Today I am...

-thinking about and planning for the future

-going to go for a walk/run

-reading The World According to Garp

-missing cold weather during the holiday season

-treading lightly in my house after discovering, and subsequently having Jeff kill, a COBRA in it a few nights ago

-looking forward to going to Egypt in January

-preparing chili (for the freezer) and salad (for dinner)

-listening to Christmas Music

-writing long overdue emails

I hope you're having a great day too!

R

Hope

"For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”

Jeremiah 29:11-13

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, our primary school compound was flooded with parents, guardians, CUTE little four and five-year-olds, and their siblings as registration for our nursery class was open. Approximately 320 children were registered with their parents and guardians hoping their child will fill one of the 60 spots we have available in our school next year. It is incredible to know that the Kibaale Community Schools are an integral part of God’s plan for some of these children and it is our prayer that as we educate them, they will seek and find hope in the Lord.



It will now be up to our sponsorship office staff to interview all of the children and their families and choose which children are the neediest and will therefore be accepted into our program. Being a Kibaale Community Centre sponsored student is a coveted position, so our sponsorship office staff will actually visit countless homes to ensure that the information they receive about a child’s situation is correct and that nobody is misrepresenting themselves or their children in order to have them become one of “our” students. In NO WAY do I envy the task they have ahead of them. I can only imagine how difficult it is to have to deny 260 needy children our version of “a future and a hope.” Please pray that they have an immense amount of wisdom as they discern which children should be in the class of 2022!



R

Timothy Centre

Just as the apostle Paul trained and mentored his young protégé Timothy, Pacific Academy Outreach Society and Kibaale Community Centre have a vision to train and mentor young people in Uganda after they have finished their “O” level education. Ordinary level education finishes at Secondary 4, or eleventh grade. “A” level, or advanced level, is a two year program that is the equivalent of 12th grade and 1st year college/university.

Timothy Centre - April 2009

To that end, our NGO has purchased a piece of property in Masaka (about an hour away from Kibaale) and has begun to build our organization’s first post secondary school. Somewhat ironically, the first phase of the Timothy Centre will be a girls A level boarding school. Perhaps it should have been called the Timothea Centre? The long-term goal for the centre will see it operating as an A level boarding school for both young women and men, serving as a leadership training institute and providing teacher training to enable educators to teach effectively from a Christian perspective.

Timothy Centre - May 2009

Currently there is five Canadian staff living in Masaka and working to build and open the Timothy Girls College by the beginning of 2011. They have their work cut out for them! I can only imagine the immense amount of work involved with not only physically building a school from the ground up, but also creating mission statements, deciding on courses offered and curriculum needed, hiring staff etc… This staff is about to move from their rented accommodation onto the Timothy Centre property, and after this happens, construction on the school buildings will begin. My involvement in the Timothy Centre is purely administrative; handling all the finances.

Timothy Centre - October 2009

While the Timothy Centre will not be operating during my time here in Uganda, I’m excited about the youth that will receive their education there in the future and expect to hear many reports of the amazing students, leaders and teachers it produces.

R

Lake Bunyoni

Billed as "a magical place...undoubtedly the most lovely lake in the country," visiting lake Bunyoni during my stay in Uganda wasn't an option, but a necessity. I LOVE lakes. Oceans are beautiful, but I would much rather swim in, water-ski and wake-board on, and have a restful vacation beside a lake. Going to the lake every summer was an integral part of my childhood and I will always treasure those times as it was then that I formed lasting relationships with much of my extended family as we created memories that will last a lifetime.

At the end of July, after we had hosted a team of 26 at the centre, all of the ex-pat staff here, along with a few of our remaining visitors decided to take a mini-break at the lake. Lake Bunyoni is in southwestern Uganda; about a five hour drive from Kibaale. Aside from it's beauty, it's most notable feature is that it is the only lake in Uganda that is free of bilharzia, and therefore safe to swim in. It is also free of hippos, crocodiles, snakes and other not-so-friendly creatures (or so we were told) that inhabit most bodies of water here, which was an added bonus!

The lake is a large and dotted with close to 30 islands. It was on one of these islands, Bushara, that we stayed at a beautiful, full-board, sustainable eco-tourist tented camp. A neighboring island was named Punishment Island, a tiny island with just one tree, where women were historically sent as penalty for becoming pregnant before they were married. They were left there to die either of hunger or when they attempted to swim to another inhabited island or mainland. Men who could not afford to pay a bride price (which is still a common practice here) were permitted to go to the island and take one of the women. Fortunately this practice has been abandoned, however, rumor has it that there are still women living in the area that were rescued from the island.

