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ugandahuman@yahoo.com

Sunday, August 31, 2008

July Blog -- Matt, Jake and Joe Visit

Handover Ceremony

The Guys on Safari

ATVs on the Nile

Handover Ceremony

In Front of the Branch Building


Dear Family and Friends:

The month of August is already here, but this is our report for the month of July.

We started Phase 2 of the upland rice project with the Mukono Farmer’s Association in July and held the required handover.  This Association is one we partnered with previously and launched the initial upland rice project. We told them if it did well, we would help them with phase 2, which included many more farmers receiving help from the Church in the form of rice seed, fertilizers, farm equipment, pesticides and spray pumps.  This is a great project because after harvesting the rice in six months, the farmer’s return to the organization half the value of the help they received, and then the association in turn trains additional farmers in modern row planning and proper use of fertilizers etc.  We think this project is and will be very successful and it was very pleasant working with their people.  The handover was attended by approximately 100 or so farmers, which were all very grateful for the continued help.  This rice project will help approximately 450 people.

We had a wonderful time this month and enjoyed a visit from our son, Matt (President Latimer) and two of our grandsons, Jacob and Joseph.  They arrived on July 14, 2008 at the Entebbe Airport and we immediately took them to visit the equator.  Uganda is halfway the world between the northern and southern hemisphere. There is a monument at the point of the imaginary line.  A favorite activity here is the water experiment.  For a few shillings you pay an attendant to pour water in a basin and drop in a flower blossom and watch which way it swirls.  At the Equator line, water drops straight down and the blossom falls straight down through the opening.  As we stepped a few feet to the north of the line and then a few feet to the south of the line, the water drained clockwise or anti-clockwise in the different hemispheres and the blossom swirled accordingly.  It was pretty fun and the boys got a certificate saying they had visited the equator.

 The next day we took Matt and the boys to visit the Source of the Nile in Jinja and went on the boat cruise to the exact spot where Lake Victoria flows into the Nile River.  We then rented ATV’s and went four wheeling at Bujagali Falls.  This consisted of each of us having our own ATV. We were provided with helmets, overalls, rubber boots, goggles and scarves, and were given a few minutes of training.  We were shown how to start, brake, shift and otherwise handle these quads and then with a guide in the lead we started off.  We drove on dirt roads through African villages where little kids waved and goats and chickens ran for their lives.  We drove through fields of maize, cabbages, matoke (bananas), and other garden crops.  We passed schools and waved at the kids outside.  We also climbed to the top of a bluff overlooking the Nile River.  We rode along this narrow ridge above the Nile and saw the kayaks and river rafts negotiating the falls.  The river rafting in this area is very popular and includes nine major rapids, four of which are classified as grade 5, so it was fun to watch from above and see how many made it. The scenery was spectacular.  It had rained a little bit that morning and made the road a little muddy in places, but this also kept the dust down and made visibility much better.  Jacob managed to ride through every mud puddle and threw a little mud on his grandmother, who was riding behind him.  It was fun to look ahead and behind and see the guide first and then, Joseph, Jacob, Sister Bean, Matt and Elder Bean in the rear.  It was great fun, we took lots of pictures and we all got back to the start without any injuries.

The next day we all went on safari to Murchison Falls.  It is a fairly long drive from Kampala and is right on the border of the Congo.  The boys were great and enjoyed the sights along the way.  We first visited the top of the falls, which is unbelievable.  This is the place where the Nile River narrows down to a very small gorge and creates this tremendously wild, noisy and beautiful falls.  You can stand on the rocks above and see this thrilling and powerful sight.  While we standing on the rocks watching this wild water go by and head for the falls, a dead hippo came floating down the river, it was on its back and of course very bloated from being in the water and it came rushing by us and went over the Falls.  It was a pretty weird sight and looked like a huge rubber toy. The boys loved it and I think was one of the hi-lights of their trip.  We climbed up to several look out places and took many pictures.  We then drove a few miles to the ferry boat that would take us across the Nile and to our lodge.  While waiting at the landing for the ferry, we saw warthogs, hippos and a huge herd of elephants feeding on the opposite shore.  We did two animal drives, one in the morning and one in the evening and we even saw a leopard lying on a branch of a tree.  Our guide had us drive off road and we headed into the bush and there it was.  The guide told us that not even the guides had seen a leopard in over six months and they go out every day.  So we all got a real treat.  We also saw elephants, giraffes, a monitor lizard, water bucks and many other wonderful things.  The last day we took the river cruise up the Nile, which ended at the base of the falls.  It was a very nice safari.  We stayed three days and then headed back to Kampala.

Saturday we took the family to a handover in a village called Mawaito about a two hour drive from Kampala.  Four villages are involved in the project and the Church had provided the partner organization with 12 pregnant cows, and 5 bicycles for the people who monitor the project.  After the cows give birth, the calves are taken care of until they are old enough to be passed on to another family.  Males are sold and the females, when they are old enough, are impregnated and the cycle continues on.  In time hopefully a lot of families will have a few cows of their own.

