Bean Mission Blog

Last Post from Africa

2008-10-28T20:23:00.000-07:00

Vocational Handover

Unofficial Church Sign

Sister Bean and Baby Sarah

Sudan Hut

With the VP of Southern Sudan

Dear Family and Friends:

This will be our last blog coming from Uganda. We will leave here on Friday, October 31^st and fly to London where we will spend two days and then fly home to Seattle. We should be home on Sunday, November 2^nd. We cannot believe it is time to go home and still remember the day we arrived and Elder and Sister Call picked us up at the Entebbe Airport. Today is Sunday and we went to the Kololo chapel to watch October conference. Uganda receives the conference on a disk, so we see it later than the live broadcast. So many people spoke with us and wished us well and told how much they would miss us. It was very emotional. If anyone had told us a year and a half ago that we would have mixed emotions about leaving, we would have questioned that statement. We have so many friends and people we love here. Tomorrow night will also be hard because we are going to visit our little branch and take most of our clothes and other things to give to them for distribution. It will be hard to tell them goodbye. Thursday night is a going away party at the mission president’s home and the couples will all be there, and that will also be a very emotional meeting.

Our replacements, Elder and Sister Glenn from Salt Lake City, have now arrived. We liked them immediately and they will do a wonderful job. They have a very exciting mission and adventure ahead of them. They have been here for less than a week and we have taken them to witness five project handovers. They have been very good sports, as we know they must still be experiencing some jet lag. We are closing most of our projects as we will be leaving very soon. We held a sewing and knitting machine handover at a small medical clinic to help them buy medicine for their patients. We also had a handover where we distributed 20 wheelchairs to the physically handicapped and the rest of the 750 chairs will be distributed shortly. We commissioned 26 newly protected spring wells and officially turned them over to the communities where they are located. We launched a poultry project to benefit a teenage center here in Kampala and also gave away 26 cows, 80 goats, 60 pigs and the necessary veterinary drugs to 10 groups of 30 women residing in 7 different adjacent villages. Many other women in the villages will be helped when they receive offspring from the donated animals..

One of the memorable handovers was at a small school that was newly launched. The Church gave them sewing and knitting machines, wood working tools and paint for the outside of their building, among other things. The man in charge told us to wait at the top of the hill before we came to the school for the handover. We had also invited the missionary couples to join us Elders and Sisters, Wilkes, Giles, Libby’s and Nye’s. We all formed a line with our trucks at the top of the hill and soon a big brass marching band in full uniform came up the street, turned around in front of our line of trucks, and led us slowly down the road. We drove past little huts, houses and schools, with the band playing marching music. We were a missionary parade. All along the way people came out of their houses and kids came out of the schools and waved to us as we passed. The kids shouted, “Hello Muzungus”. We felt like very important people being escorted to the school by a very loud marching band, and we all waved and smiled and really enjoyed it. We took pictures and felt very important.

We have three more handovers on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and wonder when we will have time to pack or sleep.. It does seem a little unreal that we will be going home in a few days, but we are excited to see our family, our house, and be back in the United States.

We will be back in time to cast our vote. The U.S. election is causing a lot of excitement here and people have been following the campaign religiously. They are asking all of us who we will be voting for. As you might guess, everyone here loves Obama The Ugandans love him because he is African and Kenya of course claims him as one of their own. Kenya is already making plans to renovate their airport so it will be big enough for Air Force One to land. They will call it the Obama National Airport.

We have had a very busy and interesting month and October has just flown by. We went to the Sudan on October 1^st and stayed there through October 6^th. We accompanied President and Sister Christensen and the two assistants to the president. The President wanted to check out how many members are there, if they have been properly baptized and what their needs might be. Our job was to identify sites for 10 boreholes, and latrines and to assess any need for wheelchairs and school supplies. We flew from Uganda to Juba, which is the capital of Southern Sudan. Juba is a one hour flight from the Entebbe Airport in Uganda and is located on the Nile River. Upon arrival we were met by Bishop Enos Lanogwa from Kenya, who is a public affairs person for the Church, and has important contacts in Juba, one of which is Dr. Rick Machar, the vice president of Southern Sudan. He took us to the parliament building where they were holding the Government of Southern Sudan 6^th Governor’s Forum (GOSS). The room was set up like a United Nations meeting with seats in a circular formation and we all had ear phones for translation purposes. There are 10 states in Southern Sudan and all governors were present and spoke, plus a few representatives from the United Nations.

We sat for at least three hours in this meeting and when it was finished at about 7:00 pm, the vice-president invited us into his private office and we met with him and explained what we wanted to do in his country. He was very gracious and certainly approved of the Church moving in to the country and liked the idea of the help we were offering. He had his photographer take an official picture of our group and we then went to our hotel, which was pretty expensive, $250.00, for what we got. The next morning we flew on a small prop plane into a town called Aweil. This town was pretty far into the interior of Southern Sudan.. It is a two hour flight from Juba and we flew over vast uninhabited land, except for a few grass huts here and there.

Sudan is the largest country in Africa and is very different from Uganda. It is not as tropical, nor has it progressed as far. It is still, I would guess, backward and unchanged and has not progressed like some other African countries.. One of the reasons is that it has seen constant war in many different areas since it gained independence. It is a very poor country and the area we were in had recently experienced severe flooding. The Sudan is almost like two countries, they have Southern Sudan and Northern Sudan and they have two different governments. They do not get along very well and Southern Sudan is trying to gain its independence from the north so it can become a separate country. This is causing a lot of trouble between the two regions.

Upon reaching Aweil, we landed on a dirt airstrip, after the cows, chickens and goats had been shooed away. The other unsettling thing, was that as we were about to land, we looked down and saw quite a few wrecked aircraft lining the airstrip. However, we landed safely and headed for our hotel, which was to be our home for four nights. The hotel was not especially a plush hotel and we didn’t sleep very well as there were no sheets on the mattress and the mattress was lumpy and the we had only one pillow, which was like a sack of cement There were no towels and when we asked for a towel, they told us to go to the market and buy one. We went to the market and all we could find were wash cloths, so we dried on a wash cloth. The first morning our outside door handle broke off and we couldn’t get out of our room. It was not a very clean place, but everyone was a good sport and we had a few laughs and did one-up-man ship on who had the worst room. Also it cost us $180.00 a night.

The prevalent tribe that inhabits Southern Sudan is the Dinkas. They are very very tall, very skinny and quite dark, darker than the Ugandans. Even the little kids are very tall. They look like the wood carvings you see of African people with a robe over one shoulder. I just couldn’t get over their height. They speak the Dinka language and are quite handsome.

We drove to a village called Nyamlel where there is a large settlement of people who call themselves members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There is a handwritten sign on the road with an arrow pointing to a large area with a thatched roof-like structure, which is the Church building. The sign read “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”. These people have not been baptized, but want to be members very badly. They had been given Church literature in the past and knew somewhat of the doctrine. Theyare anxious to be baptized members of the Church. President Christensen told them they had to first be taught more about the Church before being baptized and he held training sessions for the people that could speak English and asked them then to teach the others.

The village also has over 700 orphans who had in the past been kidnapped by Arabs in the north and recently the Save the Children organization had negotiated their release and brought them back to this village and just dropped them there, so there were many children without parents. It was an unbelievable situation, there were children everywhere. They are being cared for by the Latter-day Saint people and I suppose this care is pretty minimal because of their great numbers. We held Sunday service by the hut-like structure and Sister Christensen and I held Relief Society under a tree. We used a translator and we told the women a little bit about ourselves and then asked them to come forward and tell us about themselves or ask any questions they would like. Most of them told us they needed medicine and a health clinic. They also wanted education for their children and they wanted to be official members of the Church. Their plight is very sad and you could see that a lot of them had health problems.

Ron and I spent a few days on our own meeting with the Water District and talking with people who had drilled boreholes in the area and speaking with NGO’s that operate in that area. We have since sent a request to the Church asking them to approve the drilling of 10 boreholes, the constructing of 10 latrines and have requested 300 wheelchairs and also provide some school supplies for the village of Nyamlel. We are pretty sure this project will get approved and will leave it up to the new couple to follow through. It was a very interesting and also a very sad experience. These people are the poorest we have seen in Africa and need so many things. There was flooding in the area and a lot of people had made temporary shelters along the road while their small huts were half submerged under water. We were grateful to have gone there and at least we have started to place a few projects in motion, which will give a great boost to the area.

We are very humbled and grateful for the blessings we receive as members of the Church and for the abundance that we enjoy every day of our lives. It is a big reality check when we see how many people live. They have very little, and are without adequate medical help, without adequate food and live in very poor circumstances and then to see how much we have and take for granted. We are grateful for this reminder of how blessed we really are.

We are well, happy and look forward to see all of our family and friends. We love all of you and really appreciate the support, love and interest you have shown to us during our mission.

See you soon, Elder and Sister Bean

August/September -- One Month to Go!

2008-10-07T08:52:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends:

The time is now very short and soon we will be finished with our mission. We have mixed feelings about that. We are anxious to come home and reunite with our family and friends, but we also feel a great love and bond with the people here and also we will miss the work. We have set our departure date for October 31, 2008. We will do a two day stay over in London where we have purchased tickets to see the musical “Wicked” and also want to do a little sightseeing. We are set to arrive in Seattle on Sunday, November 2, 2008. We sometimes lie in bed at night and imagine what it will be like to drive on the right side of the road, with the steering wheel on the left and on a smooth surfaced road. We imagine the trip from our home in Mukilteo to Pam and Matt’s house in Lynnwood or Brian and Nicole’s house in Bonney Lake and try to visualize the turns while staying on the right side of the road.

The last six weeks will be going very fast and we have projects lined up to cover the complete time. We have been asked by President and Sister Christensen to go with them to the Sudan to check out the water situation there and to see if it is feasible for the Church to drill a few bore holes as a prelude to getting the Church accepted and established in that country. Right now our mission consists of the countries of Ethiopia, Uganda and Rwanda. President Christensen would like to expand that to include the Sudan. We will be leaving on October 1^st and will fly into a town called Juba. From there we will take a small plane and land in a village in the interior. From that village we will drive a car to a village called Aweil. We have met with a few contractors and people who have done some drilling in the Sudan and so far it sounds like it is a very hard thing to do. The country is vast, very poverty stricken, totally undeveloped and still has conflicts and wars in many of the areas. This country has not been free of war and turmoil since it gained independence. President Christensen feels there are many people there waiting to hear the gospel and join the Church. President and Sister Christensen have made one trip there and feel it has great potential for the Church to be established.

We are also considering asking the Church to send wheelchairs to be distributed in that area, but we are not sure who we can partner with to get them into the country. There doesn’t seem to be a very solid government, nor many regulations, etc. We will check that out when we arrive. Anyway, we are excited and a little apprehensive, but we will have the honor of being the first missionaries the Church has sent into that country, even though it is basically a fact finding trip.

We had four people visit with us from Salt Lake City this past week, one couple is a large donor to the humanitarian fund. We took them to see several of our project, which included the upland rice project, piggery, pineapple project and several protected springs that we developed in the Wakiso District. We also took them to a handover in the Kamuli District. This is the District where we renovated 25 boreholes and drilled 15 new ones. We also supplied 10 schools with a water catchment system and provided pit latrine slabs and mosquito nets to the community as a bonus for cleaning up their areas and digging pit latrines. Our visitors loved the dancing and music that usually ccompanies these handovers. The district presented the male visitors a kanzu (long white robes that the men wear for formal occasions) each and the women with necklaces and handicrafts. The kanzus were beautifully made, all by hand with tiny little stitches that were works of art in themselves. We visited several boreholes and at one of the boreholes there were African drummers and native dancers waiting to perform for us, as well as local media to report the activities. This borehole was decorated with flowers and ribbon and we cut the ribbon and officially handed over the water supply to the community. The people had also decorated the borehole with two palm branches decorated with beautiful flowers. The flower laden palm branches were planted in the ground on either side of the entrance to the borehole.. We understand that this is a great honor and is only done on very important occasions. For example one is displayed when the President of Uganda visits or some prominent person dies. Evidently the Church was being highly honored because of its contribution of clean water to thousands of people.

A few weeks ago, we also launched the second phase of a water project in another district. This was also covered by the media and an article was printed in the newspaper. We feel that the Church is finally getting a lot of recognition for its efforts and contributions made in Uganda. We are seeing a lot more articles regarding these handovers in the local papers and media. We also know that this helps the young missionaries when they approach people and identify what Church they represent. At Church on Sunday a whole school class of students, about 25 or so, in their nice green school uniforms came to investigate the Church because they had a borehole constructed on their school grounds and they wanted to attend the Church that provided it. A lot more people are now aware of the work being done by the Church here. We meet with organizations on Wednesdays and have also seen an increase in the people that are coming to us hoping to partner and receive help.

We have checked on some of our other projects the past few weeks and we are especially happy with the pineapple project. The pineapple plants are now about three feet high, healthy and flourishing. The price of pineapple has gone up considerably, so our organization of women should do very well. We remember when we first visited their field and it was nothing but heavy bush, trees and thick foliage. Now it is a wonderful pineapple plantation. The women are very hard working and work in shifts around the clock. I actually cried when we left. Rose the leader of the women in this project and the woman we dearly love, was standing in the field waving good bye as our truck pulled away. I fear I will never see her again or that beautiful pineapple field and it was very emotional for both of us. She always gives us something from her garden as we leave. The people here are very generous with the little they have.

Our vocational project to provide training materials to an organization operating in two cities was handed over recently. It consisted of sewing machines and materials, knitting machines, salon hair dryers, and welding equipment. They are so excited to receive the help and their expressions of gratitude are very humbling.

The second rice project is underway and is doing very well with the small improvements we learned on the first project. The Farmers Association won an award that you can see in the attached photo on their presentation to the national farmers association on the methods that we are using to properly farm, etc. Chairman Ben is the agricultural minister to the king of Buganda and Mr. Silver, the project manager, is wonderful to work with. The pigs are doing fine in the piggery and a new batch of little pigs had just arrived when we got there to check on the project. This is also a very fine healthy project and we know that it is sustainable and will help many people in the future and support the organization in their educational efforts. We still have several projects that are not quite completed and many more that we would like to do, but will have to leave that to the new humanitarians.

Our replacements arrive on October 20^th and we will have approximately 10 days to show them around and introduce them to different organizations and individuals. They are in for a very exciting and wonderful time and I know they will love it as we do. I for one would just like to leave here in the middle of the night and not have to tell people good bye. We love our Mengo branch and the people in it. I have four piano students that I am going to try to transfer to Sister Nye, another senior missionary, who teaches piano. I have really enjoyed teaching piano lessons. This is the first time any of them have been taught anything about music and they are enthusiastic and so willing to learn.

The three containers of wheelchairs have finally arrived in Uganda and we will hand them over for distribution in mid-October and launch the largest water and sanitation project that the Church has done in Uganda, as well, before we leave.

We are really going to miss being here and will miss the people especially. We love the other senior missionaries and have a very close tie with all of them. They are our tie to home I think. They are wonderful, fun, good natured, and we all help each other very much. We love getting together on Wednesdays for movie night and on Sunday night for Family Home Evening. We even manage to all go out to dinner once in a while. We hope to keep in touch with them when we are all back in the States.

See you soon, Elder and Sister Bean

Local News Coverage

2008-09-19T15:34:00.000-07:00

Here's an article about the great humanitarian work the Church is doing in Uganda (perhaps you can see in it Elder and Sister Bean's fingerprints!). The original can be found at: http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200809190082.html

Kamuli Drills 40 Boreholes

The Monitor (Kampala)

NEWS
19 September 2008
Posted to the web 19 September 2008

By Moses Mutaka

Kamuli District has taken a step towards improving hygiene by drilling 40 boreholes and shallow wells at a cost of Shs455 million.

Despite the fact that sanitation remains one of the biggest development challenges in Uganda today with 440 people mainly children dying of diarrhoea every day, Kamuli has changed this trend drastically.

The boreholes were drilled in the sub-counties of Butansi, Nabwigulu and Balawoli and some rehabilitated under the water and sanitation project funded by the Latter Day Saints Charities, a US-based religious organisation.

The development was revealed by the district water officer, Mr Charles Kiwalazi, on Wednesday at Naibowa Primary School during the closing of the water and sanitation project.

"It's encouraging to note that Latter Day Saint Charities identified the integrated package of safe water supply, sanitation and education in our district," Mr Kiwalazi said adding that water borne diseases had reduced.

July Blog -- Matt, Jake and Joe Visit

2008-08-31T16:08:00.000-07:00

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.

The June Blog-- Torri Visits

2008-07-14T12:33:00.000-07:00

On Safari with Torri

The Crested Crane -- Uganda's National Bird

Elder Bean at the Handover

The "Big Drum" Minister Musa

Torri, Sister Bean and the Women at the Handover

Dear Family and Friends:

We have had a very wonderful month of June and here are a few hi-lights:

On June 5^th we left Kampala for the District of Soroti in the Northwest part of Uganda to distribute some of the items from the ten emergency relief containers sent by the Church. We invited President and Sister Christensen and two of the men from public affairs to accompany us. Ecweru Musa, Minister of State for Relief and Disaster for the Country of Uganda also went along with his driver and body guard. We had turned these containers over to him when they arrived in Uganda and he was to determine where they were to be distributed. He is a very “big drum” in Uganda and has the ear of the President. There are only two Ministers of State in this country and he is one of them. He had arranged for three schools in Soroti to receive the sanitation kits and rice. This is the area where he was born and grew up and has many family members and friends there. He had arranged for us to stay in The Soroti Hotel, which he said was more in the expectations of Muzungas. It was OK.

The area is very pretty and quite mountainous and we took a small detour to see Sipi Falls and ancient caves, which are featured on many post cards here. It is very close to the border of Kenya and a few times we could almost step across the border. The roads were dirt and quite bumpy, but we are use to that. As we climbed higher on the roads we could look out and see plains where the Karamojong warriors graze and rustle cattle. The Karamojong are fierce warriors and still dress and keep the culture that they have had forever. They wear very little in the way of clothing, but wear a lot of beads, earrings, tattoos, etc. They raise cattle and think that all the cattle in the world belong to them, so they take whatever cattle they come across and cause much havoc in the area.

