkalu. It baffles my mind how close these villages are to civilization. We drove most of the trip on a dirt road through sugar cane fields. Along the way, we saw women picking up leftover stocks of sugar cane in the fields that have already been harvested. They carry their harvest on top of their heads, while walking the dirt road back to their village.

The dirt roads are easily washed away by rainwater, leaving huge ruts and massive holes in the road. So, we must travel slowly to avoid the meteor size holes that undoubtedly would swallow my VW bug alive! No matter how far out you drive, you will always find boda-boda’s taking people to their desired destination. I haven’t ridden on a boda-boda yet, but I plan on doing it before we leave!

As we drove into the first village, we watched as little children screamed “MZUNGU, MZUNGU!” as if they were announcing it for the rest of the village children. By the time we would park and open our doors, children surrounded our van with excitement. The first thing I tried to do was give them high fives. They just held their hand up back, as if I was a native American greeting them with a “How”. So, I would just high five them, saying “HIGH FIVE”, as I did it. They would in turn yell “HI FI” and giggle and want another one.

It was so humbling to know that they were excited to see me, a Mzungu, who had never been there before. I was the highlight of their day and all I did was show up. With us, we brought balloons and soccer balls to pass out. As I would blow up a balloon, they would giggle and scream “BALOO”. At first, I thought they were calling me Baloo, from jungle book, but I then realized they knew what the balloon was. These are no ordinary balloons, though. They were the large latex balloons, the size of beach balls. I threw the first on in the air, and immediately, they started to hit it up in the air, and all 20 kids were overwhelmed with joy. We repeated this a few times, and every time, one of the kids would just grab the balloon and take off! The rest would follow the balloon.

We got to see how far Lake Victoria was from the villages. Although they were along the lake, they were still a few miles away. Some parts of the villages had a water pump, while the rest of them were required to walk to the lake for their daily water needs. It was a good feeling to know that Water Missions had technicians working all day, piping water from the water source, all the way to the furthest village. Ntinkalu is just a week or two away from having safe water for everyone.

There is so much more that’s happening here, than you would think. It’s so encouraging to see what’s happening first hand. I hope that I, in some way, am giving you a taste of what it’s like here!

Grace and Peace,

Kyle

Day 2 - Arrive in Jinja

Day 2 – Arrive in Jinja

Last night, Darryl and I stayed in a Motel in Entebee. We didn’t get to bed until about 2 am. After breakfast this morning, we packed up and met up with our driver, Shalvin. Leaving the Sunset Motel, we drove back down the muddy clay road that we drove on the night before, only this time I could see everything. Buildings were all very run down and their yards were overgrown. Walls and barbed wire surrounded most hotels and restaurants. Along the side of the road I saw a small produce shack, where a young girl was waiting for customers. Another common occurrence was seeing goats and cows on the side of the road. Their owners will take them to a place to graze, tie them to a tree and leave.

Our drive from Kampala to Jinja was about two and half hours. Kampala was full of boda-bodas – pretty much kamikaze moped/taxi drivers with up to four passengers on them. They travel any direction on any road. I’m grateful for Shalvin. He’s practically a professional rally car driver and he knows the streets inside and out. He took us past a punch of awesome places, including the Nelson Mandela Stadium, Uganda’s National soccer stadium. Along the way, he pulled off near a market. Within seconds, children selling anything from cooked bananas to Fanta to mystery meat on a stick surrounded our car, trying to make a couple bucks.

We arrived in Jinja around 11:00 and met the Uganda Country Coordinator for Water Missions, Will Furlong. Will kindly welcomed us to the Water Missions Complex. (I’m not sure if it’s really a complex, but it’s surrounded by a brick wall and has a guard at the gate.) After getting a quick tour of the facility and getting acquainted, we went to check in at the hotel we’ll be staying at, the Nile Anchor Palace. Robert, the door/front desk/bell hop/room service employee, met us with a big smile. He was quick to grab as much of our luggage as possible and escorted us inside to give us our room assignment. He took Darryl to a presidential suite on the second floor, then took me to the king’s quarters on the first floor. I’m not sure if those are the real names of the rooms, but they were huge. My room had two queen sized beds, so I suggested that Darryl and I just share a room. It was more than enough for the two of us! After unpacking, we just relaxed for about 30 minutes, until Will arrived to take us to lunch.