Upon our arrival, the villagers ran out to meet our trucks and surrounded us with singing, trilling and drumming.  We were escorted to our seats, which they had covered with pretty embroidered handwork and tables decorated with beautiful flowers.  We sat on a platform that overlooked the whole wonderful show.  There were several other Churches represented there, including a minister from the Church of Uganda.   The villagers danced, sang and welcomed us as only the Africans can.  We love these people.  They are warm, happy and generous and just want us to enjoy and appreciate what they have prepared.  Whenever we thank them or tell them how much we enjoy their efforts, they always say, “thank you for appreciating”. 

Jacob and Joseph especially enjoyed the kids and were completely surrounded by them most of the time.  The program consisted of an opening prayer and then we stood and sang their national anthem.  This time they surprised us.  They had recorded the United States National Anthem and we all stood and sang it.  It was kind of emotional for us, because we haven’t heard it or been home for awhile.  We always sing their national anthem at our handovers, but no one has even thought to have us sing ours, it was very thoughtful of them.  There were the usual speeches and Elder Bean asked our group to sing, “As I have Loved You”.  Matt, Jacob and Joe brought some soccer balls from the U.S. and the boys presented them to the organization, along with a big sack of candy.  The organization will give them to the local village kids.  These balls will be wonderful for the village kids. They do not have any thing as fancy as a real soccer ball, but we see them kicking around things like an orange or a ball they have formed out of banana husks.

A big African dinner was served and then we were presented with gifts from the villagers.  The women lined up and each presented us with things like, corn, avocados, sugar cane, pineapple, and a dress and a shirt they had made for us.  One women gave us a real live chicken I did not know what to do with it and kind of jumped back.  She said “are you afraid of a chicken”? I said we could not take it in our truck.  She said, “why not, do you think it is not healthy?”  It was such a big sacrifice for her to give us a chicken, but it was impossible for us to take a live chicken in our truck.  Joe held it and really wanted to take it, but we were all (except Joe) relieved when it fell in the mud and then eventually ran away.  We loaded our truck with the food, minus one chicken, and took it to Jinja and gave it to one of the branches of the Church there.  They will distribute it to the people who need it, which is everyone.  We know this project will help the people in this village and will be sustained for a long time to come.

We went to Church the next day and Matt and the boys got to see our small branch and participate in the meeting.  Joe went to the primary and distributed crayons, colored pencils, paper, stickers, and other things that his aunt Torri had sent and also gave them some flannel board story packets that the young people in the Lynnwood Stake had cutout and colored and sent with Matt. The primary president and the kids were very thrilled with these nice things.  Our little primary does not have many resources. We only have about 10 kids that come to primary and they all meet together, regardless of their ages.  Jacob went to the young men’s program, which is also very small.  Most of these kids go to boarding school during the school year and are not around very often to participate in Church.  Jacob seemed to enjoy his class though and I am sure provided much needed support.  We all talked with the missionaries after the meetings and took pictures of the boys with the missionaries and some of the members.  In the evening we went to Family Home Evening at the Mission home.   President Christensen showed a film of his and Sister Christensen’s recent visit to the Sudan.  It was very interesting.  We feel sure that someday the Sudan will also be added to our mission.  They went there on a fact finding mission to see how many members might be there and where and if they are meeting in any kind of a church service.  We were surprised to see how tall the Sudanese people are.  They are very tall and very thin and looked a bit different from the people in Uganda.

Matt and the boys left the next morning and we miss them terribly, but had so much fun showing them around our mission territory and loved having them here.  I think the boys enjoyed sleeping under mosquito nets, brushing their teeth in bottled water, washing their fruit in bleach and doing all the things we do here that are different from home.

Our water projects are going well and it is again a thrill, when we realize how important clean water is here, to be a part of the Church’s program in using some of the humanitarian funds for this purpose.  It is also fun to be drilling new boreholes in places where it is a little closer to schools and a little closer to the villages so it is not so far for women and children to carry water.  It is interesting to see them walking along the road with these huge heavy jerry cans full of water on their heads.  Water projects occupy a relative high portion of our time and energy because of the great importance they have for the people here.  We are glad that the Church is approving our water projects, which also include major hygiene and sanitation initiatives.  We still have the sanitation portion of our 46 borehole project in Jinja in progress, the installation of water catchment systems in the ten schools in the 35 borehole project in Kamuli, are progressing well in the 15 borehole and 22 protected spring wells in the Wakiso district, and have just received approval for the largest water project in Uganda that the church has been involved in.  A mixture of fixing old boreholes, building new ones, building latrines and water systems for schools, and even providing personal hygiene supplies for girls and other hygiene/sanitation initiatives will keep us busy.

Our 750 wheelchair order is finally scheduled to arrive around the middle of August and we know they are sorely needed.

We are thankful to be here in Uganda and love our mission.  We have remained healthy and happy and know that it will not be too long before it is over, so we are enjoying every minute.

Love, Elder and Sister Bean.