The Soroti area is also the place where Joseph Kony, head of the Lord’s Liberation Army, kidnapped and killed many of the people. It is a story right out of the Book of Mormon and the 2000 Stripling Warriors. Kony came into the area with plenty of soldiers and ammunition supplied to him by the Sudanese to take it over. The Ugandan Army was there, but because of graft and corruption, they did not have many weapons to fight and so they didn’t. The older people in the area were so demoralized that they didn’t fight back either. Ecweru Musa, the Minister that we were with, rounded up and trained all the young people in the area and told them that they were fighting for their homes, land and families. He organized a group called “The Arrow Boys” and all they had were bows and arrow, against more sophisticated weaponry. He also supplied others of the kids with guns, etc and led them into battle. He said because they were fighting for their homes, they had a cause and they were fearless in battle and they drove Kony back up in the north and out of their villages. He showed us some of the sites of the battles and described them to us. He is a big hero in this area and everywhere we went, he was treated with great respect and adoration. He is a very charismatic and capable man. It was fascinating. The Christensen’s gave him a Book of Mormon and told him to especially read the Stripling Warrior account.

The first school we visited was called The Lwala Girl’s Secondary School. This is one of the schools that Kony raided and many of the girls were kidnapped. Many have been returned, but some never have been located. Some of these young women were raped, beaten, kidnapped and many witnessed their parents being killed. It was very humbling to look over the girls assembled and to realize what had happened to them. We handed out hygiene kits, and they sang, danced and several were assigned to speak to us. The Minister, President Christensen and Ron then spoke to them. They also had cooked a nice meal for us, which we appreciated. In the afternoon we visited another school with the same scenario. This school is located in the Amuria District. It was called the Orungo High School and had both girls and boys living there. Again most of their parents had been killed and the kids had endured and witnessed terrible things. We handed out hygiene kits and a few speeches were made and then we drove back to our hotel. We were all pretty humbled by what we had seen and heard.

The next day we visited our last school. It was called The Bethany Girl School and was located close to our hotel in Soroti town. We could tell that the Minister had a close connection with this school and these girls loved and adored him. He delivered a very uplifting speech to them and promised them that Kony would never come back to their area. He asked them when was the last time they had eaten meat and they responded that they couldn’t remember. He said “well you shall have some tonight”, a goat was then brought out and they cheered and yelled and it was pretty emotional. We handed out hygiene kits and the rice that the Church provided and I expect they had a wonderful meal that evening. We were then treated to lunch. Dessert was served in the form of a beautiful cake that the girls had made and decorated especially for us. We drove back to Kampala. It had been a very emotional, but rewarding three days.

Our water projects are proceeding very well. We are doing the second phase of clean water and sanitation in the Impigi District. It was fun to tell the water district people that the Church was not going to do the amount of boreholes that they requested, but we requested that they do a lot more and also to add on latrine covers, mosquito nets, hand washing facilities and water tanks. It was great to see their reaction. We are still awaiting approval of this from Church Headquarters, but feel it is a great project. This is a very rewarding mission.

We also arranged for the first new boreholes to be drilled in the Kumuli District, about three and a half hour drive from Kampala. We were there to witness the first new borehole find water. We stood on the road and watched the crew drill deeper and deeper in the ground with nothing happening. We watched another pipe go down and then another and almost the whole village was standing or sitting and watching. We were standing very close to the hole, when water was finally discovered and mud and water erupted like a geyser into the sky. We were peppered with mud and water and we ran for protection. It was pretty exciting. Some of the women started beating on a very large drum, which they said was telling the village that water had been discovered - their version of a cell phone. It was very exciting. Usually we have been rehabilitating old broken down boreholes, but this was our first brand new one.

We also had a very successful Neonatal Resuscitation training project in June. Three doctors came from the United States and in conjunction with a doctor here, held four days of training sessions. Two venues were arranged for and they trained many healthcare workers in Kampala and outlying districts in resuscitating newborn babies. Uganda has a very high infant mortality rate, partly because they do not have proper training or equipment to resuscitate a baby who is not breathing when born. They will not do mouth to mouth resuscitation or provide any physical contact because of HIV/AIDS, so a baby not breathing is just put aside to die. This training was so thorough, tables were set up and we watched these people practice on dolls using the new equipment. These health care workers were given instructions, equipment, stethoscopes and all things needed to go back to their clinics, villages, etc and train other people. We know this will make a difference.

At the end of the month, we had a wonderful visit from our daughter Torri. She accompanied us on our assessment tour of one of our potential projects - seven rural villages involved in the new project. We also took her to a school handover celebration, where the Church had supplied 100 new desks, chairs, tables, and book cabinets. We had a wonderful safari at Murchison Falls and she was the guest pianist at our little branch of the Church. Sandra and Torri had fun teaching the primary while Ron taught the Gospel Doctrine class, with his usual 30 second notice. She also helped us prepare and present a great family home evening lesson on Stakes in the Church. We did some shopping and visited the Source of the Nile. We really enjoyed her visit and she fit right in.

We have four new projects in for approval and are anxious to get them started. We are a little concerned though, because we understand our Stake President is coming to Uganda to check on our conduct and to find out why we are having such a good time.

Love to all.

The Beans

PS Can’t wait to see Matt and the boys.

Mountain Gorrillas, Memorial Potties and Mark and Darcy's Visit (not necessarily in order of importance)

2008-06-10T16:42:00.000-07:00

At the Handover Ceremony . . . .

Mountain Gorilla

Elder and Sister Bean

The Sefcik Exploration Team

A Tribal Wedding?

"Ron" and "Sandra" and the Beans too!

Dear Family and Friends,

We are finally sending the May edition of the blog. Somehow it is June already and May got away from us. We completed three projects in May and had three handovers to complete the work. The first project was helping a craft organization consisting of over 200 people. They meet together every Friday and sell their crafts on a very dirty, weed infested piece of land by the railroad track in Kampala. They have some shelter in the way of a few tents, but most sit on a blanket, rug or whatever out in the open in the hot sun or rain. Many of them weave their baskets, make their beads, carve or whatever they do with babies on their back or little children playing around them. Their representatives came to us and asked if we could help them improve their market to encourage more people to come and buy their crafts. They needed two outdoor toilets and some tents. We felt that this was a good project to help these people improve their market so as to attract more business and supply more money to them and their families. The humanitarian fund bought two outdoor toilets, a hand washing facility and three large tents. Their contribution to this project was to clear the land of weeds and debris, smooth it out for comfortable walking and dig two pits for the latrine. When this was accomplished, we delivered the toilets, etc. The market looks wonderful and when we occasionally drive by, we see that it is quite busy and many people are shopping. As a side note: they named the two toilets, Sandra and Ron. So we feel quite honored to have two toilets in Uganda bear our names.

Out second handover was to celebrate the completion of a pineapple project. This organization consists of 98 women living in a small village out in the bush, which is about two hours from Kampala. These women formed an organization and purchased five acres of land. Their intent was to plant pineapple plantation. A small woman with a small baby on her back came to our office and asked for our assistance. Her name is Rose and we have come to love her. She speaks on behalf of the woman in her organization and is a very hard worker. She has nine children and works out in the fields each day. She has limited English skills, but manages to make their needs known. They wanted assistance with pineapple tissues, fencing material, a chain saw, coffee husks (for fertilizer) pangas for clearing the bush and various other items. We went out and walked their land, checked on prices etc.
and had this project approved. It is now complete and we attended a very wonderful handover on May 17^th out beside their pineapple field. They treated us to African dancing, music, talks, and many thanks of appreciation. We always invite the other senior couples to these handovers because they are so colorful, fun and you get to see rural Africa. The little children are the best part, they follow you everywhere you go and love to have their picture taken. After the proceedings, Sisters Giles, Libby and Wilkes and I gathered all the kids together and played games. We taught and sang primary songs like “Do as I’m Doing, Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, etc.” Kids are the same where ever you go. Even the big kids loved it and so did we. The handover ended with a big African dinner being served to us, which the women of the village had cooked outside behind the huts. When it was over they sent all of us home with large delicious pineapples that had been placed at each of our chairs. We feel so thankful to be here. You can hardly believe what you are seeing, hearing and feeling when you have played a small part in helping people help themselves. These wonderful women have so little, work so hard, and some of them have severe health problems, and yet are so genuinely happy and appreciative for all the Church had done to help them. It is a very humbling experience. We are so blessed to get to see the Humanitarian Fund in action.

Our third handover was to celebrate the completion and commissioning of 22 boreholes and the launching of the hygiene and sanitation initiative for the second half of the Jinja Water District project. This was particularly fun because our daughter Darcy and her husband Mark were here from Wisconsin and got to participate and see it firsthand. We visited two completed boreholes and officially launched them by pumping water. One was particularly fun because it was by a big elementary school and all of the children came to watch the proceedings. Mark and Darcy really enjoyed all the interaction with the kids. Darcy had brought candy to give to the kids, but there were just too many and the candy would have run out before the kids did. We then drove back to the place of the handover. Big tents had been erected and an African band was there supplying much drum beating and chanting. There were about 500 people in attendance. They had come from all over the district. We were treated to one of the best African dance groups that we had seen up to this point. There were speeches by many politicians and Ron and I spoke and then Ron asked all the couples to sing “As I have Loved You”. Ron even performed his version of an African dance and the people clapped and laughed and really loved it. The Church got a lot of press coverage. There were people with cameras everywhere. In fact we found out the next day that we were all on TV and also it was announced on the radio. Those who saw the coverage said it was fairly long and was a very favorable news report about the church and what it was doing to help the people here in Uganda. At the end of the proceedings a big African dinner was served and the party was still going strong when we left. We and the other couples had to drive back to Kampala and we wanted to get home before dark.

It was wonderful to have Darcy and Mark visit. We took time out for a three day safari at Murchison Falls, where we saw many giraffes, elephants, warthogs and a big surprise and treat of driving along a dirt road and seeing 12 lions laying on the road sunning themselves. The guide had told us that they had not seen lions in the park for the last few weeks because the grass was so high they were totally hidden, so we really lucked out and took many pictures. The guide also told us that some people a few months earlier had been hurt when an elephant tipped over their pickup truck and stomped on it. As we were coming around a bend in the road there were several big elephants standing on part of the road and eating the bushes. We were very close to them and Darcy and Mark and the guide were standing up in the bed of our truck. It was pretty stressful. The guide had us backup and then make a run for it past them on the road. I have decided that elephants are not very nice and we would like to keep them at a distance.

We had lunch with the Editor of the Salt Lake Tribune a few weeks ago. She and 11 editors from major news papers and magazines in the United States came to Uganda to observe and write about some of the political situations, poverty, humanitarian work being done, and other issues that are facing this country. Salt Lake e-mailed us and said that she would like to contact us and discuss what the Church is doing in Uganda in the way of Humanitarian projects. She is not LDS, but is friendly toward the Church. She called us and we arranged to meet for lunch at her hotel. We found her to be a very charming, intelligent, open and easy person to be with She told us that years ago she had served in the Peace Corp. She was very interested in our projects and asked many questions about our work and what the Church was doing in the way of humanitarian work in Uganda. We had typed up a very long list of our projects and gave her a copy, so she could see how much the Church is doing here. The interview went very well and we felt a nice connection with her. She asked if she could send a cameraman and a reporter back to spend a few days and see our projects first hand. We have since received a very nice e-mail from her thanking us for meeting with her . We are looking forward to having people from the Tribune come to visit and showing them some of our projects

We had a wonderful experience a few weeks ago, we and three other senior couples including our mission president and his wife, President and Sister Christensen, took a few days off and traveled sourth to see the mountain gorillas in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. This trip had been planned for many months as permits to see them are scarce and have to be obtained many months before hand. These gorillas are the world’s most endangered apes. They are found only in a small portion of protected forests in Southwestern Uganda, Northwestern Rwanda and Eastern DR Congo. There are only about 700 individuals left in the world and about 320 are found in Uganda in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Only eight people a day are allowed to hike up to where they are and can only observe them for one hour. The threats to the mountain gorilla population and its habitat are many and one of the threats is the possibility of disease transmission from humans to gorillas so there are many rules to follow when and if you are lucky enough to even see them, as they travel back and forth from the Uganda side to Rwanda and the Congo. There were no promises that we would get to even see them. It is the rainy season here so they told us the gorillas tend to stay farther down the mountain and are sometimes easier to find. The group we were assigned to see was made up of ten gorillas and one silverback. It was a very strenuous climb, they were in a very large rain forest and the terrain was wet and very busy, when our guides finally found them they used pangas and machetes to chop their way through the dense undergrowth so we could even get to where they were. One thing they forgot to tell us was that it was the season for ants and they were everywhere, biting us through our clothes going up our pant legs to bare skin, they were terrible, but we did get to see the gorillas and took many pictures. The climb back down was slick and all of us fell a few times on our bottoms. Back at camp we nursed our ant bites and our stiff bodies, but thought the experience was wonderful, so we didn’t even mind. We have been working very hard and have many projects on our plate to work on. We all felt justified in the few days we took off to see these wonderful gorillas. It was an opportunity of a life time. They were very calm and seemed to be comfortable around us, but they really made us work to see them and take pictures. They kept moving around and climbing up higher and we had to keep climbing to keep up with them. All in all it was a wonderful experience. This Gorilla trip was a mother and father’s day present from Kami and Brent and it was much appreciated and something we will remember always. Also Ron and I celebrated our 3^rd wedding anniversary at the gorilla camp. The other couples arranged for us to be served an anniversary cake and they even sang to us. How can we top that next year?

We are excited about some of the new projects that we have also recently started. We are finally drilling new boreholes and not just rehabilitating boreholes that have broken down and need to have major repair work done (everything pulled out, replaced with new and the aprons repaired). The Kamuli project is the furthest from Kampala and is the most extensive and costly water project that the church has done in Uganda. Thirty five thousand people will have access to clean water, ten schools will have water systems, and a major hygiene and sanitation issue is a major component. Another cow program was started for four villages, vocational help has been purchased for a wonderful little school in the form of sewing machines and materials, and another upland rice project in partnership with the same farmers group we helped last year has been launched.

Our time here is going too fast only about 5 months left.

Love to all of you.

The Beans

Over a Year in the Mission Field!

2008-05-01T16:09:00.000-07:00

Official Ugandan Latrine Inspector

Ron and Solomon David

Another Sumptuous Dinner

Very Distinguished!

Ugandan Kids -- Sooo Cute!

The Next "Dancing With the Stars" Champion!

Dear Family and Friends:

Another month has gone by and on April 30th we will have been on our mission for one year. We cannot believe how fast the time is going. We have many projects planned for the next few months, so we are sure that they will also go by quickly. We have mixed emotions about arriving at the last third of our mission. We love Uganda, we love the work and we love the people. We think the humanitarian mission is the best in the Church. It is interesting, challenging, demanding and rewarding, and sometimes it hurts your heart. The needs are so great here and we feel like we can only do so much, but it makes us feel good that the Church has this wonderful generous program. We also love the fact that it is inclusive and is for all of God’s children, regardless of what religion you are or even if you do not have a religion.

We now are working with four water districts, Kamuli, Jinja, Impigi and Wakiso, in renovating boreholes and drilling for new ones. We also have implemented a sanitation program to be taught in each district. All in all the humanitarian fund will have provided approximately 140,000 people in these four districts with clean water and better still with improved hygiene.

Last week we visited one of the finished hygiene projects. This project consisted of supplying slabs to be put over latrine pits and also provided people with hand washing facilities. Over 60 percent of the people in the outlying villages have no latrine pits, but just use the bush. So one of our goals is to not only provide working boreholes for clean water in the districts, but to provide people with sanitation training. This consists of encouraging them to clean up around their homes, and use hand washing facilities, dig latrine pits and keep the area around the boreholes clean and fenced. We work as partners with each water district and part of their responsibility is to do a survey to see what people have and need in their district, and then provide the training and we provide the stuff. As an incentive to dig latrine pits we provide those who dig one and put a shelter over it, with a latrine slab or a sand plat cover. We also provide mosquito nets to families who really do improve their overall sanitation.

One of our smaller projects has been with a group of disabled people. This is an organization that has 120 members, and all have pretty severe disabilities. Two of their members, David and Solomon, came to us and asked for help with setting up a computer center, not only for training their members to become employable, but also to earn a little money by typing documents, etc. for the general public. We visited with the leaders and some of their members and felt this was a wonderful organization that was doing much good. The Church bought four computers, printers, copy machine, book binder, paper cutter, hole puncher, reams of paper, and various other office supplies. This was a very rewarding project.

We had the official handover last week and the room was filled with people in wheelchairs, people on crutches, people using poles to walk with, etc. Many of them had come from far distances and had gotten there any way they could. One pretty woman, who is a member of the organization, did not have any arms, but we understand that she is an excellent seamstress and crochets beautiful items and uses her feet to do this. Many political and important people from the community came to the handover. Some of them spoke at the official handover and all expressed their gratitude and thanks to the Church. The news media was there and the Church got a lot of good publicity on the TV news that evening. It was also announced on radio and an article put in the newspaper. President Christensen and Ron also spoke and African music and dancing were provided for our entertainment and African food and soda were prepared for those in attendance. We are blessed to be the ones that help find and develop these humanitarian projects and to see the results of the contributions made to the humanitarian fund. Many times these handovers are pretty emotional functions and this was definitely one.

We have several more handovers coming up in April and a lot of projects to visit and develop. We just got word today that the 10 containers that were shipped from Salt Lake to help the flood victims up north have been released and we are going tomorrow for the hand over. We hope to accompany these containers, full of much needed supplies, and help to distribute them to the victims of the flood. These people not only have had flooding problems, but this area is also where the rebels, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has been fighting with the Ugandan army for many years.

The people in this area have suffered through continuous war and now flooding disasters. When we first got here this area was off limits to any of us because of the fighting, but now it is relatively safe to go there and the people really need help. A branch of the Church has been authorized in Gulu, which is up in this area, but is not yet authorized to have any missionary activity.

We are expecting Darcy and Mark to visit us the last week in May and will stay for ten days.. We are excited to have more of our family visit. We have arranged a handover by one of the water districts while they are here and know that they will enjoy seeing boreholes, African dancing and drumming, eating traditional food out in the villages, and most of all seeing and meeting the people. We especially like to see the children. They follow us around where ever we go and they are so sweet and cute. They will point their finger at us and say Muzungus and laugh. This handover should be an interesting event for them. They will get to see firsthand how Africans love to give and hear a speech. Sometime these events go on and on. It will also be fun for us to show them some projects and for them to attend church in our little branch. We understand that they have both had all their shots, and have filled their malaria prescriptions and are ready to go on an adventure of a lifetime. It really is!

We have also sent them a list of our wants from America, which include Oreos, M&M Peanuts, mixed nuts, tortilla shells, nylon stockings and many other things we are unable to buy here. We have also asked them to bring several sacks of magnifying glasses. They are very much needed here and people come into our office because they have heard that we give them out. Sometimes we feel like we are running an optical shop because they will bring in their prescription and ask us to fill it. We tell them that we do not fill prescriptions, but only give out reading glasses..

