The June Blog-- Torri Visits

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)

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!

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

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!

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

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)

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