Our lunch experience was pleasant. It was at a restaurant named “2 Friends”. The security was heavy there, as we had to get wanded before entering. The environment was awesome, but not a true depiction of Ugandan eating. It was specifically for Mzungu’s (aka white folk). I had pork chops with chips (French fries) and a Coke. It was good, but I’m looking forward to some local food!

After lunch, Will took us into downtown Jinja. It welcomes you with the sounds of honking taxi drivers, street vendors and the buzz of boda-bodas. There may have been a total of two stop signs in Jinja. Traffic laws are minimal, the rule of thumbs is “Big is Big”. If you’re bigger than the vehicle coming your way, you have the right of way. Most “bigger” vehicles are taxi’s the size of a minivan. Aside from busses that shuttle people from Jinja to other cities nearby. Every other building is a supermarket, and between supermarkets, there’s some sort of electronics or DVD store. I met another Mzungu in the market today, named Jeremy. He’s actually related to Andy Green, the Charleston Newspring pastor! It’s such a small world!

Leaving the city, we ventured into some more rural areas surrounding Jinja. It’s been raining, so we had to keep putting the truck into four-wheel drive, just to get through some of the muddy roads. We saw the “source of the Nile”, where Lake Victoria feeds most of the water into the Nile River. We hope to get onto the river at least once before leaving.

Now we’re winding down for the day at WMI. We’ll head back to our hotel soon, as it gets dark around 6:30.

There’s so much more that I’ve seen, but it’s hard to remember everything, and even harder to put some of it in words. The poverty here is saddening, and we haven’t even seen the worst. Over the course of our trip, we’ll be traveling into small villages where people have nothing. Our hope is to relay to you, just a little bit of what we see, so that you might also be motivated to make a difference in these peoples lives!

Grace and Peace,

Kyle

Day 1 - The Trip

Day 1 – The Trip:

12/4/11

As I type, it is currently 2:03 am, Sunday morning. In the states, it’s about 6:00 pm, Saturday evening. I’m typing to the serenading sounds of an oscillating fan that’s sitting about 2 feet away from my bed, and I’m currently surrounded by a mosquito net that hangs from the ceiling. It’s been over 24 hours since we left Charleston.

Yesterday, Darryl showed up at my house around 8:30 am. His car was full with luggage already. I added mine to the mix, then we headed into work. Our morning consisted of answering questions about our trip, how we were feeling, etc…We then took some pictures and left.

As we arrived at the Delta check-in counter, we were concerned about how heavy our bags were. Darryl and I packed 3 military duffel bags full of clothes, soccer balls and a variety of other stuff. They were slammed to the top and flirting with the 50 lb. weight limit. All three were just a few pounds over 50 lbs, but the Delta girl was awesome and let them slide! From that point, it was just Darryl and myself on an epic trip to Uganda.

Our flight route was: Charleston -> Atlanta -> Amsterdam -> Rwanda -> Uganda. We had two long flights, both clocking in at about 8 hours. In both situations, I was in a middle seat. You could imagine how comfortable that was! But, with the help of sporadic naps, on-board movies, games and conversation, I made it out alive. We didn’t hit any delays or problems…until we got to Uganda.

We successfully got our visas and moved to the baggage claim. We loaded up our carts with our bags as they made their way off the plane. The first three came out pretty quickly. We proceeded to wait another 30-45 mins for our last bag. After accepting reality, I got in “line” to file a missing bag. After standing in line for over an hour, I finally filed my claim and we met our driver outside. His name is Shalvin. He waited at the airport for almost four hours, before we arrived. We loaded up our gear into Shalvin’s van and drove about 15 or 20 minutes to the Sunset Motel, where we are staying the night.

f you’ve read this far, you’re probably my mom or dad. If not, then you must be a good friend! Thank you for following along with my trip. I hope to have more exciting things to talk about in the days coming. I am so grateful for everyone’s prayers and support! Please post any questions in the comments below, I’ll try to answer them as often as I can!

Grace and Peace!

Kyle