The Mission is growing and the Mission President has been authorized to check out a part of the Sudan to report on any member activity. Last month the Country of Rwanda was added to our mission because there are quite a few members meeting there. A branch was organized, but there is no missionary work authorized there at the present time. We are also getting two new missionary couples. One couple will be arriving, May5th and another couple at the end of May. So we are growing. When we first arrived here there were only five couples serving in the Mission; now there will be eight couples. The biggest challenge we think for new couples is the driving conditions. We all feel sorry for them when they drive their car for the first time here, we all remember. It can be pretty tense. We pray for safety on the roads every morning before leaving our apartment and say a thank you prayer every night for our safe return. Unless you are here, you will not believe the driving conditions. It is hard to even describe them.

We have had a wonderful month and really enjoy our relationship with the other couples. We have family home evening each Sunday night at a different apartment and often go out together to have dinner. We, however, miss home and our wonderful families and love to hear from all of you. We have been setting up SKYPE sessions with some of the family that have the service. It is wonderful to talk face to face with our family and hope the rest of the family will get this service on their computers. It really helps us to see and talk with loved ones and catch up with the goings on. We appreciate and love all of our wonderful friends and thank those of you who remember us in your prayers and who have E-mailed us with your comments and good thoughts.

Love Ron and Sandra Bean

Humanitarian Conference in South Africa

2008-03-25T19:21:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends:

The month of March has gone very quickly for us. We left for Johannesburg, South Africa on March 3, 2008 for a Country Directors conference. We left from Entebbe Airport on South African Airlines, which flew right over Lake Victoria. It was a very pretty flight. From what I could see out the window of the plane, many of the countries of Africa looked very green and uninhabited. It takes approximately four and a half hours to fly from Uganda to Johannesburg; it is like flying from Seattle to New York. They had a driver waiting for us at the airport to take us to our hotel and since Elder and Sister Pocock, the country directors for Kenya, arrived just a few minutes after us, we waited and shared the car with them. We stayed at The Sunnyside Park hotel, a beautiful old hotel that was built in 1895 in the Victorian-style and had been completely refurbished. It had beautiful staircases and a lot of wood paneling. The most impressive thing about it though, is that we could brush our teeth using the water right from the faucet and I took a nice hot bath in a real bath tub. In Uganda we can only shower and then just a very small spray of water comes out of the shower head. To make our stay even more luxurious, we had a TV.

Since most of the couples arrived within a few hours of each other. We all gathered by the pool to get acquainted. It was so much fun to meet the couples responsible for humanitarian work in the countries of DR Congo, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe and Ethiopia. We all liked one another immediately and there was much laughter and relating when each told a little something about their country and their responsibilities. At 7:00 pm we all went into the dining room for a wonderful buffet dinner and then the best thing of all, Ron and I went to our room watched TV and I had a hot bath.

The conference lasted from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday. The first day we had a keynote address from President Parmley, who is the President of the Southern and Eastern Districts of Africa. His office is in the compound by the temple. We had two visitors from the Church offices in SLC, one was Brett Bass and the other was Rick Foster. On Thursday we met for half of a day and then vans were provided and we all went to the temple.

The temple is very small and very pretty and is a little different architecture then most. Our group filled up the session. It was so nice and peaceful and we could hardly believe that we were in a temple in Africa, somehow it felt unreal. After our session, we strolled the grounds, took pictures and then we were taken to a very nice restaurant for a lovely meal. Some of the couples were leaving the next day, but Ron and I and the couple from the Congo and from Madagascar stayed an extra day to do some sightseeing. Johannesburg is a very big modern city with freeways, paved roads, traffic signals, etc. You would not believe you were in Africa if that was the only place you visited there. It is very different from Kampala, where there is no doubt you are in Africa. We did a little shopping in the African market and purchased seven bags of tortilla chips to take back to the couples in Kampala, which they had all ordered and were thrilled to receive. I carried them in my lap on the plane so they would arrive whole and uncrushed. They are a real treat here and if we ever receive a bag, we never share with the others.

We had a wonderful time and the conference was very helpful. I hated to leave that bathtub though. We all had a chance to discuss our projects, ask questions and discuss our problems. Rick Foster, who is the Administrative Director of Welfare Services for the Church, flew back with us to Uganda. He had never been in Africa before and we had a chance to show him around and have him visit some of our projects.
We took him to a handover, which was a launching of the hygiene and sanitation campaign and the commissioning of the 34 newly rehabilitated boreholes in the Jinja Water District, located in Butagaya sub-county. We had just completed that phase of it. These handovers are so much fun and are held in very picturesque villages under huge tents. They always reserve the best seats for us and the people we invite and they clap and trill when we arrive, so all the couples love to come with us. It is wonderful to see all the native people in their colorful clothing, and especially to see the little kids who are always attracted to the sights and sounds and come from all over the place to see what is going on. For entertainment there was an African band with plenty of native drumming and they provided the music for the spectacular African dancers. There were many speeches by the politicians and local leaders and we usually have some members of parliament attend. We always have a lot of news media there because it gets votes for the politicians and they do like the publicity.

We had invited some of the missionary couples to attend. Ron was on the program as a speaker and after his speech, he asked all the missionary couples, Rick Foster, Ssimbwa, who always interprets for Ron, and Ali our contractor to come forward and sang “As I Have Loved You, Love One Another”. It was very nice, especially after the wild beating of the drums and the African dancers and the many speeches. The audience seemed to really enjoy it. We were the only muzungas (white people) there and I think the Africans enjoyed us entertaining them for a change. The last speaker talked about how we should love and take care of one another and then said, “God Bless the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and God Bless the United States of America”. It was pretty nice. When the ceremony was over we were all treated to a very nice African dinner. I always ask if the meat being served is goat, and I was assured that it was beef. Ron will eat goat, but I just can’t. The women served us out of huge big pots containing different kinds of African foods that had been cooking outside during the ceremony.

When this total project is completed, the Church will have provided much needed water and sanitation/hygiene help for over 64,000 people in part of the Jinja district. We usually have a lot of important people from the government attend these ceremonies and they always tell us that if they can help the Church in anyway please let them know. So that day we did need their help. A few of our missionaries in the City of Jinja had mouthed off to the police and the police put them in jail. They finally let them out, but not without a lot of problems and threats from the police and they told the guys that they would be watching them closely. The Mission President was sure that from now on the Jinja police would make any excuse to give the missionaries a bad time and they would be targeted by the police. He asked us to talk to some of these members of parliament and ask for their help. Right after the ceremony, Ron mentioned the situation to two of the dignitaries in attendance and asked if they could help with this situation. Both pulled out their cell phones at the same time and made calls. We hope this ends the problem and that the missionaries will not be a target for the Jinja police and that they have learned their lesson, which is when you are in someone else’s country, you better watch what you say.

We were all busy taking pictures at this event. This is the place to come if you want wonderful pictures. Everywhere you aim your camera is a great picture. Rick Foster had brought a bunch of soccer balls from the U.S. and handed them out to the various groups of kids. It was a very nice day. On our way back to Kampala the couples stopped at Bugigali Falls, which are beautiful falls on the Nile River, and a very awe inspiring sight to see. We had a long drive ahead of us back to Kampala and it was getting dark. The roads are quite dangerous because of the crazy way people drive here. We were all glad to be back safe and sound in our apartments

We held a smaller handover the next weekend. A member of our branch had asked us to visit a small spring just a mile or so from the Church. It was really just an old rusted pipe coming out of a hill into a very dirty weed infested ditch. The women in the area came down the hill, laid on their stomachs in the dirt and weeds and put a jerry can under this old pipe to get their water. We thought this would be a nice small project for the Church to do, since a large number of people in the area used this spring and it was the only water for miles around. We wrote up the project and South Africa approved it.

It now has a brand new stainless steel pipe, the ditch is now concrete with nice rocks cemented along the sides, concrete steps leading down to the water pipe and a fence around the whole area protecting it from animals, and the area is nicely landscaped. We found out that the land this spring well is on is owned by the family of the Prime Minister of Uganda and was owned by his grandfather, his father and now him. He named the well after his father and he and his wife came to the handover. It was very interesting because he came with a military guard who had a very serious machine gun in his hands, who stood guard over our proceedings. We were seated next to him and his wife and he and Ron and I spoke during the commissioning ceremony. There were a lot of media attending and of course all focused on him. He had a lot of aids with him who were there to do everything he needed done, holding his paper, his pencil, etc. He was very nice though and thanked us for the Church funding the project. However, we did notice in the newspapers, the Church was not mentioned.

One of the projects we have had approved this year is another big water project in the Kumuli District, which consists of refurbishing 20 boreholes, drilling 15 new boreholes and water catchment systems and providing hand washing facilities for ten schools. Very extensive sanitation and hygiene initiatives are a part of this project. These villages have no running water, no electricity and less than 40 percent even have a pit latrine. Water borne diseases are rampart and our goal is to not only bring them clean water, but to really improve their health and living conditions. We are spending approximately $250,000 US dollars to help the 35 to 40,000 beneficiaries. Just a subtle hint for you to give generously when you fill out the humanitarian part of your tithing slip. We have some smaller projects approved and have submitted project requests for a school and another cow project that will benefit a large number of people, so we are very busy and love the work.

Today we spent part of the day visiting an orphanage and ordering 20 new desks for them and monitoring our piggery program, which is progressing very well.
Tomorrow is Easter Sunday and all the couples are going to the Mission Home to celebrate Easter together. It is very different to be here and to celebrate Easter without helping family color Easter eggs and celebrate this day with them.

We are expecting and looking forward to Darcy and Mark coming to visit us in April/May and Torri coming in June. We are hoping that Brett and Roger and Matt’s family will also come for a visit. It will be very wonderful to see our children. It is very interesting and humbling to be on a mission in Africa and we feel very blessed to be here with these wonderful people and at this time when the gospel is so new.

Love Elder and Sister Bean

News Article Featuring Prime Minister and the Beans!

2008-03-18T20:22:00.000-07:00

Editor's Note: Elder and Sister Bean were fortunate to participate in a handover ceremony involving the Prime Minister of Uganda. A news story that ran in the local papers is below. Unfortunately, they got the organization they were working for wrong (as well as Sandra's name), but it is neat to hear that they are rubbing shoulders with the elite!

Sh128b spent on water projects
Sunday, 16th March, 2008

By Norman Katende

THE Government spends over sh128b annually on projects aimed at delivering safe water to the people.

Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi revealed this at the commissioning of a spring well at Bulange Zone A on Saturday.

“The well will enable people access clean drinking water and it will save them from suffering from water-borne diseases like cholera.

“We should endeavour to protect it,” said Nsibambi, who encouraged people to boil drinking water. The well was named after his father Semyoni Nsibambi. It was constructed with the help of the Union of Community Development Volunteers, Ron Bean and his wife Sandrah.

Over 60% of Ugandans have access to clean water.

Meeting with Ugandan Parliament Member

2008-02-29T15:22:00.000-08:00

Dear Family and Friends:

It is the end of February and we are looking forward to participating in a country director’s meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa for a week. We will be flying there on Monday, March 3rd and returning on the following Saturday. We will be meeting with all the other country directors from East Africa, which includes the countries of: Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Swaziland, Nambia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Angola and DR Congo. We are excited about this and are anxious to hear about what the other country director’s are doing in the way of humanitarian projects. The first three days will be discussion and training sessions and on Thursday, we will all go to the Johannesburg temple. We have chosen to take one extra day to do some sightseeing and maybe take in a play. We understand that Johannesburg is a nice modern city with a lot of nice stores and paved roads, but it has a big problem with crime and other safety concerns. Two months ago they removed all the sister missionaries from South Africa and sent them to Uganda and some neighboring countries, which are deemed to be fairly safe. As of now the Church is no longer sending sister missionaries to South Africa.

We had our mission conference on Friday and our Kampala district conference on Saturday and Sunday, February, 23rd – 25th. Elder Paul Koelliker, who is a seventy serving as first counselor in the South East Africa presidency, came to Kampala to speak to us. All the couples had dinner with him and his wife on the Friday night before the conference. He is a very wonderful person and for many years worked closely as President Hinckley’s right-hand man on all temple construction. He had very interesting stories to tell and spoke at both sessions of our conference, as well as extra sessions with the missionaries and auxiliaries. He also toured the mission, which included Ethiopia. As a side note - the Church has just approved the organization of a branch in the ccuntry of Rwanda and it will be a part of our mission.

Sunday was as a very warm and sunny day and the district center was packed with members and investigators. The big fans in the ceiling of the chapel were on and provided much needed cool air. The little children were dressed in their very best and the little girls had beads and braids in their hair and many of the little boys had on white shirts. It is so much fun to see the little African children. They are just little dolls and they are so sweet. The choir had practiced every day for weeks getting ready for this conference. We know this because when we would go to our office in the Church, they would be practicing and it didn’t seem to matter what day or what time we were there, so were they. Consequently the music was wonderful.
There were five or six couples from Utah attending the Conference on Sunday. They are dentists visiting Uganda for a month donating their services by looking after any dental problems in the area. We went to dinner one evening with one of the couples and had a nice conversation regarding their intentions. They are not representing the Church on missions, but are LDS dentists that have formed an organization to participate in this much needed service, using their own money and donating their time.

In early February we went to the Bushenyi District at the request of a member of parliament for that area. He came to our office and asked us if we would accompany him to look at some serious water problems in that district. His name is The Honorable Tindamanyire Kabondo Gaudioso and is the chairman of the finance planning and economic development committee for Uganda. He, as we like to say here, is a Big Drum. We thought it would be advantageous for the Church to have such a person as a good contact. We agreed to go look at his concerns. He met us on Tuesday morning at the church. He had a driver in his car and we followed him in our truck. The Bushenyi District is quite a long way from Kampala. It is in the southwest part of Uganda and is on the border of Rwanda and the Congo. The Queen Elizabeth National Game Park is located within its borders. It is very beautiful country. It is called Little Switzerland because it has very high hills that slope or just steeply fall into beautiful crater lakes. There were huge banana groves planted up the sides of the steep hills and many flowering trees. As we drove there, we kept remarking on the beauty of the area.

The MP had arranged for us to stay in a nice place called The Kingfisher. The rooms were separate little huts with one side built into a steep hill. We arrived there at night so we did not see the gorgeous view that we overlooked until the next morning. When we looked out our window early the next morning, we found we were on the top of a very steep hill that overlooked the Queen Elizabeth Game Park. The MP had certainly seen to it that we had the best view in the whole compound.

He met us for breakfast that morning and we then went with him for the next two days to look at their water problems. We wanted to find out what he wanted the Church to do to help and to see if we thought the project was something the Church should do. Our truck wouldn’t make it up some of the steep hills in the area and many of the sites did not even have roads. We did a lot of physical climbing to get to the top of some of the hills. What is so interesting about that is, when we would get to the top of a hill, there would be a village, a school and all sorts of people living up there. These are the people that plant and cultivate all these steep slopes. Because the terrain is so steep, water is a big problem and has to be hand carried, always by the children or women, from the lake at the bottom of the hill, up the hill to the top. The lakes and other areas where they are getting their water, are very dirty and many people are plagued with water borne sicknesses and many die.

On the third day of our stay in the Bushenyi District, the MP treated us to a game drive in the Queen Elizabeth Park and a sightseeing cruise on the channel between Lake Edward and Lake George. It was a fun day and we saw elephants, hippos, lions and many many varieties of birds. we enjoyed it very much and it was a nice diversion and rest from mountain climbing. The middle of Lake Edward is the boundary between Uganda and the DR Congo, so we could look across the Lake and see the Congo. The next day we drove back to Kampala and assessed the water project. We think that we are going to at least ask approval to do part of it and if it is successful, then do the rest at a later time. The Church has designated Uganda as a Focus Country and so they are willing to let us use quite a bit of the humanitarian resources to help the people in this country. This is certainly a very expensive clean water project, but we estimate it will ultimately help 40,000 people and think that we can get it approved.

The first phase of our upland rice project appears to be successful and we will probably do a phase two this year. As to our pineapple project, all 40,000 pineapple suckers have now been planted and the pineapple fields look wonderful. We are about ready for a hand-over ceremony on this project. This is the project that helped 98 women in the Kikwanda village.

All the school furniture (desks, tables, chairs and bookcases) that we are having made locally in a small village, are just about done and will really help this school.
Along with our large water and sanitation projects, we have also had two new projects approved and look forward to getting them started. This is just a quick update on some of the things we are involved with.

We are very busy and our time here is going very quickly. This is a very interesting, fulfilling and rewarding mission and we are thankful for this blessing. We love Africa and the people in Uganda and will surely miss it and them when we go home. In spite of not having power and water for several days at a time and playing bumper cars on the roads, we have learned to make do and just regard it as a small price to pay for all the wonderful blessings we get from being here.

We thank all of you for your support and love.

The Beans

Elephant Attack!; Kami and Brent Visit (Ed.: we do not believe the two incidents are related at this time)

2008-01-28T18:10:00.000-08:00

Rogue Bull Elephant Charges the Explorers!

Beans and Jacobsens at Murchisen Falls

Oooh! Look at those long necks!

Sandra's Karate Class

The Lion King

Another Handover Ceremony

Dear Family and Friends:

We had a very enjoyable Christmas Holiday Season. Kami and Brent arrived in Kampala the morning of Christmas Eve. We stopped on the way from the Entebbe Airport and visited the botanical garden. It has very lush beautiful trees and plants and one area was the location of the old Tarzan movies. There are waterfalls, hanging vines to swing on and monkeys in the trees. It is very interesting to visit and it is located on the shore of Lake Victoria. We then drove them to our apartment in Kampala to get a little something to eat and a few hours of sleep. We were so happy to see them. They brought with them all our Christmas wishes. We had previously E-mailed a long list of wants and needs to bring from America, so the family got together and provided all the things on our list. There were Oreo cookies, mixed nuts, face cream, lipstick, nylon stockings, white shirts and dark stockings for Ron, and two pair of comfortable brown shoes for Sandra. The list goes on and on. They even brought packages of flour tortillas and Nordstrom chocolates. It was so much fun to open all of this good stuff from America. Words cannot describe how good those Oreo cookies tasted. Santa did make it to Africa. He even filled a stocking for each of us using Ron’s black missionary socks.

On Christmas day all the missionary couples, plus Kami and Brent, went to the mission home for a lovely Christmas dinner and some good conversation and much laughter. Sister Christensen (the mission president’s wife) and I wore our Gomesi. This is the traditional African dress for women. When President and Sister Christensen attended one of our humanitarian handovers, a lovely African lady came up to Sister Christensen and I to thank the Church for what was provided and to tell us that she wanted to make us each an African dress. She asked us what colors we liked. She and her husband called several weeks later and invited us to their home for dinner and to receive the dresses. She had invited several friends to come and show us how to wear the gomesi and how the sash was to be tied. It was very nice and we love the dresses. So we decided that we should both wear them on Christmas day.