Southwestern Uganda is a very fertile area of the country and much of the hillsides are terraced for farming purposes. In many ways, the landscape was very similar to photos I've seen of the agricultural areas of Nepal. It is a very beautiful part of the world.

We had a great time swimming, lying on the floating dock, chatting, reading, eating and relaxing in the amazing surroundings. During our stay I discovered that I had acquired a jigger in my one of my toes, which was GROSS and earned me the nickname "Auntie Jigger" by the kids, which stuck for the duration of our time there. Fortunately my toe healed quickly and the nickname has since been (almost) forgotten!

Coming next to the travel diaries, Leng family vacation - Africa style.

R

Alternative Currencies

Capacity Building

Food Security

Positive Economy

Sustainable Development

The above buzzwords (buzzphrases?) are an important part of NGO/charity lingo and the ideas and theories they describe are constantly being applied here as Kibaale Community Centre strives to make an impact in our community.

At its core, our centre is an educational institute. We have been entrusted with close to 1,000 students to teach, mentor, prepare and develop into Godly, responsible citizens who will be leaders in Uganda. We believe that by educating these children, we are building the capacity of this nation and contributing to a future economy that will thrive, eventually without foreign aid – a lofty idea, I know!

In addition to this awesome task, we have the opportunity to engage in other development work when needs become apparent on the peripheries of the education component of our mandate. It is difficult to teach a child that hasn’t eaten since they left school the day before or is suffering from untreated malaria (These are just examples of the many challenges our students and greater community face). This is where our community services department steps in; by offering food assistance and operating a medical clinic, among other things.

Currently, people in our community are suffering as the previous rainy season (February – April) was not long enough for them to produce enough food to last until this rainy season began about 3 weeks ago. The staple food here is a maize flour paste called posho topped with kidney beans. Our community members have had to eat all of their beans (which are also seeds) leaving them with nothing to plant this rainy season.

Beans/Seeds

Recently, Vincent and Elkanah (both former students and now employees – you probably remember me raving about them in previous posts) developed the idea of changing the way we provide famine relief from just giving out food to loaning seeds to people and collecting them, along with a small amount of excess seeds as “interest,” back after harvest. Operating a bank, as it were. Food security as opposed to food assistance is the ultimate goal of this idea. In theory, with the seeds borrowed, people will be able to plant bigger crops, experience higher yields, be able to pay the “bank” back and even save some seeds for the next planting season. The “interest” will be used to cover losses from any failed crops and/or allow us to lend seeds to more people next season.

Vincent helping people fill out their seed bank account applications

Over the last few weeks, in addition to giving out maize flour and beans to those in our community that don’t have enough food to eat (which has been done to sustain them until they can harvest in about 3 months) we have loaned out beans, cassava stems and maize seeds to those who applied to be a part of our seed bank program. We are all very excited and interested to see if our seed bank will be successful. Check back in a few months to get a full report!

R

And now just a bit of ballyhoo

The school year is winding down around here (the last day of classes is on the 27th of November) so I wanted to give these children's sponsors a quick photo update of their nursery students before they go on the Ugandan educational system's equivalent of "summer holidays".

All of the children are doing well and enjoying school. Thanks again for being such awesome sponsors you guys (you know who you are) and providing these cuties with the opportunity to fulfil their potential!

Vincent

Grace

Betty

We still have about 50 students in our schools needing sponsors (the majority of these students are in our 2-year vocational school program), so please let me or Jenny Nel (jnel@papcs.com) know if you want to help a child (or young adult) attend school!

R

Just a bit of boasting

About my ultra-cool and super-talented brother Russell (who is just ONE of THREE of my ultra-cool and super-talented brothers and brothers-in-law. How blessed am I?)

Russell is an artist (check out his website - www.russellleng.com) and created an amazing book of photos to document my family's African vacation this summer.

For those of you not in close proximity to the real deal, you can preview the book here.

The book arrived in Uganda this week Russ, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Thank you!

R

Sweet Caroline

Micro-loans programs in developing countries are all the rage.

Probably because they work.

Let me introduce you to Caroline, a participant in our community centre's micro-loans program and the protagonist of one of our success stories.

