Merry Christmas from Uganda!

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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 village’s 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 Green’s 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 April’s 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 Moore’s, 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 Moore’s 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 Moore’s 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 Ryan’s 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 MTC’s 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.