In the afternoon took Kami and Brent out to see the Kasubi Tombs. These tombs have been designated as a world heritage site. The tombs are where some of the Kings of Buganda are buried. Buganda is a kingdom within the country of Uganda and is still ruled over by a king. The president of Uganda really wields the power for the country, but the king has the people’s ear. The Buganda culture believes that their Kings do not die completely but rather disappear into a sacred forest and will come back one day. It was interesting to see inside and see how they have prepared for that. It at one time was the palace of the king. It is a large domed structure of poles, reeds and thatch and has changed little in appearance over 130 years or so. It is very interesting, so it is a must see in Kampala.

The day after Christmas we drove to Jinja to show them the source of the Nile and took the boat trip on the Nile and visited the Speke monument erected for the explorer who discovered the source.

The most exciting and fun time we had was when we all went to Murchison Falls, a big game park on the Nile River. It is a long drive from Kampala, about seven hours or so, and some of the roads are dirt and are pretty bumpy, but it is well worth any discomfort. Upon arriving, you take a small ferry boat across the Nile. The Lodge where we stayed sets on a bluff above the river and you have great views from all rooms. We signed up for the river cruise and saw all kinds of hippos, elephants, crocodiles, and water buffalo along the shore, as well as Murchison Falls. We also hired a guide and she took us out on three animal drives in the savannah. We saw 42 giraffes all at the same time; they were walking in long lines toward the Nile for water. We got out of the truck and just couldn’t stop taking pictures. Giraffes are very beautiful and very graceful. We drove off road in our truck in the high grass and saw a male lion so close that we rolled up our car windows. He had just eaten and was lying down in the tall grass. Our /guide had us drive right up to him and rev our motor and he got up and walked around our truck and posed as if to say,”OK get your pictures and then let me take a nap”, he then laid back down. A few feet away we saw the female lion with three small cubs and she also let us get very close to her.. It was very exciting. We were told it is very hard to see a lion because they hide in the tall grass and most of the time people do not get to see the lions. So we felt very lucky.

The climax of the day came as we were driving back to the lodge after finishing our animal drive. We were driving down a very narrow dirt road and out of the bush stepped a large bull elephant. Our guide said he was about 64 years old and a real loner. He was huge and had very long tusks. She told us to stop the truck and of course we did. This huge elephant just stood there for a moment looking at us and then stepped on to the road and started walking towards us. Kami, Brent and our guide, Sarah, were standing up in the back of the truck taking pictures and Sarah hollered to Ron, “Back Up”. Ron started backing up, but the road was pretty narrow and bumpy and he couldn’t go very fast. The elephant kept coming and Sarah hollered again “Back Up and go faster”, which Kami and Brent repeated and so did I. Ron continued to back up as fast as he could and then the elephant stopped. Sarah hollered, “Stop”. She thought perhaps he would just go back into the bush and she didn’t want it to be distracted by us backing up. We watched it for a moment, and then it put its big ears straight out and tossed its trunk and again started after us. Sarah shouted this time, “Back Up Faster, and try and find a place to turn around”. We could not outrun this elephant by backing up. Sarah said they can run at least 40 miles an hour and that is all or more than our truck could do on a narrow dirt road backing up. Of course Sarah, Kami and Brent were in the back of an open pickup truck and they were quite justified in wanting us to go faster. She also said the elephant could pick up our truck with no problem. It was pretty exciting.

Ron finally found a small place where he could turn the truck around, but we were all quite tense and worried that it would take him too much time to turn around and the elephant was still coming after us. After a few tries on the narrow road, he turned the truck around and we got out of there. Sarah said she was just about ready to fire her gun in the air to try and scare it away. Wow! The neat thing is though, Kami captured the whole episode with her video camera and you can tell when it got pretty scary because she stopped filming and sat down in the bed of the truck. We were very late getting back to the lodge because the elephant had blocked the road that takes you there and we had to drive around the whole park to return. When we come home, we have some pretty exciting elephant film to show anyone interested. Of course it was the topic of conversation that whole evening.

We were so glad that Kami and Brent came to Africa. It was a good time for us since it was the holidays and most of the people in the organizations we deal with had gone to their villages for the holidays, freeing us up to have some fun.

Brent had to leave a week before Kami and we hated to see him go, but we were able to take Kami to one of our handovers in a very poor village in a place called Kagoma Gate. This project involved seven villages organized into ten groups of 20 women each. The project consisted of all kinds of agriculture tools, seeds, fertilizers and mosquito nets for a significant number of the children. This was to provide food for them and their families, and to have a little extra to sell.

The site of the handover was held in one of the poorest villages in the whole area. The village consisted of mud huts with thatched roofs and hardly any trees surrounding it. The handover was unbelievable and we think the most colorful and entertaining one we have been to. There were a lot of women dressed in colorful traditional dress. They were singing and trilling and were brought to the handover in a big cattle truck. It was a sight to see them get out of the big truck. Some of them had babies on their back and things on their heads and when the truck pulled in, they started trilling and dancing.

There were all kinds of traditional African dancing, singing and women honoring us with vegetables and fruit from their gardens. There were all kinds of speeches and Ron and President Christensen also spoke. We also had a Member of Parliament there and this was wonderful to have such an important person as a contact for the Church. After all the singing, drumming, dancing and speeches were finished, we and the dignitaries were taken to a nice restaurant for a traditional African dinner. What a day. Kami also got all of that on film. She was our photo journalist and was setting with all the other media present. She was our own CNN.

We also had her come to our office on Wednesday and meet with some of our organizations. It was a fairly slow day due to the holiday season, but we did have a few people and organizations come and talk with us.

We went to Church on Sunday. It was fast and testimony meeting and she got to see the nice little house that we meet in and hear the testimonies of some of our members. The people here are warm and friendly and it is so easy to like them instantly.
I suppose some of you have heard about the problems in Kenya. There have been riots and many people killed due to a contested election for president of that country. Kami’s ticket to fly home took her from Uganda to Nairobi and then to London. She was able to change her ticket and miss the flight into Kenya. We were worried that maybe there would be problems at that airport. This rioting caused some long gas lines in Uganda, since most of our gasoline and goods come from Kenya. Uganda is a landlocked country and depends on the port in Mombasa in Kenya for any imported items as well as fuel. Things are still not good in Kenya, but we heard that the military in Kenya are escorting the fuel trucks to the border and we seem to be getting enough gasoline and diesel now, although the price has gone up. The price has also gone up on food products. It does make us aware that we should have a food supply in our apartments.
We also recently had a great handover at the magnet school in Jinja. We provided them with computers, school supplies and agriculture implements and seeds. This school has twenty-two schools bringing in their six graders, four times a year, for a unique experience in science, computer training, art, drama, and agriculture training.
A week ago we had another handover ceremony with an organization that works with women who have AIDS and also helps orphans. We gave groups of these women pregnant cows, and the orphans received blankets and mosquito nets. As soon as the calves get big enough they will be given to additional women groups, they will be bred and their offspring will be given to additional women groups, and so on. This was also a very colorful handover. Since it was in one of the districts that we are rehabilitating a significant number of boreholes, the turnout from all the politicians and district management people was huge. We have made a lot of good friends and people with much influence in the country.

Things are going well here. The Church is growing and the missionary effort is really taking hold. Of course the goal is to someday have a stake here, but that won’t happen very soon. We would love to have it happen before we leave. We have already reached our half way point. The time is really going fast. We are following the primary elections somewhat here and hope to be able to vote absentee.

We love and miss you.

Love the Beans

Merry Christmas from Uganda!

2007-12-21T17:05:00.000-08:00

Ron and President Okut (local district president) at Borehole Ceremony

The Village Children at the Handover Ceremony

More Children at the Ceremony

Dancing with the Children (Nana and Sis. Huskinson get down and get funky)

Speaking at the Handover Ceremony with Interpreter Ssymbwa

Dear Friends and Family:

The Christmas Season is upon us, but it doesn’t feel much like Christmas here. It is very warm. We have had a District Christmas Party at the Kololo branch and that was fun. The Primary put on a nativity skit, which was very good and very funny. They had a real African baby for the Christ child and Joseph said to Mary “So Mary you are going to have a baby, well then, let’s get married, so let’s go get the certificate”. The little angel was dressed in a baptismal jumpsuit and ran around the stage flapping his arms. It was so very cute and funny and we laughed and really enjoyed it. The kids here are so cute and they love to touch us, very softly on the arm. I think they just want to see if our skin feels the same as theirs. The primary also sang some songs and the kids here have very nice voices. It is fun to hear them sing the same songs as our Primary kids. The couples and the young missionaries sang some carols and then all went outside and stood in a very long line for an authentic African dinner. The ladies in the district had prepared Matoke (cooked green bananas), some mystery meat (we didn’t eat any) and posche and vegetables. They cooked the food outside the Church and it did smell delicious. We are always just a little afraid to try some of it because of the consequences. So far we have not been sick and we want to stay that way. Santa Claus even came. One of the couples, Elder Nye, found a Santa suit at one of the local stores. He is about six feet five in height and very thin, so he didn’t look like the typical Santa, but the kids didn’t seem to mind. Santa Clause isn’t a big thing here.

We have a small Christmas tree in our apartment and we decorated it in African décor. The ornaments are handmade by the ladies in the villages. They are small zebras, elephants, giraffes, lions, etc made out of banana husk and tied on a red ribbon with a green and crystal bead threaded on the ribbon. We also have some small red beaded baskets and some little brown huts hanging on the branches. Although it is small, it reminds us that it is the Christmas season. We have a missionary Christmas party at the Mission home this Saturday and a couples Christmas dinner at the Mission home on Christmas day. So we are experiencing an African Christmas this year. Except for missing home and family, it is very wonderful to share a Christmas with the African church members, as well as Kami and Brent.

Most of the people in the Church are very poor and so Christmas is not like it is in the states. The chapel is not decorated and Ron and I have to insist that we sing Christmas carols for our opening and closing hymns. The district president gave a talk last Sunday and told people not to spend money on Christmas and then go without food the next week. One of the traditions here is to buy your wife a Christmas dress and husbands save up all year to buy it. This is very important and Ssymbwa told us that she can use it as a reason to get a divorce. She just needs to tell the judge that he did not buy her a Christmas dress and then everyone understands why she wants to get rid of him.

We are anxiously awaiting Kami and Brent’s arrival. They arrive on December 24th at 8:30 a.m. We will pick them up at the Entebbe airport and bring them to our apartment for a few hours of sleep and then we have many plans for them. We are going on Safari at Murchison Falls for three days and then to the Source of the Nile and other attractions. We have three official project handovers arranged for the time that Kami will be here and we think she will really enjoy going with us. Two of them are way out in obscure villages and the houses are mud huts with thatched roofs. One project involves seven villages where the women have been organized in groups of 30. The Church is providing them with farming equipment, seeds, fertilizers, plants, etc., which is designed to provide them food as well as some agriculture to sell for their medical and school needs. The handover of this equipment will be held in the poorest village, but they want to provide a program in appreciation and we understand that as a part of the program, they will dance and sing for us. So this should be very interesting. Ron has strong-armed the water district to rehabilitate the water sources for the people in that village. One is broken down and the other one is contaminated. Since we are going to rehabilitate 46 boreholes in the district, it was fairly easy to get the district to agree with our request to also help this poor village.

We recently held the handover ceremony on completion of 15 boreholes in the Mpigi water district. There were two ceremonies held at two of the boreholes. There were over four to five hundred people in attendance. The boreholes were decorated with banana leaves and flowers and they even had Ron plant a tree by one of the boreholes to commemorate the occasion. They had us cut a ribbon and then pump the first water out of the borehole. It was very stressful because we pumped and pumped for about a minute, it seemed longer, and no water came out. Finally, at last, the water came out, we were so relieved. Ron spoke a couple of times and I said the closing prayer. Loud speakers had been rented and so even people living far away from the area walked up to see what was going on. We were fed African food and soda and were treated so very nicely. The kids sang and danced for us and many dignitaries were in attendance. Special songs had been written and dances performed for the occasion thanking the Church and us for the clean water. The school kids would sing “Good Job, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” and then put their thumbs up. They would dance a little more, then stop in front of us and sing “Thank you so much, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” and give the high sign. They would then use our names and thank us. What a great day. Most of the time, the long name of the Church is not pronounced correctly or part of it is left out, but this time, it was correct. The Church got a lot of good publicity out of this handover. It was wonderful to see how appreciative these people are for clean water. Even though some of them still walk many miles morning and night with a jerry can on their heads to get to the boreholes. The kids also help carry water. We were told later that this was on the TV evening news, so the Church gets a lot of good publicity out of these handovers.

We also did the official launch of the banana project. The mission president and his wife came with us. We toured the laboratory where the disease free banana tissues were started and saw how the whole process worked. Bananas mature from a little four inch tissue to actually producing bananas within a nine to twelve month period of time. After visiting a few of the twenty model farms the Church has funded, we drove to the ceremony site and Ron and the Mission President spoke, as well as a few other authorities and the head of the organization we are working with. We are always amazed at how beautiful the women are dressed. Their clothing is very traditional and very colorful and they have elaborate hairdos or tied turbans on their heads. Sister Christensen and I were admiring all the dresses, when a lady, whose husband was a former ambassador to the UN from Uganda, approached us and told us she wanted to make us a traditional African dress. She asked us the colors that we liked. We are going to her home on Sunday to receive them. We are excited about that.

We are very proud of Ryan, who is still at the MTC. He has been made zone leader for his group. He loves the MTC and said that he has learned more Spanish in the month that he has been there than he learned in a whole year in high school. He is happy and excited about the work. We are very proud of him.

We also need to inform everyone about the change in procedure in mailing letters to the pouch. They no longer will accept a letter in an envelope. They want a single sheet of paper, folded in three parts, with the address and a stamp on the back of the sheet, with a piece of scotch tape holding the fold together. We dislike this new rule as we cannot receive any pictures or anything extra in an envelope. This also goes for greeting cards that require an envelope.

We wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and next Christmas we get to tell you all in person.

Love, the Beans

Update from Kampala, Uganda

2007-11-16T08:44:00.001-08:00

Dear Family and Friends:

Another update on what is happening here. Uganda is preparing to host CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) in November and the Queen of England and Prince Charles will be coming to Uganda. There are 53 commonwealth countries and all of the heads of those countries will be coming. Consequently Kampala is in a state of disruption and restoration. They are fixing potholes in the streets, planting flowers, putting in sidewalks and even painting lines down the middle of some streets that are along the route, the roads that are not dirt that is. The government also is telling the people in the area of the meetings, that they need to bathe and wash their clothes and look presentable during the time that the dignitaries are here. We even heard that some of the people will be removed to other parts of the city because they are not a good advertisement for Uganda.

All this preparation is causing a lot of headaches in driving for us. The government has been sealing off Kampala’s major roads forcing hundreds of people to abandon taxis, and vehicles and walk home. Police closed the roads in a mock demonstration of its readiness for CHOGM a few days ago and even the alternative routes were impassable because of the ongoing roads repairs around the city. All of us missionaries will be glad when this meeting is over. We don’t anticipate civil unrest or trouble, but we all are planning on stocking up on food and essentials, hunkering down and will stay off the roads until it is over. Ron and I plan on working on some of our projects far from Kampala. The District President has already been in our office with a form for us to fill out. The government has asked him to account for all of his people, names, addresses, why we are here, etc.

There is a big helicopter airstrip across from our church in Kololo. They normally have some security there, but the street in front of the church has been completely blocked off several times in the last little while. We have had to talk our way past gun toting military people to get to our humanitarian office in the church. We think during CHOGM that we will be unable to get to our office at all, so for a while we will be working out of our apartment. This presents a little problem because we do not have the internet at our apartment.

A few weeks ago we were working on some projects in our office and Ron and I were the only ones in the Church. We noticed, as we drove into the church parking lot earlier, that the airstrip across the street was full of military people marching in formation and practicing drills in preparation for the queen’s arrival. They were President Museveni’s personal military attachment, “Uganda’s Best”. All of a sudden the sky got very dark and a huge black rain cloud settled over the church, the wind begin to blow and we knew that any minute buckets of rain would be coming down. We heard running feet and shouting and we looked out and saw what appeared to be the whole Ugandan army streaming into the church for refuge. We looked at each other and wondered if we were under siege and the church was being taken over. It was a little unsettling. We went out in the hall and spoke with some of them and they just wanted to get in out of the rain. So we showed them into the primary room and some other rooms and they laughed and talked and waited out the storm. It was quite a sight, the president of Uganda’s army taking cover in the Mormon Church.

We are almost finished with one of our water projects in the Impigi District as far as getting the bore holes repaired and working. We have attached a picture of Ron pumping the first clean water out of one of these bore holes. This one hadn’t been working for several years. As you can see people are gathered around us in anticipation of this event. The people in the blue overalls are part of our contractor’s crew and they are very efficient and knowledgeable about their work and we feel fortunate to have this crew working with us.

A few days ago we went to visit another potential project. This project is located outside of Semoto, which is about 40 miles northwest of Kampala, way out in a village. The road to Semoto was brutal and probably the worse road we have ever been on. It was about 35 kilometers of unpaved red clay road with deep ruts and pits in it. If you count the bumps up and down it was probably 80 kilometers, but the countryside was gorgeous and the air smelled clean and wonderful. It was a beautiful warm day and the reception on our arrival was well worth any discomfort we felt getting there.

We were met and shown a building where they want the Church to help establish a grain mill. We visited some of the people’s homes and gardens and they talked about some of the diseases that have infested their crops. They then took us to the local school, which the Church had built several years ago. It serves 14 parishes or small villages and is really a wonderful asset to that area. There is a plaque on the outside of the school that said “Donated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”. The school children were awaiting our arrival and were lined up in about eight or nine lines in front of the school, each had one hand on the shoulder of the kid in front of them. It looked very official. They opened the ceremony with a prayer, then we all sang the Ugandan National Anthem and a welcome speech was given by one of the students.

The head master gave us a tour of the school and we were taken to a reception room where the student’s parents, as well as all the board members of the organization wanting us to establish a grain mill, were awaiting our arrival. They were dressed in their very best clothes and our chairs with covered with beautiful hand embroidered cloths. They had an agenda written on the board and a prayer was offered and several people spoke and then Ron and I spoke. This was all done through an interpreter. We hoped that he didn’t tell the parents that we were going to buy desks and other things for the school because we hadn’t even heard about that until we got there. We went there thinking they just wanted a mill, but from the applause we kept getting from the parents and other people, we think they were told it was not only a mill, but also desks for the school and other supplies that the Church was funding. We also felt that they thought it was a done deal. They closed the meeting with another prayer and then led us into a small room in the school where they had a nice lunch for us. They had prepared all kinds of African food and their best cloth and dishes were being used. It is always a little risky to eat in the villages, but it was such a nice thing for them to do, that we said another prayer and ate. Although we had to drive back to Kampala on those terrible roads, we had really enjoyed the visit. We think that we will provide the desks.