Caroline lives in Kibaale town and is a single mother. She has two children and cares for a child that has been orphaned and is of no relation to her. Before Caroline joined a group of women and became a recipient of a micro-loan, she was unable to adequately provide for the basic needs of her family, nor send her children to school.



After forming a group with some other women in our community, Caroline received the first of five loans from our centre and began to grow a charcoal distribution business.

Being a part of a group is a pre-requisite to receive one of our loans to encourage accountability and transparency and guarantee re-payment. 10% interest is charged on the micro-loans and the repayment term is 6 months, although grace is extended when a longer period of time is needed to repay the loan. While this interest rate may be considered high compared to what is paid in developed countries, it is lower than what all other micro-finance and banking institutions charge in our area. Loan recipients are encouraged to attend the seminars that our centre organizes that teach basic bookkeeping and business management skills. Our micro-loans program is managed by Vincent, one of our former students, who is now an integral part of our staff and promising future leader in our centre.

The subsequent loans Caroline received (the total we have loaned her is about $500) have enabled her to expand her inventory and stock on hand in her small store.


Caroline now has a successful business that earns more than double the average monthly income in our village. She has built herself a very nice home, is able to send both of her girls to boarding school (the goal of most parents in Uganda), has four storerooms in "town" FULL of charcoal as she has monopolized the charcoal market in Kibaale, and perhaps most importantly, in my opinion, has become a vibrant, confident, happy and empowered woman who is able to contribute positively in her community.

It is encouraging to see women (the predominant recipients of loans) making tangible differences in their family's lives as they take advantage of our micro-loans program. Stay tuned for more stories of success!

R

Excursions

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

Lest you think that all I do over here in Uganda is travel, I've waited to post some of these "get-away" posts until I've had a chance to write about some of the things I'm involved in at the centre. I do want to share about what I do in my free time though, so here goes!

In April, Sean and Jamie and a guest that was visiting us, Cheryl, headed northeast to check out Sipi Falls. Touted as Uganda's most scenic waterfalls, they are nestled in the foothills of Mt. Elgon, which borders Kenya. Sipi Falls is about a 10 hour drive from Kibaale and by the time we reached them, we had been transported into a climate and topography that came close to resembling British Columbia! I, for one, was not prepared for the cold and spent a few nights shivering in my bed.


What was advertised as a 20 minute walk to see the first waterfall ended up being a 3 hour hike, with me, wearing flip-flops, trying to bribe our guide to carry me back up the mountain. Hiking doesn't tend to be my idea of a good time, especially when I have not done some serious mental preparation, but I'm glad that I was able to see the beautiful falls (a second "walk" in the afternoon took us to two other falls) and experience a new part of Uganda. When not enjoying the outdoors, we curled up in the comfortable lodge and ate, played games and read to our heart's content. A completely successful exploration!

R

SODIS

One of the programs we are able to operate here at Kibaale Community Centre is SODIS. We have been blessed to receive a generous donation from Compassion Canada in order to fund this program, and we are excited about the benefits it will reap in our centre community and the surrounding areas.

SODIS is a water disinfection method that uses solar; the rays from the sun. Dirty water (from a lake, river, puddle, unclean borehole or well) is poured into a specific plastic water bottle, placed on a table made of corrugated metal, and left to soak up the sun’s rays until it is purified. The water needs to stay on the table for about five hours in intense sunlight.

Yobu, a former student of ours and now an employee here (he was sponsored all the way through university and has a B.Sc.), does SODIS training in our schools as well as in the community. At the community level, he first trains several leaders on the process and benefits of the program and then has them mobilize the community, distribute the equipment, and report any problems that may arise. He also tests the water being purified (before and after) every two weeks to ensure that best practices are being employed.

There are several advantages of this program. The initial cost for supplies is minimal, and as our centre can provide it, the equipment is free for those in our area. As most people were boiling water (over a fire) before SODIS to try and purify it, they had to purchase firewood, charcoal, paraffin etc., which can be expensive. And, of course, the health benefits of drinking and cooking with clean water as opposed to using dirty water, as many people still do, can literally save a person’s life.

The community that I visited with Yobu last week is SO thankful for the provision of the equipment to purify their water and is already experiencing a decrease in water-borne diseases in their families. I didn’t see one table that didn’t have at least several bottles of water on it. We are looking forward to expanding the program into more villages in the New Year and seeing our community’s health improve as a result!

R