Over a Year in the Mission Field!

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