We called home early on Monday morning to wish Ryan good luck and tell him how proud we were of him. He leaves for the MTC on Monday. He will be there for two months learning Spanish. Aunt Darcy and Cousin Connor flew in from Wisconsin for the farewell and Aunt Kami and Uncle Brent flew in from California, Uncle Matt and Aunt Pam and Torri and Ryan and all of Matt’s kids were there. We spoke with all of them and even the grandkids. Ron thought it was great until Jake told him that they were going to see the Seahawks play the Forty Niners on Monday night without him! It was so wonderful that they were all together and supporting Ryan, but made us a little homesick. We at least got to be a small part of the get together. Matt (President Latimer) had just set Ryan apart for his mission when we called. He had also set us apart six months ago. Ryan’s missionary picture and plaque will hang by our plaque in the hall at the Harbour Pointe Ward building. We think that is so wonderful. We feel that we and our families continue to be blessed and we are very grateful. The work is going well and we enjoy our little branch in Mengo. We love going there and feel we are really needed. Senior couples are so needed in these pioneer missions. We are appreciated and feel that we are the ones getting the benefit.

We were excited to hear the news that Roger’s musical won the Los Angeles Ovation award for a musical in an intimate theater. This is his musical that will be opening off Broadway soon – congratulations are in order.

Love to all. The Beans

P.S. Happy thanksgiving to all – we are worried about the turkeys here because they are really scrawny looking and scrounge around for their food on the trash dumps that are scattered around the city. We will enjoy our dinner at the mission home with the rest of the couples but will certainly miss being with the family.

School Supply Handover

2007-11-05T14:52:00.001-08:00

Below is an email from Elder and Sister Bean to Caroline Kline, humanitarian specialist and the Harbor Hills Ward Relief Society in the Newport Beach Stake. The e-mail reports on the distribution of school supplies collected and shipped by the Ward and included the attached pictures.

We took the school supplies out to the orphanage last week and it was a wonderful experience. I just wished that all of the people who contributed these supplies could have seen how really needed and wonderful it was for the kids living there. I have asked the head master to write a thank you letter to the people in your ward.
We took pictures of the hand out and it was very heart warming. We will send them to you.

We drove out to the Orpanage called Good Hope and pulled up into the center of the yard. We lucked out because the kids were all outside taking a break. They had mugs in their hands that were about one-fourth full of some very thin white liquid. I think it was a root of something they grow in the yard of the orphange. It didn't look very filling to us. They have a school at Good Hope with three different classroom for kids of different ages . Some person or organization contributed school uniforms. So you will see in the pictures some of the kids in uniform. They may look good in the pictures, but the uniforms are pretty shabby, missing buttons, etc. but they are uniforms just the same. The kids were all excited to see us and ran and stood by our truck. We found the person in charge and told him that we were delivering some school supplies for the orphanage and asked if he would bring some tables out to to put the things on. The teachers also came out to help and were very excited.

We unloaded the boxes from our truck and put them on the two tables in the yard. The kids gathered in front of the tables and they were told to be very orderly and they watched while we opened the boxes. WOW ! I don't think these kids or their teachers had ever seen anything as nice as these school supplies in their whole lives. We were all impressed. There were so many things and of the quality you don't even see in the stores here. The boxes were loaded with the best of notebooks, pens, crayons, markers, etc. etc. etc. It was a wonderful experience. I am sure that most of these kids had never had or maybe ever even seen things like crayons, pens, markers etc. We laid them all out on the tables for all to see and I wish everyone who contributed to these supplies could have been there to see how much this contribution meant to this orphanage.

I am sure in their class rooms that the kids share a pencil. I have seen the blackboard and it is just small and leans again a chair and can hardly be seen by all the kids. There was one piece of chalk the day we visited the classroom and I didn't see that any of the kids had anything of their own to write on or with. It was a much needed and wonderful generous contribution from your ward. A lot of the kids do not speak English and so we did not know exactly what they were saying, and the kids brought in from the north where they have experienced terrible things connected with the war, usually do not show a lot of emotion, but we didn't have to speak the language to understand and see that these kids were happy and excited.

We told the headmaster and also the founder of the orphanage that in addition to the school supplies, your ward had also given us a generous amount of money to buy additional things for the school. We asked them to give us a list of what they needed and we would buy it for them. We did not want to give any of the adults the money because we wanted to ensure it was spent for the kids. People are so poor here that to give them money would have been too great a temptation. They called the next day and said they would like us to buy some desks for the school with the money. So we are going to buy some desks if that meets with the approval of your ward. We have asked Ssimbwa to help us find some desks and purchase them for us. He is a Ugandan so we will get a better price. We will let you know how many we were able to buy, and we think it should be quite a few. We will take more picutres when we deliver them.

Love, Elder Ron and Sister Sandra Bean

Update On Humanitarian Projects and Truck Wreck

2007-10-24T19:34:00.000-07:00

ELDER BEAN OR MONKEY? YOU BE THE JUDGE.

BANANA CARRIERS

BOYS IN THE VILLAGE

PG-13 SOCCER GAME

Dear Family and Friends:

Just an update on what we are doing here in Uganda. The last few weeks have been very busy, but very rewarding. We drove out to a village to check on our pineapple project. This is the village where we promised a bunch of little boys that we would buy them a soccer ball. As we drove down a bumpy lane to the project manager’s house, the boys saw our truck and two came running out to meet us. They were about six or seven years old. They were stark naked, but they were so excited they didn’t seem aware of it. We handed them the soccer ball and they just went wild. They immediately started kicking it and running around our truck and then Ron joined in the game and pretty soon even their mother was out kicking the ball around. It was very funny to see these little naked African boys playing soccer. No one seemed to mind or notice. They were so excited and happy we couldn’t stop laughing.

The weather is very stormy. Almost every day it rains and sometimes it rains several times a day. These are very noisy storms. First it starts out with a very black sky, then a strong wind and then rain, hard like hail. The rain is accompanied by very loud claps of thunder and a lot of lightning. This of course does not help with the flooding problem up north. We are impatiently waiting for ten containers of clothing, food, blankets, hygiene kits and plastic sheeting that we have asked the Church to send for relief aid to the flood victims. Many thousands of people have been cut off from the rest of the country due to bridges and roads under water. The United Nations are dropping food into villages by helicopter and the UN is now asking for more food and donations from any and all organizations that can help because they are running low on provisions. We sent another E-mail today to SLC asking them to send the aid ASAP. The Department of Defense is flying it into Uganda at a cost of $140,000 for transportation. We are hoping to get help from the missionaries in unloading when it arrives. We would also like help in distributing, but will see what we can arrange when it arrives.

We had zone conference last Saturday at the Kololo branch, which is the district center of the Church here. It is very touching to see these young men and women line up outside the chapel and greet the mission president and his wife as they walk down the line and shake hands. We just stood back and watched. Thinking how proud the parents should be of all these fine young men and two sisters in white shirts and blouse standing in line to show their respect to the Mission president. About half of the full time missionaries are native Africans. They are from Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania, Congo, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zaire, and other African nations. All have different accents and speak different languages and some have had to learn English. Most of the white kids have African companions and in spite of the different cultures, it seems to work. This is a pretty hard mission and they walk many many miles every day and put up with a lot of hardships and challenges that are certainly here. As we arrived at the conference we were all greeted with a bottle of water and a small box of worm medicine, which contained six pills. We were instructed to take two tablets immediately and four tablets the next day. It was a humbling experience, but we were all in the same boat so we took them. We take a daily malaria pill, eat food that has been washed in bleach, dishes that have been washed in bleach and breathe in all kinds of dust and pollution daily, we wonder what it is doing to our stomachs and lungs. So far we have only had a head cold. The senior missionaries are so very important to a mission like this. The young missionaries get sick; sometimes hurt and from time to time discouraged or home sick and we are their parents, grandparents, friends, and counselors here

Our grandson, Ryan, has just recently received his mission call to McAllen, Texas. It is right on the border of Mexico. He will be in the MTC for two months learning Spanish. We are so proud of him He just recently went through the Seattle Temple for his endowments. His aunt Darcy and cousin Connor will be flying in from Wisconsin for his farewell talk. His Aunt Kami will be flying in from California and his mom and uncle Matt and Aunt Pam and five Latimer cousins will also be there. It is wonderful to have the whole family on his mom’s side there to support him. We wish we could also be there, but he will be in our thoughts and prayers.

We are busy with many projects. We are in the middle of our first water project, which is rehabilitating 15 deep bore holes and providing pit latrine slabs, sanitation training and some mosquito nets for the Impigi District. We have also submitted plans for our second water project in the Jinja area that is quite a bit larger, with 46 water sources being rehabilitated. The wheelchairs have been ordered and we are just waiting for custom clearance before shipping. Along with these major projects we have a piggery project, a malaria repellant candle project, and have recently visited six potential new projects in the Jinja district. One of the projects involves women being organized in seven very remote villages. They are asking for help with agriculture needs. One of the villages consisted of only mud huts with thatched roofs and we met with the women under a big tree and talked about their needs. As we were leaving this village, Ron got in the truck with a tight turn around and asked me to stand behind the truck and direct him out. I was distracted by a cute little baby and some of the other kids and he pulled forward and went into a deep pit. The truck was almost standing on its nose in the hole. This provided much merriment among the villagers. A bunch of the older boys and men had to help push him out. He is still blaming me for this mishap, but my job was to keep him from running over the children and I didn’t know he was going to go forward and fall in a hole. We both see the situation differently and blame the other one. At one of our new potential projects, after we had met with the board and were leaving, they gave us some wonderful local sugar cane, at least six avocadoes, the biggest jackfruit we have ever seen, and some huge paw paws (papaya). They were so generous and we shared this with the other couples.

We continue to monitor the rice, banana and pineapple projects. So you can see we are very busy. We are really enjoying the varied types of projects and the different locales of Uganda and the wonderful people that we are working with. We are really seeing what Africa is really like out in the villages and countryside. We love our branch and have grown to really appreciate the people here. They are still very new in the church and don’t always understand the procedures. I play the keyboard for the branch and teach Relief Society and give a piano lesson before church. Ron teaches the Gospel Doctrine class and provides much needed experience to the whole priesthood organization. We love our branch, the only problem is that most people are very very poor and think that all whites are rich, so we get asked to provide money and other things very often. Handling these situations is very uncomfortable for us. All in all we are enjoying the work. We are attaching some miscellaneous pictures.

We are looking forward to Kami and Brent’s visit here at Christmas and hope to take them to see many interesting sights and with us to visit some of our projects.
Love to all.

The Beans

Safari and Flooding

2007-10-03T09:48:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends:

It has been a very busy time for us in Uganda. We have been busy with water projects and sanitation needs in several of the Districts. These projects take a lot of time because the sites have to be visited and analyzed. We then have to approach the appropriate water district people to have permission to provide or fix any wells etc. in their area. This of course gets into the political arena, which has to be handled carefully. We then submit a request to the people in charge of water for the Church in Salt Lake and explain why this project should be approved and funds spent. We have to show how many people would benefit from clean water in the area, who owns the land, along with permission from the owners and the particular water district. If this project is approved then water contractors have to be contacted, people lined up to do the work, materials purchased and the last step is actually doing the work, which we then monitor along the way. There are a lot of steps. We were happy to have Salt Lake approve the first water project of fifteen boreholes and our second one of forty six will be submitted shortly. We have combined making pit latrine slabs for the villagers, training in water and hygiene sanitation measures, and as an inducement to come for the training we are bribing with some mosquito nets. We do have our work cut out for us in the clean water area. Along with water, we have our usual area projects that are not as expensive, under $15,000 each, but still we have to go through the procedure of submitting a request to our bosses in South Africa, having it approved and then making it happen. All of this is so interesting and we spend a lot of time driving around checking on potential projects, but it is also paperwork intensive.

Since we are the Humanitarian Directors for the Country of Uganda we have been involved with the major flooding problems that are going on in the northern part of Uganda. Uganda is among the nations hit hardest by floods that have swept across 17 countries in Africa in recent weeks. The government has declared a state of emergency, which prompts international help. At least 200 people have died so far and many farms have been destroyed and crops lost - so the next problem, when the floods recede, is a strong possibility of famine and water related diseases. We contacted Salt Lake and asked what would be an appropriate response as representatives of the Church in this situation. We were given permission by the Church to provide aid and they asked us to find out what was needed and to find a suitable partner to bring this aid into the country. The Church said the Dept of Defense in the U.S. would transport the aid to Uganda, but we would need to find an organization on the ground here to get it into the country. We spent an afternoon on the phone and computer trying to find out names and organizations that could help us in this area. We contacted UNICEF and they were very appreciative of any help from the Church. UNICEF is providing the on ground coordination for the relief efforts and have arranged for food for 6 months to the area and said that blankets, clothes and mosquito nets were in urgent demand. They also agreed to partner with us in getting these items into the country. The flooding has rendered most roads impassable, so the UN is using a helicopter to drop some supplies. We are impatiently waiting to find out how we can arrange for our supplies to be delivered and when they are coming.

So we have a few things to do. We have also moved from our compound into an apartment. All the senior missionaries have had to move before Oct. 1st due to leases running out and rent being raised and new people arriving. This was not a good time for us to move, but we did it. We are on the top floor of a new apartment house. There are 70 steps to climb to get to the penthouse and moving and carrying boxes and things up was a test of sheer endurance. We hired two guys from the street to help carry things up and they worked very hard and really earned their pay. We do have a nice view, but the construction here is terrible and many things are not working properly. We have electrical, plumbing and things just not completed problems. We have a pizza sized hole in the wall under one of the bathtubs that goes straight out to the outdoors. We leave the door closed so that creatures and mosquitoes will not fly in. Anyway we are slowly getting settled and there are three senior couples and one set of elders that live here also, so we have more than each other to complain to.

Now the good part -- all the senior couples, even those in Ethiopia, along with the mission president and his wife went on a Safari last month. We drove way up north to a place called Murchison Falls. It is about an 8 or 9 hour drive from Kampala. We all met at the mission president's home early in the morning and piled into the trucks and drove in a caravan all the way. It was so much fun and the drive was very beautiful and the roads not too bad. We had all packed a lunch with a lot of treats to eat and stopped along the way, bought soda and shared food. In order to get to the park we had to ferry across the River Nile and our lodge/accommodations sat on a bluff overlooking the river. The ferry boat was very small and could carry only 5 or 6 cars at a time. As we loaded our trucks on the ferry, we could look across the river and see a hippo grazing right where the ferry boat landed. When we got off the ferry we all had our cameras ready to take pictures. Along with the hippo there were many baboons with babies on the road and in the trees watching us. We drove to the lodge, which is called Paraa Safari Lodge. It was very nice. The staff met us in the lobby with hot towels to wash our hands and trays of cold juice. We unloaded and put our clothes away and went to the dining room for a lovely dinner. We walked around the grounds and took pictures and watched a beautiful sunset over the Nile. Early the next morning we went on a boat ride up the Nile River to the bottom of Murchison Falls. The boat ride was wonderful. We saw dozens of hippos with their young on the banks and in the water. We saw all kinds of crocodiles and many varieties of birds and elephants coming down to the water for a drink. The trees and bushes were very lush and looked like pictures you see of Africa (wonder why?) We had a guide on the boat and she kept us informed of what we were seeing.

We returned to the lodge for lunch and then piled into our trucks, each with a guard with a gun, to do an animal drive around out in the savannah. We also did a drive around the next morning. It was one of the most thrilling things to see giraffes, elephants, and all different varieties of antelope, water buffalo, and even a lion in their native habitat. Some of us stood up in the back of our pickup trucks and just took hundreds of pictures. Everywhere you pointed your camera was a picture. In the afternoon of our last day there, we drove to the top of the falls and looked over the mighty Nile being funneled into a small gorge. It was noisy and very beautiful. It was hard to get in our trucks and return to the lodge knowing we would be leaving for Kampala and to our real life the next morning. It all seems unreal now. We hope to go back and do it again, when we have family and visitors come to see us. Hope this inspires some of you to visit.

Thanks for your prayers and your support and your E-mails. We are so far from home and it is wonderful to turn on our computer and see a message from a friend or loved one. We print them out so I can read them again and again. We are healthy and happy, but we miss home also.

Love to all.

The Beans

Kyaka II Uganda Refugee Camp Handover -- Slide Show!

2007-09-18T20:01:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting slide show from Elder and Sister Bean covering the final handover of clothing and food supplies donated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the Kyaka II Uganda Refugee Camp on June 25, 2007.

The camp is 30km from Mubende, Uganda and includes 16,651 refugees from the Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, Sudan and neighboring countries. The handover was a joint project between the United Nations and the Church.

Notice Sandra's shoes in some of the pictures . . . . "Your not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy!"

Update from the African Bush

2007-09-16T17:41:00.000-07:00

Dear Family:

We are back at home after a long day with a water expert that we requested through Church headquarters in Salt Lake. Elder Garth Green and his wife Wendy are from Cedar City, Utah. They are called short term specialists. They live at home and only become active when someone requests them. He owns several plumbing supply companies in Utah. We have quite a few water projects in several districts, so he is here for 10 days to give us advice on bore holes, shallow wells, spring wells, and deep wells. See I even know the lingo. We have had them out in the various villages and districts looking at some of the possible clean water projects that we want to do here.

We were in a village in the Kumuli district a few days ago. It was a beautiful drive to get there. It had rained all that morning and the field and tall grass that we were hiking through were very wet. I asked the man from the village who was leading the way to this water source, if there were any snakes in this grass. His answer was oh yes. I said, what kind and he said, Cobras. I said, I am sorry I asked. The water source was very dirty and had water lilies and algae, along with bugs growing on the surface. The man from the village told us that 8 or 9 people a month die of water related diseases in their village. We then met with the Chief of the village and some of the village elders and talked with them regarding their water problems. This all still seems unreal to me. There we were , four senior Mormon missionaries, sitting outside in an African village, around a primitive table with a thatched hut in the background, and part of the village looking on and we were discussing the villages water problems with an African chief. It felt like we were in a movie.
Anyway just a little update on what is going on here.

