Safari and Flooding

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