We are enjoying the Greens and they have brought us many goodies from America. We have chocolate orange sticks, mixed nuts, raisins, Vienna sausage, deviled ham and all kinds of candy. His wife brought little tablet like candies to give to the little kids and they love it. She also brought stickers and some baby clothes. They will be leaving on Sunday to go to Kenya to assist and give advice to the humanitarian couple there. We might request them again after we have gotten underway here. This is the couple who went to Brazil about six years ago to pick up their missionary son and Elder Green and his son were shot by a gang of guys who forced them off the road and used a rapid fire handgun and shot elder Green in both arms and his son in the stomach. Elder Green was driving and just pressed on the accelerator and took off and the gunmen fired many shots into the car. Sister Green was on the floor in the back seat and did not get shot. It got a lot of international press coverage and they were flown home in the Huntsman airplane (President Hinckley's jet). It was quite a story. We saw the wounds on elder Greens arms. His son is now married and doing well, but what a scary missionary story.

I have changed quite a bit with the white hair and such. I tell Ron, it is not white it is platinum blonde. We are both well and are really enjoying this unique mission. October general conference should be interesting. You will have to let us know the news regarding the new member of the twelve. We will be watching last Aprils conference at the district meeting house, since we cannot get the current one . We are always one conference behind.

Our new apartment is now ready to move in to. The Moores, who lived next door to us, have already moved and we are alone in the compound. We still have the guard, but it does seem lonely here. We are used to looking out for the Moores and they would watch out for us. We checked on one another when we thought it was a little late and our cars were not parked where they should be. Since we have had the Greens here, we have not had the time to pack and arrange to have our stuff moved. Since we are on the top floor of the new apartments, it will be a hard move, hauling things up. We are without a washing machine and I have had the hard task of washing things by hand. We do have a washing machine in the new apartment, but it is not connected yet.
Next week, Tuesday to be exact, all the senior missionaries in this mission are going on safari to a place called Murchison Falls. It is a big game park. The mission president and his wife are going and the couple in Ethiopia is flying here to also attend. We will be traveling by caravan in our trucks to Murchison Falls and it is about a full days travel north from Kampala, so it is quite a distance. The Moores went last year and said it is spectacular. We are staying at a very nice lodge and the guides take you out twice a day to see the animals. I will tell you more about this trip after we return. We will be gone for four days. In case anyone thinks this comes out of a church fund and they are paying for it, it does not. Each couple will be paying their own way. I am excited about this.

Also honey, you mentioned that we should get our computer cameras set up and arrange for a family conference. We have been so busy planning for visitors, having visitors, planning to move and arranging our schedule for this trip, and doing other projects, that we have not done this. We really want to do it, but will wait until we return from our trip and are moved into our apartment. Your idea about asking for help from the young missionaries is a good one and we will do so.

We were so pleased about Ryans mission call. We called to talk with him, but he was not there and Torri told us the exciting news. We looked McAllen, Texas up on the map and it really is a border town. You could put your toe in Mexico from there. We were thrilled that he will go to the MTCs language training classes and learn Spanish. This should be a very exciting mission. He is a great young man and is setting a good example for his little brother and his cousins to follow.

We miss our families, friends and all the wonderful things about the United States, but Africa is pretty exciting. Love to you all.

Sister Bean Disarms Gun-Toting Soldier!

2007-09-03T08:54:00.000-07:00

Dear Family and Friends:

It is a very lovely day here in Kampala. I am waiting for my washing to finish so I can hang it out before the rain comes. It is usually very sunny and beautiful in the mornings and by afternoon a very black cloud blows in, thunder rolls out of this cloud and then the drenching rain starts. This storm lasts about 20 minutes to an hour and then blows past. It is pretty remarkable the amount of water that falls from the sky. You cannot make it from your car to your porch without getting soaking wet. So I try to get my washing done in the morning and a few hours of drying on the line outside before this happens. When we leave for the day, I ask the guard to get my washing in because I know this will happen. It is truly a tropical storm leaving the roads looking like rivers, but the interesting thing is that the wet doesn’t stay around and things dry out pretty fast. The trees are also blooming again. It is a beautiful sight. The tree behind our compound is laden with beautiful pink blossoms, especially on the top and the birds love it. The neighbor has a banana tree and two days ago it was so heavy with bananas that a big clump fell over the fence and landed in our yard. What were we to do? We did the only thing possible, we divided them up between us and they are ripening on our porch at this time. This truly is a land where fruits and vegetables grow without much assistance. The avocado trees are unexplainable. They produce the biggest avocado I have ever seen. Think of the size of a child’s football and that is how big they are. You peel them, slice them lengthwise, take out the stone/seed and fill them with chopped tomatoes, peppers and onions and put on some Italian dressing and you can’t imagine how good that is. Also the pineapples are the best I have ever tasted. They are very sweet and grow everywhere. They are very cheap to buy and all the roadside stands have them for sale. When you stop in traffic, little kids tap on your car window and want you to buy one. They cost about 1,000 schillings or .60 cents each. We eat a lot of fruit for breakfast, lunch and dessert at dinner.

This weekend was our first district conference (stake conference). It was very very good. We went Saturday for two sessions. Since people have such a hard time with transportation, they stayed for both sessions and were provided with food in between. The church had been thoroughly cleaned and we have new upholstered benches like the very nice chapels in the US. The choir was beautiful. The African people have beautiful voices and they had practiced for weeks. There were about 40 people in the choir and they were very serious about the music. Then the best part was the Primary choir. The kids sang “Follow the Prophet” and then six or so of them sang solos about the different prophets. I so wanted to tape it, but Ron said it wasn’t appropriate in the chapel, It was so sweet and darling I could hardly listen without thinking I wish someone was taping this, and why didn’t I do it anyway. They have the wonderful African accent and so the words had a little different sound then the kids back home and it was wonderful. I had tears in my eyes when they finished and I wanted all of you to be there to hear it. Kids are the same all over the world. It was fun for me as a former primary teacher to hear the song I have heard our little kids sing in the Harbour Pointe ward and to hear the little African kids sing it.

The members here do not have much, but when they come to church they look, as they would say, “very smart”. The women and little girl’s hair-dos are very fancy with yarn, feathers and beads braided in their hair. Some wear the colorful turbans that match their dresses. One darling teenager, that is in our branch, came up to me and handed me a small sack and said “here Sister Bean I bought this for you at the market, you had told me last Sunday how much you liked mine”. It was a comb for the back of my hair and was made of brown silk flowers, sparkles on the leaves and feathers and silk streamers. It was very smart. It was so sweet of her and I insisted on paying her for it. It was extra nice because I know how poor they are. I put it on when I got home, but somehow it loses the beautiful African effect on my hair. It is the kind of thing that would be very fun to wear. Maybe I will dare do it for some occasion. The little girls also have beads entwined in their hair and it really is fun to look around at the very wonderful clothing, very colorful and very African.

At the Sunday session of conference, we had approx. 800 people there. This is remarkable because they either walked a long distance to get there, or they took a boda boda or they came by taxi. What a sight. We had excellent speakers and the desire here is to become a stake and to have a temple nearby. We think this desire it quite a way off, but we are sure it will happen someday. The members here are first generation and struggle with a lot of family traditions and culture issues, but there are some strong remarkable leaders also.

We had an adventure last week in one of the villages. We asked Elder and Sister Huskinson, who are fairly new missionaries here and are from Rexburg, Idaho, if they would like to accompany us out to a village to deliver some hoes, rakes, nails and fence material for a pineapple project that the Church is helping with. They said they would like to go. The village is very remote and you have to drive down a very bumpy narrow lane, not even a road, to get there. We found the lady in charge of the project and dropped the stuff off by her house. She asked us to come and see the field that they were clearing for the planting. She said they had hired some men to help clear it. As we approached the field, we saw a bunch of men swinging pangas, hoes, etc and really working hard clearing the thick underbrush. We got out of the truck, with our cameras in hand and I took a picture of a little boy with his baby sister tied on his back standing in the field. Just as I snapped the picture, a man in a military uniform, high black boots and a AK47 machine gun in his hands, ran up to me and grabbed the camera out of my hand. He then turned around and grabbed Elder Huskinsons’ camera out of his hand. He was yelling at us and was so very mad. He appeared out of nowhere and must have been back in the bush. He yelled you can’t take pictures of prisoners, it is against the law. I am taking your cameras; this can’t get in the newspaper and was yelling all sorts of other things. I thought he was going to smash our cameras. We have a very nice camera and it had all kinds of wonderful pictures on it. I said to Ron, "he has our camera, he is not going to give it back" and Ron said, "Oh yes he is." The man was storming around and waving his gun and I said to him, "I did not take any pictures of the prisoners; just a little boy and his sister" and he kept yelling something like, "I saw you and you can’t have these cameras." I pointed to our missionary badges and said we are missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints and we would not lie to you and I just walked up and took our camera out of his hand. We again explained that we did not take pictures of the men. He gave Elder Huskinson’s camera back and just kept being very excited and waving his machine gun around. People tried to explain that the Church was funding this project. Things settled down then and Ron and Elder Huskinson walked around the project and then we all got back in our truck and left. It was pretty scary. Ron is so funny after we had left, he reached in his pocket and pulled out his little pocket knife, it is just little and about one and a half inches long and he said to me, if he hadn’t given our camera back, I was going to take care of him. We all laughed and the crisis was over. Later we found out why this man was so excited, we were told that it is against the law here for prisoners to work for money and they can only work within the prison grounds. So this guard had taken them out to the village illegally and was charging for their labor and pocketing the money. The village is so remote, he probably couldn’t believe his eyes when four muzungus’ (white people) pulled up in a truck and started to take pictures. It is funny now, but not so much then.

We hope all is well at home and love to hear from everyone. Brent and Kami are coming to spend Christmas with us and that makes us so happy. We love this mission and all the wonderful blessings it provides. Love, Elder and Sister Bean.

PS: we have made CDs for our family, but can only send them in the pouch each Tuesday, two at a time, so kids expect them in the next month or so.

Update from Uganda

2007-08-20T19:41:00.001-07:00

Dear Family and Friends:

It has been a couple of busy weeks here with two of the top humanitarian people from SLC and our big boss from South Africa visiting with us. Sharon Eubanks has responsibility for the wheelchair projects worldwide and Robert Hokanson has responsibility for the water projects worldwide. John Elks from South Africa also came with them. He approves, or not, all of our area projects. We write them up, submit them to Elder Mills in South Africa and then if he approves they go to John Elks for the final go ahead. They visited with us for four days and we arranged for them to meet with all kinds of organizations to evaluate and talk with them. We also took them out in the villages to look at water projects and to talk with water district people. They were wonderful to work with and to be with. Brother Elks is from England originally and has that wonderful British humor. We were in our truck following behind some water people on our way out to look at a borehole. Ron was lagging behind and we were losing our guides, so brother Elks said to Ron, “put foot”. I guess this is an English saying meaning to hurry up. I loved that and now I get to use it. They were very helpful and even treated us to some very nice meals. We have been green lighted on water projects now so we have as much to do as we can produce. We met with the water district bureaucracy folks on two projects of over 200 wells and boreholes to either refurbish or to drill new water sources. The water districts are like most everything else here, very limited funds and very political. The Church bears most of the financial costs, but we do require that they contribute and do what they can to help supply clean water to the people in their districts. They are required to supply labor, land and various other things. We require them to have a water committee in each district, so that someone is responsible for the well after the Church has completed the project.

We have also ordered three containers of wheelchairs from SLC and took our visitors to meet with the organization those partners with the Church to bring them into the Country. Each of the 52 districts in Uganda will get a portion of this order. We were told the last time they were brought into this country, the missionaries helped unload them, set them up and were there and helped hand them out to the people who were listed to receive them. We understand it was a pretty emotional time for all.

We have now bought all the tools for a pineapple project that we had approved a few weeks ago. 95 women, out in a very remote village, have banded together and have bought five acres of land and the Church (through us) is providing what they need to prepare the land and to plant. We took two trucks out to deliver all the things they need to first clear the land. These women work very hard and clear the land by themselves, sometimes with the help of very small children and babies tied firmly on their backs. The land is thick with bushes and undergrowth and I am imagining plenty of critters, like snakes, etc. When we first went to visit and walk the land, I was very cautious about where I stepped. They clear all of this by hand. We delivered hoes, pangos, fencing material, rakes, nails, pineapple tissues, fertilizer, etc. I have attached a picture of Ron shaving with one of the pangos. He thinks he looks like Crocodile Dundee. After unloading our truck, the woman receiving the material did a little dance for us as we pulled away. She was so thankful and just kept saying over and over again, thank you Elder and Sister Bean and we said this is from the people of our Church that contribute to the Humanitarian Fund, we are just the buyers and delivery people and get the fun of seeing how much good it does. There is a lot of polygamy in the villages and men are not around very often. Women are the ones that contribute mostly to the family needs, so we were very happy that this project was approved.

We have also submitted the paperwork for a piggery project for one village, and a pilot banana project that we really think will turn out well for another. We love this part of the calling – but, the driving is a nightmare of very intense concentration and trust. This is hard on both of us, Ron doing the driving and Sandra very nervous seeing all the potentials for disaster on her side of the truck We experience big trucks piled high with sugar cane or matoke with three or four guys sitting on the top, passing four or five other trucks and coming straight for you in your lane and you are sure it is going to be a head on. At the very last second they find a way to get out of your lane and zip into theirs, or we are run off the road, it does cause your heart to stop for a moment. We are usually very tired when we return home. Then add a drenching downpour to this and it is very very tiring, we also try not to drive at night.

We took our visitors to the airport in Entebbe and really hated to see them go. They were on their way to Kenya to visit the humanitarian director there. They were very helpful with good ideas and suggestions and were also a lot of fun to be with. We hope before we go home that they will visit again. On the way back from the airport we stopped at the Entebbe botanical gardens. There were beautiful trees and jungle foliage and monkeys chattering and sitting on branches There were tropical flowers growing on many trees and bushes and jungle flowery smells, birds, long vines for swinging on, thick undergrowth, we really felt we was in a movie in Africa and that somehow our tree house was close by. We understand that the 1930 movie called Tarzan was filmed here. We were waiting to hear his famous yell in the distance and we would not have been surprised. It was a great photo opportunity. This area is located on the shores of Lake Victoria and is very picturesque.

We will be moving from our first home here in Kampala in about two weeks. We are moving to a new apartment house with eight units. We (sisters and elders) have rented four of them. It has advantages and disadvantages. We like where we are living presently, but the rent has gone up and the extra $400 to $500 more each month is prohibitive for all of us. We will be on the top floor of the new unit so we will have a wonderful view, but the floor space is much smaller and it doesn’t have the beautiful yard with avocado trees and flowering bushes that we have now. The construction here is very poor, so we see a lot of flaws, but overall it will be nice and it is new. The place we live in now use to be part of the mission home and the distribution center, so there are closets full of stuff and it is our lot to go through them and toss or give away. The good part of the move is that the Church is buying us a new washing machine. Such luxury. Ours has not functioned properly since we have been here and now it has died completely. I am using Elder and Sister Moore’s machine for the time being. Our washer is also a beautiful shade of rust on the outside and you can only wash about three things at a time and absolutely nothing heavy, sometimes it doesn’t spin, so you wring things out by hand. So we are excited to see a new white one and you can even wash towels in it.

Kami called a few days ago and said they will be coming to Africa to visit us. It will be around Christmas and maybe even during Christmas. She said she has had all of her shots required to come here. Brent just finished climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania a few weeks ago, so he is already prepared to come. We want to congratulate him for that accomplishment and understand that out of 14 climbers, he was the only one that didn’t get altitude sickness. We are looking forward to visits from our family and hope that more will come to visit. Our mission is such that they can go with us on our projects and we think they will find it interesting. We spoke with Darcy on her birthday and she said she and Mark will be coming in June or so. We will have fun showing them around and taking them with us on our various Humanitarian visits. We hope to have more of our children come before we go home. It is a wonderful experience, but does require some pain on their part – shots and all. You will get to see Africa in a very intimate way. See the people and how they live and visit with them. We will have an extra bedroom in our new place and it is waiting to have guests.

Roger sent us a newspaper article published in the Los Angeles Times about his successful long running musical. It has been long playing in Los Angles and has gotten great reviews and is now going off Broadway. Roger’s dad has mentioned it to almost all he sees. Congratulations Roger, we are very proud of you and hope when we return home that it will come to Seattle.

We are doing well health wise, although a lot of people in our branch had and have malaria. Our branch president has been in the hospital for 17 days and is now home, but not doing so well. It is a terrible disease and we have been surprised how many people here have had it again and again. Thank goodness for mosquito nets and malaria pills. We are truly blessed and realize it every day.

We understand that Torri’s son, Ryan, our grandson, is getting ready for his mission. He has his paperwork done and his interview with Uncle Matt is all that is left to be done and then the paperwork goes to SLC. We are proud of you Ryan. Keep us updated. We remember how hard it was to wait for that letter. We miss our family and friends and home and love to hear from you.

Lovc,
Elder and Sister Bean (Sandra and Ron)

Rainstorm at Jinja; Dental Clinic Handover

2007-08-06T11:56:00.000-07:00

Dental Equipment Handover

Wet Missionaries

Children Filling Water Buckets

Children Dancing

Rainstorm in Jinja (What they'll put up with to shop!)

Dear Family and Friends:

An update on what is going on in east Africa.

We are in the rainy season and most every day we have a very substantial downpour. It comes equipped with thunder and lighting and buckets of water pouring from the sky. The roads turn into orange rivers and in some places we have to drive carefully through a running stream of water. It is really fun when another car or truck passes you and covers you with orange water.

Two new proselyting senior missionary couples have now arrived in our mission. Both couples are wonderful and really fun people. A sense of humor helps here. Last Tuesday we all drove to Jinja to pick up some furniture for their apartments. Ron and I went with them because they needed our truck. President and Sister Christensen also went along to help. Jinga is Ugandas second largest city and is located on Lake Victoria It can be a pretty interesting drive. There are a lot of big trucks loaded with bananas, sugar cane, petrol and such. We wondered how the new missionaries would fare on that road. In fact, upon arrival, Elder Nye, new missionary, was sick and had to stay in bed at the home of the missionary couple. Before shopping we took our three pickups to show the new missionaries the source of the Nile. There is an entrance gate where they charge admission and of course being white, it cost us a little bit more to get in than the locals. We tried to argue that we were residents of Uganda, and ended up paying a little less. We rented a boat and our guide was wonderful. We sailed along the shoreline and saw all these monkeys playing in the trees. They were swinging on vines and chattering and were very curious about us and came down very close to the boat and peeked out through the foliage. I was thinking how much fun it would be for our grand kids to see this. We then saw a crocodile sunning its self along the bank and a monitor lizard lying in the water. They use the lizard skins for the top of their tall drums. There were hundreds of different species of birds of all kinds and colors.

We noticed a huge black cloud forming a little way off and the guide said we better head for shore. We nearly made it. We were just pulling up to the dock when the rain hit. By the time we got out of the boat and up the bank, it was raining so hard we could hardly see. We ran for cover in a small restaurant, without sides, just a roof and there was a craft booth set up by the side of it. The women ran for the craft booth and the men to the restaurant. The men made the better choice because it rained so hard and the wind blew so hard that it nearly took the tarp off the top of the craft booth. There was no way to stay dry. We were all soaking wet, but what was really fun, we took pictures of the soaking wet women shopping and looking at paper necklaces and debating about colors during the worst rain and wind storm they have had this year. We are a hardy bunch. We ended up helping the craft people cover their things and put away their stuff. They were very happy to have us there. When we saw rivers of mud and water coming down the hill sides, we decided rain or not we had to run for the trucks and get out of there. By the time we left, we were as wet as if we had fallen in the Nile. You see, missionaries do get to have fun along with a lot of hard work.

This week Ron and I visited a couple of water projects and an organization called Invisible Children. It works with and helps the families and children that are up north in Gulu and other villages that are caught in the war zone. The organization works with these people in helping them with a little business. They are helping these displaced people make bracelets, which are made out of reeds and some kind of sturdy straw like material. The people gather these reeds out in the fields and attach them together with colored wire to make bracelets to sell. The colored wire comes in White, red, green, yellow, brown and black and each has a childs name on it and signifies something. There are a lot of children who have seen their families killed and are found hiding in the bush. A lot of the little boys are kidnapped and forced into the military service and made to fight or be killed themselves. Little kids like 5 years old and older. There were quite a few people who had escaped from the northern area, and were in the back of the building making these bracelets. They make part of them and then send them up north for the people there to put them together. They are then shipped to San Diego to be sold in America and the money is sent back to the people that make them. The people running this organization took us into the back room and told us we could select a bracelet free and would only let us buy 5 more. There is also a video about these kids. It was a very interesting tour and we asked them if there was anything the Church could help them with. They seem to be a well run organization and keep wonderful records of who make the bracelets and how many. They are doing much good here. We took the man from BYU Idaho with his cameraman to visit this organization with us. We then took them to an orphanage. We have decided that this orphanage should be helped with the Humanitarian Fund. They need beds, mattresses and mosquito nets and a water tank.

After leaving the orphanage we dashed home to change our muddy shoes and meet President and Sister Christensen for the formal opening ceremony of the Mulago Hospital Dental School. The Church contributed the X-ray equipment in partnership with the Canadian Rotarians from Alberta Canada, who in turn got a large grant from the U.S. Rotarians for all the dental chairs for the school. We were invited to represent the Church. Sixty-eight percent of the adult population in Uganda has oral health problems and there is only one dentist for 150,000 people presently. It was a wonderful project and we got to listen to a lot of speeches and it was covered by the media. I guess Ron and President Christensen were on TV, but since we do not have a TV, we never get to see it. We only hear this by word of mouth. We have also ordered 750 wheelchairs from Salt Lake and are hoping that it wont take long to get them.

This is a wonderful assignment and we just want to thank everyone who contributes to the Humanitarian Fund. We receive the blessing of seeing what this money accomplishes in a very poor country, it eases a lot of suffering. I think all you senior couples should put your papers in right away. This is a wonderful mission experience. There are hardships here, but the blessings outweigh the sacrifice

Love Elder and Sister Bean

Spinal Injury Unit Handover

2007-07-24T14:41:00.000-07:00

Ron and Sandra at the Nile River

African Dancers

Looking at Water Projects

Handover at the Spinal Injury Unit

Dear Family and Friends:

We are very busy looking at projects and trying to decide if they are worthy projects to use our budget. Two of the top people from Salt Lake and our area director from South Africa will be coming the second week in August and we will be concentrating on major initiatives, which will be clean water, wheel chairs and other initiatives. We have already been out in the villages and the country side looking at all kinds of wells and bore holes and springs. It is pretty awful what kind of water that people are drinking here. Their latrines, cattle, goats and such are all around the water that they are drinking and use for cooking and hygiene. The statistics are that one out of every six people in the world do not have clean water . I guess a lot of kids and adults die of typhoid ,dysentery and all kinds of awful things because of this. The Church is really putting a lot of emphasis on this problem and also we have a big budget to help, at least with some of the water issues.

Last week we visited an organization called “CHILD” it was way out in a village and a young muzungu came out to talk with us. His name is Justin Knox and his father is a temple worker in the Seattle Temple and he is best friends with the son of President Bob Miller of the Snohomish Stake. He is helping this organization to determine what there greatest needs are. They are working to help the HIV people in this village, among other things. He is very nice and very smart and we may be able to work with that organization in helping at least distribute literature and other things.

Last week we had two senior missionaries arrive. They are potato farmers from Rexburg, Idaho. Very nice people. We took them to Church with us on Sunday and included them in our Sunday afternoon family home evening get together. This next Thursday, we are getting another couple. They are all proselyte missionaries. It is nice to have a few more couples here. They are really needed.

Last Friday we did another hand over. We acquired blankets, pillows, mosquito nets, sheets, and pillow cases for the Spinal Injury Unit at the Mulago hospital. At This hospital there are a lot of patients who are very poor and have to bring their own blankets, pillows, towels, sheets, whatever and most of the people cannot afford to do that, so these contributions from the Church were most appreciated. We met at the Spinal Injury Association to distribute these items. There were a group of people in wheelchairs and the doctor that performs the spinal injury surgery attended and also spoke. They also asked both of us to speak and we told them about the Church’s humanitarian program. The people who were there in wheel chairs said their wheelchairs were also contributed by the Church a few years ago.

The lease is up on our compound in September and the landlord is going to raise the rent by $400.00 a month. So we are going to be leaving this nice residence with the wonderful avocado tree and pretty yard and will be moving to a brand new apartment house. We will be living on the top floor with a nice view, but it doesn’t have the yard, nor the nice walking area that we are use to. We try to go for a walk each evening and have really enjoyed the beautiful palm trees, flowers, etc in the neighborhood we are leaving. We will be moving the end of August, but no one here can justify paying that kind of rent.

Love to all,

Ron and Sandra

Beans in Church News

2007-07-15T22:18:00.000-07:00

Here's a short article that appeared in the recent Church News:

Helping The Elderly in Uganda

JINJA, UGANDA

Some 52 senior and widowed members of the village of Mawoito now have blankets and mosquito nets thanks to the Church's welfare and mission leadership in this nation. During a "handover" ceremony in May, villagers welcomed Uganda Kampala Mission interim President LaVal J. Call and his wife, Sister LaBerta R. Call, along with Elder Ronald Bean and Sister Sandra Bean, country welfare and humanitarian directors for Uganda. The village members surrounded their truck with dancing, singing and drum playing.

The missionaries, including other senior missionaries serving in the area, were led to a special platform where decorated benches were set up and a program had been prepared, which consisted of many speeches of thanks to the Church for the blankets and nets, and traditional singing and dancing. A muffin made of corn and a drink of soda was provided as a show of their hospitality. There were many children watching the proceedings, and the missionaries invited them to come forward to have a corn muffin.

Also in this same issue was the announcement of the New Mission President, The Christensens, for the Uganda Kampala Mission. Here is the info:

Edward Christensen, 63, Uganda Kampala Mission, Rancho Bernardo Ward, Poway California Stake, former bishop, high councilor, counselor in a stake Young Men presidency, High priest group leader and missionary in the New Zealand South Mission. Engineering manager, Hewlett Packard. Born in Colorado Springs, Colo. to Ted and Lenna Newell Christensen. Married Erin Marie Moore, seven children.

A ward missionary, Sister Christensen is a former stake Young Women president and ward Primary and Relief Society president. Born in Long Beach, Calif. to Edward James and Rhea Robinson Moore.

Letter from Nana

2007-07-08T17:43:00.000-07:00

Hi Honey:

Thanks for all you do for us. We love and appreciate you both so very much. This morning I was listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir while getting ready for the day and they sang that darling song, I am trying to be like Jesus, and I had a melt down, because I hear those sweet primary voices sing it and I thought of the boys and that was all it took. Otherwise, I am doing OK. We are having an incredible experience. I can't even explaine it. We just sent a message to Matt for the blog, so you will get to read somethings that we are doing, but everyday is a new experience. Our boss and his wife, Elder and Sister Mills from South Africa have been here all week, so we have been taking him out to meet some of our organizations and people that we are working with on projects. I haven't even had time to do my laundry, so I know I am overdue to write to you. While he was here we had a "hand-over" in Mukono so we invited them to go with us to participate and we also invited the new mission president and elder and sister Moore went also. This is where we officially hand over the things that the Church has provided for a project that we have accepted. We handed over rice seeds, fertilizer, a boda boda (motorcycle), computer and printer, insecticide and many more things for planting upland rice. Sixty farmers were selected to start this project. We met at the Mokono District Farmer's Asso. and they had set up benches and tables on a platform to honor us. They had the news media there and a representative from the King, a representative from the government and a representative from the District. We asked the Mission president and his wife to set on the stand with us They had also invited all the farmers that the church was helping and served refreshments and gave wonderful speeches honoring us and the church. They used the analogy of the church being the Good Samaritan. These things are always humbling and very nice. This humanitarian job is the best in the church. We get to do all kinds of wonderful things that help people and we also get to see their graditude first hand.

Yesterday, we took Elder and Sister Mills to Jinja, a charming city, which is on Lake Victoria and the source of the Nile. We rented a small boat with a tour guide and sailed right to the source. You could see where the the water flowed right from the Lake and into the Nile. We also saw the most wonderful birds, all shapes and sizes and sailed over to the monument erected to John Speck, the explorer who discovered the source. It was so interesting. We could hardly believe we were there. We also saw the falls where the guys were doing white water river rafting. It was incredible. It is supposed to be the best river rafting in the world, but it looked dangerous to me. Two weeks ago we went to the equator and stood on the line - one foot on one side and one on the other. We are so blessed to be having these experiences and being part of the Lord's blessings on these people. We are having people come from SLC in August to show them around and express what we thinkg Uganda needs in the way of humanaitarian assistance. We are going to be asking for 750 wheelchairs and some money to do quite a few clean water projects. I have been hearing about all the wonderful and fun things you guys are doing. Fill me in about the Trek, that really sounds wonderful. I know that Torri is there now and hope you guys are having fun together. I heard that the Rhino made it to Lynnwood and wish I could be there to celebtrate the birthday event with you guys. Thanks again for everything. I miss those darling boys and think about them always. Love and kisses. Nana.

News from the Pearl of Africa

2007-07-07T22:52:00.000-07:00

Kampala, Uganda

It is interesting how fast time seems to be going for us over here – and that is in direct opposition to the counsel given by Ssimbwa (our African helper) to just throw away our watches. Time does not seem to matter too much here. They will wait hours, take cab rides for hours, their patience is unbelievable. Muzungus (white people) always want to be on time! At any rate, we have just ended our second month as missionaries and looking at all that we have been involved in it seems much longer.

Sundays are kind of special – we go early and I meet with the Priesthood leaders of the branch, which usually means just me and the branch president for the first 30-45 minutes until the others trickle in. Transportation is such a problem as many have no money for a taxi, so it is a long walk for them, and throw in a downpour for good measure and we are on African time. Sacrament meeting does start on time but people come in throughout the meeting. Sandra is teaching the piano while I am in early meetings, she plays for the Sacrament meeting, and believe it or not I play for the Priesthood meeting (it certainly helps that many of them don’t know better!). We meet as couples in the afternoon for family home evening and it is a good time for us to chat and socialize. I used Luke 15 for the lesson this last week and the three parables therein.

Monday we went with the UN in one of their souped up SUV’s with a van of media people following, forty miles past Mubende and then 32 KM into the villages for an official handover of the last of a large shipment that the church had sent for the refugee camps. This camp had 16,651 in it as well as over 3,000 Rwandan Refugees that have been denied asylum and refugee status. They have been placed on the outskirts of the camp, but they have some rights as asylum seekers, The bulk of the refugees are from the Congo, and as such have automatic refugee status. The rest come from Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Somali, and the Sudan. They receive a small plot of land to farm and something to place as a roof (plastic or sheet metal) and they build their own mud hut/home. It is hard to describe the conditions. They live in huts made out of mud and the roofs are either some kind of tin or grass. but I thought they were much better than I had imagined as this is a very fertile country and it is easy for them to grow things. The UN has also been supplying them with some food and brings in water. Sandra and I handed out hygiene kits and school kits at a middle school. These kids are about 12 to 15 years old. Think about being so excited and so grateful just to get soap, toothpaste and brushes, and writing tablets and something to write with, a pencil sharpener and a ruler and a book to read that is your very own. They hugged us and kept saying, thank you, thank you. We went to another part of the camp (it is 81 square KM in size) and handed out clothing to men, women and children. These were the same bundles of clothing that we saw being sorted at welfare square in SLC (good, clean, used). We gave each a pair of pants and a shirt of some kind. They were all lined up and were waiting patiently to get their turn in the building where we were sorting and handing out this clothing. It went on for a long time before and after we were there, but we were representing the church and got a lot of press coverage both in the papers and on TV. I guess we were on the nightly news twice the next evening and once the morning after. We did not see the program, but a lot of our church members saw us and told us about it. They even showed the picture of Sandra handing out balloons to the little kids. That was unbelievable. She had a sack of 100 balloons in her purse and little kids ran from all over and mobbed her, yelling, please madam give me one. All you could see were little arms reaching for a balloon and almost knocking her off balance. We wish people who contribute to the humanitarian fund could see the end results. These people are so grateful for this assistance and need it so badly. We actually stood there with tears in our eyes. We rode back with the press in the van (7or 8 of them) and the rode forty miles out of Kampala is actually very good – but those last miles into town in the dark are something else. Remember no stop lights, no street lights, no car lights on most, no striping on the roads, potholes galore, bikes, boda-bodas, and mass amounts of people (no sidewalks) and you understand why I was happy to have someone else drive. It was a wonderful experience though and we have some nice pictures.

Yesterday we went to the marketplace at the lake in Kampala where they bring the people over from the islands and bring in their fish. A kaleidoscope of color and confusion. I then drove down to the equator where we did some shopping, had a late lunch, and took the obligatory pictures to prove we were actually on the equator. On the way back home, we stopped at a small little shop where they make the African drums. They come in all sizes and are quite unique. They are made of animal hide and each one is unique and has a different sound. They were making them by hand, off the road and down in a gully, under some big trees – an interesting process – and we ordered one to be made. A fairly small one, but it only cost 20,000 shillings (approx. $12.00 US) and we will pick it up in 4-5 weeks when the skin is cured. We bought some fruit on the way back as it is really inexpensive when you get away from the big city. Our breakfast this morning was a huge papaya (with fresh lime juice), fresh pineapple, small sweet bananas, and orange juice to wash down our malaria pills! We don’t like the beef here, but we certainly don’t lack in food.

We are both doing well physically – losing a little weight – actually a good thing and looking ahead to a very busy summer as we have more than enough to keep us busy and I find out more and more coming our way. We have a folder full of potential water projects and we understand we are having some experts come from SLC in August to look over some of these. We are also making arrangements to get at least 500 wheelchairs sent here. We have talked with the organization that will help the church get them into this country and help with the distribution. We celebrated Independence Day with no power at our compound. The two young missionaries that live above the garage (whom we love) came over with marshmallows and cookies and we supplied the chocolate bars and we put a marshmallow on a fork and held it over the candle flame and made “some mores”. It actually was very fun. Elder Monson brought his CD player over (battery powered) and we played a CD of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing America. We ate “Some Mores” by candle light and the missionaries read the scriptures pertaining to America being prepared for the restoration of the gospel. It was fun and a lot more impressive by candle light. We love and miss our family very much and once in a while a “melt down” occurs because we miss you so, but we feel we really are of help here and that makes it worthwhile. Love to you all,

P.S. A few pics: women in camp, Sandra being mobbed for balloons, and clothes handout.

New Pics

2007-06-25T08:53:00.001-07:00

Here are some more pictures from the Beans!

Watch out for the gorilla!

The local Relief Society

Elder Bean has finally found someone to play (American) football with.

United Nations and Visit to the Tomb of the Kings

2007-06-22T00:56:00.001-07:00

We are going with the United Nations group on Monday to the refugee camps. we are going to represent the church in distributing some of the goods that the Church sent to Africa. The people from the UN contacted us and want us to be part of the hand over. Evidently there will be a lot of publicitiy and international news people there. So look for us in the news. We also got an e-mail from a man at BYU Idaho who wants to come over here with a photographer and do a documentary on globalization of Africa and the humanitrian work here. He wants to follow us around for a day or two as we visit villages and assess projects. So we might be in a BYU documentary. We will let you know how that goes.

We had a fun morning. We were taken around this morning by a member of the church called Ssimbwa, who does a lot of things for all of us. He buys our blankets, mosquito nets, etc. that we take to the villages. He gets a better price because he is African. He picked Ron and I up and took us to the tomb of the KIngs and also to the martyr's site. It is so interesting. Love Nana and Ron

xoxoxoxoxo

The Latest

2007-06-20T22:48:00.000-07:00

Several things to tell you.

Elder and Sister Williams just barely left to go home to Kaysville, Utah. They were here with the Church educational system. Their two daughters came over a week or so to see the country and accompany their parent’s home. We have been with them several times, once at a luncheon at the mission home and once for family home evening and met them once when they were with their parents in their truck going off to see the source of the Nile. The one daughter Noel is married and her husband’s sister works with you in the young women’s program in Lynnwood. I can’t think of her name, but anyway you will probably know who I am talking about. We really enjoyed meeting them and I think they had a great time here. However, while they were at the source of the Nile, their parents home was robbed. This is not a good way to finish your mission. The whole family left yesterday and we will miss them. The Williams were a lot of fun and Elder Williams is just crazy, and has a wonderful sense of humor. When he and Ron would get together it was just a competition on who could tell the most outlandish story and you couldn’t believe a word either one of them said. Anyway just thought that was interesting because she mentioned the connection with you.

Noel and her sister brought 3 full bags of little kid’s shoes and gave them to us to distribute. We gave them to a woman in one of the branches [so she could sell] the shoes to get a little money. It is so sad here. A lot of people in the branches only have one meal a day. President Call told us he went to one of the branches for a meeting and it was very dark in the room. He said to the branch president turn the light on and the branch president said, we only have one light bulb and that is for Sacrament meeting. Stealing is a big problem here and you cannot leave anything in your car, even if it is locked. We carry everything we don’t want stolen with us when we leave the car parked. The Moore’s have had their truck broken into 3 different times. That was the first month they were here. We have a guard at the gate to our homes, but we are always very careful about locking our doors, locking up our computer. People are so poor that I guess they don’t think anything of helping themselves to whatever they can.

We sent some pictures of our latest trip to one of the villages and a picture of the Relief Society sisters in our branch with our update to the blog, so hope they worked, we are still trying to master the new Vista system. [MATT: HAVEN’T BEEN ABLE TO OPEN THEM YET, BUT WILL POST THEM WHEN THE VISTA ISSUES HAVE BEEN WORKED OUT]

Thank you again for heading up the hygiene kit project. When we were out in the village last week and all the little kids were following me around, I was wishing I had those kits to give out then. However, we still have a lot of time left here and will be going to the villages all the time. Wish I could kiss all the kids. I think of them constantly and miss you and Matt very much. I got an update from him about driving the NASCAR. Tell him the two missionaries that live in our compound are so impressed and so is Ron. WOW, heard you were also headed for SunRiver. What a fun summer you have planned. Has Torri arrived yet? We have not heard anything, but we have been out of contact too.

I sent the boys some hand painted African bookmarks. I thought they were cute and they were easy to send and fit in an envelope. We sent them in the pouch that goes out every Tuesday to America. So it only costs the usual postage. I think we sent the address of the pouch to you. Ron and I both have the bookmarks and think they are kind of cute.

We have been very busy. The new mission president comes in two weeks and we have our boss coming from South Africa the day after the Calls leave. He will spend a week here and we will be taking him around to all our projects and to a hand over. Also the Call’s are going to stay with us for 3 days when the new president gets here. They don’t want to stay at the Mission home with them there. I really like Sister Call. We have become good friends. We went to the Mission home last Wednesday for a going away luncheon for the Williams and Sister Call is very fussy and a good cook, so everything was very nice. It is really a beautiful home. It is furnished very nicely and has some very pretty & unique pieces of African art. I don’t like a lot of the art work here, but I would like to get a nice wall hanging before we leave. They do hand painted African people or batik on bark cloth and there are some very pretty ones. I would also like a few of their baskets. I am keeping my eye out for gifts for everyone, so far a few have been bought and stowed away.

We really appreciate having you there – I often think of you and Matt and the kids as “Beans”. And I mean that in a wonderful way. Nana could not be a better companion – she is like a “pied piper” to all the children in the villages and the sisters in the branch all adore her. This is truly a blessed time in our life.

Anyhow, thanx for all you do, Ron

First Picture from Uganda

2007-06-07T10:26:00.001-07:00

Here it is. I'm told there is more to come. They already look like seasoned veterans, don't they?

Hospitals and Haircuts

2007-06-04T10:49:00.001-07:00

The following is a compilation of a couple of letters. I wanted to make sure we got all the details. No in-country pictures yet. Elder and Sister Bean -- Send pictures!
_____________________

You must come to Africa. It is so interesting and so different. Each day is an adventure. Especially traveling the roads. We are in a fairly nice compound and love our neighbors, who are Elder & Sister Moore from Bountiful, Utah. Today, two new young elders moved into the apartment above the garage. They are from Phoenix, Arizona and North Ogden, Utah. So we are a compound of muzungu's (white people) from the United States. We definitely are in the minority here. Very few white people. When we drive around we never see anyone else of our kind, only at the larger malls and restaurants will you see maybe two or three.

This morning we went to check on a project at the Maluka hospital. We have a women we met named Angela, She is in a wheelchair and wants the church to contribute 120 blankets, sheet sets and pillows to the spinal injury ward at the hospital. We met her at the hospital today and toured the spinal injiury ward. It was so awful, you can not believe it. Of course this is the part of the hospital where they put the people who cannot pay. I just sort of looked straight ahead as we walked through this dirty, smelly place with all kinds of people with all kinds of things wrong with them in a bed. Anyway, we are going to help them with blankets, sheets, etc. How could you not?

On Wednesdays people come to our office to present their humanitarian projects and hope that we will partner with them and help them. The office is always crowded and we stay way past the time we are supposed to, just listening to needs and very sad stories. A lot of them are looking for ways to get clean water, and we & the church want to do a bunch of wells and help protect & maintain wells already in existence. So many needs, we wish we could help all of them. A lot of them are woman groups, wanting to go in together and raise poultry, pigs, pineapple, cattle and want the church to set them up. There are alot of single African women raising big families and no man in sight. It definitely is a man's world here, especially in the villages, where they still do things like caning (you know with a big cane or stick) The little kids are so cute and very shy. I love to smile at them and then they will smile back. I also love to see a woman walking along the road with a big basket of bananas on her head and a baby in a sling on her back. Driving to our office or to church, this is a very common sight. We go out to the villages to look at projects and to take mosquito nets, blankets, etc. and words cannot describe what you see.

You must come visit. There are wonderful sights to see. The source of the Nile is in a city called Jinja, which we have and will visit often to get to some of the villages. If you want to read a good book that talks about searching for the source of the Niles and all the explorers that explored this area in the 1800's read: The White Nile. Very Very interesting. It is quite acceptable for us to have visitors. The couples that are here now all have had their families come and visit and stay with them. President Call and Sister Call, who are the acting mission president until the end of the month when the new mission president,arrives, went with their daughter and son-in-law to Ethopia to adopt two little sisters, ages 2 & 4 from an orphange and took them back to Wyoming. There is so much to tell you, but this is turning into a book. So hope you are having a wonderful time. Let us hear about your adventures too. We are going with President and Sister Call tomorrow to get haircuts. I hope she is as good as Csaba. I am also (for the time being) letting my hair go gray, don't know if I can last though.

__________________________

Yesterday we spent the day with President and sister Call. We all had our hair cut, that was pretty interesting. We all have a little different look today, but it just cost us 20,000 shillings a piece, which is around $10.00, not quite a Csaba cut, but not bad. We then drove out to an African Market and walked around and Ron bought some sandals and an African ball to throw around. It was made out of dried material like reeds, grass, not sure.

A Visit to Jinja

2007-05-29T19:33:00.000-07:00

Subject: Hello from Africa

Date: Sun, 26May 2007 04:10:53 -0700 (PDT)

We are having an adventure here in Uganda, what can I say? There are so many experiences that I can't possibly tell you all of them, but I will tell you about yesterday. We got in our truck and drove out to a little town called Jinja to deliver some blankets and mosquito netting to a small village back in the bush. The ride out there was an experience by itself. We passed huge sugar cane plantations, tea plantations, banana plantations and it was so very very beautiful. Uganda is simply beautiful, except for the terrible poverty. You pass all kinds of people carrying huge stacks of bananas, firewood, sacks of grain, pineapples, you name it all piled on their heads. Everything is a picture, you just want to stop the car and take hundreds of pictures.

We drove over a bridge spanning the Nile River and on the other side is a plaque saying that this is the source of the Nile, which people had searched for hundreds of years and here it is in Uganda, (a good book to read about the exploration of East Africa and the searching for the source of the Nile is "The White Nile) but wait, the best is yet to come, We drove out to this little village and the people knew we were coming and they surrounded our truck when we pulled into their village. They were singing and chanting with drums beating and arms waving and they danced all around our truck, singing a welcome song. It was like a centerfold in National Geographic. We couldn't even get out of the truck until they were finished. They then shook your hands and hugged us saying "you are most welcome". There were darling little very black kids and goats, chickens, donkeys, and animals I didn't even recognize all around us. The women were dressed in their best attire to honor us. I felt like a celebrity. They had prepared a platform with wooden benches on it and led us from the truck to the platform. The benches were covered with cloths all hand stitched in beautiful patterns and they had prepared them for us to sit on. They then preceded with the welcome program and the head of the village spoke. They had an interpreter there for us (out in the villages they speak limited English) but speak something called Lugandan (sp?) He thanked us over and over and welcomed us and then the entertainment began with dancing and singing and two men beating on the ancient drums.

It was so what you think of when you think of African music - kind of an ancient primitive type of music and dance. It was very thrilling to watch. The women were making sounds with their mouths sort of a trilling sound. We spoke and President and Sister Call spoke and then they fed us a large dry roll of some sort on their best plates. I guess it is Ok to eat the food if it has been cooked. I wasn't sure what it was.

I could not eat this big roll sitting up on a platform with all the little children watching us. I knew they were hungry, so we broke of pieces of the roll and tried to entice the children to come and share with us. They seldom see white people (musungus) so they were a little afraid to come up and take it from us, but when one finally did, they slowly came forward and we all shared our rolls. They are so darling and I held one of the babies. We then passed out the blankets and mosquito nets and there was more dancing and singing and drum beating. We have some wonderful pictures and as soon as our computer gets hooked up to the internet we will send a picture for you to all see.

There is so much to tell, that is just one of our days, you cannot believe what we have experienced in the short time we have been here. Our house is quite nice and I suppose by African standards it is really nice. It is in a fancy neighborhood, but about a quarter to a half of the time we do not have power and/or water. We fill bottles with filtered water which we have it to save for when we are without. Sometimes this is a pain, for two days now we have been without water, but we have wonderful neighbors (Elder and Sister Moore from Bountiful, Utah) and we all share and help one another. We have a huge avocado tree in our yard and the avocado's are enormous, so we have delicious avocados to snack on, fresh pineapple and all kinds of delicious fruit. We have two fairly large extra bedrooms, so we would welcome all to come and visit. The Moores and Calls have all had family from time to time come and visit, so get your shots and come and see us. It is fine for the senior members to have family come.

The people from the village yesterday gave us gifts of avocados, bananas, sweet potatoes, peanuts, sugar cane, squash. potatoes and just filled our truck with plenty of good food they had grown. We drove home and gave most of it to the guards to take home to eat.

Anyway, I could go on and on and on, but will save it for another day. Hope all is well with you and keep us up to date on your big move. I sure do love you (by the way Ron asked one of the drummers yesterday if he could play the drums and he beat on the drums, while the ladies sang and danced. Doesn't that sound like him? I got a picture. He loved it and so did they.

Also will you send this letter to the Matt's Blog so all can share? Thanks Honey, Love Mom and Ron

2,000 Remember Mission President

2007-05-21T14:59:00.000-07:00

Heber's Ralph Duke was killed in traffic accident in Uganda

By Elizabeth Stuart
Deseret Morning News

HEBER CITY — About 2,000 people Saturday paid their respects to a Heber businessman and religious leader who was killed in a traffic accident May 10 while serving as president of the LDS Church's Uganda Kampala Mission.

Tom Smart, Deseret Morning News

Pall bearers carry President Ralph Duke's casket from a horse-drawn carriage.

"I don't see an empty seat in this room," President Thomas S. Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said to those attending the memorial service for President Ralph L. Duke. "It is a wonderful tribute to a wonderful man."

President Duke, 57, and his wife, Kim, had just dropped off four missionaries at the Entebbe airport and were returning to the mission office when the accident occurred. Sister Duke was injured but was treated and released from the hospital.

President Duke was eager to serve the people of Africa, said President Monson, who issued the call to serve to the couple. He said he was impressed with how willingly the two prepared to leave the country — they were only given two-and-a-half weeks' notice.

"President Duke and his wife appeared to be perfect for the job," he said. "He reminds me of me — that's a compliment, I think."

President Monson read a letter from the First Presidency of the LDS Church addressed to President Duke's wife, Kim.

"We rejoice with you in your husband's life of service," he read. "He successfully used his talents to do good in the world. ... We appreciate his dedicated service to the church."

Michael Moulton said he learned a lot from President Duke, when they worked together when Duke was stake president for the LDS Church.

"Ralph used to say we should not be involved in the thick of thin things," he said. "I think Ralph as endowed with the power to work in the thick of very important things all the time."

In addition to a long resume of church service including three LDS missions, President Duke was a Wasatch County commissioner from 1999 to 2003. He also successfully turned a small grocery store into a thriving business — Duke's IGA.

In addition to a long resume of church service including three LDS missions, President Duke was a Wasatch County commissioner from 1999 to 2003. He also successfully turned a small grocery store into a thriving business — Duke's IGA.

President Duke served as the bishop of an LDS ward twice, but was just as dedicated to the
job the second time as the first, said Thomas Low, who was one of President Duke's counselors. That's just the kind of man he was.

"For him the work was the glory," he said.

The mission president had the uncanny ability to inspire others to be better, said his son, R.L. Duke.

"He was a giant of a man in many ways," he said, choking back tears. "I have a long way to go to fulfill the measure of example that has been set for me. But for my father, I'll try."

President Duke never lost his sense of humor, his children said. He loved to tease and joke with his four children and nine grandchildren.

"He always had a twinkle in his eye and a skip in his step," said his daughter, Katie Nelson. "If he happened to have a new pair of shoes on he'd have a little shuffle for you as well."

Nelson said her father used any excuse to get the family together. He decided the family needed to have "stretch parties" for several days before Thanksgiving to get their stomachs prepped and ready for the big meal.

Nelson tearfully told the crowd her father didn't have the opportunity to meet her children, who were born after he left for Africa.

"I was so excited for him to come home and be Grandpa," she said. "Now we are just going to teach them how he was."

President Duke was born in 1949 in Heber to William Howard and Ellen Child Duke.

He is survived by his sons R.L., Spencer and Mike, and a daughter, Katie.

Hello from Africa

2007-05-19T22:56:00.001-07:00

Here is the first letter from "in-country". Sounds like there is a lot going on! You can reach Ron and Sandra at ugandahuman@yahoo.com

Date: Sat, 19 May 2007 11:10:53 +0000

Hi to all:

Sorry it has taken so long to send a message, but we have had trouble getting our computer set up. We had to go to the Mission office to get set up and to our Humanitarian office which is at the church) to send the e-mail, but the address above should work now. We are finally able to find our office and the mission office. The driving is crazy and of course on the other side of the road. Ron, just yesterday, started driving. It is unbelivable - there seem to be no rules to driving on the roads. There are people cars, boda boda's, taxi's and today we even saw a cow on the road running along and of course chickens and you name it. There are literally thousands of people milling around with huge bundles on their heads. the roads are narrow, dirt and very rutted. The earth is very orange and the guard at our flat has to wash our truck every day.

We have been out to the villages twice - unbeliveable. The conditions people live in are shocking, but now I am getting a little more hardened. Yesterday we drove out to one village to look at a pig project. We are considering working with a local group to help 50 local village farmers start a pig farm. We met in a funny little office and then toured the pigery. Little kids and people of all kinds come out of the brush to look at us and follow us around. One of the women in the village was sharing her house with 100 or so chickens. We have also check out a upland rice project, that looks like the right kind of partner we want to help. These people are so poor, and even past that. No shoes, dirty, and not farm equipment just picks and there own hands. We also particpated with the Calls in a "HAND OVER" ceremony, that is when the humanitarian project is finished and you hand over what we have helped them with. It was held in a village, outside under a tent, with many people speaking and little kids and dogs running around. The mayor of the village even came and spoke. They served refreshments, but it would be hazardous for us to eat anything, so we thanked them and left.

This is going to be very very interesting work. We arrived last Monday morning and President and Sister Call picked us up at the airport, as we walked outside to meet them, we saw monkeys playing and swinging on the trees outside the airport. The ride to Kampala was interesting. Beautiful lush vegetation, but shocking proverty everywhere you looked. Out house is fairly nice. Quite big at least 3 bedrooms - so come and visit. We have a cleaning man that comes on Tuesday and Fridays and a guard at the gate - who patrols the grounds, both are church members. We lose electricity often, last night it was off from about 7:00 pm to about 7:00 am this morning. We also are without water periodically, so I filll water bottles with our filtered water and line them up on the cupbord and fridge for a supply. Yesterday the guard and the cleaning guy - climbed a huge avocado tree and picked some of the bigiest avocados I have ever seen and threw them down for me to take in the house and ripen. All vegetables, fruit, dishes, & such have to be washed in a solution of bleach & rinsed in a solution of bleach. What a drag to wash & dry dishes again. I have shopped with Sister Call at two grocery stores. That is an interesting exprience. I am so glad to have her show me the ropes.

Last night we had dinner at the mission home. Sister Call invited all 3 couples that are assigned here to dinner. (we are in the minority big time) The mission home is beautiful with wonderful native art in the rooms. The home even has a swimming pool. We have spent quite a bit of time with the Calls trying to get oriented, driving out to the villages to check on possible projects. but now he is acting Mission President, he is very busy. However, we are expecting a water specialist to come here from Utah and we have some ideas for protecting some already existing wells.

I know I am rambling on, but there is so much to tell. So goodbye for now. Send me E-mail - I miss all of you. Kiss the kids for me. Hope Ryan arrived safely home. LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU SO MUCH and really Miss our wonderful home. Love for now, Mom

PS Tell Jonathan I will get some pictures of the king of the jungle for him. It seems every year the mission president takes us all on safari - hope that stays the same when the new mission president arrives in July. We are also going to Johannesburg (sp?) South Africa in September for a conferance for all Humanitarian Directors in Africa. Sorry this is so disjointed, but I am hurrying. I am at the mission home and need to leave so they can lock up. PLEASE SEND LETTERS ETC)

Layover at LAX

2007-05-14T14:55:00.000-07:00

Here's some pics from the layover at LAX on the way to Uganda sent courtesy of Kami. Fortunately, it seems Elder and Sister Bean have family in every port. Last word is that they arrived safely in Uganda, had a "wild" ride in from the airport and a nice dinner with their new (interim) mission president and his wife. They are now resting up for their first day on the job!

"Beans turn their back on L.A. and the USA"

Uganda Bound

2007-05-13T22:53:00.000-07:00

Elder and Sister Bean departed the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah on Saturday, May 12th bound for Uganda. They arrived in L.A. for a layover for a few hours where they were able to go to dinner with Kami, Brent and Torri. While there, they were also able call family and say their final "goodbyes".

Significantly, two days before their departure, the Uganda Kampala Mission President, Ralph L. Duke, was killed in a traffic accident while returning from the airport with his wife after having dropped off some departing missionaries. The Area President in South Africa sent one of his counselors to preside over the mission temporarily. Eventually, Elder and Sister Call, the couple they are replacing, were asked to stay until July for Elder Call serve as the interim Mission President. President Call served as a mission president here in the Washington Everett Mission about 3 years ago where Ron served for a time as one of his counselors, so he was already trained. Despite this tragedy, it is amazing how the Lord arranged things so that the work could continue to move forward.

As I post this, I suspect the Beans have landed in Entebbe, Uganda. They are likely tired and overwhelmed, but the fun is just beginning! We'll post more when we hear from them.

Ugandan Ladies Club

2007-05-04T08:29:00.000-07:00

Carol Christensen just sent me these pics from the infamous farewell party

Entering the MTC

2007-05-01T14:30:00.000-07:00

On Monday, April 30th, Ron and Sandra Bean entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah to begin their 18 month LDS mission in Kampala, Uganda. While I am sure that they will write and e-mail often to family and friends, I will periodically post letters and pictures here so that all who are interested in following their experiences will be able to do so easily. Please forward along any information you receive, and I'll be glad to post it here.

We love you Elder and Sister Bean!